• Radamel Falcao has nailed a long-range goal that David Beckham would have been proud of.
• The AS Monaco striker scored from just outside the centre circle during a French league cup match on Tuesday evening.
• Monaco beat CAEN by a 2-0 score and progressed into the quarter-finals of the competition.

AS Monaco striker Radamel Falcao scored a David Beckham-style goal from 40 yards in a French league cup match against CAEN on Tuesday.

Monaco already had a 1-0 advantage thanks to a Guido Carrillo goal in the first half but Falcao doubled Monaco's lead in the 85th minute.

Falcao received a short pass from teammate Kévin N'Doram just outside the centre circle. He took one touch, spotted CAEN goalkeeper Brice Samba off his line, and then fired an opportunistic long-range strike beyond Samba's reaches and into the net.

You can watch the incredible goal right here.

It can also be viewed here.

Falcao's goal sealed a 2-0 win for Monaco and guaranteed the team's progression into the quarter-finals of the tournament.

The 31-year-old was recently named one of the most in-form centre forwards in European football this season, according to research conducted by Swiss-based think tank CIES Football Observatory.

The Colombian's must-see goal was his 19th of the season.

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NOW WATCH: Here's how tennis great and world No. 1 Rafael Nadal makes and spends his millions

Here is what you need to know.

The Federal Reserve meets. The US central bank is widely expected to raise its key interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 1.25% to 1.50% at the conclusion of Wednesday's meeting.

Roy Moore loses in Alabama. The Democrat Doug Jones was declared the winner in the Alabama special election on Tuesday night, shrinking the Republican Party's Senate majority to just one seat.

Tillerson says the US is ready to talk to North Korea. "We're ready to talk any time North Korea would like to talk, and we're ready to have the first meeting without precondition," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the former national security adviser Stephen Hadley during a question-and-answer session. "Let's just meet. We can talk about the weather if you want ... But can we at least sit down and see each other face-to-face, and then we can lay out a map, a road map, of what we might be willing to work towards."

UK employment drops. The UK's unemployment rate stayed at a record-low 4.3% in the three months to October, but 56,000 fewer people held jobs, according to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics.

Bank of America says the bull market has plenty of 'gas in the tank.'The bank's technical team says that the chart for 2018 looks a lot like that of 2014 and that the S&P 500 could hit 3,000 by the end of next year.

Litecoin's creator issues a stern warning to investors. "Sorry to spoil the party, but I need to reign in the excitement a bit," Litecoin's creator, Charlie Lee, tweeted. "Buying LTC is extremely risky. I expect us to have a multi-year bear market like the one we just had where LTC dropped 90% in value ($48 to $4). So if you can't handle LTC dropping to $20, don't buy!"

Tesla hits an 8-week high. Shares of the electric-car maker touched their best level in eight weeks Tuesday, propelled by news that Pepsi reserved 100 of the company's Semis.

Uber loses its license in a 3rd UK city. The City of York Council's Gambling, Licensing, and Regulatory Committee rejected Uber's application to renew its license, citing concerns about the recent data breach and the number of complaints it had received about the service, Reuters says.

Stock markets around the world trade mixed. China's Shanghai Composite (-1.25%) trailed in Asia, and Britain's FTSE (+0.10%) clings to gains in Europe. The S&P 500 is set to open little changed near 2,666.

US economic data is light. CPI will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is up 1 basis point at 2.41%.

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• Photos of The Mountain from "Game of Thrones" and his Canadian girlfriend have fascinated Instagram users.
• He is 6 foot 9 inches, while she is reportedly just 5 foot 2 inches.
• The pair met reportedly met in September. 

Photos of Icelandic actor Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, better known as The Mountain from "Game of Thrones," and his Canadian girlfriend Kelsey Henson have gone viral because of their extreme height difference.

The actor is 6 foot 9 inches and weighs 395 pounds, while Kelsey Henson is just 5 foot 2 inches, TMZ reports.

The pair recently visited Iceland together, where the actor "introduced" her to the country.

The extreme height difference prompted one Instagram user @destinyezurs to ask: "How do you kiss? Do you jump in his arms every time and wrap your legs around his waist? Please post a picture of this impressive action [sic]"

To which Henson appears to have seen the funny side."Hahha he bends, I tip toe. Or just say screw it pick me up," she responded.

Henson, who is an occupational therapist also posted this "throwback" photo of the pair in Benidorm, Spain.

Instagram user @nikchantal_commented: "His hand is bigger then your head."

The pair reportedly met in September in Alberta, where Henson was working at Earls Kitchen + Bar and he was in town for a Strongman competition, according to TMZ.

She shared a photo of their meeting and wrote: "Met Hafþór [sic], AKA The Mountain, from Game of Thrones!!"

Most recently she posted a snap of herself while exercising with a top that said: "Training to Fight the Mountain."

