• The final season of "Game of Thrones" will premiere on April 14.
• A new teaser shows Jon Snow, Arya Stark, and Sansa Stark in the Winterfell crypts.
• This eighth season is only six episodes long, which means the finale should be on May 19 if HBO doesn't skip any Sundays. 
• HBO announced the date ahead of the premiere for "True Detective" season three.

The eighth and final season of "Game of Thrones" begins April 14. After months of building anticipation among fans, HBO dropped the air date ahead of its third season premiere of "True Detective" with a new teaser video.

In the tease, which was directed by David Nutter (a "Game of Thrones" veteran director, who did the fifth season finale), Jon meets up with Arya and Sansa in the Winterfell crypts. The video is not actual season eight footage — instead it's similar to past teasers HBO has crafted, ones that address coming themes of the season. The crypt teaser begins with heavy overtures of Jon's true Targaryen parentage as he walks past Lyanna Stark's crypt. 

Read more:'Game of Thrones' has been hinting at Jon Snow's true parentage since season one — here's every clue we spotted

The major source of excitement for fans will be seeing Jon and Arya reunited. The two haven't seen each other since the second episode of season one, when Jon gifted Arya her precious sword, Needle. As all three Stark kids stand in front of their own crypt statues, they turn as a frost creeps down the hallway. The signal of the White Walkers causes Jon and Arya to draw their blades, anticipating the coming fight. 

Another prominent part of the teaser the the feather in front of Lyanna's crypt. This was placed there by King Robert Baratheon on the very first episode of the series. Later, on the fifth season, Sansa touched the feather when she visited her Aunt's statue. 

Jon has yet to find out he's half-Targaryen and half-Stark, but that revelation will surely be a major part of his storyline on the coming season.

This final season of the long-running series will be six episodes long, as opposed to its previous standard 10 episode seasons. Despite having fewer installments, those episodes are reported to all be longer than an hour, with some possibly at "feature" length.

In a brief clip of the new seasons, released last week during the Golden Globes, HBO showed Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow arriving in Winterfell.

Read more: HBO released the new footage of the final season during the Golden Globes

They are greeted by Sansa Stark, who told Dany, "Winterfell is yours, Your Grace." This is a direct callback to the first-ever "Game of Thrones" episode, on which Ned Stark welcomed King Robert Baratheon to the castle and told him Winterfell was his. 

With the season premiere coming April 14, that should place the finale episode at May 19 (if HBO doesn't skip any weeks of episodes). In the meantime, you can read INSIDER's key predictions for the final season here. 

Watch the full new teaser below:

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• Read more:
• Kit Harington says shooting the final 'Game of Thrones' season was so exhausting that everyone was just 'done' with the show
• Everything we know about the final season of "Game of Thrones" so far
• An actor from the original unaired 'Game of Thrones' pilot is returning for HBO's prequel spin-off
• Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington tease trouble ahead for Daenerys and Jon's romance on 'Game of Thrones'

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• Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots made the surprising decision to receive the ball to start the game vs. the Los Angeles Chargers instead of deferring and kicking it. They had only elected to receive once this season.
• Patriots players said after the game that the decision caught them off-guard, but fired them up because it meant Belichick had confidence in them.
• The plan worked, as the Patriots started fast, scoring on their opening drive en route to blowing out the Chargers.

The New England Patriots playoff game against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday began with an unusual decision, and it appeared to work.

The Patriots won the opening coin toss and elected to receive instead of deferring so they could get the ball to start the second half. According to Ben Volin of The Boston Globe, the Patriots only elected to receive to start the game one other time this season — in Week 2 vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Instead, Bill Belichick seemed to want to send a message right away — the Patriots had to start fast and put the Chargers at an immediate disadvantage.

It seemed to work. The Patriots scored on their first drive, and after the Chargers responded with a score, the Patriots scored four more touchdowns in the first half while holding the Chargers scoreless. They led 35-7 at halftime.

"We're so trained in our routine. I was thinking, 'Oh, we won, defer to the second half,'" Patriots tight end Dwayne Allen told Volin. "Then I hear we're receiving, and it's like, 'Whoa. Let's go.'"

Allen added: "The way I take it is [Belichick is] putting his confidence in us. It put a little pep in my step."

Patriots running back Rex Burkhead told Volin: "Yeah, it definitely fired us up. It's always nice when you start fast."

The Patriots won the game, 41-28, but the final score wasn't indicative of how much of a blowout the game was.

It seemed Belichick wanted to keep his team on edge, and the message he sent might have been on-target for how the team was feeling. After the game, Tom Brady, who threw for 343 yards on 77% for one touchdown, mocked critics, saying: "Everybody thinks we suck, we can't win any games."

Read more: Tom Brady mocks critics after Patriots' latest evisceration of a playoff opponent: 'Everybody thinks we suck, we can't win any games'

Belichick sent his team a message with a surprising decision, and in turn, the Patriots sent the Chargers and the rest of the NFL a message.

• Read more:
• Eagles' receiver Alshon Jeffery drops pass through his hands for brutal, game-winning interception for Saints
• Saints coach Sean Payton wheeled out the Lombardi trophy, a Super Bowl ring, and $200,000 of cash to motivate his players before the playoffs
• Tom Brady sacrificed at least $60 million in his career with discounted contracts for the Patriots

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• Amy Adams and Patricia Arquette tied for best actress in a limited series or movie made for television at the 24th annual Critics' Choice Awards.
• "Schitt's Creek" stars Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, read Adams' name first — but once she got onstage, she demanded to announce her fellow winner right away.
• Arquette joined Adams onstage and they gave joint acceptance speeches.

Amy Adams and Patricia Arquette shared the stage at the 24th annual Critics' Choice Awards, which took place at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California — not to present an award, but to accept the same one.

