Hello! Here's what's happening on Friday.

1. Former FBI director James Comey's private memos have been released to Congress. Among the claims: US President Donald Trump wants to put journalists in jail for leaks, and Russia's Vladimir Putin reportedly told Trump that Russia has the world's most beautiful hookers.

2. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to be making huge concessions before meeting with President Trump. South Korea's president said Kim essentially wants nothing in return for denuclearization, a highly unusual claim.

3. The Chinese navy challenged Australian warships in the South China Sea. The interaction is believed to have occurred at about the same time as China's largest-ever naval parade earlier this month.

4. And this week China flew nuclear-capable bombers around Taiwan. Taiwan earlier accused China of using "cheap verbal intimidation and saber rattling" during live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait.

5. London will lose its crown as the world's leading financial center within five years. A majority of professionals surveyed said they believe London will lose its top status by 2023.

6. Syrian air defenses fired dozens of missiles in response to the US-led strike, but most launched after the strike ended. Russia and Syria claimed their missile defenses had downed 71 of the 105 missiles from the US and allies, a bold claim considering they're only known to have fired 40 interceptors.

7. Two people died after a plane crashed near Belfast Airport in Ireland. Police have not yet identified the deceased in the light aircraft crash.

8. US bank Wells Fargo is nearing a $1 billion settlement for loan abuses. The US currency comptroller proposed Wells Fargo pay a penalty to resolve probes into auto insurance and mortgage lending abuses.

9. A parking space in Hong Kong just broke a property record. Hong Kong is the second-wealthiest city in the world and offers some of the priciest real estate.

10. Mars colonists will get blasted with radiation levels eight times higher than government limits on Earth. NASA and SpaceX have both stated they are working to send people to Mars.

And finally...

Elon Musk emailed Tesla employees tips on how to be more productive — these are his 7 suggestions.

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• North Korea and South Korea will take turns rehearsing for their joint summit in the same venue where they're scheduled to meet.
• That venue is the Peace House in the "truce village" of Panmunjom, along the DMZ.
• South Korea will use the building on Tuesday and Thursday, and North Korea will rehearse there on Tuesday or Wednesday.
• It's unknown how Kim Jong Un will arrive for the meeting, but officials are reportedly preparing for a historic walk across the Korean border.

North Korea and South Korea will take turns rehearsing for next week's historic summit in the "truce village" of Panmunjom.

The Inter-Korean summit will be the first meeting between leaders of the two countries in more than a decade with Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in meeting at Peace House on South Korea's side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

Ahead of the meeting, South Korea will use the building to hold rehearsals on Tuesday and Thursday next week. And, according to Moon's spokesman Kim Eui Keyom, North Korea will also hold rehearsals in the same building on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Organizers from the South's preparatory committee, which is overseeing the agenda, communication, promotion, and operational support of the summit will attend on Tuesday, while Thursday's rehearsal will be more detailed. To prepare for the event, South Korea has been refurbishing the building with extra security measures and a new paint job.

It will also create two situation rooms, one on the third floor of the Peace House and a second for Moon's presidential office in the nearby Freedom House.

A third situation room will be established in another city to host the 2,800 journalists who have registered to cover the summit, more than twice as many as at the last two summits in 2000 and 2007. The Koreas have also agreed to stream some of the summit live.

Ahead of the April 27 meeting, Moon and Kim are expected to speak over the phone. A direct phone line will be established on Friday but a date for the call has yet to be confirmed.

It's unknown how Kim will arrive at the Peace House, but officials are reportedly preparing for him to make the symbolic walk across the DMZ, a first for any North Korean leader.

SEE ALSO: North Korea and South Korea met in the 'truce village' of Panmunjom — these extraordinary photos show what it's like

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• Every year consultancy firm releases a ranking of the cities with the highest quality of life in the world.
• The cities are broadly speaking, large conurbations in the Western world, with a handful in east Asia and Australia.
• But where are the cities with the worst quality of life? Business Insider took a look.
• The cities are generally in Africa and the Middle East, where war, poverty, and weak infrastructure are common.

Mercer has released its Quality of Living Index, which looks at the cities that provide the best quality of life.

The ranking is one of the most comprehensive of its kind and is carried out annually to help multinational companies and other employers to compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments, according to Mercer.

Looking at 450 cities across the world, Mercer takes into account the following metrics to judge which cities made the list for the best quality of life — which therefore shows what it feels are the best and worst:

• Political and social environment (political stability, crime, law enforcement)
• Economic environment (currency-exchange regulations, banking services)
• Socio-cultural environment (media availability and censorship, limitations on personal freedom)
• Medical and health considerations (medical supplies and services, infectious diseases, sewage, waste disposal, air pollution)
• Schools and education (standards and availability of international schools)
• Public services and transportation (electricity, water, public transportation, traffic congestion)
• Recreation (restaurants, theatres, cinemas, sports and leisure)
• Consumer goods (availability of food/daily consumption items, cars)
• Housing (rental housing, household appliances, furniture, maintenance services)
• Natural environment (climate, record of natural disasters)

The cities with the best quality of life are, broadly speaking, large conurbations in the Western world, with a handful in east Asia and Australia. But where are the major cities with the worst quality in world?

Business Insider decided to take a look at the bottom of Mercer's ranking, which features a large number of cities in Africa and the Middle East, where war, disease and poor infrastructure have lowered the quality of life significantly.