SEE ALSO: Here's the insane diet The Mountain actor from 'Game of Thrones' is on for World's Strongest Man

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NOW WATCH: The differences that matter between Splenda, Equal, Sweet’N Low, and sugar

• Apple announced that it's investing $390 million (£292 million) into Finisar, a company that builds special chips for some of its products.
• This is the second round in a larger $1 billion (£750 million) investment plan which first saw Apple investing in Corning, a firm that manufactures the glass used in most of its devices.
• Finisar is reopening a facility in Texas which will help create 500 new jobs.

Apple announced that it's investing $390 million (£292 million) into Finisar, a company that helps build chips that enable proximity and depth sensing on products such as the iPhone X and AirPods.

With Apple's money, Finisar is going to reopen a 700,000 sq. feet (65,000 sq. meters) manufacturing facility in Sherman, Texas, where some 500 jobs will be created between engineers, technicians, and a maintenance team.

The plant will be transformed and refurbished with new machines capable of producing VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) chips.

This special kind of component features in a number of Apple's products, and enables features such as Face ID, ARKit, and even Animoji, but also proximity sensing that, for instance, allows AirPods to stop playing audio when one of the two buds is removed from the user's ear.

"VCSELs power some of the most sophisticated technology we've ever developed," said Apple's chief operating officer Jeff Williams in a statement.

"We're thrilled to partner with Finisar over the next several years to push the boundaries of VCSEL technology and the applications they enable."

Finisar's CEO chimed in as well. He said: "When you combine our proven ability to consistently manufacture exceptional products with our new state-of-the-art Sherman facility, we're confident we can achieve our shared goal of providing consumers with incredibility exciting features."

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NOW WATCH: What those tiny rivets on your jeans are for

This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

The fast-growing global drone industry has not sat back waiting for government policy to be hammered out before pouring investment and effort into opening up this all-new hardware and computing market. 

A growing ecosystem of drone software and hardware vendors is already catering to a long list of clients in agriculture, land management, energy, and construction. Many of the vendors are smallish private companies and startups — although large defense-focused companies and industrial conglomerates are beginning to invest in drone technology, too. 

In a report from BI Intelligence, we take a deep dive into the various levels of the growing global industry for commercial drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This report provides forecasts for the business opportunity in commercial drone technology, looks at advances and persistent barriers, highlights the top business-to-business markets in terms of applications and end users, and provides an exclusive list of dozens of notable companies already active in the space. Finally, it digs into the current state of US regulation of commercial drones, recently upended by the issuing of the Federal Aviation Administration's draft rules for commercial drone flights. Few people know that many companies are already authorized to fly small drones commercially under a US government "exemption" program. 

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• We project revenues form drones sales to top $12 billion in 2021, up form just over $8 billion last year.
• Shipments of consumer drones will more than quadruple over the next five years, fueled by increasing price competition and new technologies that make flying drones easier for beginners.
• Growth in the enterprise sector will outpace the consumer sector in both shipments and revenues as regulations open up new use cases in the US and EU, the two biggest potential markets for enterprise drones.
• Technologies like geo-fencing and collision avoidance will make flying drones safer and make regulators feel more comfortable with larger numbers of drones taking to the skies.
• Right now FAA regulations have limited commercial drones to a select few industries and applications like aerial surveying in the agriculture, mining, and oil and gas sectors.
• The military sector will continue to lead all other sectors in drone spending during our forecast period thanks to the high cost of military drones and the growing number of countries seeking to acquire them.

In full, the report:

• Compares drone adoption across the consumer, enterprise, and government sectors.
• Breaks down drone regulations across several key markets and explains how they’ve impacted adoption.
• Discusses popular use cases for drones in the enterprise sector, as well as nascent use case that are on the rise.
• Analyzes how different drone manufacturers are trying to differentiate their offerings with better hardware and software components.
• Explains how drone manufacturers are quickly enabling autonomous flight in their products that will be a major boon for drone adoption.

Simply put, The Drones Report is the only place you can get the full story on the rapidly-evolving world of drones.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fascinating world of drones.

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• Apple stopped releasing first weekend iPhone sales figures with the iPhone 7, making it hard to tell how the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus are selling.
• New analytics data suggests the iPhone X is outpacing the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in adoption.
• The iPhone X costs $999/£999, while the iPhone 8 starts at $699/£699, and the iPhone 8 Plus starts at $799/799.

Apple hasn't released sales figures for the iPhone X, iPhone 8, or the iPhone 8 Plus, but a new chart shows the most expensive of the three is also the most popular.

Data from analytics firm Mixpanel shows that iPhone X adoption outpaced that of its cheaper cousins in late November. iPhone X adoption currently stands at 4.76%, ahead of the iPhone 8 Plus at 3.59% and the iPhone 8 at 2.78%.

Here's a chart comparing the three new Apple devices:

And here's a chart showing how all three phones compare to older iPhone models — it shows most people have phones that are older than the iPhone 7:

Mixpanel's data doesn't show sales figures, but measures people picking up the new iPhones and using apps that are integrated with Mixpanel's software development kit.

