• Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin spoke to Business Insider about his team's wild season.
• Rubin said newly acquired superstar Jimmy Butler has changed the organization on and off the court and has been more impressive than they thought.
• Rubin spoke about Joel Embiid's larger-than-life personality, including a harrowing tale of forcing Embiid down a waterslide.
• Rubin also called the fan petition to ban Kendall Jenner, who is dating Ben Simmons, from Sixers games "ridiculous."

It's been a momentous year for the Philadelphia 76ers, and the season isn't even halfway through.

After a sluggish start, the team pulled off a blockbuster trade for All-Star guard/forward Jimmy Butler, pairing him with fellow superstars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. The team has since won eight of ten games and appears to be among the contenders in the Eastern Conference.

Conversely, the team has also dealt with the extended Markelle Fultz saga. The 2017 No. 1 pick has once again dealt with shooting issues, with his agent announcing that Fultz would be seeing specialists to diagnose issues in his shoulders. On Tuesday, it was reported that Fultz has a nerve issue that will force him to him miss three to six weeks while he rehabs.

Read more:Doctors have discovered a nerve condition in Markelle Fultz's neck and shoulder that may have led to his perplexing shooting woes

After speaking at Business Insider's IGNITION conference, 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin briefly spoke with INSIDER to discuss the 76ers' whirlwind season, from the Butler trade, to his favorite Embiid story, Simmons' relationship with Kendall Jenner, and Fultz.

Scott Davis: What convinced you guys to make the move for Jimmy Butler?

Michael Rubin: Anything every team wants to do is, how do you strengthen the team on the court day in and day out? I think for the Sixers, it was certainly a great opportunity to bring in another superstar and to go from two superstars to three superstars is incredible.

Davis: What has surprised you about Butler's fit with the team? What conceptions did you have about him that have been different in reality?

Rubin: I think Jimmy's been incredible. We thought this was a guy who's incredibly tough, and he's even tougher than we thought. The way he's been able to take two game-winning shots in his first few games just shows what he's made of. He's got a lot of experience. He's a real baller making a real difference. He's making a difference on the court and off the court, really in every aspect of the organization.

Davis: How have Butler and Joel Embiid worked together? There was some talk about whether two big personalities like theirs would clash. How has it been?

Rubin: I don't think it's a secret that I'm incredibly close with Jo. We talk about this all the time. I think they're jelling really well. I think they're liking each other. I think they really believe in each other.

I think, to be honest, the way I've seen Ben, Joel, and Jimmy all grow has been pretty incredible. I think Jimmy's come in with the right attitude: 'Hey, I don't care if I don’t make as many shots as I used to because I've got two other superstars. I just want to win at all costs.' By the way, that's someone we wanted, someone who had a winning attitude. And that's what he brings to the table.

Davis: What's your best Joel Embiid story?

Rubin: I mean, how many days do you have to be here? I've got so many incredible Joel Embiid stories.

Well, one that's pretty well known, we went to a friend's birthday together in the Bahamas earlier this year. Joel, we had to convince him to go down a waterslide. After we got down the waterslide, in the Bahamas, there was, like, a rapid river and it was about two feet high. And Joel literally started hyperventilating and he thought he was drowning. I'm like, 'Jo, stand up, stand up! You're okay, bro!' And he was literally like, it was like two feet of water that a five-year-old could stand up in, and he was literally drowning in the water.

Davis: Was there a moment of panic that your franchise star was going to drown in a lazy river?

Rubin: No, there was no moment of panic. It was two feet of water. I was 100% convinced that he could, on his knees, even if he just pushed his hands up, he'd be okay.

Davis: There's Embiid's on-court persona, which is well known. What's he like off of the court? Is there something people don't realize about him?

Rubin: No, the Joel you see on the court is exactly what you have off the court. He's that much of a character day-in and day-out.

We went, we challenged Joel to a little sales competition in the NBA Store last week. On the way, I walked into my apartment, and Joel had ordered five dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts. ... He wanted to figure out how to fatten me up because he thought he could torture me and that was the fun thing to do ... I'm not going to speak to how many he had, but it was a both disappointing — because we don’t want him eating sugar like that — but also impressive amount of doughnuts consumed.

Davis: Is it true he had to be cut off of Shirley Temples?

Rubin: He is not cut off from Shirley Temples.

Davis: What do you think about the petition that fans signed to keep Kendall Jenner from Sixers games?

Read more: Nearly 10,000 people have signed a petition to ban Kendall Jenner from attending 76ers basketball games

Rubin: I think it's ridiculous. I think Kendall's awesome. I've spent a bunch of time with her. I was with Kendall a few days ago and Kendall insisted on going home and getting a good night's sleep when Ben wanted to stay out for a late dinner. So, Kendall's been a great influence on him, and we've won every game she's been at but one so far.

Davis: Turning to something more serious, there's a lot of speculation about the Markelle Fultz situation. What is the team doing to support him and help him through whatever he is going through?

Editor's note: ESPN reported that Fultz was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition affecting the nerves between his neck and shoulders, resulting in a limited range of movement, shortly after this interview.

Rubin: Look, Markelle is an incredible human being. I know him well. You couldn't get a more likable individual. I think we're doing everything we can to support him on the court and off the court. We're gonna make sure he gets the best medical care possible and we're gonna do everything we possibly can to support him.

