• Prosecutors in Manhattan, New York, are weighing possible criminal charges against the Trump Organization and two unnamed senior officials at the company, The New York Times reported on Thursday night.
• According to the report, the Manhattan District Attorney is looking at what role the organization may have had in the arrangement of payments Michael Cohen made to women who claimed to have had sexual relationships with Donald Trump.
• The investigation would seek to determine how the Trump Organization accounted for the reimbursement it paid Cohen, the report said, noting that the company labeled the reimbursement as payment for legal fees.
• Cohen is Trump's former personal attorney. He pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations and other charges on Tuesday.
• As part of the deal, he testified under oath that he made the payments to bury damaging stories about Trump and preserve his candidacy in the 2016 election.

New York state prosecutors are said to be weighing possible criminal charges against the Trump Organization and two unnamed senior officials at the company, The New York Times reported Thursday night.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office is trying to determine what role the organization may have had in the arrangement of a payment Michael Cohen made to Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress who said she had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump.

According to The Times report, the DA's investigation would try to determine how the Trump Organization accounted for the reimbursement it paid Cohen, who was Trump's personal lawyer at the time he facilitated the $130,000 payment to Daniels in 2016.

The identities of the two senior officials reportedly being targeted in the Manhattan DA's inquiry were not immediately clear. As Business Insider's senior politics reporter Allan Smith wrote this week, observers pointed to Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's chief financial officer, as likely to be one of the two.

The Times report notes that the Manhattan DA's inquiry is still in its early stages, and prosecutors have not yet decided whether they will proceed.

Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations and other charges on Tuesday. As part of the deal, he testified under oath that he made the hush-money payment to keep Daniels quiet about her alleged affair with Trump in order to preserve his candidacy in the 2016 election.

Court documents related to Cohen's plea deal said the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen $420,000 for the payment to Daniels and labeled it as legal fees. The money covered the $130,000 payment to Daniels plus costs and fees, a bonus for Cohen, and money to cover his tax liability.

The Trump Organization paid Cohen in $35,000 installments through 2017, and submitted false invoices for the payments which it said were part of a monthly retainer.

"In truth and in fact, there was no such retainer agreement, and the monthly invoices Cohen submitted were not in connection with any legal services he had provided in 2017," prosecutors in Cohen's case said.

A New York state case against the Trump Organization could add to the president's worries because his pardon power does not apply to businesses or individuals convicted of state crimes.

Trump has already issued several pardons in his first 18 months in office. People in his orbit have publicly discussed a possible pardon for his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who this week was convicted on multiple counts of tax and bank fraud.

SEE ALSO: The Trump Organization could be opened up to further legal exposure after prosecutors highlighted the actions of 2 employees in the Michael Cohen saga

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• CNN host Chris Cuomo and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway traded verbal jabs at each other in a wild 30-minute interview on Thursday night.
• Cuomo opened the interview with a primer on this week's avalanche of news, including court cases involving President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen.
  
• Conway and Cuomo were soon sparring and, at points, talking over each other in a wild 30-minute interview.

CNN host Chris Cuomo and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway traded verbal jabs at each other in a wild 30-minute interview on Thursday night.

The two were set to discuss this week's avalanche of news, but the interview soon went off the rails.

"There's a little difference between you and me and the shop you're working for," Cuomo told Conway at one heated point during the interview.

"The White House?," Conway replied.

"Integrity," Cuomo said.

"How dare you," Conway shot back.

"How dare me?," Cuomo said.

The interview comes after a particularly tough few days for President Donald Trump, whose former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort was convicted by a jury on eight counts of bank and tax fraud, among other charges.

Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple crimes and implicated Trump in two of them.

One of those crimes involved a $130,000 payment Cohen said he made "at the direction" of Trump made just before the 2016 election to keep the porn star Stormy Daniels quiet about a sexual relationship she said she had with Trump.

Cohen's account conflicted with Trump's and the White House's previous statements on the hush-money payment, which led The Washington Post to call the statements a "lie" in its fact-checking analyses.

That fact wasn't lost on Cuomo, who flatly referred to Trump's remarks on the payment "a lie." 

But Conway deflected the accusation and steered Cuomo's interview towards other subjects — talking points that echoed the White House's criticism against media outlets, including CNN.

Some of the following quotes have been slightly edited for clarity.

Allegations of Russian collusion by the Trump campaign:

CONWAY: "Where is that? You've spent so much sweat equity, invested in so many screaming graphics and time, and experts talking about everything from impeachment to collusion."

CUOMO: "You got to ask Mueller, he's not done with his investigation," Cuomo said, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller.

CONWAY: "No, let's be fair. You weren't waiting for Mueller. CNN is not, respectfully, [waiting] for Bob Mueller to finish his investigation. Because you've been talking about collusion and been promising it to your viewers."

CUOMO: "Never, literally not once."

Cuomo went on to describe Conway's portrayal of CNN as "patently untrue."

CUOMO: "We don't promise the audience an outcome. We tell them that you have to respect the process."

CONWAY: "I don't want your viewers to, and I know your viewers expect to be fed anti-Trump virulence every single night. And they come away quite satisfied."

Criticism of CNN's coverage of Trump:

CONWAY: "You know [CNN's] audience doesn't trust the White House. Because all day long, on your network, all they hear is how terrible we all are. That we lack integrity. That we lie."

CONWAY: "Which word do you think has been mentioned more on CNN? Collusion? Fentanyl? Impeachment? What do you think is mentioned more on CNN? Twenty-nine thousand people died last year in this country because ... of Fentanyl."

CUOMO: "It all matters. It all matters."

CONWAY: "Zero died because of impeachment. Zero died because of collusion. Zero died because of the word 'lying.'"

CUOMO: "That's not the bar of presidential behavior. So here's what you're saying — so, if the economy's good, then you can lie whenever you want. You can divide the country any way you want. You can play to racist sympathies whenever you want. But it's o.k. because the stock markets up."

That one tweet:

CONWAY: "Secretary of state Mike Pompeo going back to North Korea again because they're trying to denuclearize ... "

CUOMO: "Was he going there before or after he goes to South Africa to help out those white farmers?"

CONWAY: "Christopher, come on. Be serious."

Cuomo referred to Trump's late-night tweet on Wednesday which said he directed Pompeo to "closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers."

Trump appeared to allude to a conspiracy theory and dog whistle for racist and white nationalists — a conspiracy based on South Africa's post-apartheid land reform which suggests white farmers were being killed. Studies have reportedly shown, however, that the killing of white farmers in South Africa have been at a 20-year low.