It's still hard to tell how well the three new devices are selling compared to previous launches. Apple stopped announcing first weekend sales figures with the iPhone 7, because it said the number usually reflected supply rather than customer demand. Apple chief executive Tim Cook ducked iPhone X sales questions during the firm's third quarter call, when analysts asked about pre-orders for the device, saying only that demand was "very strong."

Collectively, it looks like the three devices are selling well and on track to overtake iPhone 7 Plus adoption over the next few months. But early rumours of iPhone X supply constraints may be putting people off buying in these early months, even if Apple is reportedly ramping up production in time for Christmas.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: I've been an iPhone user for 10 years — here's what happened when I switched to the Google Pixel 2 for a week

• Vanellope Hope Wilkins was born with ectopia cordis.
• It’s extremely rare, no baby in the UK has ever survived it before her.
• She has had three operations since her birth on November 22.
• Surgeons have successfully put her heart inside her body and she is said to be doing well.

WARNING: This video contains graphic images that some may find distressing.

Vanellope Wilkins was born with ectopia cordis, an extremely rare condition which caused her heart to beat outside her body.

No baby in the UK has ever survived it before her.

The condition was noticed by doctors at a nine-week scan. Her parents decided to go ahead despite being advised to "terminate."

Vanellope was moved to an operation theatre within one hour of birth, on November 22, and has had three operations since then.

Surgeons at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester have successfully put her heart inside her body and she is said to be doing well.

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• Business Insider spoke with 18-year-old Syrian refugee Maya Ghazal. 
• She said the UK's multicultural society made her feel supported despite her limited understanding of English.
• She now engages in voluntary work and is determined to prove critics of refugees wrong.

Diana Legacy Award winner Maya Ghazal arrived in the UK as a 15-year-old in 2015. She told Business Insider that despite her initial struggles and feelings of loneliness in her new home, she integrated well and is now a keen voluntary worker.

The following is a transcript of the video.

Maya Ghazal: My name is Maya Ghazal. I’m 18 years old and I’m from Damascus, Syria. I left Damascus when I was 15 years old, in 2015. When I first arrived in the UK, I arrived in Birmingham, and I stayed there for two years. There, I went to college, and I found that city was very diverse. It had many different nationalities from all around the world, speaking different languages and having different cultures. I wasn’t the only one who was new in the country, I wasn’t the only one that was struggling with English, and that really helped.

I met my friend, and she’s Lithuanian, and she is also like – we started improving our English together and we helped each other with Maths and we carried on with our engineering course, and up until this point, we still support each other.

In terms of people living in the UK, I’ve never faced someone who isn’t welcoming towards refugees.I was lucky enough that everyone who I faced and talked to – everyone was understanding. They knew our reasons of why we needed to leave. It wasn’t something that we chose to do, It wasn’t something that we wanted really, just to leave our country, everything we’ve built, our own language, and just to start from zero. Not many people want that. Not many people are capable of doing that. We’re really trying hard, and we don’t want to stay at home and not work and be lonely and unemployed.

I totally understand the haters, it’s just that maybe they don’t see the bigger picture – or maybe they do. Maybe they just don’t see our picture or from our angle or point of view. I’ve seen some not very nice comments around, either talking about my religion, or being racist or so, but I just don’t put myself down for them. These comments give me a push forward that I need to prove them wrong and I need to prove to them I’m someone that’s worthy – I could be as good as the person who wrote that comment could be.

For me, I really want to be an example, I do voluntary work and I really want to give something back to the community that welcomed me, to the place that put me into education, into university. Some people have really achieved a lot, and I really want to be considered as one of them later on.

More than 65 million people around the world have been forced to leave their homes to escape war, famine and climate change. To learn more about the plight of refugees across the world, Ai Weiwei’s film Human Flow is in UK cinemas now.

Produced by Fraser Moore. Camera by David Ibekwe. Special thanks to Kieran Corcoran.

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• Corbyn blames Conservatives for "national disgrace" of rising homelessness.
• The Tories continue to "neglect working-class communities," Corbyn said in PMQs.
• May defended Conservative record and said Corbyn's Labour would worsen the crisis.

LONDON — Jeremy Corbyn today accused Theresa May of presiding over a surge in homelessness and rough sleeping across the UK.

Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, the Labour leader said that rough sleeping had doubled since the Conservatives came into government, describing the rise as a "national disgrace."

He added that the Grenfell Tower fire, which forced hundreds of people out of their homes, had "shone a light on the neglect of working-class communities," across the country.

Watch Corbyn on the surge in homelessness in the UK

Theresa May insisted that the government was still committed to eliminating homelessness.

"We don't want to see people without a roof over their head," May said.

"That's why we're committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and eliminating it by 2027."

Despite this pledge, the latest figures suggest rough sleeping continues to rise. According to the Chain database, a charity-run information network that records rough sleepers in London, there were 8,108 people sleeping rough in the capital 2016-17 compared to 3,017 in 2007-08. 

However, May said that Labour would make the housing crisis worse, saying that the party were ideologically opposed to people being given the power to buy their own homes.

