catie beck, thank you. a major development tonight for the future of affirmative action in college admissions the supreme court will hear an appeal by opponents who say it discriminates against white and asian students pete williams is here. pete, why is the court s decision to hear the case raising alarms because this is the most serious threat in decades, lester, to considering a student s race in admissions the court agreed to hear two cases challenging race-conscious admissions at a private school, harvard, and a public one, the university of north carolina at chapel hill. the court has repeatedly ruled that a student s race can be considered as a plus factor in helping schools achieve the educational benefits of a more diverse student body, but two justices who ruled in favor of affirmative action in the past, anthony kennedy and ruth bader ginsberg, are gone they were succeeded by trump appointees brett kavanaugh and amy coney barrett. they haven t written much on the subje
reporter: officials tell us in the coming days as the white house monitors putin s troo buildup and we are told the president is considering additional troops in places in eastern european countries that request help to fortify their defenses that would be separate from the troops sent to work for nato lester kelly, the president making headlines tonight also about, i guess, a hot mic moment where he is cursing at a fox news reporter let me play that thank you, guys will you take some questions on inflation then this is - thank you thank you all do you think it s a political liability? that s a great asset. thank you more inflation. what a stupid son of a bitch. kelly, what is white house saying about this tonight reporter: well, we have not heard back from the white house we have asked about this reporters were asking about ukraine because the president has not responded yet about whether he has decided to deploy u.s. troops. clearly it is a
for a nominee, but faces new republican criticism. kelly o donnell is at the white house. we now know the names that are expanding reporter: white house officials tell me those three judges who got all of the initial attention aren t alone a list of black women, legal scholars, now numbers a dozen under consideration. president biden vowed to make history, choosing the first black woman on the supreme court, to better reflect the country, but some republicans tonight say the field should not be limited and a new poll finds that americans overwhelmingly, 76%, prefer the president consider all qualified nominees the white house responding that president trump made a similar pledge when he promised to nominate a woman to replace ruth bader ginsberg lester kelly, thank you. as the northeast digs out from this weekend s major snowstorm, 50 million people are under winter weather alerts tonight for a new threat much of the middle of the country can expect heavy snow as this storm moves
gallon jumped 11 cents overnight, the highest one-day increase since 2016 there s no strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy the immediate effect would be to raise prices at the pump for americans. reporter: officials also say a ban may not harm russia if it can sell the oil elsewhere. lester kelly, thank you. some welcome news for the president on the economic front employers added 678,000 jobs last month. that s far higher than analysts expected. the unemployment fell to 3.8%. wage gains flattened and continue to be wiped out by inflation. also today, the supreme court reinstated the death sentence for the boston marathon bomber, dzhokhar tsarnaev, reversing a federal appeals court ruling that it voided it the court rejected defense claims that the trial judge improperly restricted the questioning of jurors and excluded evidence.
going to stay till we get them all out. reporter: today the administration said u.s. intelligence consistently identified the risk of a rapid collapse but general milley insisted those predictions were for weeks or months. there was nothing that i or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days. kelly, did the president talk at all today about those striking images from the base in kabul of afghans desperate to get out? reporter: he did, lester, and dismissed those as scenes that happened four or five days ago, stressing the important thing is that the u.s. needed to get control of the airport and did. lester kelly, thanks in afghanistan, two distinct worlds. order now restored at the airport in kabul as the u.s. military steps up evacuations. and the chaotic situation in the rest of kabul and beyond under taliban control. richard engel is there for us reporter: the u.s.-led evacuation today is finally moving quickly and smoothly f