James Comey met with Loretta Lynch for the first time since his email announcement James Comey met with Loretta Lynch for the first time since his email announcement

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, accompanied by FBI Director James Comey, speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Thursday, March 24, 2016. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

FBI Director James Comey spoke privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Tuesday, the pair's first meeting since Comey announced a review of emails that may be connected to the bureau's probe into Hillary Clinton's email server.

The two discussed "the seriousness of the ongoing matter," USA Today reported, and they pledged to work together throughout the review, according to ABC News, both citing an official familiar with the situation.

The move was seen as a way to prevent further hiccups ahead of Election Day, though both Republican and Democratic leaders — and Clinton herself — have urged the agency to share more details about the email review.

FBI officials cited by The New York Times did not rule out the possibility of an update before November 8.

Comey reportedly went against Lynch's recommendation when he announced to Congress on Friday that he was reviewing additional emails that may be related to the investigation into Clinton's private email server. The announcement caused a political firestorm critics say could influence the election in favor of Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Lynch remains confident in Comey, a Justice Department official told NBC News. Sources described the meeting as cordial.

The emails were found on the computer of former congressman Anthony Weiner during a probe of his illicit communication with a minor. Weiner is the estranged husband of Clinton aide, Huma Abedin.

The Times put into larger perspective the "dark" mood of uncertainty hanging over the FBI amid Comey's public step. The Times reported that this summer, the FBI "agreed not to issue subpoenas or take other steps" in two cases related to the presidential nominees — one into the Clinton Foundation and another into Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.

Lightbulb made of modified E. coli fuses biology and electronics

Made of modified E. coli

Ollie Burton/CultureShock

By Alex Pearlman

It could soon be possible to make a light source out of bacteria.

So says a group of students from Newcastle University in the UK who are attempting to combine electronic engineering and synthetic biology to create “electro-biological” circuits.

The students have turned genetically modified, glowing E.coli into something analogous to a light bulb. The bulb is meant to switch on when the bacteria experience heat stress from a miniature microbial fuel cell – a device that acts as a battery by harnessing electrical energy from the action of microbes.

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The project will debut in Boston this week at the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM), an annual global competition that ends in a synthetic biology science fair called the Giant Jamboree. The eight-person team from Newcastle is just one of 300 teams from 40 countries.

To make their device, the Newcastle team designed E.coli that, due to the increased expression of a fluorescent gene, would glow when introduced to an electrical current or a heat source at 42 °C. They also designed a circuit to connect the bulb and the power source in the hopes of creating a kit that can snap together as easily as a Lego set.

Cat-powered turbine?

Although they failed to get the fuel cell to activate the lightbulb in the final round of testing, team member Ollie Burton says the main goal is to create a toolkit that will encourage others to build on the idea.

“Everything we have done is open source,” he says. “It’s more about what other people can do with the basis we’ve set, rather than design anything revolutionary ourselves. We wanted to provide people with the tools to generate new and exciting technologies.”

“Having analogous parts to electronics mirrored in biology will be advantageous because it offers new mediums to the engineering toolkit,” says Jameson Dungan, a synthetic biologist who runs the DIY lab Biologik in Norfolk, Virginia. He says that the project is “like when we first went from the vacuum tube to the transistor. The transistor did the same thing as the tube, just in a different way, just as these biological parts do with recreating electrical parts.”

The idea of open source research is an ethos biohackers and DIY scientists have long championed. For its part, iGEM also encourages lab-to-lab communication, and will be building a database of standardised, compatible “parts,” or sequences of DNA, for teams to use in their experiments.

Working with genetically modified organisms comes with a certain level of responsibility, however. The team made a digital, interactive “thought experiment” game to accompany their project, in which players are encouraged to consider ethical impacts of electro-biological science experiments. One scenario posits that a player must use genes from a cat to power a turbine, and asks, “What are our limits when it comes to using biologic materials as electricity?”

Paris Masters: Milos Raonic and Tomas Berdych feature on Tuesday

Milos Raonic will play on Tuesday

Milos Raonic is the main draw at the Paris Masters on Tuesday on the final day of action before Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic join the fray.

You __can watch the tournament from 10am on Tuesday, live on Sky Sports 1 HD, with a mixture of first and second round matches featured.

Raonic, who finished runner-up to Murray at Wimbledon, is the fourth seed at the Paris Masters and the highest-ranked player in action on Tuesday.

The Canadian will take on the unseeded Pablo Carreno Busta, while seventh seed Tomas Berdych will meet Joao Sousa.

Tomas Berdych also in action

Meanwhile, world No 2 Murray has insisted he is calm about the possibility of stealing Djokovic's No 1 ranking. The Brit needs to win the Paris Masters and hope his rival loses before the final if he is to move top of the rankings.

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"It's in Novak's hands," Murray said. "He's ahead obviously just now, so if he wins his matches and gets to the latter stages of the last two tournaments, then he'll most likely keep the No 1 spot."

