Everyone's gotta start somewhere. 

From a young Justin Bieber singing his heart out on Youtube, to Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera honing their talents on "The Mickey Mouse Club,"the world's most famous musicians were once just like everyone else in the business: trying to make it big.

Before she was a certified diva, Mariah Carey was just trying to promote her new record.

It's hard to believe that Mariah Carey was once unknown, but in the early 1990s, her career was just getting started. 

She made her national television debut on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in 1991, shortly after releasing her first single, "Vision of Love." Hall introduced her as a "very impressive young talent," and Carey's performance earned thunderous applause. She's since won five Grammys and 32 Billboard Music Awards — and broken multiple chart records.

Britney Spears was on "Star Search" in 1984, before becoming the "Princess of Pop."

Britney Spears got her start young. She first appeared on Star Search in 1992, at age 11, singing a strong rendition of "Love Can Build A Bridge." Her stage charisma was undeniable, but Spears only made it to round two of the competition. She later joined "The Mickey Mouse Club," and, after scoring a smash with 1999's "Baby One More Time," quickly became known as the "Princess of Pop." 

She's one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

Like Spears, Christina Aguilera got her start on "Star Search."

Another pop diva, Christina Aguilera got her start even younger. The fledgling musician appeared on Star Search at the age of 9 in 1989, singing Etta James' "Sunday Kind of Love." Like Spears, Aguilera was eliminated early on — but she soon joined "The Mickey Mouse Club" and saw a meteoric rise to success after her song "Genie in a Bottle" was released in 1999.

• Saturday's mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, which left 11 dead, reignited a debate about armed security at places of worship.
• Robert Bowder, who was charged with the attack, had three handguns and an AR-15, a weapon designed for war.
• It's not clear if the synagogue already had an armed guard. Four police officers were injured.
• Synagogues often already employ armed security on major holidays.
• Armed security is more frequent in places with historic anti-Semitism.

The murder of 11 Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Saturday has renewed a debate over whether places of worship should have armed guards.

It's not clear if the synagogue already had an armed guard. Four police officers were wounded in the attack. Robert Bowers, who faces 29 charges following the mass shooting, wielded at least three handguns and an AR-15, a weapon designed for war that's legally available to purchase and has been used in most major mass shootings in America. The synagogue did not receive any threats before the attack, according to CNN.

President Donald Trump theorized before a campaign rally Saturday that "the results would have been far better" if the Tree of Life synagogue had an armed guard inside.

"This is a case where if they had an armed guard inside they may have been able to stop him immediately, maybe there would have been nobody killed, except for him maybe,"he said.

Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto rejected the idea, saying that it would be better to control access to guns from people who express a desire for violence. Before the attack, Bowers suggested on social media that he would take action against a Jewish organization that helped refugees.

"We should take the guns, which are the common denominator of every mass shooting in America, out of the hands of those looking to express hatred through murder,"Peduto said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.

Judaism is a decentralized religion with no central body of leadership, and security arrangements vary from synagogue to synagogue. But it's not uncommon for synagogues to have armed security guards or police on hand for major Jewish holidays, when attendance increases.

In places with a deeper history of antisemitism, like Europe, it's common for synagogues to have armed security, often paid for by the state. In France, after the January 2015 terrorist attacks that included the murder of four people in a Kosher grocery store, Opération Sentinelle involved sending 10,000 troops to protect Jewish sites around the country. Currently, France uses its troops to maintain security for more than 200 synagogues and other Jewish sites.

In the US, various waves of anti-Semitic attacks have led to increased security measures at times — most notably in 1999 when a Los Angeles synagogue was attacked by a shooter, and following September 11. 

David Friedman, the Anti-Defamation League's vice president for law enforcement and community security, advises synagogues around the United States on security matters. He told the Los Angeles Times that more Jewish communities reached out to him after the shooting on advice for increasing security.

Steven Markowitz, chairman of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, told Newsday that he predicts synagogues would have more police officers stationed outside them, as in Europe.

"I never thought we’d have to deal with that here," he said.

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"Will & Grace" initially aired in 1998. The show ended in 2006 but was revived in 2017. Now, the hit sitcom is airing its 10th season. 

In honor of the newest season, here are some surprising things you probably didn't know about "Will & Grace."

The show gets its name from a Jewish philosophy book.

The show is named "Will & Grace" after a concept from the Jewish philosophy book "I and Thou" by Martin Buber. 

"Buber talks about how in order to have an ‘I-Thou’ relationship in the presence of the Eternal … one needs the 'will' to go after it and the 'grace' to receive it," David Kohan, the show's co-creator and producer told Jewish Journal. 

Debra Messing wouldn't take the role of Grace until she met the actor who was playing Will.

Eric McCormack had already been cast as Will on the series when Debra Messing was offered the role. 

"I met with executive producers, and I was told that they had already cast Will," Messing told CNN. "And I said, 'I can't sign on until I meet him,' because this a show about, you know, friendship, and soul mates, and you can't fake that."

Everyone in the show's main cast won an Emmy Award.

The sitcom made history by being one of three shows whose entire main cast was nominated for Emmys. Plus, each cast member also won the award.

The show also won the award for Best Comedy in 2000.

• White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Monday claimed a massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue over the weekend was motivated by "anti-religiosity" she claimed is prevalent in the US at present. 
• Saturday's events in Pittsburgh marked the deadliest attack on Jews in US history.  
• Federal prosecutors have filed hate crime charges against Robert Bowers, who has been accused of killing 11 people in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Monday claimed a massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue over the weekend was motivated by "anti-religiosity" she claimed is prevalent in the US at present. 

"The anti-religiosity in this country that is somehow in vogue ... making fun of people who express religion, the late night comedians ... it's always anti-religious," Conway told "Fox and Friends."

But evidence from the shooting and law enforcement data suggest Conway might have downplayed the issue of anti-Semitism in the US. 

Federal prosecutors have filed hate crime charges against Robert Bowers, who has been accused of killing 11 people in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday. During the shooting, Bowers reportedly made anti-Semitic statements. Evidence of deeply anti-Semitic sentiments were also found on Bowers' social medial. 

Saturday's events in Pittsburgh marked the deadliest attack on Jews in US history.  

