• A brawl broke out at the Lakers-Rockets game on Saturday night, with Chris Paul, Rajon Rondo, and Brandon Ingram all eventually being thrown out of the game.
• The Rockets contest that Paul was provoked by Rondo when the Lakers guard spit in his face and have provided the league with video to support their case.
• Suspensions are likely to be announced soon for all three players.

LeBron James first game as a Laker in Los Angeles did not go according to plan.

With just four minutes remaining in Saturday night's game between the Lakers and Houston Rockets, a fight broke out as tensions between guards Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo boiled over. Punches were thrown, and James was forced to shift from playmaker to peacemaker, helping to separate and de-escalate the brawl.

Paul, Rondo, and Ingram all threw punches and were all ejected after the referees stopped the game to break down how to allocate punishments after the dust had settled.

Replays show the inciting incidents between Rondo and Paul, with Rondo throwing a left hand at Paul after Paul shoved a finger in Rondo's face. The Rockets claimed that Rondo spit in Paul's face, prompting retaliation — a charge that is being investigated in slow motion.

The brawl was likely especially awkward for James, who is good friends with Paul and newly teammates with Rondo and Ingram. As for his part in the spat, James said "I just tried to calm things down, that's all. Play basketball."

The NBA is investigating the brawl further, and suspensions will likely be doled out soon.

When the action on the court finally calmed down, the Rockets would go on to win 124-115 to drop the Lakers to 0-2 to start the season.

SEE ALSO: LeBron James announced his arrival to the Lakers with a thunderous dunk

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What it takes to be an NFL referee

• Global IT spending is forecast to hit $3.8 trillion in 2019, according to analyst firm Gartner.
• The number reflects continued growth, though at a slower rate than past years. Gartner forecasts that spending will from 3.2% in 2019, down from its forecast of 4.5% growth in 2018.
• More than a third of that spending will go toward communications services, though enterprise software is the fastest growing spending area.

Global IT spending is forecast to hit $3.8 trillion in 2019, up 3.2% from the $3.69 trillion companies are expected to spend this year, according to newly-released Gartner data.

While corporate budgets continue to boom, Gartner's projection for 2019 IT spending actually represents a slowdown in growth. Gartner forecasts that spending in 2018 will ultimately grow 4.5% from 2017, while actual growth in 2017 was up 3.9% from 2016. And so, a year-over-year gain of 3.2% is a notable dropping-off.

Communications services — which includes everything from landline and mobile telephone services, to cloud communication tools like Zoom — is projected to take in $1.4 trillion in 2019, more than a third of overall spending for the year. But spending in that area is expected to grow just 1.2% from 2018.

The fastest-growing segment is enterprise software, which is projected to rake in $439 billion next year. This bucket includes customer relationship management software like Salesforce, as well as financial management and HR software like Workday.

Companies are expected to increase spending in enterprise software by 8.3% in 2019, following 9.9% projected growth in 2018, and 10.4% growth in 2017.

Even spending on data center systems, which have lost their edge thanks to growing corporate reliance on public clouds, is expected to grow by 1.6%. This is down from 6% growth projected in 2018, and the 6.4% growth realized in 2017.

This year's expected IT growth is "buoyed by a strong server market," according to Gartner. However, the steep decline in 2019 reflects the fact that the server market is expected to slow down once again, according to the report.

Here's the full forecast: 

SEE ALSO: Oracle is acquiring a tiny cloud startup backed by Qualcomm to build out its health science product suite

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What activated charcoal actually does to your body

• In March, I left New York to travel around the world as Business Insider's international correspondent. In more than six months, I have so far visited 12 countries.
• Spending all this time traveling has hammered home one truth for me: forget about FOMO (fear of missing out). If there's an attraction, landmark, or museum that doesn't interest you, don't be afraid to skip it.
• There are often too many things to see in whatever place you are visiting to waste your time on something that doesn't interest you — even if it's something as monumental as the Taj Mahal or the Great Wall of China.

Perhaps you know the feeling. You're on that vacation you've been planning all year to some exotic location — let's say Tulum, Mexico — and you've got just two more days before heading back to the office and the nine-to-five grind.

As you nap on the beach, you imagine a nightmare.

Before you left, your buddy Chad at work talked your ear off about how amazing the Mayan ruins are in Yucatán. He visited Tulum last year and raved about how the pre-Columbian city of Chichen Itza was the most incredible place in the world. You have to go, he said.

Now, sitting on the beach with two days left, you don't want to go. Historical sites don't particularly interest you. You travel to relax and to eat tasty local food. Spending a day on a hot bus so you can listen to a tour guide drone on about Mayan astronomy sounds terrible. You want to soak up as much sun and surf as humanly possible.

But then FOMO — fear of missing out — starts to creep in. What if it is the most incredible place in the world? And you didn't go. In your mind, you see Chad in front of the water cooler doubled over with laughter: You didn't go to Chichen Itza? It's like you didn't even go to Mexico.

Your life will be irrevocably ruined if you don't go, a little voice in your head says. Goooooooooooooo.

I'm here to tell you: Your life won't be irrevocably ruined, and you don't need to go. Screw Chad. Do what you want.

While spending the past six months traveling the world as Business Insider's international correspondent, I've been in variations of this scenario dozens of times. It may sound as though I have a lot of time to hit tourist attractions— "You travel for a living!" the internet shouts at me constantly — but with all the time I spend reporting and writing, I usually have only a couple of days to see what a place has to offer. I often have to make choices about my time: Do I spend my Beijing sightseeing day at 798 Art Zone, a district of modern art galleries? Or the Forbidden City?

When I traveled before this job, I took backpacker-style one-week vacations each year. During them, I constantly fretted about missing out on some landmark, and I tried to cram everything I possibly could into a trip. It led to me wasting a lot of my time doing things I'd rather I didn't.

