A Yahoo insider believes the hackers could really have stolen over 1 billion accounts A Yahoo insider believes the hackers could really have stolen over 1 billion accounts

Yahoo CEO Marissa MayerREUTERS/Ruben Sprich

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Yahoo gave Verizon only two days notice of the massive breach of 500 million users

Yahoo confirms major breach — and it could be the largest hack of all time

In September, Yahoo told Verizon it hadn't been hacked — but executives may have known for months

The actual tally of stolen user accounts from the hack Yahoo experienced could be much larger than 500 million, according to a former Yahoo executive familiar with its security practices. 

The former Yahoo insider says the architecture of Yahoo's back-end systems is organized in such a way that the type of breach that was reported would have exposed a much larger group of user account information.

"I believe it to be bigger than what’s being reported," the executive, who no longer works for the company but claims to be in frequent contact with employees still there, including those investigating the breach, told Business Insider. "How they came up with 500 is a mystery."

To be sure, Yahoo has said that the breach affected at least 500 million users. But the former Yahoo exec estimated the number of accounts that could have potentially been stolen could be anywhere between 1 billion and 3 billion.

According to this executive, all of Yahoo's products use one main user database, or UDB, to authenticate users. So people who log into products such as Yahoo Mail, Finance, or Sports all enter their usernames and passwords, which then goes to this one central place to ensure they are legitimate, allowing them access.

That database is huge, the executive said. At the time of the hack in 2014, inside were credentials for roughly 700 million to 1 billion active users accessing Yahoo products every month, along with many other inactive accounts that hadn't been deleted.

In late 2013, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said the company had 800 million monthly active users globally. It currently has more than 1 billion.

"That is what got compromised," the executive said. "The core crown jewels of Yahoo customer credentials."

Yahoo's UDB is still the main repository for user credentials and is still in use, LinkedIn profiles from current Yahoo employees and a 2015 court ruling show.

It's unclear how the hackers actually exfiltrated the database, and Yahoo has not commented further on how the breach happened or when it was discovered, citing an active investigation. Though it is certainly plausible that a hacker group could access a database but not steal everything within, lending credence to Yahoo's official number.

Yahoo declined to specify how many breach notification emails it sent out to affected users or how it reached the 500 million number.

Are you a current or former Yahoo security employee? Reach out: pszoldra@businessinsider.com (PGP: 0CA0 6424 E782 71BC 1057 EA87 94EF FBA8 8948 80).

First ‘baby dragons’ hatched in captivity reach adolescence

Pretty in pink: olms have no need for eyes

Postojna Cave

By Julianna Photopoulos

It was touch and go for a while. But the elusive pink aquatic salamanders that hatched inside Slovenia’s Postojna Cave about four months ago have survived the most difficult stage of their lives, reaching adolescence.

“This is the first time that the general public has the opportunity to see and follow the development of a creature that lives a really hidden life, in the darkness,” says team member Sašo Weldt at Postojna Cave in south-western Slovenia.

They were once only known from specimens washed out of caves by flooding and legend had it they were baby dragons – the name that stuck.

The olm (Proteus anguinus), or baby dragon, can live to be 100 years old and only lays eggs once or twice a decade. Little is known about their development and their small numbers and polluted underground habitat make them a vulnerable species.

Cave biologist Primož Gnezda in the Pivka river in postojna cave catching the olms’ lunch

Postojna Cave

So it was remarkable to see 64 eggs laid by a single individual and then placed in an aquarium within the cave earlier this year. Out of those, 22 eggs hatched, and all are still alive and developing better than expected. “These are the only baby dragons in the world, known to humanity,” says Weldt.

No one knew if they would hatch and survive the early stages of their __life as this has never been attempted before.

“After months of trepidation, worries and doubts, the most uncertain development period for newborn olms is over,” says the team at Postojna Cave. “The baby dragons are now 18 weeks old and are ready to enter a new stage of development.”

The olm is found in caves in the Dinaric Alps in the Western Balkans, and the blind amphibians are known locally as “human fish” because of their pinkish skin and aquatic lifestyle. They eat, sleep and breed entirely underwater.

Researchers feared that the newborns would not develop digestive systems and would thus be incapable of feeding on the worms they grew for them, once the yolk was gone. However, they are now about 4 to 4.5 centimetres long and keep growing.

“After more than 18 weeks, all of them are on the worm diet, including the one who gave us a real fright as he was very late in converting to worms – he only switched a few weeks ago,” report the biologists.

At first glance, the babies resemble the adults, but it will take two to three years for skin to cover their eyes and about a year and a half for the dark pigmentation to disappear and for them to turn pink.

The first eggs were laid in January

Postojna Cave

Their legs are fully developed and they use them to move around their aquariums. They can also hunt, protect their territory, and occasionally have “brotherly quarrels” or fight for food with the other siblings.

