Louisiana policemen fired over Facebook post suggesting Ocasio-Cortez be shot

A Louisiana policeman who suggested on Facebook that high-profile U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez needed to be shot was fired on Monday, along with a second officer who "liked" his post.

Officers Charles Rispoli, a 14-year veteran of the Gretna Police Department who made the social media comment on Thursday, and Angelo Varisco, who "liked" it, were terminated following a swift internal investigation, Chief Arthur Lawson told a news conference.

"This incident we feel has been an embarrassment to our department. These officers acted in a manner which was unprofessional, alluding to a violent act to be conducted a sitting U.S. congresswoman," Lawson said.

He said an internal investigation had found that both men were in violation of the police department's social media policy, on which they had been trained. The department would consider further instruction on the issue for the rest of its employees, Lawson said.

The incident came just days after U.S. President Donald Trump touched off a furore by tweeting that Ocasio-Cortez and three of her colleagues in Congress, all women of colour, should "go back" where they came from if they were unhappy in the United States.

‘The Lion King’ Review: Disney’s Remake Is a Disastrous Plunge into the Uncanny Valley

Unfolding like the world’s longest and least convincing deepfake, Jon Favreau’s (almost) photorealistic remake of “The Lion King” is meant to represent the next step in Disney’s circle of life. Instead, this soulless chimera of a film comes off as little more than a glorified tech demo from a greedy conglomerate — a well-rendered but creatively bankrupt self-portrait of a movie studio eating its own tail.

With the possible exception of 2015’s “Cinderella,” which was touched with just enough magic to feel like a new wrinkle on an old fairy tale, all of Disney’s live-action rehashes have been faint echoes of their animated predecessors. But “The Lion King” isn’t an echo, it’s a stain. This zombified digital clone of the studio’s first original cartoon feature is the Disney equivalent of Gus Van Sant’s “Psycho.”

Unlike the rest of the Disney’s latest rehashes, “The Lion King” isn’t live-action: Favreau, who previously inched towards this same technological asymptote with his playful update of “The Jungle Book” in 2016, has made a fully animated film working overtime to disguise itself as an episode of “Planet Earth.”

Marvel to Release ‘Black Widow’ Starring Scarlett Johansson in May 2020

Saturday night at Comic-Con 2019, Marvel Studios revealed its “Black Widow” solo film starring Scarlett Johansson will be released on May 1, 2020. The film also stars Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Rachel Weisz.

Johansson’s Black Widow is a spy and an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. She debuted in Marvel’s “Iron Man 2” and has since appeared in all three “Avengers” films, as well as “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Civil War” as a core member of the superhero team.

Complicating the solo film is, of course, the fact that the character died, apparently permanently, in “Avengers: Endgame.” In the film, she and Hawkeye traveled to Vormir to acquire the Soul Infinity Stone, which requires a death in order to be summoned. After a tearful conversation between the two, followed by a melee in which they each competed to die, Black Widow jumped to her death, allowing Hawkeye to take the stone.

Davido Dragged To Court Over alleged N4, 000,000 (Four Million Naira) Fraud

Osun State born Nigerian hip pop singer David Adedeji Adeleke aka DAVIDO has been dragged before Igbosere Magistrate Court 2 Lagos State over an alleged fraud of N4, 000,000.00 (Four Million Naira).
The matter which came up for mentioning on the 23rd of May, 2019 as No 16 on the case list at Magistrate Court 2 Igbosere. Listed as Defendants in the suit marked MCL/702/19 are: David Adedeji Adeleke (Davido) – his Personal Assistant: Busari Idris Temitiope (Alias Aloma) and; Davido Music Worldwide Limited music label.

When the matter was called, none of the Defendants, including Davido was in Court, neither were they represented by their lawyers. Counsel to the Claimant Alabh George Turnah, (MON) informed the Court that the Defendants according to the bailiff of the Court, refused to accept service of the originating processes and pleaded the Court for an order for substituted service, which the Court granted.

Chicago Town Offering One Bride The Chance To Marry In Pizza Wedding Dress

For most people, weddings are all about tradition: the church, the vows, the white dress.

But if you fancy doing something a little different - and dare I say, cheesy - then Chicago Town might have just the package.

The pizza company is running a competition for soon-to-be-weds, with the winners claiming a pizza-based wedding package.

The star attraction of said package is a pizza wedding dress. The dress has a long and elegant train like your typical bridal gown, but instead of being pure and white, it has a highly detailed print of a pepperoni pizza on it, complete with a thick crust trim. Nice.

The dress is paired off with a matching pizza bouquet and the couple will also get a six-tier pizza cake to cut into... Now it doesn't get any more romantic or delicious than that.