• Read more:
• The Warriors had a team-wide meningitis scare during their championship run and nobody outside noticed
• Luka Doncic, the 19-year-old Slovenian wunderkind who surprisingly fell in the draft, is already blowing away the NBA
• Charles Barkley and Shaq got into another mind-boggling argument about the best players in the NBA
• The 24 highest-paid players in the NBA for the 2018-19 season

Join the conversation about this story »

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• The list of the most visited cities in the world was released this week by market-research firm Euromonitor International.
• New York City saw more than 13 million international tourists last year, but it only finished No. 8 on the global list.
• Asian cities dominated the top 10, with one city attracting nearly 28 million international tourists.

Euromonitor International released its annual ranking of the most visited cities in the world this week, measuring the appeal of some of the world's most famous destinations to international travelers.

The UK-based market-research firm looked at 600 cities worldwide and ranked the 100 that attracted the most international tourists in 2017, and projected estimates for 2018 using part-year data.

Read more: 13 places to visit in December for every type of traveler

Seven American cities made the cut this year, led by New York City, which attracted more than 13 million tourists in 2017, good for eighth in the global rankings.

Meanwhile, Asian cities dominated the top of the list, comprising seven out of the top 10 most popular cities. One Asian tourism powerhouse retained its title for the eighth consecutive year, leading the world with nearly 28 million international visitors. 

Read on to see the biggest urban tourism hotspots in the world:

SEE ALSO: France has been the most-visited country in the world for more than 20 years in a row — but experts think it's about to lose its crown

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31. Barcelona, Spain

2017 arrivals: 6,530,100

2018 estimate: 6,726,000

30. Osaka, Japan

2017 arrivals: 6,605,900

2018 estimate: 7,456,300

29. Agra, India

2017 arrivals: 6,644,000

2018 estimate: 8,258,200

• Every week, Parrot Analytics provides Business Insider the most in-demand TV shows on streaming services.
• This week includes Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and Netflix's "The Last Kingdom."

Amazon's Emmy-winning comedy "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" returned this week with its second season, and immediately landed on the list of audiences' top shows.

Every week, Parrot Analytics provides Business Insider with a list of the seven most "in-demand" TV shows on streaming services. The data is based on "demand expressions," the globally standardized TV demand measurement unit from Parrot Analytics. Audience demand reflects the desire, engagement, and viewership weighted by importance, so a stream or download is a higher expression of demand than a "like" or comment on social media.

This week's most in-demand streaming shows also include Netflix's "The Last Kingdom," which debuted on the list last week, and the recently canceled "Daredevil."

Below are this week's seven most popular shows on Netflix and other streaming services:

SEE ALSO: 'Avengers: Endgame' directors on dealing with sky-high expectations, and which characters they want to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe

7. "The Last Kingdom" (Netflix)

Average demand expressions: 21,484,962 

Description: "As Alfred the Great defends his kingdom from Norse invaders, Uhtred — born a Saxon but raised by Vikings — seeks to claim his ancestral birthright."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 2): 83%

What the critics said (Season 3): The lazy gloss on this BBC series, set in 9th-century Britain and based on a series of novels by Bernard Cornwell, is that it’s a poor man’s Game of Thrones. And yes, the aesthetics are the same: furs and fortresses, gloriously tattooed pagans, bloody battles in windswept fields. But the reason Kingdom has been something of a cult pleasure since it debuted in 2015 is the way it’s pitched somewhere between solemn drama and high-camp hilarity. — Taylor Antrim, Vogue

Season 3 premiered on Netflix November 19.

6. "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (Amazon)

Average demand expressions: 21,647,286 

Description: After Midge’s triumph at the Gaslight, the fallout from her takedown of Sophie Lennon looms large, making her climb up the comedy ladder more challenging than ever. As the actual grind of being a comic begins to take its toll on Midge, the pressure to come clean to her family weighs on her – especially as her choices have a ripple effect on everyone around her.

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 2): 94%

What critics said:"Sherman-Palladino has written a woman who's fearless, blunt, and brilliant at what she does, and watching her rise is Mrs. Maisel's trump card."— Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic

Season 2 premiered on Amazon December 5.

5. "The Handmaid's Tale" (Hulu)

Average demand expressions: 23,160,282

Description: "A woman forced into sexual servitude struggles to survive in a terrifying, totalitarian society."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score (Season 2): 91%

What critics said: "The colors on the show's palette now include alternating resignation, rage, supplication and subversion; Elisabeth Moss continues to excel, but glimpses of the world beyond her have grown yet more intriguing."— Daniel D'Addario, Time

Season 2 premiered on Hulu in April.

• New York's LaGuardia Airport has a reputation for being one of the worst airports in the US.
• I reviewed my experience flying out of Terminal B in December 2017 and found it to be dirty, cramped, and poorly lit.
• I flew out of the terminal again in November and noticed improvements.
• In its current state, LaGuardia is still not equipped to be a transit hub for one of the biggest cities in the world, but recent improvements indicate that it's on the right track.

New York's LaGuardia Airport has a reputation for being one of the worst airports in the US.

While New York City's government cited proximity to the airport as an advantage Amazon would gain by locating its second headquarters in Long Island City in its pitch to the company (Amazon ultimately decided to place half of its second headquarters in Long Island City), travelers who use the airport have suggested that working close to it could be a curse as much as a blessing. 

Read more: The 10 airports in America people hate flying into the most

A 2018 study of more than 40,000 travelers by JD Power found that respondents were less satisfied with their experiences at LaGuardia than at any other large or medium airport in North America. That may change in the years to come, as an $8 billion makeover is underway, but for now, LaGuardia still lags behind other major airports.

