• The Greek island of Mykonos is known as a party capital and is a vacation hot spot for millionaires and billionaires.
• More than any place I've visited in recent memory, the island feels like two completely different places depending on how much you are willing to spend.
• That perception was driven home by the differences between my stay at a $130/night guesthouse and a $1,000/night room at one of the island's ritziest resorts.

Perhaps more than any place I’ve visited in recent memory, Mykonos, an island in Greece notorious as a vacation hotspot for the rich and famous, feels like two completely different places depending on how much you are willing to spend on your vacation.

For those traveling on a budget, Mykonos can feel like a beautiful but prohibitively expensive place, with little bang for your buck. If you have the money to travel in luxury, Mykonos will fulfill every fantasy you’ve ever had of Greece.

On a recent trip to Mykonos, I decided to travel a day on each end of the travel budget.

My first night, I booked the cheapest (livable) place I could find. In July — peak season for the island — that was a difficult endeavor. I ended up booking a night at Marinas Studios, a guesthouse in Ornos Bay. The only thing cheaper that was available was a camping hostel with reviews that complained of bed bugs.

The room at Marinas Studios was fine, if spartan, with three twin beds, a small kitchen, and a shower where you had to hold the shower-head, and a bar of soap. The sheets and blanket were thin and scratchy, like something you might find at a hostel. There were no communal facilities and no breakfast was included.

Here's a photo from my room at the budget option, which costs $130/night:

The guesthouse was well-located, however — a short walk from a number of restaurants in Ornos, as well as a couple beaches.

The following night, I booked a room at one of the oldest and most luxurious hotels resorts on the island: the Myconian Ambassador Relais & Chateau. The True Blue double room typically goes for close to $1,000/night in peak season.

When I told my taxi driver that I was going from the Marinas Studios to the Myconian Ambassador, he started laughing.

“From the cheapest pension on the island to one of the most luxurious. That is a big jump,” he said. “Did you make a mistake?”

In contrast to the barebones room at Marinas, the room at the Myconian Ambassador was a palace.

It included a king bed, a stereo system, a rain shower, and a balcony that looked out to the sea with sunbeds and a hot tub. The bathroom included amenities from Molton Brown and Kores — both high-end personal care brands.

The Myconian Ambassador had a spa, a pool deck with restaurant and bar service, attendants who came by with complimentary smoothies and personal care products, an elaborate breakfast buffet, and a high-end restaurant.

But the vast difference between the two experience truly hit me when I saw the sunrise from the balcony of my room at the Myconian Ambassador.

Here's a photo of my room at the luxury option, which costs $1,000/night: 

See the difference? Mykonos feels like an entirely different place when you have money.

SEE ALSO: I visited the glittering Greek island of Mykonos, the summer destination of choice for billionaires — and it's a very different experience if you aren't swimming in money

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• The Double Drown burger has lobster tails instead of the bun 
• It also has thick bacon slices and melted cheese inside.
•  The burger is inspired by KFC's Double Down burger.
• You can find it at Burger & Lobster's Knightsbridge restaurant in Harvey Nichols.

Restaurant chain Burger & Lobster has launched the Double Drown, a burger with lobster tails instead of the bun, thick bacon slices, and melted cheese inside.

The burger is inspired by KFC's Duble Down burger, which swaps the bun for two pieces of fried chicken.

The dish is served with fries and a lemon, garlic, and butter sauce. 

You can get a Double Drown on its own for £47.90 ($62) or upgrade it with fries and a glass of champagne for £57.90 ($75).

The Double Drown is only available at Burger & Lobster Knightsbridge restaurant in Harvey Nichols until the August 19.

Produced and filmed by Claudia Romeo

SEE ALSO: We got a vegan and meat-eater to try a fermented soy burger with coconut oil cheese — here's what they thought

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• Nicki Minaj announced on Thursday that she is releasing her new album, "Queen," today at noon EST, a week before it was scheduled for release on August 17.
• Minaj's album faced several delays this year.

Nicki Minaj announced on Apple Music's Beats 1 Radio on Thursday that she is surprise releasing her new album, "Queen," today at noon EST (9 a.m PST), a week before it was scheduled for release on August 17. 

The album has faced several delays this year. Most recently, it was pushed back a week from August 10 to August 17 over a sample clearance for a Tracy Chapman song.

Earlier this month, Minaj wrote in a since-deleted tweet directed at Chapman, "Tracy Chapman, can you please hit me," regarding the sample's clearance.

"So there's a record on #Queen that features 1of the greatest rappers of all time. Had no clue it sampled the legend #TracyChapman – do I keep my date & lose the record? Or do I lose the record & keep my date? ‍do we push #Queen back 1week? Ugh! I’m torn, y’all help," Minaj wrote on August 1, in another deleted tweet. 

Minaj also asked her fans to vote in a Twitter poll whether to lose the song that sampled Chapman or to push the album back one week, to August 17, and keep the song. It is unclear if the Chapman-sampled song will appear on the LP now that it drops August 10. 