Jews were targeted for religiously motivated hate crimes more than any other faith in the US in 2016, according to FBI data, and anti-Semitic incidents in the US surged roughly 60%, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Conway on Monday lauded President Donald Trump's response to the shooting.

"He denounced anti-Semitism. ... He called for the death penalty for this murder," she said. "He said the word 'anti-Semitism.'"

In a separate interview with CNN, Conway said Trump can unite the country after a series of attempted bombings of high-profile Democrats, CNN, and other public figures in addition to Saturday's synagogue attack. 

"The president is trying to heal the country," Conway said. 

Trump has continued his attacks on political opponents and the media in recent days, even after the bomb threats and synagogue mass shooting. 

On Monday, Trump tweeted, "There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!"

SEE ALSO: Pittsburgh mayor hits back at Trump's calls for armed guards after synagogue shooting

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• Japan's Princess Ayako married Kei Moriya at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on Monday.
• To marry a commoner, Ayako had to give up her royal status.
• Imperial family members are allowed to marry who they choose, but women who marry commoners must leave the family while male family members are allowed to retain their royal status regardless.

A Japanese princess married a commoner for love on Monday, and was thus forced to renounce her royal status.

Princess Ayako married Kei Moriya, an employee of the shipping company Nippon Yusen, in a small ceremony at the Meiji Shrine in Toyko.

A crowd of about 1,000 gathered outside the shrine, dedicated to the bride's great-great grandfather and grandmother, to show their well wishes for the couple, CNN reported. A small group of family members attended the actual ceremony itself, where rings were exchanged, along with a traditional cup of sake.

Ayako wore two elaborate kimonos for the ceremony, a pale-yellow one to travel to the shrine in and a red one she changed into right before the ceremony itself. Her hair was swept back into an elaborate style worn by Japanese noblewomen during the Heian period, which ran from 794 to 1185 AD.

Her groom wore pin-striped trousers, a morning jacket, and a silk top hat that once belonged to the bride's father, the late Prince Takamodo, according to CNN.

Upon marrying Moriya, Ayako officially left the royal family. While members of the Japanese imperial family have been able to choose who they marry for three generations, according to Al Jazeera, women who marry commoners must renounce their royal status while male members who do the same are allowed to stay in the family.

The current emperor, Akihito, is an example of this. He married a commoner, Michiko Shoda, in 1957. 

When the couple announced their engagement this summer, the Imperial House Economy Council (which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sits on) convened and decided to give Princess Ayako a lump-sum payment of about $950,000 so that she could keep up her high standard of living after leaving the family, The Japan Times reported.

The ceremony on Monday comes less than a year after the bride's mother introduced the couple in December 2017. Ayako's mother and Moriya's had been long-time friends.

Following the ceremony, Princess Ayako told members of the press that she is "filled with happiness."

Moriya said his wife looked "beautiful" and that he hoped to "build a happy family with lots of laughter."

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• Traveling to most Mediterranean destinations can be expensive, busy, and crowded.
• When looking for a cheap vacation in the Mediterranean this past summer, I stumbled upon the island of Cyprus. Even during the peak of summer, I was able to get a cheap flight and reasonable hotel with little notice.
• The island nation has the many charms that Mediterranean tourists are looking for, such as fresh, local seafood, pristine beaches, and ancient ruins, though few Americans visit. 
• After spending a week there in July, I'm convinced it could be the best vacation hotspot Americans aren't visiting yet. 

Most Americans heading to the Mediterranean to vacation usually end up in the same places: Greek islands like Mykonos or Santorini, Italy, Croatia, or, more recently, Portugal. 

While all those destinations have their charms — who doesn't want to go on a Game of Thrones tour in Dubrovnik? — they've undoubtedly become tourist traps, with overbooked hotels, overpriced restaurants, and beaches and sights packed with cruise-shippers and holiday-makers in the summer months.

This past summer, as I was looking for a cheap flight in Europe, I stumbled on the island of Cyprus. The flight there was a fraction of a similar flight to Mykonos and I had no trouble booking a reasonably priced hotel even a week before the trip in the middle of summer.

The country is a well-known vacation destination for British and Russian tourists, but few Americans visit the island. To be honest, I can't figure why.

Cyprus offers many of the Mediterranean charms that makes places like Mykonos or Croatia attractive — fresh, local fish, beautiful beaches, ancient ruins — at a fraction of the price. And that's before you get into the breathtaking natural landscape that spans from lush mountains to a salt lake.

For those looking for a taste of classic Mediterranean life with a Middle Eastern flair, Cyprus is the place to go. I went on an impulsive decision, and I'm so glad I did.

Here's what it's like:

SEE ALSO: Forget Mykonos and Santorini. I found a little-known island in Greece that's twice as beautiful and half the price.

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For the last 50 years, Cyprus has been split between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus in the south and the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which covers about 36% of the north. While the conflict has made the island tense at times, reunification talks have been ongoing in recent years. While you can easily visit either side, I flew into Larnaca in the south.

Source: Politico

The flight to Cyprus from Israel was a fraction of the cost to Greek islands like Mykonos, Santorini, or Crete. I rented a car. The island isn't huge, but it's about the size of Puerto Rico with well-maintained roads so driving is the best way to get around.

The island is full of little surprises. Only five minutes from the airport is the Larnaca Salt Lake. The gorgeous lake is the site of Hala Sultan Tekke, an important Muslim shrine, and the home of about 2,000 flamingos during winter months.

• Zoë Kravitz recreated her mom Lisa Bonet's Rolling Stone photo shoot from 30 years ago. 
• She posed nude like her mother.

Zoë Kravitz is the spitting image of her mom Lisa Bonet in her 2018 cover shoot for Rolling Stone. 

The 29-year-old actress posed nude on the magazine's cover for The Hot Issue 2018, the same issue Bonet posed for in 1988.

Recreating the image was Kravitz's idea. 

"I've always loved that cover so much," she told Rolling Stone. "When I think of Rolling Stone, that's always the image that pops into my head. It's a really striking image of her. It’s beautiful."

The "Big Little Lies" actress shared the images on her Instagram with the caption, "Life imitates art." 