The adolescence period lasts for about 15 years for a female and 11 years for a male, depending on the water temperature. The young olms will then turn into adults and reach sexual maturity, “but will still look like larvae their entire life, even if they reach 100 years.”

The olms in Postojna Cave have gained enormous popularity, which helps protect the waters in the karst. “In Slovenia, all drinking water comes from the karst area, so basically, if we pollute the underworld and the olms go extinct, we then have nothing to drink,” says Weldt. “It’s that simple.”

Read more: Meet the weird amphibian that rules the underworld

Donald Trump unleashes tweetstorm on 'disgusting' Miss Universe, tweets to 'check out sex tape and past' Donald Trump unleashes tweetstorm on 'disgusting' Miss Universe, tweets to 'check out sex tape and past'

Alicia Machado campaigning for Hillary Clinton on August 20 in Miami. Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump unleashed a stream of tweets Friday morning attacking former Miss Universe Alicia Machado.

Trump said Machado "duped and used" Hillary Clinton, who mentioned the 1996 pageant winner near the end of Monday night's presidential debate to go after Trump.

Trump had called Machado "Miss Piggy" and "'Miss Housekeeping,' because she was Latina," Clinton said.

Since the debate, Trump surrogates and conservative-leaning publications have worked to discredit Machado, bringing up past allegations that she was a murder accomplice in Venezuela. They have also suggested that she appeared in a sex tape, a claim that was labeled "mostly false" by Snopes, the website that examines the validity of internet rumors.

"Using Alicia M in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT!" Trump said in one of the tweets.

View the tweets below:

Wow, Crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an "angel" without checking her past, which is terrible!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016

Using Alicia M in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT! Hillary was set up by a con.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016

Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016

When confronted by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper over allegations that she drove a getaway car from a 1998 murder scene, Machado didn't deny the charges, instead saying she was "not a saint girl."

"You know, I have my past," she said. "Of course, everybody has a past. I'm not a saint girl. But that is not the point now."

Since Clinton brought up Machado in Monday's debate, Trump has continually defended his actions toward her.

"I saved her job because they wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight," Trump told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly on Wednesday night. "They know what they're getting into — it's a beauty contest. And I said don't do that. Let her try and lose the weight."

Brain-eating amoebas hunt brain chemical before they kill you

Small but insidious

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine/Science Photo Library

By Jessica Hamzelou

All it takes is a splash. Brain-eating amoebas can enter an unwary swimmer’s brain via their nose, and once that happens, their chances of survival are slim. “They have these food cups on their surface, which are like giant suckers,” says Francine Cabral of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. “They’ll just start eating the brain.”

Now, researchers have discovered why this deadly amoeba has such an affinity for the brain – a breakthrough that could lead to life-saving drug treatments.

The amoeba, Naegleria fowleri (shown in orange in the picture above), tends to lurk in fresh water, although infections can also result from swimming in hot springs or improperly chlorinated pools. Of the 35 reported cases in the US between 2005 and 2014, there were only two survivors. Last month, a 19-year-old woman died after being infected in Maryland.

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After the amoeba enters the body, it bypasses the nose and related tissues and heads straight to the brain, where the first areas it destroys are the olfactory regions we use to smell, and parts of the frontal lobe, which are crucial for cognition and controlling our behaviour.

Chemical attractor

Why they specifically target the brain is a mystery. Abdul Mannan Baig at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, suspected the amoeba might be attracted to a chemical called acetylcholine or ACh, which is released in large amounts by cells at the front of the brain. This chemical is already known to act as a magnet for some immune cells and growing neurons.

To test this theory, Mannan looked for receptors on the amoeba that might attach to ACh. He and his colleagues started with Acanthamoeba – a similar genus that tends to infect people through skin wounds. The team isolated 126 proteins from the amoeba and ran them through a database to find other proteins with similar components or structures. One of these had a structure similar to the human receptor for Ach. The team have since repeated their search in Naegleria and found the same result.

This suggests that the amoebas have their own, ancient receptor for ACh, says Mannan. It is this attraction that probably causes the amoeba to bypass nasal tissues and head straight for the brain.

Cabral, who was not involved in the research, agrees that ACh could be the culprit, although she would like to see more evidence to support the theory. In her own work, she has seen how the amoebas race toward brain cells in a lab dish. “It could be ACh,” she says.

Mannan hopes that drugs that block the receptor could offer a new form of treatment for brain-eating amoeba infections. Such drugs already exist, and are used for treating irritable bowel syndrome or regulating heart rate, for example. Mannan is now testing them in mice infected with the amoeba.

But there’s one final hurdle. If these drugs can stop the amoeba from getting into the brain, they will have to be administered as soon as a person is infected, when the infection is all but impossible to diagnose. “Severe headache is usually the first sign, but by that point the amoeba is already in the brain,” says Cabral. “We need an early diagnostic test.”

