Ariana Grande responded to Pete Davidson making fun of their engagement

Ariana Grande apparently chastised her ex-fiancé Pete Davidson on Twitter, just hours after the comedian poked fun at their failed engagement.

"For somebody who claims to hate relevancy u [sic] sure love clinging to it huh," she wrote. "Thank u, next."

While Grande did not mention Davidson by name, many fans interpreted these tweets as a response to a joke he made in a new promo for the upcoming episode of "Saturday Night Live."

In the short clip — posted on YouTube Thursday night, a few hours before Grande's tweets — Jonah Hill introduces himself as the host and Maggie Rogers as the musical guest.

"Hey Maggie, I'm Pete," Davidson then says. "Do you wanna get married?"

After she says no and looks away uncomfortably, Davidson looks back at the camera and says, "0 for three."

Davidson is, of course, referring to his recent split from Grande after their highly publicized engagement. He also seems to be implying that he proposed to his ex Cazzie David, from whom he split just before getting together with Grande.

Read more: Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson have reportedly broken up — here's a complete timeline of their relationship

Grande also retweeted a fan who directly replied to the "SNL" clip, writing: "tag yourself i'm maggie."

The "God Is a Woman" songstress also wrote, "hell naw tho," in a separate tweet, but quickly deleted it.

A screenshot of the now-deleted tweet.

@ArianaGrande/Twitter

After, Grande subtly acknowledged a fan who condemned others for bringing up painful memories of her relationship with Davidson.

"Idk [sic] why y'all feel the need to dig up her old tweets about him like. They were in love at some point but s--- happened," the fan wrote. "Life will go on."

Davidson previously joked about their breakup when he headlined a comedy event at California's Largo at the Coronet called "Judd & Pete for America."

The 24-year-old mocked the six tattoos that he inked as direct tributes to Grande, as well as his own track record of getting ink inspired by his relationships. Prior to dating Grande, he tattooed a portrait of David tattooed on his arm. He later got it covered up before entering into a relationship with Grande.

"Um, I've been covering a bunch of tattoos, that's fun," Davidson reportedly said onstage. "I'm f---ing zero for two in the tattoo [department]. Yeah, I'm afraid to get my mom tattooed on me, that's how bad it is."

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Rockset, a startup founded by ex-Facebook engineers, raised $21.5 million

For the past two years, a startup founded by two ex-Facebook employees has been lying low.

Since 2016, the employees at Rockset have been quietly working on a new kind of data platform. But on Thursday, the now startup has formally launched its product, and announced it had raised $21.5 million in seed and Series A funding from top-tier Silicon Valley venture firms Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital.

Rockset's new cloud-based data platform is targeted at developers building data-driven applications and data scientists managing this data. Right now, software teams using traditional databases — like those from Oracle — have to take extra steps to prepare data to be read by software. Rockset aims to cut the middleman, speeding the process by which data and apps can "talk" to each other.

"There's nothing like this out there," Venkat Venkataramani, Rockset co-founder and CEO, tells Business Insider. "One of the challenges has been how quickly we can build for the market. We've been working very, very hard."

Before leaving to start Rockset, Venkataramani spent eight years at Facebook managing online data and search infrastructure, which supported Facebook's growth from 40 million up to a peak of 1.5 billion users at the time. He credits Facebook with much of the philosophy he learned and applies at Rockset.

For example, he says, Facebook is known for being fast and never going down (well, almost). And from Facebook, he realized that he wanted Rockset to make complex problems as simple as possible.

"I walked away thinking, the world [of data infrastructure] is way too complex," Venkataramani said. "It's not available for everyone. We started thinking, why does it have to be complex? What's the simplest product we can build?"

Read more:Facebook's product for businesses, Workplace, is taking a step to distance itself from the social network after a string of scandals

Leaving Facebook to start something completely new was a risk. Venkataramani left in 2015, but it still "feels like yesterday." Ultimately, he says, he settled into a groove to the point where things were "really comfortable" at Facebook, to the point where he "personally got uncomfortable."

"I didn't feel like I was learning as much as I used to. I wanted to make myself uncomfortable again."

He and co-founder Dhruba Borthakur, another ex-Facebook employee, started talking to other developers about his vision, writing out the problems on a whiteboard. The two would ultimately team up to make Rockset a reality.

With the funding, Rockset plans to hire more employees as it grows its customer base. Rockset now has 16 employees, and they're about to add four more employees who have been hired but have not yet started.

