Business

(NEW YORK) — Americans like Chris and Amy Clary are booking Airbnb vacation rentals online in a bid to help Ukrainians directly amid Russian attacks of the Eastern European country.

The Clarys are in Texas but they’ve booked five Airbnbs in Kyiv and outside the capital.

“We wanted to get money into people that are living there. And they’re desperate for funds, obviously for food, maybe to get out of town,” Chris Clary told ABC News’ Good Morning America.

Airbnb said it is “humbled by the inspiring generosity” of people looking to help through the platform.

“Airbnb is temporarily waiving guest and Host fees on bookings in Ukraine at this time,” the San Francisco-based company told GMA in a statement.

The company said on March 2 and 3, it saw more than 61,000 bookings in Ukraine, including more than 34,000 by U.S. guests. It has also set up a website — Airbnb.org — dedicated to helping people in emergencies. There have been over 1.2 million visits to the site already.

“Airbnb allows them to get funds almost immediately and directly to the source,” said Chris Clary. “I believe it’s important because those people need as much assistance as possible and as quickly as possible.”

Added his wife Amy: “I get to chat with the host. You know, find out how they’re doing. Are they OK? And ask questions. And it really makes it like a personal connection to what’s going on in Ukraine and to the Ukrainian people.”

The Clarys said they try to look for Airbnb listings that feature family photos and reviews from past bookings. They also send messages to hosts first with questions before booking.

“When you get the messages back, they are incredibly grateful. It really brings you to tears whenever you read them,” Chris Clary said.

The Clarys say they’ve inspired friends to do the same and hope to keep the momentum going, looking next into booking short-term stays in Poland, which borders Ukraine to the northwest.

Celebrities are also joining the growing number of people looking to help people caught in the Russian and Ukrainian conflict that began on Feb. 24.

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher launched an online fundraiser called “Stand With Ukraine” to help Ukrainians. In a video message introducing the campaign, Kunis said she was born in Ukraine and emigrated to the U.S. in 1991 with her family and has “never been more proud to be a Ukrainian.”

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have also announced they would match donations up to $1 million for the nonprofit UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency.

Bethenny Frankel, the former reality TV star, has also used her BStrong initiative to get aid to Ukraine and neighboring countries like Poland, Hungary and Romania.

Former Dancing With the Stars choreographer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who recently escaped Ukraine amid the escalating conflict, said he’s also working to help people in the region with his wife, dancer Peta Murgatroyd. They said they’ve started an Amazon store where people can buy items for people in need.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — In light of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, many major American and Western companies have decided to drop their presence in the region.

In the last two weeks, movie studios Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures and Disney, the parent company of ABC News, have dropped future movie releases in Russia. Ikea shut down all Russian stores and production operations. Microsoft and Apple have ceased all sales, including game consoles and phones, in the country as well.

On Saturday, Visa and Mastercard announced they would stop Russian operations.

That list is expected to grow as the conflict continues and consumers look for companies to take a stand on the invasion, business experts told ABC News.

“Companies have found it difficult to stay out of [current events],” Erik Gordon, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, told ABC News. “That doesn’t work anymore. If you don’t take a stand one way or another the conclusion is you’re either amoral or taken a bad stand.”

Gordon and other business experts said that there is also the economic calculus involved in the companies’ decisions to pull out of Russia as its declining economy makes the country a poor investment. Nonetheless, the experts said this is likely to pose a turning point in nearly 30 years of Western business in Russia.

Gordon said it’s unlikely that any of the Western business pauses will make an impact on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, compared to the economic sanctions levied by the U.S. and European nations. The Russian government, however, will likely retaliate against Western-based products and services with boycotts and blocks as the conflict continues.

On Friday, the country said it would ban Facebook and Twitter.

“I don’t think the Russian business will be a hospitable place for Western business for a very long time,” he said.

Shon Hiatt, an associate professor of management and organization at the University of Southern California, told ABC News that a similar situation took place during World War II when American companies stopped shipping their goods to Germany. Corporations lost millions of dollars in revenue during the 1940s, but Hiatt said the increased globalization of today’s economy means that American companies won’t take as much of a hit by halting their Russian operations.

“This isn’t the divestment like we’re seeing with BP or the other oil companies,” Hiatt said. “This is a small drop in the bucket for these companies compared to other markets.”

He noted, as an example, that the Russian market represents roughly 3% of worldwide sales for the movie industry.

Hiatt said the next couple of months will be interesting to watch within the business community. Depending on how long the conflict goes on and if Russia succeeds in its invasion, corporations around the world will have to make a major decision barring any government action, he said.

“Most companies believe this is a small strategic pause,” he said. “They may believe that in a few months, things might go back to normal. It’s still a changing situation.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — U.S. employers added 678,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the latest figures released Friday by the Labor Department show, exceeding economists’ expectations.

Economists had expected to see employment grow by around 440,000 new positions.

The biggest increases in employment in February occurred in leisure and hospitality (179,000) followed by professional and business services (95,000) and health care (64,000), according to the Labor Department.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate dropped slightly from 4.0% in January to 3.8% in February.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — It’s a dramatic tale of money, power, tragedy and deceit.