If you're wondering what kind of loved-up loons would be interested in such a wedding package, the safe money would suggest it would have to be a couple who eat pizza at least four times a week. However, the competition may also appeal to those who aren't vain but are short on cash, as the wedding package also includes a honeymoon to Chicago. That dress is starting to look a little less hideous now, isn't it?

A spokesman for Chicago Town said the dress was 'loosely modelled on Rihanna's iconic 2018 Met Gala dress,' with 'loosely' clearly the crucial word here.

If your main question is what on earth inspired Chicago Town to run this competition in the first place, the simple answer is: a poll of 2,000 Brits.

Man Exonerated After Serving 20 Years In Prison Thanks To Genetic Genealogy

A man in the US has been exonerated after serving 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, thanks to the help of genetic genealogy - a technique that compares unknown DNA evidence to public genetic databases to identify suspects through their family members.

Christopher Tapp was sentenced in 1998 for the rape and murder of Idaho teenager Angie Dodge - despite the fact his DNA did not match evidence found at the crime scene.

Instead, he had been convicted based on a confession he late retracted, along with the theory that multiple people had been involved in the crime.

Decades after proclaiming his innocence - and saying his confession was coerced - Tapp was finally exonerated on Wednesday after genetic genealogy was used to find a new suspect in Dodge's murder.

As he left court, Tapp told reporters: "I hope that things get learned from this mistake and I hope things get changed."

He continued: "I'm glad I was able to come out the other end and still smile and still be happy.

Footage From Cockpit Shows Moment Boeing 737 Crashed Into Pacific Ocean

The video was released by the Papua New Guinea Accident Investigation Commission (PNG AIC) and is taken from the cockpit of an Air Niugini plane that crashed 1,500ft from a runway in Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, last September.

One man was killed in the crash and nine other passengers were injured, with the subsequent investigation finding that the pilots ignored numerous 'pull up' warning lights on their descent.

The report into the crash by the PNG AIC said the captain and first officer ignored a total of 17 audible warnings that they were flying too low.

The report read: "The crew were fixated on the task of landing the aircraft and did not notice the visual PULL UP caution alert at the bottom of their PFD.

"Therefore, they (the crew) did not take any positive action to arrest the high rate of descent and avoid landing in the lagoon. In fact, neither of the pilots were aware of the rapidly unfolding unsafe situation.

"The crew seemed to have disregarded and talked over all the caution annunciations. The crew had experienced those type of cautions on previous flights and perceived them as nuisance alerts with no resultant consequence."

‘Cats’ Trailer Becomes Top Twitter Trend in Reaction to Furry CGI Felines

The “Cats” trailer dropped Thursday afternoon, and Twitter pounced. At the time of this writing, the movie was the top trending topic worldwide on Twitter with over 300,000 tweets. While that’s only a fraction of the record 50 million tweets that “Avengers: Endgame” accrued, it’s still an impressive initial response for a film based on a 38-year-old musical.

If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, the actors in Tom Hooper’s “Cats” all retain their human bodies and faces, but are covered in CGI fur and possess pointy ears and tails. Some viewers found the anthropomorphism unsettling, while others — like star Taylor Swift — were thrilled. Reacting to her transformation into a feline, the singer tweeted, “I am a cat now and somehow that was everything.”

But if you wade through the many memes and reactions to the trailer Thursday, you’ll see people having a hard time finding the right words to express their feelings.

“I don’t know what I expected from ‘Cats” ‘digital fur technology’ but the short answer is NOT this. My brain has melted. My eyes are bleeding. There is no god,” entertainment journalist Kristy Puchko said on Twitter. “Maybe we were too harsh on Sonic.”

Disney's 'The Lion King' Looks to Roar at the Weekend Box Office

After five consecutive weeks wherein the weekend domestic box office failed to top the same weekend from a year prior, this weekend will easily buck the trend. Leading the charge, Disney's latest release, the "live-action" adaptation of The Lion King, is likely to outperform the combined top twelve from the same weekend last year all on its own as it is ushered into over 4,700 domestic locations and all over the world.

With what has been a summer box office season that has seen plenty of films under-perform and miss expectations, Disney is hoping their CGI adaptation of the studio's beloved animated feature The Lion King delivers not only at the domestic box office, but all around the world. The film will launch in a record 4,725 domestic locations this weekend and industry expectations have it pegged for a debut around $175-180 million, which would be enough to top the current July opening record holder Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which opened with $169 million back in 2011. A performance in that range would also be the second largest of the year so far behind only Avengers: Endgame ($357.1m) and ahead of Captain Marvel ($153.4m). It would also top Beauty and the Beast, another Disney live-action reimagining, which opened with $174.7 million in March 2017 in 4,210 locations.

