• The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked a judge to hold Elon Musk in contempt of court after it claimed that the Tesla CEO violated the terms of his settlement with the agency.
• The settlement, reached in September last year, required that Tesla preapprove all communications from Musk — most notably his tweets — which included "material" information about the company.
• Experts told Business Insider that Musk could be fined if he is found in contempt, or potentially be suspended as an officer of a publically traded company.
• A judge could compel Musk to testify in person.

Elon Musk has renewed his war with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — and experts have warned that he could emerge from the fight with another fine, or potentially even a suspension as CEO.

On Monday, the SEC accused Musk of violating his settlement with the agency over his "funding secured" tweet debacle in September last year, when both Tesla and Musk were fined $20 million.

Part of the settlement stipulated that Tesla is supposed to pre-approve all of his communications with shareholders that include "material" information about the company.

On February 20, Musk tweeted that Tesla would produce 500,000 cars this year. He quickly clarified that he "meant to say" Tesla would produce 500,000 cars and deliver 400,000. The first tweet was not vetted by Tesla, while the second was, the firm said in a letter to the SEC.

Following the tweet, the SEC asked a judge to hold Musk in contempt of the federal court that approved that settlement. Musk has until March 11 to explain why he should not be held in contempt, according to Reuters.

Peter Haveles, a lawyer and partner at Pepper Hamilton in New York, said a fine and a strong reprimand is the likeliest outcome if Musk is found to be in contempt of court.

"Tellingly, the SEC's motion paper did not describe what sanction it was seeking from the judge, so they're leaving some flexibility here," he added.

Elliot Lutzker, a former SEC enforcement officer, told Business Insider that there's a possibility the agency could push for Musk to be suspended as CEO if it emerged that the billionaire consistently failed to get his Twitter messages pre-approved.

"They already stripped him of being a chairman, they could bar him from being an officer of a public company," said Lutzker, who now works for law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron.

He agreed with Haveles that a fine is the more likely outcome, as booting Musk from the top position could adversely affect Tesla's shareholders. "It's a tough situation because Musk is Tesla and they need him," he said.

When asked how likely it is that the SEC would pursue criminal proceedings, SEC compliance consultant Robert Quinn said it is rare in a civil case such as Musk's, but if other tweets are deemed to be in violation of the settlement, things could get a lot more serious.

"The SEC takes market manipulation very seriously," said Quinn, a consultant at Robert Quinn Financial Regulatory Experts in London. He added that the agency "has a long track record of making examples of people."

Musk might not have the strongest defense

Musk and Tesla have argued that the tweet is not in violation of the settlement because in Tesla's Q4 earnings call on January 30, the CEO forecast that Tesla would make between 350,000 and 500,000 Model 3 vehicles in 2019.

The SEC rejected this in its filing, saying it was "not credible." Quinn, Haveles, and Lutzker agreed that it's not the strongest line of defense.

"The purpose of the order is to put in some supervision and pre-clearance... So whether or not for the moment his statements were accurate or not, he consciously did not follow the rules," Haveles said.

Read more:"How embarrassing": Elon Musk fired back at the SEC in latest fight over Tesla production numbers

Lutzker also said that the "substance" of the tweet was not the issue.

"The telltale sign is that his attorney who represented him… resigned almost simultaneously or contemporaneously with this latest violation of the SEC injunction," Lutzker said. Tesla's general counsel Dane Butswinkas resigned on February 20, the same day Musk tweeted about production figures.

Haveles and Quinn agreed that the information in his tweet was potent enough to move the market. Haveles said Musk was lucky the pronouncement was made outside of trading hours.

"He tweets whenever he gets the urge, so I think it was fortuitous but not deliberate on his part that he did it in the middle of the night," said Haveles.

He added that the tweet's timing does mitigate against the potential harm it could have caused, "but it doesn't change the fact that he did engage in misconduct."

What happens next

Haveles said there will be a procedural hearing, which will involve lawyers from Tesla and the SEC arguing it out in front of Judge Alison Nathan, who approved the original settlement. But if Judge Nathan deems it necessary, she could demand an evidentiary hearing, forcing Musk to testify in person.

Haveles, who has been in the courtroom with Nathan multiple times, said she is not to be messed with. "She is known for being fair-minded, but she is also tough and if she thinks you are playing games with her or misleading her, she will be very sharp in pointing that out to you," he said.

Musk has a history of mocking the SEC, at one point dubbing the agency the "Shortseller Enrichment Commission." He doubled down on this on Tuesday, tweeting that "something is broken with SEC oversight." Musk did, however, say he has that he has "great respect for judges."

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's tweets make it look like Tesla's revamped board is still bad at its job — and it could get the company into even more trouble

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NOW WATCH: What's going on with Jeff Bezos and Amazon

TheInsider Picksteam writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

Since you don't have all day to scour the web for noteworthy sales and discounts, we rounded up the best bargains for you to shop in one convenient place. For even more deals and savings across the web, check out our coupons page.

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Adidas' website is probably the first place you'd look for sale items, but many of the brand's products are also available on eBay for less. By shopping at Adidas' official eBay store today, you can save an extra 20% on already reduced sale styles. Whether you want a sporty pair of runners like the AlphaBounce sneakers pictured above, a timeless classic like the Adidas Superstar, or some new apparel, you'll find it all here. For more deals and coupons on eBay, check out our coupons page here. 

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Shop all RAVPower deals on Amazon now. 

3. Save up to 20% on Graco baby gear at Target

If you're a parent, an expecting parent, or you're shopping for someone else's baby registry, Target is having a big baby sale that you'll want to check out. While you can save on everything baby-related, one of the best deals is 20% off Graco car seats, strollers, playpens, high chairs, swings, and more. Plus, you can save an extra 5% when you choose in-store pick up. The sale ends on March 2, so start shopping now. For more deals and promotions at Target, check out our coupons page here. 

Shop the Graco sale at Target now. 

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NOW WATCH: Meet the three women who married Donald Trump

• Macy's on Tuesday announced it is cutting 100 management jobs as part of a restructuring plan.
• The restructuring plan "doesn't seem bold enough" to help boost customer demand, "The Retail Doctor" said.
• Department stores like Macy's should focus on building connections with customers especially under the impact of e-commerce, he says. 
• Watch Macy's trade live.

Macy's restructuring plan doesn't go far enough to help boost its business, "The Retail Doctor" says. 

The department-store chain on Tuesday announced a restructuring plan aimed at reducing costs and speeding up decision making. As part of the move, it is cutting 100 management jobs. Macy's expects the restructuring to generate annual expense savings of $100 million starting in fiscal 2019. 

"The steps we are announcing to further streamline our management structure will allow us to move faster, reduce costs and be more responsive to changing customer expectation," Macy's CEO Jeff Gennette said in a press release.

But Bob Phibbs, CEO of New York-based consultancy "The Retail Doctor," says cutting the number of management jobs doesn't touch the pain point of Macy's lower customer demand.

"It doesn't seem bold enough,"Phibbs told Business Insider. "They still struggle a bit to understand who their shoppers are and how to reach them."

Macy's operates its business as a warehouse and expects its merchandise to sell itself, Phibbs said. "It's not a good strategy. It lacks connections with customers," he added. 

This year looks like it's going to be a tough one for US department stores. Macy's, JCPenney, Kohl's, and Nordstrom are closing more than a dozen stores collectively this year.

While e-commerce sites such as Amazon add headwinds for brick-and-mortar stores, physical shops still have plenty of market opportunities as long as they focus on going after customers, according to Phibbs. 

Younger generations seem to be moving away from online shopping, he said. "Millennials want to go back to stores because they want people to help them."