Take a look below:

SEE ALSO: The 21 cities with the best quality of life in the world

23. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — The capital city is going through a building boom but many of its citizens are suffering from extreme poverty.

22. Harare, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe is in the midst of unprecedented upheaval following the retirement of long-time leader Robert Mugabe, and Harare remains a highly volatile city.

21. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan — Blighted by chronic water shortages, Ashgabat is an exceptionally hard place to live at times.

• Barclays CEO facing fine from FCA and PRA over his attempts to identify 2016 whistleblower.
• The FCA and PRA will monitor Barclay's whistleblowing programme going forward.
• The decisions bring the regulators' year-long investigation into the incident to a close.

LONDON — UK regulators have decided Barclays CEO Jes Staley must pay a fine for his attempts to try and identify an internal bank whistleblower back in 2016.

Barclays announced on Friday that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) had concluded their year-long investigation into the incident.

They decided that the incident "represented a breach of Individual Conduct Rule 2 (requirement to act with due skill, care and diligence) and each have proposed that he pay a financial penalty."

Barclays will also have to "report to the FCA and PRA on certain aspects of their whistleblowing programmes," as part of the settlement.

Barclays' board was sent an anonymous letter in 2016 raising concerns about Staley's decision to hire a senior executive. The letter raised questions about the executive's past, according to the Telegraph. In response, Staley asked Barclays internal security chief to try and identify the person or persons behind the letter. It is this decision to go after an anonymous whistleblower that has got Staley in trouble.

The FCA and PRA said in a joint statement supplied to Business Insider on Friday: "The FCA and the PRA have now concluded investigations into the CEO of Barclays and Barclays Bank Plc. We have issued draft warning notices in respect to the CEO and will announce the outcome once this issue has reached a conclusion."

Both regulators declined to comment on how much Staley would have to pay.

Barclay's board have already issued Staley with a "formal written reprimand" and said they will make "a very significant compensation adjustment" to his bonus.

The board said on Friday that it "continues to have unanimous confidence in Mr Staley and continues to recommend his re-election as a Director at the Barclays Annual General Meeting on 1 May 2018."

Staley now has a period to challenge the finding of the FCA and PRA, and argue his side of the case before a final fine is set.

SEE ALSO: REPORT: Barclays information security chief is facing an internal whistleblowing probe

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• Exclusive: A former senior Home Office official tells Business Insider that Theresa May personally intervened to ensure " the controversial "go home or face arrest" immigration vans were "toughened up".
• The source rubbishes claims by May's former chief of staff Nick Timothy that May had actually been opposed to their use and that they had been approved without her knowledge.
• "The Home Secretary [was] spoken to on holiday in Switzerland and the wording was slightly changed. It had been toughened up slightly."
• The revelation comes as the prime minister comes under fire for her "hostile" immigration policies.

LONDON — Theresa May personally intervened to ensure the language on the Home Office's notorious "go home or face arrest" immigration vans was "toughened up," a former senior Home Office official has told Business Insider.

The prime minister's former chief of staff Nick Timothy wrote in the Telegraph this week that the decision to approve the controversial billboard vans, which were targeted at undocumented migrants in 2013, had been approved while the then home secretary was on holiday in Switzerland and that she had actually been opposed to their use.

However, a former senior home office official who was involved in the discussions at the time, has told Business Insider that the then Home Secretary had actually spoken to aides about the vans while she was away and insisted that the language on them be "toughened up."

Timothy, who was May's adviser at the time, claimed on Thursday that May had "opposed" the proposals.

"Theresa May was criticised for the notorious "go home or face arrest" vans that were deployed in 2013," Timothy wrote.

"In fact she blocked the proposal, but it was revived and approved in a communications plan while she was on holiday. She killed off the scheme later that year but by then the damage had been done."

However, the former Home Office source told BI that emails at the time suggest May had actually discussed the vans with her advisers while away.

And not only did she approve the proposals, May also requested that the language of the slogans was "toughened up" before the vans were rolled out.

"The submission had gone to the Home Secretary outlining what was happening with the vans," the source told BI.

"The email came back that said the Home Secretary had been spoken to on holiday in Switzerland and the wording was slightly changed. It had been toughened up slightly."

Asked about Timothy's claims in the Telegraph, the source replied that he was "either being untruthful or forgetful."

Hostile environment

Home Office emails seen by Bloomberg also suggest that May was actively behind the project. According to their report May and her special advisers were sent plans and publicity images for the vans as early as March 2013. The emails suggest that May’s then private secretary Matthew Bligh warned that the images were possibly too soft on illegal immigrants.

"The Home Secretary has commented that it is right to advertise enforcement action but we should not be advertising that we will pay people to leave, which is the effect of the proposed advertisements," he wrote according to Bloomberg.

"Please can officials consider how the material can be revised to get the messaging right and not expose the Agency to criticism for giving tax payers’ money to illegal migrants?"

Downing Street sources distanced themselves from Timothy's comments on Thursday, endorsing official accounts that May had been aware of the project being approved at the time.

A spokesperson for the Home Office declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.

The row comes as May comes under fire for her involvement in the Windrush citizens scandal and her wider involvement in creating a so-called "hostile environment" for immigrants in the UK.

SEE ALSO: Theresa May suffers a major Brexit defeat on her plans to leave the customs union

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• It is unlikely that you are entirely an extrovert or an introvert.
• It's more likely you are somewhere in the middle — but many of us associate with one side more than the other.
• Scientific evidence has shown how extroverts and introverts differ in both behaviour and biology.
• The way you are is written in your DNA, so it's unlikely you'll be able to change it.