On domestic politics:

Conway criticized CNN's coverage of the death of 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts, which coincided with the convictions of Manafort and Cohen on Tuesday. The network did provide coverage on Tibbetts' death and the arrest of her suspected murderer, but dedicated the vast majority of airtime to updates from Cohen's and Manafort's trial.

CNN's coverage on the trials is contrasted by Fox News, which dedicated the majority of their airtime for Tibbetts' death. Fox News has since been accused of downplaying the significance of convicting Trump's former associates, and fueling his warpath against undocumented immigrants.

CONWAY: "There was wall-to-wall coverage about a missing woman in Iowa until she was found, and God rest her soul, and then ..."

CUOMO: "God rest her soul? You're not letting her soul rest. You're waving her like a flag ... 'if you're not with us about immigrants, then you don't care about Mollie Tibbetts.'"

CONWAY: "How dare you. How dare you."

Conway also took a shot at the NFL protests — a non-violent demonstration of players who protest police misconduct and gun violence — which Trump has continued to criticize in numerous campaign speeches.

CONWAY: "Do you do this when they play the national anthem?," Conway asked as she placed her hand over her heart." "Or don't you, yes or no?"

CUOMO: "I do."

CONWAY: "Ok, why?"

CUOMO: "Because it's my damn choice, that's why. Because it's my damn choice. Because I'm an American and I'll exercise my freedom the way I want to if it doesn't hurt anybody else. And that's what they're doing to."

Cuomo later fired back at Conway by referring to a crude comment Trump made in reference to the protestors. At a campaign rally in September, Trump described the protestors as a "son of a bitch," and told them to get off the playing field. 

CUOMO: "You know what's also great? Not calling them sons of bitches. That's also great."

CONWAY: "Who?"

CUOMO: "People of color."

CONWAY: "Oh, stop it, Christopher."

Cuomo vs. Conway

CONWAY: "You were a world class journalist who used to go to plane crash sites and cover war."

CUOMO: "I go now. I was in Helsinki and saw one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen in my life," Cuomo said, referring to the location of Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July.

Following the summit, Trump was criticized for stopping short of condemning Russia's meddling in the 2016 US election and appeared to hold reservations against US intelligence reports that revealed Russia's interference.

CUOMO: "It was really embarrassing."

Amid the back-and-forth, and on at least two occasions, Conway appeared to joke that Cuomo was mansplaining or manterruptting her: "I think it's kind of sexist the way you're conducting this interview ... What is it about powerful, articulate women on TV that bother you as guests?"

CUOMO: "I gave you more time than anyone else would."

CONWAY: "No, you gave yourself a lot of time because you talked pretty much the entire time."

CUOMO: "I don't think that's true, I'll give you a word count at the end."

CONWAY: "Well, the guest should have many more words. You know that."

CUOMO: "No, I don't."

SEE ALSO: Things got ugly when a Republican strategist accused a former CIA analyst of earning 'more money' with his security clearance

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

• Fox News commentator Neil Cavuto criticized President Donald Trump's recent remarks on impeachment and the economy on Thursday.
• Trump previously suggested that America's economy would take a catastrophic hit if he were to be impeached.
• Cavuto rebuked Trump for attempting tie the fate of the country's financial well-being to growing constitutional crisis surrounding his presidency.
• "I know you'll call this fake, but the implications of what you're doing, Mr. President, are very real," Cavuto said.

Fox News commentator Neil Cavuto criticized President Donald Trump's recent remarks on impeachment and the economy, and chastised him over his rhetoric of late.

During an interview with "Fox and Friends" co-host Ainsley Earhardt on Wednesday, Trump suggested that America's economy would take a catastrophic hit if he were to be impeached.

"If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash," Trump said. "I think everybody would be very poor. Because without this thinking you would see — you would see numbers that you wouldn't believe in reverse."

"I don't know how you can impeach somebody who's done a great job," Trump said.

Cavuto challenged Trump's assertions.

"That is quite a threat, and it might even happen," Cavuto said.

"All I'm saying is you don't prevent a constitutional crisis by threatening a financial one," Cavuto added. "But Mr. President, you guarantee both when your very actions and words create that crisis, or make people think that you're hiding one."

Cavuto listed several scandals that have plagued the White House, several of which came to head this week. Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime personal attorney signed on to a plea deal in which he implicated Trump in a federal crime. And Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, was convicted on multiple counts of tax and bank fraud.

Cavuto hammered Trump on his and his administration's past claims about a $130,000 payment Cohen made to the porn star Stormy Daniels.

"Like when you say that you knew nothing about payments to a stripper and a former Playboy model until you did," Cavuto said, "then explained your former lawyer Michael Cohen made those decisions until we heard on tape that you did."

"But you see, that is the problem here," Cavuto said. "We can't move on. Lots of stuff like that just keeps popping up here. Getting added here, getting re-explained here."

Cavuto suggested that scandals surrounding Trump's presidency are overshadowing any glimmer of good news. On Tuesday, for example, the S&P 500 hit record highs for the first time since January, despite ongoing trade wars between the US and other countries, and higher interest rates.

"None of these make the market any less impressive," Cavuto said, referring to Trump's statements. "Maybe just the guy overseeing it all. Mr. President, you're that guy."

"You're right to be frustrated, but you are part of what's frustrating," Cavuto added. "It's not about stepping on your message, it's about constantly changing it."

"I know you'll call this fake, but the implications of what you're doing, Mr. President, are very real," Cavuto said. "You are so darned focused on promoting a financial boom, that you've failed to see that you are the one creating this moral bust. And we could all be the poorer for it."

SEE ALSO: Manafort and Cohen dominate the front pages of major newspapers after Trump's nightmare Tuesday

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

Denmark has overtaken Sweden as the best country in the world to live in for women, according to a 2018 ranking from US News & World Report.

Ahead of International Women's Day in March, the media organisation surveyed more than 9,000 women as part of its wider Best Countries ranking in order to determine which of 80 countries around the globe are the best for women to live in.

The full 2018 Best Countries List surveyed 21,000 business leaders, informed elites, and general citizens to discover how 80 countries are perceived on a global scale for a range of criteria, from economic influence to citizenship and quality of life.

The Best Countries for women were given a score out 10 on these five attributes: Human rights, gender quality, income equality, progress, and safety.

Scroll down to see the 21 best countries in the world to live in if you're a woman, ranked in ascending order.

