• Jeff Bezos has accused American Media Inc. of attempting to blackmail him.
• Bezos suggested this alleged effort may have been politically motivated and referenced a connection to Saudi Arabia several times. 
• Bezos owns the Washington Post, which has been leading coverage of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 
• Khashoggi was a columnist for the Post before he was brutally killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, last October.

In his bombshell Medium post on Thursday, Jeff Bezos seemed to allege there's an unsavory connection between the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer.

Bezos accused AMI of "extortion and blackmail," claiming it threatened to publish naked photos of him.

The National Enquirer in January 2019 released an exposé on Bezos' affair with the former news anchor and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez. Subsequently, the billionaire owner of Amazon and the Washington Post launched an investigation into how the tabloid obtained intimate information on his relationship with Sanchez. He alleges that AMI attempted to blackmail him into ceasing the inquiry. 

Read more:Jeff Bezos essentially accused the National Enquirer of having a political motive for exposing his affair, and insinuated a Trump connection 

Bezos in his post suggests that AMI's investigation may have been politically motivated and also points to a connection between Saudi Arabia and AMI. 

AMI's owner, David Pecker, has close ties to President Donald Trump. 

The Washington Post has been at the forefront of coverage on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote for the Post before he was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, last October. 

In his post, Bezos alludes to all of this: "AMI, the owner of the National Enquirer, led by David Pecker, recently entered into an immunity deal with the Department of Justice related to their role in the so-called 'Catch and Kill' process on behalf of President Trump and his election campaign. Mr. Pecker and his company have also been investigated for various actions they’ve taken on behalf of the Saudi Government."

Bezos later added, "Several days ago, an AMI leader advised us that Mr. Pecker is 'apoplectic' about our investigation. For reasons still to be better understood, the Saudi angle seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve."

Read more:Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos accuses National Enquirer publisher of 'extortion' over naked photos in extraordinary blog post

The billionaire also said that his ownership of the Post is "a complexifier for me" adding that it's "unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy."

Bezos then suggested Trump is "one of those people" and contended the Post's"essential and unrelenting coverage of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles."

Read more:It looks like the National Enquirer is using Amazon’s cloud to host its website

In discussing Saudi Arabia, Bezos offered a number of links on Pecker's relationship with Saudi Arabia. 

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi minister of foreign affairs, rejected any involvement in the feud between AMI and Bezos. 

On Friday, al-Jubeir told reporters, "I doubt it. I doubt it. We don’t have any dealings with — as far as I know, flat no."

AMI has also rejected the notion that its reporting has been motivated by politics in any way. 

In his post, Bezos links to an April 2018 article from the Associated Press that a magazine published by AMI with a flattering profile of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was "quietly shared with officials at the Saudi Embassy" several weeks before it hit newsstands. AMI has denied the claims in this report. 

Read more:Top Senate Democrat accuses Trump of being too 'soft' on Saudi Arabia because of his business ties to the kingdom

Bezos also linked to an April 2018 article from The New York Times that claimed Trump rewarded Pecker's longtime loyalty by inviting him to a dinner at the White House "to which the media executive brought a guest with important ties to the royals in Saudi Arabia." A separate March 2018 report from The Times alleged Pecker had been "wooing Saudi business" at the time. 

Relatedly, as US lawmakers have responded to Khashoggi's killing in recent months, some have questioned whether Trump's business ties in Saudi Arabia have inspired him to avoid being too hard on the royal family over the incident. Prince Mohammed is believed to be responsible for Khashoggi's killing, but Trump has so far avoiding pointing his finger at the Saudi leader. 

• Read more:
• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos accuses National Enquirer publisher of ‘extortion’ over naked photos in extraordinary blog post
• Read all the emails Jeff Bezos says the National Enquirer sent to ‘blackmail’ him
• Here are the six craziest things we learned from Jeff Bezos’ blog post accusing the National Enquirer of ‘extortion and blackmail’
• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had a snappy response to the notion that his naked selfies showed poor business judgment

SEE ALSO: Jeff Bezos' security team thinks a 'government entity' may have accessed the Amazon CEO's texts, Washington Post reporter says

DON'T MISS: People are praising Jeff Bezos and calling him a ‘genius’ after he slammed the National Enquirer and accused them of blackmail in a shocking blog post

AND THEN: ‘Now the reality is hitting them, and they’re freaking out’: The National Enquirer’s former LA bureau chief says the tabloid is in over its head with Jeff Bezos

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Roger Stone explains what Trump has in common with Richard Nixon

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You may not be able to buy six of your best friends matching Tiffany's diamond rings like Ariana Grande did, but you can still convey the same message this Galentine's Day — that without agenda or conditions, I really love you, and I appreciate you being in my life.

It's a simple sentiment, but aside from birthdays and holiday gift swaps, there are few annual reminders to celebrate the love in friendship. Maybe there are too many solid Julia Roberts rom-coms to grow tired of the sentiment, so we spend the lion's share of our collective energy celebrating romantic love. But if you've got a good group of supportive friends, you know firsthand that there are few people more deserving of your recognition and adoration.

Even if it's a made-up holiday, Galentine's Day is a great opportunity to remind your friends, in one small gesture, how much they mean to you. In other words, it's a great time to say "I love you!" 

Below you’ll find gifts both big and small to give your best friend or the whole pack:

A cooking class, concert tickets, or another experience

Gift Card, available on Cozymeal, from $50

The perks to an experiential gift are pretty much limitless — you get to anticipate the fun you'll have together, have the experience, and then enjoy the memories after for years to come. It's quality time with someone you love, and the thought of making that an occasion worth celebrating. Plus, it doesn't hurt that there's no real deadline on an extremely thoughtful gift.

Find a list of great, affordable ways to gift an experience here— from grabbing an Airbnb in a neighboring state for a road trip with friends to concert tickets to taking a cooking class with one of the best chefs in the world on a Saturday morning with Cozymeal (like we did). 

A tiny, personalized box of goodies

Personalized Box, available at Greetabl, from $12

Send a tiny personalized Galentine's day gift that you don't have to wrap by using Greetabl. Pick a box design, upload photos of the two of you, select from candies, confetti, face masks, and more to fill it, and fill out their address. 

A ClassPass gift card

Gift Card, available on ClassPass, from $50

Rope your best friend into more boutique fitness classes by making them easier and cheaper to attend. If both of you are going, odds are you'll show up to class more frequently. 

• Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is reportedly trying to rehabilitate his image by emphasizing racial equality in his legislative agenda, and reading the works of prominent African-American writers.
• Northam's advisers have instructed him to read Alex Haley's "Roots" and Ta-Nehisi Coates' "The Case for Reparations,"BuzzFeed News reported Friday.
• Northam has resisted calls to resign as governor after a photo from his 1984 yearbook page surfaced, featuring a person wearing blackface and another person wearing Ku Klux Klan-style robes.
• Northam says neither figure in the photo is him, but that he wore blackface on a separate occasion.

Embattled Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has continued to resist pressure to resign amid accusations of racism, insisting that he was not in a photo featured on his 1984 yearbook page that included a person in blackface and a person in a Ku Klux Klan-style hood.

Since then, Northam has laid low despite the vehement calls to resign from top Democrats in Virginia and across the country. Instead, Northam's office is trying to pivot his agenda to one of racial equality and educate him about systemic racism by using prominent African-American literature, BuzzFeed News reported.

Northam held a bizarre press conference last Saturday, denying that he was in the photo but conceding that he had worn blackface on a separate occasion as part of a Michael Jackson costume.

Sources close to Northam told the news outlet that his staff is exploring policy proposals that would address the state's history of racism against black Virginians, targeting issues like affordable housing, education, and public transportation.

"Now that he knows better he is going to do better," one Northam adviser told BuzzFeed News.

Read more: A wave of scandals has turned Virginia politics on its head, and the state's top three politicians could all be on the way out

Part of the rehabilitation effort reportedly includes educating Northam on influential literature written by black Americans.

Northam is currently reading "Roots," the 1976 Alex Haley novel about an 18th-century enslaved man brought to the United States, as well as "The Case for Reparations," the wildly popular Atlantic essay written by Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2014 about America's legacy redlining African-Americans through racist housing policies.

Beyond that, Northam has also hired a strategic communications firm to help manage his image and to investigate how the photo was included on his yearbook page, BuzzFeed News reported. Northam has said he never saw nor bought the yearbook, though yearbook staffers and former classmates of Northam have said that students submitted their own photos to their personal pages.

Northam, however, reportedly grew suspicious when he noticed that both figures in the photo were holding beers in their right hands. Northam is left-handed.

According to BuzzFeed News, Northam initially decided to admit he was in the photo because his training at the Virginia Military Institute taught him the value of accepting responsibility.

• Read more:
• Embattled Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam reportedly considered leaving the Democratic Party amid fallout over yearbook photo scandal
• The Virginia Democratic Party says it's going to 'evaluate' the sexual-assault allegation against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who could become the state's next governor
• The tip about the racist photo in Gov. Ralph Northam's yearbook reportedly came from an ex-classmate angry about his abortion comments
• A photo of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell posing with confederate flag is circulating online again

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Roger Stone explains what Trump has in common with Richard Nixon

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.

The voice app ecosystem is booming. In the US, the number of Alexa skills alone surpassed 25,000 in January 2018, up from just 7,000 the previous January, in categories ranging from music streaming services, to games, to connected home tools.

As voice platforms continue to gain footing in homes via smart speakers — connected devices powered primarily by artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled voice assistants — the opportunity for voice apps is becoming more profound. However, as observed with the rise of mobile apps in the late 2000s, any new digital ecosystem will face significant growing pains, and voice apps are no exception. Thanks to the visual-free format of voice apps, discoverability, monetization, and retention are proving particularly problematic in this nascent space. This is creating a problem in the voice assistant market that could hinder greater uptake if not addressed.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, explores the two major viable voice app stores. It identifies the three big issues voice apps are facing — discoverability, monetization, and retention — and presents possible short-term solutions ahead of industry-wide fixes.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• The market for smart speakers and voice platforms is expanding rapidly. The installed base of smart speakers and the volume of voice apps that can be accessed on them each saw significant gains in 2017. But the new format and the emerging voice ecosystems that are making their way into smart speaker-equipped homes is so far failing to align with consumer needs. 
• Voice app development is a virtuous cycle with several broken components. The addressable consumer market is expanding, which is prompting more brands and developers to developer voice apps, but the ability to monetize and iterate those voice apps is limited, which could inhibit voice app growth. 
• Monetization is only one broken component of the voice app ecosystem. Discoverability and user retention are equally problematic for voice app development. 
• While the two major voice app ecosystems — Amazon's and Google's — have some Band-Aid solutions and workarounds, their options for improving monetization, discoverability, and retention for voice apps are currently limited.
• There are some strategies that developers and brands can employ in the near term ahead of more robust tools and solutions.

In full, the report:

• Sizes the current voice app ecosystem. 
• Outlines the most pressing problems in voice app development and evolution in the space by examining the three most damning shortcoming: monetization, discoverability, and retention. 
• Discusses the solutions being offered up by today's biggest voice platforms. 
• Presents workaround solutions and alternative approaches that could catalyze development and evolution ahead of wider industry-wide fixes from the platforms.

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• Australian actress Nicole Kidman has been acting since 1983.
• In that time, she’s played a number of characters with varying appearances.
• Here are some of her most-memorable transformations.

Australian actress Nicole Kidman has taken on lots of different roles during her 36 years in the movie industry. From a 19th-century Irish immigrant to a traumatized undercover detective — each has required a certain level of metamorphosis.

But for some of her characters, Kidman has had to completely transform both her looks and her personality to play the part, to the point where you’d need to look twice in order to recognize the world-famous leading lady.

Keep reading to see Nicole Kidman’s most-drastic character transformations.

She straightened her hair for the first time in the early '90s film "Flirting."

It may come as a surprise to find out that Kidman doesn't actually have naturally straight hair as she so often wears on the red carpet. Her natural hairdo is actually comprised of tight, voluminous curls, which she wore in all her movies until the 1991 film "Flirting." Her role as Nicola was the first time audiences saw Kidman in her now-signature blown-out hairstyle.

Her most-dramatic transformation yet was as world-famous author Virginia Woolf.

Prosthetics are a huge contributor to actor transformations, and Kidman took the plunge to bring Virginia Woolf to life in "The Hours." Kidman is literally unrecognizable in the film, using a fake nose attached by makeup artists that completely changed her entire appearance. Her transformation was so convincing, she won an Oscar for her role at that year's ceremony.

She then looked unrecognizable with a brunette pixie cut in "Birth."

For as long as Kidman has been in the public eye, she's had long, mostly-blonde hair. So it was a bit of a shock to the senses to see her with a brunette pixie cut when she played young widow Anna. The change was subtle but it was one of her earliest shakeups.