This could become a more urgent problem in the coming years – infections are predicted to rise as the climate warms.

Journal reference: Journal of Receptors and Signal Transduction, DOI: 10.1080/10799893.2016.1217884

High-living geckos survive snowy peaks by cuddling up

Enjoying the high life

Abdellah Bouazza

By Sandrine Ceurstemont

Species: Atlas Day gecko, Quedenfeldtia trachyblepharus
Habitat: Endemic to the High Atlas mountains in Morocco, at altitudes ranging from 1400 metres to 4000 metres

A lizard might seem out of place in a snowy landscape. But although most geckos thrive in tropical climates, the Atlas Day gecko has adapted to __life in the mountain tops, where it lives through cold winters.

The higher they go, the bigger they grow, as there is less competition for resources. But this might change as global warming makes its habitat more available to other species.

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Abdellah Bouazza at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech, Morocco, and his colleagues have been investigating how the cold-blooded lizard is able to survive the freezing heights.

To understand their heat-conservation strategies, Bouazza and his colleagues studied the geckos in their natural environment from March to July, the most critical period for reproduction. Although the lizards stayed sheltered at night in rock fissures, they emerged in the morning to bask in the sun on exposed rocks. “They always seek out warm spots that are sheltered from the wind,” says Bouazza.

Since rocks store heat, they can be up to 10°C warmer than the ambient temperature. The team found that staying glued to a rock allowed geckos to warm up: as the temperature of a rock increased, so did a gecko’s body.

Communal egg-laying

Atlas Day gecko

Unsurprisingly, the amount of time spent in the sun also played a role. Females carrying eggs spent more time basking compared with males and non-egg-carrying females, especially early in the season, and maintained a higher – and more stable – body temperature.

The researchers suspect that the extra heat could help the eggs hatch early – an advantage in cold climates, giving the newborns more time to develop and thus survive the winter.

But expectant females may have an additional trick. The team noticed marked colour changes in dark Atlas Day geckos when it was cold, which would help them better absorb rays from the sun. But they suspect Atlas Day females change colour more dramatically when carrying eggs. “We hope to investigate further,” says Bouazza.

Unlike most geckos, this species is active during the day. They are even occasionally seen running around on rocks surrounded by snow.

Mathew Vickers, at the National Centre for Scientific Research in Moulis, France, thinks the geckos evolved to diurnality to help them survive in this cold climate. “Nocturnal geckos persist in warm places or where they can find warm refuges for the day time,” he says.

Territorial living

Geckos are known to be territorial but living in a cold climate seems to make them more social, too. Several animals are often found basking in the same spot and sharing the same shelter, but only when it’s cold – presumably for thermal benefits. Females communally lay eggs in warm crevices, which is not unique among geckos but the full benefits are not yet known.

“The Atlas Day gecko is ideal for investigating communal egg-laying because the eggs generally lack parental care,” says Bouazza.

Bouazza and his team are currently investigating the effect of altitude on the size of this species. So far, they have found that individuals, and eggs laid by females, are bigger and heavier with increasing altitude, which they attribute to more available food and less competition.

“The size difference is impressive,” says Bouazza, who presented the team’s latest findings at the African Congress for Conservation Biology in El Jadida, Morocco, last month.

As temperatures rise due to global warming, however, the Atlas Day gecko may no longer be the dominant species in the High Atlas. “Competing species may move to higher altitudes and they may have to fight for resources,” says Bouazza.

Journal reference: Journal of Zoology, DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12353

HARRY REID: Trump is 'the monster the Republicans built. He is their Frankenstein monster.' HARRY REID: Trump is 'the monster the Republicans built. He is their Frankenstein monster.'

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday skewered his Republican colleagues, contending GOP lawmakers have treated President Barack Obama with "unprecedented disrespect" and suggesting such actions created the conditions ripe for a Donald Trump candidacy.

"As this Republican Congress heads for yet another unearned recess, I feel compelled to comment on how Republicans have treated the president of the United States during the last eight years," Reid said on the Senate floor.

The Nevada Democrat continued: "History will look back and note that Republicans in Congress treated President Obama with unprecedented disrespect. No one expected them to agree with everything that he did or tried to do, but Americans deserve better than the way Republicans behaved toward President Obama."

Reid said it was "clear" Republicans were treating Obama with "contempt" by blocking much of his agenda and, most recently, his Supreme Court nominee.

"Republicans have not done their basic work of government," he said.

The outgoing Democrat linked the actions of GOP lawmakers to Trump, arguing the party had, in fact, created him.

"Everything that he's said, stood for, done in this bizarre campaign that he's run has come — filtered up from what's going on in the Republican Senate," Reid said. "Disagreeing with everything, anything that President Obama wanted. They filibustered things they agreed with just to slow things down."