Adams and Arquette tied for best actress in a limited series or movie made for television, for HBO's "Sharper Objects" and ‎Showtime's "Escape at Dannemora," respectively.

"Schitt's Creek" stars and the award's presenters, Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, read Adams' name first. But once she got onstage, she demanded to announce her fellow winner and bring her up right away. 

"I want the other girl up here with me — the other woman!" Adams said before reading Arquette's name. Arquette joined Adams onstage and they gave joint acceptance speeches.

"I actually can't think of a more beautiful thing than a tie, because there really isn't a winner when we get to do such great work and we have such wonderful opportunities," Adams said, putting her arm around Arquette. "And it's Patricia Arquette! So like, it's amazing!"

The women went on to thank their respective networks, crews, families, and costars.

Arquette also made a point to honor the women who were glad to see a woman with a non-traditional body type for Hollywood onscreen, especially a character who's openly and unapologetically sexual.

Fans immediately fawned over the mutual support and empowering messages from the two actresses.

Later in the night, Glenn Close and Lady Gaga also tied for best actress in a movie for "The Wife" and "A Star Is Born," respectively, but they opted to deliver their speeches separately.

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

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• Media News Group Enterprises, better known as Digital First Media, is reportedly planning to make an offer to buy USA Today publisher Gannett Co. at $12 per share.
• The offer would represent a 23% premium over Gannett's Friday closing share price of $9.75.
• The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said MNG Enterprises Inc. has already accumulated a 7.5% position in Gannett’s stock.
• MNG and its hedge fund backer Alden have acquired a reputation for slashing costs at its media investments leaning on a strategy of layoffs.

A hedge-fund-backed media group with a reputation for swooping in on vulnerable local papers and cleaning out their newsrooms is planning to make an offer to buy USA Today publisher Gannett Co. at $12 a share.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said MNG Enterprises Inc., better known as Digital First Media, has already accumulated a 7.5% position in Gannett’s stock, and the offer would represent a 23% premium over Friday's closing share price of $9.75.

MNG and its hedge fund backer and largest shareholder Alden Global Capital LLC have a reputation for slashing costs at its media investments leaning on a strategy of layoffs and zero-based budgeting, demanding that operators justify their annual expenses.

Shares in Gannett, a McLean, Virginia-based publisher, have been inching their way back after falling heavily over 2018, shedding about 15% in the past 12 months.

The stock price, like many other traditional media, have been on a downward slide for a few years now, leaving the company with a market value of about $1.1 billion. During the first nine months of 2018, revenue from its advertising dropped 7% year-on-year to $1.23 billion. Fourth quarter reporting due on February 14 will be critical for Gannett and its trajectory.

MNG, meanwhile, will publicly urge the publisher to put itself on the market, bring in some bankers to facilitate a sale, enter into talks with Digital First about a deal and how best to review its strategy before hiring a new CEO and put a cork in acquiring any new assets, The Journal was told.

It's not the first time MNG has made a play for Gannett, according to The Journal. People close to MNG said that possibly more than one approach has been made just in the last month or so.

The play comes as Gannett faces a leadership vacuum, with its CEO Robert Dickey due to vacate in May.

It isn't clear whether Gannett will more seriously consider this latest offer, the Journal added.

In addition to publishing USA Today, Gannett owns and operates many other well-known newspapers from the Arizona Republic  and the Naples Daily News in Florida.

MNG is one of the largest newspaper chains in the country and has a "contentious history" with the newspaper industry after buying local papers and then heavily cutting costs, The Journal noted.

SEE ALSO: Denver Post editorial page editor resigns amid staff cuts

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

Over the past five years, the world has seen a seemingly unending series of high-profile data breaches, defined as incidents in which unauthorized parties access and retrieve sensitive, secure, or private data.

Major incidents, like the 2013 Yahoo breach, which impacted all 3 million of the tech giant’s customers, and the more recent Equifax breach, which exposed the information of at least 143 million US adults, has kept this risk, and these threats, at the forefront for both businesses and consumers. And businesses have good reason to be concerned — of organizations breached, 22% lost customers, 29% lost revenue, and 23% lost business opportunities.

This threat isn’t going anywhere. Each of the past five years has seen, on average, 1,704 security incidents, impacting nearly 2 billion records. And hackers could be getting more efficient, using new technological tools to extract more data in fewer breach attempts. That’s making the security threat an industry-agnostic for any business holding sensitive data — at this point, virtually all companies — and therefore a necessity for firms to address proactively and prepare to react to.

The majority of breaches come from the outside, when a malicious actor is usually seeking access to records for financial gain, and tend to leverage malware or other software and hardware-related tools to access records. But they can come internally, as well as from accidents perpetrated by employees, like lost or stolen records or devices.

That means that firms need to have a broad-ranging plan in place, focusing on preventing breaches, detecting them quickly, and resolving and responding to them in the best possible way. That involves understanding protectable assets, ensuring compliance, and training employees, but also protecting data, investing in software to understand what normal and abnormal performance looks like, training employees, and building a response plan to mitigate as much damage as possible when the inevitable does occur.

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has put together a detailed report on the data breach threat, who and what companies need to protect themselves from, and how they can most effectively do so from a technological and organizational perspective.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• The breach threat isn’t going anywhere. The number of overall breaches isn’t consistent — it soared from 2013 to 2016, but ticked down slightly last year — but hackers might be becoming better at obtaining more records with less work, which magnifies risk.
• The majority of breaches come from the outside, and leverage software and hardware attacks, like malware, web app attacks, point-of-service (POS) intrusion, and card skimmers.
• Firms need to build a strong front door to prevent as many breaches as possible, but they also need to develop institutional knowledge to detect a breach quickly, and plan for how to resolve and respond to it in order to limit damage — both financial and subjective — as effectively as possible.

