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The 50 most livable cities in the world in 2018

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  • The Economist Intelligence Unit released its annual Global Livability Index, measuring the most livable cities in the world.
  • For the first time in eight years, Melbourne, Australia, did not finish in the No. 1 spot.
  • The cities were judged by metrics like crime rates, healthcare quality, infrastructure, and levels of corruption. 
  • The US had several cities on the list, but none in the top 20.


When it comes to choosing a place to live, there are several factors to consider — climate, transportation options, and crime rates, to name a few.

Although it's hard to find a perfect match, a few select cities have the perfect combination of factors that make them the most livable in the world. 

The Economist Intelligence Unit released its annual Global Livability Index, and for the first time in eight years, Melbourne, Australia, did not take the top spot on the list.

The Economist ranked 140 major cities by averaging the results of five metrics:

  • Stability, including the prevalence of petty and violent crime, the threat of terror, and the threat of military conflict
  • Healthcare, including the availability and quality of healthcare, both public and private
  • Culture and environment, including climate, level of corruption, level of censorship, and sporting availability
  • Education, including the availability and quality of private education
  • Infrastructure, including the quality of road networks and public transport, the availability of good quality housing, the quality of telecommunications, and the quality of water and energy provisions

If you're looking for an American city, you won't find one near the top — Honolulu was the highest American city on the list at 23, and the next one on the list was Pittsburgh at 32.

Read on to see the 50 most livable cities in the world for 2018.

SEE ALSO: The 50 best places to live in America for 2018

DON'T MISS: The most surprising things about America, according to a Silicon Valley engineer who moved from India 7 years ago

T-50. Los Angeles, USA

Overall rating (out of 100): 88.6

Stability: 75.0

Healthcare: 91.7

Culture and environment: 94.4

Education: 100.0

Infrastructure: 89.3



T-50. Atlanta, USA

Overall rating (out of 100): 88.6

Stability: 75.0

Healthcare: 91.7

Culture and environment: 91.7

Education: 100.0

Infrastructure: 92.9



49. San Francisco, USA

Overall rating (out of 100): 88.7

Stability: 85.0

Healthcare: 91.7

Culture and environment: 94.4

Education: 83.3

Infrastructure: 85.7



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Costco employees share their 13 best food court secrets and hacks

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  • Costco's food court has attracted many fans.
  • Some of the Costco food court's biggest fans may be the employees themselves.
  • Some employees say you don't even need to be a store member to grab a hot dog or a slice of pizza at Costco's food court.
  • The chain deliberately keeps prices low to better customers' shopping experiences.


Costco food courts have a bit of a cult following.

The retail chain is well-known for hawking cheap eats you can grab once you wrap up your shopping spree. But these food courts aren't just some tacked-on idea to help the store make a quick buck. They're kind of a big deal. In fact, in the pizza business, Costco is actually the 14th-largest pizza chain in the US.

If you're looking to grab something tasty and cheap, it's definitely a good option.

Costco employees have shared a number of tips that can help you make the most of your food court visit.

Here are a few things you should know before you visit Costco's food court:

SEE ALSO: 11 insider facts about shopping at Costco only employees know

DON'T MISS: We ate at a Costco food court, and it was one of the best dining experiences we've ever had

SEE ALSO: 12 Costco food court menu items employees swear by

You don't always need a membership to eat there

A standard Costco membership, which costs $60 a year, can help a customer rack up huge savings.

But you don't necessarily need one to grab a bite to eat at the chain. Non-members also have a chance to swing by the food court, Business Insider's Jessica Tyler reported.

On Reddit, Costco employees said that, while the food courts are supposed to be members-only, the rule is rarely enforced in some stores.

"When I was a greeter, we didn't care," wrote one Costco employee in a Reddit AMA. "A couple years later they changed it to require a membership. I think we're being lenient again."

The food court is supposed to be a membership perk, so it's possible that you'll get turned away at the door if you show up just hankering for a hot dog. But if the food court is located outside, all bets are off.



The food is incredibly cheap but still delicious — and yes, employees eat it

You get a ton of bang for your buck at Costco food courts.

A hot dog and a beverage will cost you $1.50. A giant slice of pizza goes for $1.99, and a full pie is $9.95.

When Business Insider's Hollis Johnson visited a Costco food court in Brooklyn, he ordered practically everything on the menu. The whole smorgasbord came out to just over $25.

And, what's more, the food's pretty good, considering the deal.

"Costco's pizzas are pretty incredible considering the price," Costco worker Stefan Winter wrote on Quora. "Crust is yummy, toppings are good quality, what's not to love?"

"I eat at the food court more then I would like too," an Ontario-based Costco employee told Business Insider. "It's so good! The cheapest menu I have ever seen. I love the pepperoni pizza. It's very cheesy with nice and juicy, crispy pepperonis."



There are more great options other than the pizza or hot dog, and some depend on where you live

While Costco's pizza and hot dogs might be the chain's most famous selections, there are a number of other options, too.

BBQ brisket sandwich, turkey-and-provolone sandwiches, a "confusing yet delicious" chicken bake, and massive churros are all on the menu, too.

Regional and temporary menu items also include poutine, clam chowder, piña colada-flavored smoothies, and fries.

Former Costco employee Robert Lu wrote on Quora that he typically hits up the store's food court during his lunch break. His favorite menu staple was the $1.99 slice of combo pizza, followed by gelato.

"Regardless of what you eat as the 'main course', the pistachio gelato — or any gelato — is to die for," he wrote.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Nicki Minaj blamed Spotify for her album not reaching No. 1, but the streaming giant dismissed her claims

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  • Nicki Minaj blamed Spotify in a series of tweets on Sunday for making her album, "Queen," come up short of topping the Billboard 200 album chart last week. 
  • A Spotify representative on Monday countered Minaj's claims that the streaming service had penalized her album's promotion on its platform. 
  • Minaj also called out Travis Scott, whose album "Astroworld" beat out "Queen" to top the chart, for selling a tour bundle that she said skewed the sales numbers in his favor. 

In a series of tweets on Sunday, Nicki Minaj alternately blamed Spotify and Travis Scott (and Kylie Jenner) for making her new album, "Queen," come up short of topping the Billboard 200 album chart last week.

Minaj's "Queen" debuted at No. 2 on the chart after earning 185,000 equivalent album units, losing out to Scott's "Astroworld," which brought in 205,000 equivalent album units and topped the Billboard chart for a second consecutive week.

A Spotify representative on Monday countered Minaj's claims that the streaming service had penalized her album's promotion on its platform. 