At some point in your life, you've probably been described as an extrovert or an introvert. It's true that many of us place ourselves in one of those two categories — or somewhere in the middle if you're an ambivert.

These labels were coined in the 1920s by the psychologist Carl Jung. He said the differences between these personality types are essentially down to energy. Extroverted people often receive energy by social interactions, while introverts need time alone to recharge.

But nobody is entirely one or the other — introverts enjoy social occasions too, and extroverts will enjoy reading a book somewhere quiet from time to time. What is clear is that some people are more on one end of the scale than the other.

Linda Blair, a clinical psychologist, told Business Insider that your level of introversion or extroversion is actually in your DNA. In other words, you can't change it.

"It has to do with what's called the need for arousal," she said. "This is not sexual arousal, but it's a need to be stimulated before you act — before you can do what you want to do."

Introverts have a lot of the chemical that makes them feel stimulated. Extroverts don't have so much. This is why introverts tend to avoid crowded places or deadlines — things that are likely to put extra pressure on them — because they already have pressure within themselves.

Extroverts don't have enough of this arousal chemical. So to complete things or have a good time, they need to feel like they are ready for action, and seek out places where there's pressure.

"It has nothing to do with confidence, it has to do with pressure and arousal," Blair said. "How extroverted or introverted you are is something you need to wear. You need to work with it, live with it, and use it to your advantage."

German psychologist Hans Eysenck came up with this biological explanation for introverts and extroverts a few decades ago. It essentially means that if an introvert is in a loud restaurant or a crowded office, they will easily get overstimulated and overwhelmed. An extrovert requires these highly stimulating environments to get them to do anything.

Another theory states that it's all about reward systems, discussed in this paper from 1970. It suggests that extrovert brains are more sensitive to rewards, like making someone laugh in a social interaction. Introverts don't seek out these rewards.

Other studies have shown how extroverts pay more attention to human faces than introverts, and how introverts have a higher level of brain function in regions associated with learning, vigilance, and motor control.

There are many ways the brains of introverts and extroverts have been shown to be different. There are also studies that show differences in behaviour. For example, extroverts talk more abstractly, and introverts more concretely, and extroverts have an advantage with speaking and and reading a new language, while introverts are better at listening to it.

Also, extroverts are more likely to take risks and wear more decorative clothing.

As Blair said, this doesn't necessarily mean extroverts are happier or even more confident. It's simply a different way of living. After all, two people can go to a party and stay there for entirely different motivations.

"To show confidence doesn't mean you have to go out and mix with crowds," she said. "To show confidence, it may be that you choose to be alone. Psychology is all about not what you do but why."

SEE ALSO: Most people might not be extroverts or introverts but 'ambiverts' — here's what it means to be one

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• Flickr, which was owned by Verizon, has been acquired by photo sharing and image hosting site SmugMug.
• SmugMug does not have any plans to lay off any employees nor fold Flickr into SmugMug. 
• The price of the deal has not been disclosed.

Flickr, the once red-hot photo-sharing site, has withered under the corporate ownership of Yahoo and Verizon. 

Now Flickr is part of SmugMug, a family-owned online photography firm that just bought it from Verizon.

Despite its smaller size, SmugMug is confident it has the right touch to bring back Flickr's glory days. 

"We love photographers, we are photographers, we've been catering directly to photographers for a long long time and we think we have the most insight into what photographers want from these platforms," SmugMug VP of Operations Ben MacAskill told Business Insider in an interview on Friday. 

That might seem like a tall order, given that consumer internet brands are notoriously difficult to revitalize once the buzz is gone. And Flickr is competing for consumers against giants like Instagram and Snapchat. But SmugMug, which was founded in 2002 and is still a family-run operation without any venture capital backing, is not afraid. 

"We've weathered so many competitors over the years. When we first started, people were asking us why we were competing with brands like Kodak, which really doesn't exist anymore," MacAskill says. 

"It just wasn't the right fit for Yahoo"

Flickr was founded in 2004 and bought by Yahoo for $35 million in 2005 after exploding in popularity. The service, which lets users upload and share photos for free was once a cornerstone of the early internet. But its relevance began to decline — as did Yahoo's — over the years because "it just wasn't the right fit for Yahoo, they just really didn't want to be in the space," MacAskill says.

Shortly after Yahoo was acquired by Verizon and merged with AOL, the new owners approached SmugMug about a possible deal to buy Flickr, he says, noting that talks went on for nearly a year. 

"We've been friendly with both the Flickr team and the team at Yahoo and then Oath for many many years so it was very natural development to see if we were potentially interested knowing our love of the product," he said. 

MacAskill declined to disclose the price of the deal, but said the company will keep Flickr as an independent and free website. He added that SmugMug does not have plans to lay off any Flickr employees.

So what's the vision for Flickr 2.0? 

It's too early to tell what, if anything, will change about Flickr's core service and functionality. But MacAskill did say that SmugMug doesn't want to upend the community on Flickr nor get rid of the photos currently on it. He instead wants to invest in it.

"We just really love the platform," he says. "I think it's one of the greatest treasures of the internet." 

SEE ALSO: The 14 most popular programming languages, according to a study of 100,000 developers

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The media landscape is almost shifting more quickly than consumers can keep up.

But certain trends have emerged that will carry the media industry into the future.