Bonet was 21 and married to musician Lenny Kravitz when she was two months pregnant with Zoë Kravitz at the time she posed for the magazine 30 years ago and her cover featured her covered in a shirt. Bonet also did the photo nude, which was included inside the Rolling Stone spread. 

Kravitz told the magazine that her mom wanted the nude photo for the cover. 

"I think she was a little bummed when they used the shirt picture as the cover," she said. "It's less about the picture, and more about doing the thing my mom intended to do. That feels cool."

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more. 

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• Black Friday falls on November 23 this year.
• The day is becoming increasingly less important to the retail industry, thanks to the rise of e-commerce and frequent discounting.
• In-store shoppers can still take advantage of certain deals.

Black Friday is swiftly approaching.

The holiday season in the United States spans from the day after Thanksgiving through December. That kick-off day is known as Black Friday, and it's traditionally marked by massive crowds rushing into stores in order to take advantage of slashed prices on high-ticket items. However, in the retail sphere, the rise of e-commerce and discounts are steadily eclipsing Black Friday.

Whether you're planning on venturing out into the fray or surfing the web for the best deals, it helps to arm yourself with information about this year's discounts.

Here's what you need to know about Black Friday this year:

When is Black Friday?

Black Friday is always the day after Thanksgiving. This year, Black Friday falls on November 23. Cyber Monday will take place on November 26.

That being said, some stores will likely seek to court early-bird deal-seekers. Chains haven't yet announced any early deals, but keep your eyes peeled.

Is everything open on Black Friday?

Some retailers prefer to keep their doors shut on Black Friday.

REI is one of those brands. Black Friday just doesn't fit in with its mission. REI CEO Jerry Stritzke told Business Insider's Kate Taylor, "You don't win in the long-term by pushing ... what I call rampant consumerism."

Other employers give their whole workforce the day off on Thanksgiving.

According to BestBlackFriday.com, Costco, H&M, The Home Depot, IKEA, Lowe's, Nordstrom, Publix, REI, and Sam's Club will not open on Thanksgiving this year.

Why is the day called Black Friday?

Business Insider's Dennis Green reported that the term "Black Friday" originated with Philadelphia police officers, who gave the day its gloomy name in reference to the 12-hour shifts they had to pull in order to "mitigate the madness."

• IBM CEO Ginni Rometty said that the $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat 'changes everything about the cloud market.'
• I asked executives from IBM and Red Hat how that works. 
• The short answer: IBM believes that the Red Hat deal gives it a huge inroads into corporate data centers, helping them modernize their infrastructure even as they prepare to move to the major cloud computing platforms. 
• Notably, Red Hat supports every major cloud, not just IBM's, and it needs to keep supporting every major cloud or else alienate its fans and customers. 
• That's why Red Hat has to be managed as an independent subsidiary, say the execs: If Red Hat shows undue favoritism to IBM, there's no point.

On Sunday, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty made a bold, head-turning claim about her company's $34 billion deal to acquire open source software maker Red Hat. 

"The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer. It changes everything about the cloud market,” Rometty declared, in a press release. 

Hyperbole and dramatic quotes in merger announcements are hardly unusual. But IBM's pronouncement about shaking up the cloud market seemed a bit excessive even in that context.

The cloud computing market is dominated by Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure — smaller players like Google and IBM are jockeying for position behind them. And while Red Hat makes software that is popular with companies using those clouds, it is not itself a cloud computing provider.

In other words, it's not as if IBM had suddenly bought its way to beating Amazon in cloud market share. 

So, then, what did Rometty mean? I took the the question to Arvind Krishna, the senior VP of IBM Hybrid Cloud, and Red Hat Executive VP Paul Cormier, in a short phone interview on Monday.

Why IBM bought Red Hat

"This is a common way to both modernize things that are on-premise, and move things to do the public cloud," says Krishna.

In other words, Krishna says, IBM sees Red Hat's technology — including its very popular Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system for servers and its OpenShift cloud application platform — as a way for its big-business customers to get their existing IT infrastructure up to date, even as they prepare to move their data up to the cloud. 

This piecemeal approach, called "hybrid cloud," is only growing in popularity: Some businesses, especially in regulated industries like medicine and finance, are under strict requirements for where their most sensitive data gets stored. A hybrid model lets these companies offload at least some of their most demanding supercomputing requirements up to the so-called public cloud, while still eking value from their existing servers. 

Importantly, Red Hat has existing partnerships with all of the major public cloud platforms, including those from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and, yes, IBM. But Krishna says that IBM has no plans to end those relationships — in fact, it gives IBM a chance to "add value to everyone" across all of those different clouds, he says, giving Big Blue an in as big companies continue to adopt one or more platforms.  

And that's where IBM sees the Red Hat deal shaking up the cloud industry. With Red Hat's software so popular, and open source software becoming more vital to the IT industry as a whole, IBM sees this deal as making its technology lineup indispensable for those many companies making the leap into "hybrid cloud." That could give IBM a new lease on life in the cloud computing game, where it still lags.

Why Red Hat will be managed independently

This, then, is why Red Hat will maintain its independence, says Cormier. He likens Red Hat to Switzerland — totally neutral in the ongoing cloud wars. If IBM takes too heavy a hand with Red Hat, says Cormier, it would strain those partnerships, thus shooting itself in the foot. 

"The strategy here is really to keep it separate," Cormier says. While he says that Red Hat will benefit from having access to IBM resources like its sizable sales force and consulting business, product-wise, RHEL and its other products have to continue working with all clouds, everywhere, or else risk losing its momentum. 

Krishna and Cormier both say that they're already getting a lot of questions along these lines: Why would IBM pay $34 billion for Red Hat and keep it separate? 

"It's kind of a funny question, because without that, there is no value," says Krishna.

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• President Donald Trump and his children are accused of "deliberately" scamming Americans by encouraging them to invest in a multilevel-marketing company.
• The lawsuit also names Trump's children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, of luring vulnerable investors to buy into three businesses with "a pattern of racketeering activity."
• Trump was reportedly paid millions of dollars in secret, in exchange for promoting one of the companies named in the lawsuit.
• The complaint alleges the Trumps "were aware that the vast majority of consumers would lose whatever money they invested."
• Trump Organization officials questioned the timing of the lawsuit, which was filed days before the November 6 midterm election.