In full, the report:

• Explains the scope of the breach threat, by industry and year, and identifies the top attacks.
• Identifies leading perpetrators and causes of breaches.
• Addresses strategies to cope with the threat in three key areas: prevention, detection, and resolution and response.
• Issues recommendations from both a technological and organizational perspective in each of these categories so that companies can avoid the fallout that a data breach can bring.

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• The biggest news this weekend was about the now record-breaking partial government shutdown and its expanding fallout.
• President Donald Trump was particularly active on Twitter over the weekend after learning the FBI had investigated him as a possible Russian agent.
• The president also reportedly hid records of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin from his own administration.
• Investigators say the man suspected of kidnapping Jayme Closs killed her parents so he could get to her.
• The oceans are heating up 40% faster than scientists realized — which means we should prepare for more disastrous flooding and storms.
• Huawei says it fired an executive charged with espionage in Poland for bringing the company accused of global espionage and fraud into disrepute.

The second weekend of 2019 was a record breaker for a government in shutdown and the increasingly far-reaching consequences as it pushes past 23 days.

President Donald Trump had more to contend with though, as more reports emerged of possibly damaging ties to Russia.

Here are the news stories you may have missed this weekend, January 12-13.

SEE ALSO: Trump ties undocumented immigrants to sex crimes against children, but he's not telling the full story

The partial government shutdown became the longest in US history and it is starting to bite.

• A partial shutdown of the federal government entered its fourth week Saturday, making it the longest on record. From jobs to food stamps, an impasse over border security has put large swaths of the economy in jeopardy.
• Republican lawmakers are adamant that the president is not going to weaken or crack when it comes to backing down on the longest shutdown in US history.
• Most Americans are pointing the finger at the president for the government shutdown. According to weekend polls, they say it's all about a border "crisis" that they don't see.
• The shutdown could have widespread consequences for the US economy— for example, employment could fall for the first time since 2010.
• But that's not as ugly as it gets — the government reportedly accidentally paid a bunch of federal employees and then told them not to touch the money.
• And as the sticking point of a border wall grinds the gears of government to a halt, it's the right time to take a journey along the entire 1,933-mile US-Mexico border and get a better grasp of what a monumental job it is to secure it, with or without a barrier.  

The New York Times reported that the FBI had investigated Trump as a possible Russian agent.

• President Donald Trump was particularly active on Twitter over the weekend after learning FBI investigated him as a possible Russian agent.
• The New York Times reported Saturday that the FBI was looking into the possibility he was a Russian agent right after the president fired former FBI Director James Comey.
• In a tweetstorm later, the president called Comey a "Crooked Cop" and attacked special counsel Robert Mueller, along with his former opponent Hillary Clinton.
• Trump then added that he has been tougher on Russia than maybe any president, saying that it would be good if Russia and the US had better relations.
• And then he called Comey a "total sleaze."

The Washington Post reported that the president hid records of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin from his own administration.

• The president also reportedly hid records of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin from his own administration.
• Trump went to some pains to hide the details of his chats with Putin— even going so far as to yank the notes from his interpreter and order the linguist to stay silent. 
• When asked on Saturday whether he is working for Russia or has worked for Russia, Trump did not directly answer, and called the question his most insulting ever.
• The president has previously repeatedly denied colluding with the Russians.

• Christian Bale accepted the award for best actor in a comedy movie for "Vice" at the 24th annual Critics' Choice Awards.
• "I guess time sort of allows it to be considered a comedy, but it's really a tragedy," Bale said of the film, in which he portrays former Vice President Dick Cheney.
• Bale also called "Vice" a "love story" to the United States.
• Last week, Bale thanked Satan for inspiring his performance when he accepted an award at the Golden Globes.

Christian Bale accepted the award for best actor in a comedy movie for "Vice" at the 24th annual Critics' Choice Awards, while simultaneously questioning the category that the film was placed in.

"I guess time sort of allows it to be considered a comedy, but it's really a tragedy," Bale said of the film, in which he portrays former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The British actor, who came to the United States when he was 17 years old, also called "Vice" a "love story" to the country and expressed grattitude for opportunities he's found in the US.

Last week, Bale thanked Satan for inspiring his performance when he won for the same role at the Golden Globes.

Later in the night, Bale also won best actor overall. His second speech was short and sweet, but he did make a point to dispell the notion that all actors should be in competition, opting instead to call the night a "celebration."

INSIDER's Jason Guerrasio called Bale "astounding" as Cheney and argued he gave "one of the best performances of the year."

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

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• HBO's latest "Game of Thrones" season eight teaser video featured Lyanna Stark's crypt statue.
• Her burial place in Winterfell was part of scene from the pilot episode, in which King Robert Baratheon places a feather in the statue's hand. 
• That same feather was later seen by Sansa Stark on the fifth season.
• Both of these scenes provided hints that Lyanna was actually Jon Snow's mother. 
• Jon has yet to discover this truth, but his parentage reveal is likely a key part of the final season. 

HBO continues ramping up excitement for the eighth and final season of "Game of Thrones." The newest promotional video, which you can watch here, showed Jon Snow and Arya and Sansa Stark in the crypts of Winterfell, with extra emphasis on an important feather.

The feather was placed on Lyanna Stark's crypt statue by King Robert Baratheon way back on the pilot episode of the series. The next time we saw it, Sansa Stark picked it up when she was visiting her aunt's statue. 

Now the feather was part of the season eight tease in which Jon Snow's parentage was heavily referenced. The video began with Jon walking past Lyanna's statue as a snippet of her dialogue from the Tower of Joy flashback plays — "You have to protect him." This was the moment when Lyanna gave baby Jon to her brother, Ned Stark, begging him to protect her son from King Robert's wrath. Jon is of course the trueborn son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna, making him heir to the Iron Throne. 

Read more: 'Game of Thrones' has been hinting at Jon Snow's true parentage since season one — here's every clue we spotted

This game-changing truth was hinted at in both the show scenes featuring the feather. First, King Robert and Ned discussed Rhaegar and Lyanna for the first time back on that pilot episode. 