I reviewed my experience flying out of Terminal B in December 2017 and found it to be dirty, cramped, and poorly lit. I flew out of the terminal again in November and noticed improvements. Concourse C, where my gate was located, was cleaner and brighter than the year before. Even better was the new pickup area for ride-hailing services, which was a vast improvement over the old system.

In its current state, LaGuardia is still not equipped to be a transit hub for one of the biggest cities in the world, but recent improvements indicate that it's on the right track.

Here's what I saw during my most recent trip to LaGuardia.

SEE ALSO: Here are the best airlines for 2018 according to The Points Guy

I arrived at the airport a little before 6 pm on a Tuesday.

I noticed that progress had been made on construction near Terminal B.

Here's what it looked like in December 2017.

• Jason Momoa hosted NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and brought back his "Game of Thrones" character, Khal Drogo, for a hilarious skit. 
• The "Aquaman" star appeared on talk show parody titled "Khal Drogo's Ghost Dogo," and was joined by several "SNL" cast members dressed as killed off "GoT" characters.
• Keenan Thompson played a bloodrider, Beck Bennett portrayed Hodor, Pete Davidson appeared as the High Sparrow, and Kate McKinnon portrayed King Joffrey. 
• Heidi Gardner played Brienne of Tarth, who hasn't been killed on the HBO series yet. 
• Watch the video below.

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.   

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NOW WATCH: The true story behind the name 'Black Friday' is much darker than you may have thought

• A bottle of perfume encrusted with rubies, diamonds, and gold will cost you up to $20 million.
• It's part of a fragrance line from French luxury brand Morreale Paris with bottles that start at $1.5 million and can cost up to $20 million depending on customization of the bottle.
• Each bottle takes more than 35 people up to a year to make and it's marketed for "royals and the .0001%."

A French luxury brand is betting that the world's wealthiest people will pay a lot for a fancy bottle of perfume.

A bottle of fragrance from Morreale Paris' "Le Monde sur Mesure" line comes encrusted with diamonds, rubies, and gold, and it costs between $1.5 million and $20 million. Each scent and bottle is customized for the individual client.

"Our clientèle is mostly composed of wealthy art and jewel collectors as well as fragrance enthusiasts," the brand's creative director, Maxime Rançon, told Business Insider. "'Le Monde Sur Mesure' is not only a fragrance, it is a jewel, a story, a precious piece of art. Our clients ... come to us for the House Morreale to create a unique and precious piece of art bespoke that only very few people on this planet can [have] access to." 

Rançon said they've sold one $1.5-million-bottle so far — with gold "armor" and encrusted diamonds — to a family located in the Middle East who wishes to remain anonymous, and they're in conversation with another potential buyer.

Each bottle takes more than 35 people up to a year to make, Rançon said, and the scent is unique to each client. The client can either choose from an exclusive creation by Morreale — which would only be used once — or they can work with Morreale to create a scent completely from scratch. 

Rançon explained that "every bottle design is different depending on the client, every bottle comes with a different piece of jewelry, a different armor, different stones, etc… which makes each piece truly unique on the outside and on the inside." 

Society Group, a real estate PR firm that sells multimillion-dollar homes with Hollywood trailers and Instagram parties, will exhibit the fragrance at luxury properties in Los Angeles starting in January, at "private events for millionaires and billionaires," a representative for the company told Business Insider.

But before an interested buyer can get a bottle of this exclusive perfume, they must fill out an online application form. 

"The questionnaire means that we want to know our clients, who they are and what is their impact on our world," Rançon said. And, he noted, 25% of the proceeds from each perfume sale go to charity.

Those who buy a bottle of the multimillion-dollar fragrance are invited to fly around the world with the company during the process of selecting ingredients and creating the unique bottle — in Morreale's private jet.

"The process of creation is a journey of the body and the spirit around the world searching for the rarest natural treasures of this planet," Rançon said. "... The experience is an awakening: Now that you've seen the world, you can own it. You deserve it. Welcome home."

SEE ALSO: 5 restaurants in NYC earned the highest Michelin rating for 2019 — and 2 of them have topped the list every year since the ranking started

DON'T MISS: The president of a company that designs private plane interiors says ultra-wealthy clients no longer want their private jets to look like private jets

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• Amazon currently offers a wide array of Echo smart speakers. 
• While there are plenty of excellent and expensive options to choose from, there's only one Amazon Echo most people really need: the Amazon Echo Dot.
• The Echo Dot only costs $50, but it looks great and can do everything the other Echo devices can do. 
• Here are three reasons to choose the Echo Dot. 

Back in September, Amazon unveiled a truckload of new Echo devices. 

There was an Echo for your car, an Echo subwoofer, an Echo microwave, and an Echo Clock. Plus, Amazon revealed redesigned versions of the more mainstream Echo Show, Dot, and Plus. 

There are now so many Echo devices, it's almost impossible to count them — and seemingly even harder to pick the right one for you. 

But even though Amazon makes plenty of solid Echo devices to choose from, there is actually one option that will suit most people just fine: the Echo Dot. It may seem like the most basic option in Amazon's lineup, but there are plenty of reasons to buy the Dot over some of the fancier options. 

Here's why the Echo Dot is the only Echo you really need: 

SEE ALSO: Amazon's latest onslaught of hardware proves it won't stop until it reaches every aspect of your life

1. The price

The Echo Dot only costs $50, and Amazon frequently offers promotions on it — for Black Friday, for instance, Amazon was selling the Dot for $24, and for the holidays, it's on sale for $30.  