21. Poland. This right-leaning country is slightly lacking across all scores, with just 0.8 for income equality and 2.5 for progression, but its average scores of 5.3 for gender equality and 5.3 for human rights gave it a spot on this list.

20. Portugal. This Western European nation has struggled financially, and income equality remains low (1.3). However, it's relatively safe (7.3), with an above average score on human rights (6.2).

19. Italy. The home of art, wine, and good food had mediocre scores for gender equality (5.8), progression (4.20), and human rights (6.2), but female unemployment is still a huge concern.

• Germany luxury brand Buben & Zorweg makes safes for the ultra-rich.
• The company's bespoke-made safes can cost over $386,000 and can be customized extensively to the client's specification.
• The company estimates that their average customer has around $4 million in disposable income.
• Head of design Eberhard Hagmann recalled making a safe for a customer who wished to safeguard an antique worth $40 million.

When you own inanimate objects worth as much as several houses, no cost is too great for the safe in which you store those objects securely.

Peace of mind, as they say, is priceless.

If you did want to put a price on it, though, German luxury brand Buben & Zorweg would like it to be $263,800 for their Solitaire Vision model.

For that princely sum, clients receive a safe hand-crafted in Germany, protected by 16mm-thick bulletproof spy glass, housing 46 watch-holders, a humidor and, of course, a Bluetooth-enabled HiFi speaker system.

If you really wanted to push the boat out, you could opt for the Treasury — Buben & Zorweg's most expensive base model — which starts at $386,000 in the US.

The 600 kg (1,323 lb) Goliath is adorned with Italian nappa leather and features a giant flying minute tourbillon clock right in the middle.

If you thought that Buben & Zorweg's safes were just for show, though, think again — all their safes are VdS-certified (the highest mark of quality available).

So, who buys them?

Unsurprisingly, it's rich people — the company estimated that their average customer has around $4 million in disposable income.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Eberhard Hagmann, head of design, said: "More and more, they want a good design, so when you see this object, you don't know if it's a safe or not.

"It's furniture."

Apparently, clients come to the company with photos of their homes so that the safes can match their decor, and the level of customisation available is infinite.

"Everything is possible at Buben & Zorweg," the company's head of international marketing, Michael Arnsteiner, told Business Insider.

He says the company also builds bespoke safe rooms for clients, which start at €400,000 ($463,000).

Hagmann recalled once designing a safe to match the interior of his client's Aston Martin One-77.

As far as what customers put in these safes, which alone are worth more than the average person's most prized possessions, Hagmann says it varies, from guns to a Jimi Hendrix guitar. The designer once made a safe to hold one antique for a client worth $40 million.

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

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• A video shows Chinese riot police bursting into an apartment in southern China to stop student activists from protesting the next day.
• The students had traveled from across the country to support workers fired and arrested for trying to organize a labor union, Reuters reported.
• They had been staying in an apartment in Huizhou to organize their efforts, the news agency said.
• They have not been seen since the police stormed the apartment, according to other activists following the case.
• The Chinese Communist Party opposes labor activism, unions, and grassroots protests.
• Authorities had reportedly also been asking the students' parents and universities to dissuade them from protesting.

Around forty student activists have gone missing after riot police stormed an apartment to stop them from staging a protest, other Chinese activists said on Friday.

The students had been staying in Huizhou, southern China, to support a widespread protest in solidarity with factory workers seeking to form a labor union, Reuters reported.

Video footage posted on Friday showed riot police, wearing helmets and carrying shields, burst into the apartment and scuffle with the students, who can be heard shouting.

Reuters said it couldn't independently verify the video, but other labor activists in China haveconfirmed it on Twitter.

Watch it below:

The episode, which took place around 5 a.m. local time on Friday, ended with the police arresting everybody in the flat, according to a statement tweeted on Friday by an activist group dedicated to those students.

It's not clear what has happened to the people in the video. Reuters said that neither local police nor five activists who had been staying at the apartment answered their calls. Other labor activists following the case also said they hadn't been able to contact the students.

The missing students had been demonstrating in support of workers at Jasic Technology, a welding machinery company in Shenzhen. The workers had been fired and arrested for their attempts to form a labor union. At least 30 of Jasic's workers were detained for their efforts, the Financial Times reported earlier this month.

Students across China's universities also started publishing online petitions in support of the workers, the FT said. Many of them saw their petitions censored and their email addresses suspended.

The video below shows students protesting in solidarity with the workers while holding images of Mao Zedong in Beijing. One of them accused the Chinese state of locking up the workers "because they are scared."

China's efforts to clamp down on these protests

The Chinese Communist Party opposes labor activism and independent unions. It also disapproves of grassroots protests, as they are seen to undermine the party and disrupt the country's stability.

The state had been trying hard to clamp down on the students' protests for days, Reuters reported.

Authorities flew many of the activists' parents to Guangdong, a city near Huizhou and Shenzhen, housed them in hotels, and gave "training sessions" on how to raise their children, Reuters reported, citing some of the students.

The sessions included lecturing the parents on what to text their children, and arranging for the parents to show up at various places where their children were, such as the Huizhou apartment and shopping streets, Reuters said.

The Ministry of Education also told the students' universities to tell the students not to stage the protests, the news agency said, citing the students.

The universities sent texts to the students citing reasons such as an impending typhoon and the risk of being recruited into a pyramid scheme as reasons why they shouldn't go. The ministry did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

SEE ALSO: Barging into your home, threatening your family, or making you disappear: Here's what China does to people who speak out against them

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NOW WATCH: A North Korean defector's harrowing story of escape

• San Francisco is establishing a new "poop patrol" to clean up its feces-strewn streets.
• The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the members of the patrol will make over $70,000 a year.
• According to PayScale, the average annual salary in San Francisco is $85,889.

San Francisco is establishing a "poop patrol" in order to combat the rising tide of human feces flooding its streets, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The San Francisco Chronicle also reported that members of the patrol will make an annual base salary of $71,760 — $184,678 if you include mandated benefits. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage of a refuse and recyclable material collector was $36,160 in 2017.

The New York Post reported that a team of six employees from the city's public works department will be equipped with steam cleaners. They will start full-time in September, and will focus on the city's Tenderloin district.

The influx of poop on San Francisco's sidewalks has been a major source of concern within the city. The wave of waste can be attributed to the city's increasingly visible homelessness crisis — itself a symptom of the soaring cost of living in the Bay Area and a lack of accessible resources for the city's most vulnerable population.