• Meryl Streep surprised television fans by joining the "Big Little Lies" season two cast. 
• At HBO's Television Critics' Association panel on Friday afternoon in Pasadena, California, Streep talked about why she took the role.
• "I love this show, I was addicted to it," Streep said. "I thought it was an amazing exercise in what we know and what we don't know about people, about family, about friends."
• Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Big Little Lies" season one.

Hollywood icon Meryl Streep will be a new star on HBO's already stacked cast list for "Big Little Lies" season two. During a Television Critics' Association panel attended by INSIDER on Friday afternoon in Pasadena, California, Streep talked about why she took the role.

"I love this show, I was addicted to it," she said. "I thought it was an amazing exercise in what we know and what we don’t know about people, about family, about friends."

The first season explored the dynamics between a group of women in a wealthy Northern Californian community. Celeste, played by Nicole Kidman, is experiencing an escalating physically abusive relationship with her husband Perry (Alexander Skarsgård). The series comes to a crashing finale when a friend of Celeste's, Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz), pushes Perry to his death. 

Now Streep is joining "Big Little Lies" to play Perry's mother, Mary Louise Wright, as she comes to the community following her son's death. "The Monterey Five" (as the group of women will be known) will have to work to maintain the lie of how Perry was killed.

"When I got the chance to join the crew I thought, 'Yeah, I wanted to be in that world,'" Streep said. 

Streep also says she enjoyed how the first season "flirted with the mystery of things," and the way it handled"what was unsaid, unshown, and unknown."

Little is known about the events unfolding in this second season, since the first season was based on a single book by author Liane Moriarty. The new episodes were written by creator and executive producer David E. Kelley with input from Moriarty.

Read more:Everything we know so far about HBO's 'Big Little Lies' season two

When Streep was asked what Mary Louise's dynamic will be with daughter-in-law Celeste, Nicole Kidman said: "You love me."

"I do love [Celeste]," Streep said, speaking about the character of Celeste. "That’s the only thing I'll tell you. But that's the truth."

"Big Little Lies" season two will premiere sometime this June.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We compared Apple's $159 AirPods to Xiaomi's $30 AirDots and the winner was clear

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.

Emerging markets are going to be essential for e-commerce growth, as retailers in developed markets may soon reach saturation in terms of consumer growth.

For example, almost half of US households now have a Prime membership, diminishing Amazon's growth potential in the country. Meanwhile, in China, the world's largest e-commerce market, nearly half of the population is actively making online purchases, leaving little room for growth. 

However, India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America are worth keeping an eye on. E-commerce penetration rates in these areas hover between 2-6%, presenting a huge opportunity for future growth as online sales gain traction. Moreover, these regions are expected to grow at compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) of 31%, 32%, and 16%, respectively, through 2021.

This report compiles several e-commerce snapshots, which together highlight the most notable emerging markets in various regions. Each provides an overview of the e-commerce industry in a particular country, discusses influential retailers, and provides insights into the opportunities and challenges for that specific domestic industry.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Emerging markets are going to be essential for e-commerce growth, as retailers in developed markets may soon reach saturation in terms of consumer growth.
• India is the clear overall leader in e-commerce potential, but countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America are also worth keeping an eye on. Within Southeast Asia, Indonesia shows the most promise for retailers, as the government is loosening restrictions on foreign investments, and its massive population is gaining spending power and more access to internet. Meanwhile, Mexico is a retailer's best bet for expansion in Latin America, due to its stable economy and rising middle class, but Brazil may be gearing up to steal the top spot.
• However, doing business in these regions can be difficult. In most of these emerging markets, infrastructure is underdeveloped and the population is largely unbanked, making digital payments a challenge.
• If retailers can build a brand presence in these markets while online shopping is still in its nascent stages, they may become market leaders as e-commerce takes off in the regions. Moreover, these markets could provide new sources of growth for companies that would otherwise stagnate in more mature e-commerce markets.

 In full, the report:

• Explores the e-commerce industry in India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.
• Highlights the leading country in each region, as well as key e-commerce players there. 
• Outlines the challenges and opportunities each region faces.
• Gives insight into how these emerging markets may shape the future of e-commerce.

Join the conversation about this story »

• NASA's New Horizons probe flew by a space rock called 2014 MU69, the most distant space object ever visited by humanity, on New Year's Day.
• Also called Ultima Thule, the rock is more than 4 billion miles away.
• The newest image sequence of Ultima Thule has reveals that the rock is not spherical, as scientists previously thought, but rather flat.
• New Horizons captured hundreds of photos of the object, but it will take the probe up to 20 months to beam back all that data.

The most distant object our species has ever visited, a space rock called 2014 MU69, is less snowman-shaped than scientists previously thought. 

NASA flew its New Horizons probe by the rock, which is nicknamed Ultima Thule and located 4 billion miles from Earth, on New Year's Day.

New Horizons flew within 2,200 miles of MU69, traveling at a speed of 32,200 mph. The flyby gave scientists the opportunity to collect photos and information about the rock that they hope will help solve some longstanding mysteries about the solar system's 4.5 billion years of history.

The first image the probe beamed back showed two reddish-colored spherical segments on top of each other, like a snowman. Subsequent data revealed that the object flips like a giant hourglass. But it will take about 20 months for New Horizons to send all of the images it captured back to Earth, and scientists' understanding of the rock is changing as fresh perspectives get revealed. 

The newest sequence of images suggests that instead of two spheres, MU69's sections (called "lobes") are somewhat flat. The shape is relatively unprecedented in scientific observations of the solar system.

"We've never seen something like this orbiting the sun,"Alan Stern, principal investigator on the New Horizons mission, said in a press release.

Based on the new images, the larger lobe (nicknamed Ultima) appears to more closely resemble a giant pancake. The smaller lobe (Thule) is akin to a dented walnut, NASA's New Horizons team reported.

"We had an impression of Ultima Thule based on the limited number of images returned in the days around the flyby, but seeing more data has significantly changed our view," Stern said. "It would be closer to reality to say Ultima Thule's shape is flatter, like a pancake. But more importantly, the new images are creating scientific puzzles about how such an object could even be formed."

NASA scientists shared the 3D animation of the space rock's shape below, which was created using images that New Horizons captured as it left MU69 behind. The photos were taken nearly 10 minutes after the probe passed its closest point to the rock.

While these are far from the final photos of Ultima Thule that New Horizons will send back, they do represent the spacecraft's last glimpses of the rock as it streaked away.