Compared to Amazon's other devices, the Dot is crazy-cheap. The standard Echo is $100 (although it's on sale for $70 right now), the Echo Spot is $130, and the Echo Plus is $150. But there's no reason to spend that much when you can get a Dot for as lost as $24.

2. The design

Amazon changed the look of the Dot when it introduced the new model earlier this fall.

The original Dot was a hard, plastic device that had the overall look and feel of hockey puck. But the new Dot adopted the fabric exterior of the standard Echo, giving it a fuzzier, cozier look. 

The new design makes the Dot look not only more high-end, but more modern, too, and it should fit into your home's decor better. Plus, the Dot's small size means it fits well into nearly any space in your home — your bedside table, your kitchen counter, your bathroom...you name it. 

3. The functionality

Perhaps the most important reason to choose the Echo Dot has more to do with what's on the inside than what's on the outside. 

The version of Alexa that lives inside the Echo Dot is no better and no worse than the Alexa that lives inside the Echo and Echo Plus. The Echo Dot can still answer random questions, make shopping lists, let you know the status of your package, tell you the news and weather, and more. You're not getting a subpar Alexa just because you buy the less expensive product. 

The only area where the Dot may not measure up to other Echo devices is the audio quality. Amazon improved the speakers on the Dot compared to the previous generation, but due to its small size, the sound quality likely isn't as good as a device like the Echo Plus. 

However, the Echo Dot has an ace up its sleeve: It has a standard audio jack in the back, so you can plug in any full-sized speakers you happen to have lying around. You can still talk to Alexa via the Echo Dot, but the sound output will come through your sound system — meaning it's a good, affordable way to make your existing stereo a little smarter. 

That being said, if you're in the market for high-end audio, and you don't have your own speakers, don't buy an Echo anyway. There are far better speakers out there for playing music, audiobooks, or podcasts. 

• Your passion shouldn't necessarily become your full-time job.
• That's according to career coach and ex-Googler Lindsay Gordon.  An avid baker, she took a pastry-making class and learned she should keep baking as a hobby — for now.
• If she were a full-time pastry chef, she'd have to wake up early and make the same things every day, instead of getting to learn and challenge herself all the time.
• Gordon encourages clients to test out their passion on a small scale and see if they would still enjoy it as a job.

I've had more than one friend tell me recently that they'd like to open a bakery.

They love baking; they're good at it — why not ditch the corporate world and go all-in on their passion?

Ask Lindsay Gordon and she'll rattle off a number of potential reasons why not. Gordon runs career-coaching company A Life of Options; she previously worked at Google, most recently as a career development and team culture program manager. In the past few years, Gordon has confronted head-on this question around whether to make her passion (specifically for baking — it seems to be a common theme) her job.

Gordon loves to bake and she's quite adept at it, too — so much so that people are constantly urging her to become a professional baker.

As she describes in a blog post on her website, in 2016 Gordon took a five-day pastry class at the San Francisco Baking Institute. "I've never had more fun in my life," she writes. But at the end of the course, it was pretty clear to her that she didn't want to be a professional pastry chef.

Gordon realized that what she loved about the class were the opportunity to learn, as well as the constant challenge and novelty. But she wouldn't necessarily get those things from a career as a pastry chef. More likely, she'd be starting her day around 3 a.m., making the same types of pastries over and over again.

Gordon told me she learned a key lesson from this experience — one she draws on when coaching clients who are looking for the next step in their career. "I love encouraging people to test it out and try it," she told me. "What's the smallest way you can go test out something that excites you?"

Read more: A career coach and former Googler breaks down the 4 steps to making a change in your career

The idea, she added, is that you're having fun and exploring, landing somewhere between 0% (not pursuing your passion at all) and 100% (turning your hobby into a job).

Timing is key when considering whether to turn your hobby into a full-time job

Over on TopResume, Natalia Autenrieth advises readers that if they want to pursue their passion for, say, art as their full-time job, "You may need to compromise the kind of art that you make, show up earlier than you would like, and do the selling. Does the thought of that drain you?"

And on Glassdoor, Heather Huhman suggests that readers think carefully about timing: "Map out what kind of time frame you would need to get things up and running and take your personal life into consideration. If you're getting married, buying a house, attempting to pay off student loans or credit card debt, making a risky career transition may not be the best at this time."

As for Gordon, she's careful to note that one day, she may in fact want to open her own bakery or become a full-time baker. At that point, she could design a job based on what she's learned about herself. In the blog post, she writes that she might open a pop-up bakery that sold one thing every day, so she could try her hand at new recipes.

Now, when well-meaning friends and family tell Gordon (as if they're the first one to think it!) that she should open a bakery, she can say with confidence: "I appreciate you thinking that and here's the reason why I don't think that would be a good fit for me right now, based on what I know."

SEE ALSO: A former Googler and career coach tells clients with boring jobs that it's OK, and it can even be a good thing

Join the conversation about this story »

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A hook system more reliable than the MTA

Umbra Subway Wall Hook, $30, available at Amazon

Part art piece and part functional organizer, the subway-inspired wall hook reminds them of the joys (and terrors) of riding public transportation. 

A GoPro harness for their dog

GoPro Fetch Dog Harness, $30.40, available at Amazon

To see life through their dog's eyes might be one of the best perspectives an owner can experience. The comfortable and sturdy harness will take viewers on canine adventures of all kinds.

A programmable R2-D2

'We're getting a lot better': The head of the US Navy's newest fleet says it can counter one of Russia's favorite tactics

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For the second-straight season, Stephen Curry is the NBA's highest-paid player.