Elizabeth Holmes, once the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire and lauded by some as the next Steve Jobs for her supposedly “revolutionary” blood testing company, Theranos, fell from grace after being convicted of defrauding investors.

Holmes awaits sentencing this September, facing up to twenty years in prison for four counts of fraud for which she was found guilty in January. Her former boyfriend and ex-COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani claims he is innocent and is set to go on trial later this month.

The gripping story is recapped in a new 20/20 special, “The Dropout: The Rise and Con of Elizabeth Holmes,” airing March 4.

The television event features behind-the-scenes access to the new Hulu original limited series “The Dropout”, starring Oscar-nominee Amanda Seyfried. The limited series is based on the top ranked ABC News podcast hosted by ABC News Chief Business Correspondent Rebecca Jarvis. It premieres on Hulu on March 3.

The podcast, which first aired in 2019, chronicles the rise and fall of Holmes and Theranos through first-hand accounts and deposition tapes of Holmes, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, and other employees.

Listeners hear from the whistleblowers who say they tried to speak out about what was happening inside Theranos while being stalked and legally threatened. From broken machines to faulty test results, the company starts to go downhill as Holmes attempts to mitigate the damage to her reputation by traversing down a path of lies.

Season two of the podcast picks up in the middle of a worldwide pandemic three years after Holmes settled with the SEC with no admission of wrongdoing, at the beginning of her criminal trial. Holmes, now a mother, charged with 2 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 9 counts of wire fraud, faces the toughest and most important challenge of her life: convincing 12 jurors that she’s innocent of the charges at hand.

Each week, “The Dropout” team takes you behind the scenes and inside the courtroom to provide a detailed description of what is happening. In addition to courtroom coverage, the podcast also interviews legal experts, witnesses, and investors to help understand where Theranos went wrong.

Tune in to the limited series “The Dropout” exclusively on Hulu on Thursday, March 3, and “The Dropout: The Rise and Con of Elizabeth Holmes” on Friday, March 4. Hulu is a division of Disney, ABC’s parent company.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Banana Republic is known for its modern luxury-style adult clothing, but now, the brand is expanding to also include great picks for babies.

The Gap Inc.-owned company announced BR Baby as a new category available now and shared that an athletics collection will also be coming later this month.

Launching with 40 pieces, Banana Republic’s new baby line has a wide variety of matching sets, knit tops, bodysuits, accessories and more that take a nod from many of the brand’s iconic adult picks.

Additionally, the latest baby line includes a limited number of adorable “mini-me” pieces — matching looks for babies and adults. The featured apparel is currently available in sizes 0-24 and prices start at $20.

“BR Baby and BR Athletics mix the mainstream with the unexpected and deliver elevated, thoroughly modern, lifestyle collections,” said Sandra Stangl, president and CEO of Banana Republic, in a statement.

She continued, “We approached both by deconstructing what made Banana Republic successful in the first place — taking things that people already know, have nostalgia for, and framing them in new ways that feel fresh.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The Russian invasion of Ukraine has displaced thousands of people, many of whom are fleeing to nearby Poland and elsewhere. Now Airbnb.org — the non-profit wing of the popular home-sharing company — is stepping up to help.

Airbnb.org’s Open Homes Initiative got its “unofficial” start in 2012, and has since spread all over the world, Joe Gebbia, co-founder and chairman of Airbnb.org tells ABC Audio.

“[W]hen Hurricane Sandy hit…the Eastern seaboard and displaced a lot of people, the next day we get an email from one of our hosts who says, ‘Dear Airbnb, how do I offer my five guest rooms, my Brooklyn loft for free to those displaced by the hurricane?'” Gebbia recalls. “At the time, we had no way to actually facilitate that.” 

“But after a 48-hour engineering marathon [fueled by] Red Bull and pizzas,” Gebbia says, they reconfigured their site and “within about a day or so” had hundreds of rooms available.

“For the last 10 years, we’ve been active in well over 100 countries supporting people fleeing typhoons, wildfires, hurricanes, floods,” he says. “It’s been incredible to see how our host community has to date housed over 100,000 people already all over the world.”

As for Ukraine, Gebbia says, “[S]o many lives have been disrupted with these scenes unfolding of the violence happening there. And I think this will likely produce one of the largest humanitarian crises since likely since World War II.”

Gebbia says the non-profit has offered governments of neighboring countries to help house Ukrainian refugees in hosts’ homes, with the goal of housing up to 100,000 people fleeing Ukraine.

“We’re doing everything we can to use our infrastructure to help, but we need more hosts,” he says.

If you’d like to help, visit Airbnb.org.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — It’s no secret that your waist size today might not have the same exact measurements tomorrow, and that’s one reason why one of Old Navy’s latest denim launches is getting a lot of attention.

The brand’s FitsYou jeans feature a unique technology: one pair can fit up to three sizes.

The innovative “one-size-fits-three” technology adjusts to your size by using a unique yarn and fabric construction that enables the jeans to grow with your body as your weight fluctuates.

