painfully high unemployment. the federal reserve plans to raise interest rates to try to slow down growth. so more sustainable job growth would be something closer to 150,000 jobs, maybe 200,000 jobs per month. i would expect job growth to slow as we move through the year. the number one problem is inflation. a couple of years ago if you were talking about 500,000 jobs you would be gob smacked. that shows you the deep hole we re in. let s talk about the president releasing a million barrels per day from the u.s. emergency reserves. for six months, we ve never seen something like that. at least putting a lid on energy prices here in the near term do you think? yeah, that s my sense of it. i think it s a good move. we need more oil. it s curtailed several million barrels a day of oil and we ve seen prices go skyward. i think releasing it makes a lot
the uae and the saudis to do more. so far they haven t. but here in europe, jake, there s also problems. today president putin threatened to turn off the gas taps to europe if they don t pay in rubles. the europeans say we ain t doing that. if we do that, we re breaking our own sanctions. so all in all, oil is the fighting ground because it s the political pressure, it heats their homes, it drives their cars, it flies their planes. and putin knows he s got us where he wants us at the moment. richard, on top of all of this, a new report from the department of commerce here in the u.s. shows that inflation in the u.s. hit a 40-year high in february and that we should note that is the single biggest issue for 55% of americans according to a brand new kaiser poll. that s almost 40 points ahead of feelings about russia s invasion
off their access to new u.s. technology and nbs that way they would have to apply for technology. the whole point, the russian economy and the maritime, arrow face and defense relies on their stockpiles. eventually those will run out is the idea and they will not have the access to these new forms of technology because they are on this trade list. again, this is the u.s. economy trying to find ways, if not immediately, at least over time really trying to limit the options that the russians have when it comes to the new invasion of russia. laura? thank you for your reporting. just ahead, joe biden s h historic moves. vladimir putin doubling down on an effect that could affect
parents choice in schools, same-sex couples weighing in on how a new law in florida could impact their children s daily lives. plus comedian chris rock breaking his silence about will smith physically assaulting him during the oscars this week. what he actually said about the slap may not be as telling as what he did not say. and breaking news leading this hour, putin staying focused on southern ukraine, not letting up on the constant shelling of cities such as mariupol. amid the bombardment, aid groups still trying to evacuate thousands of innocent ukrainians stuck in that city, but one ukrainian official says the buses to get innocent civilians out are being held up at a russian checkpoint. let s get right to cnn s senior international correspondent fred pleitgen who is in kyiv, ukraine, for us. fred, you just visited irpin. the mayor says half of his city has been destroyed. what did you and your team see? reporter: hi there, jake. actually i think that s probably
in their own propaganda lies. i had a heated discussion with a russian officer. he was convinced that they had come to help us. he said he would free us from the nazis. i looked into his eyes, and he believed it. i told him i was russian and i ve never seen a single nazi in mariupol. he was surprised. what did he say? translator: that he has seen nazis at that checkpoint. they checked us for tattoos. and that s how they checked for nazis. how many checkpoints? translator: 12 checkpoints. and you had to do it every time? translator: it was only russian military checkpoints. they said that they were mobilized. they didn t choose to go to this war and they were made to do it. and it wasn t their choice. what was how many people left with them? seven people were in the car with us. were they worried they weren t going to make it? translator: three times we