WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday that President Donald Trump, in an extraordinary move, ordered the Pentagon to let a Navy SEAL convicted of combat misconduct retain his elite Trident pin. Esper’s comments came hours after the Pentagon fired Navy Secretary Richard Spencer amid controversy over the handling of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher’s case. Last week, Spencer said that Gallagher’s membership in the SEAL community should be decided by a board of his peers. O

A copy of the “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” script briefly appeared on eBay, director J.J. Abrams said. On Monday, Abrams revealed on “Good Morning America” that a real script found its way onto the e-commerce site. “It was then given to someone else who went to sell it on eBay.” The script was discovered by someone at Disney and the company was able to retrieve the script before it was sold, he said. The nine-film Skywalker saga comes to a conclusion Dec. 20 with the release of “The Rise o

To many fans, Dolly Parton is more than just an iconic musician and a living legend, she’s a role model for success. “I’m like that mother figure,” Parton told ABC News’ Robin Roberts in a recent interview. Specifically, Parton was told that she wouldn’t be taken seriously due to the way she dressed and presented herself, she told People. I will know it because I’m that in tune with myself and that in tune with God,'” Parton recalled to People. “It may not always turn out right from me, but I’m

London is giving Uber the boot. London authorities on Monday revoked the ride-hailing company’s license to operate in the city, a move that would cut Uber off from its biggest European market. The ruling is on hold while Uber puts through an appeal. After months of tension between London and Uber, experts weren’t exactly surprised by the developments, taking Uber’s over 1% decline on Monday in stride. If you think about the ramifications here, this has been a back-and-forth between Uber and Lond

Trump praised Conan, a Belgian Malinois, who was injured while chasing al-Baghdadi down a dead-end tunnel in Syria. It was a dog day afternoon at the White House on Monday, when President Donald Trump celebrated the heroic pup who took part in last month’s military raid that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump present Conan, the military working dog injured in the successful operation targeting Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, be

Two Manhattan federal jail guards accused of trying to cover up their failure to check on accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in the hours before his suicide are now scheduled to go on trial April 20. Prosecutors previously said some of the video does not show anyone approaching Epstein’s cell after he was last seen entering it on the night of Aug. 9. Prosecutors and defense lawyers said Monday they expect the guards’ trial to last one week. The defendants, who are free on bail, are sch

A mid-engine 2020 Chevrolet Corvette on the floor of the Los Angeles Auto Show on Nov. 21, 2019. LOS ANGELES – Following Ford Motor’s highly anticipated debut of the all-electric Mustang Mach-E SUV, attention is turning to General Motors to potentially leverage the Chevrolet Corvette, its most-iconic nameplate, into a sub-brand and SUV. “It’s time to look at the potential of GM’s supercar brand,” Jonas said, citing it would be “more than a needle-mover for GM.” Jonas said the upcoming mid-engine

Cramer also said, with exasperation, “China is the enemy, except for in the mainstream media that just loves Xi.” Discounting “negative media reports,” China and the U.S. are very close to a first-step trade deal, according to the Global Times on Monday. Pro-democracy candidates won big in Sunday voting in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese territory. Last week, the U.S. House and Senate passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Trump still has not said whether he’ll sign the bill, w

Facebook and Twitter on Monday announced that personal data of hundreds of users may have been improperly accessed after they used their accounts to log into certain Android apps downloaded from the Google Play store. The companies received a report from security researchers who discovered that a software development kit named One Audience gave third-party developers access to personal data. This includes the email addresses, usernames and most recent tweets of people who used their Twitter acco

What a tough month it has been for bitcoin. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency sank to $6,558.14 on Monday, its lowest level since May, according to industry site CoinDesk. Bitcoin jumped to above $10,000 briefly last month after Xi sang the praises of blockchain in a speech and called on his country to advance development in the field. “This was one of the worst weeks in the history of digital assets,” Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer of Arca, told CNBC. Still, bitcoin has doubled in