SEE ALSO: Scientists just released the best photo yet of the most distant object ever visited by humanity

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NOW WATCH: Saturn is officially losing its rings — and they're disappearing much faster than scientists had anticipated

• Marvel's upcoming "Captain Marvel" movie is a flashback story set in the '90s. 
• So it's utterly appropriate that Marvel made a '90s throwback website to promote the film. 
• It's filled with lots of perfect little '90s details — you have to see it to believe it. 

As you probably know from the trailers, Marvel's upcoming "Captain Marvel" is a throwback, rewinding the superhero cinematic universe to the days of Blockbuster, the Clinton administration, and the Backstreet Boys.

So it's only appropriate that Marvel's new "Captain Marvel" website looks like a time capsule from 1997 — back when websites were not nearly as slick as they are today. You have to see it to believe it, so take a look. 

It's amazing how many details Marvel got right, here: It features blinking text, broken images, a guestbook for visitors to sign, and a hideous color palette that would make any respectable graphic designer slam their laptop shut in disgust. It even asks you to watch the newest "Captain Marvel" trailer in a teeny-tiny embedded window (though you can make it full-screen). 

It is, in other words, absolutely perfect as a piece of '90s nostalgia; a little piece of the web from the days when everybody on the internet had a homepage hosted with Geocities. 

If this has you longing for the good old days of the internet, I would next direct you to the website for "Space Jam," which has remained online and completely unaltered since before the movie premiered in 1996.

Meanwhile, here's the newest TV spot for "Captain Marvel," which opens in theaters on March 8th:

SEE ALSO: The new game challenging 'Fortnite' hit 10 million players in less than 72 hours

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NOW WATCH: I quit texting for a week and it was harder than I expected

One of Elon Musk's mansions is for sale.

The billionaire has listed a four-bedroom, three-bath home in Los Angeles for $4.5 million, Forbes first reported.

Tesla's chief executive originally bought the house — which is considerably smaller than some of his others — along with his now ex-wife Talulah Riley in 2013 for $3.695 million. If the asking price of $4.5 million holds, Musk stands to make nearly $1 million in profit from the sale.

Here's a look inside:

SEE ALSO: Tesla reportedly spent $700,000 on Elon Musk's private-jet travel in 2018, including flights to move his jet from one side of LA to another

The home is located in Brentwood, about 15 miles Northwest of Downtown Los Angeles.

It's on an odd-shaped triangle lot, but makes full use of the compact space.

Large privacy hedges help the home stay secluded despite how close it is to the street.

This is a preview of the “Global Fintech Landscape” premium research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence,  click here.

Since sprouting in the US and UK around 10 years ago, fintech has spread globally. Now, after years of proliferation, countries around the world are starting to see their fintech industries mature. Additionally, we continue to see the emergence of new hotbeds for fintech. This indicates that the space is still far from being fully developed, and that there are many new ways in which startups and their technologies continue to change financial services.

The fact that many new players are emerging in the space also suggests that attention is shifting away from the main countries where fintech is prevalent, and that investors are seeing the potential of newer, conventionally untapped markets.

The spread of fintech can be largely seen in the emergence of fintech hubs — cities where startups, talent, and funding congregate — which are proliferating globally in tandem with ongoing disruption in financial services. These hubs are all vying to become established fintech centers in their own right, and want to contribute to the broader financial services ecosystem of the future. Their success depends on a variety of factors, including access to funding and talent, as well as the approach of relevant regulators.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence compiles various fintech snapshots, which together show the global proliferation of fintech, and illustrate where fintech is starting to mature and where it is just breaking onto the scene. Each snapshot provides an overview of the fintech industry in a particular country, and details what is contributing to or hindering its further development. We also include notable fintechs in each geography, and discuss what the opportunities or challenges are for that particular domestic industry.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Besides the US and UK, there are plenty of other countries developing strong fintech hubs. Australia, Switzerland, and China, which are profiled in this report, have managed to leverage their stable financial centers of Sydney, Zurich, and Shanghai, respectively, to spur fintech development and attract funding.
• There are also a number of emerging fintech markets, including Brazil, Israel, and Canada, that are likely to play a big part in the global fintech ecosystem in the future. These countries have nascent but rapidly developing fintech hubs, as well as supportive regulatory environments, that could help them cement strong positions in the broader fintech scene.
• Many more fintech hubs will likely morph into big fintech players. This could push investors to increasingly wake up to the opportunities in new markets, leading fintech funding to become more diversified in the future, particularly outside of the UK and US.

 In full, the report:

• Outlines how the fintech industry has changed over the past 10 years.
• Details which cities are the most likely to succeed as fintech hubs at present and going forward.
• Highlights notable fintech startups in each of these markets.
• Discusses the potential opportunities and challenges these countries are facing today and in the future.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >>Purchase & Download Now
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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you've given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of Fintech.

SEE ALSO: Latest fintech industry trends, technologies and research from our ecosystem report

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• "Late-term abortion" has sparked national conversation in recent weeks. President Trump even addressed it in his State of the Union on Tuesday.
• In response, married couple Erika Christensen and Garin Marschall published an open letter, calling for Americans to listen to the real experiences of people who've had the procedure.
• Christensen has spoken publicly about having an abortion at 32 weeks because her child wouldn't have survived once delivered. 
• The letter has been signed by 123 people, some of whom are going public about their later abortion for the first time ever, Christensen told INSIDER. 

The phrase "late-term abortion" has sparked national conversation in recent weeks, thanks to some states' efforts to roll back restrictions on the procedure. In late January, New York passed the Reproductive Health Act, a law that permits abortion after 24 weeks when a mother's health is at risk or when a fetus isn't viable. In Virginia, a proposed bill would have reduced restrictions on third-trimester abortion when a mother's health was threatened. 

And on Tuesday, President Trump took time during the State of the Union to respond to the New York law and the Virginia bill, characterizing them as "chilling," and calling for a ban on "late-term abortion"— a term that's not actually used by doctors.

But there's something that often goes missing in debates and discussion of later abortions: The stories of people who've had them.

Now, an open letter signed by people who've experienced the reality of later abortions is aiming to change that.

The letter was published ahead of the State of the Union on Tuesday

The letter was published on Tuesday morning at abortionpatients.com by married couple Erika Christensen, 37, and Garin Marschall, 40, of New York. As of this writing, it has been signed by 123 people. 

"We are later abortion patients and their partners who are concerned with the politicization of this issue at the expense of both truth and compassion," the letter read. "The stories we hear being told about later abortion in this national discussion are not our stories ... These hypothetical patients don't sound like us or the other patients we know. The barbarous, unethical doctors in these scenarios don’t sound like the people who gave us compassionate care."