When Minaj took to her Beats 1 Radio show, "Queen Radio," on Thursday night to announce that she had moved up the release of "Queen," she said, according to Pitchfork, "I was gonna play the album right now but someone f---ed up. It's a lot of corporate drama in here."

Minaj's "surprise" release date follows a years-long trend of artists trying to catch listeners off-guard with the release of their albums, a shift from the previous model of set release dates anticipated by a string of single releases. 

In June, Beyoncé and Jay-Z dropped their joint album, "Everything Is Love," as a true surprise release without any promotional singles, following in the path of Beyoncé's surprise releasing of her solo albums "Beyoncé" in 2013 and "Lemonade" in 2016.

Minaj's "Queen," her fourth studio album and first release since 2014's "The Pinkprint," has been preceeded by two singles, "Chun-Li" and "Bed," featuring Ariana Grande.

SEE ALSO: Spike Lee's new film 'BlacKkKlansman' is based on an electrifying true story, and it has a 98% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes

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Weight Watchers has long assigned a point system to foods for dieters.

The idea is to encourage people to stay away from less healthy items, like a slice of cake, by making those account for more of a person's daily food-intake total. Foods that are perfectly healthy to eat in abundance, on the other hand, get a low point value.

According to the the weight-loss giant's rubric, some vegetables have always counted for zero points. But now Weight Watchers says dieters need not count points anymore when it comes to many other fruits, veggies, and nutrient-rich proteins. In December, Weight Watchers released an updated list of more than 200 zero-point foods that followers of the diet plan can eat in unlimited quantities. The list of zero-points items even includes things like eggs and fish.

That idea might seem counterintuitive, since many people assume that dieters are at risk of overeating.

"These foods form the basis of a healthy eating pattern,"Gary Foster, Weight Watchers' chief scientific officer and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school, told Business Insider.  "Very few people come to Weight Watchers because they've had a problem overdoing it on salmon, legumes, beans, and chicken." 

In other words, people just don't tend to binge on satiating, healthy foods. And Weight Watchers doesn't want any feelings of guilt to be associated with eating an extra helping of salad or another bite of fish.

The no-points-list includes apples, mushroom caps, scallions, and tangerines. Here are some of the most surprising entries on it, and the nutrition research that led them to be included.

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Eggs, including the yokes

Recent research has shown that for most healthy adults, eggs don't have a huge effect on blood cholesterol levels. And if you like your breakfast eggs topped with a little red salsa, go wild. That's a points-free food now, too.

Many kinds of beans, including black, butter, navy, white, and fat-free refried beans

Beans and legumes are categorically low-fat, high-protein sources of fuel that give you lots of potassium, magnesium and filling fiber. Green beans, garbanzo beans, and kidney beans are point-free too, as are lentils.

Caviar and shellfish

If your wallet can handle it, you can have as much caviar as you like. In fact, most fish and shellfish — like crab and lobster — are fine to eat with abandon.

According to Weight Watchers, people don't tend to overeat seafood, so it's simply not worth measuring out into gram-specific servings. They'd rather have clients eat these types of proteins until they feel satisfied.

• McDonald's is offering a lifetime of free fast food with the McGold Card Sweepstakes.
• Anyone who orders using the chain's mobile app from August 10 to 24 is automatically entered to with a lifetime of free McDonald's.
• McDonald's "Gold Card" is the stuff of myths, with people including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett receiving the card over the years. 

McDonald's is about to offer one lucky person a lifetime of free fast food.

Starting Friday, any person who orders from McDonald's using the mobile order-and-pay app is entered to win the McGold Card sweepstakes, which guarantees the winner free fast food for the rest of their lives.

Every day you order at McDonald's from August 10 to 24, you are automatically entered in the sweepstakes to win free McDonald's for life. Customers are restricted to one entry per day.

The fine print of what "free McDonald's for life" really means: enough money to buy up to two meals a week for 50 years, or the equivalent of more than $52,000, according to the company's website.

The winner will be alerted via email or on their McDonald's app.

McDonald's "Gold Card" is the stuff of legends.

McDonald's franchisees across the country sometimes offer local heroes free food with their own versions of the card. The actor Rob Lowe has bragged about having a McDonald's Gold Card thanks to a connection to Herb Peterson, the McDonald's franchisee who created the Egg McMuffin. And Warren Buffett told CNBC he had a McDonald's card that allowed him to order unlimited food for free in Omaha.

However, there are only two major confirmed stories of people possessing cards granting them free, unlimited McDonald's meals anywhere in the country, or even the world.

While campaigning for president in 2012, Mitt Romney told a story of how his father had a "little pink card" that awarded him free McDonald's for life. McDonald's confirmed that its founder Ray Kroc had given him the card.