She cited comments by the Shadow Housing Minister John Healey, who said recently that fewer people owning their own homes "is not a bad thing."

Corbyn disagreed, telling the prime minister that Labour's record on building new homes far exceeded that of the current government.

Watch May and Corbyn clash on housing

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NOW WATCH: What it’s like to live in Putin’s Russia, according to an investigative reporter who lived there for 4 years

• The Dodo's animal-focused show "Comeback Kids: Animal Edition" is the most popular show on Facebook Watch based on overall views, views per episode and shares per episode.
• Facebook declined to confirm whether the show was coming back for another season, but The Dodo's founder Izzie Lerer is optimistic.
• The publisher wants to experiment with long-form content including TV, as well as other mediums like 360-degree video and virtual reality in the future.

Puppy and kitten videos rule the internet. So it shouldn't be a surprise that a show centered around animals took the top honors among Facebook Watch's first round of media publisher shows.

Animal social video publisher The Dodo's show "Comeback Kids: Animal Edition," beat all competition to become the No. 1 most watched publisher show on Facebook Watch. 

The show, which spotlights heartwarming stories of animals overcoming all kinds of hardships, is ahead of the curve among shows by other media publishers in terms of overall views, views per episode and shares per episode, according to social monitoring platform CrowdTangle. There are shows by individual creators like Nas Daily, however, that are ahead of it.

"Because we had built The Dodo brand with short form video content, we had data on what was resonating the most with our audience," Izzie Lerer, founder and editor-at-large at The Dodo, told Business Insider. "That data, combined with an understanding of our audience, informed what kind of a show we should have."

The show has amassed over 130 million views across five episodes in its first season. That is significantly higher views and average views per episode than any other publisher, according to data from Delmondo. The closest second is Mike Rowe's show "Returning the Favor," with around 90 million total views.

According to Lerer, the Facebook Watch opportunity came knocking at the perfect time. It was when The Dodo — which has a website but is primarily a social video publisher — had already cracked the 30 to 90-second video format with some viral hits, and wanted to experiment with more mid-form and original content. 

The Group Nine Media-owned publisher decided to take the plunge and tell animal stories with more robust narratives, as well as make a conscious effort to branch out outside of just dogs and cats. The theme would focus heavily on transformation through rescue and rehabilitation and not just cuteness.

The first video of the series, for example, chronicles the journey of a rescued Golden Retriever called Chi Chi, tracing her journey from being unable to walk to becoming a therapy dog. The third tells the story of Poly, a neglected pony in a farm animal sanctuary in Belgium that is nursed back to health. Both videos were runaway hits, with Poly's video being the most popular video in the season with over 83 million views and 838,000 shares.

"The first episode was very strong right out of the gate," The Dodo president YuJung Kim said. "And that proved that we'd realized our aim of building a loyal audience around passion points, regardless of the platform and format."

Comeback Kids continued to draw viewership across the entire season, with over 150 million minutes of consumption. The show's audience also grew consistently after each episode was aired. After the first episode, for example, the show's audience swelled by 60,000 fans, followed by 25,000; 215,000; 25,000 and 30,000 fans after the subsequent four episodes. This is line with what other publishers such as Attn and Condé Nast have seen, with their Watch videos having greater retention compared to regular programming.

The show also saw high levels of engagement. Poly's video, for example, was shared 838,000 times as opposed to a regular video posted by The Dodo, which gets an average of 70,000 shares, according to Kim. What's more, 15% of the viewers made it to the end of each episode, when the average is 7 seconds for non-Watch videos. 

This is hardly surprising, said Brendan Gahan, founder and EVP of social agency Epic Signal.

"Animals have always done well online, but these videos, which feature heart-wrenching 'comeback' stories of cute animals, tug at the heartstrings," he said. "They not only make you smile and move on, but they can also make you laugh, cry and generate a real, physical reaction."

Facebook doesn't break down stats data or viewership numbers around individual shows and declined to confirm whether the show was due to return on Watch for a second season. But it is reportedly planning to spend as much as $1 billion on funding video in 2018, with shows driving repeat viewers being one of its biggest criterias. 

Lerer said that "given season one’s success, we’re exploring future seasons of Comeback Kids."

The publisher wants to experiment with long-form content including TV, as well as other mediums like 360-degree video and virtual reality in the future.

"We're pushing deeper into longer-form content," Lerer said. "This has helped us create a model whereby we can take our learnings and apply it beyond."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How much money you need to save each day to become a millionaire by age 65

• President Donald Trump tweeted that defeated Senate candidate from Alabama, Roy Moore, had the deck stacked against him in Tuesday's election.
• Trump added that he originally had pushed for a different candidate because he knew Moore would lose.
• It's unclear how he knew Moore would lose. The sexual misconduct allegations only emerged after his nomination and Alabama has been a GOP seat since the 1990s.

President Donald Trump reflected on the Republican party's upset in Alabama's senate race on by saying Roy Moore had worked hard, but ultimately the deck was stacked against him.

"The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!"Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning.