"Product engineers should be bottlenecked by their creativity, not what the data infrastructure can do for me," Venkataramani said. "We value how much we can add to customers' lives. We take complex, hard things and make them as easy as possible."

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CEOs and founders of tech's biggest names lost $61 billion during the stock market's plunge in October - here's who got hit hard

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

October was a rough month for billionaires in the tech sector, who saw their net worth plummet as stocks took a hammering.

According to Bloomberg data, the CEOs and founders of the most popular tech companies "FAANG+BAT" lost $61 billion in October.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq index plunged 9.2%, posting its worst month since the financial crisis.

And among the hardest hit were the "FAANG+BAT" stocks - Facebook (-7.7%), Apple (-3.1%), Amazon (-20.2%) Netflix (-19.3%), Google (-9.8%), Baidu (-16.9%), Alibaba (-13.6%) and Tencent (-14.1% in Hong Kong).

The list below provides details of the estimated net worth of some of tech's richest CEOs and founders:

---

Reed Hastings - CEO and cofounder of Netflix

Reuters/Mike Blake

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 463

Net worth on October 31: $3.9 billion (-19% from $4.8 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Netflix: $1.7 billion

Source: Bloomberg

---

Robin Li - CEO and cofounder of Baidu

China Photos/Getty Images

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 82

Net worth on October 31: $13.6 billion (-16% from $16.1 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Baidu: $13.4 billion

Source: Bloomberg

---

Laurene Powell Jobs - widow of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs

Getty

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 35

Net worth on October 31: $21 billion (-3% from $21.6 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Apple: $8.5 billion

Source: Bloomberg

---

Pony Ma - CEO and cofounder of Tencent

Kin Cheung

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 26

Net worth on October 31: $28 billion (-17% from $33.6 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Tencent: $25.6 billion

Source: Bloomberg

---

Jack Ma - CEO and founder of Alibaba

Ruben Sprich/Reuters

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 19

Net worth on October 31: $37 billion (-8% from $40.2 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Alibaba: $20.3 billion

Source: Bloomberg

---

Sergey Brin - Cofounder of Google

Ruben Sprich/Reuters

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 10

Net worth on October 31: $52 billion (-9% from $57.1 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Alphabet: $41.8 billion

Source: Bloomberg

---

Larry Page - Cofounder of Google

Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 8

Net worth on October 31: $53.2 billion (-9% from $58.4 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Alphabet: $43.4 billion

Source: Bloomberg

---

Mark Zuckerberg - CEO and cofounder of Facebook

Reuters

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 6

Net worth on October 31: $60.2 billion (-8% from $65.2 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Facebook: $57.6 billion

Source: Bloomberg

---

Jeff Bezos - CEO and founder of Amazon

REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Rank on Bloomberg Billionaire's Index: 1

Net worth on October 31: $132.8 billion (-20% from $166.1 billion at the end of September)

Holdings in Amazon: $126 billion

Source: Bloomberg

---

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Apple is in serious danger of no longer being a $1 trillion company

Wall Street was unimpressed with Apple's quarterly earnings results, announced on Thursday— so much so, that shares plunged over 7% after the bell, putting Apple in danger of losing its much-vaunted market cap of $1 trillion.

At the time of writing, Apple stock is priced at $206.30 in after-hours trading, and still moving around. Should that price hold through the opening bell on Friday, Apple will have a market cap below that $1 trillion threshold. The threshold is $207.45; any Apple share price less than that will value the company below that line.

Apple made headlines earlier this year when it became the first-ever American company to reach a $1 trillion market cap.

While Apple's earnings beat Wall Street expectations on both the top and bottom lines, there appear to be two main sources for the investor negativity.

First, Apple whiffed on iPhone sales. In the quarter, Apple sold 46.9 million iPhones, well short of Wall Street expectations of 48.4 million. Apple also announced on Thursday that it will stop breaking out iPhone, Mac, and iPad unit sales entirely.

Second, Apple gave a lower-than-expected revenue forecast for the holiday quarter of this year. Apple projects that it will generate between $89 billion and $93 billion in revenue for the quarter ending in December. Wall Street was expecting Apple to project revenues of about $93 billion, placing the company's estimates on the low end.

Still, for better or for worse, nothing is going to happen to Apple's $1 trillion valuation until Friday morning: A company's market cap isn't affected by after-hour trading, and it all comes down to how investors are feeling by the time the opening bell rings.