The letter responds to inaccurate characterizations of later abortions or the laws that allow them. In the State of the Union, for example, Trump said New York's Reproductive Health act "would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother's womb moments before birth," even though the law would only allow later abortions in cases of fetal inviability or when a mother's health is at risk. Some who oppose later abortions have also argued that there are no medical reasons to perform the procedures in the third trimester, though doctors who are trained in and provide abortions say that's not true. 

"We are not monsters," the letter continued. "We are your family, your neighbors, someone you love. We are you, just in different circumstances."

In an interview with INSIDER, Christensen said the letter was Marschall's idea.

"We knew that the president would be talking about later abortion at the State of the Union, so it was important to us to try and get ahead of it, knowing that it was an opportunity for a lot of misinformation to get out," she said. 

Christensen and Marschall have firsthand experience with later abortions

Christensen and Marschall are among the letter's signees because they've also experienced a later abortion. In 2016, when Christensen was 31 weeks into a wanted pregnancy, the couple learned that their baby would not be able to breathe or survive once delivered. 

"If the doctors thought there was any way he might make it, I would have taken that chance,"she told Jezebel when she first shared her story, anonymously, in 2016. "What I came to accept was the fact that I would never get to be this little guy's mother — that if we came to term, he would likely live a very short time until he choked and died, if he even made it that far...I couldn't put him through that suffering when we had the option to minimize his pain as much as possible."

But, at the time, under New York law, it was illegal for Christensen to get an abortion. She ultimately had to travel to Colorado for a shot that began the process of termination.

Read more: I was 33, married, and ready for a baby — here is the painful truth about late-term abortion

After the Jezebel article was published, Christensen and Marschall were approached by the New York Civil Liberties Union and asked if they'd be willing to share their story publicly in support of the Reproductive Health Act, which would have allowed patients in situations like Christensen's to get abortion care in New York state. 

"We realized quickly that having a patient perspective in the conversation around this law was just incredibly game-changing," Christensen told INSIDER. "This is an issue that is always treated as a political issue. It is very rarely treated as a health issue."

The couple went on a storytelling tour across the state, recounting their experience to anyone who would listen, they said. They traveled to the state capitol in Albany eight times and started a campaign called RHA Vote to advocate for the legislation. And they were sitting in the room where New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, signed the bill into law in late January. 

Some people signing the letter are going public for the first time

Christensen said that, when looking for people to sign the open letter, she first approached later abortion patients who she knew had spoken publicly about their experience. She also posted about it on Twitter and shared it with her roughly 1,000-member support group for people who have terminated wanted pregnancies.

"Most people that we know who have terminated later in their pregnancies are not out to their communities, so we realized that it was potentially a big ask," she said. "We didn't put pressure on anyone. We just sent them the letter in hopes they'd be interested in  signing on."

It turned out that many were interested. Christensen said she and Marschall are still getting emails from later abortion patients and their partners, asking to add their names to the list. She noted that many of these signees are going public about their experience for the very first time.

She also said that she's gotten support from other women who terminated pregnancies earlier. Others have been "just sending us solidarity and letting us know that they were really moved by it," Christensen said. 

The couple wants people to understand what later abortion is really like

"At the end of the day, our efforts are about getting people to understand something that they largely don't, which is the experience of later abortion," Marschall told INSIDER.

To that end, the open letter includes links to several blog posts, essays, and news reports documenting the signees'  later abortion experiences. 

"We are asking Americans to weigh the restrictions on later abortion against our stories, not the hypothetical cases that have been fabricated to win political points," the open letter read. "There is no good faith effort at a conversation on later abortion that does not include us."

Christensen and Marshall also stressed that they advocate for broad abortion access

"It's also important to remember that people are pushed down the line in pregnancy due to barriers in healthcare, but also to accessing abortion care earlier when they first needed it," she said. 

Though abortion is legal in the US, it can be difficult for some women to get one. It can be prohibitively expensive, and some states require patients to get counseling, inform their parents if they're minors, or endure waiting periods before they can get an abortion, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In 2017, an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute found some women in the US must travel long distances— more than 100 miles, in some parts of the country — in order to access abortion.

"It's really important not to forget those people," Christensen said. "We advocate for abortion access broadly with no patient left behind, and we want to make sure that this isn't presented as only a tragic issue that affects people like us."

• Read more:
• President Trump called for a ban on 'late-term abortion' in the State of the Union. Here's what you should know about the procedure.
• A controversial Virginia bill expanding access to late-term abortion sparked outrage on social media and was incorrectly accused of enabling 'infanticide'
• A new service will help women in the US get the abortion pill by mail

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A mother just met the recipient of her son's heart

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.

The virtual reality (VR) market is expected to rally in 2018 after seeing slow growth from 2016 to 2017. The uptick will be largely catalyzed by the emergence of the newest headset form factor, stand-alone VR headsets, which address some of the biggest pain points that have prohibited mainstream consumers from adopting VR.

This new form factor is more affordable than cost-prohibitive high-end headsets and more capable than its smartphone-powered counterparts. Additionally, it features in-unit processing that frees the VR headset from wires. The first major stand-alone headset, the Vive Focus from HTC, was launched in January of this year, and more from other major companies like Oculus and Google are expected to follow over the next six months. 

In a new report, Business Insider Intelligence lays out where the VR market is and forecasts how it will grow over the next five years. We dissect the various hardware categories and the unique strengths and opportunities of each, and identify how they will gain traction at different points of the market’s evolution. Finally, we examine various components impacting consumer adoption.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Business Insider Intelligence forecasts shipments of all VR headsets to grow 69% year-over-year (YoY) to reach 13.5 million in 2018. Powering that growth is the stand-alone VR headset category, which is expected to account for 30% of total headsets shipped in the year ahead. 
• The VR hardware market is volatile because getting a device right is a balancing act. On one hand, the price point needs to be affordable for most consumers, and on the other, the experience has to be distinctive and immersive enough to convince a consumer to strap a visor to their face on a regular basis. 
• While only a handful of stand-alone VR headsets will hit the market in 2018, they mark the biggest step toward mainstream adoption of consumer-oriented VR headsets by making the technology more accessible for the average consumer. 
• Declining price points, coupled with high-quality headsets and the introduction of a game-changing app, are crucial for the VR industry to achieve before VR can really gain traction on a global scale.

In full, the report:

• Forecasts the growth projections and shipment expectations of the global VR headset market, and breaks it up by the major headset categories.
• Explores the four major segments in the current VR hardware market, defined by the hardware needed to power the experience — stand-alone, smartphone-powered, PC-powered, and game console-powered VR.
• Identifies the key players shaping the burgeoning stand-alone VR headset segment.
• Discusses the biggest challenges to VR development and adoption.