Reid continued: "Trump is no anomaly. He is the monster the Republicans built. He is their Frankenstein monster. They own him. All you have to do to see that the Republicans are the party of Trump is to look at the way they've treated him."

Johanna Konta falls to Petra Kvitova in the Wuhan Open quarter-finals

Johanna Konta in action against Petra Kvitova in the Wuhan Open

Johanna Konta missed the chance to close in on a place in the WTA Tour finals after being knocked out of the Wuhan Open by Petra Kvitova.

A victory for Konta in the quarter-final match would have seen her narrow the gap to just 81 points on eighth-placed Carla Suarez Navarro in the Road to Singapore, where the top eight players for the year all compete next month.

However, she had no answer to the powerful hitting of the Czech in a 6-3 6-4 defeat in which she failed to take any of her four break points.

She was hurt further by Svetlana Kuznetsova's three-set win over Agnieszka Radwanska, with the Russian now ahead of Konta in the race.

A run to the final in China and results going her way elsewhere would also have seen Konta break into the top 10 of the overall rankings for the first time in her career and become the first Briton to do so since Jo Durie in 1984 and just the fourth ever after Virginia Wade and Sue Barker also made it.

But, with three tournaments left before Singapore, the 25-year-old, who has had a superb year, still has the opportunity to achieve both feats.

Petra Kvitova celebrates after defeating Konta in the last eight of the Wuhan Open

It was not to be for her against Kvitova, who came into the clash on the back of a three-hour-20-minute marathon with world No 1 Angelique Kerber on Wednesday night.

The 2014 champion in Wuhan finished that match on one leg after a severe bout of cramp, but she was up for this one and was the beneficiary of a Konta error in the eighth game that allowed her a crucial break in the first set.

Kvitova saved two break points early in the third game of the second set and ground Konta down to take her serve again at 3-2.

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The Brit would have fancied her chances if she could have found a way back in, with Kvitova visibly struggling with tiredness, but her power hitting got her through and she served out for the win.

World No 5 Simona Halep downed Madison Keys in the quarter-finals to book her place in the WTA Tour finals for the third consecutive year.

Big-serving American Keys took an early lead in the first set, breaking the Romanian's serve twice, but was unable to maintain the momentum as Halep levelled and then took the set 6-4.

Simona Halep is heading for WTA Tour finals in Singapore

Halep, who turned 25 this week, dropped just two games to take the second set and confirm her place in the eight-player season finale in Singapore where she will join Kerber and Serena Williams, the only other two to have so far qualified.

"It's amazing to be qualified again for Singapore three years in a row. It's a good thing. It gives me confidence," said Halep, who now plays Kvitova in the semi-finals.

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Multiple casualties reported after train crashes into Hoboken station in New Jersey Multiple casualties reported after train crashes into Hoboken station in New Jersey

At least three people were killed and more than 100 were injured after a commuter train crashed into a train station in Hoboken, New Jersey, at about 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, multiple outlets have confirmed, citing New Jersey Transit officials.

The cause of the crash, involving NJ Transit's No. 1614 train on the Pascack Valley Line, was not immediately identified. A WFAN radio anchor who witnessed the crash said the train "simply did not stop" and "went right through the barriers and into the reception area."

A witness told reporters he saw the train engineer "slumped over in the front of the train." The engineer was unresponsive when he was taken out of the train, CNN reported. It is unclear if he survived.

Many police officers and firefighters were seen outside the terminal after the crash, some attending to injured people. A woman who was in the front car of the train that crashed told CBS that people in her car were injured, and she thinks the train hit people waiting on the platform.

Annmarie Mercieri, a Hoboken resident, was at the station when the crash occurred.

"I heard a lot of screeching and a big impact," she told Business Insider, noting that emergency responders quickly blocked off the scene.

"People seemed shaken up by it, but they were still pretty calm," she said. "I've never seen anything like that in my whole life."

A photo of the train crash in Hoboken, New Jersey, on Thursday morning. Courtesy Annmarie Mercieri

Courtesy Annmarie Mercieri

It is unclear how many people were on the train when it barreled into the station and crashed onto the platform during the rush-hour commute, but a passenger told NBC it was "crowded — especially in the first and second cars."

Matt Hladik, a bystander who witnessed the aftermath of the crash, told Business Insider "people are trying to go about their commute, but it is mass chaos with first responders and everything happening at once."

"Apparently the train crashed right through the station," he added. "I saw some people getting medical attention, hoping no serious injuries."

Photos have since emerged, however, showing the extent of the injuries from the crash:

Photos showing extent of mass casualty scene after NJ train crash. https://t.co/Rn8sB39Qe1 pic.twitter.com/PBRsZ1Qi2B

— Micah Grimes (@MicahGrimes) September 29, 2016

A passenger on the train told NBC he saw "a woman pinned under concrete."