Now read:

• Macy's beats and announces a restructuring plan (M)
  Macy's is getting clobbered after slashing guidance due to a disappointing holiday season (M)
• Retailers are getting slammed after reporting holiday sales. Here's why

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• The key to "getting organized" is usually about choosing less, not buying more to get you there.
• Minimalism is only about having what you need in your physical space and schedule.
• Practice minimalism by boxing everything up in your creative space for three weeks. Only unpack what you need. Everything else is likely just excess.

Let’s face it.

Creatives have a reputation for being messy.

It makes sense. After all, our heads are messy. There are so many ideas. So many possibilities.

And when creating, it’s more fun to work from a palette.

Besides, you never know when inspiration might hit and you can just start creating from things you have around the house.

The problem is that there often isn’t enough space to create in.

And, the visual clutter can spark more feelings of overwhelm than feelings of productivity.

Conventional wisdom says that more is better.

We often think that more is better. That it creates additional possibilities.

Yet when it comes to creativity, more isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Michelangelo — one of the most financially and classically successful artists of all time — said, “Art lives on constraint and dies of freedom.”

But we already know this.

Haven’t you ever created something amazing when faced with incredible limits?

And haven’t you ever gotten overwhelmed to the point of inaction when there were simply too many options?

It seems like more would create, well, more. But instead, when faced with more, we counter-intuitively create less. With more time, we get less done. With more supplies, they get dusty with a lack of use. With more space, we get too tired to clean it up so we can create in it.

There is something else at play here.

And that something is energy.

There is an energy cost to creativity.

We are used to the cost of supplies, the cost of training, and even a cost in time. But we rarely consider the cost in energy when it comes to creativity.

Have you ever been in a flow state, creating in a way that time disappeared? Then, once you finished whatever you were creating, you were ravenously hungry?

While you were creating, you had everything you needed, but once you stopped, you realized how much energy you’d burned because suddenly you felt extremely tired or extremely hungry.

Creativity burns an incredible amount of energy. It needs fuel.

And this factor of energy — the one we rarely look at — is the reason that a minimalist lifestyle is a strategy worth exploring for creatives.

Something in us knows this. We can feel it when our energy resource is drained. It’s the reason we so frequently dream of throwing a few possessions in a backpack and leaving the rest behind.

Creativity isn’t the only thing taxing your energy.

We all suffer from decision fatigue. The concept is that every decision we have to make in a day drains our reserves.

Yet in a modern lifestyle, most of us have made hundreds of decisions before we even get dressed in the morning. Micro decisions as we choose a coffee cup, something to eat for breakfast, where to look for our favorite shirt.

And that’s in the physical world, the digital world has its own set of decisions.

We decide what to click on, what to post, how to reply, and what to delete over and over again. One study showed that we check our smart phones over 85 times a day!

Is it any wonder that we just feel like sitting on the couch and bingeing Netflix when we finally get some time to ourselves?

The lie of “getting organized.”

Be honest. How many times have you said, “I just need to get organized”?

When we start trying to “get organized” we often focus on what we need ‘more” of. If only I had:

• More hours in a day.
• More money.
• More space — a dedicated studio.
• More organizational tools — better shelving.

Our answer to “getting organized” is usually the very thing that works against it. More.

Reality? The key to “getting organized” is about choosing less.

Of course, there is something about creatives in particular that is incredibly resistant to the idea of less. We hate constraints. And while it feels noble to support our inner rebel throwing off fetters, the real resistance is fear.

Why?

We way over-identify with our “stuff.”

Owning a paintbrush or a guitar isn’t what makes you a creative.

That thing inside you that makes you a creative? It has zero to do with the tools you own. It isn’t your supplies, the media you create with, or the brand of instrument you prefer.

The thing that makes you a creative is your ability to bring to life something that wasn’t there yesterday. It’s your gift for seeing the correlations in disconnected things. It’s your ability to tell the truth in a way that causes others to resonate with it too.

So often, those beautiful intangibles that make you a creative get weighed down and blocked out by tangibles.

There is an energy dividend when you release the stuff.

It frees you from the weight that causes stagnation.

Imagine minimizing your possessions so that you have less decision fatigue.

Imagine time gained by not having to dig through overstuffed drawers, cabinets, and closets looking for things.

Imagine having clear, empty surfaces, that invite you to come create on them.

There aren’t enough organizational systems in the world to get you there. That lifestyle is only possible if you give away the excess.

Most of our spaces are treated like one, big, long inhale drawing in things. We have to exhale to be healthy.

How minimalism boosts your reserves

While minimalism is an art term that defines a specific style, minimalism as a lifestyle is the counter-cultural practice of choosing less instead of more.

It’s having only what you need in your physical space and schedule.

It’s letting go of the non-essential to focus on the essential.

Authors and bloggers, like Marie Kondo, Joshua Becker, Courtney Carver, Leo Babauta, Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus have developed huge followings training people to free up their physical space in order to reap the benefits of more time and less stress that comes from choosing a minimalist lifestyle.

But the big win for creatives isn’t just having more space to create in, it’s the creative energy that gets freed up when the visual and mental clutter is removed.

You can take your own fetters off and break free.

While you may have celebrated messiness in the past, the mental clarity and inspiration that comes when you have breathing room is life-giving.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. You can try it for yourself.

You can take minimalism for a test drive to see if it makes a difference for you. Start with the space where you usually create — whether it’s your bedroom, makeshift studio, dining room table, or the backpack you lug to Starbucks.

Box it all up. Everything. And get it out of that space.

Only unpack what you need and put it back into the space when you need it. (If you are like most who have tried this, it will only be about 20% of what you started with.)

After three weeks, how does it feel?

If you find it unleashes something in you, then get a book to take it deeper.

I highly recommend a comic book: Marie Kondo’s Life Changing Manga of Tidying Up. Another great book that talks about the why is Everything that Remains— a memoir by minimalists, Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus. (The inspiration for the packing party which wound up changing Ryan’s life.)

Best of all, you won’t have to “get organized.” You’ll just be organized.

And your creative energy will have room to flow.

//Want more? Cathy Hutchison blogs about visual journaling at yourvisualjournal.com.

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• Apple Music appeared in Google's Home app, which helps set up and control Google's smart speakers.
• Apple Music was recently made available to Amazon Alexa-enabled smart devices, like Amazon's own lineup of Echo smart speakers. 
• Apple Music will become an option for almost anyone with a smart speaker, even for people who don't own a single Apple device. 

Apple's music streaming service, Apple Music, is seemingly now available to use with Google's lineup of smart speakers.

There was no official announcement, just a new option that appeared in Google's Home app that lets users set up their smart Google speakers (MacRumors was the first to spot the change, and we've since confirmed it on our own Google Home apps).

It means that Apple Music subscribers, whether existing or brand-new, should be able to control music from Apple Music with their voice on Google's smart speakers, like the Google Home or Google Home Max. 

As of yet, it's not clear if anyone can actually start using Apple Music with Google smart speakers. Various reports have said that it's not possible to sign into Apple Music via the Google Home app. 

Apple Music voice control was also made available in December last year to smart speakers and devices with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant built in, like Amazon's Echo smart speakers and the huge variety of Alexa-enabled smart devices. 

Conversely, Apple's own HomePod smart speaker doesn't support any other music streaming service apart from Apple Music itself. Now, Apple Music support on Google smart speakers is another reason to leave Apple's comparatively limited HomePod smart speaker off your short list. (With that said, my colleague Avery Hartmans found a great use with an Apple Home Pod and Apple TV.) 