When Robert says he dreams of killing Rhaegar every night, Ned replies by saying "the Targaryens are gone."

"Not all of them," Robert replies. 

The episode then cuts to Daenerys and Viserys Targaryen, but of course we know now that there was a third Targaryen right there in Winterfell.

The second scene featuring the feather was from season five, when Sansa visits the crypts after finally returning to Winterfell. While standing at her aunt Lyanna's statue, she notices the feather and picks it up. 

Littlefinger finds her there, and the two of them discuss what happened between Rhaegar and Lyanna.

"Lord Whent had a great tourney at Harrenhall," Littlefinger said. "Lyanna was already promised to Robert [Baratheon]... the last two riders were Barristan Selmy and Rhaegar Targaryen. When Rhaegar won everyone cheered for their prince [...] until he rode right past his wife, Elia Martell, and all the smiles died [...] he rode past his wife and lay a crown of winter roses in Lyanna's lap, blue with frost [...] How many tens of thousands had to die because Rhaegar chose your aunt?"

"Yes, he chose her," Sansa relied. "And then he kidnapped her and raped her."

This is a repeat of the widely accepted story of Rhaegar and Lyanna — that he captured her against her will and brought her to the Tower of Joy. But Rhaegar and Lyanna were actually in love, and secretly eloped together.

Instead of replying when Sansa repeats this falsehood, Littlefinger gave her a knowing smirk before changing the subject. He seems to know the truth, even if Sansa didn't. That whole episode, "Sons of the Harpy," has other hints about Jon's parents. You can read those clues, along with every other major moment pointing to Jon's parentage, in our round up here.

And so the new season eight tease brings this connection between Lyanna and the feather almost full circle, with Jon passing by his mother's statue. Frost eventually creeps into the crypt, spreading over the feather and towards Jon, Arya, and Sansa. 

Will Jon learn the truth about his mother and father? Will the Night King's army overtake Winterfell? Will more of the Stark children die in the great war to come? 

Only season eight can answer these questions and more. The final season of "Game of Thrones"begins April 14 on HBO. 

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• President Donald Trump on Sunday again mocked Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren's claims of Native American heritage and her nascent presidential ambitions.

• Trump singled out Warren's instagram campaign announcement, saying it "would have been a smash" if her husband had dressed in "Indian garb."

• Trump has routinely attacked Warren over her heritage and has habitually referred to her as "Pocahontas."
• Last week, Warren announced that she had launched an exploratory committee for a presidential run in 2020.

SEE ALSO: Trump mocks Elizabeth Warren’s presidential ambitions and claims of Native American heritage with meme

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• Cadillac showcased a new electric SUV concept on the eve of the 2019 Detroit auto show.
• The new Cadillac EV will be built on a unique electric platform and compete with Tesla's Model X SUV.
• Cadillac is set to become General Motors' lead electric brand.

DETROIT — Last week, GM announced that its 116-year-old Cadillac luxury brand would take the lead on the carmaker's electrification strategy.

On Sunday, Cadillac revealed its first all-electric design, an SUV that will be based on a fresh EV platform. 

"Cadillac's EV will hit the heart of the crossover [SUV] market and meet the needs of customers around the world," Cadillac president Steve Carlisle said in a statement.

"It will represent the height of luxury and innovation while positioning Cadillac as the pinnacle of mobility."

The vehicle showcased on Sunday doesn't yet have a name, but Cadillac did provide limited details on the engineering concept.

"GM's future EV platform, which Cadillac will be the first to use, will be flexible, allowing the company to respond quickly to customer preferences with a relatively short design and development lead time," the automaker said.

"The Cadillac portfolio will eventually benefit from a variety of body styles that can be spun off this architecture."

Read more:GM is defying naysayers with a bullish 2019 outlook, and plans to take on Tesla with Cadillac

The new design will compete directly with Tesla's Model X, the main all-electric crossover currently in the market.

It's been a big 2019 Detroit auto show for Cadillac; the brand also revealed a three-row SUV, the XT6, and suggested that the legendary Escalade SUV may be updated soon. 

"Overall, Cadillac will introduce new models at the rate of roughly one every six months through 2021," Cadillac said in a statement.

• Read more:
• The new Cadillac XT6 SUV proves that Caddy is becoming GM's most important brand
• Ford just revealed both a hybrid and high-performance version of its all-new Explorer SUV
• Ford just unveiled the most powerful Mustang ever to hit the streets
• These are the cool cars we can't wait to see at the 2019 Detroit auto show

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• A surgeon has been fined $3,000 for removing a woman's kidney because he believed it was a tumor.
• Ramon Vazquez, who was tasked with creating the incision on Maureen Pacheco’s back, removed her healthy kidney without her consent because he believed it was a cancerous tumor.
• Vazquez did not read Pacheco’s medical records before the operation.

A Florida surgeon has been fined $3,000 for removing a woman's kidney because he believed it was a tumor, the Palm Beach Post reports.

In 2016, Ramon Vazquez was tasked with creating the incision on Maureen Pacheco’s back for a spinal fusion surgery, according to the outlet. But the doctor, who was assisting two other surgeons at the time, saw something that didn't look right to him.

Pacheco has a life-long condition that kept one of her kidneys from ascending into her abdomen. However, Vazquez mistook the organ for a cancerous tumor. So, without the woman's consent, he removed the organ.

But Pacheco's surgery was entirely unrelated to the kidney. According to the Palm Beach Post, Vazquez said that he did not review Pacheco's medical records before the operation.

Read more: A surgeon has admitted to burning his initials onto patients' livers

According to the Florida Board of Medicine, Vazquez has agreed to pay a $3,000 fine related to the botched procedure. He must also give an hour-long lecture on wrong-site surgery to the staff at a hospital where he works. Additionally, he is also required to attend a three-hour training on evaluating patients before operations and pay the $4,800 fees out of pocket.