The other lucky recipient of a lifetime of free McDonald's — not a little pink card, but a bona fide Gold Card, according to the company — is Bill Gates. According to Buffett, Gates' card works worldwide. But it's unclear how often Gates stops by McDonald's these days, since the Gates Foundation Asset Trust liquidated its position in the fast-food company in February 2015.

SEE ALSO: McDonald's just opened a new restaurant that looks like an Apple Store — and it reveals a blueprint for the future of the fast-food giant

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NOW WATCH: We tried Burger King in Japan — where you can order hot dogs and beer

• Priority Pass is a program that allows members to access a worldwide network of independently operated airport lounges.
• But some on Twitter have complained that the service is unreliable.
• People have described getting blocked from lounges because of occupancy issues and arbitrary access times.

Priority Pass certainly doesn't seem to be getting a pass from some of its members.

Travelers have complained on Twitter about capacity issues, arbitrary hours, and poor service at some of the company's membership-only airport lounges.

Priority Pass provides its members with access to a global network of independently operated airport lounges. Depending on their membership tier, members can access perks within the lounges like free food and drinks.

According to the company's website, a standard Priority Pass membership costs $99 a year; a standard plus costs $249 annually; and a prestige membership goes for $399 annually.

Credit card companies also use Priority Pass membership as a perk to entice customers to purchase certain credit cards, like The Platinum Card from American Express ($550 a year) and Chase's Sapphire Reserve card ($450 a year).

But several Twitter users have recently described getting blocked from lounges altogether at certain airports because of occupancy issues.

A Priority Pass representative responded to one such tweet with an assurance that the company was "working hard to add as many new lounges/lounge alternatives as possible to help with this issue."

Others tweeted at Priority Pass to report inconvenient or seemingly arbitrary access times at various lounges.

In response to a tweet about a specific lounge's operating hours, a Priority Pass representative explained that lounge access times were determined by the network's independent lounge operators.

"We're aware that some operators have limited operating hours," the person said, adding, "We continue to work closely with all our lounge partners to look at ways to increase access for our members."

Still others have described getting booted or barred from lounges:

In a tweet, a Priority Pass representative noted that lounges would "deny access sometimes due to incoming pre-booked flights they have agreements with, but they will usually place you on a wait-list or tell you when access will be available."

Other Twitter users posted complaints about the service in the lounges:

Not everyone shared negative feedback, however. Numerous Twitter users praised the program and spoke of positive experiences with Priority Pass.

Priority Pass did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Are you a Priority Pass member with a story to share? Email acain@businessinsider.com.

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SEE ALSO: There's a lesson for any manager or exec in how United handled its PR nightmare

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• "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" won the grand jury prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
• Actress Chloë Grace Moretz gives the best performance of her career, so far.

The winner of the grand jury prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival, "The Miseducation of Cameron Post," is a stirring look at sexuality and acceptance that is beautifully executed by director Desiree Akhavan ("Appropriate Behavior") and headed by Chloë Grace Moretz, who gives the best performance so far in her young career.

Based on the novel by Emily M. Danforth, Moretz plays Cameron — Cam for short — who is growing up in early 1990s Montana with her paternal grandmother after her parents die in a car crash. As she tries to cope with the loss of her parents she's also discovering that she's homosexual. At the start of the movie, she's outed and her grandmother brings her to God's Promise, a camp that does "conversion therapy."

Akhavan structures the story similar to movies like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" or "Girl, Interrupted" as we follow Cam into this foreign new normal. Surrounded by males and females all there with the hopes (at least on the surface) of "getting better," they go through daily exercises and talks with therapists in the process of being "re-educated." But as much as Cam and others try, they can't fight who they are. And she quickly learns that she's not the only one who realizes all they are doing is playing along.

Filled with powerfully dramatic moments and Moretz showing a range she hasn't been able to in a lot of her previous work, "Cameron Post" is a coming-of-age movie that is essential viewing, regardless if you are gay or straight.

See where "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" is playing near you.

SEE ALSO: The 100 best science fiction movies of all time, according to critics

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• Many began to speculate when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would step down from the bench after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement on Wednesday.
• But Ginsburg is not defined by her 85 years of age. She works out with her personal trainer, Bryant Johnson, twice a week for an hour.
• Her workout is a series of full body strength exercises that target arms, chest, legs, back, shoulders, glutes, and abs.
• I decided to give Ginsburg's workout a try for two weeks — here's what happened.

If you are looking for evidence that 85-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn't retiring anytime soon, just try her workout.

After Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, people began speculating when the liberal bastion might step down from the bench. But Ginsburg works out with her personal trainer, Bryant Johnson, twice a week. She has called him "the most important person in her life."

Johnson and Ginsburg have been doing the one-hour workout that he details in his book, "The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong and You Can Too" for 18 years, aside from the three years he was deployed in Kuwait.

The workout starts with a five-minute warm-up and light stretching followed by a strength training session that includes push-ups, planks, chest presses, squats, and hip abductor exercises, then another round of stretches to cool down.