For the past eight years, IGNITION, Business Insider’s flagship conference, has collected the best minds in media and technology to share what they see as the future. Through unscripted interviews, cutting-edge demos, and insights from industry pioneers, attendees learn what key trends to be aware of and what they need to do to stay ahead.

Henry Blodget opened the latest sold-out IGNITION conference with a presentation entitled 14 Things You’ll Want to Know About The Future of Media. And he should know...Blodget is co-founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of Business Insider, one of the most-read business and tech news sites in the world with more than 80 million visitors a month worldwide.

The presentation was put together with the help of the team at Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• We're nearing "peak media" in the U.S.
• This phenomenon will spread to the rest of the world as four billion more people come online
• Digital ad spending is still growing
• Video is not the be-all, end-all of media
• And much more

To get your copy of this FREE slide deck, simply click here.

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• The auto industry is usually thought of as a cyclical business, but the current US sales boom has lasted longer than expected.
• This has enabled a novel period of long-term strategic planning.

"The auto industry is cyclical."

You hear that all the time in the business world. Translation: in the US, sales boom and sales bust. 

Auto executives have trained themselves to enjoy the good times while they last, but to routinely choppy waters and batten down the hatches when they arrive.

Typically, the agita runs on a predictable, 12-month timetable. The year begins with a brief celebration of the previous year's sales total (if it was good), after which the fretting commences. After a few months, the industry has enough sales data to figure out if a boom will continue, or if a bust is on the horizon.

Sometimes the bust is just a decline, driven by a short recession or some other outside economic shock, such as rising oil prices. And sometimes the bust is a mega-bust, as it was after the financial crisis when US sales fell to 10 million, a devastating event then sent both General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy.

The long boom

In 2015, 2016, and 2017, the US sales total came in at over 17 million. There's a decent chance that 2018 could see yet another 17-million year, and that's enabled auto executives to break out of the old 12-month habit. 

A big chunk of those record sales has been profitable pickup trucks and SUVs, so Detroit and the other automakers selling cars in the US are sitting on heaps of cash. They have plenty of dough to ride out the crisis they're always anticipating, so they've been able to relax and think long term.

Widespread electrification and autonomous vehicles, along with ride-hailing and sharing, are multi-decade propositions, and automakers are now planning ahead in double-digit increments, rather than simply through the next five-t0-seven-year product cycle.

It's a fortunate historical anomaly: an extended sales cycle, cheap credit, affordable gas, and a boom in profitable vehicles. For the industry, times have been happy. They will be sad again someday, but that someday keeps getting pushed off. 

So who will be the winners? Well, obviously consumers. Thanks to a market that is enabling automakers to take more risks, consumers are going to have more transportation options in the next 12 years.

FOLLOW US: On Facebook for more car and transportation content!

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Technology is increasingly disrupting every part of our daily lives.

Smart speakers and voice assistants let us interact with our homes and with retailers in new and seamless ways.

Smartphones are taking over as the dominant shopping device.

Viewers continue to move away from traditional TV toward digital platforms.

And the list is growing.

Nearly every industry has been disrupted by digital technologies over the past 10 years. And in 2018, we expect to see more transformative developments affect our businesses, careers, and lives.

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has put together a list of 35 Big Tech Predictions for 2018 across Apps and Platforms, Digital Media, Payments, Internet of Things, E-Commerce, Fintech, and Transportation & Logistics. Some of these major predictions include:

• Cryptocurrencies will become more widely accepted
• Google and Apple will challenge Amazon in the smart speaker space
• The resurgence of the VR market
• The real self-driving car race will begin
• Drone regulations will relax
• Alibaba’s international expansion
• Gen Z will become a major focal point for media companies and advertisers
• Payment security will become paramount
• Smart home devices will take off

This comprehensive list of 35 predictions can be yours for free today. As an added bonus, you will gain immediate access to our exclusive free newsletter, Business Insider Intelligence Daily.

To get your copy of this FREE report, simply click here.

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We have driven, reported on, road-tripped, and talked about our fair share of electric and hybrid vehicles at Business Insider. These are exciting times for a technology that was born more than 100 years ago, but only started to gain steam in the last 20 years with the Toyota Prius.

Electric-vehicle sales reached a milestone in 2017, crossing the one-million-vehicle threshold for that year. Nearly 200,000 of those plug-in vehicles— up from about 159,000 in 2016.

That growth has spurred a whole new class of EVs from investor-funded startups. While many of these companies poach engineering and design talent from big-name automakers, the new companies themselves have never mass-produced a car before. It might be a stretch to call it an automotive renaissance, but it's starting to look that way.

Still, one thing remains the same — it is incredibly difficult to start a car company. Tesla CEO Elon Musk probably knows this better than anyone. Tesla is the first American automaker to go public since Ford Motor Company in 1956, but it took Tesla and its stakeholders nearly two decades and many hundreds of millions of dollars to get there.

And as we have learned in the last couple years from the scandal-plagued electric-car startup, Faraday Future, the business of designing and building cars can easily lose traction if just enough things go sideways.

Nevertheless, a handful of electric-car startups in California are undeterred, and they are vying to bring the next mass-produced luxury electric vehicle to market.

Lucid Motors is one of those companies. Founded in 2007 under its former name, Atieva, the Newark, California-based company began developing its first electric vehicle in 2014.

The car, called Lucid Air, debuted in late 2016 as a 1,000-horsepower electric luxury sedan that Lucid said would rival Tesla's highly successful Model S.

Among other investors, Lucid is also backed by Venrock — the same venture capital firm that led Apple's Series A round in 1978.