"A lot of people were bleeding," he added. "One guy was crying." 

More images of the PV Line train crash in Hoboken. I was on the train but I'm all good #NJT #PATH pic.twitter.com/pIRI4yWB5s

— Corey Futterman (@coreyfuttdesign) September 29, 2016

This video appears to show the crashed train:

#US #Latest: Multiple injured as train crashes into #Hoboken Station (NJ). Video from passenger. Via @monduras pic.twitter.com/Z4BgeedmyT

— José Miguel Sardo (@jmsardo) September 29, 2016

The roof of the train station apparently collapsed:

Roof collapse from crash in Hoboken terminal. #Hoboken #train #sos pic.twitter.com/3Vrls4NZC0

— Kaitlin McCabe (@kam3194) September 29, 2016

Firefighters and first responders were on the scene:

Following the #Hoboken train crash this AM. Every medic, cop & firefighter is here. MANY injuries. pic.twitter.com/YyrfinYfHo

— Christiana Pascale (@ChrisPascale6) September 29, 2016

The Hoboken terminal is just across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan. It is one of New Jersey's busiest train stations; roughly 15,000 people board a train at the terminal every day.

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This is a developing story.

Trump lashes out at 'fabricated' report on campaign turmoil: 'Your sources' were probably 'fired long ago' Trump lashes out at 'fabricated' report on campaign turmoil: 'Your sources' were probably 'fired long ago'

Donald Trump holds a rally with supporters in Council Bluffs, Iowa, U.S. September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Donald Trump blasted reports that there's turmoil within his campaign after a debate performance that some political observers are characterizing as disastrous.

NBC News reporter Katy Tur tweeted Wednesday that the "mood in Trump world is darker than usual."

"1 source says debate was a 'disaster,'" Tur tweeted. "2nd: might hire debate coaches. 3rd: He's a fast learner."

She continued in a subsequent tweet: "No one on team Trump is counting him out. They just acknowledge that he wasn't ready the other night."

Other sources, however, told Tur that the mood within the campaign of the Republican presidential nominee has "never been better" and that the Trump family is happy with the campaign's leadership.

Trump blasted Tur's reporting shortly after Tur sent the tweets.

"Your sources, if they even exist, are probably sources that have been fired long ago and have no knowledge of what is happening in the campaign," Trump said in a statement provided to Tur. "Hard to be unhappy when we are doing so well."

Both the CNN/ORC instant poll immediately after the debate and the NBC News poll released Wednesday showed that voters thought Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won the first debate Monday.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that campaign advisers plan to prepare Trump better for the second debate on October 9.

But the prep doesn't seem to be going so well.

Campaign advisers told the Times that there's concern Trump isn't willing to adequately prepare. And while people have been training Trump on how to appropriately respond to Clinton's attacks, he reportedly wasn't able to execute them in practice.

Seven campaign aides and advisers who talked to the Times anonymously expressed disappointment in Trump's debate performance.

Voters who participated in a focus group with Republican pollster Frank Luntz described Clinton as confident, well-spoken, and calm and criticized Trump for going off-message and making too many offensive personal attacks.

Advisers are now reportedly training Trump to resist getting baited by Clinton and focus more on a coherent strategy.

But it remains to be seen whether Trump will listen to this advice.

Budgies reveal the rule that means birds never collide in flight

Birds have in-built air traffic control

FLPA/Alamy Stock Photo

By Alice Klein

How do birds avoid crashing into each other when approaching head-on? They have an in-built preference for veering right.

The finding may contribute to the design of better anti-crash systems in autonomous drones.

Mandyam Srinivasan at the University of Queensland, Australia, and his colleagues uncovered the simple trick when filming pairs of budgerigars flying towards each other in a narrow tunnel (see video, below).

During more than 100 tests, the birds moved to each other’s left hand side in 84 per cent of cases, and zero crashes were observed.

The budgerigars also tended to fly past each other at different heights, which prevented mid-air collisions on the rare occasions that one of the birds veered left.

Group hierarchy may dictate which bird moves up and which moves down, Srinivasan says. “It looks like the dominant birds prefer to go lower,” he says. “Maybe it’s more energy efficient and easier to go lower than higher, so the non-dominant bird is forced to gain altitude.”

Lessons for drones

These crash-avoidance strategies have evolved over 150 million years in birds and can provide inspiration for anti-collision systems in drones, says Srinivasan.

Drones currently use simple proximity sensors to avoid hitting other objects, but they are not sophisticated enough to communicate with each other. Once better sensing technology becomes available, pre-programming all drones to veer right when they encounter one another may be a straightforward strategy to reduce collisions, says Srinivasan.