Here's what happened when I tried the workout for two weeks.

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I am no stranger to working out.

I have completed four half-marathons and go to fitness classes frequently, but I haven’t done much strength-training recently because I was training for my races. I was expecting to be sore after the RBG workout.

I was up for the challenge of working out like Ginsburg, especially if it came with an honorary JD from Columbia University, a seat on the Supreme Court, or just great biceps.

But I didn't realize that I would want to recuse myself when I saw that pushups were followed by medicine ball pushups and two different types of planks.

If you work out from home, you'll need dumbbells, resistance bands or tubes, a door anchor, a medicine ball, a Swiss ball, and a stool or ottoman.

I worked out at my local gym, because I didn't think I'd be able to get into the Supreme Court gym where Justice Elena Kagan and Ginsburg work out.

Spike Lee's new movie "BlacKkKlansman" chronicles the true story of an African American police detective named Ron Stallworth, who, in 1978, launched an investigation into the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado Springs, Colorado. By speaking with KKK members over the phone, Stallworth established himself as a viable candidate for membership. He then coordinated with a white detective who assumed his identity when he needed to meet the Klan members in person.

We spoke to the real Ron Stallworth, played in the movie by actor J.D. Washington (son of Denzel), and he told us the amazing story of the investigation and its results. The movie arrives in theaters on the one-year anniversary of the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one woman lost her life during a protest. Lee incorporates imagery from the rally in the film.  Following is a transcript of the video. 

WARNING: This video contains graphic language.

Graham Flanagan: So you said you have the card in your wallet. 

Ron Stallworth: I do.

Flanagan: Can I see that?

[This man infiltrated the KKK. His story inspired the movie “BlacKkKlansman.”]

Stallworth: I'm Sergeant Ron Stallworth, retired. When I was the detective at the Colorado Springs Police Department, in 1978, I launched an investigation into the Ku Klux Klan, a chapter that was forming and trying to expand, in my city. I launched it based on seeing a want ad in the classified section of the newspaper, and there was a P.O. Box number. I wrote a note, a letter if you will, to that P.O. Box. I basically said, "I hate n******, s****, c*****, J***, J***, and anybody else who isn't pure Aryan White like me."

And, I wanted to join something that would allow me to direct my attention towards that. About a week, two weeks later, I get a phone call in my office. The voice on the end of the phone said, "Hi, this is Ken O'Dell, I'm the local chapter president of the Colorado Springs Ku Klux Klan." His response to me was, "You're just the kinda guy we're looking for, when can we meet?" That's when I said, "Oh hell, what do I do now?"

I immediately formulated a strategy and it was simply to get a white officer, posing as me, to go meet this guy. Chuck, that's not his real name, I knew Chuck well, he was a good undercover officer, and so I chose him. When I set off to do this, it was simply to gather information on the Klan, who they are, what they are, where they are, how many they are, and take it from there. Chuck, his lieutenant said, "This'll never work because Chuck will walk into the meeting and they'll immediately recognize from his voice that he's not black."

I said to the lieutenant, "What does a black man sound like?" And then he said, "You know, shucking and jiving, and saying mother blank-blank." I said, " I can shuck and jive if I have to, but B, I can speak correct English when I need to."

When I needed a physical body to attend a Klan meeting, I would go tell him, we need you for this. Most of these guys carry guns, and Chuck would go into the situation knowing that these people were armed and they're unpredictable.

David Duke was the National Director/Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. I called him up one day to find out where my membership card was, 'cause you were supposed to get it within two weeks of applying. On this particular day, David Duke happened to be there, picked the phone up. He told me that there'd been an administrative snafu, and he personally would process the membership and send my card to me. I actually have the card in my wallet. I've carried that card in my wallet since I got it in January of 1979, and I also have a certificate of membership to the Ku Klux Klan, both documents signed, prepared and signed by David Duke.

During the seven and a half months of the undercover phase, the results were, we prevented three cross burnings. Cross burning is a domestic act of terrorism, it's been classified as such. So, we prevented three of those in Colorado Springs, no one ever had to wake up and be terrorized seeing a burning cross in the distance.

We also learned of two military personnel working at North American Air Defense Command, NORAD, who had top security clearance to man the console that monitored the North American airspace. We uncovered two members of the Klan who had that job. I was invited into NORAD, met the Deputy Commander, and based on the information I provided to him, he contacted the Pentagon, talked to some General there, and that General ordered him to order those two men off NORAD and to reassign them. I was told that they were going to, quote, unquote, the North Pole.

They nominated Chuck/me to become the local chapter president. When I told my Chief of Police this latest development, he said, "End the investigation now." He said, "It's gone far enough."

I was told to have no further contact with the Klan, don't answer the phone, don't go to any more meetings. He also ordered me to destroy the file. I have two notebooks, about oh, three inches thick maybe. When my Sergeant wasn't looking, I took the notebooks, put 'em under my arm, walked out to my car and took 'em home.