In Bogotá, Colombia, I spent half a day in the Museo del Oro, a museum exclusively displaying pre-Columbian gold. In Europe, I visited ornate medieval church after ornate medieval church. In Stockholm, Sweden, I spent a day trudging through the stuffy rooms of the Royal Palace.

I did all those things because I was afraid of the proverbial Chad saying something like: You didn't go to that? It's like you didn't even go to [insert destination here].

That's not necessarily to say that any of those places aren't worth going to. If you love royal architecture, Stockholm's palace is a fine example of 18th-century Baroque architecture. But spending a day on that meant I had to spend one fewer day exploring Sweden's stunning natural beauty, which, in hindsight, I would've much preferred.

That persistent sense of FOMO is one of the reasons I hate bucket lists. They are a constant pressure to see and do things that other people say you have to do, rather than what you actually want to do.

These days, I do my best to ignore the little voice in my head screaming "FOMO! FOMO!" and instead try to follow my interests. It has made travel infinitely more fulfilling and engaging for me. I suggest you try it.

And if you're wondering, I spent my day in Beijing at 798 Art Zone, because it felt more urgent to try to understand China's flourishing art scene and was more appealing than visiting one of China's top attractions during Chinese holidays.

Life is too short to spend time doing stuff you don't want to do. YOLO.

SEE ALSO: I've been traveling the world for 6 months, and I've found real life doesn't always live up to the hype. These are the most disappointing places I've been.

DON'T MISS: I've been traveling the world for 6 months, and these are the best apps for each country I couldn't live without

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What happens when you sleep in your contacts

• One of the feel-good stories to come out of Hurricane Michael was the woman who spotted her relatives' call for help thanks to interactive maps from NOAA.
• Business Insider spoke with Mike Aslaksen, the man in charge of the division that produces these images, which helps track damage to the coastlines and land after natural disasters.
• He said Amber Gee's story of spotting her trapped relatives shows the "multi-use of the data."

Technology is changing the way that emergency responders conduct search-and-rescue operations after hurricanes.

When Hurricane Michael ravaged the Florida Panhandle, Amber Gee turned to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maps to see the damage inflicted on her grandmother's property in Youngstown, Florida.

What she found was remarkable: a call for "HELP" written on the lawn in downed tree branches.

Gee alerted rescuers, who found her uncle, aunt, and a family friend hunkering down at the property last Sunday, and brought them to safety.

It was a feel-good story for Mike Aslaksen, who leads the remote sensing division of the NOAA's National Geodetic Survey.

"I'm happy that there was a happy ending to this," he told Business Insider on Tuesday. "It again really shows some of the multi-use of this data."

The images Gee found came from NOAA researchers taking photos from survey planes that flew over the damaged areas once the hurricane had passed through. The images were then compiled into an interactive map that anyone can search and explore.

Aslaksen remembers a similar story coming out of Hurricane Katrina, and is hopeful that the press surrounding Gee's story will lead to others using the tool in future natural disasters.

A bird's eye view

This technology is hardly new. Aslasksen says NOAA has been taking aerial photos after natural disasters since the 1930s.

Typically, the agency sends a single surveying plane up after hurricanes to see what kind of damage the storm has done to the shorelines that might impact nautical travel. FEMA also gives Aslaksen's team special missions to collect images of the destruction inland.

Aslaksen shared this image showing the routes the survey plane took after Hurricane Michael. The lines covered the shoreline and a large area north of Panama City, with one line stretching up into Georgia:

The images taken from the plane are especially helpful at the beginning of the recovery effort, when search-and-rescue teams are reliant on these pictures to see which routes they can take to reach hard-hit areas or whether they need to be helicoptered in.

Aslasken said he heard Florida officials used the Hurricane Michael images to determine the best places for helicopters to land in the devastated town of Mexico Beach in order to deliver much-needed food and water.

Read more:25 photos show Hurricane Michael's destruction from the sky

A new era of disaster imagery

And it's not only hurricanes they're surveying from the sky.

The team, which usually includes two pilots and a sensor operator, have also been sent to survey the damage after tornadoes, major floods, earthquakes, nor'easters, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and even man-made disasters like the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

It was September 11th that proved a turning point for the division. Back then, they used film to take their pictures, which meant that it could take up to a week to process the data into a digital format.

"When we interacted with the emergency response community, they really said we need it in 24 hours or we can't use it all," Aslaksen said. So his team focused their energies on digitizing their whole process to meet that 24-hour goal.

They met that goal and then some. In regards to Michael, the team flew their first mission Thursday morning and had their first sets of maps out by 8:30 p.m., just four hours after landing.

"Comparatively, if we had to do that from the high-end work stations that we used to carry, that could be eight to 12 hours," he said.

Aslaksen credits the quick turnaround to their camera, which does a lot of the processing while they are still in the air, and the cloud system that they upload their photos to, which can upload between 1,500 to 3,000 images in just a matter of hours.

"Our biggest challenge in a lot of cases is just having a good internet connection to upload the data," he said.

Record-breaking events

After years of responding to natural disasters, Aslaksen said four stuck out in particular: Hurricane Katrina, the Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado, the US Virgin Islands after Hurricane Irma, and Michael.

Aslaksen said it left him awestruck to see before images of the Virgin Islands, totally green, turned to brown after Irma completely stripped the vegetation.

"This really shows you how the impact of these storms can be. When you're told to leave, you need to leave," he said.

Aslaksen said the records show the events they've surveyed in the last year or two have been more severe.

"We're flying a lot more than we used to," he said.

SEE ALSO: A Florida woman sent rescuers to save her family when she saw the word 'HELP' written on the lawn in aerial images after Hurricane Michael

DON'T MISS: 25 photos show Hurricane Michael's destruction from the sky

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How whales became the largest animals ever

Tech stocks took a beating in last week's market-wide sell off. 

But one Wall Street analyst thinks a special breed of software companies are well positioned to withstand choppy stock market conditions. 