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• GateHouse Media, owned by local newspaper giant New Media Investment Group, is quietly laying off journalists across the country. 
• According to social media posts and sources close to the layoffs, at least 50 employees have lost their jobs this year at papers owned by the company.
• The layoffs come amid widespread media layoffs across the US, which have claimed over 2,200 jobs.

Local newspaper giant GateHouse Media has quietly been laying off reporters and photographers across its publications, according to reports, journalists' testimony online, and sources close to the layoffs.

GateHouse, which says it owns 145 daily newspapers, 325 community publications, and over than 555 local websites in 37 states, seemingly focused cuts on photo departments and local sports coverage.

The layoffs follow GateHouse's $30 million purchase of 1o local Indiana papers from Schurz Communications Inc. in late January. Sources close to the layoffs and tweets from journalists estimated that over 50 employees across at least 14 publications lost their jobs. The acquired papers and other GateHouse properties were impacted, according to several journalists who were affected and local media reports.

GateHouse Media did not immediately reply to request for comment.

One source familiar with the layoffs said eight staffers were cut at The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida. Another, who works in Pennsylvania media, said that 15 to 20 media workers were cut at Pennsylvania's Bucks County Courier Times and the Doylestown Intelligencer and New Jersey's Burlington County Times. At least five people were cut at The Beaver County Times in Pennsylvania, according to a source who was close to the publication. Other papers lost one or two staffers, according to tweets and statements by those affected.

The total number of jobs lost is hard to determine due to non-disclosure agreements required as part of severance agreements, according to at least three sources who were affected by the layoffs.

Journalists affected by the cuts and friends expressed their frustration online with the cuts.

Gary Higgins, former staff photographer at The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Massachusetts, wrote on Twitter, "Hope you all had a better Friday than me. Terminated today after 31 years as Staff Photographer at the #PatriotLedger. Was in New Orleans 17 years ago tonight getting ready to cover that other Rams Patriots big game. Some Fridays are better than others!"

Friends of Mike Gay, a photographer formerly of Massachusetts' Taunton Gazette, wrote in a GoFundMe campaign, "Last week, Gatehouse Media, the company that owns the Taunton Gazette had to lay off Mike Gay after being a photographer for the paper for over 40 years. He was the longest tenured employee in the Taunton office." The campaign, which was raising money for new photo equipment since all of Gay's was owned by GateHouse, has raised $10,750 of its $2,500 goal.

Read more: Vice Media was once flying high with buzzy branded content and a lucrative millennial audience. Now it's planning to cut 10% of employees.

GateHouse has a reputation for rapidly expanding through acquisition and making deep staffing cuts. Tom Sofield of local Pennsylvania publication LevittownNow.com wrote that staff was cut by 70% at the Bucks County Courier Times after GateHouse acquired it as part of a $17.5 million deal in 2017. In 2018, the company acquired titles including Florida's Palm Beach Post and Palm Beach Daily News.

Since filing for bankruptcy in 2013, GateHouse has made numerous multi-million dollar acquisitions as part of a strategy to digitize local papers. In September 2018, GateHouse acquired the Oklahoman, where it laid off 37 staffers, according to Poynter. In April, GateHouse acquired Ohio's Akron Beacon Journal for $16 million.

The layoffs come amid a dwindling number of local papers in the digital economy and widespread media layoffs since the beginning of the year. More than 2,200 media jobs have been lost so far this year, according to a Business Insider calculation.

SEE ALSO: More than 2,200 people lost their jobs in a media landslide so far this year

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NOW WATCH: Meet the three women who married Donald Trump

The healthcare industry is in a state of disruption. Digital solutions are becoming a necessary part of the new global standard of care for patients and regulation is being fast-tracked to catch up to digital health innovation.

These rapid changes will have ripple effects across the entire healthcare system, impacting incumbents and new entrants alike.

Based on our ongoing analysis, understanding of industry trends, and conversations with industry executives, Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has put together The Top Five Trends Shaping The Future of Digital Health.

To get your copy of this free report, click here.

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• Life insurance is fundamentally hard to sell; it’s morbid to think about, promises no immediate rewards, and often requires a lengthy paper application with minimal guidance.
• Despite the popularity of personalized products in other areas of finance and fintech, life insurance largely remains unchanged.
• A small, but growing pocket of insurtech startups are shaking up the status quo by finding ways to digitize life insurance and increase its appeal.

Life insurance is a fundamentally difficult product to sell; it requires people to think about their deaths without promising any immediate returns.

And, despite tech innovations and the development of personalized services in other areas of finance, life insurance remains largely unchanged.

Luckily, there is a small but growing pocket of insurtech startups looking to modernize it. These companies are finding ways to digitize life insurance to  appeal to consumers — and they’re giving incumbents the opportunity to revamp traditional offerings, either by partnering with them or using their technology.

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has forecasted the shifting landscape of life insurance in the The Future of Life Insurance report. Here are the key problems insurtechs are tackling:

• Lack of education: Forty percent of US consumers told the Life Insurance and Market Research Association (LIMRA) that they feel intimidated by the life insurance application process, often drastically overestimating its cost and facing uncertainty about how much or which type of coverage to buy.
• Inconvenient application process: It can take weeks or months for coverage to take effect because of the sheer number of meetings and parties combing through paperwork in each round of the application process. The risk for the insurer often warrants reviews from the carrier, a team of underwriters, a broker, and even a medical examiner.
• Low customer loyalty: Life insurance tends to be a “set it and forget it” type of purchase, with very few people revisiting it after buying. Insurers and consumers therefore have limited contact for most of the relationship — with the exception of an annual bill, of course.
• Inefficient data management and processing: The aggregate data life insurers rely on is typically fed into algorithms that make broad assumptions about particular populations, and often incorporate outdated medical documentation — all of which can delay applications and result in unnecessary rejections.

Want to learn more?

The need for modernization in life insurance is clear: Overall sales are slowing and policy ownership is hitting record lows. And because it’s such a tightly-regulated space, innovation from incumbents has stagnated — but they’re not helpless. Consumer-focused and insurer-focused startups have emerged to offer new technologies and process improvements.

The Future of Life Insurance report from Business Insider Intelligence looks at the two main strategies life insurtechs are adopting to drive change in this market, for the benefit of both buyers and sellers. In full, the report discusses best practices incumbents and startups should adopt to steer clear of the risks attached to applying emerging technologies to such a tightly regulated product.