According to the Palm Beach Post, the primary doctors who were in the operating room that day, John Britt and Jeffrey Kugler, were fined $250,000 each in a settlement.

This isn't the first instance of a doctor removing the wrong organ during surgery. 

In 2011, a Maryland OB/GYN was fined $1.42 million in a lawsuit after she removed the wrong ovary from a patient during surgery and lied about it, NBC-affiliated WBAL-TV reported. In 2013, Larry Mitchell Isaacs surrendered his medical license after removing a patient's healthy kidney during what was supposed to be colon surgery, according to the Journal Sentinel. And in 2016, a doctor in South Dakota removed an Iowa woman's kidney instead of a mass on her adrenal gland, as intended, Fox News reported.

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• A woman has a rare condition that prevents her from hearing male voices. Yes, we're serious.

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• Tidal, the music streaming platform owned by Jay-Z, is being investigated by Norwegian authorities for allegedly manipulating and inflating streaming play counts, according to Reuters.
• Although the official investigation was just launched, the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv has been investigating Tidal's numbers, and reported on the issue last year.
• The newspaper claimed that Tidal had over-reported the play counts for Beyonce's "Lemonade" and Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo"by "several hundred million," and used over a million fake accounts to manipulate streaming numbers.

Norwegian police have launched an investigation into Jay-Z's music streaming service as a result of allegations that play counts were over-reported to make the platform seem more successful and popular than it actually is, according to Reuters.

Claims that Tidal was fabricating its numbers were first leveled against the platform last year by a Norwegian newspaper, but an official criminal investigation was launched Monday, Reuters reports. The newspaper, Dagens Naeringsliv, concluded after a year-long investigation that the listener numbers Tidal reported were "manipulated to the tune of several hundred million false plays."

Read more:Jay Z's music service Tidal says accusations it wildly inflated Beyoncé and Kanye West's streaming stats are a 'smear campaign'

Specifically, the publication found the biggest discrepancies in Tidal's reported numbers for two particular albums: Beyonce's "Lemonade" and Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo."

The albums, which were both released in 2016, premiered exclusively on Tidal. In its reported numbers, which are the same given to record labels and investors, Tidal said the albums had racked up hundreds of millions of streams within the first 15 days of release — 306 million for Beyonce and 205 million for West.

But the Norwegian paper worked with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and concluded the data didn't add up. By over-reporting numbers, Tidal could garner "massive royalty payouts at the expense of other artists," the newspaper said.

Tidal has called the allegations false, and slammed the Norwegian newspaper for launching a targeted "smear campaign." In a statement provided to Business Insider, Tidal said Monday it was "not a suspect" in the Norwegian police's investigation.

Norwegian authorities confirmed to Reuters they had opened an investigation into "whether someone has manipulated the number of times certain songs have been played." No one has been charged, but at least four former Tidal employees have already been questioned, Engadget reported.

Tidal has struggled, despite its impressive roster of well-known celebrity backers (including Madonna and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin). The streaming service was originally known as WiMP, but was acquired by Jay Z in 2015 and launched as Tidal to rival music streaming services from Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, and Apple Music.

Allegations of problems at Tidal were reported by Norway's Dagens Næringsliv newspaper first in 2016. The publication reported Tidal was behind on paying more than 100 outstanding bills to record labels, ad agencies, and banks. The newspaper then reported in 2017 that Tidal inflated the number of how many subscribers the service had.

Tidal grew in popularity by brokering deals with artists to exclusively release their music on the streaming platform. However, West cut ties with Tidal is 2017, and alleged the service owed him more than $3 million. West turned to a small streaming app called WAV when it was time to release his next album, "Ye,"in 2018.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft's Bing search engine reportedly had a child porn problem

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• A Silicon Valley landlord is renting his San Jose studio apartment to a pair of cats, whose owner couldn't keep them in his own apartment, according to a San Jose Mercury News report on Sunday. 
• Rent for the cats is $1,500 per month. 
• “Basically I’ve got two renters that don’t have opposable thumbs,” the landlord said. 

Rental prices in Silicon Valley have skyrocketed to some of the highest in the country, as troves of tech workers have made the move with grand dreams of cashing in on the next big thing. Now, prospective renters may have to start competing for the limited amount of housing with our four-legged friends, too. 

On Sunday, the San Jose Mercury News reported that a Silicon Valley landlord is renting his studio apartment to a pair of Maine Coon-mixed cats, whose owner couldn't keep them in his own apartment. 

“Basically I’ve got two renters that don’t have opposable thumbs,” the landlord, David Callisch, told the Mercury. “It’s actually great. They’re very quiet, obviously. The only problem is they stink up the place.”

Rent for the cats — named Tina and Louise, after characters from the animated show Bob's Burgers — is $1,500 per month, according to the report. 

Callisch says the situation happened by chance, as his friend Troy Good — the renter in question, who builds custom phone booths for tech offices with open floor plans — needed a place for his daughter's beloved cats to live while she moved away to college. The felines, apparently, were not getting along with his fiance's terrier dog. 

Read more:Photos show what it's like for Silicon Valley's 'working homeless' who live down the street from tech giants

The situation has struck some as absurd, given Silicon Valley's ongoing housing crisis. 

"Silicon Valley is a place with so much inequality where thousands of people sleep on the streets every night while someone rents a below-market studio for $1,500 a month to two cats,"tweeted Seattle Times real estate reporter Mike Rosenberg.

The cats do keep an active Instagram account to show off their apartment living. The account — described as "Two spoiled Maine coon/ Bombay sisters"— can be found here. 

Read the full San Jose Mercury News report here.