In a note published Sunday, Evercore ISI analyst Kirk Materne flagged a group of software companies and compared them to February 2016 levels — that's when the stock market reached a short-lived low point amid uncertainty and fear.

"We believe that when it comes to software investing, times of macro stress and market volatility have usually ended up being good buying opportunities," Materne wrote, adding that investors who look past the "noise in prior crises have generally been rewarded," three to six months later.

The key? Many companies in the software sector have built businesses based on recurring revenue, giving the businesses a "durability" that's now well-understood by investors, Materne wrote.. The top 25 software companies today have 69% of their revenue from recurring business customers, compared to 42% 10 years ago, he said. 

Materne highlighted software companies with estimated growth of more than 20% in the upcoming years. Those stocks tend to have an enterprise value of around 5x their revenue. And as their revenues grow, so will their valuations. 

Here are 18 high-growth software companies to keep on your radar:

SEE ALSO: $7.2 billion Twilio is spending $2 billion to buy one of its publicly-traded partners

Carbon Black

Analysts expect Carbon Black (CBLK), which went public this year, to grow its revenues by 22.7% in 2019 and 24.3% in 2020. Its enterprise value— a slightly different figure from market capitalization — is 2.6x its estimated revenue over the next twelve months. Materne thinks that multiple could reasonably grow to 5x. 

Box

Box (BOX) has had a rough time on the stock market in recent months, and is trading down 10% from a year ago, but its revenues are still slated to grow 20.9% and 17.7% in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The company's enterprise value is 3.7x its estimated revenue over the next twelve months, and Materne thinks it could reasonably grow to a 5x multiple.

Rapid7

Rapid7 (RPD) is up 80% from where it traded a year ago. With 20% revenue growth expected in 2019 and 22.3% growth expected in 2020, the company could continue to see its valuation grow. Its enterprise valuation is curretly 5.2x its estimated revenue over the next twelve months

• Apple cofounder Steve Jobs popularized the "tech keynote" back in the mid-80s, where he would walk on stage to a crowd of hundreds of fans to announce new gadgets, software, and technological developments.
• These days, most of the big tech companies hold similar-style keynotes, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung, and even companies like Huawei, Xiaomi, and Nvidia.
• Keynotes are not very efficient — they're long, and usually lacking surprises given the abundance of leaks of major tech products.
• Tech companies would be better off retiring keynotes in favor of online debuts, where they can control the presentation and messaging — plus preserve some surprises — by making announcements directly to consumers via websites or videos.

Steve Jobs was famous for his "keynote" presentations.

For decades, starting in the mid-1980s all the way up to 2010, hundreds of tech enthusiasts would cheer for Jobs as he walked on stage to debut new gadgets and services in front of a large screen. People treated him like a rock star, even though the keynotes themselves consisted of little more than showing off a PowerPoint presentation using Apple's software, appropriately named "Keynote."

Indeed, Jobs' presentations did feature a "rock star" quality about them. No matter what he was there to talk about, he always made Apple's latest invention sound like something you couldn't live without. He made even smaller developments sound exciting and world-changing.

These days, Jobs is no longer around, but countless imitators have taken his place. Apple continues its keynote presentations, which are held roughly two to three times a year, but plenty of other tech companies do the same: Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Samsung, and even companies like Huawei, Xiaomi, and Nvidia hold similar keynote presentations throughout the year to debut new products.

The thing is, the magic of the keynote has worn off.

Tech companies can't keep a secret anymore

The first tech keynotes were held long before the internet came along. So each presentation had an air of mystery about it: What would be unveiled? How will it change our lives?

These days, that mystery no longer exists. Between the power and pervasiveness of the internet, and the fact hundreds of thousands of interested parties will pay significant sums of money to learn even the smallest detail about the next iPhone, it usually means tech keynotes get spoiled in one way or the other — many months before they're even held.

For years, we've known crucial details about the new iPhone long before Apple holds its official keynote. We knew about Touch ID in the iPhone 5S before it was introduced. We knew about the iPhone 6 redesign months before it happened. And we knew almost every single little detail about the iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone X, and this year's iPhone XS and XS Max, before those phones were launched.

It's not just Apple, though. Samsung's two biggest phones of 2018, the Galaxy S9 and Note 9, were known about months before their debuts. And Google's new Pixel 3 may have been the most-leaked smartphone ever, with countless leaked images and documents — and even a physical sale of a pre-release phone— leading up to its October unveiling.

The fact is, if you follow the news at all in 2018, it's very rare to witness a tech presentation that features legitimate surprises. And if there are no surprises, what's the point of the presentation?

Keynotes should evolve into "online debuts"

If the goal of the keynote is to give tech companies control over how they present their new products, there's a better way to do that than inviting people to a physical event space.

The internet offers powerful visual tools — and the fact is, after every tech keynote ends, the company invites people to just visit the website anyway to learn more.

Therein lies an opportunity: Tech companies should ditch the physical keynote address, which has become old hat by now, and debut their products directly on the internet.

There are a few reasons an online debut would be superior to a tech keynote:

— An online debut gives the company more control over how the new product is presented. With physical keynote addresses, things can go wrong. Microphones can cut out, executives can fumble over their lines, or the products might not work at all! By debuting products online, companies could have total control over how people learn about these new gadgets and services for the first time.

— An online debut provides a greater element of surprise. It's nigh impossible to keep new gadgets a secret before they're debuted, but that's because those products have to make it to a physical event space — and the more people that have exposure to those new products, the greater opportunity there is for leaks. By launching new products online, tech companies could retain the element of surprise; perhaps they could unveil the new product while it's still in its design stage to get ahead of leaks that come out of the supply chain, when the product has already reached the manufacturing stage.

