BREAKING NEWS Alert!

A platoon of Navy SEALs deployed in Iraq were sent home for boozing on the job, the latest incident to mar the esteemed special operations force, according to a report. The group from SEAL Team 7 was forced by a Navy commander to return to their San Diego base for violating General Order No. 1, which prohibits alcohol use, according to The Washington Post. “The Commander lost confidence in the team’s ability to accomplish the mission,” the US Special Operations Command said in a statement. The command didn’t blame alcohol use for the team’s dismissal, instead saying the group was booted because of “a perceived deterioration of good order and discipline within the team during non-operational periods.” But two defense officials confirmed with The Washington Post that drinking booze caused the disciplinary action. Wednesday’s news comes on the heels of the conclusion of a war crime trial where a decorated Navy SEAL, Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, faced murder charges. G...

Facebook’s eye-popping $5 billion FTC fine may have set a record, but it’s a drop in the bucket for owner Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg, who has a net worth of $79.8 billion according to Bloomberg, could pay the fine out-of-pocket and still remain comfortably placed as the fifth-richest man in the world. The next in line, Zara founder Amancio Ortega, has $66.6 billion. Of course, Zuckerberg wasn’t ordered to fork over any dough to settle claims his company violated its user privacy rules. Instead, the fine will be paid by shareholders, who were so unfazed by the FTC’s record-smashing fine that they boosted the stock up 1.1 percent in regular trading. That 1 percent uptick, which sent the stock to $204.66 a share, added roughly $6.6 billion to the company’s $584.2 billion market cap — $1.6 billion more than the cost of the fine. After markets closed, Wall Street cheered again when Facebook reported second quarter earnings of $2.6 billion on revenue of $16.9 billion — a jump of 28 pe...

That’s not a honeypot! A Colorado black bear was caught on surveillance footage trying to break into — and then attempting to steal — a pot shop’s dumpster. Footage tweeted Tuesday by Colorado Parks and Wildlife shows the animal slinking into an enclosed area behind The Bud Depot in Lyons and trying to jimmy open the top lid. When he can’t break into the bear-proof dumpster, the thick-furred mammal rolls it out of the enclosure and into a parking lot for several yards. CPW spokesman Jason Clay said the footage was captured just before midnight on July 17, and that the bear didn’t take the waste bin much farther than what is seen in the video. A manager at the marijuana dispensary, Nikko Garza, told KDVR-TV that there was “none of the fun stuff” inside the dumpster — just “boxes.” Workers at the weed store see the animal so regularly, they’ve nicknamed it “Cheeseburger,” Garza said. “Everybody wants to work at a cannabis shop. He’s just showing initiative,” Garza joked. Cre...

In the span of 24 hours, five women — including college student Alexandria “Ally” Kostial — were reportedly shot and killed across the state of Mississippi. The deaths were reported over the weekend by local police officials. At least two of the victims allegedly knew their killers. The others appeared to have been murdered randomly. Kostial, a 21-year-old University of Mississippi student from St. Louis, was found Saturday morning — shot eight times — in Harmontown, MS. Her body was roughly 10 miles away from the Ole Miss campus when deputies discovered it during a routine patrol. The Alpha Phi sorority member had been attending summer classes at the school. Another student — Brandon Theesfield, 22, of Texas — was arrested Monday and charged with Kostial’s murder. The two of them were photographed together back in 2016, but it’s unclear how they knew each other. A friend claimed on Twitter Tuesday that Theesfield had “harassed her for years.” “I spent countless nights holding...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are set to meet Friday, a spokesperson for Pelosi confirmed to The Post. The sit down was originally expected to happen Thursday. The date change was first reported by ABC News . A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez told The Post “no comment.” The meeting is supposed to be a next step in bringing together a sometimes-fractured Democratic caucus, with the social media savvy “Squad” splitting from Pelosi on recent votes. Ocasio-Cortez was also offended when Pelosi diminished the four freshman lawmakers by saying in an interview that they “didn’t have any following” outside the Twitter world. “They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got,” Pelosi said of their pull on Capitol Hill. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted a response to Pelosi’s comments in early July. “That public ‘whatever’ is called public sentiment. And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country,” Ocasio-Cortez wrot...

A 15-year-old girl with “special needs” — who was attacked and beaten by a group of her “so-called friends” in a sickening cellphone video — may have also been sexually assaulted off camera, cops said Wednesday. “That’s what I was told based on some initial testimony from the victim herself,” said Chicago Police spokesman Jose Jara at an afternoon press conference. “The victim was interviewed,” the officer added. “She did mention a couple of things besides what was on the video.” The footage showing the assault first surfaced on social media Monday, and by Tuesday night had already been viewed more than 120,000 times. It shows a group of teens attacking the mentally disabled victim on Chicago’s South Side — beating and punching her repeatedly as she breaks down into tears. “This is beyond disturbing to watch and this young girl deserves far better,” tweeted Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi . “This clip has been forwarded to the #ChicagoPolice Special Victims Unit a...