President Donald Trump and his children are accused of "deliberately" scamming Americans by encouraging them to invest in a multilevel marketing company, according to a complaint filed in federal court on Monday.

The complaint accuses Trump and his children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, of luring vulnerable investors to buy into three businesses with "a pattern of racketeering activity," according to The New York Times, which first reported on the lawsuit.

Trump was reportedly paid millions of dollars in exchange for promoting ACN, a telecommunications marketing company; Trump Network, another multilevel marketing company which sold vitamins and health promoting products; and Trump Institute, which allegedly gave "extravagantly priced multiday training seminars."

Some of the payments were made in secret, according to the lawsuit, which also alleges the Trumps "were aware that the vast majority of consumers would lose whatever money they invested."

Trump, who allegedly promoted ACN to investors without disclosing he was being paid, was heard in at least one ACN marketing video describing the company as being on the "cusp of technological advancements that will change the way we communicate."

"I'm here to tell you about a company that provides ... essential components for success," Trump said in the video.

"That's probably even better than real estate, I like real estate," Trump continued. "But I think this is probably better. It's certainly more advanced."

"You have a great opportunity before you with ACN. Without any of the risks most entrepreneurs have to take," Trump added. "Believe me. It's ultimately a dream come true."

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four anonymous plaintiffs, who withheld their identities due to "serious and legitimate security concerns given the heated political environment," according to their attorneys.

The plaintiffs reportedly became investors in ACN after watching Trump's promotional videos, and were charged a $499 registration fee to sell products like videophones, The Times and CNBC reported on Monday.

ACN, like other multilevel marketing companies, allegedly advertised incentives for recruiting other investors or sales staff to join its program.

One plaintiff claimed to have joined ACN in 2014 after attending a recruitment meeting that included a video of Trump's endorsement. After spending thousands of dollars attending other meetings, she only earned $38 from the company, according to the lawsuit.

Trump Organization officials questioned the timing of the lawsuit, which comes days before the November 6 midterm election: "This is clearly just another effort by opponents of the President to use the court system to advance a political agenda," attorney Alan Garten said to The Times.

"Their motivations are as plain as day," Garten added.

A spokesman for the plaintiff's attorneys denied the allegation and said the lawsuit was filed "because it is ready now," according to CNBC.

"No matter when this was filed, the Trump Org would say it was politically motivated," the spokesman said.

SEE ALSO: Trump accuses media of trying to 'score political points' during serial mail-bomber investigation

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• A high school in near Charlotte, North Carolina, where one student fatally shot another on Monday, was criticized for resuming classes hours after the shooting.
• Clayton Wilcox, superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, defended the school's decision Monday, saying that it was the appropriate thing to do to ensure that all the children could safely reconnect with their parents, HuffPost reported.
• Observers online said they believed the school's decision to resume classes sent the wrong message.

A high school near Charlotte, North Carolina, where one student fatally shot another on Monday morning resumed classes hours after the shooting because it was the safest thing to do for its students, Tracy Russ, a representative of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district, told Business Insider in an email Monday.

"The decision was made after lockdown was released by law enforcement to help ensure the safety of students on campus until dismissal and transportation arrangements could be made with families," Russ explained.

The decision by administrators at Butler High School to keep children on campus was met with some criticism.

The local ABC News affiliate WSOC reported that the parents who rushed to the school after learning of the shooting were visibly upset when law-enforcement officials informed them they could not see their children until after a campus-wide lockdown was lifted. Some parents were held at a nearby church.

One of the parents, Scott Simpson, told the Charlotte Observer that he was disappointed that the school would tell its students to go about their everyday routines after one of their classmates had just been shot on campus.

“They’re changing classes during an active crime scene,” Simpson told the Charlotte Observer.

It was not immediately clear whether the crime scene was visible to the students on campus.

Another parent, Wendy Foster from Matthews, North Carolina, was so frustrated that she could not see her child that she said she took action alongside several other people.

"When the principal announced that classes would resume ... I was one of the hundreds of parents to say 'Hell No' and march past barriers to get to the front door at Butler High School to demand our kids," Foster wrote on Twitter.

Clayton Wilcox, superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, defended Butler High School's decision at a press conference Monday, saying that the students were held at the school to ensure that they were accounted for and safe by the time their parents could reach them, HuffPost reported.

“I want to ask each of you who are here to consider for just one moment what would have happened had we just let kids run off into the neighborhood," said Wilcox, according to HuffPost." For parents who were worried about their children, what would they have said to us if they would have come to school and we couldn’t locate their children? I think their fear would have been magnified."

Tuesday classes at Butler High School have been canceled, said Wilcox, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Butler High School, which is located just over 12 miles from downtown Charlotte, went into lockdown at 7 a.m. Monday after a student fatally shot another during a fight in one of the school's main hallways. The victim, 16-year-old Bobby McKeithen, died at a local hospital later that day from his injuries.

In a joint decision with local law-enforcement officials, the school's officials announced at 9:30 a.m. Monday that the lockdown had been lifted and classes would resume later that day. Students were allowed to be picked up by their parents but those remaining were urged to go to their classes.

Observers on social media said the school's decision to resume classes hours after the shooting sent the wrong message to children.

There have been 297 mass shootings in the US this year, and there have been 65 school shootings this year as of October 4.

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• McDonald's is debuting new career and academic advising tools for workers, the fast-food giant announced on Tuesday. 
• The move follows McDonald's announcement earlier this year that it plans to triple employee tuition assistance. 
• Fast-food chains are looking for creative solutions to win over workers as competition for labor heats up. 

McDonald's is adding a new perk for employees as fast-food chains battle to win over workers. 

On Tuesday, the fast-food giant announced that it is launching a new campaign called "Where You Want To Be," which partners a handful of workers with experts, including rapper Yazz the Greatest and dermatologist Meena Singh, to discuss career options.

The goal of the campaign is to highlight new career advising tools available to the company. Starting Tuesday, the company is providing all restaurant employees with free career and academic advising services. In 2019, McDonald's will also launch a mobile app intended to provide academic and career guidance within and outside of the fast-food industry. 