"Spotify supported Nicki Minaj with a Times Square billboard, a host of the largest playlists, New Music Friday and the new music release shelf," the Spotify rep told Variety. "Her song 'Bed' actually saw an increase based on the promotions put behind the campaign. The company continues to be big fans of Nicki."

On Sunday, Minaj wrote in a series of tweets that Spotify "took away [her] promotion" for "Queen" after she played the album prior to its release on her Apple Music radio show, "Queen Radio." 

Minaj also blamed Scott and his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, for promoting a tour bundle that she said sold over 50,000 copies of "Astroworld" without a requirement for fans to redeem the album.

Scott and Jenner have not yet responded to Minaj's tweets. 

SEE ALSO: The 50 best-selling albums of all time

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How a black cop infiltrated the KKK — the true story behind Spike Lee's 'BlacKkKlansman'

Elon Musk and his girlfriend Grimes could be on the rocks — here's a look inside their relationship and how it all started

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Elon Musk and the indie musician Grimes took both the business and music worlds by surprise in May when they first revealed they were dating.

Since then, Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, has also found herself involved in some of Tesla's narrative.

That narrative has gotten increasingly complicated in the weeks since Musk tweeted out his interest in taking the electric car company private, and wrote the two words that have resulted in hundreds of headlines and even an SEC investigation: "Funding secured."

In the wake of the now-famous tweet, rapper Azealia Banks reportedly spent a weekend at Musk's house while waiting to work on a collaboration with Grimes, which is where things get even more complicated, but more on that later.

Now, the Tesla CEO's relationship with Grimes could be on the rocks, as the two appear to have unfollowed each other on Instagram, and Musk has unfollowed Grimes on Twitter.

Here's a look at how their relationship has progressed from the beginning:

Claire Boucher, better known by her stage name Grimes, is also a producer and outspoken advocate for female artists and their treatment by the press and music industry. She's released multiple albums to critical acclaim, and her breakout album, "Visions," won the Juno Award for Electronic Album of the Year.



She first met Elon Musk over Twitter. Musk was planning to make a joke about artificial intelligence — specifically, about the Rococo Basilisk character in her "Flesh Without Blood" video — and discovered she had beaten him to the punch.



In May, shortly before the Met Gala, Page Six reported that the pair had been "quietly dating" for a few weeks.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

What drinking diet does to your body and brain

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Artificial sweeteners are one of diet soda’s main ingredients. But studies have shown that the artificial sweeteners within diet sodas can cause a series of health problems. We decided to take a look at what happens to the body when you only drink diet soda. Following is a transcript of the video.

In the early 1960s, a new kind of beverage took the stage.It wasn’t a new shape, or color, or flavor. No, this was diet soda. And It. Was. Awesome.

With fewer calories and less sugar, diet soda promised to be a healthier alternative to regular soda. But like most promises in life that sound too good to be true, it probably is.

Can you tell the difference between a glass of regular and diet soda? Turns out, neither can your body. And that’s where the trouble starts.

Until recently, everything we ate contained some amount of calories. When we ate something sweet, for example, the brain sent signals to our pancreas. Which started producing insulin, that stored the sugar molecules in our cells for energy.

So, when we drink diet soda, the sweetness tricks our body into thinking it’s real sugar. But when those energy-packed calories don’t arrive, the insulin has nothing to store.

Scientists think that repeatedly tricking our body this way could explain why study after study keeps finding the same thing: that drinking diet soda is associated with metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a mix of conditions that includes: increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, and weight gain. Which can increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

In fact, one study found that diet soda drinkers had a higher risk of stroke and dementia than regular soda drinkers. And for another 8-year-long study between 1979-1988, participants who started out at a normal weight and drank an average of 21 diet beverages a week faced DOUBLE the risk of becoming overweight or obese by the end of the study, compared to people who avoided diet beverages completely.

And while drinking diet soda with a meal may sound like a tasty, calorie-free alternative to plain water, a growing body of research is starting to find that this may be the WORST time to drink it. Because the fake calories in the diet soda could ultimately disrupt how many of the real calories we metabolize. Potentially leaving excess calories behind that we then store as fat.

Another issue could be the fact that artificial sweeteners in diet sodas can be tens to hundreds of times sweeter than sugar. So when we taste it, our brains anticipate more calories than what we give it. It’s like when you go to a party expecting loads of food and you end up with a handful of veggies and vegan cheese. You’re left unsatisfied and hangry. In the same way, artificial sweeteners can leave our brains wanting more, which studies have shown leads to increased appetite, and potential weight gain, in fruit flies, mice, and humans.

So if the reason you’re drinking diet soda is to drop a few pounds, maybe stick to water.

Join the conversation about this story »

Hollywood insiders explain why the box office has had an incredible rebound in 2018

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  • The 2018 box office is up 9% from last year, and the summer movie season is up over 11%.
  • This has happened thanks to sequels working and audiences flocking to diverse titles like "Black Panther" and "Crazy Rich Asians."


At the start of 2018, the forecast for the box office was not great.

Coming off a 2017 when Hollywood saw one of the worst summer movie seasons in history, and a year when movie attendance was at its lowest in 25 years, Wall Street braced everyone for an unremarkable 2018.

But so far the 2018 box office hasn't just turned out to be better than 2017; it's having one of its best in recent memory.

Not only are all the sequels hitting on the mark, or better than projected (remember when we were complaining there were too many sequels being made?), but there are also movies being released by the major studios that cater to diverse audiences, and those have turned out to be cash cows, too. Highlights include Disney's "Black Panther" at the beginning of the year and "Crazy Rich Asians" from Warner Bros. to close out the summer.

“Diversity and inclusion in film is paying off big,” comScore box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Business Insider. “'Black Panther' was important on so many levels: box office, culturally, how it resonated with audiences around the world. It set the tone in a lot of ways in how the year was going to be different, but much more exciting and financially more robust than anyone had imagined.”

Crazy Rich Asians

And things have only gotten better in the summer months, as the box office compared to last summer is up over 11%. Some observers believed the only way the box office could go was up because 2017’s summer was the worst in decades. But the number of movies that worked between the release of “Avengers: Infinity War” in late April to “Crazy Rich Asians” this past weekend was staggering.

So what was so different from this summer season compared to last? Could a MoviePass bump be the reason?

Since the movie-ticket subscription service changed to a $9.95-per-month model to see one movie a day, it has gained over 3 million subscribers. And its members used the service so much over this summer that MoviePass barely stayed in business by August.

“Credit MoviePass a little,” Jeff Bock, senior analyst for Exhibitor Relations, told Business Insider. “They have certainly helped create a bigger appetite for audiences.”

MoviePass boasted it was responsible for 6% of the domestic box-office take this year (which is currently up 9% compared to this time last year).