Height coordination is trickier, but could potentially be achieved by assigning numbers to each drone, Srinivasan says. Upon approach, the rule may be that the drone with the higher number moves up and the one with the lower number moves down.

https://youtu.be/o5SVOHFG7vU

Teaching drones to communicate with each other is more feasible than trying to coordinate every drone in the sky from a central flight command centre, Srinivasan says. “Especially now that drones are being built in large numbers,” he says.

Javaan Chahl of the University of South Australia agrees, but says that we are still some way off developing technology solutions that can achieve what birds do naturally.

Journal reference: PLOS ONE

Soil isn’t sexy but we need to dig in and help conserve it Create an account

Dirty fight

Francesca Yorke/Getty

By Molly Scott Cato

Soil, earth, mud, dirt; whatever word you choose, it is difficult to think of a less glamorous topic to campaign on.

But a campaign is now vital. Soil is critical to much of our food. It also safeguards biodiversity, as a habitat for below-ground __life that includes many thousands of types of microbe, containing more species in number and quantity than all other surface biota put together.

Here in Europe, most countries lack laws dedicated to safeguarding this vital layer. In the absence of policies and national regulations that guarantee adequate protection, it is down to EU citizens to put our downtrodden, neglected soils back on the agenda. Which is why a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) has been launched – a democratic tool by which citizens can push the European Commission (EC) to draw up protections.

The demand for action was launched in Italy at Terra Madre, a global food event. To be considered, the ECI must get the support of at least one million adult EU citizens from at least seven different member states within 12 months. People4Soil has been set up to achieve this. With Brexit probably years away, those in the UK can join this fight and may yet benefit from it.

Soil is under threat from intensive agriculture, the use of wide-spectrum herbicides, urbanisation, erosion and contamination. And while technically renewable, the slow rate of soil formation makes it practically irreplaceable.

This is a pressing issue. Water erodes 970 million tonnes of soil every year in the EU, according to the EC’s Joint Research Centre. This is the equivalent of losing a ...

Hillary Clinton is up slightly in the first major poll after the debate Hillary Clinton is up slightly in the first major poll after the debate

Hillary Clinton at a rally in North Carolina. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Hillary Clinton has experienced a slight bump in Morning Consult's national tracking poll, the first major poll partially conducted after Monday night's presidential debate.

According to the latest survey, taken Monday and Tuesday, Clinton leads Donald Trump in a two-way matchup with 45% support to his 41% support among registered voters nationally.

In a four-way race including Gary Johnson, the Libertarian nominee, and Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee, Clinton garnered 41% support to Trump's 38%. Johnson received 8% support and Stein received 4%.

Both outcomes show a small but notable shift for the former secretary of state. A similar Morning Consult poll released Sunday found the Democratic presidential nominee trailing Trump by a single point in a four-way race with Johnson and Stein, while a head-to-head race showed Clinton with a 2-point lead.

Tuesday's release also showed that survey respondents overwhelmingly believed Clinton bested Trump in Monday night's debate. According to Morning Consult, 49% of registered voters believed the Democratic presidential nominee won the debate, compared with just 26% who said Trump won the debate.

The poll largely mirrors what some informal focus groups showed immediately after the first presidential debate, which with 84 million Americans tuning in on television garnered the largest TV audience of any presidential debate. A CNN/ORC instant poll, whose sample skewed somewhat Democratic, showed that viewers who watched the whole debate believed Clinton won overwhelmingly.

Historically, those who win the first debate tend to experience a polling bump following their performance.

Johanna Konta reaches quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open

Johanna Konta is into the quarter finals of the Wuhan Open

Johanna Konta boosted her chances of making the WTA Finals later this month by beating Carla Suarez Navarro in the Wuhan Open.

Only the top eight players in the Road to Singapore qualify and the British No 1, currently in 10th spot, cut the deficit on eighth-placed Suarez Navarro after the 7-5 7-6 win in China.

That sets up a quarter-final clash with either world No 1 Angelique Kerber or Petra Kvitova and the chance to further gain points on the Spaniard, while also maintaining pace with ninth-placed Madison Keys, who earlier booked her last-eight spot.

Carla Suarez Navarro lost out to Konta at the Wuhan Open

It was a gritty performance from the 25-year-old, who decisively won the crucial points in the match and continually held off Suarez Navarro's challenge in the second set.

After saving a break point at 5-5, Konta then came out and immediately broke, with some strong hitting forcing four errors from her opponent before serving it out for 7-5.

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After an early exchange of breaks in the second set, Suarez Navarro took the ascendancy to break to love and then held to lead 5-3.

She put the Konta serve under even more pressure in a marathon game that went to eight deuces and saw the Brit save three set points, eventually holding on her fifth game point before coming out to break Suarez Navarro back and force a tie-break.

Konta beat Carla Suarez Navarro at the Wuhan Open

The Spaniard again assumed control in the breaker as she took a 6-3 lead before a steely Konta reeled off five successive points to take the win, matching her run to the last eight here in 2015.

