A Lithuanian documentary filmmaker was killed while trying to leave Mariupol, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's information agency tweeted Saturday.
Details: Mantas Kvedaravicius directed "Mariupolis," a documentary about life in Mariupol, as the southern port city battled Russian-backed fighters in 2014. He was 45 years old.
SoftBank executive Ronald Fisher is stepping down as head of U.S. investment operations, per an internal memo sent Friday and obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: Fisher has been with SoftBank for a whopping 27 years, spanning through the dot-com boom, Great Recession and unicorns startup eras. During that time, SoftBank grew into the U.S. venture capital market's 800-pound gorilla, changing how the industry operated.
The U.S. housing market this spring selling season is looking like a multicar collision, a result of powerful forces crashing into each other.
The big picture: Interest rates on home mortgages have spiked more rapidly than they have in decades, reducing affordability. Builders can't get adequate supplies to construct houses more quickly. Yet strong income growth and unstoppable demographic forces are propelling high demand.
Facing a tight labor market, some big employers are revamping the way they conduct background checks on prospective employees, executives from screening companies said.
Driving the news: Typically, employers will conduct a seven-year look-back into an applicant's background — but now some are switching to a one-year look, said Ranjeev Teelock, chief product officer at First Advantage, which conducts checks for employers.
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain on ABC's "This Week" touted the "encouraging signs" that the U.S. economy is recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The big picture: Klain pointed to a jobs report out Friday that showed signs of a booming job market, with 431,000 jobs added in March as wages rose. The unemployment rate also dropped to 3.6%, a new two-year low. "We've solved the jobs crisis, we got America back to work," Klain said.
Autonomous trucks could one day replace more than 90% of all highway trucking, which could have a profound impact on as many as 500,000 long-haul truckers, a new study found.
Why it matters: Automation, and its potential impact on human labor, is a widespread concern for workers in many industries. While labor markets continually evolve, it often takes time for displaced workers to adapt to new jobs requiring different skills.
Black smoke filled Odessa's skies on Sunday, as Russian forces struck the strategic southern Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea.
Driving the news: The strikes hit anoil refinery and fuel storage facilities during the bombardment, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials. Odessa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov said during a televised address that civilian buildings were hit, but there were no immediately reports of casualties, per CNN.
Women under 30 out-earned men in 16 cities across the country, including New York and Washington, D.C., a Pew Research analysis of Census data through 2019 finds.
Why it matters: The gender wage penalty is less severe when women are just starting out in their careers. Women age 16-29 earn 93%, on average, of what men make, compared with 84% for all women.
Jen Psaki will join a long list of former press secretaries turned media contributors if she leaves the White House for MSNBC, which is expected this spring.
The big picture: Most White House press secretaries over the last two decades landed a TV gig after their time in the White House.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Saturday that "supply chain interruptions" and China's zero-COVID policy made for an "exceptionally difficult quarter."
Driving the news: Tesla produced 305,407 vehicles and delivered over 310,048 vehicles during the first quarter, "despite ongoing supply chain challenges and factory shutdowns," according to Business Wire.
Former President Trump’s social media app Truth Social remains unavailable for many, despite promises that it would be "fully operational" in the U.S. by Thursday.
Why it matters: Trump fans flooded into a SPAC that agreed to take Truth Social public and could lose their investments if the app doesn't get its act together.
Despite two failed attempts to free it this week, a sister container ship to the Ever Given that got stuck in the Suez Canal last year has been lodged in the Chesapeake Bay for 21 days — and now cargo holders have to pay to help free it.
Why it matters: The Ever Forward (yes, bask in the irony) is the largest ship to get stuck in the Chesapeake Bay and it’s carrying 5,000 containers of … stuff.
It’s Groundhog Day — that is, if you’re watching the recent boom in ultra-fast grocery delivery services whose success hinges on achieving extraordinarily high order volumes, just like a generation of on-demand services hoped to a few years ago.
Why it matters: We’re already seeing market consolidation, companies going out of business, and desperation for new cash infusions as the realities of the ultra-fast grocery delivery business model set in.
