5 things you need to know Friday
1. Jobs report could make case for Fed rate hike in December
The labor market bounced back strongly in October as employers added 270,00 jobs, bolstering the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next month. The unemployment rate fell to 5% from 5.1%, the Labor Department said Friday. Fed Chair Janet Yellen said this week that a December rate hike -- which would be the first in nearly a decade -- is a "live possibility," assuming the economy progresses as the Fed expects. Payroll reports for October and November are deemed critical to the Fed's decision, especially after job gains weakened recently after averaging more than 200,000 a month for most of 2015.
2. Astronauts set for spacewalk to perform space station repair
NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren are slated to exit an International Space Station airlock for a second time on Friday morning, after a first excursion together last week. On Friday, they will have highly toxic ammonia to contend with during their “EVA,” or extra-vehicular activity. Their focus will be on restoring part of the station's coolant system to its original configuration after previous efforts to stop a leak.
3. New BlackBerry phone running Android goes on sale
Can Android revive BlackBerry? That’s the key question surrounding the brand new BlackBerry Priv smartphone that goes on sale Friday. This slider-style phone is the first BlackBerry to run Google’s predominant mobile operating system instead of its own BlackBerry 10 software. It almost certainly becomes the fallen smartphone king’s last-ditch chance to get its hardware business off life support, much less to regain any kind of powerhouse status, writes Paste BN Tech columnist Ed Baig.
4. Al Roker embarks on 50-state forecast marathon
Al Roker plans to give weather reports from all 50 states within a week starting Friday, raising money for Feeding America. Last year, a similar stunt raised $70,000 for the USO when Roker did a 34-hour weather forecast and set a Guinness World Record. Roker starts Friday in Honolulu, then heads to Anchorage before hitting the continental U.S. He’ll be delivering forecasts on Today, local NBC affiliates, cable networks like CNBC, MSNBC, The Weather Channel and online. Here's a raspy Roker after last year's marathon:
5. 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 3' hits store
The most-anticipated new video game of the season hits stores Friday as Activision releases Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. The latest output from the $11 billion first-person shooter franchise is set in 2065 and features supersoldiers with built-in data jacks to connect to computer networks. The game ($59.99, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One; also on PS3, Xbox 360 and PCs, ages 17 and up) is expected to be another hit for Activision, which just days ago gobbled up the maker of Candy Crush Saga for $5.9 billion.
Bonus: Ben Carson's campaign will roll out a 60-second hip-hop clip Friday which mixes clips from the Republican presidential candidate's stump speech to flute and synth tracks. (Yes, you read that right.)
And, the essentials:
Weather: Friday will feature chilly weather in the West and rainy, mild conditions in the central and eastern U.S.
Stocks: Stock futures were lower ahead of the Labor Department's monthly jobs report.
TV tonight: Wondering what to watch this weekend? TV critic Robert Bianco looks at Chita Rivera on PBS and Agent X.
If you missed Thursday's news, we've got you covered.
Need a break? Try playing some of our games.
You can also subscribe to get the day's top news each weekday in your inbox or find us on the Yo! app: justyo.co/usatoday.