But not everyone is sold.

MoviePass

"I don't know, I feel like it still just comes down to the content," Dergarabedian said in reference to any MoviePass bump. "I don't see that as the driving force. It's more emotionally driven than financially driven. I think more important is what is the social-media chatter about a movie. I would lay any boom or bust more at the doorstep of social media than any other factor."

What everyone can agree on is that the 2018 box office has been fueled by the success of movie sequels this summer, which in past years have not done so well. But in 2018 it seems Hollywood concocted the perfect formula of franchises audiences wanted to see — “The Avengers,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Incredibles,” “Deadpool,” “Jurassic World” — and followed through by making good sequels.

“There were really no high-profile bombs this summer,” Bock said. “That’s a lot of credit for Hollywood, as audiences are more apt to sample another sequel if the hits keep coming. Negative reviews and media scrutiny can actually erode the entire box office when bombs are dropping left and right.”

But the hit sequels are not a surprise at the studios. Universal’s president of domestic theatrical distribution, Jim Orr, told Business Insider that last year’s stories about the death of the summer movie season were greatly exaggerated.

“This is not hindsight or Monday-morning quarterbacking. Last summer had a couple of titles move out of late summer and you had a couple of titles that underperformed and then all of a sudden people were writing about the death of the industry and that was just never going to be the case,” he said. “There was just too much good product to be slated for this year, and the year after, and the year after.”

jurassic world fallen kingdom

Though Disney is still ruling the box office this year with titles like “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Incredibles 2,” Universal always brings a more diverse slate to audiences and is in second place with releases like “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” the teen comedy surprise hit “Blockers,” and “Skyscraper,” which hasn’t done well domestically but has earned over $225 million internationally.

Orr believes the successful 2018 box office has proved that audiences don’t want just superhero movies. They want a variety of stories to choose from at the multiplex.

“We purposely have a very diversified approach to our slate,” he said. “We did exactly that in the summer of 2018, it's just the perfect example of trying to reach every audience and have something for everybody. Different genres available to the audience can pay off extraordinarily well.”

But will the Wall Street forecast come to fruition the rest of the year? Titles like “Venom,” “Aquaman,” and “Mary Poppins Returns” are the big moneymakers on paper. Yet they could bomb.

Venom Sony

This year there's no “Star Wars” end-of-the-year release to pick up any slack, and 2018 marks the first time since 2014 (the year before “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” opened) that Disney is not releasing a movie from the beloved saga in December. It released “Solo: A Star Wars Story” in May.

“We’re not going to have a good September,” Dergarabedian said, adding that last year’s September did so well because of the record-breaking success of “It” from Warner Bros. There’s no major title like that slated for September.

“But there’s a lot still on the way,” he added. “The Oscar season films could break out, especially the ones that are topical. That’s the nature of the beast: It’s a cyclical business.”

SEE ALSO: The 50 best-selling albums of all time

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How a black cop infiltrated the KKK — the true story behind Spike Lee's 'BlacKkKlansman'

All your favorite Netflix original shows that have been renewed for another season

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Netflix has begun to cancel shows, but that doesn't mean it's getting rid of your favorites.

39 Netflix original series will be returning with new seasons in the near future.

Only a few of the series have official release dates, including the upcoming season premieres of "Marvel's Iron Fist" and "Ozark."

On Monday, Netflix announced the renewal of its critically acclaimed original comedy series "Glow" for a third season.  

Other hit shows that have been renewed by the streaming service, like "Stranger Things" and "Black Mirror," are either in production or awaiting release.

For this list, we have included only renewed Netflix series that are yet to air, and we've included official release dates if applicable. We've excluded children's shows and reality series.

Here are the 39 Netflix original series that are coming back for another season:

SEE ALSO: All 73 of Netflix's notable original shows, ranked from worst to best

"Ozark" (Season 2) — Premieres August 31

Date renewed:August 17, 2017



"Marvel's Iron Fist" (Season 2) — Premieres September 7

Date renewed: July 22, 2017



"BoJack Horseman" (Season 5) — Premieres September 14

Date renewed: September 21, 2017



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

These people make hundreds of dollars a month flipping products from a skater brand that teens are obsessed with. Here's how they do it.

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  • Teens are obsessed with Supreme, a skater brand that has seen mainstream success in recent years.
  • Supreme has garnered a lot of attention in the last week after copies of the New York Post with Supreme ads on the cover flew off the shelves. Almost all Supreme products sell out instantly.
  • There is a huge market for reselling Supreme products because of the extremely high demand. Some fans who shared their stories with Business Insider said they are able to make hundreds of dollars a week by flipping products they're able to buy before they sell out. 

Supreme, Gen Z's favorite skater brand, has become a source of income for some savvy shoppers. 

Supreme was founded in 1994 by James Jebbia and has since grown from a skater-centric brand to a mainstream apparel brand with its own cult following. The brand ranked seventh among upper-income teens' favorite brands in a spring 2018 survey by Piper Jaffray, and in 2017, Supreme received a roughly $500 million cash infusion from The Carlyle Group, which valued the brand at $1 billion.

Last week, loyal fans snatched up copies of the New York Post that featured a wraparound Supreme ad on the cover. The papers, which typically costs $1.50, flew off the shelves. Copies of it are now listed on eBay for many times its normal listing price

There's a huge market for reselling Supreme products because of the extremely high demand. Some fans are able to make hundreds of dollars a week by flipping products they're able to buy when they're released in product launches called "drops."

But because of how quickly products sell out, people who flip them have to prepare.

"During Supreme season, I'm constantly researching, buying, and selling — it usually doesn’t stop until the season is over," 21-year-old Supreme fan Jake Morell told Business Insider.

Morell says he typically makes as much as $600 per month throughout a season, which includes one drop a week from August to December. 

We spoke to two Supreme fans who flip products and make hundreds of dollars each week. Here's how they do it:

SEE ALSO: Gen Z is obsessed with Supreme, the skater brand that sells out within seconds. Here's what it's like to go to one of its heavily hyped launches.

Supreme has two seasons: Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer. New products are released in events called "drops" every Thursday throughout the season, and they usually sell out within seconds online.

Source: Business Insider



Before drops, people who flip Supreme typically do hours of online research to see what products will be coming out, what products people like or dislike, and what is predicted to have the highest resale value. One website fans use is Supreme Community, which leaks the details of product releases before they happen and allows users to vote on their favorite products.

"On the Supreme Community website, when you look at each drop, they have a voting system — underneath each picture of an item, you can see if it has thumbs-up or thumbs-down ratings, like on Rotten Tomatoes," Christopher Young, a 21-year-old who says he makes as much as $300 per week flipping Supreme products, told Business Insider.