[Stallworth didn’t speak about the investigation until 2006. His book “Black Klansman” was published in 2014.]

Groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, Skinheads, Alt-Right, call 'em what you will, they're basically all the same. We need to be aware of who they are, what they are, why they are, and we need to address these issues when they come up. Too many people are afraid to talk about the issue of race. We should be willing to address it, and more importantly, when it rears its ugly head we should be willing to take a stand and try to stomp it out, whatever the action may be at a particular time.

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• The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said the former White House adviser Omarosa Manigault's new memoir, "Unhinged," was "riddled with lies and false accusations."
• She also slammed the media for reporting some of Manigault's claims.
• Sanders referred to Manigault as a "disgruntled former White House employee," saying it's "sad" she's "trying to profit off these false attacks."
• Manigault's memoir claims the president used the N-word on tape during his years hosting "The Apprentice."
• Manigault's book is set to be published next week.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, on Friday said the former White House adviser Omarosa Manigault's new memoir, "Unhinged," was "riddled with lies and false accusations," and she slammed the media over its reporting on it.

"Instead of telling the truth about all the good President Trump and his administration are doing to make America safe and prosperous, this book is riddled with lies and false accusations," Sanders said in a statement.

Sanders referred to Manigault as a "disgruntled former White House employee," saying it's "sad" she's "trying to profit off these false attacks."

The White House press secretary, who routinely engages in heated exchanges with reporters during press briefings, also focused ire on media coverage of book, which is set to be published next week.

It's "even worse that the media would now give her a platform, after not taking her seriously when she had only positive things to say about the president during her time in the administration," Sanders said.

Several explosive details from Manigault's memoir emerged Friday. In the book, she is said to cite sources as saying the president routinely used the N-word on tape during his years hosting "The Apprentice," though she apparently did not hear him say the word.

She did reportedly claim to have personally witnessed Trump insulting George Conway, the husband of the White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, with racial slurs that degraded his Filipino heritage. George Conway called those allegations "not credible."

Manigault, who was a contestant on the first season of "The Apprentice," had a short-lived, tumultuous tenure at the White House; many have therefore questioned the validity of her claims surrounding the president.

SEE ALSO: Omarosa book claims there are tapes of Trump using N-word on 'Apprentice' set

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• Dating in your 30s while living with your parents can be a challenge.
• The keys to dating in your 30s while living with your parents are communication, setting boundaries, and getting creative when it comes to bringing someone home.
• Here, eight people living under their parents' roofs in their thirties share hilarious stories about their dating lives.

Dating isn't easy, especially when you you're living at home with your parents, like 23% of millennials, as Zillow reported in May 2018.

"Living at home can create multiple issues related to dating," David Bennett, counselor and relationship expert at Double Trust Dating, told Business Insider.He said it may feel like high school dating all over again.

"The main challenge it causes is logistical — it's much easier to have a fun and romantic date if you have your own place, with multiple rooms at your disposal," he said. "Also, nothing can kill romance like knowing your parents are sleeping a few feet away."

Here, eight 30-somethings who live with their parents share hilarious stories about their dating lives (the responses have been edited for length and clarity):

SEE ALSO: 6 signs your relationship is going to last

1. Steph, 30

After grad school, I moved in with my parents for a while. We were having a big party, and I invited my boyfriend, Adam. I knew we would be drinking, and he lived more than an hour away, so I suggested he spend the night.

He hesitated — probably because my dad is an imposing figure — but I told Adam he could sleep in the guest room. When we came downstairs in the morning, my parents looked at me questioningly and I made it clear that Adam slept in the guest room.

I thought all was fine … until I saw Adam a few days later and he told me that my dad took him aside when I was in the kitchen and said, "Things like that don't happen in this house — unmarried people don't spend the night at each other's parents' homes." I was absolutely mortified — and clearly oblivious.

2. Tara, 31

I went out with some girlfriends, and we struck up a conversation with a group of British guys. One of them and I really hit it off. He said he wanted to hang out more, but he was sharing a hotel room with two other guys.

I got the bright idea that he could come back to my place, even though I was living back at my parent's place. I never brought guys home, ever. I told him he could come over, but I'd have to drive him home super early in the morning. He agreed.

We stayed up so late that I forgot to set an alarm and, before I knew it, I was hearing noises in the kitchen! I joined my parents for our usual coffee-and-small-talk ritual as though I didn't have a guy hiding in my room. He waited there an hour before my parents went back upstairs and I snuck him out to take him back to his hotel!

3. Brooke, 32

When it comes to intimacy and wanting to spend the night with a date when you live with your parents, you definitely have to get creative — or sneaky.

Now, I'm a master at sneaking my boyfriend out, but when I first moved back in with my parents, I had a close call. My ex was in my room, and I suddenly heard my mom coming up the stairs, calling out that she had my clean laundry.