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• SpaceX, the rocket company owned by Elon Musk, will lay off about 10% of its employees, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday, citing an unnamed source.
• SpaceX confirmed the layoffs, citing the "extraordinarily difficult challenges" of developing a new interplanetary spacecraft and launching a global satellite internet network.
• A document filed by SpaceX with the state of California suggests at least 577 people at the company's headquarters will lose their jobs on March 12.
• The company has more than 6,000 employees and raised more than $1 billion in 2018.

SpaceX, the rocket company owned by Elon Musk, will lay off about 10% of its employees, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday, citing an unnamed source.

A representative at SpaceX later confirmed the workforce reduction, saying the staff cuts are company-wide and will leave more than 6,000 people employed at the aerospace startup, which is worth perhaps $30 billion or more.

SpaceX declined to provide a number of people who lost their jobs and where those positions are located. However, a layoff notice filed to the state of California and obtained by Business Insider suggests that 577 positions — the bulk of the layoffs — are located at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

These terminations are supposed to take effect on March 12, SpaceX said in the document.

A spokesperson at SpaceX provided the following statement to Business Insider:

"To continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based Internet, SpaceX must become a leaner company. Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations. This means we must part ways with some talented and hardworking members of our team. We are grateful for everything they have accomplished and their commitment to SpaceX's mission. This action is taken only due to the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead and would not otherwise be necessary."

The interplanetary rocket in question is the two-stage launch system called Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), more recently referred to by Musk as Starship (the top half and a spaceship) and Super Heavy (the bottom half and a rocket booster).

SpaceX has been working relentlessly in recent weeks to build and start testing a prototype of the new system. The ultimate goal is to launch crewed missions to Mars, perhaps as soon as 2024. Each flight may be capable of ferrying up to 100 people and 150 tons of cargo, according to Musk and his top engineers.

Read more: Elon Musk says SpaceX is on track to launch people to Mars within 6 years — here's the full timeline of his plans to colonize the red planet

SpaceX's global space-based internet project is called Starlink, and the plans call for launching 11,943 satellites into low-Earth orbit — many times more spacecraft than humanity has launched throughout history. The FCC approved the scheme on the condition that SpaceX complete its launches by December 2027. So far, the company has launched two prototypes into space.

The news about layoffs was sent to SpaceX employees in an email from company president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell, the LA Times said.

The cuts — which might save SpaceX up to $100 million per year, based on some back-of-the-envelope calculations— come less than a month after SpaceX announced plans to raise another $500 million in investment funding. The company had previously raised $507 million in April 2018.

That new funding is likely being used to further both Starlink and BFR (or Starship/Super Heavy).

SpaceX also hopes to use that system to send a Japanese billionaire and a crew of artists around the moon and create the world's fastest transportation system.

Not the first round of layoffs for SpaceX

SpaceX is offering the affected employees eight weeks' severance pay and other career resources, according to the LA Times. Such compensation packages are in line with provisions in California's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (or WARN) Act — a law that requires at least 60 days' notice to workers if more than 50 are let go within a 30-day period.

SpaceX filed a WARN notice to California's Employment Development Department via email on Friday.

"[W]e anticipate that approximately 577 employees at the Facility will be terminated from the Company, with terminations expected to begin effective March 12, 2019," SpaceX states in the document. "Affected employees will be paid all wages and other benefits (if any) to which they are entitled through their date of termination."

The document also includes a list of the 577 positions being terminated, which range from additive technicians and baristas to turbomachinery engineers and welders. About 24 of the positions are temporary and the rest are full-time.

SpaceX may have adjusted its layoff strategy after weathering litigation following a previous round of layoffs. In July 2014, the company made workforce cuts of a similar percentage, after which some former employees sued the company over language in the WARN Act.

"The WARN Act is very clear. You're entitled to back pay and wages if you are not given notice," Leonard Sansanowicz, an attorney who represented the former SpaceX workers, told the Daily Breeze in August 2014.

SpaceX fought the class-action lawsuit but ultimately lost, according to Los Angeles County court documents.

The layoff notice that SpaceX sent to its employees on January 11 provides about 61 days' notice before termination — one day more than the WARN Act's 60-day minimum.

This story has been updated. It was originally published at 8:01 p.m. EST on January 11, 2018.

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• A 34-year-old professor at Georgia Tech taught a course on "adulting" and found many of her students didn't know how to use older social media platforms like Twitter.
• She started teaching her students how to use Twitter, including how to set up a profile, follow accounts, and respond to other users civilly.
• Less than a third of US teens use Twitter, a Pew survey found, compared to the roughly 70% that use Snapchat and Instagram.

Young people are the biggest users of social media in the US.

But that doesn't mean they're on the same platforms as the rest of the US population. And in some cases, they don't even know how to use the social media platforms older people might be more familiar with.

Rebekah Fitzsimmons, and English professor at Georgia Tech, learned that the hard way in 2016 when she taught a class called "Adulting: Coming of Age in 21st Century America," which looked at notions of adulthood throughout history. 

While her course had students use historical texts and digital media to define what it meant to be an adult, Fitzsimmons hit a road block when she realized some of her students didn't know the first thing about how to use Twitter.

That came as a surprise to the professor, whose students comprised the youngest members of the millennial generation.

"They tell us when you're training to be a teacher, they're like, 'Oh, these are digital natives. These are students who grew up with computers in the hall and they know how to use this stuff," Fitzsimmons told Business Insider. "But the first couple of semesters that I taught using Twitter, I got all kinds of people saying, 'No, I've never opened Twitter before. I don't really do social media.'"

"So I do think it's one of those things, that we the older generation assume that they're on social media all the time, but that's not actually true. Or if they are on social media, it's not necessarily the ones that the older generations are using."

Read more:A college professor who taught a course on 'adulting' says millennials don't consider themselves adults until a milestone they're delaying longer than ever

A Pew Research Center survey found last year that about 32% of American teens said they used Twitter. Meanwhile, 69% of teens said they used Snapchat and 71% said they used Instagram. Facebook, the most popular social media site overall, was used by just 51% of teens.