— Keynotes are too long, and too boring, too often. Showcasing new products online first gives people a chance to learn about gadgets at their own pace. Unless they're fans or journalists, most people will not sit through two-hour keynotes — even if it's Apple or Google running the show. Two hours is an extraordinary amount of time, but these tech companies have lots of announcements to get through. By going fully online, tech companies can summarize announcements more easily, or provide more accessible ways to learn about more details instead of sitting through a long presentation.

Whether or not we’ll see tech companies move away from keynotes is another issue entirely. Apple, for one, seems to love its traditional keynotes, and it would be hard to imagine the company ditching those without a major reaction from fans. But for the most part, keynotes have become rote and tired, and should be replaced by something more exciting and innovative. Tech companies owe it to the people who spend countless hours developing those new products to ensure a good first impression.

SEE ALSO: Here's everything Google unveiled at its biggest hardware event of the year

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch Apple unveil a new, bigger watch

Apple unveiled three new iPhones this year: the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR.

While the iPhone XR is in a league of its own— it doesn't even go on sale until the end of this month — the iPhone XS and XS Max are considered the true successors to last year's iPhone X, which featured a total redesign that removed the traditional home button in favor of a facial recognition system and an edge-to-edge OLED display.

But if you're considering the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max, which is the right phone for you?

Here are 3 reasons to choose the larger iPhone XS Max instead of the standard iPhone XS:

SEE ALSO: 9 reasons you should buy the smaller iPhone XS instead of the iPhone XS Max

DON'T MISS: The iPhone XR is coming soon: Here are 9 reasons you should buy it instead of an iPhone XS or XS Max

1. The iPhone XS Max has a bigger display — and for smartphones, bigger screens are better for just about anything.

The iPhone XS and XS Max both feature the same OLED "Super Retina" display from last year's iPhone X — the same pixel density, same contrast ratio, same everything.

The only difference, screen-wise, between the iPhone XS and the XS Max, is the size. But size is a pretty big deal.

Going from 5.8 inches on the iPhone XS to 6.5 inches on the iPhone XS Max is a pretty substantial leap, and that bigger screen comes in handy just about everywhere: If you're writing an email, taking notes, watching a movie, or just reading Reddit or Twitter, having more real estate is a good thing. Your content looks bigger and better — particularly your photos and videos, which really pop on that large OLED screen.

If you spend a lot of time on your phone, it's worth the extra $100 (to start) to upgrade to the bigger screen on the iPhone XS Max.

2. The iPhone XS Max has better battery life than the standard iPhone XS.

Last year's iPhone X could last about 12 to 13 hours on a single charge.

This year's iPhone XS lasts 30 minutes longer than the iPhone X, so expect 12.5 to 13.5 hours.

But iPhone XS Max has the best battery life of them all: It lasts 90 minutes longer than the iPhone X, so expect 13.5 to 14.5 hours.

3. The iPhone XS Max has a slight edge when it comes to graphics and overall performance compared to the standard iPhone XS.

Both new iPhones feature identical processors — including Apple's new A12 Bionic chip, 6-core CPU, a 4-core GPU, and a next-generation neural engine that's dedicated to machine learning.

But for some reason, the iPhone XS Max performs slightly better than the iPhone XS when it comes to benchmark scores for graphics and overall speed.

Tom’s Guide performed three separate benchmark tests on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max — Geekbench 4, which measures overall speed, and 3DMark Slingshot Extreme and GFX Bench 5, which both measure graphics performance. The iPhone XS Max came out on top in all three tests. (Both phones performed much better in those benchmark tests than last year’s iPhone X.)

• Hailey Baldwin submitted an application to trademark the name, "Hailey Bieber," on October 10, The Blast reported Friday.
• The model filed to register the name for the purposes of a clothing line, according to a document found on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website.
• Baldwin and Justin Bieber, who met in 2009, confirmed they got engaged in July.

• Since then, neither Baldwin nor Bieber has commented publicly on their marital status.

• However, in September, people speculated that they were secretly married after the couple was reportedly spotted at a New York City courthouse where marriage licenses are issued.

Hailey Baldwin has submitted an application to trademark the name, "Hailey Bieber."

The model filed to register the name for the purposes of a clothing line on October 10, The Blast reported Friday.

According to a document found on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, the trademark application was filed through Baldwin's company, Rhodedeodato Corp — a combination of the model's middle name, Rhode, and her mother's maiden name, Deodato.

Through her company, Baldwin also submitted applications to trademark her maiden name, "Hailey Baldwin," as well as, "HRB3" — also for the purposes of a clothing line.

Baldwin and Bieber, who met in 2009, have been romantically linked several times — first in 2015, and then again in 2016. In July, one month after they appeared to rekindle their relationship, the pair confirmed they got engaged.

Since then, neither Baldwin nor Bieber has commented publicly on their marital status. However, in September, people speculated that they were secretly married after the couple was reportedly spotted at a New York City courthouse where marriage licenses are issued, according to TMZ.

At the time, an unnamed "religious source" also told People that Baldwin and Bieber were legally married in the courthouse but are planning to have a "big blowout" with friends and family "soon."

On Tuesday, according to Us Weekly, the pair reportedly "simultaneously said yes" when a fan in Los Angeles asked them if they were married. 

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This company spent 10 years developing a product that allows humans to scale walls like a gecko

• Mike Vrabel's aggressive play-calling came back to bite him and the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
• After scoring the potential game-tying touchdown late in their game Sunday against the Chargers, the Titans elected to go for a game-winning two-point conversion.
• The Titans had two attempts to win the game thanks to a defensive penalty but threw incompletions on both plays to lose their third straight game.

Mike Vrabel has made a point to be aggressive in his play-calling as head coach of the Tennessee Titans.

Heading into Sunday, his gutsy calls had worked out alright for the Titans — most notably his decision to go for it on fourth down in overtime against the Eagles back in Week 4, extending a drive that ended with a game-winning touchdown.

But this week with the Titans taking on the Chargers in London, Vrabel's risky decisions caught up with him, and ultimately lost the game.