My then-boyfriend got so scared, he literally squeezed himself under my bed right as my mom opened the door. Luckily, I had draped part of my comforter over the side of the bed where my boyfriend was, and I pretended to be half-asleep as my mom came into the room.

Shortly after that, I set up some "rules" with my parents, such as not to walk into my room with just a few seconds' notice — and to stop doing my laundry! I also put a lock on my door.

• Ben & Jerry's released a low-calorie ice cream line in early 2018. 
• The low-calorie Ben & Jerry's ice cream competes directly with Halo Top, a trendy ice cream company that sells low-calorie flavors and was the top-selling ice cream brand in American grocery stores last year.
• We tried a pint of low-calorie ice cream from each brand and found that one was clearly better than the other.

Halo Top offering low-calorie ice cream was one of the trendy brand's biggest assets in competing against more established ice cream companies like Ben & Jerry's.

But Ben & Jerry's is responding to the growing popularity of Halo Top, which launched in 2012, with a low-calorie ice cream of its own.  

As Halo Top's "light" ice creams have become more and more popular, Ben & Jerry's released a low-calorie ice cream of its own in February. Ben & Jerry's version comes in three flavors: P.B. Dough, Caramel Cookie Fix, and Chocolate Milk & Cookies. The pints each have under 160 calories per serving and are low in fat, with no artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols. 

Though Ben & Jerry's may have more name recognition, Halo Top surpassed it to be America's top-selling ice cream brand in grocery stores last year. Unlike Ben & Jerry's, all of Halo Top's ice cream flavors are low-calorie, with many flavors having under 350 calories per pint — half of what the low-calorie Ben & Jerry's flavors have per pint.

We put both low-calorie ice creams to the test. Here's the verdict: 

SEE ALSO: Costco is surprisingly packed with vegan foods. Here are some of the best options.

Ben & Jerry's only makes three flavors of low-calorie ice cream. We tried the P.B. Dough flavor and compared it to Halo Top's non-dairy Peanut Butter Cup, its most similar flavor.

The premise of both ice creams is similar: all the flavor of ice cream, with half as many calories.

We tried Ben & Jerry's P.B. Dough first.

• "Despacito" rapper Daddy Yankee was allegedly robbed of $2 million in jewelry in Spain this week by a man who impersonated him to gain access to the safe in his hotel room.
• His representatives confirmed the robbery in a tweet on Thursday. 

"Despacito" rapper Daddy Yankee was robbed of $2 million in jewelry in Spain this week, his representatives said on Thursday. 

The Puerto Rican rapper, whose real name is Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez, was out of his hotel room when a man allegedly impersonated him to gain access to the safe in his room, local news outlet Las Provincias first reported. 

Rodríguez's public relations team, Nevarez PR, confirmed the robbery in a tweet on Thursday. 

"Daddy Yankee's press office confirms that the artist has been victim of a robbery while he was out of his hotel in Valencia, Spain," the tweet read. "A law firm has been hired and there will not be any more statements in order to not hinder the investigation."

Las Provincias reported that the robber impersonated Daddy Yankee in order to ask the staff at the Melía Valencia hotel, where Rodríguez stayed, to open a safe in the rapper's room. The man allegedly made off with gold chains, diamonds, and other jewelry worth over $2 million and around $2,500 in cash from two separate rooms. 

Federal police have begun an investigation into the robbery and are using security cameras, the hotel's guest list, and possible fingerprints in an attempt to track down a suspect, according to Las Provincias. 

Daddy Yankee's single "Despacito," a collaboration with Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi, became the most viewed music video in YouTube's history last summer. A remix of the song featuring Justin Bieber spent a record-tying 16 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart last year.

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• Choccywoccydoodah makes a huge range of cakes with incredible chocolate details.
• Each cake is hand decorated and every aspect can be completely customised.
• The chocolate artists have become famous in the UK and even have their own TV programme.

Choccywoccydoodah is a chocolate shop in London and Brighton, they make custom chocolates and cakes. Each cake is available in a range of flavours, from red velvet to Sicilian lemon. Every part of their decoration is made from chocolate.

To decorate each cake it is first completely coated in white chocolate. Hearts and letters are made out of moulded chocolate. Coloured modelling chocolate is warmed and used to sculpt details and other details are piped on. 

The flower decorations are made out of modelling chocolate. Each petal is made by hand and then pushed together. The team also use edible paints and glitter for colour.

The custom cakes start from around £450.

Produced by Charlie Floyd

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• The British chef Jason Atherton is the owner of a global restaurant empire.
• As a jet-setter, he has some simple advice for getting the most out of food on the road.
• He says you should always ask for hotel food to be served with a cloche on top instead of in a hot box.
• He also follows something called the "one-year rule" when picking a new restaurant.

The British chef Jason Atherton, who trained under Gordon Ramsay, is a jet-setter.