A company spokesman told Business Insider Lucid has raised several hundred million dollars to date. The spokesman declined to give specific dollar figures. Lucid was preparing to close its Series D round fundraiser in January.

The Lucid Air will be the first vehicle out of the company's stable when it goes into production in 2019, the company said. Lucid invited Business Insider to check out a nearly finished representation of the car at its headquarters.

Scroll down to see how it went:

SEE ALSO: Tesla's largest US Supercharger station has a plush, private customer lounge in the middle of a folksy California town — take a look inside

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The Lucid Air is almost surreal when seen outside in natural light. It's not a complete stretch to say it looks like a road-bound spacecraft.

Everything from the windshield forward evokes a nearly seamless aesthetic. It has a quietly commanding presence.

Quiet because it's electric, of course. The Air will be available with a battery pack that boasts about 240 miles of range on a full charges, or an optional pack that's expected to deliver up to 400 miles of range.

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

Advancements in artificial intelligence, coupled with the proliferation of messaging apps, are fueling the development of chatbots — software programs that use messaging as the interface through which to carry out any number of tasks, from scheduling a meeting, to reporting weather, to helping users buy a pair of shoes. 

Foreseeing immense potential, businesses are starting to invest heavily in the burgeoning bot economy. A number of brands and publishers have already deployed bots on messaging and collaboration channels, including HP, 1-800-Flowers, and CNN. While the bot revolution is still in the early phase, many believe 2016 will be the year these conversational interactions take off.

In a new report from Business Insider Intelligence, we explore the growing and disruptive bot landscape by investigating what bots are, how businesses are leveraging them, and where they will have the biggest impact. We outline the burgeoning bot ecosystem by segment, look at companies that offer bot-enabling technology, distribution channels, and some of the key third-party bots already on offer. 

The report also forecasts the potential annual savings that businesses could realize if chatbots replace some of their customer service and sales reps. Finally, we compare the potential of chatbot monetization on a platform like Facebook Messenger against the iOS App Store and Google Play store.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• AI has reached a stage in which chatbots can have increasingly engaging and human conversations, allowing businesses to leverage the inexpensive and wide-reaching technology to engage with more consumers.
• Chatbots are particularly well suited for mobile — perhaps more so than apps. Messaging is at the heart of the mobile experience, as the rapid adoption of chat apps demonstrates.
• The chatbot ecosystem is already robust, encompassing many different third-party chat bots, native bots, distribution channels, and enabling technology companies. 
• Chatbots could be lucrative for messaging apps and the developers who build bots for these platforms, similar to how app stores have developed into moneymaking ecosystems.  

In full, the report:

• Breaks down the pros and cons of chatbots.
• Explains the different ways businesses can access, utilize, and distribute content via chatbots.
• Forecasts the potential impact chatbots could have for businesses.
• Looks at the potential barriers that could limit the growth, adoption, and use of chatbots.
• And much more.

Subscribe to an All-Access pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

	This report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports
	Access to all future reports and daily newsletters
	Forecasts of new and emerging technologies in your industry
	And more!

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This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

Nearly every global bank is experimenting with blockchain technology as they try to unleash the cost savings and operational efficiencies it promises to deliver. 

Banks are exploring the technology in a number of ways, including through partnerships with fintechs, membership in global consortia, and via the building of their own in-house solutions. 

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence outlines why and in what ways banks are exploring blockchain technology, provides details on three major banks' blockchain efforts based on in-depth interviews, and highlights other notable blockchain-based experiments underway by global banks. It also discusses the likely trends that will emerge in the technology over the next several years, and the factors that will be critical to the success of banks implementing blockchain-based solutions.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Most banks are exploring the use of blockchain technology in order to streamline processes and cut costs. However, they are also looking to leverage additional advantages, including increased competitiveness with fintechs, and the ability to use the technology to create new business models. 
• Banks are starting to narrow their focus, and are increasingly honing in on tangible use cases for blockchain technology that solve real problems faced by their businesses. 
• Regulators are taking an increased interest in blockchain technology, and they're working alongside major banks to develop regulatory frameworks. 
• Blockchain-based solutions will start to emerge in different areas of financial services. The most successful solutions will solve specific problems for banks and attract a large enough network to create widespread benefits. 

 In full, the report:

• Outlines banks' experiments with blockchain technology. 
• Details blockchain projects at three major banks — UBS, Credit Suisse, and Banco Santander — based on in-depth interviews. 
• Discusses the likely trends that will emerge in the technology over the next several years.
• Highlights the factors that will be critical to the success of banks implementing blockchain-based solutions.

Subscribe to an All-Access membership to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

	This report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports
	Access to all future reports and daily newsletters
	Forecasts of new and emerging technologies in your industry
	And more!

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This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most commonly referenced terms by financial institutions (FIs) and payments firms when describing their vision for the future of financial services. 

AI can be applied in almost every area of financial services, but the combination of its potential and complexity has made AI a buzzword, and led to its inclusion in many descriptions of new software, solutions, and systems.