After trailing for most of the game, Marcus Mariota and the Titans marched 90 yards down the field to score a potential tying touchdown with just 31 seconds remaining in the game. With the score 20-19 with the extra point pending, Vrabel immediately held up two fingers to indicate to his players they'd be going for the win.

The Titans first attempt ended in an incomplete pass, but the team was initially bailed out by a defensive holding penalty that moved the ball up to the one-yard line. Now even closer to the game-winning conversion, the Titans lined up again, but rather than handing the ball off to one-person wrecking crew Derrick Henry to pick up the score, Vrabel elected to pass yet again.

Mariota's pass was tipped and ultimately fell incomplete, sealing the win for the Chargers.

After the game, Vrabel stood by his decision to go for the win.

Vrabel's eagerness to go for the win is certainly understandable — it's a message he's been preaching to his players all season and with the Titans entering the game on a losing streak, could have provided the spark necessary to jumpstart their season.

But when such a move backfires, it's always easy to start second-guessing things — both the decision to pass on the game-tying extra point and the decision to throw for the win when only a yard was needed.

With the loss, the Titans fall to 3-4 on the season, dropping out of pole position in the AFC South.

SEE ALSO: Despite the Chargers' attendance concerns, they may be stuck in Los Angeles for at least 20 years

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What it takes to be an NFL referee

At the Met Gala in early May, a surprising new couple showed up on the red carpet: billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk and Canadian musician and producer Grimes.

While Musk has long been known to date successful and high-profile women, the two made a seemingly unlikely pairing. Shortly before they walked the red carpet together, Page Six announced their relationship and explained how they met — over Twitter, thanks to a shared sense of humor and a fascination with artificial intelligence.

Since they made their relationship public in May, the couple has continued to make headlines: Grimes for publicly defending Musk and speaking out about Tesla, and Musk for tweeting that he wants to take Tesla private, sparking an SEC investigation.

But shortly after Musk's run-in with the SEC, Grimes and Musk unfollowed each other on social media, igniting rumors that the pair had broken up. 

Now, it appears that the couple is spending time together again: they were spotted with Musk's five sons at a pumpkin patch in Los Angeles last weekend. 

For those who may still be wondering who Grimes is and how she and Musk ended up together, here's what you need to know about the Canadian singer and producer.

SEE ALSO: How to dress like a tech billionaire for $200 or less

Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. She attended a school that specialized in creative arts but didn't focus on music until she started attending McGill University in Montreal.

Source: The Guardian, Fader

A friend persuaded Grimes to sing backing vocals for his band, and she found it incredibly easy to hit all the right notes. She had another friend show her how to use GarageBand and started recording music.

Source: The Guardian

In 2010, Grimes released a cassette-only album called "Geidi Primes." She released her second album, "Halfaxa," later that year and subsequently went on tour with the Swedish singer Lykke Li. Eventually, she dropped out of McGill to focus on music.

Source: The Guardian, Fader

• Prince Harry was recently photographed rehearsing an important speech in front of Meghan Markle.
• Hours before the 2018 Invictus Games began Saturday night, Kensington Palace's official Twitter account shared a candid picture of the duke practicing his speech for the event's opening ceremony.
• In the photo, Harry stands on a stage in front of a nearly-empty audience, save for Markle.
• The duchess can be seen sitting in the first row wearing the same white blazer, black top, black pants, and black heels that she was spotted in later that day.
• On Twitter, royal fans said they loved seeing how supportive the duke and duchess are of each other.

Prince Harry was recently photographed rehearsing an important speech in front of Meghan Markle.

Hours before the 2018 Invictus Games kicked off at Sydney Opera House Saturday night, Kensington Palace's official Twitter account shared a candid picture of the duke practicing his speech for the event's opening ceremony.

In the photo, Harry stands on a stage in front of a nearly-empty audience, save for Markle, who is sitting in the first row wearing the same white blazer, black top, black pants, and black heels that she was spotted in later that day.

On Twitter, royal fans said they loved seeing how supportive the duke and duchess are of each other.

The Invictus Games — an international sporting event for wounded and recovering veterans and active servicepeople — will end with a closing ceremony on October 27. Created by Prince Harry, the games have been held annually since 2014.

The duke and duchess, who kicked off their 16-day autumn royal tour on Tuesday, are set to visit cities in Fiji, Tonga, and New Zealand in the coming weeks.

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Game of Thrones' star Maisie Williams has left Arya Stark behind to help fight nepotism in the arts industries

• Among the wounded in a deadly insider attack in Kandahar province, Afghanistan that killed a couple of senior Afghan officials and injured a handful of others was an American general.
• The insider attack, which could have cost the top US commander in Afghanistan his life, injured Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley.
• Resolute Support and the Department of Defense have tried to downplay the tragic incident, at first characterizing the wounded general as an injured "service member" and insisting that the assault was an Afghan-on-Afghan attack in which American military personnel were simply caught in the cross-fire.
• The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said Gen. Austin "Scott" Miller, head of NATO's resolute support mission and US Forces-Afghanistan, was clearly one of the intended targets.

A Taliban insurgent masquerading as a bodyguard managed to wound a US Army general in a high-profile insider attack this week that killed senior Afghan officials, injured two Americans, and nearly cost the top US commander in Afghanistan his life, the Washington Post reported Sunday.

During a high-level meeting at the governor's compound in Kandahar province, one of the governor's bodyguards turned his weapon on those in attendance, which included local police chief Lt. Gen. Abdul Raziq, the governor, and the local head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence service, as well as American military personnel — most notably the commander of NATO's Resolute Support mission and US Forces-Afghanistan Gen. Austin "Scott" Miller.

The attacker was killed in the resulting firefight, which was "over in seconds," according to a Resolute Support spokesman, but not before the assailant inflicted casualties on those caught in the open.