The owner of a global restaurant empire, he owns the London-based Michelin-starred Pollen Street Social, Dubai's Marina Social, and Clocktower, the restaurant inside New York's Edition hotel, just to name a few.

As a man with good taste, he has some advice for getting the most out of your food while you're on the road.

Speaking with LiveMint, Atherton said there was one simple thing to ask for when ordering hotel room service that would ensure it's not only served fresh but is also delivered before anyone else's order.

"If I order room service, I always, always say: 'I don't want my food in a hot box. Leave it on the table with a cloche on top.' Because any food in a hot box, pasta or steak, will stew and go soggy, of course — but they will bring your food first, because it can't be left to sit around (and get cold)."

He added: "Every general manager wants to change the world when it comes to room service. And I've said, 'Look, if you actually think about it, room service is about getting it to the room as fast as possible.' But if the room-service guy has 20 orders to run up and down a massive building, he'll tell me it's going to take 40 minutes. Forty minutes too long, right?"

In terms of choosing a new restaurant in a new city, he says he has learned from his experience opening 17 restaurants that a restaurant is never at its best when it first opens — so he follows a "one-year rule" before visiting a new one.

"After about a year, a restaurant matures and really starts to find its feet," he said. "The staff gets to know their regular customers, the chef knows the suppliers really well — when they're not scared stiff waiting for the critics to walk through the door.

"You want all of that hullabaloo to die down, so you get a real experience of what that restaurant could really do. So make sure a restaurant you book is at least one year old. Speak to most top chefs, and they'll say exactly the same thing."

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• Miami-based matchmaker Claudia Duran spends her days trying to find love for each of her clients.
• Below, see snapshots from one of her typical workdays.
• Throughout the day, Duran bounces from working at home to private yachts — but she's always home by midnight.

From the moment she wakes up until the moment she goes to bed, Claudia Duran has love on her mind.

Duran is a Miami-based matchmaker with dating service Elite Connections, and she works with the city's more affluent singles (she charges $15,000 for a basic six-month membership and $75,000 for a global membership).

Duran said the growing frustration with dating apps has driven more and more people to her door. It's a "nice excuse to hide behind," Duran said of online dating. She encourages people to make themselves vulnerable both in dating and in relationships, for example by telling someone you like them even if you're not sure how they feel.

Her workday can seem glamorous — clients often take her on yachts and she holds meetings at fancy clubhouses. But work is work, and Duran is always on the clock.

Below, take a look at a typical day in Duran's life.

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Duran wakes up at 8. "I've never been one of those 6 a.m. people and at this point I just accept it!" she said. She always chooses a song to get her ready for the day: "Fun chill music for the days I work from home early, or pumped up jams if I have happen to have a morning meeting or very packed day."

Right away, she heads out onto her balcony overlooking the downtown Miami skyline and meditates. "I swear by and credit mediation for my intuition and clarity, which is essential for reading all different types of people and situations every day," she said.

Duran fires up the Nespresso, whips up a protein smoothie, and settles down to work from home, which involves matching and recruiting clients and setting up private consultations with prospective clients. Of her work uniform, she added, "I wear shorts because it's Miami!"

• The Plank Walk on China's Mount Hua is considered by many to be one of the most dangerous hikes in the world.
• Hikers walk across a few planks of wood bolted into the side of a 7,000-foot peak to reach a small shrine. While hikers are harnessed, it is a terrifying adventure.
• I recently tried to do the Plank Walk on a visit to Mount Hua, but encountered obstacle after obstacle that prevented me from completing it. While hiking Mount Hua was an incredible adventure, I was never able to make to the Plank Walk due to massive crowds and bad timing.

You've probably seen the photos of tourists hanging off the side of a stunning mountain. Or else, walking across a few thin planks bolted into a mountainside, their faces buzzing with adrenaline.

When I found out that the site of those photos is in China, I decided that I had to visit on an upcoming trip to the country.

Located about an hour from Xi'an, one of China's most popular cities for tourists, Mount Hua or Huashan (shan means mountain in Mandarin) is considered to be one of the world's most dangerous places to hike.

The mountain is considered to be one of China's five sacred mountains and is one of the most popular tourist attractions and pilgrimage sites for Chinese people.

The mountain actually has five main peaks — a North, South, East, West, and Center. The infamous plank walk is located on the mountain's highest peak, South, which has a height of 7,070 feet. 

But nothing went quite as planned on my trip.

Here's what happened:

SEE ALSO: I visited the viral, 1,400-foot glass bridge in China — and it was a traveler's worst nightmare

To get to Mount Hua from Xi'an, you have to take a 40-minute bullet train to a 30-minute minibus that takes you to the base of the mountain. But due to a quirk in China's train ticketing (they stop selling 30 minutes before the train departs), I couldn't get on the 8:30 a.m. train.