Meanwhile, British No 3 Naomi Broady crashed out of the Taskent Open in Uzbekistan after a second-round loss to Irina Khromacheva. Broady, who was seeded eighth, succumbed to the Russian who won 6-2 6-4.

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Novak Djokovic withdraws from China Open in Beijing

Novak Djokovic lost out to Stan Wawrinka at the US Open earlier this month

World No 1 Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the China Open in Beijing next week due to an ongoing elbow injury.

The Serb has been dogged by fitness issues all summer, having struggled at the Olympics and then pulled out of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, but he made his comeback at the US Open, where he made it to the final before being beaten by Stan Wawrinka.

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He tweeted pictures of himself in training earlier this week, however he has made the decision not to take part in Beijing.

The official Twitter account of the China Open said: "Six-time and defending #ChinaOpen champion @DjokerNole has been forced to withdraw from the tournament due to an elbow injury."

Wawrinka embraces Djokovic at the end of their match at Flushing Meadows

Djokovic's withdrawal could have implications for Andy Murray, who has sights on his rival's position at the top of the rankings.

The British No 1 suffered a thigh injury in Great Britain's Davis Cup defeat to Argentina in Glasgow 10 days ago and said afterwards he was in desperate need of a rest, though played in a charity exhibition event a few days later.

Djokovic fell to Sam Querry in the third round at Wimbledon

With Djokovic no longer defending points in the rankings, Murray could be tempted to play in Beijing in a bid to reel Djokovic in further in his bid to become world No 1, though with the Shanghai Rolex Masters the following week, the Scot may not want to risk aggravating his thigh injury.

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Trump campaign claims it pulled in whopping $18 million fundraising haul after debate Trump campaign claims it pulled in whopping $18 million fundraising haul after debate

Donald Trump. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

The Trump campaign said on Tuesday that it pulled in $18 million in new fundraising, fewer than 24 hours after the first general-election debate between Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

"As a result of Donald Trump's huge debate win [Monday] night, we had a massive fundraising day, bringing in more than $18 million," campaign finance chairman Steven Mnuchin, said in a statement Tuesday night.

Trump earlier in the day tweeted that his campaign had already taken in $13 million. "And we're still going," he added.

Trump and the GOP raised a combined $90 million in August, trailing Hillary Clinton's $143 million haul during the same month.

As recently as June, the Trump campaign had only $1.3 million in cash on hand. Trump has often boasted about running a lean operation compared to Clinton, whose campaign began the month of September with approximately $152 million cash on hand when combined with the campaign's joint accounts.

Trump's fundraising announcement also echoes the real-estate mogul's assertions that he won the first of what will be three general-election debates against Clinton. The match-ups are widely considered to be the most-anticipated presidential debates in modern history.

Though Trump performed well in a number of online polls immediately after Monday night's event, none of those surveys were scientific, meaning those who were polled were not a representative sample of people who watched the debate.

Business Insider politics editor Oliver Darcy noted that, after the first debate, the only scientific poll was conducted by CNN/ORC, which showed viewers thought Clinton handily defeated Trump.

Angelique Kerber: I'm ready for the pressure of being No 1

Angelique Kerber is the new world No 1

Angelique Kerber is relishing the challenge of being the new world No 1, when she opens her account at next week's Wuhan Open in China.

Victory at the recent US Open moved the German to the top in the WTA ranking, while ending the 186-week reign of Serena Williams.

During 2016, the 28-year-old from Bremen won two Grand Slam titles - in Melbourne and New York - reached the final at Wimbledon and claimed an Olympic silver medal at Rio in August.

But rather than feel the pressure of defending her position at the top of the women's game, Kerber is positively looking forward to it .

"I know that I have the pressure on my shoulders because now nobody has anything to lose against me," she said. "The pressure is always on my side but I'm actually more excited.

Kerber with the US Open title

"But I am really looking forward to taking this challenge. It's a new situation for me. I will try to not think too much about this because I learned from the years before that I have to really focus on every single day here.

"It's a new tournament, new opponents. That will be my focus this week.

"Every player would like to beat me now. So I will just try to go out and not think about this.

Kerber shocked everyone by beating Serena Williams in the final of the Australian Open in January - when she was the No 7 seed

"I think when I'm going in with this focus in the match, like I did also the last few months and tournaments before, that worked. So I will try to continue that."

Another player who has moved in the right direction is Karolina Pliskova who lost to Kerber in the final of the US Open earlier this month.

The 24-year-old from the Czech Republic is No 6 in the world and also looking forward to the future.

She said: "For me it doesn't change anything if it's Serena or Angelique at the top, there is still somebody else other than me.

"There's still some players in front of me, not only her, a few more.

"This is not my goal until a few years. I said I would like to win a Grand Slam next, then to become world No 1.