Moore's loss to Democrat Doug Jones in what was considered a safe seat for Republicans in deep red Alabama narrows the GOP's majority in the Senate to just 51 and will embolden Democrats ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

The election was dominated by revelations that Moore had had inappropriate relations with nine young women, one of whom was legally underage. The allegations against Moore came during the swelling #MeToo movement, which has exposed the sexual misconduct of powerful men around the world. 

During the same period that Moore received the Republican National Convention's endorsement amid a storm of misconduct allegations, top Democrats led a push to clean the house of Democratic lawmakers accused of sexual misconduct.

The allegations against Moore held Trump from campaigning for the Alabama Senate candidate briefly, but he eventually offered a de facto, and then explicit endorsements of Moore, saying that the Republican party needed to maintain its numbers in the Senate. 

What stacked deck?

It's unclear why Trump thought Moore would not be able to win the senatorial election, because the allegations against Moore only came to light after he had clinched the nomination.

Additionally, it's unclear what Trump means by the deck being "stacked" against Moore, or if that refers to misconduct allegations. Republicans have held both Alabama Senate seats since the mid 1990s, and the state consistently votes for the GOP.

Trump has expressed doubts over Moore's guilt in the allegations, calling attention to a report that one of Moore's accusers had amended his signature in her high school yearbook by adding notes to it at a rally in Pensacola, Florida, which shares a media market with Alabama.

"Did you see what happened today? You know, the yearbook?" Trump asked the audience at his rally. "There was a little mistake made. She started writing things in the yearbook. Ah, what are we gonna do."

But overall, Trump seemed conciliatory about the election that did not go his way from the start. Immediately after Jones clinched the victory, Trump tweeted to congratulate him. 

SEE ALSO: Women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct call his endorsement of Roy Moore 'horrifying' and 'disgusting'

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NOW WATCH: Here's why Boeing 747s have a giant hump in the front

• Chinese guards under orders of police reportedly dragged off and beat a South Korean journalist to the point of hospitalization at a summit to repair relations between the two countries.
• South Korea's President Moon Jae In is visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing to smooth over rocky relations stemming from the North Korea crisis.
• Videos and photos show the journalist allegedly beaten by guards in China, where the media is state-run and heavily censored.

Photos and videos purporting to show a South Korean journalist, who was beaten and injured by Chinese security guards in Beijing ahead of a summit between the two countries' leaders, have surfaced online.

South Korea's Yonhap News said more than a dozen Chinese security guards severely beat the journalist who tried to follow President Moon Jae In into a business fair. It also published an image of the journalist on the floor.

The incident occurred during a four-day trip to China by Moon, who is seeking to repair ties with China by meeting with its President Xi Jinping. The two countries have feuded over business and trade issues, as well as the deployment of US missile defense systems in South Korea to defend against North Korea's missiles. 

China recently dropped its opposition to South Korea's missile defenses, has thawed business relations, and made a series of overtures, which includes Moon's current trip.

South Korea does not censor or control its media like China does. Yonhap reports that the journalist was hospitalized after the beating, and that the Chinese guards were working under the direction of the police.

Videos posted by South Korean Khan News show the melee. Towards the end of the video, you can see a man throw a kick.

Watch below:

SEE ALSO: A $100 counterfeit 'supernote' found in South Korea could have been made in North Korea

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NOW WATCH: What the US needs to do to prevent a new ISIS in Iraq

• Three US college-age hackers pleaded guilty to creating the Mirai botnet, which took out critical parts of the internet in 2016 through distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
• The attacks affected Spotify, Twitter, Reddit, and well-known security journalist Brian Krebs.
• The three men created the malicious software to profit from the popular game Minecraft, according to Wired.
• They hoped the DDoS attacks would take out rival Minecraft servers, and boost their own DDoS mitigation business.

Three US hackers have pleaded guilty to creating the Mirai botnet, which took out some of the internet's biggest sites last year including Reddit, Spotify, and Twitter through distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

According to a Wired investigation, the college-age Paras Jha, Josiah White, and Dalton Norman originally created the botnet to gain an advantage on Minecraft. But once they realised the botnet's power, they went bigger.

"Mirai was originally developed to help them corner the Minecraft market, but then they realized what a powerful tool they built," one FBI investigator told the publication. "Then it just became a challenge for them to make it as large as possible."

Hosting and protecting Minecraft servers is competitive and big money

While Mirai eventually took down critical parts of the internet, alarming engineers tasked with keeping the infrastructure running smoothly, it had humbler beginnings.

The game Minecraft is massively popular, with 55 million players a month. Users construct blocky 3D worlds by "mining" blocks. The entire effect is cartoonish, and the game is popular with kids.

Those who want to play multiplayer must sign up to a Minecraft server, which can often have tens of thousands of users who pay money to rent "space" or buy tools. According to Wired, the FBI investigators found that people were making big money by hosting Minecraft servers. "These people at the peak of summer were making $100,000 a month," one investigator said.