"That gives you a general idea of, 'Oh, this is something that people really like, or this is something people don't really like.'"



Because of how quickly products sell out, people who flip Supreme products practice using the website to make sure they can buy the most-wanted items before they're gone.

"You have to go on in advance and figure out what section your item is going to be in — is it going to be in 'tops' or in 't-shirts?' Is it going to be in 'accessories' or in 'bags?'" Young said.

Morell said that he is usually on the computer, waiting, at least 30 minutes before everything goes on sale.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Trump singled out a Hispanic US Border Patrol agent for speaking 'perfect English' and misnamed the agency in bizarre ceremony remarks

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  • President Donald Trump singled out a Hispanic US Border Patrol agent and seemed to misname the agency in his remarks during a ceremony to honor border and law enforcement officers on Monday.
  • While inviting the agent to the stage, Trump said "he speaks perfect English" and mistakenly referred to Customs and Border Patrol as "CBC" several times, despite a teleprompter reportedly having the correct abbreviation.
  • The White House did not identify a specific impetus for the event, but Trump issued a vague hit at activists and politicians who promote the movement to abolish ICE, calling them "extremists."

President Donald Trump singled out a Hispanic US Border Patrol agent and appeared to misname the agency in his remarks during a White House ceremony Monday to honor border security agents.

Trump was speaking to a crowd of officers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and Border Protection, which he mistakenly referred to as "CBC" instead of "CBP" throughout his half hour of remarks.

After praising some of the agencies' top officials, Trump called an agent up to the podium to share a story about finding "a horrible 78 illegal aliens" inside of a trailer just across the US-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas.

"Adrian, come here, I want to ask you a question ... you're not nervous, right? Speaks perfect English," Trump said, only referring to the agent by his first name.

The officer took the stage to recount his experience, which Trump praised as "a good job."

Trump also touted his plans for a border wall, a project he has spoken about as central to his hard-line immigration policy since his campaign, and said it wasn't "easy because we have a little opposition called the Democrats." Experts have warned that the wall will be astronomically expensive and not an effective measure of immigration control.

White House reporters present at the ceremony tweeted about Trump's gaffe of the agency's name, including Fox News' John Roberts and Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs, who noted the president's teleprompter had the correct abbreviation.

Though the White House did not identify a specific impetus for the event, debate over the necessity of ICE has grown sharper in the wake of reports of officers' mishandling and abuse of immigrants in US custody.

A progressive movement to abolish ICE has caught fire ahead of November's midterm elections and 2020's presidential elections is growing among activists and candidates, who Trump called "extremists."

"We will protect those who protect us," Trump said, disavowing opponents of the agency. "The extremists who attack ICE and CBC [sic] like to portray themselves as champions of social justice. They are not."

SEE ALSO: Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh suggested asking Bill Clinton sexually graphic questions about Monica Lewinsky in a 1998 memo

DON'T MISS: Democrats are demanding White House records on Trump's national security adviser and his ties to suspected Russian spy Maria Butina

Join the conversation about this story »

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Video shows the moment the Genoa highway bridge collapsed, killing 43 people

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  • Local police released the video showing the moment the Morandi bridge collapsed in Genoa on August 14.
  • The footage is from two different cameras, both showing the moments before and after the bridge caved in.
  • Watch it below.

Newly released surveillance footage show the exact moment when the Morandi bridge in Genoa collapsed on August 14, killing 43 people.

The videos, shot from different angles on the bridge, were released by Guardia di Finanza Genova, who are the local police.

They show the bridge's usual day-to-day traffic, and workers in hi-vis jackets, until the moment the bridge gives way around 11 a.m. local time.

Rubble and dust fill the screen for a few moments, and when it clears, the bridge is reduced to smashed concrete and wire.

Scroll to the 0:40 and 1:20 in the video below to see how the collapse looked from two different angles.

The 656-foot stretch of the bridge caved in on August 14, plunging vehicles, chunks of concrete and twisted metal to the ground 165 feet below.

The cause of the collapse remains unknown.

Rescue services have now stopped searching for survivors, as the whereabouts of the 43 missing people have been accounted for, Reuters reported.

More than 600 people were evacuated as rescue services were worried the ends of the bridge could still collapse.

SEE ALSO: Italy's deputy prime minister is blaming the EU for the deadly bridge collapse, even though nobody knows what caused it yet

READ MORE: Before-and-after photos show the startling scale of the bridge collapse disaster in northern Italy

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NOW WATCH: Why Americans want this tiny Japanese sports car

The most insidious type of cheating isn't physical — here are 9 signs your partner could be guilty

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  • It's hard to define an emotional affair.
  • Licensed marriage and family therapist Sheri Meyers wrote the book "Chatting or Cheating," in which she lists some signs that you're partner might be having an emotional affair.
  • Those signs include wanting more time and space to themselves and getting defensive.


An "emotional affair" is hard to define — it can be tricky to know if you're having one, and perhaps even trickier to figure out if your partner is.

That said, there are a few red flags to look out for if you suspect that your partner has romantic feelings for someone else, even if they haven't acted on them physically. In her 2012 book, "Chatting or Cheating," licensed marriage and family therapist Sheri Meyers outlines some key indicators that your partner might be involved in an emotional affair.

Below, Business Insider has rounded up nine of those warning signs. Remember: Just because you recognize some of these behaviors in your partner doesn't necessarily mean they've been unfaithful.

But if you're really starting to get worried, it's a good idea to articulate your concerns to your partner and give them a chance to explain themselves.

SEE ALSO: The most insidious type of cheating isn't physical — here are 8 signs it could be happening to you

Your partner is spending more time on the computer and/or phone

A sudden strong attachment to digital devices could be a red flag.

Meyers writes: "Your partner may 'stiffen' when you enter the room, or put the phone away suddenly. They may have increased activity or text messaging but are more difficult to get  ahold of when out of the house."



Your partner wants more space and time to themselves

If your partner really is having an emotional affair, they may try to distance themselves from you.

"They want to do their own thing more often and become indifferent to doing things together and offer excuses about not planning or committing to future trips, vacations, and family visits," Meyers writes.



When you argue, your partner's fallback position is about your relationship ending

During conflicts, your partner may say something like, "What would you do if our relationship ended?" or perhaps something even more alarming like, "If anything ever happened to us, I would always love you like a friend."

"In general," Meyers writes, "they seem overtly negative about your relationship," as opposed to interested in trying to repair it.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The list of the most livable cities in the world is out — and there isn't an American city in the top 20

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  • The Economist Intelligence Unit recently released its annual Global Liveability Index, measuring the most livable cities in the world.
  • American cities didn't fare particularly well in the rankings, with Honolulu ranked highest in 23rd place.
  • There were only four American cities in the top 40.