Raziq, a powerful figure and a fierce enemy of the Taliban who had survived several assassination attempts, was killed in the attack, along with the local intelligence chief Abdul Momin. The governor, Zalmai Wessa, was wounded, and so were two Americans and a coalition contractor.

Resolute Support and the Department of Defense described the two US wounded as a "service member and a civilian."

That "service member" was Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley, who sustained at least one gunshot wound, according to The Post, citing four people with knowledge of the deadly attack. The Pentagon confirmed that report later on Sunday.

The Pentagon has sought to downplay the incident, characterizing it as an Afghan-on-Afghan attack where US military personnel were caught in the crossfire. The Taliban countered this narrative, stating that Miller was among the intended targets.

That the Taliban was able to get close enough to take shots at senior US leadership indicates that a victory in the ongoing fight may be farther off than the Pentagon suggests.

The Department of Defense continues to express optimism even as the war in Afghanistan enters its 18th year and Americans who weren't alive when 9/11 occurred are now old enough to enlist. There have been eight US military deaths in Afghanistan this year, significantly less than the nearly 500 killed in 2010, but Afghan casualties remain high.

"We remain absolutely committed to an Afghan-led Afghan reconciliation," Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Friday. "Right now, we're going toward the election and we will continue to defend the Afghan people." Mattis says he continues to have confidence in the Afghan security forces.

The elections were held Saturday after a brief delay following the attack. "With casting our ballots without fear, we honor the sacrifices of the fallen," Afghan President Ashraf Ghani tweeted on election day.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What activated charcoal actually does to your body

• On Sunday, the Saudi foreign minister denied Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman knew of Jamal Khashoggi's death before it occurred in the Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2.
• Saudi Arabia said Saturday that Khashoggi died after a fistfight escalated inside the consulate, but many international leaders were skeptical of that explanation.
• US President Donald Trump, who has been reluctant to punish Saudi Arabia for its suspected hand in the Washington Post columnist's death, said Saturday that "obviously there’s been deception, and there’s been lies" in the Kingdom's response to the incident.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir denied that his powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had anything to do with Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi's death, and doubled down on the claim that a "rogue operation" was responsible.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia claimed Khashoggi died after a "fistfight" escalated inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey, contradicting the accusation from officials in Istanbul that the Washington Post columnist was brutally tortured and dismembered.

Speaking to Fox News' Bret Baier on Sunday, Al-Jubeir said the kingdom was investigating, had arrested 18 suspects, and had fired intelligence officials.

"The crown prince has denied this, the crown prince was not aware of this — even the senior leadership of our intelligence service was not aware of this," he said.

The foreign minister continued: "This was an operation that was a rogue operation. This was an operation where individuals ended up exceeding the authorities and responsibilities they had. They made a mistake when they killed Jamal Khashoggi in the consulate, and they tried to cover up for it."

Al-Jubeir offered his condolences to Khashoggi's family and said he wanted to "make sure those who are responsible are punished."

Khashoggi had entered the consulate on October 2 to get paperwork to marry his fiance, Hatice Cengiz, and never came out. Disturbing accounts from Turkish media immediately started circulating as Saudi officials said Khashoggi had left the consulate, a story that has changed over time.

A senior Saudi official anonymously told Reuters on Sunday that operatives at the consulate "tried to prevent him from shouting but he died. The intention was not to kill him."

The official said the team rolled up Khashoggi's body in a rug and gave it to a "local cooperator" to dispose of, then attempted to remove traces of the incident from the consulate, according to Reuters.

Trump remains reluctant to retaliate

While a growing bipartisan chorus of senators have called for the US to retaliate against Saudi Arabia's alleged involvement in Khashoggi's death, President Donald Trump has been reluctant to commit to sanctions or other such punishments.

Trump said Saturday that he wasn't satisfied with Saudi Arabia's latest response, and again said canceling a $110 billion arms deal with the country would hurt the US "far more than it hurts them."

"Saudi Arabia has been a great ally. But what happened is unacceptable. We are going to see," he said, adding that the arrests were "a big first step. It's only a first step, but it's a big first step."

The president was more critical in an interview with the Washington Post later on Saturday, saying that in Saudi Arabia's explanation for Khashoggi's death, "obviously there's been deception, and there's been lies."

"Nobody has told me he's responsible," Trump told the Post, referring to Crown Prince Mohammed. "Nobody has told me he's not responsible. We haven't reached that point ... I would love if he wasn't responsible."

Republican Sen. Bob Corker took a different view on the crown prince.

"Do I think he did it? Yes, I think he did it," Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. But he said he sees Trump evolving in a positive direction on the issue.

For now, the US, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are continuing their investigations into Khashoggi's death before Trump or the US Senate decide on any retaliatory measures against the Kingdom.

Watch Fox News' interview with the Saudi foreign minister below:

SEE ALSO: Steve Mnuchin says Saudi Arabia's explanation of Khashoggi's death is 'not enough'

DON'T MISS: Here's everything we know about the troubling disappearance and death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Inside the Trump 'MAGA' hat factory

Join the conversation about this story »

• Trucking has always been a sizeable chunk of most corporation's bottom lines. 
• In 2018, the cost of transporting goods from one area to the next has risen significantly.
• Now, company leadership is starting to dig into how they can reduce their transportation costs to ensure that their products reach consumers.

Part of running a business is getting your product to the consumer, whether that's getting your brand's baby oil on the shelf at a pharmacy or auto components to a major manufacturer.

That seems obvious, but industry insiders say that companies are more worried than ever about transportation. A combination of a driver shortage, economic growth, and a new law that constrains the current labor supply means that trucks, which move 71% of all US freight, are in high demand.

Prices are going up as a result. Amazon's shipping costs jumped 31% year-over-year in Q2, even as sales increased only by 12%. Amazon cited the rising cost of logistics as a reason they upped the price of their Prime service earlier this year, and other companies like Tyson Foods and General Mills said they had to increase prices to accommodate for rising shipping costs.