This report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, cuts through the hype to offer an overview of different types of AI, and where they have potential applications within banking and payments. It also emphasizes which applications are most mature, provides recommendations of how FIs should approach using the technology, and offers examples of where FIs and payments firms are already leveraging AI. The report draws on executive interviews Business Insider Intelligence conducted with leading financial services providers, such as Bank of America, Capital One, and Mastercard, as well as top AI vendors like Feedzai, Expert System, and Kasisto.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• AI, or technologies that simulate human intelligence, is a trending topic in banking and payments circles. It comes in many different forms, and is lauded by many CEOs, CTOs, and strategy teams as their saving grace in a rapidly changing financial ecosystem.
• Banks are using AI on the front end to secure customer identities, mimic bank employees, deepen digital interactions, and engage customers across channels.
• Banks are also using AI on the back end to aid employees, automate processes, and preempt problems.
• In payments, AI is being used in fraud prevention and detection, anti-money laundering (AML), and to grow conversational payments volume.

 In full, the report:

• Offers an overview of different types of AI and their applications in payments and banking. 
• Highlights which of these applications are most mature.
• Offers examples where FIs and payments firms are already using the technology. 
• Provides descriptions of vendors of different AI-based solutions that FIs may want to consider using.
• Gives recommendations of how FIs and payments firms should approach using the technology.

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• President Donald Trump suggested on Friday night that the Russia investigation being conducted by the special counsel Robert Mueller is illegitimate.
• Trump made that assertion in a tweet, while drawing a handful of conclusions: that former FBI director James Comey illegally leaked classified information, and that the leak resulted in Mueller's appointment to oversee the Russia investigation, making Mueller's appointment the product of an "illegal act," as Trump put it.
• He then asked: "Does everybody know what that means?"

President Donald Trump suggested on Friday night that the Russia investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller is illegitimate.

That's the conclusion Trump floated in a tweet, in which he drew a handful conclusions about the series of events he believes led to Mueller's appointment:

• That former FBI director James Comey illegally leaked classified information.
• That Mueller was appointed as a result of that illegal leak.
• And that the occurrences, taken together, mean that Mueller's investigation is the product of an "illegal act."

Trump then asked, "Does everybody know what that means," seemingly hinting that the Russia probe itself is illegitimate.

Jumping to the wrong conclusion

The leak that Trump is referring to — the one that helped lead to Mueller's appointment — was a memo Comey wrote, documenting a February 14, 2017 meeting he had with Trump, during which Trump asked Comey to drop the FBI's investigation into Michael Flynn, his national security adviser who had just left the administration.

After Trump fired Comey in May 2017, the president threatened him on Twitter, saying "James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press."

Comey then asked a colleague to tell The New York Times about the memo documenting his February 14 meeting with Trump, out of concern that the president may have tried to obstruct justice by asking the FBI to drop its investigation into Flynn.

The Times ran a story about that memo on May 16. The next day, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel.

Comey told congressional lawmakers a month later that the memo he passed to his colleague contained no classified information. Here's how he explained it:

"If I write it in such a way that doesn't include anything of a classification, that would make it easier for us to discuss within the FBI, and the government, and to hold onto it in a way that makes it accessible to us."

Since Mueller was appointed, Trump has criticized the federal investigators, who are tasked with deconstructing Russia's wide-ranging interference campaign in the 2016 US election. The probe has evolved dramatically over the last year, resulting in a number of federal charges against some of Trump's closest aides and some Russian operatives.

Trump frequently calls Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt," and believes it is motivated not by a desire to make sense of Russia's meddling in the US electoral process, but rather a partisan plot to undermine his presidency.

SEE ALSO: The DOJ's 'freakishly unusual' move to hand over Comey's memos to Congress shocks former officials

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• Former Department of Justice officials expressed alarm Friday at the DOJ's decision to hand over former FBI Director James Comey's memos to Congress, and their subsequent leak to the press.
• The significance of the memos' release stems not from their content, but from the potential long-term implications regarding the DOJ's independence.
• "If it weren't so comical, it would be a tragedy," said one former federal prosecutor.

The Department of Justice took the extraordinary step Thursday of sending evidence in an ongoing criminal investigation to Congress, which was leaked to the press hours later.

Patrick Cotter, a former federal prosecutor, described the situation bluntly: "This is freakishly unusual" and "unfortunate," he said.

The evidence in question was a set of memos compiled by former FBI Director James Comey about his interactions with President Donald Trump. The documents constitute a central part of special counsel Robert Mueller's obstruction of justice case against Trump.

The significance of the memos' release stems not from the documents themselves, but from its long-term implications for the independence of the DOJ.

Much of the memos' substance was already public knowledge, and the documents will likely give a small advantage to the prosecution because they appear to be consistent with Comey's congressional testimony and public statements.

"The more consistent his statements turn out to be, the stronger a witness Comey will become," Cotter said.

Even then, "the memos are only relevant if what the president said at a certain meeting becomes the basis for a charge," said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago.

But their release to Congress and subsequent leak was "awful," Cramer said. "If it wasn't so comical, it would be a tragedy."

Matt Miller, a former DOJ spokesman, said as much.

"This cave by DOJ will have long-lasting ramifications," he said. "This is an area governed solely by precedent, and DOJ is setting precedent that it is ok for Congress to interfere with, and receive documents pertaining to, active investigations."

Republican lawmakers said they were demanding the memos as part of their oversight responsibilities and because Congress also has several ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"Even to a blind man, it's apparent that these are political investigations that are not uncovering any new facts," Cramer said, adding that the move was "foolhardy."

'The DOJ may as well have delivered the memos to the media themselves'

The DOJ sent Comey's memos to Congress in response to demands from House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, House Oversight Committee chairman Trey Gowdy, and House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte to see documents related to the Russia investigation.

After a tense period in between, during which the three Republican chairmen threatened to hold Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in contempt of Congress if the DOJ did not turn over the documents, the department sent Comey's memos to Capitol Hill.