And, speaking of the cost of living, while the poop patrol's pay might be on the high side for the industry, an income of around $70,000 a year isn't enough to afford a median-priced home in most Bay Area counties, Business Insider reported.

In San Francisco, PayScale reported that the average annual salary is $85,889. Software engineers in San Francisco earn an average salary of $111,744, marketing managers take home $111,744, and executive assistants make $69,405.

SEE ALSO: San Francisco's sidewalks are covered with human feces, so the city is launching a 'Poop Patrol' to deal with its No. 2 problem

DON'T MISS: San Francisco's homelessness crisis is so dire, there's now a 911 alternative to get people on the street instant help — here's how it works

SEE ALSO: An anonymous San Franciscan bought a full page newspaper ad claiming residents need to 'watch your backs' because the city can't do anything about the homelessness crisis

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NOW WATCH: One man is trying to end homelessness in Los Angeles by building tiny houses

• The possibility of President Donald Trump's impeachment is center stage after his former longtime lawyer took a plea deal and his former campaign manager was convicted on several felony counts this week.
• One group avoiding the topic? Democrats.

President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to eight counts of federal felonies on Tuesday — including two in which he implicated his old boss as a co-conspirator.

Meanwhile, Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted on eight counts of federal felonies that same day in a courtroom roughly 200 miles away in Virginia.

The two instances, particularly Cohen's and his admissions under oath that Trump "directed" him to violate campaign-finance law, have caused an uproar about the possibility of the president's eventual impeachment.

And that uproar has been particularly loud on the right.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told The Guardian that both the Cohen plea deal and Manafort ruling would have implications for the November midterms, saying they will now be "an up or down vote on the impeachment of the president." 

Michael Caputo, a former Trump adviser, told Politico that the Cohen deal specifically was "worrisome" and "probably the worst thing so far in this whole investigation stage of the presidency." 

Trump himself has opined on this possibility, telling Fox News he doesn't "know you can impeach somebody who's done a great job."

"If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash," he added. "I think everybody would be very poor. Because without this thinking [points to head] you would see, you would see numbers that you wouldn't believe in reverse."

A group people haven't heard discuss impeachment much this week is Democrats.

They've sought to put focus elsewhere in the aftermath of a whirlwind Tuesday.

Democratic House and Senate aides who spoke with Business Insider and requested anonymity to candidly explain Democratic thought on the matter without speaking directly for their bosses said any discussion of impeachment is still far off, even after the Cohen and Manafort episode. Instead, they pointed to what they said were the "shorter-term impacts," such as the House or Senate Judiciary Committees holding hearings and using the convictions as further rationale to delay a confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's Supreme Court nominee.

One Democratic Senate aide said Cohen's plea deal and Manafort's guilty verdict don't change any calculations for the time being, but do set the stage for possible actions after special counsel Robert Mueller's report is released.

"There's nothing the White House and Republican strategists want more than for the midterms to become a referendum on impeachment," they said. "They want to be able to say the legitimate legal problems facings Cohen and many Trump associates are motivated by politics instead of their misdeeds. The smart thing to do is to let the investigation play out — and do everything we can to protect its independence — and then make a determination based on Mueller's report and any charges they recommend."

Trump's attorneys have said Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, plans to stick to the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel guidelines that stipulate a sitting president cannot be indicted. Mueller's office has not independently confirmed that, The Associated Press noted. And in the aftermath of Cohen's plea deal, there was no indication that the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York would pursue criminal charges against the president.

'The Cohen guilty plea changes everything, but what comes of it depends entirely on the midterms'

The DOJ guidelines have led many, including Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, to believe that the only recourse available should Trump be found to have committed any crimes is impeachment. Impeachment proceedings would have to begin with House Judiciary Committee hearings, which would then be followed by a vote to move articles of impeachment before the full House.

Of course, the possibility of that happening is almost entirely dependent on whether Democrats regain control of Congress following the November midterms.

"The Cohen guilty plea changes everything, but what comes of it depends entirely on the midterms," A Democratic House aide told Business Insider. "The Republican-led Congress has spent two years studiously ignoring the growing bonfire of legal problems and outright criminality around Trump, so it's hard to see anything changing if they retain control of both chambers. For there to be any accountability for the Unindicted Co-Conspirator In Chief, voters have to remove the rubber stamp faction from power in Congress."

The aide added that Democrats "also have a lot of questions about the parts of the investigation which are still unknown," such as what additional information Cohen will provide, the upcoming Manafort trial in Washington, DC, and other information yet to come from Mueller's investigation.

With the midterm elections still months away, leading Democrats have hesitated to mention impeachment.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said impeaching Trump was "not a priority" for Democrats after the Manafort conviction and Cohen guilty plea, telling the Associated Press "impeachment has to spring from something else."

"If and when the information emerges about that, we'll see," she added. "It's not a priority on the agenda going forward unless something else comes forward."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has zeroed in on the Kavanaugh nomination as his target in Tuesday's aftermath.

In a floor speech on Thursday, Schumer said the "recent legal developments for Mr. Manafort and Mr. Cohen shed an entirely different light on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court."

"It is conceivable that, down the road, the Supreme Court could be faced with a decision as to whether a sitting president can be subpoenaed or indicted, something the court has not yet ruled on," he continued.

Other leading Democrats who sit on some of Congress' most prominent investigatory committees have called for further probing as part of the fallout, but did not go as far as discussing impeachment.

"These are extremely serious crimes that implicate the fundamental underpinnings of our democracy, and they warrant robust and credible oversight by Congress as an independent Constitutional check on the Executive Branch," Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said of Cohen's guilty plea in a request to House Oversight chairman Trey Gowdy. "Given the gravity of these revelations, I request that you schedule a hearing as soon as possible before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to obtain sworn testimony directly from Mr. Cohen."

Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, called on his counterpart, House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, to hold "immediate hearings on President Trump's persistent, venomous attacks on the Department of Justice and the FBI," following Trump's comments on Cohen and Manafort.

"It is clear that the President hopes to hedge against the investigation by undermining the investigators," Nadler said. "Yesterday's guilty plea by the President's longtime personal attorney adds further concerns regarding ongoing efforts by President Trump to undermine or impede the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. What is less clear, however, is how these vital institutions that President Trump and House Republicans consistently attack will weather the storm of this selfish, and possibly illegal, strategy."

SEE ALSO: Trump appears to have a misunderstanding of campaign finance law, and may have inadvertently admitted to breaking the law as a result

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NOW WATCH: A North Korean defector's harrowing story of escape

• Sixty CEOs have sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen denouncing policy changes they say are harming their companies' immigrant workers.
• The executives named several recent changes that make it more challenging for highly skilled foreign workers to renew or apply for visas, or obtain green cards.
• The letter said that ultimately these changes will make life more difficult for their immigrant employees, and likely force them to take their talents elsewhere.