Apple's move to give Apple Music support to competing smart speakers means that Apple Music will soon become an option to almost anyone, even if they don't own a single Apple product. Indeed, by focusing on software-based services, Apple opens itself to selling its services to a wider range of customers. 

SEE ALSO: Sonos is reportedly working on a pair of wireless headphones to be released sometime next year

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• Hedge funds are crowding into industrials, according to the top equity strategist for RBC Capital Markets. Those stocks are soaring, but risks to investors are on the rise as well.
• Lori Calvasina says investors could suffer losses if Wall Street's views on industrials shift back to normal, or if worries about slower economic growth increase. 

The so-called smart money is piling into US industrial companies, and one top equity strategist says investors might get crushed when the sector runs out of steam.

Major hedge funds snapped up machinery and shipping companies in the fourth quarter, and those stocks have posted market-beating gains in 2019. But when a trade gets too popular, it can create major risks, regardless of fundamental merit, according to RBC Capital Markets head equity strategist Lori Calvasina.

"When crowded trades unwind, it tends to be painful and difficult for investors to get out in time," Calvasina wrote in a recent client note. 

The chart below shows just how strong demand has been for industrial stocks. The blue bars show the extent of hedge funds' overweight or underweight positions on the sectors, and the orange dots compare that positioning to the norm since 2010.

As you can see, investors are drastically overweight industrials compared to history.

In terms of what could spur a sudden shift in industrial sentiment — the kind that could send investors fleeing for the exits — Calvasina highlights an economic growth slowdown. Her concerns echo recent signs traders are getting worried about future growth, even amid a giant stock-market relief rally this year.

"Most of our baskets of crowded names struggled in 2016, when the growth trade last stumbled (as it appears to be doing now)," Calvasina wrote.

Economic growth is particularly critical for industrial company profits, as the sector is one of the most tightly linked to overall economic health. And while investors have set aside their fears and pushed industrials up 18% this year, Calvasina says the risks are substantial.

She says stocks in the industry are getting higher ratings from analysts than usual, while hedge funds shift an abnormal additional amount of money into the sector. Overall, Calvasina says industrials hit an all time "overweight" high in the third quarter of last year and came down only a little in the fourth quarter.

That means the stocks could sink if analysts shift their views back to their historical norms, or if hedge funds change their positions.

On the flipside, hedge funds were underweight utilities and household products companies during the fourth quarter and reduced their positions, according to Calvasina. And those sectors have, in turn, lagged the market in 2019.

SEE ALSO: Hedge funds were still loading up on certain stocks as the market tanked in late 2018. These are their 9 new favorites.

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NOW WATCH: There's a secret room behind Mount Rushmore that's inaccessible to tourists

• VMware is cozying up to Microsoft with a new cloud partnership.
• This is similar to the deal VMware has with Amazon Web Services.
• Microsoft and VMware have been rivals for decades so this partnership is another feather in Microsoft's cap as it seeks to overthrow Amazon's lead in cloud computing.

VMware and Microsoft are working on a new cloud partnership, quietly teased in December. And this could help Microsoft as it seeks to overthrow Amazon's lead in cloud computing.

That's because VMware and Amazon Web Services are also major partners. And, in a rare role-reversal, Amazon is considered somewhat dependent on the VMware partnership to push its all-important cloud business into the next big thing known as "hybrid" cloud.

Hybrid is when companies keep some of their apps in their own data centers and use the public cloud for others, all of it engineered to work happily together. AWS is the leader in public cloud but VMware is the king of private data centers and hybrid computing, with half a billion customers. The AWS/VMware duo has been widely seen as a way for Amazon to stay in front of a fast-growing Microsoft Azure cloud business.

But partnering with Amazon is like swimming with a scorpion on your back.

Amazon never hesitates to compete with its partners. AWS routinely launches its own services that compete with those who use or sell their wares on its cloud. Amazon even competes with some of its biggest AWS customers like Netflix.

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Once VMware's customers move their apps to Amazon's cloud, there's nothing to stop Amazon from trying to upsell those customers to Amazon's home-grown technology, the next-generation stuff that upends VMware's bread-and-butter technology. In fact, in December, Amazon released just such a service, called Firecracker.  

And, interestingly enough, it was also in December that Microsoft and VMware quietly teased information about a partnership that will put VMware's flagship hybrid cloud software on Microsoft Azure, a similar thing as its partnership with AWS. The VMware/Azure service was still in "preview" mode, where customers can kick the tires, the two companies said.

They didn't say when this service would be generally available. But six people told the Information's Kevin McLaughlin, that the two may announce details, and even a broader partnership, in a matter of weeks.

VMware and Microsoft have been arch rivals for decades even though they have also partnered up as needed over those years.

And in its blog post about the new Microsoft Azure partnership, VMware made it very clear that the company feels no more a sense of monogamy toward AWS than AWS feels toward VMware. Ditto for Microsoft.

Ajay Patel, the VMware's exec responsible for VMware's cloud products, pointed out in the post that VMware is also partnering with IBM's cloud, European cloud provider OVH, Rackspace, CenturyLink and will do so with "others come to market," he said.

Microsoft and VMware declined comment on the Information's report that it was working on a bigger partnership announcement.

SEE ALSO: The Senate Commerce Committee is demanding answers from Google CEO Sundar Pichai over the company's failure to disclose a microphone inside Nest home security devices

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• The Securities and Exchange Commission's allegation that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is in contempt of the federal court that approved a settlement between Musk and the agency is highly unusual, the former SEC senior counsel Thomas Gorman told Business Insider.
• It's particularly rare for the SEC to bring contempt proceedings against a corporate executive, rather than the operator of an illegal enterprise, such as a Ponzi scheme, Gorman said.
• The most likely outcome is that Musk is sanctioned, fined, and given a stern warning about the consequences of disobeying his settlement with the SEC, Peter Haveles, a partner at Pepper Hamilton, said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) allegation that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is in contempt of the federal court that approved a settlement between Musk and the agency is highly unusual, the former SEC senior counsel Thomas Gorman told Business Insider.

Being in contempt of court means either misbehaving in a courtroom or deliberately disobeying a court order (the SEC is accusing Musk of the latter). The SEC rarely brings contempt proceedings, Gorman said.

"There just aren't very many of these cases around," he said.

It's particularly rare for the SEC to bring contempt proceedings against a corporate executive, rather than the operator of an illegal enterprise, such as a Ponzi scheme, Gorman said.

Read more: A judge just set a deadline for Elon Musk to defend himself against the SEC's claims that he is in contempt of court

The SEC sued Musk in September, alleging that Musk made "false and misleading statements" in August about the possibility of taking the automaker private. Musk and the agency reached a settlement in September, under which Musk didn't admit or deny the allegations in the agency's lawsuit but stepped down as the chairman of Tesla's board of directors for three years and paid a $20 million fine. The settlement also required Tesla to monitor Musk's communications, including on platforms such as Twitter.

But in the months after the settlement, Musk criticized the SEC, saying in an interview with "60 Minutes" that he didn't respect the agency. And, on February 19, Musk tweeted a projection about Tesla's 2019 vehicle production that exceeded what the automaker had said in its most recent earnings letter.

Musk corrected the tweet, but the SEC said in a court filing on Monday that Musk had violated the terms of his settlement with the agency by not seeking or receiving approval from Tesla before publishing his tweet about vehicle production. The agency asked a judge to hold Musk in contempt of the federal court that approved the settlement.

But proving that Musk violated the terms of the settlement will be difficult for the SEC, which faces a burden of proof just below what is necessary for a criminal case, Gorman said.

"The SEC has to prove they're right by clear and convincing evidence. It's not enough to have a preponderance."