While a train runs every 30 minutes for most of the day, for some reason, there were no trains until 10 a.m after the 8:30 a.m. That meant that I didn't even get to the base of the mountain until a bit after 11 a.m. Some people start hiking the mountain before sunrise to see everything.

The view from the bottom of Mount Hua is lush. It looks less like a single mountain than a series of granite peaks cut into a valley laden with greenery. Knowing that hiking Mount Hua's five peaks can take between 5-7 hours depending on your fitness level, our only chance to make it to the "plank walk" was to take the cable car.

• A goat herd is helping President Donald Trump pay thousands of dollars less in property taxes on his New Jersey properties, thanks to a state law designed to benefit farmers.
• The Wall Street Journal estimated in 2016 that Trump paid less than $1,000 a year in property taxes on land that would typically require roughly $80,000. 

President Donald Trump is able to pay tens of thousands of dollars less in property taxes on his New Jersey golf courses because of a goat herd, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Citing public records, The Journal reported in 2016 that Trump had been able to save thousands of dollars in property taxes on his two properties in Bedminster — where he is this week for a "working vacation" — and Colts Neck. Because the properties have a goat herd, as well as hay farming and woodcutting, New Jersey law permits them to receive a farmland tax break.

Therefore, Trump pays reduced property taxes on the parts of his golf courses dedicated to farming, the report says.

Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster maintains 113 acres of hay farming and eight goats, and the property in Colts Neck has 40 acres of hay production and trees, The Journal reported, citing tax-break applications reviewed in 2016 during the presidential campaign.

The Journal estimated that Trump paid less than $1,000 a year in property taxes on land that would typically require roughly $80,000.

The farmland-assessment program Trump is benefitting from was added to the New Jersey Constitution in 1963 to prevent overdevelopment in the already crowded Garden State, the report says.

The tax break is both popular and controversial in New Jersey, a state that has some of the highest property taxes in the country and is trying to maintain a semblance of its agricultural history as its population density continues to rise.

At the time of the Journal report, Trump's New Jersey properties, both of which are in wealthy areas of the state known for their horse farms, had last been approved for farmland assessments in 2015.

It's not the first time Trump has received a tax break for one of his properties. Trump famously received massive tax breaks from New York City on some of his most notable real-estate projects, including Trump Tower and The Grand Hyatt.

SEE ALSO: US government reportedly spent at least $60,000 at Trump's Scottish golf resort

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• The first Costco store opened in the US in 1976.
• Since then, it has expanded to Europe, Australasia, and Asia.  
• We compared the experience of shopping in its stores in Japan versus the US.

A love of Costco transcends all geographical borders.

While America created the Costco phenomenon, its operations now extend far beyond the confines of this country and into Australasia, Europe, and Asia. 

Costco opened its first Japan location in 1999 and since then has grown its presence to 26 stores, which span the breadth of the country. 

The Japanese arm of the business is a wholly owned subsidiary of Costco US. While it stocks several US brands and Costco private-label products, there are some big differences between the experiences of shopping in both locations. 

Find out how different the two stores are below:

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From the outside, the warehouse-style layout of this Costco store in Tokoname, Japan, looks similar to Costco in the US.

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One of the biggest bonuses about shopping in Costco Japan is that its stores are open seven days a week, 364 days a year. It closes on January 1. US stores, on the other hand, are closed for major national holidays. Inside, walls of bulk-sized products line the store ...

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... which is exactly what you might see in the US.

• Mendocino Farms is a Los Angeles-based sandwich chain with a bit of a following.
• The chain is famous for its fresh ingredients and commitment to tasty and locally sourced ingredients.
• The chain currently only has locations in California, but it has announced plans to open a restaurant in Houston, Texas, in 2019.
• I visited Mendocino Farms on a recent trip to Southern California to see what all the fuss is about.

Mendocino Farms is a jewel.

That's the only way to describe this relatively small chain of fast-casual restaurants that has made a name for itself on the West Coast for its "better sandwich" concept.

What's a "better sandwich?" Think mid-priced (like $11 to $13) sandwiches, all made with gourmet ingredients that are sourced locally and organic when possible.

That approach has filled a niche in the market and attracted the attention of partners like Whole Foods, which first invested an undisclosed amount in the sandwich chain back in 2015. It has also attracted plenty of customers and helped the chain to expand to 22 locations, with eight more on the way, including one in Houston, Texas.

That shop, announced earlier this year, will be Mendocino Farms' first location outside of California.

On a recent trip to the Los Angeles area, I decided to check out what a "better sandwich" is all about:

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This is Mendocino Farms, a California-based sandwich chain with a serious local fan base. I went to the location near the Grove.

Mendocino Farms isn't your typical fast-casual joint. Walk into a location, and you're immediately greeted by a large menu. An employee was waiting right next to it with an iPad to take my order.

I was then directed to the cash register, where I could add drinks and sweets to my order. Customers are also allowed to try anything in the glass case as a free sample.