The Paris Masters is live on Sky Sports 1 HD on Tuesday from 10am.

Milos Raonic, Tomas Berdych move on at Paris Masters

Milos Raonic was victorious over Pablo Carreno Busta in the French capital

Milos Raonic and Tomas Berdych safely came through their opening matches at the Paris Masters on Tuesday.

Fourth seed Raonic beat Pablo Carreno Busta in straight sets before Berdych, the seventh seed, required three sets to see off Joao Sousa.

Their successfully manoeuvring through the second round comes a day before Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka join the fray.

Tomas Berdych is into the third round after defeating Joao Sousa

Raonic, this year's Wimbledon runner-up, was given a stern test by world No 31 Carreno Busta but eventually pinched a two-set victory 7-6 6-4.

Berdych came under even greater through against Sousa, the world No 43, until he secured a 6-3 3-6 7-5 win.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, John Isner powered past Mischa Zverev 7-6 6-4 and Marcos Baghdatis won 6-2 6-4 against Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Steve Johnson, Ivo Karlovic, Feliciano Lopez, Gilles Simon and Viktor Troicki were also among the winners in the second round.

The Paris Masters continues with Andy Murray on Wednesday, live on Sky Sports 1 HD from 10am.

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Trump vaults to lead in major poll just one week from Election Day Trump vaults to lead in major poll just one week from Election Day

Donald Trump at campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Donald Trump took the lead over Hillary Clinton in a poll published Tuesday as the Democratic presidential nominee's campaign worked to recover from last week's surprise FBI announcement.

An ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll put Trump about 1 point ahead of Clinton. It was the first time since May that he edged out the former secretary of state in an ABC/Washington Post poll.

In a four-way race that included Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Trump had 46% support and Clinton has 45%.

Trump touted the poll in a tweet on Tuesday morning:

Wow, now leading in @ABC /@washingtonpost Poll 46 to 45. Gone up 12 points in two weeks, mostly before the Crooked Hillary blow-up!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2016

Trump's 0.7-point lead was, however, within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3 points.

The poll was conducted from October 27-30. FBI Director James Comey announced on Friday, October 28, that the FBI had reopened its investigation into Clinton's private email server.

Comey told Congress that the FBI had found new documents "pertinent" to the Clinton email investigation. The FBI had closed the investigation in July.

Clinton's campaign blasted Comey for his decision to break with protocol by announcing the investigation just days before the election. The FBI typically does not comment on ongoing investigations.

The FBI's announcement seemed to have had an effect on the polls. Enthusiasm for Clinton lessened Friday through Sunday, according to the ABC News/Washington Post poll. Enthusiasm for Trump held steady.

Clinton has largely been ahead of Trump in the polls for months, aside from temporary bumps the Trump campaign has seen. But just one week before the election, the race seems too close to call — in polls conducted after the FBI announcement, Clinton's lead narrowed.

Strangely, former House speaker and prominent Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich slammed the ABC News/Washington Post poll in a tweet on Tuesday:

Washington Post-ABC poll is an absurdity. Trump has not moved up 13 points in the last 8 days.he was NEVER 12 points behind. Ignore polls

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) November 1, 2016

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Donald Trump's tax-avoidance maneuvers reportedly stretched the law 'beyond any recognition' Donald Trump's tax-avoidance maneuvers reportedly stretched the law 'beyond any recognition'

Donald Trump. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Donald Trump may have used legally questionable maneuvers to avoid paying personal federal income taxes in the 1990s, The New York Times reported Monday night.

The Times reported that Trump avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxable income by using a maneuver so "legally dubious," his lawyers told him the IRS "would likely declare it improper if he were audited."

The Monday report follows the bombshell revelation in early October that showed Trump declared nearly $1 billion in losses in 1995 — a move that may have allowed him to avoid paying personal federal income tax for nearly two subsequent decades.

Trump has not released any of his official tax returns, breaking from a decades-long tradition in presidential politics. The Republican nominee has cited an ongoing audit as a reason for withholding his returns.

According to new documents cited by The Times, while Trump and some of his businesses were in the throes of financial turmoil in the 1990s, Trump pressured investors to forgive millions of dollars in debt that he could not repay at the time. In doing so, the forgiven debt would have been viewed as taxable income, based on IRS provisions.

The tax-avoidance strategy allegedly used by Trump means the Manhattan billionaire "potentially escaped paying tens of millions of dollars in personal federal income taxes," The Times said.

Here's more from the newspaper:

"Mr. Trump’s tax avoidance maneuver, conjured from ambiguous provisions of highly technical tax court rulings, clearly pushed the edge of the envelope of what tax laws permitted at the time. 'Whatever loophole existed was not ‘exploited’ here, but stretched beyond any recognition,' said Steven M. Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center who helped draft tax legislation in the early 1990s."

During the second presidential debate on October 9, Trump admitted he went years without paying federal income taxes.

As John Buckley, the former chief of staff to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation told The Times, "He's getting something for absolutely nothing."

Read the full story at The New York Times »