The move follows McDonald's announcement earlier this year that it plans to triple employee tuition assistance as well as reduce the amount of time needed to work at McDonald's to receive funding. 

"Everybody wants to feel recognized, everybody wants to feel valued, everybody wants flexibility," Melissa Kersey, McDonald's US' chief people officer, told Business Insider. 

Kersey said that McDonald's hopes that the new initatives help reduce turnover and assist with hiring. 

"Really, this is very purpose-driven work to provide an answer for what our crew asked for,"Kersey said. "We think it's important that we help the communities we serve." 

The competition for fast-food workers is increasingly tight. 

There were 898,000 open jobs in the accommodation and food-services industry in August, according to a monthly report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For comparison, that's 146 million more positions than were open in August 2017.

Panera is addressing the "war for talent" by revamping its recruitment and training systems. Other chains, such as Jack in the Box and Dunkin', are investing in automation to cut down on the number of necessary workers. Retailers like Target, JCPenney, and Kohl's are raising wages and adding benefits to deal with similar issues.

SEE ALSO: Fast-food chains are scrambling to find employees, and it could be making your experience dining out worse

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• Walmart employees across the United States will be able to process shoppers' payments using mobile devices starting November 1. 
• The new service, called Check Out With Me, is designed to help customers avoid one of the biggest frustrations with shopping in stores over the holidays: busy checkout lines. 
• Walmart is also touting its newly updated website this holiday season, which now features more curated content and an expanded assortment of products.

Walmart wants to help shoppers avoid long checkout lines this holiday season. 

For the first time, the company is giving employees in the busiest sections of its stores the power to process shoppers' purchases using mobile devices. 

These employees will be able to swipe customers' credit or debit cards and provide paper receipts using Bluetooth printers strapped to their waists. 

It's meant to allow shoppers purchasing a small number of items to bypass long lines at store registers.

Walmart started testing the service, called Check Out With Me, in the lawn and garden departments of 350 stores earlier this year. 

Walmart is also touting its newly updated website this holiday season, which now features more curated content and an expanded assortment of products.

The company said it has added more than 2,000 brands to its site since last year, including more than 150 upscale fashion lines offered through a partnership with Lord & Taylor. 

Walmart also said that its toy shop will feature 30% new toys in stores and 40% more toys online compared to last year. 

Walmart has expanded its free two-day shipping offer to "millions more" items on Walmart.com this year as well. The shipping offer applies to orders over $35. 

"This year, we relaunched Walmart.com, delivering customers a completely new shopping experience for whatever they are shopping for — whether they are purchasing a specific item or browsing our fashion and home assortment," said Scott Hilton, chief revenue officer of Walmart US e-commerce.

"The new site, combined with thousands of new brands, curated holiday solutions, and our free, two-day shipping as well as pickup offerings, will make it that much easier for customers to shop Walmart.com this holiday season."

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• Following the loss of a Lion Air flight in waters off Java on Monday, Indonesia is grappling with a fresh chapter in its troubled aviation history.
• While some have been quick to condemn Indonesian aviation, this latest tragedy is more out-of-character for an industry that has worked hard at reform for more than a decade during a period of enormous growth.
• Since a Garuda Airways 737-400 left the runway in March 2007, killing one of the seven crew members and 20 passengers, Indonesia has made “enormous strides,” an aviation expert says.

When a Lion Air flight fell out of the sky off the coast of Java on Monday, a new chapter began in Indonesia’s troubled history of aviation disasters.

The downed flight JT610 that crashed after taking off for Pangkal Pinang on Bangka Island on Monday morning West Indonesian Time (WIB) was carrying 181 passengers, including two children and a baby, according to the Jakarta Post.

It appears now that all 189 on board have been lost.

Wreckage was located near where the plane lost contact with air-traffic officials, Muhmmad Syaugi, the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, BASARNAS, told media.

"We don't know yet whether there are any survivors," Syaugi told a news conference, Monday. "We hope, we pray, but we cannot confirm."

But while many have been quick to condemn Indonesian aviation, this latest tragedy is a bit out of character for an industry that has worked hard to reform itself for more than a decade during a period of enormous growth.

Flying Lion Air today is no death sentence and Indonesian aviation is not the monster everyone is making it out to be.

The Indonesian archipelago is made up of some 17,500 islands.

As the economy has grown, more and more Indonesians can afford to use air transport to travel across a nation of innumerable connections.

When 21 people died on March 7, 2007, when a Garuda Boeing 737 skidded off the runway at Yogyakarta, and burst into flames, officials seemed to awaken from the looming national trainwreck facing their transport future.

Geoffrey Thomas, aviation expert and editor-in-chief of AirlineRatings.com, said the accident was an "epiphany" for Indonesia's national carrier and a turning point for Indonesia.

"Everything had to change and everything did," Thomas said.

Since then, Thomas says, Indonesian aviation has made “enormous strides.”

Its national carrier invested in, and updated, its fleet, streamlined its operations and within a hectic decade has re-emerged as a "model" breaking back into the US and European markets as authorities from both exacting regulatory bodies lifted their bans on the airline.

If it's tough getting back into shark-infested waters, then the collective fear that takes hold following blanket coverage of aviation disasters can be even harder to shake.

Which goes some way to explaining the reflex damnation that Indonesia’s reviving air industry and Lion Air have endured these last days.

"We have to be careful not to judge Lion Air too harshly. Lion Air Group has over 300 aircraft and they fly to and from hundreds and hundreds of destinations across Indonesia and their record in recent times is pretty good," Thomas said.

"I think there are a few people out there jumping on Indonesian aviation saying, 'oh, it's hopeless, oh it's terrible,' well, certainly there are some airlines with a checkered record, but Lion is not one of them."

The last fatality Lion Air had was in 2004 and the most damning incident for Garuda in more than a decade was in 2017, when two top executives from its low-cost Citilink carrier resigned after a video of an allegedly inebriated pilot went viral.

Although, it should be noted that it was only when passengers on board complained that the pilot was slurring his onboard welcome that he was dragged off and replaced.

“Overall, Indonesia has made giant strides in the last few years and has become really quite safe to what it was just a few years ago.”