The most likely outcome is that Musk is sanctioned, fined, and given a stern warning about the consequences of disobeying his settlement with the SEC, Peter Haveles, a partner at Pepper Hamilton, said.

"It's going to be the equivalent of hitting him across the head with a two-by-four in order to get his attention."

• Read more:
• SEC says Elon Musk violated his settlement with the agency and asks a judge to hold him in contempt of court
• Elon Musk says 'something is broken' at the SEC after the agency asked a judge to hold him in contempt of court
• A 'boxing match with the SEC is the last thing investors wanted': Here's what Wall Street is saying about Elon Musk's latest battle with the SEC
• 'How embarrassing': Elon Musk fired back at the SEC in latest fight over Tesla production numbers

SEE ALSO: New York wants drivers to pay for its crumbling subway

Join the conversation about this story »

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The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

• Crafting isn't just for kids or super-creative types on Pinterest.
• There's a wide world of crafts out there, and the joy they bring leads not just to the satisfaction of being able to post, "Look at what I made!" on your social media profiles, but also to true pride in your own abilities.
• If it's been a while since you last took up some type of craft or a new hobby, we're here to help.
• Whether you are interested in learning to draw or canning up your own pickles, we've rounded up the best kits and supplies to get your new hobby up and running. 

We get it: You're busy. Work, family, maintaining your home, occasional visits with friends … life has you up and running seemingly 24/7. That doesn't seem to leave much time for you, which is a shame, because taking a little time each day is one of the best things you can do for your physical and mental health.

You could spend that "me time" on a Netflix binge, playing a game on your phone, or tossing things into a virtual shopping cart. Or, you could take up a new hobby that not only gives you a chance to develop your creativity, but also leads to a finished product that can continue to bring you joy every time you look at it or use it.

Plus, learning a new craft is the gift that keeps on giving. You get better as you continue to practice, you may well make new friends who share the same interest, and you are almost guaranteed to feel less stressed and more energized after spending time at your hobby.

Sometimes, though, it's hard to think of what you might want to try. That's why we rounded up a selection of craft kits and supplies for 10 popular crafts.

Here are the best craft kits for adults:

• Best fermenting and pickling kit: Easy Fermenter Wide Mouth Lid Kit
• Best book for learning crochet: Teach Yourself Visually Crochet
• Best book to learn how to sculpt: The Polymer Clay Techniques Book
• Best guide to hand lettering: Lettering and Modern Calligraphy: A Beginner's Guide
• Best beginners needlepoint kit: Dimensions Needlepoint Kit
• Best themed gardening kits: My DIY Garden
• Best book to teach yourself to draw: You Can Draw in 30 Days: The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less
• Best book for learning to paint with watercolors: Everyday Watercolor: Learn to Paint Watercolor in 30 Days
• Best kit for learning wool felting: Dimensions Feltworks Kit
• Best craft-of-the-month subscription: Craft in Style Box

Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.

The best vegetable fermenting and picking kit

Why you'll love it: If you can't get enough of tasty, fermented foods such as pickled veggies, sauerkraut, and kimchi, make your own with the Easy Fermenter Wide Mouth Lid Kit. 

Fermented foods aren't just tasty — they are excellent for your health, as well. The bacteria that carry out the process of fermentation are also very friendly to your gut, and once inside their new home, they do their best to regulate your digestive health. But that's probably not the main reason you'll have so much fun with the Easy Fermenter Wide Mouth Lid Kit.

You'll get three specially designed fermenting lids that fit onto standard wide-mouth canning jars, though you'll have to buy jars separately. The lids let carbon dioxide escape while keeping mold and harmful bacteria out. You also get three glass weights to keep your veggies below the brine level for superior results and a pump to remove oxygen from the bottles.

There's no need to "burp" the jars during the fermenting process — just sit back and wait. Within a couple of weeks, you'll be enjoying your first batch of delicious pickles or other fermented fruits and veggies.

You also get full access to the "Fermenting Club," where you'll find recipes, instructional videos, fellow pickling fans, and everything you need to know to enjoy your new hobby.

In the words of one pleased Amazon reviewer, "These lids make it so easy, I can't stop! I've got six kinds of fermented veggies in the fridge and another six fermenting in the cabinet. Right now, it's radishes, eggplant, sauerkraut, and some others. Enjoy!"

Pros: Lids prevent food from molding and control gas exchange during fermentation, a dialed date indicator makes it easy to track the progress of your fermentation, excellent online support community for recipes, suggestions, and ideas

Cons: A few buyers had mold even with the lids, or complained of air leaks

Buy the Easy Fermenter Wide Mouth Lid Kit on Amazon for $34.99

The best book for learning crochet

Why you'll love it: With the easy instructions in Teach Yourself Visually Crochet and a few supplies, you'll soon be making shawls, belts, hats, and even stuffed toys.

There are so many things you can make once you learn the basic crochet stitches. Clothing, home accessories, toys. With a little bit of know-how, a skein or two of yarn, and a crochet hook, the hours will fly by while your hands are busy crafting and creating.

While it does take practice and patience to gain skill at crocheting, the two-page lessons, color photos of every step, detailed instructions, and thorough coverage of the basics in Teach Yourself Visually Crochet will soon have you working the yarn like a pro.

The book covers basic stitches, advanced techniques, reading patterns, troubleshooting, choosing the right hook and yarn, edging your crocheted piece, and everything else you need to know as you advance in your skills. It also includes a wide range of patterns, including socks, sweaters, stuffed toys, and many other fun projects.

Of course, to crochet, you need crochet hooks, and with BeCraftee's Ergonomic Crochet Hook Set, you'll get a set of nine high-quality crochet hooks in all the sizes you'll need, plus stitch holders and counters, measuring tape, yarn needles, row counter, and a handy carrying case.

Add the dozen skeins of colorful yarn from Mira Handcrafts, which includes seven free ebooks loaded with patterns, and you're all set to start crocheting.

Pros: Visual format makes it easy to learn crochet techniques, thorough coverage of the basics plus techniques that are more advanced

Cons: A handful of customers felt the lessons weren't clear

Buy Teach Yourself Visual Crochet on Amazon for $16.99

Buy the Ergonomic Crochet Hook Set on Amazon for $19.99

Buy Mira Handcrafts 12 Yarn Skeins on Amazon for $17.97

The best book to learn how to sculpt with polymer clay

Why you'll love it: With the detailed instructions in The Polymer Clay Techniques Book, you'll soon be making beads, figurines, boxes, and bowls.

Unlike traditional clay, which comes from the earth, polymer clay is actually made of a moldable plastic that hardens in the oven — no kiln necessary. Nor do you need to paint or glaze the finished project, as you'll find polymer clay in a wide range of colors.

The Polymer Clay Techniques Book guides you through all the basics of working with this fun and versatile crafting material. You'll learn about color mixing, how to cut, carve, buff, and manipulate the clay, how to create millefiori and other types of beads, all about armatures, the basics of sculpting figures, and so much more.

By the end of the book, you'll be ready to move on to more advanced projects, such as those found in Creating Lifelike Figures in Polymer Clay: Tools and Techniques for Sculpting Realistic Figures, which covers the basics before moving into the techniques involved in turning a lump of polymer clay into a realistic sculpture of a person or fantasy creature.  

Before getting started, you'll need some polymer clay. The Sculpey III Multipack contains 10 vibrant colors, including red, yellow, blue, green, and brown, and is excellent for beginners.