Dozens of prominent CEOs have sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen denouncing several recent changes to immigration policies that they say have stoked fear among their employees and could ultimately harm US businesses.

The letter named 60 executives — including Apple's Tim Cook, JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, Salesforce's Marc Benioff, PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi, BlackRock's Larry Fink, and IBM's Ginni Rometty — and warned the Trump administration that its policies will prompt highly skilled immigrants to take their talents elsewhere.

"As the federal government undertakes its legitimate review of immigration rules, it must avoid making changes that disrupt the lives of thousands of law-abiding and skilled employees, and that inflict substantial harm on US competitiveness," the letter read.

Over the last year and a half, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, agency has implemented a host of changes to the country's legal immigration system that, in many cases, make it more difficult to apply for or renew work visas, or obtain a green card.

The CEOs pointed to several key changes they said were negatively affecting thousands of employees:

• Inconsistency from immigration officers in vetting visa applications from workers who have had previous visas approved. "Now, any adjudicator can disagree with multiple prior approvals without explanation," the CEOs wrote.
• Allowing immigration officers to immediately deny visa applications without first notifying the companies and applicants and without asking for potentially missing information to be submitted. "Companies now do not know whether a work visa petition that was approved last month will be approved when the company submits the identical application to extend the employee's status," the letter said.
• The looming elimination of H-4 visas, which are currently used by the spouses of skilled immigrant workers. "These spouses are often highly skilled in their own rights and have built careers and lives around their ability to contribute to companies here," the letter said.
• Deporting immigrants whose visa renewal or green card applications are denied while they're living in the US. The CEOs said many of their employees fear being deported "even if they have complied with immigration laws and intend to promptly depart the country."

'Now is not the time to restrict access to talent'

The CEOs noted that many of the employees affected by these changes have not only worked in the US for years and followed US immigration laws, but they possess valuable skills that cannot easily be found among American workers.

"At a time when the number of job vacancies are reaching historic highs due to labor shortages, now is not the time restrict access to talent," the letter said.

USCIS has defended many of the policy changes by arguing they "protect the interests of United States workers" or "discourage frivolous or substantially incomplete" applications.

But the agency has come under fire previously for what some perceived as hostility towards legal immigrants. USCIS Director Lee Francis Cissna stoked controversy in February when he dropped the term "nation of immigrants" from the agency's mission statement.

"Who does the agency serve? I think there's been a misunderstanding of that one the years," Cissna said last week. "People kind of naturally fall into the belief that the individuals that we serve are the people that we interact with every day when we take applications or petitions. I don't think that we serve them. We serve the people."

SEE ALSO: Trump and his allies are seizing on Mollie Tibbetts' murder to crack down on illegal immigration, but data show native-born Americans commit way more violent crimes

DON'T MISS: Government agencies allegedly teamed up to 'trap' and arrest immigrants when they arrived at their immigration interviews

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• Arizona Sen. John McCain's family announced Friday that he would stop receiving medical treatment for his brain cancer.
• McCain was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, last summer. 

Arizona Sen. John McCain's family announced Friday that he would stop receiving medical treatment for his brain cancer.

"Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: he had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious," McCain's family said in a statement. "In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict.

"With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment. Our family is immensely grateful for the support and kindness of all his caregivers over the last year, and for the continuing outpouring of concern and affection from John's many friends and associates, and the many thousands of people who are keeping him in their prayers. God bless and thank you all."

McCain, 81, a six-term senator and former Republican presidential candidate, has been absent from the Senate during much of his treatment over the past year.

In his new memoir, "The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations," McCain revealed how he found out he had brain cancer.

He said he was scheduled for a regular physical in July 2017 at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, but the brain scan he underwent discovered something, and he was in surgery several hours later.

During the procedure, a minimally invasive craniotomy with an eyebrow incision, a 2-inch blood clot was removed, McCain said.

But a few days later, doctors found that the blood clot was a primary brain tumor. McCain said he did not fully understand the diagnosis until someone brought up Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, who died in 2009.

"I knew it was serious from the sober demeanor of the medical professionals in the room, and when someone, I don't remember who, mentioned that it was the same cancer that Ted had, I got the picture," McCain wrote.

While the procedure had removed the tumor, McCain was told that his form of brain cancer could spread across his body.

SEE ALSO: John McCain explains how to get a bill passed, and it's excellent advice on persistence in any job

DON'T MISS: A look at the life and fortune of John McCain, who has a sprawling real estate portfolio and donated $1.7 million in book sales to charity

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• Venezuela is suffering from currency inflation, power cuts, and food shortages.
• As a result, several Venezuelan women are taking up sex work in neighboring Colombia, a Sky News investigation found.
• The investigation, broadcast Friday, found that nearly all the workers in a brothel in a Colombian city near the border were Venezuelans.
• Women who spoke to Sky News said they had no other way of feeding their families as Venezuela's currency is so weak and supplies are so short. 

Several Venezuelan women are taking up sex work in neighboring Colombia because the economic crisis in their country has made it impossible to make a living, a new investigation by Sky News found.

Cúcuta, a Colombian city near the border with Venezuela, is seeing an influx of Venezuelan women who are working in brothels to get by, the Sky News report says.

These women — and many others — have been forced out of Venezuela as the country is in economic ruin, experiencing hyperinflation, severe power cuts, and food and medicine shortages.

Sky News found that out of 60 women in a Cúcuta brothel, two were Colombians, while the rest were Venezuelans. The reporter, Alex Crawford, said one woman charged as little as $33 per client.

"Anything would be better," one woman said. "I do this because I have to do this."

Another woman told Crawford it was the only way she could get money to feed her family.

The women have left Venezuela temporarily and have no formal immigration documents, meaning they can't legally get employment, Sky News said.

Venezuela's economy has been in a tailspin for months, prompting drastic measures from the government. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro lopped five zeros from the bolívar on Monday in an attempt to halt rampant hyperinflation that has pushed a packet of rice to 2.5 million bolívars.

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NOW WATCH: Cigna's CEO says that the problem with healthcare in America has nothing to do with employers

• Giraffe parts are being imported into the US "to be made into expensive pillows, boots, knife handles, bible covers and other trinkets," according to a New York Times report.
• The sale of giraffe parts is completely legal in the US.
• That's despite the fact that giraffe populations are currently on the decline, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation.