Insurtech startups will soon set new industry standards and consumer expectations around this complex product. That, in turn will serve as a catalyst for innovation among legacy players.

Companies included in this report: Ladder, Haven Life, Getsurance, Tomorrow, Fabric, Atidot, AllLife, Royal London, Polly, Life.io, Legal & General, Vitality, Discovery, John Hancock, Dai-ichi Life.

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• The IRS is beginning to process 2018 tax returns, the first year of filing after a massive tax overhaul. 
• So far, initial data show returns are about 8% smaller this year compared to the same week in 2018. 
• Wall Street says "no one:" not economists, elected officials, or civil servants know how returns will look this year because of the changes. 
• Another government shutdown is possible on Friday if no funding deal between Republicans and Democrats is reached, putting Americans' tax refunds at risk. 

All eyes are on the Internal Revenue Service this tax season.

After the 35-day partial government shutdown, the longest in American history, left the agency unable to begin preparing returns as early as usual, returns are starting to trickle out.

Average return sizes have dropped 8.4% for the first week of the 2019 filing season compared to the same window last year, according to weekly government data. Notably, this is the first tax season since a massive overhaul of tax codes was passed in 2017.

Read more: The IRS is now accepting tax returns. Here's what you can expect when filing under the new tax law.

Investment bank UBS says that uncertainty around the new tax brackets could have resulted in some of the change over last year.

"Withholding tables for 2018 may have been adjusted incorrectly," the bank's economist Robert Martin said in a note to clients this week.

"As a result, nobody —not  us,  not  other  economists,  not  the  US  government —knows whether refunds will be larger or smaller than in past years, as small changes in the assumptions  on  any  of  the  three  factors  lead to  large changes in net payments to households."

It's not just return size that's down, either. Every single cumulative metric tracked by the IRS is showing a negative percent change compared to last year. Total returns processed is down 25% while total returns received is down 12.4%.

The IRS assures that these are only early metrics and that operations are going smoothly despite the staff shortages right at the beginning of tax season due to the government shutdown.

"IRS systems are operating smoothly to start the filing season, and refunds are being issued," the agency said, according to Politico.“The IRS encourages taxpayers to e-file as the quickest way to receive their refunds."

That could all change come Friday, though, when funding runs out on February 15. As lawmakers work together to write a bipartisan border security proposal, a heavy cloud of uncertainty remains. 

Now read: 

• 4 tax breaks every US college student should know about
• The IRS isn't calling you — it's a scam, and here's what to do if it happens to you
• It took me under an hour to file my taxes this year thanks to a time-saving strategy that's available to anyone
• We compared H&R Block and TurboTax for filing your taxes — here's the verdict

SEE ALSO: Another government shutdown looms as funding runs out in less than a week week and Democrats are still undecided about Trump's border wall

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Earth's north magnetic pole is on the move — here's what will happen when our poles flip

• Nancy Pelosi, Katy Perry, and Orlando Bloom, were pictured together on Friday night at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where Dolly Parton was being honored by MusiCares. 
• The trio recreated the clap that Pelosi gave President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. 
• The three smiled as they recreated the applause, photos of which went viral. 
• Pelosi's husband, Paul, was also at the event on Friday. 

Nancy Pelosi recreated her State of the Union clap with Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom on Friday night, days after the applause went viral.

Pelosi, Perry, Bloom were pictured together at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where Dolly Parton was being honored with MusiCares’s person of the year award.

The trio smiled as the mimicked the clap that Pelosi gave President Donald Trump at his State of the Union on Tuesday.

The Speaker of the House’s husband, Paul, laughed as he stood by during the photo-op.

On Tuesday, Pelosi gave the applause after Trump called for an end to "the politics of revenge" during the State of the Union address. 

She told reporters on Wednesday that the clap "wasn’t sarcastic,"according to Fox News.

"I wanted him to know that was a very welcome message," she said.

Read more:Nancy Pelosi's withering reactions to Trump's State of the Union address are going viral

Following the State of the Union address, Pelosi released a statement calling on Trump to change his priorities.

Perry, meanwhile, has long identified as a Democrat and even joined the political trail for Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign.

It's unclear if she had met Pelosi prior to their photo together on Friday.

• Read more:
• Another government shutdown looms as funding runs out in a week and Democrats are still undecided about Trump's border wall
• Pelosi's daughter says her mother's viral clap at Trump 'took me back to the teen years'
• Democratic women gave Trump a surprising standing ovation during the State of the Union after the president celebrated the historic achievements of American women

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Bud Light's 'Dilly Dilly' just made a comeback at the Super Bowl with a weird crossover ad with Game of Thrones — here's what the phrase means

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. Current subscribers can read the report here.

Trucking is set to transform radically in the coming years, with innovative technologies enabling trucks to take over more and more driving responsibilities, saving time and money for operators and businesses that rely on shipping.

Autonomous trucks are being tested on roads around the world, and systems from startups like Peloton and Embark could make their way into commercial trucks as soon as next year. Fleets will be able to leverage autonomous technologies to cut costs and gain a critical edge over competitors.

But to start planning for, and to eventually implement, those technologies, companies need to know what sorts of systems will be ready and when, and what regulatory hurdles will need to be overcome to get autonomous trucks on the road. 

In The Autonomous Trucking Report, Business Insider Intelligence provides an early glimpse into the emerging autonomous trucking market. First, we look at the trucking market as it stands today, offering a basic profile of the industry and highlighting a number of the challenges and issues it faces. Then, we go through the three waves of autonomous technology that are set to upend the industry — platooning, semi-autonomous systems, and fully autonomous trucks — looking at who is making strides in each of these areas, when the technology can be expected to start making an impact, and what companies can do to get ahead of the curve.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Advanced and autonomous technology will enable operators and shipping firms to eradicate some of the challenges that have long plagued them. Trucks will take over more and more driving responsibilities, saving time and money for operators and businesses that rely on shipping.
• The impact of autonomous technologies on the trucking industry will come in three major waves: platooning or fuel-saving vehicle convoys, semi-autonomous highway control systems, and fully autonomous trucks.
• Change to the trucking industry will be gradual but inexorable. Companies with foresight can start to make long-term plans to account for the ways that autonomous technologies will change how goods and products move from place to place.

In full, the report:

• Analyzes the development of autonomous trucking technology.
• Explains the waves in which advanced and autonomous technologies will start to impact the trucking industry, providing detailed explanations of how a company can take advantage of the disruptive technology transforming logistics at each stage.
• Profiles the efforts of the companies that are at the forefront of new technology in trucking, looking at what they're working on and when their efforts could start to impact the market.