Pros: The best guide to all the basics of working with polymer clay

Cons: None to speak of

Buy The Polymer Clay Techniques Book on Amazon for $16.03

Buy Creating Lifelike Figures in Polymer Clay: Tools and Techniques for Sculpting Realistic Figures on Amazon for $21.99

Buy the Sculpey III Multipack on Amazon for $14.99

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 healthcare industry is undergoing a profound transformation. Costs are skyrocketing, consumer demand for more accessible care is growing rapidly, and healthcare companies are unable to keep up. 

Health organizations are increasingly turning to tech companies to facilitate this transformation in care delivery and lower health expenditures. The potential for tech-led digital health initiatives to help healthcare providers and insurers deliver safer, more efficient, and cost-effective care is significant. For healthcare organizations of all types, the collection, analyses, and application of patient data can minimize avoidable service use, improve health outcomes, and promote patient independence, which can assuage swelling costs.

For their part, the "Big Four" tech companies — Google-parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft — see an opportunity to tap into the lucrative health market. These same players are accelerating their efforts to reshape healthcare by developing and collaborating on new tools for consumers, medical professionals, and insurers.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence explores the key strengths and offerings the Big Four will bring to the healthcare industry, as well as their approaches into the market. We'll then explore how these services and solutions are creating opportunities for health systems and insurers. Finally, the report will outline the barriers that are inhibiting the adoption and usage of the Big Four tech companies’ offerings and how these barriers can be circumvented.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Tech companies’ expertise in data management and analysis, along with their significant compute power, can help support healthcare payers, health systems, and consumers by providing a broader overview of how health is accessed and delivered.

• Each of the Big Four tech companies — vying for a piece of the lucrative healthcare market — is leaning on their specific field of expertise to develop tools and solutions for consumers, providers, and payers.
• Alphabet is focused on leveraging its dominance in data storage and analytics to become the leader in population health.
• Amazon is leaning on its experience as a distribution platform for medical supplies, and developing its AI-assistant Alexa as an in-home health concierge.
• Apple is actively turning its consumer products into patient health hubs.
• Microsoft is focusing on cloud storage and analytics to tap into precision medicine.

• Health organizations can further tap into the opportunity presented by tech’s entry into healthcare by collaborating with tech giants to realize cost savings and bolster their top lines. But understanding how each tech giant is approaching healthcare is crucial.

 In full, the report:

• Pinpoints the key themes and industry-wide shifts that are driving the transformation of healthcare in the US.
• Defines the main healthcare businesses and strategies of the Big Four tech companies.
• Highlights the biggest potential impacts of each of the Big Four’s healthcare strategies for health systems and insurers.
• Discusses the potential barriers that will challenge the adoption of the Big Four tech companies’ initiatives and how these hurdles can be overcome.

Subscribe to a Premium pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

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• Thousands of migrant children placed in US custody between 2014 and 2018 were reportedly sexually abused in government-administered shelters, according to documents first published by Axios.
• Many of the allegations were made against fellow migrant children — but at least 178 were made against adult staff members at the facilities.
• Rep. Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat, questioned Trump administration officials about the allegations during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday.
• Deutch asked whether the risk of sexual abuse was discussed when family separations were taking place en masse last spring.
• "In every conversation that we had about separation, we opposed separation," a top Health and Human Services official responded.

Thousands of migrant children in US custody reported sexual abuse allegations while they lived in government-administered shelters, new documents show.

Rep. Ted Deutch's office gave Axios a copy of the documents, published Tuesday.

They show that between October 2014 and July 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) received 4,556 complaints of sexual abuse, and the Department of Justice received 1,303 complaints.

The vast majority of the 1,303 abuse allegations made to DOJ accused fellow migrant children of abuse. But the allegations also included 178 against adult staff members at the facilities, and 19 against adult non-staff members, according to Axios.

The children were placed in shelters after arriving in the country illegally. During the time in question, tens of thousands of migrant children arrived in the US and stayed in government-administered shelters.

HHS told INSIDER in a statement that all allegations of abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect are "taken seriously" and investigated.

"The safety of minors is our top concern when administering our unaccompanied alien children program," spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said. "These are vulnerable children in difficult circumstances, and ORR fully understands its responsibility to ensure that each child is treated with the utmost care."

Read more: Thousands more children were separated from their parents at the border than were previously known, inspector general reveals in bombshell report

The documents outline disturbing allegations

Nine pages of documents that Axios obtained, from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of HHS, details dozens of allegations from 2014 to 2016, along with notes on whether staff members were suspended or terminated, and whether the shelters in question remained open. It also lists incidents from 2017 and 2018.

The documents reveal a number of disturbing allegations, including one minor who in 2016 reported that he had sex with a staff member on four occasions. His allegation was deemed "unfounded" and the investigation was suspended.

In another 2016 instance recorded in the documents, a migrant child reported that a staff member grabbed his crotch and squeezed — while the child was physically restrained. That complaint was not investigated and the staff member was moved to another housing unit, the documents said.

Another allegation in 2016 said a worker sent a migrant child explicit photos of herself after the child had been released from the shelter. The alleged incident was investigated by the Office of the Inspector General and the staff member was terminated, according to the document.

'It was our obligation ... to help keep these kids safe'

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning, Deutch, a Florida Democrat, lambasted a panel of Trump administration officials about the sexual abuse allegations — hundreds of which occurred during 2017 and 2018.

"The details of these sexual abuse allegations are shocking," Deutch said. "It was our obligation — the administration's obligation — to help keep these kids safe. … Mr. Chairman, we failed."

Deutch then asked whether the risk of sexual abuse was discussed during the height of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy last spring, which resulted in the separation of thousands of migrant children who were placed in the government shelter system.

"In every conversation that we had about separation, we opposed separation," Commander Jonathan White of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps responded.

When asked by Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, whether the children were more susceptible to sexual abuse in US custody or during their journeys to the US, White said the journey was more dangerous for them, but "that's not the point."

"We're committed to keeping an environment safe for children. We don't set ourselves a standard of just doing better than smugglers and traffickers," White said.

• Read more:
• The difference between how the US and Canada treat people who cross the border illegally, trying to seek asylum
• The government is set to build a massive, $192 million facility in El Paso to process migrant families, in the wake of 2 children's deaths in Border Patrol custody
• 'This golf course was built by illegals': Unauthorized immigrants who reportedly worked for Trump illegally say they helped him get to where he is today
• Rapper 21 Savage was just released from ICE custody. Here's what could happen now that the US is trying to deport him.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday would not refer to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as a "dictator," despite criticism he's faced over his stance on this issue in recent days.
• During a CNN town hall focused on his 2020 campaign, Sanders conceded there has been undemocratic aspects to Maduro's rule, but warned against leaning toward military intervention.
• "I think we’ve got to do everything we can to create a democratic climate, but I do not believe in US military intervention," Sanders said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday stopped short of referring to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as a "dictator" as he expanded on how the US should address the crisis there.

During a CNN town hall, Sanders was asked if he believes Maduro is a dictator after facing criticism from Democrats and others in recent days over his stance on the pandemonium in Venezuela.

Sanders replied, "It's fair to say the last election was undemocratic, but there are still democratic operations taking place in that country. What I am calling for right now is internationally supervised free elections."

"I think we’ve got to do everything we can to create a democratic climate, but I do not believe in US military intervention," Sanders also said on Venezuela as he cited the disastrous history of US interventionism in Latin America.

Maduro is widely viewed as an authoritarian and has been rebuked throughout the international community for undemocratic practices and policies that have helped push his country into economic collapse and chaos.

But Sanders has avoided referring to him as a dictator and has not embraced Juan Guaidó, the self-declared interim president, as the Latin American country's legitimate leader. The US government and many of its allies have firmly supported Guaidó.