The last man to enter his second season as the Giants head coach was fired before it was over. This was after Ben McAdoo took the Giants to the playoffs for the first time in five years. That’s something that shouldn’t be lost on Pat Shurmur as he begins his sophomore year in charge of the Giants after going 5-11 in 2018. Shurmur already knows a head coach can be gone after two years. It happened to him in Cleveland, where he went 4-12 and 5-11 during the 2011 and 2012 seasons. Add the three years together and Shurmur owns a less-than-impressive 15-34 record as an NFL head coach. Naturally, Shurmur feels more comfortable leading the Giants than he did last year, when the franchise from the general manager on down was in transition. “I have a better idea of our team and how our team responds to adversity and how they push through,” Shurmur said Wednesday which was reporting day for the team’s veterans. “I have a lot better feel for my coaching staff and I have a lot better feel for o...

North Korea fired two projectiles into the sea on Thursday, the first launches since last month’s historic border meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to South Korea’s military. The unidentified projectiles, which flew 267 miles, were fired from the east coast town of Wonsan, South Korean officials said. South Korean and US authorities were examining the details of the launches. President Trump and Kim Jong Un last month agreed to resume nuclear talks during a historic summit where the two leaders shook hands at the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean peninsula. But last week, those nuclear talks hit a hiccup when North Korea indicated they may resume missile tests as a result of the expected military tests between the US and South Korea. On Tuesday, Kim inspected one of his country’s newly built submarines and talked about the importance of bolstering North Korea’s military. With Post wires  Credit: Source link The ...

The goal for Trae Young’s rebuilding Hawks is to make the playoffs and take a quantum leap forward. Basically, they want to emulate the Nets. After making the playoffs this past season for the first time since 2015, the Nets landed Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan to become arguably the single biggest winners in NBA free agency this summer. It was a breakthrough that didn’t go unnoticed by Young. “That team did an unbelievable job last season of getting in the playoffs,” Young said Wednesday at the NBPA/Five-Star Camp at Basketball City in Lower Manhattan. “They have a tremendous coach. It’s not just their players. With Durant and Kyrie, that’s an unbelievable duo.” With Jordan, its a trio of players who have been All-NBA a combined 14 times. The Nets also traded for Hawks forward Taurean Prince before the draft, and Young gushed over his former teammate and what he’ll bring to Brooklyn as a potential starter. “He can bring a lot,” Young said of Prince, who averaged ...

A beloved lioness overheated and died in North Carolina last week as a blistering heatwave gripped much of the nation. Staff at the Carolina Tiger Rescue sanctuary said they worked for over a day to help the 17-year-old big cat, named Sheba, by running IV fluids and other treatments. But “despite the quick reaction from the staff to get in with her and get her cooled down, her liver and kidneys were unable to recover,” the sanctuary said in a statement on Facebook Tuesday. “For a 17-year-old lion, the heat took a toll.” The nonprofit wild cat sanctuary added that “after working for so long to try to bring her back, we had to make the heartbreaking decision to let her go.” The organization takes in animals that have been abandoned, confiscated or who need a new home, according to its website. According to the rescue, Sheba was the matriarch of a pride of three lions that came from Texas. She always kept the other lions in her pride Sebastian and Tarzan “in line” the rescue wrote....

Robinson Cano has surpassed many milestones in his 14-year professional career. His three homers in the Mets’ 5-2 win over the Padres on Tuesday night were another accolade to add to the list. Amid all the attention brought on by his recent jump in production, Cano could think of just one man to credit. “I want to thank Chili [Davis], because we’ve been working so hard, not only on the swing, but mentally he’s very positive,” Cano said following Tuesday’s win. “He’s the kind of hitting coach you want to be around, not a guy that just works on your swing. … Including myself, and I know a lot of guys here, he’s been huge for us.” Cano is no stranger to the spotlight after his eight years with the Yankees, but he has played under a microscope in his first season with the Mets. He has absorbed a large portion of the criticism and disappointment this season has conjured, but Davis said he never was worried about the veteran second baseman. “There’s constant reminders from me to him tha...

An upstate New York bed and breakfast is offering a quirky way to unwind — by cuddling cows. The owner of Mountain Horse Farm in Naples, New York developed the idea for the stress-relieving pet therapy option following a trip to her native Netherlands, where the practice is more common, according to CNN. “To be honest, we did not know that it was so unknown in the US,” Suzanne Vullers told the network. “A lot of people are familiar with therapy dogs or cats… people don’t associate this with larger animals, like cows.” Vacationers staying at her 33-acre Finger Lakes region bed and breakfast retreat can fork over $75 for an hour-long cuddling session with one of their two bovines, Bonnie or Bella. The best time to cozy up next to the cows is while they’re digesting, Vullers told CNN. “Cows have this wonderful quality that when they are processing their food they like to lay down,” she said. “They become really quiet, and it’s a beautiful opportunity to connect with them.” The ...

