5 things you need to know Friday

South Korea resumes anti-North broadcasts

In response to North Korea's claim that it successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb, South Korea resumed cross-border propaganda broadcastson Friday.  North Korea considers the loudspeaker broadcasts an act of war because they are meant to raise questions in North Korean minds about the infallibility of the country's leader Kim Jong Un, whose birthday is said to be on Friday.  One of the biggest weapons in Seoul's propaganda arsenal is its homegrown K-Pop music — light pop tunes that may capture more northern ears than attacks on the regime's human rights abuses. South Korea stopped the broadcasts in late August after it agreed with Pyongyang on a package of measures aimed at easing animosities that had the rivals threatening war.

Jobs report could shed light on slowing economyThe monthly jobs report is always on investors' must-know list. But the suspense is really building for today's 8:30 a.m. ET release, thanks to cratering stock markets in the U.S. and across the globe. The cause of much of the stock pain, market instability in China, is now another worry on top of concerns from some experts that the U.S. economy may be sputtering. But those domestic doubts may go away if economists' projections of a healthy 200,000 new jobs in December are affirmed by today's Labor Department figures.AT&T to stop offering two-year contractsAT&T on Friday will stop offering two-year contracts to subsidize new smartphone purchases. AT&T customers will now only be able to get new phones — even flip phones or "dumb" phones — by paying the full price or paying in installments over time. Once the norm, two-year contracts have been phased out in the mobile industry in favor of selling devices at full price to consumers, typically through monthly installments over two years, or offering cheaper monthly plans without a contract.David Bowie releases new album, Blackstar, on his birthdayDavid Bowie’s birthday is Friday, and he’ll mark his 69th year by releasing a new album, Blackstar. Paste BN Life music writer Elysa Gardner calls it “an unqualified triumph” and gives it four out of four stars. The album, produced by Bowie and longtime colleague Tony Visconti, is “texturally adventurous, sonically stunning and full of both ambivalence and yearning.”  Recommended downloads include Lazarus, Dollar Days and I Can't Give Everything Away.Tucson marks anniversary of Giffords shootingAt 10:10 a.m. MT on Friday, thousands of bells will ring at once across Tucson to mark the five-year anniversary of the shooting that severely wounded Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and left six people dead. Giffords suffered a severe brain injury after the shootout during a constituent meeting held in a supermarket parking lot and resigned from the House in January 2012.  In the five years since the horrific scene unfolded, some of the survivors, including Giffords, have become fierce gun control activists. This December, the former congresswoman penned an emotional op-ed in Paste BN imploring Congress and President Obama to work to curb gun violence.

This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.