But it wasn't always like this

According to Airline Ratings at the end of 2015, Indonesia's disaster-ridden industry had more airlines with the lowest safety ranking than any other country in the world, including Nepal.

"You don't want to be flying in Nepal," Thomas told Business Insider.

AirlineRatings.com regularly measures 407 of the world's major airlines, giving each a safety score out of seven.

Just three years ago, of the 10 airlines that scored just one point or less, all but one was Indonesian.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Indonesia is expected to be the sixth-largest market for air travel by 2034, servicing 270 million global and domestic passengers.

Considering its size, scope and the domestic dependence on both tourism and air travel, it is not a market that can be allowed to fail.

“Indonesia has turned it around completely in the last two years, most Indonesian airlines have now completed and passed the IOSA – a demanding international audit, which involves 1,000 safety parameters.”

In a clear nod to Indonesia's improving behaviors, the US Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it also upgraded the country's air safety rating, paving the way for carriers to fly to America.

Indonesia has made it compulsory for such international audits, as well as rigorously enforcing international standards.

"And Indonesia itself passed the international civil aviation organization safety audit and the EU has since lifted its ban on Lion and others to fly to Europe.”

“So Indonesian aviation, notwithstanding this accident, is probably in the best state it’s ever been," Thomas says.

So what went wrong?

The plane was new. The conditions were good. So why are 189 people dead?

Thomas says aviation experts are almost certain the issue with JT610 related to the pitot tube static system which measures altitude and translates the information back to the cockpit and the autopilot.

"I'm not a pilot, however what I do know is that on the previous flight the pilot’s instruments were unreliable, the pitot static tube feeding in the captain’s data was erroneous."

The pilots that had flown the Lion Air 737 Max that crashed on Monday flagged serious control problems just 48 hours earlier in Bali, similar to those recorded just before the flight crashed into the sea off Java.

Thomas says the jury really is out if this is a Lion Air issue, a Boeing issue or perhaps a pitot tube manufacturer problem.

"We know the mechanics at Lion Air looked at the tube in that flight from Denpesar, we’ve got the log details, it was checked, cleaned and tested. They ticked it off as 'OK.'"

"Whether that was done correctly or not will have to wait for the investigation — which could be months out."

Put simply, a pitot-static system is a system of pressure-sensitive instruments that are used in aviation to determine an aircraft’s airspeed, altitude, and altitude trend.

The pitot tube performs like cruise control on a car, if its set to 100 and you’re only on 80 it will speed the car up to get to what it calculates is the right speed.

Another way of explaining this is when, a number of years ago, Qantas had a similar incident flying between Singapore and Perth where the data coming in from the pitot-static tube "went psycho."

"In that incident, the tube told the autopilot to dive and that’s what the plane did."

What happened to Lion Air flight JT610:

• According to Aviation-Safety.net flight JT610 took off from runway 25L at Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 06:21 hours local time.
• At 6:33 a.m., Lion Air flight JT-610 loses contact with Jakarta air control
• Surveillance (ADS-B) data of the flight, captured by FlightRadar24 and FlightAware, show erratic values (too fast, too slow, too low, etc).
• The aircraft made a climbing left-hand turn after takeoff.
• Shortly after passing the ADS-B reported altitude of 2100 feet, data points briefly show a lower altitude of around 1475 feet,” FlighRadar24 reported.
• Altitude data sent via ADS-B continue to show an erratic pattern, varying roughly between 4,500 and 5,350 feet.
• The values then rapidly decline until contact is lost.
• According to Aviation-Safety.net, the previous flight of the accident aircraft, then identified as JT043 from Denpasar, Bali, had displayed similar “erratic values” in altitude and airspeed after take-off, which stabilized 8 minutes later.
• A log entry cited by Airline Ratings shows “airspeed unreliable and alt disagree shown after takeoff. It adds that the Captain’s instrument was unreliable and handover control to FO." (first officer)
• Lion Air has confirmed that the aircraft had a “technical problem” on the previous flight, “which had been resolved according to the procedure.”
• The copy of the tech log shows that the Pitot Tube and Static Port were examined and checked.

Hard questions to follow

There can be no doubt that despite their progress, Indonesian air-safety officials face many difficult questions.

For example, when Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta where JT610 took off is undergoing a major terminal expansion program, with plans to add a third runway as well, is said to only have a capacity to manage around 43 million passengers annually, when in 2017 some 60 million passengers flew in or out of the airport.

How much is being invested in personnel and resources when, speaking to the Jakarta Post at the end of last year, Indonesia’s Transportation Ministry airport director Bintang Hidayat said the number of air passengers would climb by almost 30% to 140 million in 2018, much higher than previously expected.

According to data from the Centre for Aviation domestic air travel accounts for nearly 75% of total passenger traffic, yet at the same time, Indonesia has emerged as a huge tourist destination, with visitor numbers increasing by 21% last year as China has become Indonesia's largest source market.

If growth once again outstrips oversight, Indonesia’s not-too-distant dark past and the new, terrible images that sink and rest at the bottom of popular imagination will not be far away.

SEE ALSO: The Lion Air Flight 610 crash is the worst airliner accident of 2018

DON'T MISS: A previous Lion Air flight crash-landed in the sea in 2013, but with far less deadly results

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• President Donald Trump again bemoaned what he perceives as unfair treatment from the news media on Monday night, nearly a week after the attempted mail-bombings that targeted his political critics and Democratic leaders.
• Trump compared his treatment to that of President Barack Obama, following a racially motivated 2015 shooting at a predominately black church in Charleston, South Carolina, that killed nine parishioners.

• "They didn't do that with President Obama with the church," Trump said during a Fox News interview. "The horrible situation with the church. They didn't do that. They put my name in the headlines."

President Donald Trump again bemoaned what he perceives as unfair treatment from the news media on Monday night, nearly a week after the attempted mail-bombings that targeted his political critics and Democratic leaders.

Trump compared his treatment to that of President Barack Obama, following a racially motivated 2015 shooting at a predominately black church in Charleston, South Carolina, that killed nine parishoners.

"I was in the headline of the Washington Post," Trump claimed during an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham. "My name, associated with this crazy bomber, 'Trump bomber,' or something. But I was in the headline when they got him. They didn't say "bomber found." They talked about 'Trump' in the headline."

