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SpaceX's Starship rocket explodes during 1st test flight, BuzzFeed shuts down its news division, and more [What makes a subscription to The Week so valuable now? Click here.]( [The Week Logo]( [Subscribe to The Week magazine]( [Subscribe to The Week magazine]( Daily business briefing 1. [SpaceX's Starship rocket explodes during its first test flight]( SpaceX's massive Starship rocket exploded Thursday minutes after liftoff for its first test flight. The nearly 400-foot rocket, which Elon Musk's space-flight company hopes will one day carry astronauts to the moon and then Mars, wasn't carrying any people or satellites. Several of the 33 main engines failed to fire as the rocket left the launch pad in Texas and climbed 24 miles before exploding four minutes into its flight. Musk tweeted that SpaceX had "learned a lot" from the "exciting test launch," and would put the lessons to use for the next flight in a few months. "To get this far is amazing," [SpaceX's Kate Tice said on the livestream](. "Everything after clearing the tower was icing on the cake." [[The Associated Press]( [Share to Facebook]( [Share to Twitter]( [Send in email](mailto:?Subject=SpaceX's+Starship+rocket+explodes+during+its+first+test+flight&body=Read the story here: utm_campaign=business_briefing_newsletter_20230421&utm_source=business_briefing_newsletter) 2. [BuzzFeed shuts down its news division]( BuzzFeed announced Thursday that it is closing its news division and shifting its news coverage to HuffPost, which the company acquired from Verizon in 2020. The digital media company said the change is part of a plan to reduce its workforce by 180 positions, or 15 percent, in its second round of job cuts. The latest cuts will affect people in its business, content, technology, and administration departments, CEO Jonah Peretti told staff in an email, according to Reuters. BuzzFeed cut 12 percent of its staff in a first round of cuts in December. Peretti said the company had "faced more challenges than I can count" during the pandemic and the economic downturn for digital advertising that followed. [[Reuters]( [Variety]( [Share to Facebook]( [Share to Twitter]( [Send in email](mailto:?Subject=BuzzFeed+shuts+down+its+news+division&body=Read the story here: utm_campaign=business_briefing_newsletter_20230421&utm_source=business_briefing_newsletter) Advertisement from Wisebread [Earn $200 After Spending $500]( [Advertisement from Wisebread]( 3. [Twitter starts removing blue checks from users who don't pay]( Twitter on Thursday started following through on owner Elon Musk's plan to remove the blue checks from the accounts of previously verified users who haven't started paying a monthly fee. The social media platform had about 300,000 verified users, including journalists, athletes, and other public figures, under its old system, which verified that Twitter had confirmed the users were who they said they were. The platform has imposed a fee — from $8 per month for individuals to $1,000 for organizations — for the blue checks. Twitter also no longer verifies the accounts. Beyoncé, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey, and former President Donald Trump were among the high-profile users stripped of the checks on Thursday. Twitter separately dropped the "government-funded" label on some media accounts, like NPR. [[CNBC]( [The Wall Street Journal]( [Share to Facebook]( [Share to Twitter]( [Send in email](mailto:?Subject=Twitter+starts+removing+blue+checks+from+users+who+don't+pay&body=Read the story here: utm_campaign=business_briefing_newsletter_20230421&utm_source=business_briefing_newsletter) 4. [Chile to nationalize lithium industry]( Chilean President Gabriel Boric said Thursday he plans to nationalize the South American country's lithium industry. "This is the best chance we have at transitioning to a sustainable and developed economy. We can't afford to waste it," Boric said in a nationally televised speech. The surprise move introduced a new challenge for electric-vehicle makers already competing to get enough raw materials for batteries. Chile is the world's second-largest producer of lithium, a metal essential for EV batteries. Chile's lithium output is now controlled by industry giants SQM and Albemarle. [[Reuters]( [Share to Facebook]( [Share to Twitter]( [Send in email](mailto:?Subject=Chile+to+nationalize+lithium+industry&body=Read the story here: utm_campaign=business_briefing_newsletter_20230421&utm_source=business_briefing_newsletter) ADVERTISEMENT FROM WISEBREAD [Earn $200 After Spending $500]( [ADVERTISEMENT FROM WISEBREAD]( 5. [Stocks struggle after mixed week of corporate earnings]( U.S. stock futures slipped early Friday at the end of a big week of corporate earnings reports. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down 0.1 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively, at 7 a.m. ET, on track for slight weekly losses. The Nasdaq was down 0.5 percent. The Dow and the S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, on Thursday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, weighed down by Tesla's 10 percent decline after the electric-vehicle maker reported that price cuts hurt its profit margins, fell 0.8 percent. "The tone of earnings reports has been pretty downbeat," Edward Park, chief investment officer at London-based Brooks Macdonald, told The Wall Street Journal. [[CNBC]( [The Wall Street Journal]( [Share to Facebook]( [Share to Twitter]( [Send in email](mailto:?Subject=Stocks+struggle+after+mixed+week+of+corporate+earnings&body=Read the story here: utm_campaign=business_briefing_newsletter_20230421&utm_source=business_briefing_newsletter) [Read more business stories at theweek.com]( MOST POPULAR [Related image]( [Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting at a 'disastrous' pace]( Devika Rao [Related image]( [The White Lotus season 3 will bring back a fan favorite from the 1st season]( Brendan Morrow [Related image]( [McCarthy's existential debt-limit crisis]( Rafi Schwartz [Related image]( [The U.S. and China want to 'decouple' their economies. 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