That, in turn, has resulted in rival Minecraft server hosts trying to one-up each other with DDoS attacks. Indeed, the arms race in DDoS attacks is directly linked to Minecraft, an agent said. The goal of DDoS in Minecraft is to try and frustrate users on a rival server with slow service — so that they end up switching to yours.

Mirai's creators wanted both to knock out rival servers, but also potentially make money by offering protection against DDoS attacks. The trio had set up their own DDoS mitigation company and used Mirai to take out a competitor, French web hosting firm OVH. OVH offers Minecraft DDoS mitigation services and, in September 2016, it suffered a crushing DDoS attack unlike anything it had seen before.

"This was a calculated business decision to shut down a competitor," one of the investigators said.

Eventually, Mirai's creators decided to publish its source code online, to try and throw any investigators off the trail. That opened up the tool for wider use, and variants of Mirai — apparently not created by the three original hackers — took out performance management company Dyn. That meant outages for Dyn customers including Reddit, Github, and Twitter, and gave Mirai greater attention. According to Wired, an FBI investigation into Dyn is still ongoing.

The three left enough fingerprints for both the FBI and security journalist Brian Krebs, victim of a Mirai attack, to track them down.

You can read the full Wired investigation here.

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NOW WATCH: What those tiny rivets on your jeans are for

• German exchange Deutsche Boerse looking at launching bitcoin futures trading.
• The Frankfurt-based exchange made clear that it will take "some time" before any decision on launching futures contracts is made.
• Reports come just days after Cboe launches the first bitcoin futures contracts.

LONDON – German exchange group Deutsche Boerse is considering launching its own bitcoin futures, potentially becoming the first European exchange to do so.

"We are thinking about futures, with which private investors and institutional investors can protect existing investments in Bitcoin or set for falling prices of the cryptocurrency," the exchange group said in a statement to German business magazine Wirtschafts Woche on Wednesday.

In a separate statement, the Frankfurt-based exchange made clear that it will take "some time" before any decision on launching futures contracts is made.

Wirtschafts Woche reports that Deutsche Boerse wants "to first clarify how to deal with the sharp fluctuations" in the price of bitcoin before making a decision. The company couldn't be immediately reached for further comment.

If Deutsche Boerse were to launch bitcoin futures, they would be traded through the exchange's Eurex platform. 

Last week, Chicago-based exchange operator Cboe began offering bitcoin future contracts, becoming the first exchange to do so. Later this month, CME, the world's biggest exchange group, will also start offering futures contracts.

Cboe's product is the first that gives institutional investors such as hedge funds and asset managers exposure to bitcoin. The market allows them to speculate on the future price of bitcoin without having to directly buy and hold the digital currency. This skirts any regulatory and custodian issues that might be presented by bitcoin.

Institutional investors have grown increasingly interested in bitcoin as the cryptocurrency's price has continued to rise. 

The launch of futures on the Cboe last Sunday led to a sharp increase in the price of bitcoin, with both futures and spot bitcoin trading significantly higher.

Bitcoin has seen its price rise by more than 1000% in 2017, climbing from around $900 per coin in early 2017, to as high as $17,000 in December, as the chart below illustrates:

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NOW WATCH: Warren Buffett lives in a modest house that's worth .001% of his total wealth — here's what it looks like

• Former UK Prime Minister unloaded on Donald Trump's use of the term "fake news."
• David Cameron said it was "deflecting attention" from Russia's attempt to undermine US democracy.
• It was Cameron's first public lecture since leaving office in 2016.

Britain's former Prime Minister has accused Donald Trump of "deflecting attention" from the abuses of Russia on American democracy in his first public lecture since leaving office last year.

Speaking in London on Wednesday evening, David Cameron unloaded on Trump's "dangerous" use of the phrase "fake news," and told the US president to focus on Russian bots and trolls "targeting your democracy" instead.

The former Prime Minister said:

"When Donald Trump uses the term 'fake news' to describe CNN and the BBC, that is not just a questionable political tactic. It's actually dangerous.

"Of course broadcasters make mistakes and it's right they correct them. But what is being attempted here goes far beyond that. It's an attempt to question the whole legitimacy of organisations that have an important role in our democracy. [...]

"President Trump: 'Fake news' is not broadcasters criticising you, it's Russian bots and trolls targeting your democracy, pumping out untrue stories day after day, night after night.

"When you misappropriate the term fake news, you are deflecting attention from real abuses. Ignoring what's happening on social media is facilitating a form of corruption that is undermining democracy."

Cameron attacks Russia

Cameron's speech homed in on Russia, suggesting that the country won its bid to host the 2018 World Cup due to bribery. In 2010, FIFA awarded Russia the right to host the event in 2018— a contest the UK government, under Cameron's premiership, had hoped to win.

He said: "Even though we had the best plan, the best stadiums, the most enthusiastic supporters... We didn't even make it to the second round. President Putin actually boycotted the whole thing because he said it was riddled with corruption.

"He was right – it was. And – let me put it like this – I am sure he wasn’t completely surprised when Russia actually won the bid. You couldn't make it up."