Saturday was the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. It appears the Giants’ defense has skipped over Neil Armstrong’s “one small step” sentiment, instead skipping directly to his “one giant leap” proclamation. There are more question marks on this season’s defense than there are sure things. Expectations from outside the team are as low as they have been in years, and an already weak group will have to get by without stars Landon Collins, Olivier Vernon, Damon Harrison and Eli Apple, who all were on hand this time last year. The feeling in the Giants’ locker room, however, tells a different story. “I do believe this defense will be better, and we will be better,” linebacker Alec Ogletree said Wednesday as the Giants reported for training camp. “Our job is to go out there and make plays as a defense. Give our offense the ball back as soon as possible. Like I said, there’s no reason for us not to be a top-10 defense, top-five. We are going to be a great defense. We’ve got the ...

PARIS — Lesbians and single women in France may soon have access to medically assisted reproduction for the first time. President Emmanuel Macron’s government presented a draft law Wednesday on bioethics that includes expanding treatments such as in vitro fertilization, or IVF. Currently, the procedures are only available to heterosexual married couples, which LGBT rights groups and single women have long decried as unjust. The government says the measure is a response to “unprecedented technological advances” and societal change. The bill now goes to parliament, where Macron’s centrist party has the majority. But many conservative and far-right activists oppose the measure and are already planning a protest against it to challenge Macron’s leadership. The bill also includes new rules on parental rights and genetic research. Surrogate pregnancies will remain illegal. Credit: Source link The post France may extend fertilization rights to lesbians, singles appeared first on Fox ...

President Trump on Wednesday vetoed three resolutions that would end US arms deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates amid rising tensions between the US and Iran. The Senate voted last month in support of 22 resolutions that would block Trump’s military aid to the countries, three of which were approved by the House last week. Trump pledged to veto the bills last week after they passed through both chambers of Congress. Lawmakers are not expected to have enough votes to override the veto. “This resolution would weaken America’s global competitiveness and damage the important relationships we share with our allies and partners,” Trump wrote in veto messages to Congress on Wednesday. The measures would have suspended the sale of precision-guided weapons to the country, which some lawmakers believe have been used against civilians in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. “The United States is very concerned about the conflict’s toll on innocent civilians and is working to bring ...

Over 50, single and ready to mingle? Here are some online dating tips, profile pointers and meetup guidelines from experts who know how to get seniors back into the matchmaking game. Don’t fudge your profile photos “Authentic dating profiles get the best results, and in midlife, no one expects a six-pack or perfect body,” says Julie Spira, a relationship expert with senior dating app OurTime. So opt for pics taken in 2019 that capture how you’d actually show up for a first date: in nice clothing, at your current weight and without a filter erasing your crow’s feet. A full-length body shot is essential, Spira adds — people will pass if they think you’re hiding something. And limit yourself to one group shot. Don’t play it coy “It used to be that once you connected with someone, you waited three days to get in touch again because you didn’t want to seem overly interested,” says Spira. “Technology has made that obsolete. If you don’t respond in three hours, your hot lead for romance ...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is still resisting impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, despite a growing expectation for action from her progressive caucus —  including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — following former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony Wednesday. “My position has always been whatever decision we make in that regard has to be done with our strongest possible hand and we still have some outstanding matters in the courts,” Pelosi said Wednesday. “It’s about the Congress, the constitution and the courts. And we are fighting the president in the courts.” House Democrats are heading to courts to seek grand jury material related to Mueller’s Russia probe and to force former White House Counsel Don McGahn — a key Mueller witness — to testify before Congress. Some Democrats expected Pelosi to take decisive action after the long day of testimony from Mueller before two House committees. “I think you will see that we will be taking some immine...

ANKARA/MINSK – A Belarusian diplomat was shot and wounded by his neighbor in the Turkish capital Ankara late on Wednesday, Ankara’s governor said, adding that the shooter had later committed suicide. Alexander Poganshev was attacked by his neighbor, a retired soldier, while taking a walk with his son, governor Vasip Sahin said. He added that the diplomat was taken to a hospital in Ankara and was receiving treatment. Anatoly Glaz, the spokesman for the Belarusian foreign ministry, said the shooter was mentally unstable. “An advisor to the Belarus embassy was attacked on his way back home with his child. He was fired at several times,” the spokesman said, adding the diplomat was in a critical condition. Sahin said the incident was due to a personal dispute, but said there were no further details available at the moment. He said prosecutors would investigate the incident. Credit: Source link The post Belarusian diplomat shot by neighbor in Turkey over personal dispute appeared fi...