Read more: Bernie Sanders' foreign policy adviser breaks down the senator's progressive global agenda for 2020

Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala of Miami, Florida, who represents Venezuelan exiles, on Friday slammed Sanders in an interview with Politico over this. "He is not going to be the nominee of the Democratic Party. He has demonstrated again that he does not understand this situation," Shalala said. "I absolutely disagree with his imprecision in not saying Maduro must go."

Over the weekend, there were violent clashes at the Venezuela-Colombia border amid efforts to bring in humanitarian aid. Forces loyal to Maduro have sought to block the aid convoys from entering the country.

As Sanders answered questions on Maduro on Monday night, reports surfaced that Univision reporter Jorge Ramos and his crew had been briefly detained in Caracas because the Venezuelan leader apparently didn't like the questions Ramos asked during an interview.

Ramos reportedly referred to Maduro as a "dictator" and a "murderer" as they spoke.

Maduro was really set off and abruplty ended the interview when Ramos showed him a video of young men eating from a garbage truck, BuzzFeed News reported.

"We don't have anything," Ramos told Univision after his team was released. "They took our cameras, everything. They have the interview."

Ramos described the experience in a video on Facebook. He said Maduro "couldn't stand" the questions he was asked and "tried to close my iPad where I showed him the video and then he said the interview was over."

"They took me into a security room, with producer Maria Guzman and they asked for our cellphones. I didn't want to give them my cellphone. So they turned off the light of the room and a group of agents came in," Ramos said. "They took forcefully my backpack, my cellphone, they did the same thing with Maria's, and they forced us to give them our pass codes for the cellphones. We didn't know what was going to happen to us."

The team of journalists was detained for roughly two hours, Ramos said.

“I think we’ll never have that interview again. They don't want the world to see what we did," Ramos added.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Meet the three women who married Donald Trump

• President Donald Trump and his top economic officials promised US GDP growth could sustainably hit or exceed 3%.
• But according to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the central bank's projections show that 2018 GDP growth will come in just shy of Trump's promise.
• The Fed and Wall Street economists also project GDP growth will fall short of the 3% goal in 2019.
• The official release of full-year 2018 GDP growth is scheduled for Thursday.

Since the early days of President Donald Trump's time in office, the White House has been unified on one big economic promise: the US would achieve 3% annual GDP growth.

Throughout the last year Trump's advisers have maintained the country is on track to meet that goal, which was once thought aggressive. Kevin Hassett, the chairman of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers, even said on February 19 that his prediction of 3.1% GDP growth for 2018 will be "spot on."

Trump's original goal was 4% annual growth, an even more difficult bar to reach, but the president and top economic officials have since adjusted those promises to the current 3% mark.

But regardless of the moving goalpost, it's looking more and more likely that Trump may not see 3% annual growth after all.

The Fed's Monetary Policy Report, released on Friday, estimated US GDP for 2018 would not hit the 3% mark. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated this projection during testimony to Congress on Tuesday.

"Based on the available data, we estimate that gross domestic product (GDP) rose a little less than 3% last year following a 2.5% increase in 2017," Powell said.

As the Fed noted, the projected growth reflects "a noticeable pickup from the pace in recent years," but it is still just shy of the president's promise.

Read more:Former Fed Chair Janet Yellen says Trump doesn't understand the Federal Reserve or economic policy»

As recently as mid-February, fourth quarter GDP was projected to come in at a level that would have put the US at or above 3% annual growth for 2018. But an unexpected drop-off in December's retail sales report, released on February 15, tanked the Fed's and Wall Street's expectations for fourth quarter GDP and threatened to push 2018 GDP growth under Trump's 3% target.

As it stands, the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow estimate for the fourth quarter sits at 1.8% — which would likely leave full year growth at 2.9%. According to Bloomberg data, Wall Street economists also expect 2018 GDP growth to hit 2.9% and projections for fourth quarter growth have tanked since the retail sales report.

Despite falling short of Trump's goal, 2.9% annual growth would still match 2015 for the highest annual growth rate since the recession.

Most economists also don't expect Trump to capture the 3% goal in 2019 either.

The Fed projects 2019 growth to come in at 2.5%, well below the target. And most major Wall Street economists also project 2019 growth to fall well below the 3% threshold. According to Bloomberg's average of 87 economists, Wall Street expects 2.5% GDP growth for this year. 

But while Powell and the Fed's estimates point to Trump falling just shy of the 3% goal, we don't know for sure what the final outcome will be. The official GDP report for the fourth quarter and full-year 2018 is scheduled for release on Thursday. Additionally, based on the Atlanta Fed's projection, a little upward surprise could still get Trump to 3% growth.

Only then will we know if Trump's biggest economic promise was fulfilled or if the president came up tantalizingly short.

SEE ALSO: The US national debt just pushed past $22 trillion — here's how Trump's $2 trillion in debt compares with Obama, Bush, and Clinton

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Meet the three women who married Donald Trump

• The Wertheimer family fortune dates back to 1920s Paris when Pierre Wertheimer funded designer Coco Chanel.
• His grandsons, brothers Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, control Chanel today, which generated $9.6 billion in 2018.
• They own 3 vineyards in France and one in Napa Valley. They also breed and race thoroughbreds, according to Forbes.
• The brothers have a combined net worth of $42 billion. 

Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, co-owners of luxury brand Chanel, are amongst the 10 richest people living in France. Their wealth, while largely inherited, has been grown through business deals and acquisitions spanning retail, wine, and horse racing. 

The brothers are largely tight-lipped, hardly ever speaking to the press or giving interviews about their wealth, companies, family, relationships, or hobbies. They live lavish lifestyles in private, surrounding themselves with those similarly closemouthed, and are known as fashion's quietest billionaires. 

With a combined net worth over $40 billion, the Wertheimer brothers are among the richest people in the world. 

Here's a look at their lifestyle.

Alain, 70, and brother Gerard Wertheimer, 67, both have a net worth of $21 billion for a combined net worth of $42 billion.

Their wealth began with their grandfather's acquisition of Chanel, the French fashion house, which they both co-own today. They also own various vineyards across the world and racehorses. 

Source: Bloomberg

Their grandfather, Frechman Pierre Wertheimer, and his brother Paul, struck a deal with Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel in 1924, founding Société des Parfums Chanel — a deal to sell and produce Chanel beauty products.

Source: The New York Times

Chanel, at the time, saw it as an opportunity to get her signature fragrance, Chanel No. 5, into the hands of more customers.

Source: The New York Times

• VPX, a Florida-based sports nutrition company, released a new rosé-flavored energy drink on February 15.
• With its new "Frose Rosé", VPX subsidiary Bang Energy aims to appeal to millenials and wine enthusiasts.
• Each 16-ounce can contains 300 milligrams of caffeine, which the company says amounts to more caffeine than is found in three cups of coffee.
• You can get your hands on a 12-pack of the Frose Rosé energy drinks for $25.99 from the Vitamin Shoppe and for $31.99 from the VPX website.

From candy and ice cream to salad dressing and vodka, it seems like nearly every food and drink product on the market is now available in rosé flavor.

Now, VPX, a Florida-based sports nutrition company, has released an energy drink that tastes of the pink beverage, tapping into a market that doesn't appear to have otherwise embraced the popular drink.

With its new "Frose Rosé," a non-alcoholic "potent brain and body-rocking fuel" released on February 15, VPX subsidiary Bang Energy aims to appeal to millennials and wine enthusiasts.