Sepp Blatter, the former president of FIFA, also claimed two years ago that the decision to host the upcoming World Cup in Russia was made before voting had taken place.

'The cancer of corruption is developing'

In his lecture to Transparent International UK, a nonprofit investigating corruption in Britain, Cameron claimed that the phenomenon of corruption was "metastasizing."

"Why is this the subject of my first public lecture in Britain since leaving office?" the former Prime Minister said. "The fact is that I am worried. The cancer of corruption is developing. It is metastasizing."

He also defended a hot mic gaffe in 2016, when he was caught describing Nigeria and Afghanistan "fantastically corrupt."

He said on Wednesday he was "rather embarrassed," but that "there is such a thing as being too open and transparent." He added that Muhammadu Buhari, the president of Nigeria, told him at the time he was "absolutely right."

SEE ALSO: David Cameron wants to use blockchain technology to fight government corruption

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NOW WATCH: Vladimir Putin could secretly be one of the richest men in the world — an investigative reporter who spent 4 years in Russia explains

This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

Fintechs have found a way to serve small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) while still making a profit, and now incumbents want in on the action. 

SMBs have been historically underserved by financial services providers, but that's starting to change as both fintechs and incumbents continue to roll out SMB-targeted services.

This report will look at the areas in which incumbents have failed SMBs when it comes to financial services provision — including credit, digital business services, and bank accounts — and give examples of where fintechs have successfully filled the gaps. It will also provide examples of incumbents that have introduced new SMB products in response, and our verdict on which type of supplier — fintech or incumbent — will dominate each area of the market for SMB-focused financial services products.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• SMBs globally have been underserved by financial services providers because they make less revenue than large corporates, yet demand more advanced services than most consumers. As a result, they've developed a reputation among legacy financial institutions for being unprofitable to serve.
• Fintechs are now finding ways to serve even the smallest businesses, while still realistically expecting to turn a profit — and that's changing the game in the SMB space.
• Fintechs are filling the gap in service provision to SMBs in three main areas: provision of credit, access to critical business services, and provision of bank accounts.
• Incumbent providers are fighting back with products of their own by partnering with fintechs or building in-house services. JPMorgan, Barclays, NatWest, and BBVA are just a few major banks leveraging new technology to better serve SMBs.
• Some areas of the SMB market will continue to be dominated by incumbents, while fintechs will succeed in winning over these customers on other fronts.

 In full, the report:

• Highlights how incumbents have failed to serve SMBs
• Outlines where fintechs are successfully serving the same demographic
• Explains how legacy financial services players are fighting back
• Reveals which type of provider will win in each area

To get the full report, subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND more than 250 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> Learn More Now

You can also purchase and download the report from our research store.

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New Year's Eve — the one night a year when the whole world comes alive to celebrate the year just gone, the year ahead, and the people they love most.

Some people spend months planning an action-packed New Year's Eve, while others prefer to retire to somewhere quiet and watch the festivities unfold with a blanket and a hot drink.

Business Insider asked 20 esteemed travel professionals — each of whom has travelled the globe and seen New Year's Eve celebrated in all manners of ways — for the most breathtaking and under-the-radar places to spend New Year's Eve.

The answers include everything from tried-and-tested retreats to dreamy tropical islands which have either been the setting for unforgettable festivities our experts have attended in the past or are lusted-after celebrations they dream of attending in the future. Regardless of their location, level of popularity, and score on the party scale, each entry on the list is distinctly one-of-a-kind.

Scroll on to discover 27 of the best under-the-radar places to spend New Year's Eve, according to the world's top travel experts.

SEE ALSO: The 25 places you need to visit in 2018, according to the world's top travel experts

Be one of the first people in the world to ring in the New Year in Tonga.

"If you're going all out for New Year's Eve, why not do it in one of the first places in the world to ring in the New Year?" said Alex Reynolds, co-founder and blogger at travel blog Lost With Purpose.

"The Polynesian island of Tonga is a place I've always dreamed of celebrating New Year's. White sand beaches, azure water, and toasty tropical temperatures in December — what more could you need?"

Wade into the water of Alter do Chao, Brazil.

"Alter do Chão, in the northern Brazilian state of Pará, is regarded as one of the most beautiful freshwater beaches on the planet," said Katja Wilde, Head of Didactics for language learning platform Babbel.

"On New Year's Eve, it is traditional for those by the sea in Brazil to wade into the water when the clock strikes midnight. New Year's Eve purists will jump over seven waves, making a wish each time they clear a wave."

Ring in the New Year with a bunch of grapes at Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Spain.

According to Wilde, New Year's Eve celebrations in Spain are amongst the greatest in the world.

"There is an emblematic place in almost every Spanish city or town where people gather to welcome in the New Year, and eat their twelve grapes, one each second, in the twelve seconds leading up to the stroke of midnight," she said, adding thatif you are in Madrid on December 31, you might want to join the carnival celebration at Puerta del Sol.