The Economist Intelligence Unit released its annual ranking of the most livable cities in the world last week, and if you're searching for an American city on the list, you'll have to look pretty far down.

Of the 140 major world cities analyzed for the ranking, the highest American finisher was Honolulu in 23rd place.

The only other American cities in the top 40 were Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, and Minneapolis. Several cities, including Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, cracked the top 50, while New York City, the most populous in the US, was ranked 57th.

Occupying the top of the list were mostly cities in Western Europe, Canada, and Australia. Vienna was deemed the most livable in the world, ending a seven-year stretch in which Melbourne, Australia, came out on top. Melbourne finished second in this year's index, followed by Osaka, Japan; Calgary, Canada, and Sydney, Australia.

The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked cities by five metrics: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. 

America has had a bad run in the last couple of liveability rankings, and President Donald Trump's administration may be partially to blame. Last year's report cited the civil unrest caused by Trump's policies as one of the reasons for the relatively low rankings of American cities on the list.

The biggest hit to American cities on the list was their relatively high crime rates, and especially gun-related crime, according to the report. Mass shootings and other forms of gun violence weighed down ratings in the stability category, the report noted, although US cities tended to score well in the healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure categories.

See the full list of cities »

SEE ALSO: The 50 most livable cities in the world in 2018

DON'T MISS: The most surprising things about America, according to a Silicon Valley engineer who moved from India 7 years ago

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NOW WATCH: Animated map shows best and worst states to raise a family

Trump Tower vs. the White House: Inside the president's 2 offices, from Shaq's sneaker to Ronald Reagan's old rug

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  • Donald Trump's old Trump Tower office is a far cry from the Oval Office he now occupies.
  • Most of Trump's decor didn't make the trip to D.C. with him.
  • Business Insider looked into the differences between Trump's two signature workspaces.


Trump Tower and the Oval Office used to seem worlds apart.

But now that Donald Trump is president, they both count as his two signature workspaces.

His Trump Tower office was messy and littered with papers and random collectibles. Unsurprisingly, things tend to look a bit neater in the Oval Office.

Here's a comparison of the two offices:

SEE ALSO: A look inside Donald Trump's Manhattan office

DON'T MISS: Trump insisted on hanging bright gold drapes in the Oval Office — here are past presidents' offices for comparison

SEE ALSO: Trump's being slammed for this photo of his desk — here are past presidents' desks for comparison

Trump's old desk in Trump Tower was big and constantly cluttered with various files...

Source: Business Insider



... not to mention stacks of magazines emblazoned with Trump's own image.

Source: Business Insider



In the Oval Office, Trump has opted to use the famed Resolute desk. Queen Victoria gifted the piece of furniture — which was carved from timbers of the H.M.S. Resolute — to Rutherford B. Hayes.

Source: Business Insider



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Half the US presidents were born in 4 states. These are the 21 states that have produced the most presidents.

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When President Donald Trump was took office, he became the fifth US president to hail from New York.

The Empire State now has the third-most presidents to call its own. It's one of four states that have produced half of the 44 US presidents, along with Virginia, Ohio, and Massachusetts.

Many presidents, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush, later moved to and identified with other states.

For example, former President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, but he later moved to and was a senator from Illinois. Bush is primarily affiliated with Texas despite being born in Connecticut.

Here are the 21 states that produced all the US presidents.

SEE ALSO: The height differences between all the US presidents and first ladies

DON'T MISS: Historic photos show every time American presidents met British Kings and Queens

Twenty-nine states haven't produced any presidents yet. Most of them are in the west, and didn't exist when the country was founded. Here's the breakdown:



Virginia had eight presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson.



Ohio had seven presidents: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

20 of the most expensive watches worn by the world's most elite athletes

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Expensive Swiss mechanical watches don't have much practical use on the field, court, or track, though it's not uncommon to see the world's biggest athletes wearing high-end, luxury timepieces during their events.

Nevertheless, watch brands are eager to sponsor elite athletes, from fighters like Floyd Mayweather to tennis champions like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, not for their horological expertise but for their aura — which sells.

We got a helping hand from the experts at Crown & Caliber to determine the make and models of 20 timepieces worn by the world's top athletes.

Scroll down to see them ranked in ascending order of price:

SEE ALSO: 10 luxury watches that are actually worth the investment

Neymar — Gaga Milano, $2,100.

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Neymar's love of watches is well documented, with his trip to a Gaga Milano store ending in a $180,000 purchase and an endorsement deal.

Despite his own line of timepieces being on the lower end of the luxury watch bracket, it looks as though he has some special editions worth much more in his collection. 

Price according to Gaga Milano.



Tom Brady — TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph 01, $3,250.

Five-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady partnered with Tag Heuer in 2015.

"His jaw is famous. His hair is famous. His right arm is famous. Now his left wrist is, too," Alex Williams wrote for The New York Times that year.

Last year, Tag Heuer released a special edition Tom Brady chronograph, which retailed at $5,600.

Price according to Crown & Caliber.



Andy Murray — Rado Hyperchrome XXL, $3,475.

When Andy Murray won his first Wimbledon Championship in 2013, he was a Rado brand ambassador, and as soon as he won, he reportedly hurried to slap on his Rado Hyperchrome.

He put it on so quickly he didn't notice that it was seven hours out. He has since dropped Rado as a sponsor and instead works with brands such as Jaguar and Under Armour.

Price according to the Daily Mirror.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

40 totally amazing technological advancements that we don't even notice anymore

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people on phones

  • Technology is advancing so rapidly these days — and we rely upon it so readily — that that we hardly notice innovations anymore. 
  • But we've actually come a long way since the dawn of the internet and mobile devices. 
  • Here are 40 totally amazing technological advancements that we don't even notice anymore.

We don't have hover crafts or teleportation just yet, but we've come pretty far technologically since the dawn of the internet and mobile devices. 

In our busy everyday routines, we rely upon that technology to do a lot for us. And that technology is constantly changing.

As a result, it's easy to forget just how advanced some of it is.

But we'd be left scrambling if all of our innovations, from our smartphones to our high-speed internet, ceased to operate.

Here are 40 technological advancements so ingrained in our daily lives that we don't even notice them anymore.

SEE ALSO: 54 of the most hilariously terrible Tinder lines people have gotten

Many of us rely a great deal on our smartphones these days. Just two decades ago, we didn't have these portable lifesavers that can do just about everything for us.



Now we can manage our lives with the tap of a finger, from scheduling bill payments to shopping for groceries.