"But obviously when it's a girl at No 1, you know you beat her a few times, it's a big chance to get there, as well."

Alexander Zverev edged past Stanislas Wawrinka in final of St Petersburg Open

Alexander Zverev claimed a maiden ATP Tour title in Russia

Alexander Zverev battled back from a break down in the deciding set to beat top seed Stanislas Wawrinka in the final of the St Petersburg Open.

The world No 27 from Germany edged out the recently-crowned US Open champion 6-2 3-6 7-5 in two hours, 25 minutes.

Yet, at one stage, Wawrinka appeared to be on his way to another title when he led 3-1 and 40-30, on his own serve, in the third set.

However, the Hamburg-born 6ft 6in teenager battled back to break again in game 11, before sealing a maiden ATP Tour title on his second match point.

Zverev, the No 7 seed, broke twice to win the opening set but was broken twice himself in the second as the three-time Grand Slam champion levelled matters.

The pair were meeting for the first time, with the 31-year-old from Switzerland ultimately being denied a 16th career title on the ATP Tour by a player who does not turn 20 until the spring of next year.

Highlights from Andy Murray's charity match

Check out what happened when Andy Murray hosted a charity event in Glasgow on Wednesday night.

The British No 1 fought off an injured hamstring to headline a series of exhibition matches with all profits going to local Glasgow charity, 'Young People's Futures' and Unicef, the world's leading children's organisation, of which Murray is a UK Ambassador. 

Murray, clad in a kilt, took on Grigor Dimitrov in the main match of the evening resulting in hilarity when the Bulgarian sportingly wore the traditional Scottish clothing, too.

There were other standout moments too - check out what happened when Jamie Murray, during the doubles, stepped aside to allow Paralympic gold medal winner Gordon Reid team up with Andy.

At the other end, with Dimitrov? Tim Henman, of course.

Watch the video at the top of this page for the highlights of the evening.

Kimiko Date-Krumm hoping to play tennis again in 2017

Kimiko Date-Krumm has been sidelined since April following surgery

Kimiko Date-Krumm is still keen to continue her career at the age of 46.

The former world No 4 from Japan is currently recovering from knee surgery, which she underwent in April.

Date-Krumm initially retired 20 years ago before making a comeback and is keen to start playing competitive tennis again in 2017.

She said: "I have been told it will take a year to fully recover from the operation and it's just a case of how much more or less time it will be than that.

"Everything has gone well up to this point and it has not put limitations on my daily life. As an athlete, you have to condition muscles and I want the injury to properly heal."

Date-Krumm has won eight WTA titles, the last in 2009 and has reached the semi-finals of three Grand Slam tournaments - which included Wimbledon 20 years ago.

Heather Watson shows fitness in qualfying for Wuhan Open in China

Heather Watson seems to be on the road to recovery

Heather Watson put any health concerns to bed by booking her place in the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open in China.

The 24-year-old Briton was last seen exiting the US Open in the first round in worrying circumstances as she was running on empty in a straight sets defeat to Richel Hogenkamp and needed medical treatment.

In the aftermath of that harrowing afternoon at Flushing Meadows, the British No 2 feared she may have suffered a relapse of glandular fever, which stalled her earlier in her career, after saying the symptoms were similar.

However, blood tests came back clear and Watson proved she is 100 per cent as in hot conditions in central China, she beat Chang Liu in three nervy sets before coming back to get past American Samantha Crawford in style.

Watson, playing in her first tournament since New York, said: "I got the blood test results and they are all fine, I am very healthy.

"I just think it was a mixture of things, maybe stress and anxiety and the heat is always a factor. But I feel as if I am fit, I train in Florida, so I was fit and ready, I think it was just the other things that affected me.

Watson needed medical attention at the US Open

"I know I am fit, I spoke to one of my friends before I went on court and he told me I would be fine because I train twice a day. I know I __can do it.

"I haven't had a lot of singles matches, just with the way things have worked out so I haven't played as much as I would have liked matchwise.

"I am really pleased to have got through especially as I had to play twice, I did that earlier in the year at Hobart and I remember getting frustrated because I was tired and my opponent hadn't played at all and today I made sure I didn't make the same mistake."

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There were more lessons for Watson. After winning the first set comfortably against Liu she then capitulated, allowing herself to be bagelled before eventually edging a tight decider and progressing 6-1 0-6 6-4.

She was in no mood to make the same mistake against Crawford. After taking the first-set tie-break she won 18 of the next 19 points to saunter into a 4-0 lead in the second set, eventually seeing out a 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 success.

She added: "I am also pleased because I don't feel as if I played my best and to win when you're not doing that is a good confidence boost."

She will face training partner Madison Brengle in the first round of the main draw where she is joined by fellow Brit Johanna Konta, who plays Annika Beck, with both in action on Monday.

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