"I have gotten to a point where I don't assume that they know anything about using social media," Fitzsimmons, who at 34 is a millennial herself, said.

Eventually, Fitzsimmons said she started teaching her students how to use Twitter during class. In one course on rhetoric and composition, she showed students how to set up a Twitter account, choose a photo that won't get them mistaken for a bot, and find accounts to follow that line up with their professional interests.

She also taught them what she called the "cultural norms" of Twitter — like how to reply to tweets and have conversations with other users "without pissing other people off."

"When you do enter a conversation on Twitter, do it the same way you would if you were at a party and you happened to be sitting next to somebody at the the hors d'oeuvre table and you heard them talking," Fitzsimmons said. "You wouldn't just interrupt them and be like, 'You're totally wrong.' You would say, 'Well excuse me. I happened to hear and I was wondering if you could tell me more about this.'"

"So practicing those social niceties on Twitter, on Facebook, and any social media platform, makes it more useful and makes it more likely that people interact with you in a positive way."

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Hype around artificial intelligence has never been higher — and one industry where it has a chance to make a major impact on profits is retail.

Business Insider Intelligence projects that AI will boost profitability in retail and wholesale by nearly 60% by 2035, setting off a wave of excitement and investment among companies.

The areas where AI will have its biggest impact are personalization, search and chatbots.

But as hype and misunderstanding continue to build, it’s become harder than ever to keep sight of the true disruptive potential of AI.

Find out how AI is being implemented in these three areas and how each one can impact revenue in this new FREE slide deck from Business Insider Intelligence.

In this third and final installment of the three-part Future of Retail 2018 series, Business Insider Intelligence takes a hard look at the retail use cases where AI can make an impact, explores noteworthy examples of retailers implementing the technology, and weighs the benefits of investing in AI today.

As an added bonus, you will gain immediate access to our exclusive Business Insider Intelligence Daily newsletter.

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

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• Microapartments became extraordinarily popular in Hong Kong starting in 2014, but a recent dip in housing prices could signal their decline.
• While Hong Kong remains one of the most expensive cities in the world, buyers are starting to be able to afford 600-square-foot to 700-square-foot units as opposed to miniature dwellings. 
• The death of microapartments in Hong Kong could presage a larger trend in pricey US cities like New York and San Francisco. 

As prospective buyers in Hong Kong, Andy Knight and Michelle Tennant were faced with a familiar trade-off: shell out massive amounts of money for a few additional square feet or make the most of a tiny, 300-square-foot apartment.

The couple chose the latter, equipping their new abode with a hideaway TV, swiveling wall, and bathtub that converts into a bedroom and living room.

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"The design appeals to a niche market," Tennant told CNN. "But I'm surprised it hasn't caught on more."

According to data published in the South China Morning Post, the trend of microapartments has recently fallen out of favor in Hong Kong. The paper's analysis found that a third of the city's microapartments — those less than 200 square feet — built since 2016 remained unsold at the end of last year. 

In Hong Kong and other cities, the death of microapartments could topple a phenomenon that's become increasingly popular among developers and young buyers. 

But there's a simple explanation for its decline. 

In 2014, average home prices in Hong Kong reached record highs— about $1,900 per square foot. Around that time, developers began recognizing the demand for tiny, cheap apartments that would allow people to continue living in the city. The trend continued to escalate over the next four years, with more and more city dwellers willing to sacrifice space in exchange for lower home prices. 

Things changed in 2018 when Hong Kong put forward a proposal to tax unsold new homes. As developers scrambled to get rid of their empty properties, they began selling them at discounted rates. Suddenly, more people in Hong Kong could afford a bigger place. 

"There is a huge risk in building micro flats, because once the market shows sign of turning, this type of property will be the first to be abandoned by the market," Alvin Cheung, an associate director at Prudential Brokerage, told the South China Morning Post.

While Hong Kong is still considered the most expensive city in the world for expats and one of the five most expensive cities in terms of cost of living, the need for tiny homes isn't as strong as it once was. 

Real estate experts now estimate that Hong Kong buyers prefer a 600 to 700-square-foot abode. They also anticipate that the price of microapartments could fall by 30% in 2019 — a much steeper decline than the 10% to 20% expected for the city's overall market. 

This decreased demand could presage a larger trend in notoriously pricey cities like New York and San Francisco, where microapartments tend to be slightly more spacious.  

When it comes to housing affordability — the cost of living relative to how much people earn — Hong Kong is even less affordable than the most expensive US markets. If microapartments can't survive there, it could mean bad news for those who have invested in tiny units in other areas of the world.  

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• China has agreed to continue purchasing US soybeans.
• Still, economists say it might be too late for the sector to get back to pre-trade-war conditions. 
• Watch soybeans trade live.

When the US and China agreed to a trade-war ceasefire in December, farmers breathed a sigh of relief. But economists say the soybean industry won't entirely recover.

Even after Beijing agreed in trade talks with Washington to resume American soybean purchases, prices of the legume are still down more than 7% from a year earlier and aren't expected to improve anytime soon.

"The upshot is that the outlook for US soybean prices is bleak," said Yasemin Engin, an economist at Capital Economics. "If the US manages to strike a trade deal with China, considering its record crop and the potential for Chinese demand to wane, it will probably only provide a short-term reprieve for prices."

Purchases of US soybeans had all but disappeared in wake of the trade war, leading the legume to shed more than a fifth of its value. China, which has in the past been the destination for about two-thirds of American soybean exports had instead turned to South American growers to avoid tariffs levied in retaliation against the Trump administration.

American soybean farmers could recover about half of their market share over the next year if tariffs were lifted immediately, according to Chad E. Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University. In the long run, he said that could increase to about three quarters.