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Netflix, SVOD services see increase in older subscribers: Analysis

After a plateau in the US, subscriptions to streaming services are growing again thanks to a boom in Netflix and Hulu subscribers this year, a report from Ampere Analysis found.

The report found that subscriptions to SVOD — streaming video on demand — services had steadily increased from the third quarter of 2015 until the first quarter of 2017, when numbers began to stagnate. But subscriptions have been rising consistently since the beginning of this year, according to Ampere.

Ampere Analysis

Toby Holleran, an Ampere senior analyst, told Business Insider that an older generation rooted in pay TV was catching on to the benefits of SVOD services.

"Traditional users were more ingrained in the pay-TV space, and there was slightly less awareness of SVOD during that period" of plateauing, he said, "whereas now, especially with older demographics, we're starting to see more and more growth in those."

"I feel the plateauing was taking place among younger demographics because they formed such a large proportion of the overall SVOD base, whereas now with older demographics slowly familiarizing themselves with SVOD that's actually starting to grow again," he added.

That could be bad news for pay-TV companies, which could see an acceleration in cord-cutting if older generations find a viable alternative in streaming.

Read more: Data suggests that Hasan Minhaj's 'Patriot Act' could succeed where other Netflix talk shows have failed

Exclusive content is also key for streaming services, Holleran said, as Netflix has been heavily investing in its catalog of original content in an effort to have 1,000 original TV shows and movies by year's end. Hulu also has acclaimed shows like "The Handmaid's Tale," which won the Emmy for best drama last year.

As the SVOD landscape rapidly evolves, more players are entering the game. Disney is set to launch a competitor late next year and is already developing Marvel and "Star Wars" TV series for it. Meanwhile, AT&T recently announced it would roll out a service next year that would include HBO.

That could lead to a new form of SVOD bundle — but Holleran urged caution, saying that the best course of action for streamers is to give users as many options as possible for the best price.

"I think forcing bundles upon people might not be the best move," Holleran said. "It depends on the price point. Additional costs may turn away consumers who may only want to take one service."

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Here comes Starbucks... (SBUX) | Markets Insider

Starbucks

• Starbucks reported fourth-quarter results that beat on both the top and bottom lines.


• Same-store-sales growth was at the high end of the estimated range.


• Shares soared 7% after Thursday's closing bell. 


• Watch Starbucks trade in real time here.

Starbucks reported strong fourth-quarter results after Thursday's closing bell, sending shares up 7%.

Here are the key numbers compared to Bloomberg estimates:

• Earnings per share: $0.62 versus an expected $0.60


• Revenue: $6.3 billion versus an expected $6.27 billion


• Q4 Comparable Store Sales: +3% versus an expected +2.2%

"Starbucks record Q4 performance reflected meaningful improvement in virtually every critical operating metric compared to Q3," said CEO Kevin Johnson in the press release.

"As we enter fiscal 2019, we are executing against a clear growth agenda, with a focus on our long-term growth markets of the U.S. and China. We are also excited about the long-term growth potential of our new Global Coffee Alliance with Nestlé."

Shares faced a huge selloff in June when the company lowered its third-quarter same-store-sales growth forecast to 1% from its previous estimate of 3%-5%. The coffee giant also said it would close roughly 150 underperforming US stores.

Ahead of the results, UBS analyst Dennis Geiger said the focus for Starbucks' earnings will be the company's performance in the US and China markets, as well as its guidance. 

"Primary focus for earnings on November 1 will be whether US/Americas comparable sales returned to 3% and if the momentum is sustainable," Geiger said in a note sent out to clients on Wednesday. "We model 3% F4Q Americas same-store sales, including 3% ticket and flat traffic."

He added: "For China, we don't believe same-store sales are as bad as feared(worse than F3Q's -2%) and we think FY19 expectations are low." 

Geiger has a "buy" rating and a $62 price target on Starbucks — 5% above where shares were trading on Thursday.

Starbucks was up 2% this year.

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Starbucks earnings results Q3 2018

Starbucks is set to report third-quarter results after Thursday's closing bell.

Here are what analysts are expecting, according to Bloomberg:

• Earnings per share: $0.60
• Revenue: $6.27 billion

Shares faced a huge selloff in June when the company lowered its third-quarter same-store-sales growth forecast to 1% from its previous estimate of 3%-5%. The coffee giant also said it would close roughly 150 underperforming US stores.