The deputy attorney general "is under an incredible amount of pressure," said Harry Litman, a former deputy assistant attorney general. "And normally, rules preventing the release of evidence in ongoing investigations exist precisely to shield department decision-makers from having to bow to this kind of pressure. So it's out of the ordinary and I think unfortunate."

Nunes, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, is perhaps the most controversial figure in Congress when it comes to the Russia probe. He recused himself from the panel's investigation last year after it surfaced that he secretly traveled to the White House and briefed the administration on classified material without informing his colleagues.

But even after the recusal, Nunes sought to undermine the committee's investigation by conducting his own probe into purported corruption within the DOJ. To that effect, his staff authored a highly controversial memo, released in February, which alleged that the DOJ and FBI abused their surveillance authority when monitoring a former Trump campaign adviser during and after the election.

The DOJ's internal watchdog has since opened an investigation — amid heightened calls from congressional Republicans, the attorney general, and the president — into the FBI's and DOJ's application for a warrant to surveil the former adviser, Carter Page.

Meanwhile, Goodlatte, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, joined 10 other congressional Republicans this week in sending a letter to the DOJ and FBI asking them to investigate Comey, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, and others for purported corruption.

"Giving evidence of an ongoing investigation to Nunes after what we've seen him do is stunning," Cramer said. "But who is really shocked that this was leaked? The DOJ may as well have delivered the memos to the media themselves, it would have saved a step."

Litman agreed: It would be a "disaster" for investigations and those being investigated if "this became more general practice going forward."

But some legal experts aren't so sure that will be the case.

"In a certain sense, this doesn't set any precedent at all because it's so unusual and unique," Cotter said. "I don't see a lot of defense attorneys getting mileage in the future by saying they, too, would like to see FBI reports before a grand jury's even made a move."

'Rosenstein's hands were tied'

Rosenstein, meanwhile, has emerged in recent months as the individual at the center of a tug-of-war between the White House, the DOJ, Congress, and Mueller.

Trump has long simmered over Rosenstein's decision to authorize Mueller to investigate the Trump campaign and the president himself.

But his anger toward Rosenstein reached its apex last week, following news that Rosenstein greenlit the FBI raids of longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's property as part of a federal criminal investigation into him. The White House subsequently began drafting a list of talking points to undermine Rosenstein, and some of Trump's legal advisers reportedly told him they had a strong case to support his firing.

But Trump is said to have backed off from firing Rosenstein after Rosenstein told him Friday that he was not a target in the Cohen probe.

At the same time, Rosenstein and the DOJ were fielding accusations from congressional Republicans of "slow-walking" their response to demands for Comey's memos.

"It's possible Rosenstein's hands were tied, and there's a societal benefit to Rosenstein succumbing to the pressure here, because it helps protect Mueller," Cramer said.

He added: "But if that's the case, you're trying to satiate a beast that can't be satisfied."

Cotter largely agreed.

"Most prosecutors find it appalling whenever any politician violates the separation of powers and rule of law like they did here," he said. "If anything, it probably made it more difficult for Rosenstein to make the decision to turn these memos over."

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• There's gridlock in the US equity market, with intra-stock correlations sitting close to their highest level on record.
• Goldman Sachs has identified 14 stocks that are operating with a mind of their own and seem to offer a big upside.

Stocks in the US market are increasingly following the herd, and it has created a huge dilemma for investors who prove their bona fides picking single companies.

Goldman Sachs finds that stock correlations within the benchmark S&P 500 have surged into the 95th percentile since 1980. In addition, average three-month correlations have spiked by 43 percentage points since January, which is the fastest and biggest increase since the 1987 market crash.

To put it in the simplest terms, this indicates that the US equity market is mired in a traffic jam in which almost everyone is stuck moving in the same direction. This makes it exceedingly difficult to generate returns when a broad move transpires, simply because there are so few outliers. Stock pickers loathe this correlation for these reasons.

So how did we get here? For one, the rapid rise of exchange-traded funds and passive investing has resulted in traders buying and selling large swaths of the market at once, leaving little room for single-stock fluctuations. Goldman also notes that large pullbacks in stocks have been driven largely by valuation concerns, rather than individual company earnings.

The firm knows it has become a difficult environment, and it's here to help. Its chief US equity strategist, David Kostin, has calculated a so-called dispersion score for each S&P 500 company, for which he factors in (1) the proportion of returns driven by company-specific factors and (2) Goldman's forecast of the volatility associated with the proportion of return attributable to those micro factors.

"Stocks with high dispersion scores are more likely to have heightened responses to idiosyncratic news and present the best alpha generation opportunities," Kostin wrote in a recent client note.

Goldman then takes its analysis a step further and identifies the companies within the high-dispersion universe that have the biggest upside to the firm's price target.

Without further ado, here are the 14 high-dispersion stocks, arranged in increasing order of which ones have the biggest upside to current trading levels:

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14. Take-Two Interactive

Ticker: TTWO

Industry: Information technology

Market cap: $11 billion

Dispersion score: 2.7

Upside to Goldman target: 37%

13. Tyson Foods

Ticker: TSN

Industry: Consumer staples

Market cap: $21 billion

Dispersion score: 1.8

Upside to Goldman target: 37%

12. Broadcom

Ticker: AVGO

Industry: Information technology

Market cap: $99 billion

Dispersion score: 2.5

Upside to Goldman target: 40%

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

Media consumption is at a saturation point. After rising for much of the last decade, total digital time spent has been nearly static since the start of 2015. As a result, it's increasingly difficult for content producers to win over minutes of consumers' time.