But not all teams pay their top players the way the Golden State Warriors pay Curry or the way the Los Angeles Lakers pay LeBron James.

In all, 11 players are making at least $30 million this season, and 26 teams have at least one player making at least $20 million. And then there are the Sacramento Kings who have nobody making $12 million.

Below we take a look at this season's highest-paid players on every team and how their contracts break down, with data provided by Spotrac.

30. Zach Randolph, Sacramento Kings — $11.7 million

Position: Power Forward

Contract: 2 years, $24.0 million

One thing to know: By the end of this season, Randolph will have made $197 million in his career. That is one of the 20 highest-paid players of all time.

29. Kent Bazemore, Atlanta Hawks — $18.1 million

Position: Shooting Guard

Contract: 4 years, $70.0 million

One thing to know: Bazemore is expected to pick up his player option for next season at $19.3 million. The rebuilding Hawks would like to move the contract but have been unsuccessful so far. The Rockets, Pelicans, and Bucks showed interest in trading for Bazemore during the offseason.

28. Allen Crabbe, Brooklyn Nets — $18.5 million

Position: Shooting Guard

Contract: 4 years, $74.8 million

One thing to know: Crabbe has a player option for the 2019-20 season he will likely pick up. The Nets probably want to trade Crabbe, but will have a hard time finding somebody to take a player who is now scoring 8.1 points per game and has seen his eFG% drop from 57.2% to 42.4% in two seasons.

• Former FBI director James Comey said in a testimony Friday that anyone who thought the FBI sought to favor then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in an investigation was "smoking something.'
• Comey was testifying to the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee concerning his role in investigating Hillary Clinton's email server.
• President Donald Trump was one of the most prominent figures to take issues with Comey's handling of investigating Clinton's emails, which remains one of his key talking points at rallies with his supporters, who often chant "lock her up." 

Former FBI director James Comey said in a testimony Friday that anyone who thought the FBI sought to favor then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in an investigation into her use of a private email server was "smoking something."

Comey was testifying to the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee concerning his role in investigating Clinton's email server and the Trump campaign's potential ties to Russia.

According to the session's transcript, Rep. John Ratcliffe addressed Comey to summarize his remarks and confirm his July 2016 statement that though Clinton had mishandled and lied about emails, no criminal charges should be brought against her.

"Yep, I believed it then, I believe it now," Comey said. "Anybody that thinks we were on team Clinton trying to cut her a break is smoking something."

Ratcliffe replied before moving on to the next question, "I'll object to everything after 'yep' as nonresponsive to my question."

After months of pushing for public testimony, Comey settled for closed-door proceedings with a transcript released the next day. However, in a tweet posted Friday evening after the session, Comey said House Republicans were not conducting "a search for truth" as much as they were executing "a desperate attempt to find anything that can be used to attack the institutions of justice investigating this president."

Though he first earned Trump's ire when he publicly confirmed the existence of the Russia investigation in March 2017, Comey's participation has earned a resurgence of public hits from Trump.

In a series of tweets posted Sunday morning, Trump accused "Leakin' James Comey" of lying to Congress in his testimony but offered no evidence or further explanation.

Read more: Trump lashes out on Twitter after James Comey's testimony: 'All lies!'

Comey and Clinton have been two of President Donald Trump's most notable targets long after the 2016 investigation and election.

Clinton's use of a private email server to conduct government business when she was secretary of state remains one of Trump's key talking points with his supporters, who often chant "lock her up" at rallies. 

The New York Times reported last month that Trump wanted to order the Justice Department to investigate the two, who he sees as two of his biggest political rivals, but backed down when he was told he didn't have the authority.

SEE ALSO: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lashes-out-on-twitter-after-james-comeys-testimony-all-lies-2018-12

DON'T MISS: James Comey told lawmakers that he's 'not friends' with Mueller, despite Trump's claims

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NOW WATCH: Anthony Scaramucci claims Trump isn't a nationalist: 'He likes saying that because it irks these intellectual elitists'

• Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested on December 1 in Canada over fears the company violated US sanctions against Iran.
• Meng is the daughter of Huawei's ultra-wealthy CEO and founder, Ren Zhengfei.
• Ren and his three children are Chinese royalty, given Huawei is China's most successful tech firm and is bigger in smartphones than Apple.
• While Meng and her brother Meng Ping work at Huawei and keep their heads down, their half-sister Annabel Yao is a social media-loving socialite who loves ballet and recently appeared at a high-fashion debutante ball in Paris.

The high-profile arrest of Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, has thrust the Chinese mobile and telecommunications firm into the Western spotlight.

Most people know Huawei in the US and Europe for its well-produced line of smartphones that firmly compete with Apple's iPhone, Samsung's flagships, and Google's Pixel line.

Now US authorities are scrutinizing the Chinese company, and Meng in particular, for potentially violating its trade sanctions against Iran.

Meng isn't just Huawei's CFO, she's Chinese royalty. Her father, Ren Zhengfei, is the founder and CEO of Huawei and keeps an ultra-low profile despite his reputed massive wealth of $3.2 billion.

 According to reports,  Ren has been married three times, and produced a brood of sons of daughters, not all of whom are quite so media-shy.

Here's his youngest daughter, Annabel Yao, appearing at a debutante's ball in Paris in November 2018:

Here's a window into the lives of these crazy rich Asians: 

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei was born in 1944, and came of age just before China's Cultural Revolution began. Zhengfei is his first name, as surnames come first in China.

Ren was born in China's poorest province, Guizhou. He told the BBC in 2015 that he came from a humble background. "We had salt to cook with so we were considered wealthy," he said.