And we can keep our lives in our pockets for as little as $300. The first portable computer, on the other hand, cost $1,795 in 1985.

Source: Business Insider



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

'Please DO NOT mislead your viewers by rewriting history': Polish embassy slams Fox News over coverage of deported Nazi guard

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  • The Polish embassy to the US criticized Fox News over its coverage of a 95-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard the US deported on Tuesday.
  • The embassy apparently took issue with a chyron on Fox News that said, "Palij was a Nazi guard at a Polish death camp."
  • It's true Poland was occupied by Germany during the war and it's inaccurate to describe Nazi concentration camps as "Polish."
  • But historians also say it's misleading to contend Poland was not at all complicit in the Holocaust.

The Polish embassy to the US on Tuesday criticized Fox News over its coverage of a 95-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard who was deported from the US.

Jakiw Palij worked at the Trawniki labor camp in German-occupied Poland during World War II, where thousands of Jews were murdered. On November 3, 1943, SS and police units massacred at least 6,000 Jewish inmates of Trawniki and a nearby subcamp, according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Palij, who had been living in Queens, New York, for years, was deported to Düsseldorf, Germany, on Tuesday.

The Polish embassy apparently took issue with a chyron on Fox News that read: "Palij was a Nazi guard at a Polish death camp."

In a tweet, the embassy said, "[Fox News] we appreciate your reporting on yet another war time criminal rightfully being brought to justice. However please DO NOT mislead your viewers by rewriting history #Trawniki Labor Camp was a #GermanNazi camp in occupied Poland."

Fox News tweeted out a clarification on this topic on Tuesday afternoon, stating, "In a banner this morning we said the Nazi who was deported was a guard at a 'Polish Death Camp.' The death camp was in German occupied Poland and not a 'Polish Death Camp.'"

Indeed, Poland was occupied by Germany during the war and it's inaccurate to describe Nazi concentration camps as "Polish."

But historians also say it's misleading to contend or suggest Poland was not at all complicit in the Holocaust, given the significant number of Poles who collaborated with the Nazis.

Edna Friedberg, a historian at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, wrote for The Atlantic:

"Poland was the victim of German aggression, suffering one of the most brutal occupation regimes among countries in the Nazi orbit. Despite severe penalties, more Christian Poles have been recognized as Righteous Among the Nations–those who risked their lives to aid Jews–than citizens of any other country in Europe. But many others supported and enabled Germany in its campaign to exterminate the Jews."

During the war, for example, thousands of Polish policemen helped the Nazis guard ghettos where Jews were held before being deported to their deaths.

Poland was the site of all six "death camps" or "extermination camps" during World War II, where it's estimated the Nazis murdered 3.5 million Jews.

Over the course of the Holocaust, it's estimated that 6 million Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, which included Poles, according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Among those killed were 3 million Polish Jews— 90% of the pre-war population.

The Nazis also killed millions of other civilians and disarmed soldiers, including political dissidents, homosexuals, Gypsies, and Soviet prisoners, among others.

Earlier this year, the Polish government was accused of attempting to rewrite the history of Poland's role in the Holocaust after it passed a law making it illegal to accuse the country of complicity in Nazi crimes. The law called for violators to be punished with a fine or up to three years in prison.

The legislation was widely criticized, including by the US government and Israel, and the Polish government amended the law in June to remove criminal penalties for violators.

SEE ALSO: The US has deported a 95-year-old Nazi concentration camp guard who was living in Queens

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NOW WATCH: Meet the woman behind Trump's $20 million merch empire

Paul Manafort found guilty of 8 counts of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to report foreign bank accounts

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Paul Manafort.

  • A jury on Tuesday found Paul Manafort guilty of eight counts of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to report foreign bank accounts after a high-stakes criminal trial.
  • They were unable to reach a verdict on the other 10 counts he was accused of, and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges.
  • Manafort is the former chairman of President Donald Trump's campaign; he was indicted in the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
  • Trump commented on the news as he arrived in West Virginia for a campaign rally Tuesday night: "It doesn't involve me, but it's a very sad thing that happened. This has nothing to with Russian collusion."
  • Trump did not immediately comment on Michael Cohen, his longtime personal lawyer who signed a plea deal within minutes of the Manafort verdict on Tuesday.

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A jury in Alexandria, Virginia, found Paul Manafort guilty on eight counts on Tuesday, following a high-stakes criminal trial that gripped the nation for weeks.

Manafort was convicted on five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failure to report foreign bank accounts.

The former chairman of President Donald Trump's campaign was indicted as part of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Manafort was charged in Virginia with 18 counts in total, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on 10 of the counts. US District Judge T.S. Ellis III declared a mistrial on those charges.

He hasn't been sentenced yet, but legal experts speculated that Manafort could spend years in prison.

trump manafort guilty verdictTrump commented on the news as he arrived in West Virginia for a campaign rally Tuesday night.

"It doesn't involve me, but it's a very sad thing that happened," he said. "This has nothing to with Russian collusion."

Trump added: "This has nothing to do with Russian collusion. This started as Russian collusion. This has absolutely nothing to do — this is a witch hunt."

The president did not immediately comment on Michael Cohen, his longtime personal attorney who signed on to a plea deal within minutes of the Manafort verdict Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier Tuesday, the jury sent a note to Ellis asking him what would happen "if we cannot come to a consensus on a single count." They asked how they should fill in the verdict form in that case, and "what does that mean for the final verdict."

Ellis said he would give the jury directions on continuing their deliberations to see whether they could reach a unanimous conclusion, but said he would not issue a new verdict form.

Manafort's lawyer suggested earlier in the day that jurors should be given a third option on the form — specifically, a "hung jury" option for each count, which has never been done before.

After the verdict was read, Ellis excused the jury and encouraged them not to talk to the press, but did not explicitly bar them from doing so.

"I suggest to you that you have a duty of confidentiality," he said, according to CNN.

What happened during the trial

paul manafort guilty verdict court room sketch

Manafort's trial kicked off last month. The jury first heard 10 days' worth of evidence from the prosecution, aided by over a dozen witnesses who testified to Manafort's crimes.

Prosecutors showed the jury scores of documents and emails that they said painted a clear money trail from Ukraine to Manafort's overseas accounts to US vendors Manafort dealt with.

Greg Andres, the lead Justice Department lawyer on the case, emphasized the government's claim that Manafort willfully did not disclose his foreign bank accounts, stashed money in his offshore accounts to avoid reporting it as income, and later sought to falsely inflate his income to secure loans when his finances dried up.

"Mr. Manafort lied to keep more money when he had it, and he lied to get more money when he didn't," Andres said during closing arguments.