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• International and domestic pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is building.
• But the country's military has helped keep Maduro, widely considered an illegitimate leader, in office.
• The military has hewed closely to the government for two decades, but it's feeling the strain.

Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido named himself interim president in January and has worked to oust President Nicolas Maduro, whose second term, which began January 10, has been widely rejected as illegitimate.

Since Guaido took his oath of office on January 23, he has been recognized by many as Venezuela's rightful leader, including the US and much of Latin America.

Read more: Trump leaves 'military option' on the table for Venezuela, which he calls as threatening as North Korea

But the military — regarded as Venezuela's "king-maker"— has helped Maduro retain power in the face of upheaval and isolation. With pressure growing on Maduro, it remains unclear what course the military will take.

Venezuela's military has been bound closely to the government since late President Hugo Chavez, a former army captain, took office in 1999 and began to cultivate the force as a base of support. Many military leaders remain loyal to Chavez and his political movement, Chavismo.

Venezuela's armed forces now has about 2,000 generals — about half of them elevated by Maduro, who succeeded Chavez in 2013. Promotions have often been based on loyalty, and Maduro has tried to ensure fealty by forcing out dissenters.

Read more: Bolton's not-so-subtle note about sending 5,000 US troops to Colombia may have just been a bluff to spook Venezuela's embattled Maduro

Senior military officers have benefited from preferential treatment. Maduro has given military leaders control of food-distribution programs and the oil industry; some officers have used their authority to profit from illicit activities. Many military leaders likely see Maduro as the only alternative to a loss of status or to prosecution.

But not all Venezuelans in uniform have experienced the country's crises in the same way. Lower-ranking officers and enlisted troops are exposed to the same hardships as the country's civilians. While some officers have broken with Maduro, many more regular soldiers have shown signs of discontent.

Small-scale rebellions have popped up in recent years, but they have been put down, and hundreds of troops have been detained for their protests. Others have simply deserted, which Maduro's government was trying to stop well before Guaido called on the military to switch sides.

A document signed by the head of Venezuela's immigration service on November 13 orders border guards to keep military personnel and reservists from leaving Venezuela without authorization, according to Bloomberg.

Read more: John Bolton says Venezuela's Maduro could end up in a 'beach area like Guantánamo'

A document signed by Venezuela's national-guard commander on December 21 and seen by Bloomberg indicated some 4,300 guardsmen have deserted since 2014 — all non-commissioned officers or enlisted personnel, representing about 6% of the force which handles domestic operations and has been on the frontline against protests.

'A guarantee of protection'

At the end of January, supporters of Guaido in Caracas distributed a pamphlet offering amnesty to members of the military who defected from Maduro's government.

"What you have, not with me but with us, is a guarantee of protection," Guaido told supporters and troops in Caracas. Earlier this month, the Lima Group, 11 members of the 14-member Lima Group, a bloc of Latin American countries, asked Venezuela's military to show "loyalty" to the opposition leader.

Read more: Officials keep talking about intervening in Venezuela, and it's drawing an ominous comparison

"The military leadership must understand that Maduro’s days are numbered, the financial situation is unsustainable, and that they are on the wrong side of the Venezuelan public and of history," James Bosworth, an expert on the region and founder of political-risk advisory Hxagon, told Business Insider on Friday.

"Still, it is not particularly easy for the leadership to coordinate an effort against Maduro that leads to a good outcome for them," Bosworth added. "The military is trying to avoid any situation that leads to sectors of the security forces battling each other."

Days before Guaido proclaimed himself interim president, about two dozen military officers attacked a national-guard post near the presidential palace in Caracas. They stole weapons, kidnapped officials, and posted a video calling for public support before security forces surrounded them.

Protests in support of the attackers broke out nearby, but the officers involved were of lower rank and had little ability to force change.

Read more: 'Different shades of utter resignation': Venezuelans fleeing hardship at home are finding more struggles abroad

But their actions reflect what many see as the most likely fault line. Antonio Rivero, an exiled Venezuelan who rose to the rank of general before leaving the country, told NBC News that he saw low- and mid-ranking officers turning on senior officers and the government.

"This is the scenario that is gaining more traction," he said at the end of January. "Any confrontation can lead to a civil war," Rivero cautioned, but such a conflict would likely be short, he said, as most Venezuelans want Maduro out.

The US has worked assiduously to undermine Maduro and bolster Guaido, focusing on opening divides within the military. National security adviser John Bolton, at the front of those efforts, has said sanctions could be removed for officers who break with Maduro.

In late January, Bolton said the US believed"the rank and file of the Venezuelan military is acutely aware of the desperate economic conditions in the country. We think the junior officer ranks and the mid-level officer ranks are the same."

Read more: Some 3 million Venezuelans have fled their country — here's what it's like at ground zero of their exodus

In what appeared to be an effort to foment more uncertainty among military leaders, Bolton said the US was "aware of significant contacts between general officers of the Venezuelan military and supporters of the National Assembly."

A US official said this week that Washington was in direct contact "with members of the former Maduro regime, with military members." The official conceded that "those conversations are very, very limited" but said the US expected more to break ranks.

'This has created serious tension'

Venezuela's military leadership does not trust Guaido or the US government,"meaning promises of amnesty and reduced sanctions have only a limited impact," Bosworth told Business Insider.

Time may also be on Maduro's side, according to Jose Antonio Colina, a former Venezuelan army lieutenant who fled to Miami in 2003 and now heads a Venezuelan exile organization.

"The possibility that the armed forces will completely disavow Nicolas Maduro and support Juan Guaido is becoming less likely as time goes by," Colina told NBC News at the end of January.

Read more: Hawkish GOP veteran convicted during Iran-Contra affair picked to run Trump's Venezuela policy

The military has remained on Maduro's side through years of turmoil, but that pressure, which is unlikely to abate, has strained the relationship between the men and women in uniform and their leaders.

"Because the military is so focused on coordination and acting as a unit, there is an intense focus on discipline and some severe punishments for anyone in lower levels considering defection or desertion. The commanders are also aware that morale is low and many of the enlisted and lower-ranking officers have zero loyalty to Maduro," Bosworth said.

"This has created serious tension that threatens the whole military institution."

SEE ALSO: 'I don't have a happy ending': Venezuela's misery is deepening — and spilling over its borders

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NOW WATCH: Venezuela was Latin America’s richest country and now it is in complete crisis — here’s how it fell apart