One platform, though, is poised to move the needle and provide a new avenue to boost digital time spent: the connected car. Consumers will spend more time in cars that offer a range of connectivity options, giving them the chance to use the services they know and love in the car.

The key question for service providers is how to take advantage of the connected car by integrating their services into this growing platform.

In a new report from Business Insider Intelligence, we provide a roadmap for service providers looking to offer their services in the car. We analyze media consumption and overall digital time spent trends, and then forecast the growth of the connected car market in relation to the digital time opportunity. Finally, we propose potential routes that service providers can take to get into connected cars and ride-hailing vehicles.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Digital time spent has become nearly static; however, people are spending more time in cars every year, and the growth of connected cars will likely turn these extra minutes into digital time.
• Getting services into the car is more complicated than ever before, and will require service providers to take different approaches to integration.
• The introduction of autonomous vehicles and the growth of ride-hailing services in the coming years will completely change what people can do in cars, which will alter the requirements for digital services in these developing platforms.

In full, the report:

• Analyzes trends in digital time spent and the growth of connected cars.
• Explains the connected-car ecosystem, where service providers fit in, and what relationships they need to succeed in the space.
• Provides a detailed explanation of the future of connected cars, which will expand media consumption and offer new e-commerce and payments opportunities.

Subscribe to an All-Access pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

	This report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports
	Access to all future reports and daily newsletters
	Forecasts of new and emerging technologies in your industry
	And more!

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• President Donald Trump lashed out at OPEC on Friday, tweeting that oil prices were "artificially very high" after oil rose to a three-year high on Thursday.
• Saudi Arabia is said to be targeting $80 a barrel.
• In a note, commodity strategists at Goldman Sachs laid out the case for Brent crude oil hitting $80 a barrel by the end of this year.

President Donald Trump turned on the oil market in a Friday-morning tweet.

"Looks like OPEC is at it again," Trump said, referring to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, a group of mostly Middle Eastern and African oil producers that has historically influenced prices by adjusting its production.

"With record amounts of Oil all over the place, including the fully loaded ships at sea, Oil prices are artificially Very High!" Trump tweeted. "No good and will not be accepted."

Oil prices have risen by about 12% this year as OPEC and some of its allies, including Russia, stuck to their agreement to cut production. Trump's tweet came a day after oil prices rose to three-year highs, catapulted by a government report showing US inventories to be lower than average for this time of year.

Bloomberg reported last week that Saudi Arabia was targeting a price of $80 a barrel to boost the valuation of its state-owned oil company, Aramco, before its initial public offering.

That also happens to be the forecast of commodity strategists at Goldman Sachs. In a note Thursday, out before Trump tweeted, the strategists forecast that Brent crude, the international benchmark of prices, would rise to $80 a barrel by the fourth quarter of this year.

"We expect that global oil demand will remain strong this year and contribute to further declines in oil inventories," Damien Courvalin, Goldman's head of commodity research, said in a note on Thursday.

Brent fell by as much as 1%, to $72.86 a barrel, after Trump tweeted on Friday. West Texas Intermediate crude, the US benchmark, fell 0.4% to $67.94 a barrel.

As US shale oil boomed, OPEC members started up their pumps to avoid losing market share to American producers. That tug-of-war caused an oversupply and drove prices lower starting in 2014.

Oil has more than doubled from the lows of early 2016, when the supply glut drove prices to levels most recently seen during the financial crisis.

Goldman sees oil heading even higher, and China, the world's second-largest oil consumer, would be central to this increase.

According to Courvalin, the data on China's oil consumption from its National Bureau of Statistics doesn't fully cover independent refineries. Using alternative sources, the team concluded that China's demand level was higher than estimated, which would require higher oil production to balance the market.

Both Goldman's estimates and official estimates show a big drop in global demand growth in March. According to Courvalin, that was partly caused by unusually heavy snowfalls in Europe and the US, which reduced transportation and some economic activity.

As the weather normalizes, Goldman doesn't forecast a slowdown in the global economy, and oil demand, even as trade-war bombs continue to fly.

In fact, Trump's tariff policies and sanctions on other countries could boost oil demand, Courvalin said. For example, US sanctions on Venezuela could force the country to export to India and China instead of to closer American and European refineries, Courvalin said.

"We believe that the strong combination of strong developed market momentum and accelerating emerging market growth will combine to keep oil demand growth above consensus expectations," Courvalin said.

SEE ALSO: 21 companies that give stock pickers their best shot at crushing the market, according to Goldman Sachs

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China is planning to transform an island the size of a small country into a sprawling hub for foreign investment, gambling, tourism, and luxury.

Xi Jinping's government announced its plans for Hainan last month. It said it would encourage the horse racing, gambling, and water sports industries to the island known as the "Hawaii of the East."

This is a big deal: The Chinese Communist Party bans its members from playing golf, prohibits gambling, and only allows occasional horse-racing.

Scroll down to learn more about the island destined to become China's biggest playground.

The island of Hainan is located in southern China. Its Chinese name — 海南 — means "south of the sea." Its population is around 9 million, and its landmass is around the size of Belgium.

Many ad campaigns and news outlets have described the island as the "Hawaii of China" or the "Hawaii of the East."

It certainly looks very different to other pollution-ridden Chinese cities like Beijing.