While making the prosecution's argument, Andres frequently returned to one phrase: "Mr. Manafort's lies." Specifically, he said the jury should focus on Manafort's alleged falsehoods and not the credibility of Rick Gates, the government's main witness against Manafort, whom the defense repeatedly cast as a liar who threw Manafort under the bus.

Andres said during closing arguments that the jury didn't need to trust or like Gates. Instead, he said, the jury should focus on what Gates said and how it stacked up against the testimony given by other critical witnesses, like Manafort's former bookkeeper, accountant, and tax preparers.

manafort suit jacket composite

When he took the stand, Gates admitted to committing crimes with Manafort, but he also admitted to embezzling millions from his former boss and having an extramarital affair a decade ago.

Andres sought to shift attention away from Gates during his closing argument, saying at one point that "the star witness in this case is the documents."

When it was their turn, Manafort's lawyers cast a political shadow over the proceedings, arguing that Mueller's case was comprised of "selective" evidence that didn't amount to any crime.

The defense also said the prosecution failed to show that one of the banks Manafort is accused of defrauding relied on false information. They also said, more broadly, that the government had not proven that Manafort acted intentionally to commit the alleged crimes.

Manafort's lead defense attorney, Kevin Downing, said last week that his client was choosing to let the case go to the jury because he and his attorneys "do not believe that the government has met its burden of proof."

During closing arguments last Wednesday, Richard Westling, one of Manafort's lawyers, implied that Mueller's team had embarked on a fishing expedition to nail Manafort down and suggested that if any other prosecutors had been looking into the matter, Manafort wouldn't have been indicted.

The charges against Manafort weren't brought until "the special counsel showed up and started asking questions," Westling said.

Manafort is set to face trial as part of a second indictment from Mueller in Washington, DC, in September.

SEE ALSO: Michael Cohen pleads guilty and says he broke campaign finance law at Trump's direction

DON'T MISS: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was just convicted on fraud counts — here's what you need to know about him

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Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was just convicted on fraud counts — here's what you need to know about him

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Paul Manafort

  • President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been a key figure in the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling and possible Trump campaign collusion.
  • On August 21, Manafort was convicted on eight counts on tax fraud, hiding foreign bank accounts, and bank fraud.
  • He was first indicted in October 2017 on 12 other federal charges, including money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent. That second trial is scheduled to begin this fall.
  • Manafort is pleading not guilty to all the charges against him. Here's what you need to know about his life.

Paul Manafort was born in 1949 and raised in New Britain, Connecticut, a largely liberal town where his father served three terms as a popular Republican mayor.

Like President Donald Trump, Manafort comes from a real-estate family. Alongside his political work, his father also ran the family construction company, Manafort Brothers Inc., founded by his Italian immigrant father.

Instead of taking over the family business, Manafort decided to pursue his interest in politics and moved to Washington, DC, where he earned both an undergraduate business degree and a law degree at Georgetown University.

A Republican operative and international 'gun for hire'

FILE PHOTO: Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for a bond hearing at U.S. District Court in Washington, U.S., November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

While working at a private law firm two years after graduating from law school, Manafort began advising Republican president Gerald Ford's 1976 campaign.

Since the 1970s, he has established deep and sometimes murky connections in Washington and around the globe, serving as political lobbyist, adviser, and an international political consultant for leaders across the world, including dictators Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.

Manafort's international work has long raised eyebrows among Democrats in Washington.

In 2004, he became a top adviser to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian strongman whom Manafort is widely credited with helping win the presidency in 2010.

Yanukovych was ousted in 2014 after widespread demonstrations again this decision to back out of a deal with the EU that would have distanced Ukraine from Russia and fostered closer ties with the West.

On February 20, 2014, Ukrainian riot police opened fire on thousands of demonstrators who had gathered in central Kiev. Fifty-three protesters were killed that day, and dozens more over the next few days.

Ukrainian prosecutors have said Yanukovych ordered the security forces' attack on protesters, and at least one human-rights lawyer representing the victims is investigating what role, if any, Manafort played in encouraging Yanukovych's crackdown.

Yanukovych fled to Russia amid the protests and is now living under the protection of the Kremlin.

'A sick f---ing tyrant'

A memorial for protesters killed in Kiev

The New York Times reported last year that Manafort was in debt to pro-Russian interests by as much as $17 million by the time he joined the Trump campaign.

Legal complaints filed by representatives of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the Cayman Islands in 2014 claimed Deripaska gave Manafort $19 million that year to invest in a Ukrainian TV company.

The project fell through, and Manafort all but disappeared without paying Deripaska back, the filings claimed. A subsequent court filing from the special counsel Robert Mueller's office in June 2018 revealed Manafort owed Deripaska an additional $10 million for an unpaid loan.

Deripaska and Manafort had worked together before. Deripaska signed a $10 million annual contract with Manafort in 2006, according to the AP, for a lobbying project in the US that Manafort said would "greatly benefit the Putin Government."

In another bizarre twist, hackers broke into Manafort's daughter's iPhone and published four years' worth of purported text messages — roughly 300,000 messages — on the dark web.

In a series of texts reviewed by Business Insider that appear to have been sent by Andrea to her sister, Jessica, in March 2015, Andrea said their father had "no moral or legal compass."

"Don't fool yourself," Andrea wrote to her sister, according to the texts. "That money we have is blood money."

"You know he has killed people in Ukraine? Knowingly," she continued, according to the reviewed texts. "As a tactic to outrage the world and get focus on Ukraine. Remember when there were all those deaths taking place. A while back. About a year ago. Revolts and what not. Do you know whose strategy that was to cause that, to send those people out and get them slaughtered."

In another text to her cousin, who was also her father's business partner, Andrea called Manafort "a sick f---ing tyrant."

A Ukrainian member of parliament accused Manafort of accepting nearly $1 million from the country's pro-Russia Party of Regions, and then laundering it through a company that claims to sell computers. Ukrainian lawyers also want to question Manafort about what role he played, if any, in the 2014 police killings of protesters in Kiev.

Manafort has denied all the allegations against him. He has previously said he has "never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government or the Putin administration."

Manafort's ties to Trump

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Manafort and Trump have been connected since the 1980s when Trump hired Manafort's lobbying firm to help the Trump Organization.

Trump became close with Manafort's business partner at the time, Roger Stone, a self-proclaimed "dirty trickster" who served as an early adviser to Trump's presidential campaign.

In 2006, Manafort and his wife bought a Trump Tower apartment, which Manafort still owns and would resides in when he was in Manhattan.