Warren Buffett Gerard Miller | CNBCWith two huge mergers being the talk of Wall Street, which one would Warren Buffett do? Buffett’s rules of the road for acquisitions have been expressed in years of shareholder letters. A stock deal allows shareholders to benefit from those synergies — albeit always uncertain in the initial estimation on deal date — that can accrue over time. Even as Berkshire’s cash hoard has grown to near-$130 billion, Buffett has been reluctant to make big deals. But managem

Papadopoulos went to jail for 12 days late last year after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government. Trump is known to be a fervent viewer of “Fox & Friends.” The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment asking if the president would endorse Papadopoulos. In a Nov. 13 email asking supporters to donate to his then-potential campaign, Pa

Leah Millis | ReutersFederal Reserve economists warn that printing money to pay for deficit spending, as Modern Monetary Theory proponents recommend, has been a disaster for other nations that have tried it. “A solution some countries with high levels of unsustainable debt have tried is printing money. In this scenario, the government borrows money by issuing bonds and then orders the central bank to buy those bonds by creating (printing) money,” wrote Scott A. Wolla and Kaitlyn Frerking. “Histo

A worker fits wheel hub badges on the Ford Focus automobile assembly line inside the Ford Motor Co. factory in Saarlouis, Germany, on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019. Ford expects hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) to make up over 50% of its European passenger vehicle sales by year-end 2022. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesHow can a company have $37 billion in cash and short-term assets on the balance sheet and still be strapped for cash? Begin with two related, near-ter

The chocobos in Final Fantasy 7 Remake are fluffy and glorious, as all chocobos should be, as shown in a new PlayStation Blog post. The last trailer we saw from Tokyo Game Show revealed some of the bigger summons, like Shiva and Ifrit, but now we get to see what happens when you summon Chocobo and Moogle. The screens show the special “Stampede” attack, which summons a ton of chocobos to plow through the enemies. There’s also some nice clear shots of Reno, Rude, and the Avalanche crew, which you

If you’ve managed to hold off on buying Sega’s mini plug-and-play Genesis console, now is the time to strike. The Sega Genesis Mini is down to just $49.99 — the original asking price was $79.99 — as part of an early Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal. You can snag that deal at retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart through Dec. 7. The Sega Genesis Mini was released in September. In our review of the Sega Genesis Mini, we called the system “a best-in-class retro console wit

The raid exploit may very well be the culprit. “One of my friends keeps doing the raid reset exploit, so I’m getting spammed with raids I can’t even join,” one Twitter user wrote. “Side effect of the exploit being used — one step involves opening a bunch of raid lobbies that then go abandoned,” another Twitter user said. Related The Pokédex is bullshit and I have the dead Pokémon to prove it”This exploit has completely ruined Raids tbh,” another Twitter user mused. For now, though, if you’re hav

In Pokémon Sword and Shield, Gengar can enter Gigantamax mode where he becomes not only large, but his form changes, too. Essentially he goes from deadly baby to all mouth — a mouth that’s filled with “cursed energy” and leads not into his body but “directly to the afterlife,” according to Gengar’s Sword Pokédex entry. It gets worse in Gengar’s Shield Pokédex entry: “It lays traps, hoping to steal the lives of those it catches. who knew it only took a few tweaks to turn gengar’s mouth from “lova

The Pokémon Company has filed a lawsuit in a Seattle court alleging three unnamed defendants leaked Pokémon Sword and Shield information ahead of the game’s release. The leakers — John/Jane Does 1-3 — posted photos from the official Sword and Shield strategy, thereby sharing new details about unreleased Pokémon. Related Epic Games suing Fortnite tester who leaked Chapter 2The Sword and Shield strategy guide was released on Nov. 22, a week after Sword and Shield’s Nov. 15 launch date. The Pokémon

Over the weekend, players found a new Legendary weapon in Borderlands 3: the Good Juju. Borderlands 3’s Good Juju shares quite a bit with Destiny’s Bad. Like Bad Juju, Good Juju is a steady, multi-round burst weapon with great stats. Borderlands 3 players can pick up the weapon from The Rampager on the new Mayhem 4 difficulty, according to Borderlands 3 YouTuber Joltzdude139. Fans are fond of Bad Juju because you can use it in basically any situation, and always get some kind of use out of it.