"We won't gain back everything we lost,"Hart said in a December interview. "We sort of lost our window of opportunity in the Chinese market, at least for this growing season. Once you've established trade flow and get that shipping all worked out, it's hard to want to move away from that."

Since trade escalations began, Chinese authorities have moved to try to reduce reliance on soybeans. On Monday, China's General Administration of Customs said soy imports fell by more than a third in December from the same month a year earlier, to the lowest since 2011.

To be sure, growers have still welcomed attempts to deescalate the trade war. State-owned firms in China said they have followed through with several rounds of purchases since negotiations restarted, according to Reuters, although US confirmation of that has not been available since December due to a partial government shutdown.

“The news of resumed sales represents a positive step under the current 90-day agreement to suspend new tariffs and negotiate on trade issues agreed to by President Trump and President Xi,” Davie Stephens, a Kentucky farmer and president of the American Soybean Association, said following the first round of negotiations last month.

But with the window for US sales nearing a close and as a 25% import tax remains in place, it isn't clear whether those purchases will last. After holding mid-level talks last week, Washington and Beijing are expected to meet next in late January.

Even if some form of deal were struck with China soon, Engin said the US may struggle to sell excess soybeans. China's livestock sector, which is a main destination for imported soybeans, appears to be adequately supplied for now. The stocks-to-consumption ratio there is well above other major importers, according to analysis by Capital Economics.

Raising the need for strong demand, the US is also facing a bumper crop. The Department of Agriculture's crop predictions for the 2018-2019 season point to record production and end-stocks.

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• Toyota unveiled its all-new 2020 Supra sports cars at the 2019 Detroit auto show on Monday.
• The Supra will take on the Porsche 718, BMW Z4, and Mercedes-Benz SLC.
• The 2020 Supra is powered by a 335 horsepower, 3.0-liter turbocharged, inline-six-cylinder engine. 
• According to Toyota, the new Supra should be able to sprint from 0-60 mph in just 4.1 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 155 mph
• The 2020 Toyota Supra, is expected to go on sale in the US in the summer of 2019 with a starting price of $49,990.

Toyota unveiled its all-new 2020 Supra sports cars at the 2019 Detroit auto show on Monday. For fans of Toyota's flagship sports car, it's a moment two decades in the making after the Japanese automaker pulled the fourth-generation Supra from the US market after 1998. 

The new fifth-generation Toyota Supra, known within the company as the A90, will return to take on premium sports cars such as the Porsche 718, Mercedes-Benz SLC, and the BMW Z4 with which it shares much of its mechanicals. The Supra was actually co-developed with BMW. 

The A90's styling draws inspiration from the stunning 2014 FT-1 concept car from Toyota's Calty design center in California. 

As with all Supras, the fifth gen will be powered by an inline-six-cylinder engine. This time around, it boasts 3.0 liters of displacement, a turbocharger, and 335 horsepower. The engine sends power to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission. Unfortunately, there will be no manual transmission option available.

Read more: Here are the 15 cars people love to keep for a long time — and they're all from Toyota, Honda, and Subaru.

According to Toyota, the new Supra should be able to sprint from 0-60 mph in just 4.1 seconds and reach an electronically limited top speed of 155 mph. 

The car will also boast perfect 50:50 front/rear weight distribution and will be built in Graz, Austria by Magna Steyr. 

The Supra will come standard with active variable suspension and active differential that divides torque between the rear wheels.

The 2020 Toyota Supra, is expected to go on sale in the US in the summer of 2019 with a starting price of $49,990.

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• Kyler Murray has declared for the 2019 NFL Draft ahead of Monday's early entry deadline.
• The Oklahoma Sooners quarterback captivated the college football world with Heisman Trophy-caliber play that led the Sooners to the fourth spot in the College Football Playoff.
• Before he threw for 4,053 yards during the 2018 regular season and became a national sensation, the Allen, Texas, native was drafted by the Oakland A's with the 9th pick in the 2018 MLB Draft.
• Murray has attempted to leverage his football stock for more money to play in the MLB, but he's still chosen to enter his name in the draft.
• The 21-year-old will likely need to decide between the NFL and MLB by mid-February when both the A's training camp and the NFL combine are set to begin.

Kyler Murray has chosen football — maybe.

The Oklahoma quarterback — who rose to stardom after leading the Sooners to the College Football Playoff and winning this year's Heisman Trophy — declared for the 2019 NFL Draft ahead of Monday's early entry deadline.

Murray is widely expected to be a first-round pick in the draft, but before he threw for 4,053 yards during the 2018 regular season and became a national sensation, the Allen, Texas, native was focused on pursuing a career in baseball.

He was drafted by the Oakland A's with the 9th pick in the 2018 MLB Draft after hitting .296 with 10 home runs and 47 RBI during his 2018 season with Oklahoma. Murray agreed to a contract with a $4.7 million signing bonus that included a stipulation allowing him to play one more year of football with the Sooners.

He was expected to report to Oakland at the season's end, but his stellar play on the gridiron has called those plans with the MLB into question. Murray still expressed hope that he could become the next great two-sport athlete as recently as December, but it is looking increasingly likely that he will have to decide between baseball and football.

According to WFAA's Mike Leslie, Murray recently asked for a $15 million contract from the A's in exchange for his commitment to the MLB, and ESPN's Jeff Passan reported that the league was willing to "waive a rule that prevents teams from giving major league contracts to recently drafted players" if Murray were to choose baseball over football. But the money Murray could command up front in the NFL would likely far exceed that amount, and the lucrative endorsement possibilities and extravagant quality of life that accompany being an NFL quarterback may push him over the top.

Murray's decision to enter his name into the NFL draft indeed is not binding, but it does indicate that he is very seriously considering opting for a career in football. He has an opportunity to report to Oakland's major league spring training camp that begins on February 15, but the NFL combine starts just 11 days later. He'll likely need to decide by then.

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