The suspected bomber, Cesar Sayoc Jr., was arrested and charged Friday in connection to over a dozen explosive devices that were mailed to Trump's critics. Sayoc also appeared to be an ardent Trump supporter: in addition to sending disturbing messages and threats to his political opponents on social media, officials reportedly confiscated his van that was plastered with pro-Trump and anti-Democrat imagery.

Critics allege that Trump's rhetoric toward his political opponents and the media incites anger among the public. Trump has previously called for jailing former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, an idea that frequently prompts chants of "lock her up" from supporters at his campaign rallies.

Trump claims there is a difference between his treatment from the media following the attempted bombings, and the treatment of Democratic leaders in past acts of violence. Trump referenced the 2017 Capitol Hill shooting of Republican Rep. Steve Scalise by 66-year-old James Hodgkinson, a supporter of Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders; and the 2015 Charleston church shooting, in which 21-year-old white-supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine black parishioners.

"Now, they didn't do that with Bernie Sanders when he had ... they didn't do that with the Democrats when other people came out," Trump said. "They didn't do that with President Obama with the church. The horrible situation with the church. They didn't do that."

SEE ALSO: Trump accused of receiving 'secret payments' for endorsing a marketing company that lured people into investing

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Hello! Here's what's happening on Tuesday. 

1. The US government is about to issue $1.3 trillion in new debt this year. The debt issuance represents a 146% jump from 2017 and the highest amount of new debt issued since the recession.

2. US President Donald Trump and his children have been accused of "deliberately" scamming Americans according to a complaint filed in federal court on Monday.  The president allegedly went about encouraging people to invest in a very doubtful multilevel-marketing company for which he was reportedly paid millions.

3.The Lion Air flight JT610 that crashed into the waters off Java is the worst air disaster this year. It is also the first fatal crash of a Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

4. China's financial markets have had another wild session. Both stocks and the Chinese yuan were off their earlier lows and trading was volatile, even by China's recent standards.

5. Google employees are reportedly planning a walkout this week in protest of the recent sexual misconduct revelations.The New York Times reported last week that former employee Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, was paid a $90 million exit package when he left the company following a sexual misconduct investigation.

6. A 6.2 magnitude earthquake shook New Zealand's parliament. The quake was felt strongly in central New Zealand, including in the capital Wellington. No serious damages or injuries were immediately reported. 

7. Evan Spiegel named a new chief business officer for Snap before giving the job to someone else two days later. Kristen O'Hara, the sales executive whom Spiegel first named to the job, has now left Snap.

8. Australia’s critical infrastructure could have been compromised if Chinese-owned telecommunications giants Huawei and ZTE Corp. helped with rolling out the nation’s 5G network. Several government officials have raised alarm over Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government, and how that could impact Australia's national security. 

9. The Pentagon is sending 5,200 troops to the border. President Trump has been focused on halting a caravan of Central American migrants inexorably moving north.

10. A Japanese princess renounced her royal title to marry a commoner. Imperial family members are allowed to marry who they choose, but women who marry commoners must leave the family while male family members are allowed to retain their royal status, regardless.

And finally...

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• Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made his first public remarks about the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting Monday, saying that law enforcement must make sure that all Americans are protected from hate crimes.
• A man killed 11 Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday and injured several others.
• Rosenstein also announced that the US Justice Department created a new website containing information about how to report a hate crime.
• Rosenstein, who is Jewish, also praised President Donald Trump for condemning anti-semitism in America.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein declared on Monday that it is the duty of law-enforcement officers to ensure that "all Americans" are protected from hate crimes.

Rosenstein made these remarks days after a gunman fatally shot 11 Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"The tragic attack on the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue just two days ago serves as a stark reminder of the need to protect all Americans against hate crimes," Rosenstein said Monday.

That shooting occurred after a week during which the nation was gripped by a number of package bombs that were mailed to Democratic leaders around the country.

The suspect in that case, Cesar Sayoc Jr., was ordered held without bail on Monday.

Rosenstein's comments on Monday were the first time he spoke publicly about the synagogue shooting. President Donald Trump nominated Rosenstein, who is Jewish, to serve as deputy attorney general in 2017.

Rosenstein has been at odds with Trump during his time in office and reports have swirled that Rosenstein sarcastically suggested wearing a wire around Trump to capture unflattering moments within his administration.

But both Rosenstein and Trump seem to be on better terms of late, after the two traveled aboard Air Force One earlier this month.

Trump in recent days has caught some flak for his response to the bomb scare and the synagogue shooting, and has frequently blamed the news media for the political climate in the US that has seemingly prompted such acts of violence.

Rosenstein praised Trump on Monday for condemning anti-semitism in the US.

"In mourning the victims today we also rededicate ourselves to our commitment to preventing hate crimes," said Rosenstein. "As President Trump said in condemning the crime, there must be no tolerance to anti-semitism in America."

Rosenstein announced that the Justice Department created a new website containing information about how to report a hate crime, Politico reported Monday.

Rosenstein said that there is a major discrepancy in the ways in which government agencies report hate crimes to the FBI, citing how 88% of the agencies that were tasked with reporting hate crimes to the FBI in 2016 reported zero hate crimes that year. The statistic suggests a lack of awareness about how to report them, Rosenstein said.

All of this is happening as the November 6 midterm elections draw closer and both Democrats and Republicans clamor over control of Congress.

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• President Donald Trump claimed that "Florida will become Venezuela" if Mayor Andrew Gillum of Tallahassee, the Democratic candidate running in Florida's gubernatorial election, is elected over Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis.
• Trump alluded to Venezuela's hyperinflation crisis, which has spurred riots, and caused power, food, and medicine shortages.
• Trump gave DeSantis, a vocal supporter of Trump, a glowing endorsement.

President Donald Trump claimed that "Florida will become Venezuela" if Mayor Andrew Gillum of Tallahassee, the Democratic candidate running in Florida's gubernatorial election, is elected over Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis.

Trump, without any evidence of a crime, accused Gillum of being a "thief" during a Fox News interview that aired Monday. He called Tallahassee, where Gillum has served as mayor since 2014, a "corrupt" town.