Jim Monkmeyer, who is president of transportation at DHL Supply Chain, told Business Insider transportation budgets have gone from 5% of most companies' expenditures to double-digit percentages.

"It's triggered additional focus in this area," Monkmeyer said. "The expectations have changed dramatically in the last year."

Before, Monkmeyer said, they found the logistics part of their budget "complicated."

But now, keen to keep spending down, Monkmeyer said companies are starting to engage in questions like, "What if I bought this product off-shore versus from Michigan or Ohio versus from Mexico? What are the differences in cost? What's the transit time lead time?"

'Shipper of choice' 

It's not just about spending more, Monkmeyer said. A major part of the discussions going on in the C-suite is ensuring that drivers actually want to work for their companies.

Previously, companies could treat drivers poorly — most notably, having them wait for shipments for hours on end. Now, Drew McElroy, CEO and co-founder of Transfix, told Business Insider that truckers just won't move freight for companies if they're not hospitable to drivers.

"There are places that trucking companies will not pick up from," McElroy said. "'I don't care if you pay me twice what the guy across the street is paying me, I'm just not going there.'"

It's suddenly trendy to mark oneself as a "shipper of choice," said McElroy and Monkmeyer. That means lavishing drivers with appreciation programs and making sure drivers don't have to wait more than two hours to load or unload shipments.

"You have to do everything you can to keep drivers motivated and excited about the company," Monkmeyer said. "Over the past decades, that has not been the case."

For instance, a major retailer told McElroy last month that the firm would pay truck drivers for waiting around for their trailer to be unloaded.

They were upping their detention pay, which is what truckers receive when they're waiting at a shipping dock. In practice, truckers shouldn't wait more than two hours for their trailers to be loaded or unloaded, but sometimes they wait more than five and often don't receive pay for that time.

This major retailer, McElroy explained, was not only going to be paying drivers more for waiting around, but they were enforcing a two-hour detention. It was previously four hours.

These sort of moves ensure that brands can still move their goods to stores and homes in an increasingly tight freight market.

"What's important is making sure that Walmart actually has your t-shirts, because if they don't have them they can't sell them and that affects top line," McElroy said. "And then your company is dead."

SEE ALSO: There's a critical shortage of truck drivers in the US, and it's causing everything from delayed Amazon orders to more expensive groceries

DON'T MISS: An Arkansas court quietly ruled that truck drivers need to be paid minimum wage even when they're not driving on the job — here's what it means for drivers around the US

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This trike is made to look like a semitruck

Fruit is naturally sweet, but not all fruit contains the same amount of sugar.

Knowing which fruits have more or less sugar is important for a number of reasons, particularly if you have certain conditions like diabetes or are trying to follow certain diets. It also can help you determine which fruits might make a great snack and which are sweet enough to fill in as a dessert substitute.

If you've ever wondered just how much sugar might be in a serving of your favorite fruit, here's what you need to know.

Figs have the most sugar.

If you've ever eaten a fresh fig, you know how sweet they can be. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that they are high in sugar content. The Daily Meal reported that a medium-sized fig generally contains about eight grams of sugar. And since you're going to eat more than just one (a serving size is about four), all of that sugar adds up quickly.

Lychees isn't too far behind.

These sweet fruits can contain an awful lot of sugar. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), one cup of fresh lychees contains close to 29 grams of sugar.

Grapes' sugar content can vary by varietal, but tend to be fairly high in sugar.

Unlike some other fruits, the amount of sugar in a serving of grapes can vary based on the type of grapes you're eating. The USDA noted that one cup of Thompson seedless grapes contains just over 23 grams of sugar. So though grapes are definitely a healthy snack, you need to be wary of eating them mindlessly if you're trying to watch your sugar intake.

Afghan voters defied scores of threats, violence, and technical issues to vote in Afghanistan's parliamentary election over the weekend.

More than 4 million people cast their votes on more than 2,500 candidates nationwide for 250 legislative seats. With an estimated 8.8 million registered voters, that's a turnout of 45%.

A record 418 women were candidates in the tense election, which is being held more than three years late and amid threats of attack from the Taliban and the Islamic State group.

See how voters turned out despite the election's conditions:

Afghan officials announced the end of parliamentary elections Monday, after at least 36 people were killed in nearly 200 attacks on the first day of polling, according to Deputy Interior Minister Akhtar Mohammed Ibrahimi.

Source: Associated Press

The Taliban had vowed to attack the election before a suicide bomber blew himself up in the first attack Saturday in front of a polling station in a Kabul school, killing at least 15 people.

Source: BBC

Widespread violence did not deter scores of voters for turning out after a 3-year delay, with many telling the BBC they were emboldened by threats of attack, vowing: "We won't let the Taliban win."

Source: BBC

• Aurora Cannabis is set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday under the ticker ACB.
• Shares were down more than 14% on Monday.
• Watch Aurora Cannabis trade in real time here.

Aurora Cannabis was plunging Monday, down more than 14%, one day ahead of the company's trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Canadian producer, which grows cannabis for both the adult-use and medicinal market, has seen its market capitalization explode by more than 150% since August — to nearly $10 billion — as both corporate giants and investors have gotten in on the "green rush" into marijuana.

On August 15, the beverage maker Constellation Brands announced it was investing $4 billion in an Aurora rival, Canopy Growth, sparking a wave of interest in the space.

A month later, Bloomberg reported that Aurora had held talks with Coca-Cola about developing beverages infused with CBD, a nonpsychoactive compound found in cannabis. No deal was announced.

"Aurora has expressed specific interest in the infused beverage space, and we intend to enter that market," an Aurora representative told Business Insider at the time.

"There is so much happening in this area right now and we think it has incredible potential. As a rule, we do not discuss business-development initiatives until they are finalized; however, we have a responsibility to our shareholders to give proper consideration to all relevant opportunities that are presented."