Ahead of the results, UBS analyst Dennis Geiger said the focus for Starbucks' earnings are the company's performance in the US and China markets, as well as its guidance.

"Primary focus for earnings on November 1 will be whether US/Americas comparable sales returned to 3% and if the momentum is sustainable," Geiger said in a note sent out to clients on Wednesday. "We model 3% F4Q Americas same-store sales, including 3% ticket and flat traffic."

He added: "For China, we don't believe same-store sales are as bad as feared(worse than F3Q's -2%) and we think FY19 expectations are low."

Geiger has a "buy" rating and a $62 price target on Starbucks — 5% above where shares were trading on Thursday.

Starbucks was up 2% this year.

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Abercrombie & Fitch makeover inspired by millennials

Abercrombie & Fitch has been working hard to refresh its brand in a bid to appeal to millennial shoppers: it's turned up the lights in its stores, ditched its shirtless models, and traded overly sexualized ads for wholesome, outdoorsy images.

"We are not the Abercrombie & Fitch that you once knew," CEO Fran Horowitz said at the company's investor day in April.

And it seems to be working: In August, Abercrombie & Fitch reported its third consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales growth for its namesake label.

Read more: 'We are not the Abercrombie & Fitch that you once knew': Before-and-after photos reveal how the store has changed

Horowitz and her team have been insistent about no longer being seen as a retailer just for teens, an audience that its sister brand, Hollister, is targeted exclusively toward.

In a recent interview at the WWD Apparel & CEO Summit, Horowitz provided a glimpse into how she stays in tune with the millennial shopper: via her 25-year-old daughter.

"She keeps me very close to who our consumer is," she said.

Horowitz added that there are over 2,000 associates working at the company's main headquarters in New Albany, Ohio, who are 27 years old on average.

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These are the world's 20 most dangerous countries, a new report finds

In terms of organized crime, terrorism, homicide and reliability of police forces, the US ranks as the 56th safest country in the world, falling just below China at 55.

Russia comes in at 105, just below Kenya and a few dozen spots beneath Bosnia.

An Oct. 16, 2018 report by the World Economic Forum shows that countries that enjoy more security also enjoy better economic development.

The most dangerous countries, shown in the next 20 photos, are rife with terrorism, economic insecurity, and have some of the worst homicide rates in the world. Read more about them below:

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Kudlow, Trump adviser, on minimum wage, Medicare, China trade war

Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump's top economic adviser, said on Thursday that he does not believe the federal government should set a minimum wage.

"My view is a federal minimum wage is a terrible idea, and will damage, in particular, small businesses," Kudlow said a Washington Post even on Thursday.

The former Wall Street economist and CNBC host argued that variances between states makes the federal standard impractical and onerous.

"Idaho is different than New York. Alabama is different than Nebraska," Kudlow said. "That's why the federal minimum wage doesn't work for me."

The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour (which comes out to roughly $15,000 a year), where it has been since 2009, but the buying power of that wage has eroded over the past nine years. While 29 states have increased their minimum wage above the federal minimum, Democrats and labor groups have argued that the current minimum wage does not provide a living wage and should be increased to $15 an hour.

Kudlow said at the event that he would oppose any deal to raise the federal minimum wage and said the best way to boost average worker pay was to cut corporate taxes.

The GOP did include a large corporate tax cut in the massive tax reform law passed in 2017. But while wage growth is continuing on the post-financial crisis upward trend, there has been little evidence that wages have suddenly jumped above that long-run growth trend due to the cut.

Kudlow also addressed a series of other topics ranging from the trade war to Social Security cuts. Here's a quick breakdown.

• On the planned meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping: In an earlier interview with CNBC, Kudlow weighed in on the US-China trade war situation. While there have been reports of additional tariffs, the adviser said "nothing is set in stone right now." In addition, Kudlow expressed hope for talks between Trump and Xi that are set to take place at the G20 meetings in Argentina this month. "It is possible some good positive things could — I say could — come out of President Trump-President Xi talks," he said.
• On the GOP's desire to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid: While Republicans leaders like Mitch McConnell have suggested that Congress should cut the large programs to wrangle the deficit, Kudlow said Trump had "no plans to touch the large entitlements."
• On Trump's attacks on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell: Kudlow said that Trump had "not yet" called Powell directly to direct his displeasure with the recent interest rate increases. Trump has leveled a series of attacks agains Powell and the Fed.