‘Supergirl’ Star Melissa Benoist Joins Kevin Smith’s ‘Jay and Silent Bob Reboot’

Melissa Benoist, the star of “Supergirl,” has joined the cast of Kevin Smith’s “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,” Smith announced on Instagram on Thursday.

The film is a satire about Jay and Silent Bob racing to Hollywood to prevent a reboot of their comic book superhero movie “Bluntman and Chronic” from being made, and in the rebooted version, Benoist will play the actress set to take the role of a now female Chronic.

“And we gave her some pants *before* the good folks at @supergirlcw!,” the director joked on Instagram, noting how Benoist’s hero wears a skirt on the CW show.

Kyoto Animation fire: Arson attack at Japan anime studio kills 33

An arson attack at Kyoto Animation studio in Japan on Thursday morning July 18th, reportedly killed at least 33 people and left 36 others injured.

The 41-year-old suspect shouting “You die" as he broke into the studio spraying petrol before igniting it, was also hurt and taken to a hospital. Though the motive of the attack is yet to be established, however it was gathered that most victims of the incident were employees at Kyoto Animation, which does work on feature films and TV productions but is best known for "Free!", manga series "K-On!", the anime TV adaptation of "Haruhi Suzumiya" and "Violet Evergarden" which Netflix picked up in 2018.

Doctors remove 33 objects including razor blades and a screwdriver from the stomach of a 30-year-old man

Doctors in India have removed 33 objects, including razors and knives, from the stomach of a 30-year old man identified as Yogesh Thakur,

Thakur was admitted to the hospital on July 14 after he complained of severe stomach pain. His mother, Kusma Thakur, told doctors her son would 'grab anything and eat it', leading them to conduct x-rays and doctors were stunned to find objects such as a knife, screwdriver, razor blades and plastic items inside Thakur's stomach.

Two days later, doctors extracted all the objects in an operation and Thakur, a part-time farmer, is now recovering and will receive psychiatric help.

Italy, FBI raids target resurgent Cosa Nostra family

Italian anti-mafia police and the FBI in New York have arrested 19 people, in coordinated raids on historic mobster families bidding for power within the Cosa Nostra, investigators said Wednesday.

Raids in both countries targeted links between the Sicilian Mafia -- known as the Cosa Nostra -- and US organised crime, said an Italian police statement.

Italian police said 18 people had been arrested in Italy and one in the United States.

Among those arrested was Thomas Gambino, considered by the FBI to be a key player. Police also cuffed members of the Inzerillo family, said Italian prosecutor Roberto Tartaglia.

During their investigation, they said, they secretly filmed Gambino holding a covert meeting with the head of the Inzerillo family on a rubber dinghy off the coast of Palermo last summer.

The Inzerillo crime family has been trying to rebuild after the 2017 death of its enemy, Boss of Bosses Salvatore "Toto" Riina, police said.

The investigation, dubbed "New Connection" by the Italian police, revealed "the strong bond established between Cosa Nostra in Palermo and US organized crime," it said.

Investigators focussed in particular on the Gambino crime family in New York.

FBI and FTC Must Investigate FaceApp’s Ties to Russia, Chuck Schumer Says

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday is calling for the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate FaceApp, the popular app that lets users age themselves with one of several filters, over its use of user photos and data.

Schumer, in a letter to both the FTC and FBI that was first obtained by NBC News, said he’s especially concerned with FaceApp’s developer being based in St. Petersburg.

“In particular, FaceApp’s location in Russia raises questions regarding how and when the company provides access to the data of U.S. citizens to third parties, including potentially foreign governments.”

The FTC and FBI did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

FaceApp has sparked a phenomenon in the last week, with celebrities from Drake to Cardi B using the app to show their followers what they’ll look like when they’re old and gray. The app’s popularity has rocketed it to the top of Apple’s free apps chart, with aged FaceApp posts littering Instagram, Facebook and Twitter in recent days. At the same time, it’s raised questions over how FaceApp will use its pictures and data moving forward.

Instagram Tests Hiding Likes to ‘Remove Pressure,’ Company Says

Instagram has expanded hiding “likes” to six new countries, months after the Facebook-owned app launched its initial test in Canada.

On Wednesday, Instagram rolled out the test in Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand. Users will still be able to see how many like their posts get, but when someone else goes to their post, the total number of likes will be absent.

“We hope this test will remove the pressure of how many likes a post will receive, so you can focus on sharing the things you love,” Facebook director Mia Garlick told the us


The larger test comes only a few months after Instagram head Adam Mosseri told BuzzFeed News the company wants users to focus less on their like counts. Mosseri said he wanted to create “a less pressurized environment where people feel comfortable expressing themselves,” rather than an environment where people delete posts that don’t rack up enough likes.

The test also comes as there’s mounting evidence likes are detrimental to mental health.