Falling in line with Old Navy’s commitment to “BODEQUALITY” announced last year, the jeans feature 70% stretch, Lycra-free technology which allows the fabric to expand over your body without feeling compressive.

According to the brand, there’s also a “Never-Quit Shape Retention” feature that works to hold the shape of the jeans over a period of time.

Old Navy’s FitsYou denim styles are available in sizes 00 – 30 and in several different colors. Right now, the brand is offering an extra 30% off when you use code HURRY at checkout.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Ahead of wedding season, Eloquii, a plus-size clothing brand, announced its new bridal collection for 2022.

Launching this summer, Eloquii said it is releasing wedding wardrobe pieces in sizes 14-28.

This is the first time the retailer is putting out a dedicated bridal-focused line, and attire for bachelorette parties to bridal showers are included, it said.

In a statement, Eloquii said that it was inspired to create a bridal category as a result of that category being one of the top requests from customers. The company reported in a statement that searches for “white dress” on the brand’s website were one of the top on-site searches in 2021.

There will be a curated assortment of over 50 styles and accessories for all types of wedding events, and prices for dresses starting at $89, the company said.

“Our thoughtfully designed Bridal by ELOQUII collection features exquisite dresses and looks to suit every bride’s taste at an accessible price point,” said Eloquii design director Yesenia Torres. “We were inspired by our customer’s love of elegance, so we incorporated fresh and airy hues, delicate patterns, and luxurious fabrics that make ethereal statements.”

Torres said that the goal of the collection is to provide the ultimate wedding wardrobe of fashion-forward silhouettes that are expertly crafted in design and fit.

Eloquii shared sketches on Instagram of its upcoming line.

“I am SCREAMING. This gives me the opportunity to shine like every straight-sized girl on my pre-wedding events,” one commenter said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Fitbit is recalling approximately one million smartwatches after 78 reports of burn injuries — including two reports of third-degree burns.

The recall impacts the company’s Ionic smartwatches, which were sold across the United States.

The lithium-ion battery in the smartwatch can overheat, posing a burn hazard, according to a release from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Fitbit has received at least 115 reports in the United States of the battery in the watch overheating, with 78 reports of burn injuries in the U.S., the CPSC said. This includes two reports of third-degree burns and four reports of second-degree burns.

Consumers are advised to immediately stop using the recalled watches and contact Fitbit to receive pre-paid packaging to return the device. Upon receipt of the device, consumers will be issued a refund of $299 and receive a discount code for select Fitbit products, according to the CPSC, which said the company is voluntarily recalling the devices.

The devices were sold from September 2017 through December 2021 at various U.S. retailers. The company stopped production of the smartwatches in 2020, the CPSC said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — LinkedIn, the career-focused social networking site, is giving job seekers a new way to describe gaps in their careers.

The site on Tuesday released a new feature, called “career breaks,” that gives users the ability to tell potential employers why they left the workforce and describe how that experience helped them grow and develop skills.

With the feature, users can choose from a drop-down menu that gives options ranging from parenting and caregiving to layoff, career transition, gap year, relocation or travel.

“The option of having listing career breaks allows you to openly embrace your time away from work on your profile, and show how the life experiences built during this time away can apply to prospective jobs,” LinkedIn said in a statement.

The new effort by LinkedIn comes as women continue to struggle to return to the workforce amid the coronavirus pandemic, during which women have disproportionately taken on more caregiving and household duties, data shows.

There are nearly 1.1 million fewer women in the labor force now compared to February 2020, according to the National Women’s Law Center, a policy-focused organization that fights for gender justice.

In January, over one million men joined the labor force, compared to 39,000 women, the NWLC reports, citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest jobs report.

During the pandemic, women ages 25 to 44 were almost three times as likely as men of the same age group to not be working due to child care demands, according to research from the U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve.

Research from LinkedIn shows a nearly 40% spike in the length of career breaks women took in 2020 in the U.S. And the majority of women, around 61%, believe there is still a stigma attached to career breaks, according to LinkedIn.

Emma McCulloch, a mom of two, said she felt nervous about describing her career break on her resume when she decided to reenter the workforce recently after six years away caring for her sons, one of whom has cerebral palsy.

But McCulloch, of San Francisco, said she gained confidence as she saw how she was able to show potential employers that her time away made her a better employee.

“I certainly learned a lot of research skills to identify the therapies and the resources for my children,” said McCulloch, who now works as a manager for an education technology company. “And I think that personally, in my job right now, I’m much more empathetic to my employees and to the people that I work with, my colleagues, because of the experiences I had during my career break.”

Even as job seekers may believe there is still a stigma, 79% of hiring managers say they would hire a candidate with a career gap on their résumé, according to LinkedIn’s research.

Many companies are making a specific effort to bring women back to the workforce, including IBM, General Motors and JP Morgan, which are all now offering career re-entry and mentorship programs.

“We see a lot of companies raise their hands and say that attracting and retaining top women talent is a priority,” Jess Huang, a partner at McKinsey & Company, told Good Morning America. “And if you can find those companies that are really doubling down, they are likely a better fit, not just in the short-term as you’re looking to reenter and get rehired, but also in the long-term as you think about your career progression.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.