The BBC show is no longer available, but you can read a summary here.

At the age of 30, Ren joined China's military as an engineer — a connection that still provokes questions about Huawei's ties to the army and the government.

He's denied that the Chinese government has ever asked Huawei to spy.

• The UK Parliament published a trove of top-secret Facebook executive emails on Wednesday.
• The hundreds of pages of documents provide an unprecedented window into Facebook leadership's approach to competition and growth.
• Read the key takeaways from the documents below.

Britain's Parliament has just given the world an unprecedented look at the ruthless tactics of Facebook's executive team.

On Wednesday, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee published leaked emails from the Silicon Valley tech giant's leadership team that had been obtained by Six4Three, an app developer that's locked in a legal battle with Facebook after it blocked its bikini photo app. 

There are hundreds of pages of documents and emails, mostly dating from between 2012 and 2015, that detail the way Facebook allowed third-party apps to access friend data through its platform.

They provide a unique window into how Facebook's senior leaders privately discussed strategy and competition at a period of intense growth for the company, which has since been bogged down by numerous scandals and flatlining user numbers in key markets.

Do you work at Facebook? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via Signal or WhatsApp at +1 (650) 636-6268 using a non-work phone, email at rprice@businessinsider.com, Telegram or WeChat at robaeprice, or Twitter DM at @robaeprice. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

From Facebook's attempts to kneecap "strategic competitors" to CEO Mark Zuckerberg writing that his company's interests don't always match up with what's best for the world, here are some of the key takeaways from the documents.

1. Facebook had a list of "strategic competitors" that it restricted access to.

Zuckerberg personally oversaw a list of "strategic" competitors to the social network, and decided whether to restrict them from accessing valuable user data.

One undated memo stated that companies considered to be "strategic competitors" to Facebook were even more restricted in what they could access. It added that Mark Zuckerberg personally reviewed the list of competitors, and either he or another senior executive had to personally sign off any further access to data these companies might want.

On the eve of the publication of the documents, Facebook announced it was relaxing restrictions on competitors' apps in an apparent attempt to get ahead of the news.

In an unattributed statement published on its website, Facebook said:

"We built our developer platform years ago to pave the way for innovation in social apps and services. At that time we made the decision to restrict apps built on top of our platform that replicated our core functionality. These kind of restrictions are common across the tech industry with different platforms having their own variant including YouTube, Twitter, Snap and Apple."

2. Zuckerberg personally approved Facebook's decision to cut off social network Vine's data.

One of the Facebook competitors Mark Zuckerberg played a personal role in stamping on was video social network Vine.

In an email dated January 24, 2013 (the day Vine launched on iOS) VP Justin Osofsky proposed shutting down the new app's access: "Twitter launched Vine today which lets you shoot multiple short video segments to make one single, 6-second video. As part of their NUX, you can find friends via FB. Unless anyone raises objections, we will shut down their friends API access today. We've prepared reactive PR, and I will let Jana know our decision."

Zuckerberg responded: "Yup, go for it."

3. Facebook tried to figure out how to grab users' call data without asking permission.

Ever-hungry for user data, Facebook in 2015 explored trying to access Android users' call logs and SMS history to use to feed into features like "People You May Know," while acknowledging the risk of user anger. "This is a pretty high-risk thing to do from a PR perspective nut it appears that the growth eam will charge ahead and do it," Michael LeBeau wrote.

Yul Kwon also said Facebook was looking into ways to grab call log data without even asking users for permission: "Based on [the Growth team's] initial testing, it seems this would allow us to upgrade users without subjecting them to an Android permissions dialog at all," they wrote. 

Facebook's statement said: "This specific feature allows people to opt in to giving Facebook access to their call and text messaging logs in Facebook Lite and Messenger on Android devices. We use this information to do things like make better suggestions for people to call in Messenger and rank contact lists in Messenger and Facebook Lite."

• PropertyShark just released its rankings of the 50 most expensive neighborhoods in New York City in 2018.
• Manhattan neighborhoods dominated the list, with eight of the top 10 spots.
• The median sale price among the 10 most expensive neighborhoods ranges from $1.31 million to $3.85 million.

PropertyShark just released its rankings of the 50 most expensive neighborhoods in New York City, and, unsurprisingly, Manhattan dominates the list.

All but two of the 10 most expensive New York City neighborhoods are in Manhattan; the two outliers are in Brooklyn.

According to PropertyShark's analysis, the only two new entries to break into the top 10 are West Village and Greenwich Village.

Read more: A $20 million penthouse may be about to shatter the record for the most expensive home sold in Brooklyn — here's a look inside

TriBeCa topped the list with a median sale price that's nearly $1 million more than that of the second most expensive NYC neighborhood. Notably, this is the second consecutive year TriBeCa has taken the top spot.

Some NYC neighborhoods are also among the most expensive zip codes in America: A previous PropertyShark analysis ranked three Manhattan zip codes (10013, 10007, 10282, respectively) in the top 25 most expensive US zips.

Here are the 10 most expensive neighborhoods in New York City in ascending order, along with the median sale price in each. You can see the full ranking of the 50 most expensive neighborhoods on PropertyShark.

SEE ALSO: Here's what the most expensive house for sale in every US state looks like

10. Little Italy (Manhattan)

Median sale price: $1.32 million

9. Greenwich Village (Manhattan)

Median sale price: 1.35 million

8. Flatiron (Manhattan)

Median sale price: $1.57 million

• On paper, and in technical comparisons, the iPhone XS ranks among the world's best smartphones when it comes to photography.
• But in a blind test conducted by popular YouTube tech vlogger Marques Brownlee, the iPhone XS flunked out in the first round.
• Crazier still, it lost against a BlackBerry smartphone. Google's Pixels, renowned for their camera quality, fared just as poorly.