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When do Black Friday sales start?

The holiday shopping season is upon us, with Black Friday just around the corner.

For those of you planning to hit the stores over the holidays, we have compiled a complete list of opening times on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

A growing number of retailers including Home Depot and Costco are protesting the so-called Black Friday "creep," a trend in which stores have been opening earlier and earlier every year on Thanksgiving Day.

Plenty of retailers, such as Target and Macy's, are still planning to hold doorbuster sales on Thanksgiving, however.

Here's the list of retailers' holiday hours that have been announced so far. We will add to this list as more stores announce their hours.

• Belk: Open 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving to 1 a.m. on Black Friday. Will reopen 6 a.m. on Black Friday.
• Best Buy: Not yet announced.
• Big Lots: Not yet announced.
• Costco: Not yet announced.
• Dick's Sporting Goods: Open 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving to 2 a.m. on Black Friday. Will reopen 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Black Friday.
• Dollar General: Open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Will resume normal operating hours on Black Friday.
• GameStop: Not yet announced.
• hhgregg: Not yet announced.
• Home Depot: Open 6 a.m. Black Friday.
• JCPenney: Not yet announced.
• Kmart: Not yet announced.
• Kohl's: Open 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Will remain open until normal closing hours on Black Friday.
• Lowe's: Not yet announced
• Macy's: Open 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving to 2 a.m. on Black Friday. Will reopen 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Black Friday.
• Marshalls: Not yet announced.
• Michaels: Not yet announced.
• Nordstrom: Not yet announced.
• Office Depot/OfficeMax: Not yet announced.
• Old Navy: Not yet announced.
• PetSmart: Not yet announced.
• Sam's Club: Not yet announced.
• Sears: Not yet announced.
• Staples: Not yet announced.
• Target: Open 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving to 1 a.m. on Black Friday. Will reopen at 7 a.m. on Black Friday.
• T.J. Maxx: Not yet announced.
• Toys R Us: Not yet announced.
• Victoria's Secret: Not yet announced.
• Walmart: Not yet announced.

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Turkey believes Khashoggi body dissolved in acid after death: report

Turkish officials are reportedly pursuing a theory that Jamal Khashoggi's body was dissolved in acid after his killing.

The Washington Post on Wednesday cited an unnamed senior Turkish official saying that the body could have been destroyed with chemicals either in the grounds of the Saudi consulate or at the nearby consul-general's home.

Authorities found biological evidence in the consulate garden, the Post reported, which would support the theory that Khashoggi's killers got rid of the journalist's body near where he was killed.

"Khashoggi's body was not in need of burying," the official said, according to the Post.

The news comes as Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Irfan Fidan, said Khashoggi was strangled shortly after he entered the consulate, and his body was dismembered afterward.

Read more: Jamal Khashoggi was strangled then chopped into pieces, Turkey says — the most detailed official account of his death so far

The Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where journalist Jamal Khashoggi died, taken from a skyscraper on October 10.

Murad Sezer/Reuters

The acid theory contradicts a claim by unnamed Saudi officials to Reuters and the Associated Press that Khashoggi's body was wrapped up in some kind of fabric and given to a local Turkish collaborator.

Turkey's prosecutor and president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has demanded that the Saudis reveal the identity of the collaborator.

But so far the Saudis have not publicly mentioned or identified this person. The senior Turkish official told The Washington Post on Wednesday that his country's investigators do not believe this person exists.

Saudi Arabia's chief prosecutor, Saud Al Mojeb, visited Istanbul from Monday to Wednesday this week, ostensibly to share intelligence on the Khashoggi's death and killers.

But Mojeb neither provided the location of Khashoggi's body nor identified a local conspirator.

Read more: Saudi Arabia hopes the world will forget about Jamal Khashoggi's killing, and still hasn't answered simple questions about his death

A composite image of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters; Ali Unal/AP

Turkish authorities may have been pursuing the acid theory for weeks. Two weeks ago Sky News cited an unnamed source close to the investigation as saying that Khashoggi's body might have been destroyed in a "very fast-acting chemical acid."

Other news outlets, including the Guardian, also cited Turkish investigators or officials as saying that Khashoggi's dismembered remains were transported to the official residence of Saudi Arabia's consul in Istanbul, Mohammed al-Otaibi.