"The eating of twelve grapes at the turn of the year is of Spain's most-established traditions — and superstitions. Successfully swallowing each grape is supposed to ensure luck for its corresponding month in the year ahead."

• Shares in retail giant Sports Direct were down 11% on Thursday morning after it released a first-half results statement which disguised plummeting profits.
• The group claimed "spectacular" trading performance but analyst Michael van Dulken said reported profits fell an eye-watering 69% after adjustments.

LONDON — Shares in retail giant Sports Direct were down up to 11% on Thursday morning after it released a first-half results statement which disguised plummeting profits.

The budget sportswear chain, owned by billionaire Mike Ashley, claimed a "spectacular trading performance" with profits up 23% in the six months to 29 October and revenues up 4.7%, implying healthy margin expansion.

But Michael van Dulken, analyst at Accendo Markets, said those figures are only true "once you adjust for all manner of things," including, but not limited to, "excluding gains from FX moves and property sales, and ignoring more significant losses from fair value adjustments to unhedged FX forwards and options contracts, losses on strategic investments, and fair value movements on derivatives."

Once those adjustments are factored in, reported profits fell 69%, van Dulken said.

Shares were down 7.12% at 10.00 a.m. GMT:

Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst and fund manager Hargreaves Lansdown, said the firm was hampered by poor governance practices and said the group's new-format stores had not shown the "spectacular" trading performance claimed by Ashley.

"Sports Direct’s corporate governance practices continue to attract headlines for all the wrong reasons, with independent shareholders rejecting an £11m payment to Mike Ashley’s brother on Wednesday," he said.

"Unfortunately, the lack of transparency also stretches to the "Selfridges of Sport" initiative. Mike Ashley has described trading at the new format stores as "spectacular," but it’s difficult to see evidence of that in the numbers. Improved profits are being driven by cost cuts rather than sales growth – which is actually negative in the UK."

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• Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the UN, will present "irrefutable evidence" that Iran has violated the Iran deal, according to her office.
• Haley will go after Iran for allegedly providing missiles to Houthi rebels fighting in Yemen.
• Iran denies it has armed the Houthis and has dispatched its top diplomat to Europe to get Europeans to side with them over the US.

US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, will present "irrefutable evidence" that Iran has violated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or the Iran deal, at a press conference on Thursday.

Haley will demonstrate "Iran has deliberately violated its international obligations and has tried and failed to cover up these violations‎," according to a press briefing on the US mission to the UN's website.

Haley's conference comes after President Donald Trump decertified the Iran deal on October 13, leaving it in place practically but testifying that it was not in the US's national security interests to continue the deal.

Trump's decertification set off a 60-day period for Congress to decide whether or not to reimpose sanctions on Iran, which it declined.

Haley will update the UN on the implementation of the Iran deal in a regularly scheduled report, which ABC News said will delve into accusations that Iran provided arms to Houth rebels fighting against the internationally recognized government of Yemen. 

This in itself does not necessarily contravene the deal, however, as the agreement does not explicitly forbid ballistic missile production or distributing arms.

As part of the "ongoing destabilizing activities in the Middle East" Haley will raise, ABC reports she will discuss the US and Saudi Arabia accusations that Iran of provided ballistic missiles and possibly drones and other weapons systems to the Houthis.

Iran denies it has armed the Houthis. It has responded with vitriol to Trump's moves to decertify the deal while dispatching its chief diplomats to Europe to shore up ties with other members of the Iran deal.

A non-binding part of the Iran deal forbids Tehran from building ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

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• Andrey Melnichenko's £360 million ($480 million) "Sailing Yacht A" has been spotted again, this time in the Port of Gibraltar.
• The 142.8-metre vessel boasts 300 ft masts, eight decks, a huge swimming pool, and an underwater observation pod.

Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko's £360 million ($480 million) "Sailing Yacht A," one of the largest private sailing yachts in the world, has been spotted docked at the Port of Gibraltar. The yacht underwent final tests at the port in May before it was handed over to its owner.

The 142.8-metre vessel boasts 300 ft masts that are taller than Big Ben, and counts eight decks (connected by a series of lifts), a free-floating spiral staircase, a huge swimming pool on the top deck, and an underwater observation pod among its stunning features. France's Philippe Starck is behind the design.

Onlookers and yacht enthusiasts shared some close up shots of the vessel while it was docked at the port.

The style of the yacht has divided opinion, but it is nevertheless one of the most closely followed superyachts in the world.

As the sun set the vessel apparently prepared to set sail again.

Owner Andrey Melnichenko is worth an estimated $13.7 billion (£10.2 billion), according to Forbes.

Business Insider last reported a sighting of Sailing Yacht A in Ibiza in September, when UFC star Conor McGregor stumbled upon it while holidaying with his family. McGregor proceeded to freak out at the sheer size of the vessel and took some up close shots of it while on his jet ski.

SEE ALSO: A Russian billionaire's £360 million superyacht has been spotted in Ibiza again, this time by Conor McGregor — and he's freaking out

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