Giraffe parts are streaming into the US, where they're used to make everything from fancy boots to bible covers, according to a report from The New York Times.

And the imports aren't part of some illicit trade: The sale of giraffe parts is legal in the US.

According to the report, a Humane Society of the United States investigator found "bible covers selling for $400 and equally expensive boots" made from giraffe parts on the market.

The New York Times also reported that the Humane Society of the United States found that the US was flooded with over 40,000 giraffe parts from 2006 to 2015. The parts were fashioned into "expensive pillows, boots, knife handles, bible covers and other trinkets," according to the report.

For some of these products, it isn't "even evident that the source is a giraffe," as the animal's hide had been scraped of its identifiable fur, according to the New York Times.

Meanwhile, giraffe populations have taken a downturn in the wild, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. Three giraffe subspecies are listed as endangered or vulnerable, and, according to the foundation, "in some areas traditionally regarded as prime giraffe real estate, numbers have dropped by more than 95%."

But giraffes aren't the only big game animals that have been the subject of controversy lately.

The Trump administration's stance on big-game hunting has caused consternation among conservationists.

The Trump administration has lifted certain bans on animal trophies, causing a spike in imported elephant and lion parts, according to The New York Times.

The Guardian reported that, while Donald Trump has criticized trophy hunting, the advisory board he set up — the International Wildlife Conservation Council — mostly consists of hunting advocates. A company linked to Trump's adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric also owns a massive hunting preserve in upstate New York.

SEE ALSO: Conservationists say giraffes are at risk of 'silent extinction'

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SEE ALSO: Eric and Donald Trump, Jr. own a massive private hunting preserve in upstate New York — and neighbors say it sounds like a 'war zone'

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NOW WATCH: A luxury lodge in Kenya lets you hang out with giraffes all day

• Silicon Valley residents live a completely different lifestyle than people in many parts of the US do.
• In Silicon Valley, it's not unheard of to commute 10 hours to work, order a car that hasn't even been designed yet, or pay $1 million for a condo in a sinking skyscraper.
• Here are 10 crazy things Silicon Valley thinks are normal — but aren't.

Those living in or near Silicon Valley may sometimes feel as if they live on a different planet than most other parts of the US.

In Silicon Valley, it's not atypical for people to work 80-hour weeks, accept payment via bitcoin, or travel everywhere by electric scooter. According to the San Francisco Business Times, commuters may live a 10-hour drive from their workplace or live in their employer's parking lots in an effort to avoid the surging real-estate prices of the Bay Area.

As it has become a global hub for some of the world's largest tech companies, Silicon Valley has transformed drastically, often shocking the residents who were there before the tech boom.

Here are 10 things that Silicon Valley residents do that may seem weird to everyone else:

SEE ALSO: I've lived in the Bay Area for 30 years, and I'm convinced that tech companies have ruined it

1. Paying $1 million for a condo that's sinking

Prices for condos have gone down over the past few years in the Millennium Tower in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood, as Business Insider previously reported. That's because the 58-story building started to sink shortly after it was built and will continue to do so.

If you don't mind velcroing your furniture to the floor, you can buy a two-bedroom condo for a mere $1.2 million — slightly below the median sale price for San Francisco of $1.35 million, reported by Trulia, and well below the initial list prices for many of the units.

That old joke about swampland for sale is dead serious in the Bay Area's beyond-tight housing market.

2. Living in an RV in your employer's parking lot

The average salary for a software engineer in the San Francisco area is about $124,000, according to Glassdoor. People making that much would still have to spend about half their after-tax income to rent a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco, where the median rent is almost $3,700, according to Zillow.

Some tech workers have found a cheap solution: Forget getting an apartment entirely and simply move in to a converted van in the parking lot at work.

There have been many accounts over the past few years about tech employees setting up shop in vans outside their places of work, as Business Insider previously reported. A whole community of RV-dwellers lived outside Google's headquarters, leveraging the company's amenities to make life in the parking lot work.

3. Living in a shipping container

For Silicon Valley workers who don't want to call their car home, there's another low-cost option: Move in to a shipping container.

Offices and homes made from shipping containers have begun to pop up in Oakland (which has lots of empty containers, thanks to the Port of Oakland). An offshoot of the tiny-home movement, a shipping container provides four walls, a roof and a floor, ready to be built out – if you can find a spot of land to put it on.

• Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was granted immunity by federal prosecutors, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
• That means two of the men closest to President Donald Trump's hush-money efforts were granted immunity by federal prosecutors.
• The other is David Pecker, the CEO of American Media Inc. 

The man who for years managed President Donald Trump's books at the Trump Organization was granted immunity by Manhattan federal prosecutors in exchange for information about Michael Cohen, the president's former longtime lawyer, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

It means that now two of the men closest to hush-money payments to two women have received immunity in the investigation: Allen Weisselberg, the CFO of the Trump Organization, and David Pecker, the CEO of American Media Inc.

Cohen has pleaded guilty to breaking the law by helping coordinate the payments for what he says was the benefit of Trump's presidential campaign.

Weisselberg was summoned earlier this year to testify before a grand jury in the Cohen investigation, The Journal previously reported. It was not immediately clear what he told prosecutors about the payments.

"This is huge," said Neal Katyal, the acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama.

"I wonder if that is why there was no coop agreement w Michael Cohen," Katyal added. "May be that, due to Weisselberg coop," the Southern District of New York "doesn't need one."

The two payments under scrutiny included the purchase of the rights to the former Playboy model Karen McDougal's story of an affair with Trump by American Media Inc., which owns the National Enquirer and whose head, Pecker, is a longtime friend of Trump. AMI bought the rights to the story for $150,000 in August 2016 but never published it — that practice is known as "catch and kill."

The second was the $130,000 hush-money payment Cohen facilitated days before the 2016 presidential election to the porn actress Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, to keep her quiet about her allegation of a 2006 affair with Trump, which he has denied.

In an information filed by prosecutors on Tuesday, when Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court to eight counts of federal felonies, including two counts related to campaign-finance violations, they laid out how executives at Trump's business helped reimburse Cohen for "election-related expenses." The court filing says Cohen submitted an invoice in January 2017 requesting $180,000, which included $130,000 for the payment he facilitated to Daniels and $50,000 for "tech services."

The Trump Organization officials listed in the filings inflated that total to $420,000, prosecutors said, which would be paid to Cohen in installments of $35,000 for a monthly retainer fee throughout 2017.