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Avoid crowds in Caribbean, Mediterranean, with a cruise ship calendar

I hate cruise ships. Personally I think they are the worst way to travel — overpriced for their value, boring, bad food, bad for the environment, and never providing enough time to enjoy a destination. You end up spending a whole lot of time staring at an overcrowded pool, the endless ocean, and a smelly cramped cabin.

But I'm not myopic enough to think everyone shares that view. In fact, cruise tourism is at all time high with an expected 27.2 million passengers this year, according to The Telegraph, up from 17.8 million in 2009.

That's good news for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian's bottom lines. But it's bad news for those of us who want to hopefully (hopefully!) avoid the overtourism that plagues hot cruise ship stopping points like Mallorca, Venice, and the Galapagos Islands, among other places.

Dubrovnik, Croatia, is a popular spot for cruise ships.

Gaspar Janos/Shutterstock

Thankfully, I found a hack a few years ago when planning a trip to Croatia — a destination that has only recently become overrun with cruise ships — that has helped me avoid much of the crowds.

Before booking my dates, I consulted a cruise ship calendar like those on CruiseCal, CruiseTT, or Crew Center. Such calendars will show you how many cruise ships are in port on certain days and the passenger load of each ship.

While it's pretty much impossible to avoid every cruise ship that's coming into port for certain locations (like Dubrovnik, Croatia), you can navigate your way to less busy days.

Read More: I visited the glittering Greek island of Mykonos, the summer destination of choice for billionaires — and it's a very different experience if you aren't swimming in money

Or you can plan your big sightseeing days on days when fewer cruise ships are in port. There's nothing worse than trying to scale Dubrovnik's breathtaking city walls on a day when four or five cruise ships-full of people are trying to do the same thing.

Using CruiseTT helped me avoid crowds as I visited Split, Dubrovnik, and Hvar Island in Croatia and Kotor, Montenegro, all top cruise ship stopping points. I simply booked my dates for each place based on the days when less ships would be in port. It made all the difference.

Unfortunately, I forgot to consult a cruise ship calendar this past summer when I was visiting Mykonos, the Greek island best known as a glamorous destination for the world's wealthy.

It looked a little something like this:

Mykonos Town, overrun with tourists at sunset.

Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider

While it would likely have been impossible to avoid every cruise ship, I had the distinct misfortune of spending two days on the island when there were five cruise ships in port. You could barely move in the Old Town it was so crowded.

If I had come two days later, there would have been one or even zero cruise ships in port.

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Fathers over 45 put the health of both babies and mothers at risk, according to a major new study

• A major study has found that the health of a baby is affected not just by the mother's age, but by the father's, too.


• Older dads are more likely to father babies who are premature and have other birth complications.


• Equally, the partners of men over 45 are more likely to develop gestational diabetes than pregnant women whose partners are younger.

Much emphasis is often placed on the age of a mother when it comes to having a healthy baby and a healthy birth, but according to major new research, the age of the father plays a vital role, too.

A major new study suggests that babies born to fathers aged over 45 are more likely to be premature and have an increased risk of birth complications, such as seizures and low weight, than those whose fathers are younger.

The study, carried out by the Stanford University School of Medicine, also found that the age of the father can affect the health of the mother during pregnancy, with older men increasing a woman's chance of developing diabetes.

Researchers analysed data from more than 40 million births between 2007 and 2016 in what is the first major study into older fatherhood.

They found a positive correlation between a father's age and the risk of birth problems — men aged over 45 were 14% more likely to have a premature child than younger dads (aged 25-34), and men aged 50 or older were 28% more likely to father a child who needed to be put in the neonatal intensive care unit.

The findings suggest that above the age of 35, a man accumulates roughly two new mutations in the DNA of his sperm with every year that he ages. Once a man reaches the age of 55, the birth risks increase more sharply.

Researchers were shocked to discover a link between the father's age and the health of the mother, too.

“What was really surprising was that there seemed to be an association between advanced paternal age and the chance that the mother would develop diabetes during pregnancy,” said Michael Eisenberg, MD, associate professor of urology and lead study author.

The partners of fathers aged over 45 were 38% more likely to develop gestational diabetes than those who were younger. The exact reason for this is as of yet unclear, however Eisenberg suspects it may be linked to the mother's placenta.