While regular, alcoholic rosé might make you feel more relaxed, Bang Energy claims its Frose Rosé will boost your energy levels. Even the exterior of the cans exude energy with their bright pink and purple decals. Each 16-ounce can contains 300 milligrams of caffeine, which the company says amounts to more caffeine than is found in three cups of coffee (though it doesn't specify what kind of coffee or the size of the cup).

According to VPX's website, Bang Energy drinks are sugar free, and feature energy-producing ingredients such as "Creatine, Caffeine, and BCAAs (Branched Chain Amino Acids)."

Read more: Trader Joe's is selling pink rosé salad dressing with a 'slightly floral' flavor

Bang has previously produced flavors with names such as "Star Blast,""Bangster Berry," and "Rainbow Unicorn," so it's no surprise that the company has gotten creative with its latest flavor.

You can get your hands on a 12-pack of the Frose Rosé energy drinks for $25.99 from the Vitamin Shoppe and for $31.99 from the VPX website.

Representatives for VPX did not immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Samsung's Galaxy S10 phone lineup includes the standard Galaxy S10, the larger Galaxy S10+, and the more affordable Galaxy S10e — and all those fancy glass-backed phones need a good case for protection.
• We've rounded up the best Galaxy S10 cases you can buy from Speck, Incipio, Casetify, Spigen, Otterbox, and Case-Mate.

Samsung's Galaxy S10, S10+, and S10e are gorgeous, expensive new flagship smartphones, and if you're getting one, you'll want a case to go with it.

Both the front and back of these phones is encased in glass that is relatively easy to break when dropped and very expensive to replace, so you shouldn't skimp on the quality of the case you choose. After all, most cases cost less than $50, which is a lot less than you'd pay to get your new phone fixed or replaced if you accidentally drop it. 

Dozens of cases are available in various shapes, styles, and sizes, and many more will be released in the following weeks. To help you make the best choice, we've rounded up the case companies we trust the most and broken down their pros and cons to help you make the right decision.

These cases may cost a little more, but they'll last you several years, and provide ample protection for the most important gadget you carry around every day. 

Here are the best Samsung Galaxy S10, S10+, and S10e cases:

• Best grippy Galaxy S10 cases: Speck
• Best simple Galaxy S10 cases: Incipio
• Best designed Galaxy S10 cases: Casetify
• Best inexpensive Galaxy S10 cases: Spigen S10,S10+, S10e
• Best rugged Galaxy S10 cases: OtterBox
• Best feminine Galaxy S10 cases: Case-Mate

Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.

SEE ALSO: 

The best grippy Samsung Galaxy S10 cases

Why you'll love them: Speck offers a variety of cases, including its trademark grip case, which makes it easier to hold your phone.

If you have trouble keeping holding onto your smartphone, but don't want to get a bulky, rugged case, Speck's cases are an excellent compromise. They come in a variety of styles, but the standout is the Presidio Grip, a slim rubber case with ribbed grooves on it back.

Those grooves create extra traction, which makes the Galaxy S10 easier to hold, even when your hands are wet or sweaty. The case itself is made out of two layers: an outer shell made out of a harder polycarbonate material that prevents scratches and an inner layer made out of impactium, a custom material Speck developed to absorb shockwaves if the case is dropped. 

This two-layer protection system is built into every one of Speck's S10 cases, and it can keep your phone protected from damage if it falls from a height of between eight and 10 feet. Despite this protection, the Presidio Grip is still slim enough that your phone can work with a wireless charging pad.

The only real downside to Speck's cases is their price, which is a bit more expensive than you'd expect from a basic phone case. But Speck's balance of thinness and durability make them work the expense. 

Pros: Two layers of protection, slim enough to work with wireless charger, ribbed grooves make your phone easier to hold

Cons: More expensive than most cases

Shop all Speck cases for $39.95 to $49.95

The best basic Samsung Galaxy S10 cases

Why you'll love them: Incipio's cases don't have a lot of extras, but they'll keep your Galaxy S10 safe without breaking the bank.

If you want a thin, relatively inexpensive case, and don't care too much about frills, you should get one from Incipio. All of its cases have a simple, clean design without skimping on features that will keep your phone protected. 

The best example of this is the "Holden" case, which is similar to the Incipio case I use with my iPhone. It has a polycarbonate back that will protect the phone from scratches, and a shock-absorbing bumped made out of a polycarbonate material to protect it when it falls.

The Holden's front lip is raised to offer some screen protection, and it has large cutouts around the phone's charging and headphone ports for easy access. 

Incipio's cases only have one real downside: They're not available in a lot of different colors, and favor utility over style. The Holden bucks that trend a little bit thanks to its fabric-lined back, which will feel softer to the touch than hard plastic.

If you don't really care about fun-colored cases or extras (like a credit card holder,) you can't go wrong with Incipio's cases.

Pros: Pretty inexpensive, protective, a few options

Cons: No extras, limited color options

Shop all Incipio S10, S10+, and S10e cases for $19.99 to $34.99

The best designed Samsung Galaxy S10 cases

Why you'll love them: Casetify's cases are available in a ton of different designs, so your phone will definitely stand out. 

If you want your phone case to stand out and make a statement, your best bet is to get one from Casetify. 

The company's cases feature artwork from well-known artists that have been hand-picked by Casetify's staff. This gives the cases a unique look that you cannot find anywhere else. Casetify's portfolio is large enough that you'll definitely find one that fits your personality. 

But Casetify's cases don't just look good, they're also among the most protective options on this list. Many of the cases are made out of QiTech, a thermoplastic polyurethane that offers military-grade protection.

Casetify says its cases can be dropped from a height of 6.6 feet without being damaged, which is much higher than most tables or pockets.

Don't let their beautiful look fool you, Casetify's cases are a good pick, the only drawback is their relatively high price.

Pros: Custom design, military-grade drop protection

Cons: Expensive

Shop all Casetify Galaxy S10 and S10+ cases for $49

• General Electric said on Monday it would sell its biopharma business to Danaher in a $21.4 billion transaction — Danaher's largest-ever deal. 
• Danaher had approached General Electric last year about buying the biopharma unit, but was rebuffed.
• But this time, Danaher was successful with its pursuit, as its prior CEO Larry Culp had gone over to run General Electric. 
• The conglomerate is undergoing a broad reorganization, first announced last June under former CEO John Flannery; its shares have plummeted 67% since mid-2016. 
• But the stock is up 60% from recent lows, and popped 6% on news of the Danaher deal. 

Investors in industrial stalwart General Electric and science and technology company Danaher cheered on Monday when the two firms announced a monster deal.

GE would sell its biopharma business to Danaher for $21.4 billion, the largest-ever deal for Danaher.

In every large M&A deal, the two respective company CEOs play critical roles in shaping the transaction. But in this deal, Larry Culp, GE's new CEO and the former chief executive at Danaher, had an outsized part to play.

Culp, who was named as chairman and CEO of GE last October at a critical moment of transition for the beleaguered 127-year-old industrial giant, served as chief executive of Danaher from 2000 to 2014.

It was Culp at the helm, along with a shuffle at GE's board of directors last year, that helped get the deal across the finish line after Danaher had previously been rebuffed by GE in its pursuit of the biopharma business, according to a person familiar with the deal. 

Danaher initially approached GE last April to express interest in buying the unit, but the industrials conglomerate wouldn't engage, according to a Wall Street Journal report at the time.

In late October, once Culp was newly appointed to his role at GE, Danaher again sought to start acquisition talks with the company. A few months later in January, the two companies began seriously discussing a potential deal for the biopharma business, which came together in just a few weeks. 

On Monday, UBS said the newly executed deal was a "win-win" for both companies.