In March 2016, Trump hired Manafort to manage the Republican National Convention and wrangle delegates into supporting Trump. Manafort had experience convincing delegates to support Gerald Ford in 1976 — the last time the Republican Party began a convention without having selected its presidential nominee.

In May 2016, Manafort was promoted to the position of campaign chairman and chief strategist. He became the campaign's de-facto manager after Trump fired Corey Lewandowski in late June.

The New York Times, citing ledgers uncovered by an anticorruption center in Kiev, reported on August 16, 2016 that $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments from Yanukovych's pro-Russia Party of Regions had been earmarked for Manafort for his work with the party from 2007 to 2012.

Three days later, Manafort resigned from the campaign.

The White House has attempted to distance itself from Manafort. Last year, former White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that Manafort "played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time" in the campaign, despite having spent five months on the campaign and nearly three of those months as the chairman.

Trump also attempted to minimize Manafort's contributions to the campaign last year.

"I know Mr. Manafort — I haven't spoken to him in a long time, but I know him — he was with the campaign, as you know, for a very short period of time — for a relatively short period of time," Trump said.

But in 2016, those close to Trump were quick to attribute the campaign's success to its former chairman.

"We couldn't be more happy with the work that he's doing, the way he's tackling these things, the way he's handling the organization of everything going forward," the president's eldest son Donald Trump Jr. told the AP in July 2016.

In August 2016, former House Speaker and Trump loyalist Newt Gingrich told Fox News host Sean Hannity that "nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to get this campaign to where it is right now."

Some legal experts think that Mueller's intense focus on Manafort is an effort to pressure the former campaign chairman into providing damaging information about those close to Trump, and maybe Trump himself.

The FBI investigation heats up

Paul Manafort with Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller

The Justice Department began looking into Manafort's dealings in Ukraine in 2014. He became the subject of a FISA warrant, which allowed the federal government to surveil him.

But since Mueller was appointed as special counsel to lead the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Manafort has come under intensifying scrutiny.

In early August 2017, the Washington Post reported that the FBI conducted a predawn raid of Manafort's home, seizing tax documents, foreign banking records, and other materials relevant to the special counsel investigation.

The Post reported last year that Manafort offered to provide "private briefings" about the Trump campaign to Deripaska.

"If he needs private briefings we can accommodate," Manafort wrote to his longtime employee Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian-Ukrainian operative with suspected ties to Russian intelligence.

This email came roughly 10 days before Trump campaign representatives lobbied to alter the language of an amendment to the GOP's draft party policy on Ukraine that denounced Russia's "ongoing military aggression" in Ukraine. Many saw the changes as pro-Russian and some believed Manafort played a role in the policy shift.

A tale of 2 trials

paul manfort courtroom sketches trial

Mueller has charged Manafort with over 20 counts of financial and other crimes. Manafort is pleading not guilty to all the charges filed against him, and is appearing in two separate federal trials.

Manafort was first indicted in the District of Columbia in October 2017 on 12 federal charges, including money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent. He was indicted a second time in February on an additional 18 counts of tax evasion and bank fraud in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Manafort's highly contentious first trial in Virginia on the tax and bank fraud charges concluded with the jury convicting Manafort on eight counts total: five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of hiding foreign bank accounts.

The judge declared a mistrial on the other 10 counts after the jury could not come to a consensus. But the result was still devastating for Manafort, who could spend years in prison. He has not been sentenced yet.

"As a legal matter, this is a complete and total defeat for Manafort," wrote former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti on Twitter after the verdict was announced. "He will get the same sentence that he would have received if he was convicted on all 18 counts. The number of counts of conviction doesn't impact federal sentencing."

Manafort's second trial is scheduled to begin September 17 in the District of Columbia.

Natasha Bertrand contributed to a previous version of this story. Sonam Sheth contributed reporting.

SEE ALSO: Rick Gates testifies that he committed crimes with Paul Manafort and embezzled money from him

SEE ALSO: The first week of Paul Manafort's high-stakes criminal trial took off with a bang: Here's everything you need to know

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NOW WATCH: Paul Manafort is at the center of the Trump-Russia investigation — here's what you need to know about him

Here's what happens if you die without a will

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Aretha Franklin

  • What happens if you die without a will?
  • TMZ reported that famed singer Aretha Franklin did not leave a will behind.
  • If you die without a will in the US, the fate of your estate largely varies based on your location and the status of your family.


What happens if you die without a will?

Singer Aretha Franklin reportedly died without leaving behind a will, according to TMZ. The singer's net worth was around $80 million, according to People. Plenty of famous figures like Howard Hughes, Prince, and Pablo Picasso died without wills, Forbes reported.

And a majority of Americans don't currently have a will or a living trust, according to a 2017 Caring.com survey.

Whether or not you're rich and famous, people who die without leaving behind a will are classified as having died "intestate."

What happens to all your stuff and money, at least in the United States, depends on what state you live in. Intestacy laws vary across the United States. Those laws help determine who the government will pick to be your heirs, CNN reported.

Here's what's likely happen to your property if you die without a will:

If you're single without kids

According to the legal website FindLaw, if you're a single, childless individual, your estate will pass on to your parents — or it'll be divided equally among your siblings and half-siblings if your parents are dead.

If you don't have any surviving siblings, nieces, or nephews, the estate will be divided between your paternal and maternal relatives.

If you're single with kids

FindLaw reported that if you're a single parent with children, your estate will typically be divided up equally amongst your kids or, if your children have predeceased you, your grandkids.

If you're married without any kids

According to FindLaw, if you're married and childless, your estate goes to your spouse. One big caveat: most states are common law property states, FindLaw reported. If you leave behind property designated "separate property" — which means that it was an asset acquired before the marriage — that could be split between your spouse, parents, and even your siblings.

If you're married with kids

If all of your children belong to your surviving spouse, your wife or husband will inherit the entirety of your state, according to FindLaw. If you have children from a previous relationship, your estate will be split between them and your surviving spouse.

If you're not married to your partner

If you're not married to your partner and die without leaving behind a will, your partner will likely be left in the lurch when it comes to inheritance.

If you have a domestic partner

Not all states recognize domestic partnerships, according to FindLaw, so whether or not your domestic partner will inherit your estate varies based on your location.

Some property doesn't require a will to pass on

Not all property requires a will to pass on. According to Legal Zoom, life insurance benefits, IRAs, 401Ks, or retirement funds with beneficiaries, most assets "held as payable on death," and assets in a living trust typically pass "without a will and without any intestacy proceedings."

SEE ALSO: Aretha Franklin's voice was 'singing for its life,' and no voice had a greater impact on me than hers

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SEE ALSO: Aretha Franklin was present for some of America's biggest moments — see photos from her incredible life

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