Read more: Mothers should wait a year between giving birth and getting pregnant again, according to a new study

Statistics show that both men and women are becoming first-time parents increasingly later in life. In the US, 10% of babies are born to fathers aged over 40, which is up from 4% four decades earlier.

Similarly, in the UK one in 20 births are to fathers aged over 45, according to the latest ONS figures.

The new findings come just days after a study confirmed that women don't necessarily need to wait the previously recommended 18 months in between giving birth and getting pregnant again, news which was well received by many women worried about their "biological clock."

"We tend to look at maternal factors in evaluating associated birth risks, but this study shows that having a healthy baby is a team sport, and the father's age contributes to the baby's health, too," said Eisenberg.

However, he stresses that the findings don't necessarily mean you should immediately alter your life plans.

"If you buy two lottery tickets instead of one, your chances of winning double, so it's increased by 100%," he said.

"But that's a relative increase. Because your chance of winning the lottery started very small, it's still unlikely that you're going to win the lottery.

"This is a very extreme example, but the same concept can be applied to how you think about these birth risks."

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Inside Casamigos' star-studded 2018 Halloween parties: The best celebrity costumes

George Clooney and Rande Gerber's Casamigos tequila brand threw not one, but two of its famous Halloween parties this year — one in Beverly Hills on Friday, and a second in Las Vegas on Saturday.

The "Brought To You By Those Who Drink It" LA party took place in cofounder Mike Meldman's house and featured plenty of Halloween décor, branded Casamigos bars lined with hundreds of bottles of the tequila, signature cocktails, and food like Kobe cheeseburger sliders, mini hot dogs, tacos and burritos, and vegan ice cream.

Guests like Harry Styles and Paris Hilton were greeted with a Casamigos ice shot, made the most of a slow-motion photo booth and selfie balls, and crowded into Meldman's sports room to watch the World Series, all while DJ Michelle Pesce played all night.

The scene was just as elaborate on Saturday, when all three Casamigos founders — George Clooney, Rande Gerber, and Mike Meldamn — partied at the newly opened CATCH Las Vegas at ARIA Resort & Casino in a space with black brick walls, neon signs, glitter Casamigos barrels, a custom agave made of mini Casamigos bottles over the main bar, cocktails, and Asian-inspired cuisine like lobster mac and cheese.

Guests like Clooney, Kendall Jenner, and Steve Aoki listened to DJ Cassidy, a performance from Nas, and even a surprise DJ set by Jenner herself.

Scroll down to see the best costumes from the A-list guests at Casamigos' LA and Vegas Halloween parties.

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Stock market rebound: Goldman Sachs outlines one lingering trader fear

To the casual observer, the stock market meltdown that plunged US indexes into a correction appears to be over.

Equities sharply rebounded over the past two days, and investor nerves seemed to have calmed considerably. There may be some lingering aftershocks, but it seems like much of Wall Street thinks the worst of the turmoil is behind us.

But Goldman Sachs says not so fast. While the market may seem to have stabilized at the broader index level, there's still plenty of trepidation lurking under the surface on a single stock basis.

The firm is focused on a measure called put-call skew, which measures hedging levels. A higher reading means investors are protecting more to the downside, implying nervousness.

As you can see in the chart below, skew for the average stock has actually spiked since the start of October. Meanwhile, the same measure for the entire S&P 500 has declined sharply amid the selling that engulfed the market for the majority of the month.

"Such a large divergence between these two measures is unusual," a group of strategists led by John Marshall wrote in a client note. "This suggests investors fear gap-moves lower in single stocks over the next three months."

Goldman Sachs

It's not a coincidence that this divergence is occurring during the thick of corporate earnings season. Stocks have been swinging more than usual on quarterly reports, and investors have taken notice.

Goldman finds that the average earnings-related stock move for S&P 500 companies has been 4.5%, the highest since the third quarter of 2009 — or the period immediately after the financial crisis.

And it doesn't help that those earnings-driven single-stock fluctuations have been largely occurring in a downward direction. That's because the bar has been raised for companies as a whole, and simply matching analyst expectations isn't enough anymore.

In fact, even firms that have beaten forecasts have felt the wrath of skeptical traders. Data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch finds that investors aren't rewarding companies that beat profit and sales expectations for the first time since the tech bubble burst in 2000. And that, in turn, can be viewed as a late-cycle signal.