Culp's tenure at GE comes at a delicate moment for the industrial company, undergoing a reorganization announced last year under former CEO John Flannery. The stock has been in a virtual free-fall for years, now trading nearly 70% below its recent high in 2016. 

GE lost its place as a Dow Jones industrial average component last summer — a long-speculated move emblematic of how far it had fallen.

Since the stock's December low, however, it's surged 60%.

Shares of GE were trading higher on Tuesday, at $10.59 per share. Danaher shares were trading modestly lower, at $122.50 per share.

Read more: 

• General Electric is soaring after announcing plans to sell its biopharma business, has gained nearly 70% since December
• We just got the latest indication that Wall Street loves GE's restructuring plan

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• China's stock market has gained nearly 20% this year as the US and China have at least temporarily eased their trade tensions through a string of negotiations.
• But Nomura analyst Masanari Takada says China's stock market rally has been led by speculative flows.
• Takada compared some market indexes and concluded that the equity market sentiment in China did not accurately reflect expectations for the future business climate.
• Takada warned that global investors should clam down on China stock market's recent cheers.

China's roaring stock market is over-cheered and lacks economic support, a Wall Street analyst says. 

The country's stock market was under pressure last year, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index tanking 25% amid fears over an escalating trade war between the US and China. In 2019, China's stock has rallied sharply, up 18%, as Washington and Beijing have at least temporarily eased their tensions through a string of trade negotiations.

Buoyed by the recent US-China trade talks held last week and President Donald Trump's announcement that the US would delay an increase of its tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, the Shanghai Composite surged nearly 6% Monday. Turnover on Chinese exchanges rose beyond 1 trillion yuan to the most since 2015, according to Bloomberg.

But Nomura analyst Masanari Takada says this massive China market rally is apparently led by speculative flows.

"China's mainland market could be described as an 'all-hands buying' situation," Takada said in a note distributed Tuesday.

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• Shareholders of Maxwell Technologies have filed a lawsuit seeking to block the company's acquisition by Tesla.
• The suit accuses Maxwell directors of acting in their own interests when a better offer price could have been received.
• Class-action lawsuits are common in mergers and acquisitions, with nearly all major deals encountering at least one suit.

Shareholders of Maxwell, the energy-storage company that Tesla recently announced plans to acquire, are suing to try to block the $218 million deal.

In a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in a California federal court, Kip Leggett, who bought 1,000 shares at $17.23 a piece, argues the deal "significantly undervalues" the company.

"The Board rushed through an inadequate 'sales process' in which the only end goal was a sale to Tesla," the suit said. "And in proper fiduciary measures such as a special committee and market were undertaken only after Tesla had made several bids and had threatened to end its customer relationship with Maxwell should the Company not accept its offer to purchase it."

The suit also accuses Maxwell board members of seeking "significant and immediate benefits" for themselves.

A Tesla representative declined to comment on the lawsuit. A Maxwell representative said the company did not comment on ongoing legal matters.

Class-action suits like this are common in acquisitions. Analysis by Cornerstone Research of more than 1,000 deals showed that, while on the decline, 94% of the buyouts worth $100 million or more attracted at least one lawsuit.

"Clearly, based upon these positive financial results, the Company is likely to have tremendous future success and should command a much higher consideration than the amount contained within the Proposed Transaction," the lawsuit said.

You can read the full suit here:

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This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence. Current subscribers can read the report here.

The digitization of daily life is making phones and connected devices the preferred payment tools for consumers — preferences that are causing digital payment volume to blossom worldwide.

As noncash payment volume accelerates, the power dynamics of the payments industry are shifting further in favor of digital and omnichannel providers, attracting a wide swath of providers to the space and forcing firms to diversify, collaborate, or consolidate in order to capitalize on a growing revenue opportunity.

More and more, consumers want fast and simple payments — that's opening up opportunities for providers. Rising e- and m-commerce, surges in mobile P2P, and increasing willingness among customers in developed countries to try new transaction channels, like mobile in-store payments, voice and chatbot payments, or connected device payments are all increasing transaction touchpoints for providers.

This growing access is helping payments become seamless, in turn allowing firms to boost adoption, build and strengthen relationships, offer more services, and increase usage.

But payment ubiquity and invisibility also comes with challenges. Gains in volume come with increases in per-transaction fee payouts, which is pushing consumer and merchant clients alike to seek out inexpensive solutions — a shift that limits revenue that providers use to fund critical programs and squeezes margins.

Regulatory changes and geopolitical tensions are forcing players to reevaluate their approach to scale. And fraudsters are more aggressively exploiting vulnerabilities, making data breaches feel almost inevitable and pushing providers to improve their defenses and crisis response capabilities alike.

In the latest annual edition of The Payments Ecosystem Report, Business Insider Intelligence unpacks the current digital payments ecosystem, and explores how changes will impact the industry in both the short- and long-term. The report begins by tracing the path of an in-store card payment from processing to settlement to clarify the role of key stakeholders and assess how the landscape has shifted.

It also uses forecasts, case studies, and product developments from the past year to explain how digital transformation is impacting major industry segments and evaluate the pace of change. Finally, it highlights five trends that should shape payments in the year ahead, looking at how regulatory shifts, emerging technologies, and competition could impact the payments ecosystem.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• Behind the scenes, payment processes and stakeholders remain similar. But providers are forced to make payments as frictionless as possible as online shopping surges: E-commerce is poised to exceed $1 trillion — nearly a fifth of total US retail — by 2023.
• The channels and front-end methods that consumers use to make payments are evolving. Mobile in-store payments are huge in developing markets, but approaching an inflection point in developed regions where adoption has been laggy. And the ubiquity of mobile P2P services like Venmo and Square Cash will propel digital P2P to $574 billion by 2023.
• The competitive landscape will shift as companies pursue joint ventures to grow abroad in response to geopolitical tensions, or consolidate to achieve rapid scale amid digitization.
• Fees, bans, steering, or regulation could impact the way consumers pay, pushing them toward emerging methods that bypass card rails, and limit key revenue sources that providers use to fund rewards and marketing initiatives.
• Tokenization will continue to mainstream as a key way providers are preventing and responding to the omnipresent data breach threat.

The companies mentioned in the report are: CCEL, Adyen, Affirm, Afterpay, Amazon, American Express, Ant Financial, Apple, AribaPay, Authorize.Net, Bank of America, Barclays, Beem It, Billtrust, Braintree, Capital One, Cardtronics, Chase Paymentech, Citi, Discover, First Data, Flywire, Fraedom, Gemalto, GM, Google, Green Dot, Huifu, Hyundai, Ingenico, Jaguar, JPMorgan Chase, Klarna, Kroger, LianLian, Lydia, Macy’s, Mastercard, MICROS, MoneyGram, Monzo, NCR, Netflix, P97, PayPal, Paytm, Poynt, QuickBooks, Sainsbury’s, Samsung, Santander, Shell, Square, Starbucks, Stripe, Synchrony Financial, Target, TransferWise, TSYS, UnionPay, Venmo, Verifone, Visa, Vocalink, Walmart, WeChat/Tencent, Weebly, Wells Fargo, Western Union, Worldpay, WorldRemit, Xevo, Zelle, Zesty, and ZipRecruiter, among others

In full, the report:

• Explains the factors contributing to a swell in global noncash payments
• Examines shifts in the roles of major industry stakeholders, including issuers, card networks, acquirer-processors, POS terminal vendors, and gateways
• Presents forecasts and highlights major trends and industry events driving digital payments growth
• Identifies five trends that will shape the payments ecosystem in the year ahead

SEE ALSO: These are the four transformations payments providers must undergo to survive digitization

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