The company accounted for those monthly payments as legal expenses, the court filing says.

"In truth and in fact, there was no such retainer agreement, and the monthly invoices Cohen submitted were not in connection with any legal services he had provided in 2017," prosecutors wrote.

Though the two executives in the document were not named, many experts and observers pointed to Weisselberg as most likely one of the two.

Last month, Weisselberg found himself dragged into the Cohen saga after Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis released audio of a conversation between Cohen and Trump in September 2016. In the recording, which Cohen apparently made without Trump's knowledge, the two men discussed buying the rights to McDougal's story.

Cohen mentioned Weisselberg at a couple of key points during the recording, which the FBI seized in its April raids of Cohen's home, office, and hotel room as part of the investigation.

On Thursday night, The New York Times reported that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, unconnected to the federal prosecutors investigating the payments, were weighing possible criminal charges against the Trump Organization and those two unnamed senior officials. It's unclear whether Weisselberg's immunity would apply to the state-level investigation.

The Weisselberg news comes a day after The Journal reported that Pecker too had received immunity with the same prosecutors. It was later revealed that Pecker kept a safe full of documents related to the stories he killed on behalf of Trump.

SEE ALSO: Democrats are still incredibly cautious about discussing Trump's impeachment even after 2 of his top aides have been convicted

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How much are networks shelling out to bring Hollywood stars to TV?

In this age of proliferated programming, marquee names have become essential to bring sizable audiences to shows. And the competition among networks and producers has driven industry salaries to new heights.

At its height, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman reportedly negotiated $1 million salaries for the upcoming second season of HBO's Emmy-winning drama, "Big Little Lies."

And Jim Parsons of CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" made headlines this week for walking away from a reported two-year, $50 million paycheck for two more seasons of the sitcom, which CBS has subsequently decided to end in 2019. 

Here's how much the highest-paid stars on TV are earning per-episode:

Note: Some salaries may include producing fees.

Jethro Nededog contributed to a previous version of this story.

SEE ALSO: Jim Gaffigan on turning down Netflix to make his latest stand-up special 'available to everyone,' and exploring cathartic material about his wife's brain surgery

$1,000,000 — Nicole Kidman, "Big Little Lies" (HBO)

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

$1,000,000 — Reese Witherspoon, "Big Little Lies" (HBO)

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

$1,000,000 — Jim Parsons, "The Big Bang Theory" (CBS)

Source: Variety

• Sony Music has denied a report that said the company conceded in court that it had released three fake Michael Jackson songs on the singer's first posthumous album in 2010. 
• The controversy stemmed from a 2014 civil lawsuit brought by a fan, who accused Jackson's friend Eddie Cascio of creating and selling songs through Sony and the Jackson estate that the fan contended were sung by a Jackson impersonator.

Sony Music Entertainment has denied a report that it conceded in court that it released three fake Michael Jackson songs on the singer's first posthumous album, "Michael," in 2010. 

On Friday, a number of outlets cited the rap blog Hip-Hop N More to erroneously report that Sony admitted in a California appeals court that the three songs on the album, "Monster," "Keep Your Head Up," and "Breaking News," were recorded by a Jackson impersonator. 

"No one has conceded that Michael Jackson did not sing on the songs," Sony Music said in a statement to Variety.  "The hearing Tuesday was about whether the First Amendment protects Sony Music and the Estate and there has been no ruling on the issue of whose voice is on the recordings."

The hearing in question stemmed from a 2014 civil lawsuit brought by a fan named Vera Serova, who accused Jackson's longtime friend Eddie Cascio and his production company, Angelikson Productions LLC, of creating and selling fake music through Sony and the Jackson estate. 

Serova argued in 2014 the Los Angeles Superior Court that the songs were fake and performed by an impersonator named Jason Malachi, according to court documents obtained by several outlets. 

Hip-Hop N More cited tweets that claimed Sony had "conceded that the songs were fakes" earlier in court this week. 

Variety reported the following on Friday:

"According to sources close to the situation, individuals who attended Tuesday’s court hearing seized upon a statement by an attorney for Jackson’s estate in which he said something to the effect of 'even if the vocals weren’t Jackson’s' as proof that they were indeed faked. The sources insist that the attorney was speculating.”

Sony Music has not responded to a request for further comment from Business Insider.

Listen to the three songs on the album "Michael" below:

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

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• Natali Tene, 28, claims Mario Batali forcibly kissed her and groped her in a Boston restaurant in 2017. 
• In a lawsuit against the celebrity chef she claims Batali groped her as she tried to take a selfie with him. 
• The suit filed Wednesday in Superior Court in Boston seeks unspecified damages for "severe emotional distress" including anxiety and self-doubt.
• Several other women have previously come forward to allege sexual misconduct by Batali.

A Massachusetts woman claims that Mario Batali forcibly kissed her and groped her in a Boston restaurant in 2017, according to a lawsuit she filed against the celebrity chef. 

The suit alleges that Natali Tene, 28, spotted Batali at Towne Stove and Spirits in April 2017 and tried to take a photo, the Boston Herald reported.

The suit says Batali invited her to take a selfie with him then, without asking for permission, repeatedly kissed her face, rubbed her breasts, grabbed her buttocks and put his hands between her legs.

The suit filed Wednesday in Superior Court in Boston seeks unspecified damages for "severe emotional distress" including anxiety and self-doubt.

"Batali sexually assaulted our client in open view and without hesitation," Tene's lawyers said in a statement to the Herald. "He has shown no remorse. His actions cannot go unanswered."

The statement continued, according to Boston.com: "Nobody should ever be subjected to this type of conduct. As a fan of Mario Batali, all she wanted to do was innocently take a picture with him. Without warning, he then sexually assaulted her. Mario Batali’s actions were humiliating and degrading."

Neither Batali nor his representatives immediately responded to emails for comment sent to his website and production company on Friday.

Several other women have previously come forward to allege sexual misconduct by Batali.

Two women have claimed Batali sexually assaulted them in two of his Manhattan restaurants, the Spotted Pig and Babbo.

The New York Police Department is still determining whether or not it will charge Batali over the claims, Deadline reported.

In New Orleans, two women have accused him of inappropriate touching.

Batali stepped away from the day-to-day operations of his restaurants in December 2017 after several sexual misconduct allegations from former employees surfaced.

He said he was "deeply sorry for any pain, humiliation or discomfort" he caused.