One of the main reasons that people buy the iPhone is for its ability to take high-quality, detailed photos. And it certainly does that!

But based on the results of a new video from YouTube vlogger Marques "MKBHD" Brownlee, it seems like another factor may be far more important: Brightness.

In a massive blind photo test that Brownlee conducted over social media, he pit 16 different smartphones against each other. Both the iPhone X and the iPhone XS flunked out in the first round to less capable smartphones — Xiaomi's Pocophone F1 and TCL's BlackBerry Key2, respectively.

That's right: Apple's flagship iPhone from this year and last failed out in the first round, against phones that are barely considered competition normally.

Google's flagship Pixel line did just as poorly, albeit against more technically competitive devices.

His test was simple: Put two photos of the same subject next to each other and have his millions of social media followers vote on which looked better to them. 

It's hardly a scientific poll, but that's not the point — what you see is what matters.

Most people are looking at photos on smartphone screens, through social media apps that compress images. They're using apps on their smartphone to edit images before sharing. They're trying to see faces clearly. Does the image "pop?" Is it bright? 

That kind of interaction with photos leads to a different type of preference.

"The most important thing to people, when viewing these photos straight out of camera, was just exposure — brightness, basically," Brownlee says in the video. "Nine times out of ten, the brighter, more saturated, more punchy-contrasty photo, won. Every single round — it's pretty consistent." 

It says a lot about what actually matters in smartphone cameras, and what may matter to you.

Are you taking a lot of extremely detailed photos with your smartphone? If the answer is no, then maybe you can wait a little longer next time before upgrading your smartphone — or maybe it's finally time to start considering those mid-range, less expensive smartphones.

If nothing else, the video is a fascinating look into modern smartphone camera options — see it for yourself right here:

SEE ALSO: The iPhone XS has a few new camera tricks hiding under the hood — here's what they do

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why it's so difficult to land a spacecraft on Mars

• John, who runs personal finance blog ESI Money, has spent the past few years interviewing millionaires.
• One common trend he found surprised him: Most millionaires don't have a budget.
• Millionaires spend relatively little compared to what they make because of their self-control, rendering a budget unnecessary, he said.

Turns out, many millionaires have more than huge bank accounts in common: They also don't have a budget.

That's what John of personal finance blog ESI Money, who retired early at the age of 52 with a $3 million net worth, found after interviewing 100 millionaires over the past few years. Forty-six of the 63 millionaires he asked don't have a budget, which he said surprised him.

"While it was not expected, the reasons millionaires don't need a budget makes sense — they make a lot and have self-control,"he wrote in a blog post. "In other words, they make a ton, spend only a portion of it, and have plenty left over. Who needs a budget?"

The median net worth of millionaires John interviewed was $2.3 million. While 90% of them were men, 93% were married, so John said he considers the women millionaires as well. The median age was nearly 50.

John interviewed one millionaire who spends $90,000 a year. He only buys necessities and only books vacations with a deal.

"I track our accounts using Mint and Personal Capital, and use cash back credit cards exclusively for every possible expense. But, we have never made a formal budget," the millionaire told John.

He added: "Every few months I look to see if my cash balance is bigger than it was a year ago. If it has grown, I invest the money. If dropped, I try to hold off on discretionary expenses. Last year according to Mint, we spent $90,000, including $13,000 on home improvement projects."

Read more: The author of 'The Millionaire Next Door' explains 3 ways anyone can build more wealth

John wrote that this is similar to his personal experience — he and his wife had a budget early in their marriage to give them more control when tracking spending habits until they "developed our moderately frugal lifestyle to the point where it was second nature" and knew they wouldn't overspend.

They didn't have a budget for 15 years until approaching retirement.

"This is the experience most millionaires have," he wrote. "Their incomes have grown, they don't spend a lot relative to those incomes, and so they don't use a budget. Yet many still track spending in one way or another." 

It makes sense considering another common trait among self-made millionaires. Thomas C. Corley, who studied rich people for five years, found that the majority of them considered themselves frugal. They also keep their expenses low and avoid the "lifestyle creep," or the tendency to spend more whenever they earn more.

It seems that a budget may be good for becoming a millionaire, not for being one.

United Income CEO Matt Fellowes previously told Business Insider that making a budget is an effective way to identify and reduce unnecessary spending, and that it will help one retire as a millionaire.

As John puts it: "A budget is great for the early phases of a financial plan, but if you can grow your income and develop self-discipline not to spend, it's not vital to your success later on."

SEE ALSO: I asked 100 millionaires how they spend, save, and invest, and they told me exactly what I expected to hear

DON'T MISS: 11 signs you're going to be wealthy, even if it doesn't feel like it

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Tim Cook's estimated net worth is $625 million — here's how he makes and spends his money

• Apple announced its top iPhone and iPad apps of the year on Tuesday.
• There are a lot of hidden gems on the lists, including Procreate Pocket, Donut County, and Froggipedia.
• Download links are below.

If you're looking for apps for your iPhone, Apple's year-end awards are a good place to start.

Apple revealed its top apps of the year on Tuesday, including hand-picked suggestions for iPhone app of the year and iPhone game of the year.

Apple also revealed year-end charts for the most downloaded apps on iPhones and iPads. The most downloaded app of 2018 was the Google-owned YouTube. In second place was Facebook's Instagram, and behind it was Snapchat.