And last week, Canada became just the second country to legalize marijuana, but that didn't have the impact investors were hoping for. Cannabis stocks got slammed as traders sold the news.

But investors remain optimistic that Canada's legalization is the dawn of a new era for investors.

"We believe that the legalization in Canada offers a road map to invest in the companies that will form the basis of the legal cannabis industry in the coming years," Jon Trauben, a managing partner at the cannabis-focused Altitude Investment Management, said.

Aurora Cannabis is set to trade under the ticker ACB beginning Tuesday.

Jeremy Berke contributed to this report.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Game of Thrones' star Maisie Williams has left Arya Stark behind to help fight nepotism in the arts industries

Even if you've never watched "Friday Night Lights," chances are you've heard the most famous line from the hit TV show: "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose."

The show, based on the 1990 book by Buzz Bissinger and the 2004 movie of the same name, is highly regarded by fans, even if the ratings at the time didn't always reflect it. From 2006 -2011, the series followed a fictional high school football team in Dillon, Texas.

Here are surprising things you probably didn’t know about "Friday Night Lights."

Taylor Kitsch drank beer during his audition tape for Tim Riggins.

During a "Friday Night Lights" reunion at the ATX Television Festival, Scott Porter (who played Jason Street) said Kitsch downed one tall-boy after opening it with one hand, then opened another one.

When he finished, he said, "This is Taylor Kitsch, reading for Riggins." Porter added, "And then he begins the scene by the pool where he says, 'Texas forever' for the first time."

Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton drove from Los Angeles to Austin together before filming to get to know each other.

Once Chandler and Britton were hired to play husband and wife, they decided a long road trip together would help their on-screen chemistry.

The idea terrified creator Peter Berg, who told Grantland, "Connie and Kylie developed a very flirtatious, precocious relationship right off the bat. And Kyle, of course, is married." He added, "I was convinced they would be having some torrid affair by the time they reached Sante Fe and Kyle's marriage would be over by the time they got to Austin."

Britton almost didn't take the role of Tami Taylor because she didn't want to just be Coach Taylor's wife.

Britton played the coach's wife in the movie version of "Friday Night Lights," and when Berg offered her the role in the show, she said no.

Berg told Grantland, she said, "Are you f---ing kidding me? You think I'm going to spend 10 years sitting on a hardwood bleacher getting splinters in my a-- and cheering on Kyle Chandler? You're out of your mind."

Berg had to promise Britton they would give Tami a job, "dimension," and a "real voice." They had to promise to make her role significant in order to get her on board.

Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours. Sign up here to get the best of Business Insider delivered direct to your inbox.

A Wall Street expert who recently fled the stock market says these 3 signals need to flash before he gets back in

Vincent Deluard, a macro strategist at INTL FCStone, made a very prescient call when he forecast the most recent equity sell-off right before it happened.

While his foresight was rewarded, Deluard now faces the difficult task of figuring out when to reenter the stock market — and outlines three signals that need to flash before he considers it.

Goldman Sachs is creating a new consumer finance division — and it's part of a goal to take on wealth management giants

Goldman Sachs has big ambitions for its small-but-growing consumer finance business, Marcus.

It's a key part of CEO David Solomon's plans to boost revenue at the bank, and one that could become a $1 billion revenue opportunity in the next few years.

To supercharge Marcus' growth, Goldman said on Monday that it's creating a new unit to house both its digital finance business and its investment management division. The goal is the next step in Goldman's plan to take the Marcus platform from its consumer banking roots to a more full-service wealth offering.

A $100 million trade shows how Credit Suisse is competing in a cutthroat race to snag the biggest stock trades

In a cutthroat race to snag the biggest stock trades, Wall Street banks have been taking on more risk to compete. Credit Suisse had chosen to stay on the sidelines of one increasingly popular trading strategy — until now.

The Swiss bank in the past 12 months has introduced a so-called central risk book, a desk in which technology pools risk across dozens of traders so it can be better managed. The new CRB, rolled out this year in Europe after debuting last year in the US, is another sign the Swiss bank has growing ambitions and is increasing the amount of risk it's taking in equities trading.

One notable trade on the European risk book this year was above $100 million, a person familiar with the trade said. While a $100 million trade is a large amount for a single transaction at any bank, at Credit Suisse it was especially so.

HSBC is making a $130 million investment in its bank branches and the latest step is to arm its bankers with Samsung watches

HSBC has begun what it's calling a first-of-its kind program to bring wearable technology into its bank branches.

The firm is piloting a program where branch bankers wear a watch allowing them to send and receive messages, or speak to colleagues using small microphones.

The pilot is a partnership with Samsung at HSBC's flagship Fifth Avenue branch in New York City in which HSBC bankers will wear Samsung Gear S3 watches with customized software.

The idea of the program is that it will allow employees at the branch — which has three floors and lots of rooms — to be more productive by improving communication, according to Jeremy Balkin, head of innovation for HSBC's US unit. Due to the size of the branch, its often hard to know where employees are at any given time and difficult to find them if one of their customers shows up for a meeting, or the front desk needs covering, he said.

Business Insider visited HSBC's branch last week to check out the new wearable technology.

Aurora Cannabis is plunging ahead of its debut on the New York Stock Exchange

Aurora Cannabis was plunging Monday, down more than 10%, one day ahead of the company's trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Canadian producer, which grows cannabis for both the adult-use and medicinal market, has seen its market capitalization explode by more than 150% since August — to nearly $10 billion — as both corporate giants and investors have gotten in on the "green rush" into marijuana.

In markets news

• Wall Street experts performed an autopsy on the stock market's recent debacle — here's why they're convinced you should be buying
• BANK OF AMERICA: These 16 stocks are primed to smash investor expectations and beat the market as we enter the most crucial stretch of earnings season

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Ray Dalio says the economy looks like 1937 and a downturn is coming in about two years