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California man makes Halloween graveyard with tombstones of Democrats

A homeowner in Newhall, California, offended some locals after creating a mock graveyard with tombstones etched with the names of high-profile Democrats.

The display on his front yard included the tombstones of several California Democrats, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

A brief message was etched on the individual tombstones:

"HILLARY CLINTON WE'RE WAITING B---H"

"INSERT NANCY PELOSI HERE"

"GAVIN NEWSOM 1967 — This [November]!"

"JERRY BROWN DIE"

The man also included a tombstone with political advice, "REPUBLICAN PARTY SHOULD HAVE BACKED TRUMP!" The Republican Party did, in fact, back Trump during the 2016 presidential election. He was the party's nominee.

A separate mock tombstone had the name of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un etched onto it.

Tombstones of legendary musicians, such as Prince, Michael Jackson, and Tom Petty, were also scattered around, with Halloween-themed ornaments hanging from a tree.

The man, who did not want to be identified, said he received no complaints from similar displays he had for Halloween during the last eight years, according to the local CBS News affiliate, KCAL.

The man reportedly said the display was meant to be humorous and said he had no plans to take it down.

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JMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon just said he doesn't 'really give a s..t' about Bitcoin

Bitcoin still doesn't interest JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon. While its underlying blockchain technology is "real", he said overnight that he doesn't "really give a s…t" about the digital currency and can't see it rivalling fiat money.

In September last year Dimon called Bitcoin a fraud that's "worse that tulip bulbs".

At the time, Bitcoin was trading at around $4,200. It subsequently rocketed to almost $20,000 before a spectacular collapse to its current levels.

Overnight, Dimon spoke at an Axios conference on various topics including the US-China trade war. And perhaps because yesterday marked the 10-year anniversary of Bitcoin, the moderator took the opportunity to get Dimon's latest thoughts on crypto.

So, does he regret what he said about Bitcoin being a fraud?

No.

"I never changed what I said, I just regret having said it," Dimon said. "I didn't want to be the spokesman against Bitcoin."

In fact, "I don't really give a shit — that's the point," he added.

On the subject of blockchain more broadly, Dimon said the technology is "real". However, "Bitcoin is not the same as a fiat currency".

On its 10th birthday, the world's biggest cryptocurrency continued to trade in a relatively narrow range overnight.

BTC prices edged higher off their weekly lows and a short time ago were trading around $6,340.

You can watch the Dimon interview via CNBC here.

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Trump says he tries to be truthful, but his history suggests otherwise

President Donald Trump stopped short of admitting to peddling falsehoods when a reporter asked him whether he fulfilled his campaign promise to "never lie."

"Have you kept to that promise at all times," Jonathan Karl, ABC News' chief White House correspondent, asked Trump during an interview that aired Wednesday. "Have you always been truthful?"

"Well I try, I mean I do try," Trump said. "I think you try too. You say things about me that are not necessarily correct."

As part of journalistic practice, when reporters are factually incorrect in their reporting, the error is corrected, and that correction usually includes an editor's note that highlights the error. Trump is not known to have corrected his own statements that are later found to be false or inaccurate. He has frequently repeated such false statements, like his debunked claim that "millions and millions" of people vote illegally.

"I do try, and I always want to tell the truth," Trump said in his interview with Karl. "When I can, I tell the truth. I mean sometimes it turns out to be where something happens that's different, or there's a change. But I always like to be truthful."

Read more: Trump claims 'Florida will become Venezuela' if Andrew Gillum is elected governor

Karl appeared to reference Trump's comments during a campaign rally in 2016, when, in a stark departure from his normal campaign rhetoric, then-candidate Trump told supporters he regretted some of his fiery remarks.

"Sometimes, in the heat of debate, and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words or you say the wrong thing," Trump reportedly said at the time. "I have done that, and believe it or not, I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain."

Trump went on to ensure supporters he would never lie, and also took the opportunity to take a shot at Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

"In this journey, I will never lie to you," Trump said. "I will never tell you something I do not believe. I will never put anyone's interests ahead of yours."

Trump's critics have accused him of spreading inaccurate information and promoting conspiracy theories to widen a partisan divide in the US.

But Trump has also been accused of lying by some people, namely members of the media. In June 2017, The New York Times published the commentary, "Trump's Lies" on its opinion page, laying a detailed history of statements Trump said that were untrue.

Recently, Trump was lambasted after an Axios interview on HBO, in which he falsely claimed the US was "the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States."

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