Here are the top iPhone and iPad apps of the year:

Apple's iPhone app of the year is Procreate Pocket, a sketching and drawing app.

Check out Procreate Pocket on the App Store. 

Apple's iPhone game of the year is Donut County, a $5 puzzle came in which you play as a raccoon.

Youtube Embed:
//www.youtube.com/embed/LU6liK1E3Aw
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Check out Donut County on the App Store.

Apple's iPad app of the year is Froggipedia, a $4 augmented-reality app for studying amphibians and frogs.

Youtube Embed:
//www.youtube.com/embed/lqyfrK85UAg
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Check out Froggipedia on the App Store.

• Facebook has lost its crown as the best place to work in America, falling seven places down Glassdoor's 100 Best Places to Work list.
• It is Facebook's lowest ranking in the survey since 2015, when it finished in 15th position.
• A string of scandals has dented company morale, according to an internal survey obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
• Despite the negative reviews, feedback on Glassdoor remains largely positive.

Facebook has tumbled seven places on Glassdoor's list of the best places to work after a year of scandals, data breaches, and employee discontent.

Glassdoor published its list of the 100 Best Places to Work in 2019 on Tuesday, which is based on ratings and reviews left by employees.

Last year, Facebook topped the bill as the number one place to work, but now it has fallen to number seven, just behind LinkedIn. It is Facebook's lowest ranking in the survey since 2015, when it finished in 15th position.

A series of scandals this year have impacted morale, according to the results of an internal company survey obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

Back in 2017, 84% of the workforce "said they were optimistic about the company's future," a figure that has since dropped to just 52%. And 72% of employees previously said "Facebook was making the world better"— now it's 53%.

Read more:Facebook employees react to the latest scandals: "Why does our company suck at having a moral compass"

Glassdoor identified frequent complaints from employees, which included "poor work-life balance" and "long hours."

One review from November, titled "Six months of strange tech cult," said the company displays a "complete lack of moral responsibility for the world." Another, also from November, lamented "the product is not technology, its [sic] the users."

Under "advice to managers," one employee wrote: "Please get the company out of bad reputation slump... align business objectives with long-term strategy of connecting people and communities."

But Facebook's overall ratings remain positive, with 96% of reviews saying they approve of CEO Mark Zuckerberg at time of writing. One reviewer described it as "Disneyland" for software engineers, and another wrote: "Don't believe all the negative press."

SEE ALSO: The 29 best tech companies to work for in 2019, according to employees

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NOW WATCH: USB-C was supposed to be a universal connector — but it still has a lot of problems

• Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says he was surprised to learn that rich Americans have access to much better healthcare than the average person.
• In a recent YouTube episode with Chelsea Fagan of the Financial Diet, he said he's learned that there's a whole different world of healthcare for rich people, from private medicine to hospital tiers, and it's "jarring."
• He also finds said the financial products the rich are offered compared to everyone else makes his "head spin."

There are some major differences between those who have money and those who don't.

In a recent YouTube episode with Chelsea Fagan of The Financial Diet, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian was asked what he thinks people with money know that people without money don't know. The episode was sponsored by Empower, a mobile banking app that's backed by Ohanian's venture capital firm, Initialized Capital.

"I thought I'd be handed like a book when [I made money] ...like the book of sh-- only rich people know," he said. "I never got this, and I still am learning things and it's amazing and I know I'm going to be continuing to be learning stuff, and I'm going to be continuing to scratch my head and wonder how is it possible this whole other world exists."

Ohanian said one of the most "frightening" things he's learned since having money is that wealthy people have better access to quality healthcare.

Ohanian explained that he was raised with the assumption that all healthcare and all hospitals are basically the same — that there's not a big difference, and people just go to the hospital near them.

Read more: Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian says he wants to teach his and Serena Williams' daughter to code: 'She already has 3 laptops'

"Only in recent years as I've had to encounter the stuff for loved ones and have I had people who have obscene wealth, relative to my own — very wealthy and old money wealth — have I learned there's a whole other world, from concierge medicine and private medicine to very different tiers of hospitals and quality of care," Ohanian said. "And I literally never even heard of these before, let alone walked into them or seen them and now that I have, it is jarring."

He continued: "I think that's one of those things that if we all as a public understood, really understood the difference, I think folks would be even more upset than they already are about the quality of healthcare in this country, because it is staggering."

Ohanian said this realization "shook" him because it made him rethink the care his loved ones received years ago when they weren't aware of the differences and didn't have access to better healthcare financially. Now, he said, it's a priority to him as a husband and a father to get the very best healthcare. 

"My wife and daughter are going to have access to things I never even dreamed of," Ohanian said, speaking of wife Serena Williams. "I didn't think it was that different, but it turns out it is."

But that's not the only difference he sees when it comes to the wealth divide.

"The same way the difference in medicine makes my head spin, the difference in financial products is along the same lines," Ohanian said, referencing a high-net-worth person's relative ease of qualifying for a loan, for instance, compared to the average American.

He continued: "And it's subtle, these are very subtle things, but they add up a lot, especially when you think of the implications it has in the rest of the country, the rest of world."

SEE ALSO: Serena Williams' Reddit cofounder husband Alexis Ohanian 'thought tennis was a joke of a sport' before he met her

DON'T MISS: Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian explains why 'shutting down' with family and 'The Golden Girls' is important to Serena Williams' success

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Tim Cook's estimated net worth is $625 million — here's how he makes and spends his money