Join the conversation about this story »

• The Wall Street Journal collected data from 445 prominent universities to track where alums move after graduation.
• Business Insider looked at where Ivy League graduates move after earning their degrees and for the most part, they all move to the same places.
• New York City was the No. 1 destination for graduates of all but two Ivy League schools.

What you study in college may not always determine what career you have, but the school you attend seems to impact where you live after graduating. 

The Wall Street Journal collected data from 445 prominent research, NCAA Division I, and liberal arts universities outlining where alums live after graduation and ranked the top four destinations for alumni of each college. 

Business Insider looked at where Ivy League graduates move after earning their degrees and for the most part, they all move to the same places. Among the eight Ivy League schools, New York City, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Boston are the most popular.

New York City was the No. 1 destination for graduates of all but two Ivy League schools, with at least 17% of alumni moving there, or in the case of New York's Columbia University, staying there after graduation.

New York City is a popular destination for Ivy Leaguers who graduated from schools lining the East Coast. New York City is more affordable than you think with loads of free entertainment and big businesses, Business Insider previously reported.

Meanwhile, about one-fifth of grads of Harvard University prefer Boston and one-fourth of University of Pennsylvania grads stay in Philadelphia.

Below, check out the top cities for graduates of Ivy League schools:

SEE ALSO: The cost difference between living on- and off-campus in the 48 biggest college towns in America, ranked

DON'T MISS: We asked 17 people on the street in New York City how much money it takes to be rich, and almost all of them said the same thing

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• Dating service Elite Connections charges $15,000 for a six-month membership.
• Claudia Duran is a Miami-based matchmaker with Elite Connections. She told us about the perks of membership.
• For example, you get feedback on what your dates thought of you, unlimited access to Duran's advice, and a little bit of "therapy." 

A six-month membership with Miami dating service Elite Connections costs $15,000. That's $2,500 per month.

Frustration with online dating has led more and more people to matchmakers, as Insider's Talia Lakritz reported. According to an article by Sarah Kessler in Fast Company, matchmakers have grown into a "niche" over the last few years — and the people who use them are getting younger and younger.

Claudia Duran, a matchmaker with Elite Connections, is honest with clients who are about to shell out thousands of dollars in the hopes of meeting The One: "We can't guarantee love." Still, she'll tell them, "we are guaranteeing that we are going to introduce you to people are invested emotionally, logistically, and financially, just like you."

What's more, she said, "we bring you people who you wouldn't normally have met on your own." Elite Connections has thousands of people in its database, Duran said, but they may also recruit people from outside their network if you're not satisfied with any of your matches.

Here's what people get for their $15,000:

• An in-person interview with your matchmaker to discuss deal-breakers as well as "deal-makers" in a date or partner
• Advice on choosing photos and creating your profile
• A guaranteed one or two matches per month in a single geographic area (a VIP membership or a global membership, which broadens the search to multiple cities, costs $75,000)
• Feedback on what your dates thought about you, relayed through your matchmaker
• Unlimited access to your matchmaker's advice and feedback at any time

After each date, Duran will talk to both people individually and find out how it went. Then she'll pass that information to the other person.

"If you're being matched with people and you want to know what did or did not go wrong, we will tell you," she said, adding that she "diplomatically" shares what your date said about you. It's less about gossiping, and more about getting constructive criticism so you can improve.

Part of Duran's job is being a "therapist," she said. Clients will text her at midnight wanting to debrief their date, and ask Duran what she thinks. And when she meets with clients, Duran will encourage them to open up about touchy topics — for example, whether they've had a problem with jealousy in the past or whether they've been burned in a previous relationship.

Duran personally defines "success" as a client putting their membership on hold because they've met someone they want to date exclusively. She said it happens about 70% of the time.

Lately, Duran said, she's been seeing clients hit it off with their first or second match. "I don't take it for granted; I don't expect it," she told me. "There's some magic in the air."

Have you worked with a matchmaker? Email slebowitz@businessinsider.com to share your story.

SEE ALSO: I asked a matchmaker about the 3 biggest mistakes people make when dating — and you're probably guilty of at least one

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• The 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance kicked off this week in California at the Pebble Beach Golf Club. 
• Gooding & Company, the official auction house of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, is presenting a particularly impressive fleet of automobiles on Friday, August 24 and Saturday, August 25. 
• Some of the cars in Gooding & Company's fleet include a 1935 Duesenberg SSJ, a 1949 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500, and a 1956 Mercedes Benz 300 SL Gullwing.

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The 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance kicked off this week in California with antique car enthusiasts and collectors the world over flocking to place bids and see some of the most expensive vehicles on Earth. 

Since it began in 1950, the Pebble Beach Concours has been the top-ranked car collector competition in the world. It has evolved over time, from its initial focus on collector cars in the 1950s to emphasizing sports racing and eventually preservation techniques in the 1990s. 

Those in attendance bid on some of the finest and rarest cars around, coined by Business Insider's Matthew DeBord as "rolling sculptures," to the tune of many millions of dollars. 

Aside from car aficionados and dealers, the event is primarily of interest to the investor class, who choose to park their money in vintage cars (along with fine art, expensive wine, antiques, and historical artifacts). 

Gooding & Company, the official auction house of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, is presenting a particularly impressive fleet of automobiles this year. On Friday, August 24 at 5:00 p.m. and Saturday, August 25 at 11:00 a.m., eighteen Gooding & Company vehicles will grace the auction stage. 

The public preview of the vehicles began on Wednesday and will last until Saturday, with general admission costing $40 and auction catalogs going for $100. Bidder registration is $200. 

Here's a preview of the cars that will be sold for auction this weekend by Gooding & Company. 

SEE ALSO: Jaguar Land Rover just unveiled its E-type Zero electric car and it's breathtaking

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1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial Series II (Estimate: $5,500,000-$7,500,000)

With only one owner since 1960, this superb 1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial is in excellent condition despite being raced 35 times.  Noted Ferrari historian Marcel Massini says, "It also must be the best documented competition Ferrari ever."

1952 Bentley R Type Continental Fastback (Estimate: $1,500,000-$2,000,000)

This classic 1952 Bentley R Type Fastback features alloy bumpers, lightweight bucket seats, a manual gearbox, and custom appointments. The car's Antelope brown exterior mixes well with its brown leather interior, signifying both a bygone world as well as a still essential luxury. 

1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing: (Estimate: $1,100,000-$1,300,000 without reserve)

This blue-chip collector car was previously owned by an original Hollywoodland developer, L. Milton Wolf, and remained in his family for six decades. The Gullwing is unrestored, keeping with it the original red-leather seats.