In his remarks, Trump alluded to allegations that Gillum improperly accepted gifts as mayor, and the FBI's extensive investigation into possible corruption of Tallahassee's public officials.

Trump also referenced Venezuela's hyperinflation crisis, which has spurred riots, and caused power, food, and medicine shortages. Around 7% of its population has reportedly fled, a higher rate than Syria, and the country is expected to face a 1,000,000% inflation rate by the end of the year.

"If Florida has a governor like that, and I know Florida better than I know practically anywhere, Florida will become Venezuela," Trump said. "It will be a disaster."

Trump gave DeSantis, a vocal supporter of Trump, a glowing endorsement in his interview: "And you have Ron DeSantis, who is a Harvard, Yale guy," Trump said. "He's a very good person."

"This other guy, is a stone-cold, in my opinion, he's a thief," Trump said of Gillum, echoing the label he gave the mayor earlier on Monday. "How can you have a guy like this?"

Gillum responded to Trump's attack on Monday night: "I heard Donald Trump ran home to Fox News to lie about me. But as my grandmother told me — never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it."

Several polls place Gillum with a marginal lead in the closely-watched election, with the biggest disparity coming from Gillum's 12-point advantage in a CNN Poll conducted by SSRS.

If elected, Gillum will become Florida's first African-American governor.

SEE ALSO: The final Florida governor's debate got real when Democrat Andrew Gillum all but accused his opponent of being racist

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• UK Chancellor Philip Hammond has set out his budget for the year ahead.
• Hammond declared that "austerity is coming to an end."
• However, analysis of the measures contained in the budget suggests the new spending is targeted squarely at wealthier voters.
• There are big tax cuts for Conservative-leaning voters while most areas of public spending remain unchanged.

LONDON — There was widespread scepticism when Theresa May declared in her Conservative party conference speech earlier this month that austerity would come to an end.

After eight years of a Conservative-led government which has made reducing public spending its central mission, few believed that there would be any significant shift towards a loosening of the public purse.

Philip Hammond's budget speech on Monday suggests that cynicism wasn't fully justified.

As the official spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, confirmed yesterday, this government plans the biggest budgetary loosening in over a decade.

However, those hoping that this loosening of spending rules would benefit those most in need of it are set to be disappointed.

Hammond splashes out on wealthier Conservative voters

As this chart from the Resolution Foundation thinktank illustrates, the beneficiaries of Hammond's spending boost are overwhelmingly those least in need of help from the government.

According to the Resolution Foundation's analysis: "The richest tenth of households are set to gain 14 times as much in cash terms next year from the income tax and benefits giveaways in the Budget as the poorest tenth of households (£410 vs £30)."

Austerity is coming to an end. It's just that it's coming to an end primarily for richer, Conservative-leaning voters.

Expect an early election

The failure of this group of voters — predominantly made up of doctors, lawyers and other professionals — to vote Conservative at the last election was one of the main reasons why May lost her majority in parliament.

Hammond's decision to hand a big tax giveaway to this group a year earlier than originally planned has led some to speculate that an early election could be on the cards next year. The other big measure in the budget, to give a big cash boost to the NHS, also appears targeted at this same group of voters.

While richer voters may not notice the effect of austerity on a daily basis in the same way that poorer voters do, one of the main areas where it does touch their lives is the NHS, which has become incredibly strained under the current government.

Another area is the state of British schools, many of which now routinely send out begging letters to parents in order to pay for basic teaching materials such as books and stationery.

Hammond's announcement of an extra £400 million for what he described as "little extras" in schools barely touches the sides of this problem but it at least shows the government is now aware of the electoral danger it faces.

However, once you go beyond these areas of public spending, the claim that "austerity is coming to an end" looks rather hollow.

Indeed, as the Resolution Foundation also points out, once you strip out spending on health, spending in other departments is set to remain flat or even decline in real terms.

After 10 years in which departmental budgets have been cut by around 20%, the announcements set out on Monday will, therefore, do little to end austerity for the vast majority of public services.

For most voters and in most areas of public life, austerity has not come to an end and is unlikely to for the foreseeable future.

However, politics is often as much about tone and presentation as it is about objective reality, and the government will hope that the wealthier voters who turned away from the Conservatives at the last election will pocket their tax giveaway, read the announcements about giveaways for hospitals, schools and potholes, and feel comfortable about voting Conservative again.

SEE ALSO: Anti-Brexit MPs should accept May's deal and fight to rejoin the EU during transition, leading MEP says

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• Short sellers betting against FAANG stocks have made more than $5 billion as tech-stock valuations have plunged this month.
• The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has tumbled 12% in October.
• Short sellers, after making billions of dollars, could soon start to buy back FAANG stocks, said S3 Partners, a financial-analytics firm.
• Watch Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google trade live.

Betting against some of this year's best-performing tech stocks — the FAANG basket — has been a money-making machine during the brutal tech sell-off during October.

Short sellers of FAANG stocks, or those investors betting against these shares, have seen $5.52 billion in mark-to-market profits since the beginning of the month, a return of 17.14% on an average short position of $32.2 billion, according to data from S3 Partners, a financial-analytics firm.

Since that time, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index has plunged 12%, in large part because of the FAANG stocks — Facebook (-13%), Apple (-6%), Amazon (-24%), Netflix (-26%), and Google (-15%). 

But traders aren't necessarily betting against names outright, some are doing it for hedging purposes, said Ihor Dusaniwsky, S3's managing director of predictive analytics.

"The five FAANG stocks are all in the top ten most shorted U.S. equities which indicates that there are more reasons to short these names besides pure Alpha generation on the short side of a portfolio," Dusaniwsky said on Monday.

"While a portion of the short non-Alpha trading can be attributed to option and future hedging, most of the non-Alpha trading is related to portfolio Beta hedging."

Dusaniwsky added that these short sellers could start to buy back FAANG stocks to cover their positions. 

"When tech rallies again, we will probably see short covering of a larger percentage of the October FAANG short selling activity as the notional dollar short interest increases," he said.

"These buy to covers will act as accelerants to any FAANG’s upward price movements, October’s significant increase in shares shorted will increase the potential for some volatile swings to the upside." 

Now read:

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