On Tuesday, December 4, at approximately 6:45 a.m., United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot outside the Hilton Midtown hotel in New York City in what authorities suspect is a targeted attack. From the assassin-like shooter to the reason that brought Thompson to New York, the circumstances surrounding his death are eerie, to say the least. Dave Landau and the “Normal World” cast, along with guest Derek Richards, discuss the harrowing details of the murder. “Police have released images of the suspect, who is described as a skinny man, standing about 6’1” and wearing all black,” Dave reads from a report. Currently, the shooter is still on the loose. While the suspect himself looks like an average man, the weapon he used to shoot Thompson was certainly not average. “He had a silencer” on the gun he used and an attachment that “[caught] the shells,” says Dave, who plays the actual footage of the shooting (viewer discretion advised). Viewers can see Thompson walking to the Hilton, when the shooter walks calmly into the video frame from what appears to be the street, where police say he was likely lying in wait. He aims his weapon and shoots Thompson with precision multiple times before darting back across the street and disappearing. The gunshots are “so quiet, [bystanders] don’t even know. Cars keep going,” says Dave. Garrett agrees, “That is professional.” “To do it literally right there in Manhattan is insane,” adds Richards, who also assumes that this was no random act of passion by an angry person who was denied coverage, as Thompson was hit with "Hilary Clinton precision.” If the crew is right in the prediction that this was indeed a targeted attack, then the next question is obviously why? This is where the story gets even juicier. According to reports, Thompson was in New York to attend “an investors' conference that UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, was scheduled to host on Wednesday at the Hilton.” “What was he going to disclose at the shareholders' meeting?” asks Dave. Further, “Brian Thompson was facing a Department of Justice probe for insider trading,” says Angela. “He was obviously trading and dealing with somebody, and they didn’t want that getting out,” Dave theorizes. Garrett agrees, adding, “It couldn’t just be somebody got pissed and pulled a gun, because that would be sloppy,” but “this was so professional, so it’s gotta come from somebody that’s higher-level.” To hear more details of the story and see the footage of the shooting, watch the episode above. Want more 'Normal World'?To enjoy more whimsical satire, topical sketches, and comedic discussions from comedians Dave Landau and 1/4 Black Garrett, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Officials of a New Jersey town now say that a ban on "props" at public comments during hearings does not apply to the Constitution and U.S. flags after the issue led to nationwide outrage and controversy. As Blaze Media previously reported, Edison Township made national headlines when a man was escorted by police out of a hearing for carrying a small American flag while arguing against the decorum ban. While the ban doesn't mention the Constitution or flags, township officials claimed that both fell under the designation of "props" banned during comments made at council hearings. 'We are all proud Americans who believe in the principles, morals, and values the American flag represents.' On Tuesday, the council changed their minds. Township Council President Nishith Patel apologized and claimed that the uproar was a misunderstanding. "Let me be very clear, the Edison Council has never, nor will we ever, ban the American flag from our public meetings," Patel said, a week after kicking a man out of a hearing over his small American flag. "Our nation's flag as well as our state’s flag are both prominently and honorably displayed in our council chamber. We proudly and humbly begin each council meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag, reaffirming our commitment and loyalty to our country and the history and values upon which it stands," he added. Mayor Sam Joshi reiterated the point. “Our nation’s flag has never, ever been banned, nor will it ever be banned in our municipal complex or any government building that we solely operate. We are all proud Americans who believe in the principles, morals, and values the American flag represents," he said. However, the decorum ban is still in place. Officials simply say now that it does not apply to the Constitution or U.S. flag. Council members who were opposed to the ban said Patel clearly meant to include flags under the rule. "I was there in the room. It was very apparent that he [Patel] banned the flag as a prop if you were holding it," said Councilwoman Margot Harris. Edison is in Middlesex County, which voted heavily for the Democratic Harris-Walz ticket over the Republican Trump-Vance ticket, 52.3% to 44.3%, respectively. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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Image: Nick Barclay / The Verge Spotify pulled the rug out from developers last week, announcing sudden changes to its API policies just before Thanksgiving that cut new apps and apps in development off from access to the platform’s data. As of November 27th, the day Spotify revealed the changes, new “Web API use cases” will lose access to certain kinds of music data, according to the announcement. The data includes the ability to access Spotify’s catalog information about related artists and Spotify’s algorithmic and editorially-curated playlists. This change affects apps that are in development mode, meaning they’re under construction or used by up to 25 people, and new apps registered on or after the day of the announcement. If you already have an app that’s widely available, it appears that your app can still access the affected endpoints as it could before. But for developers who have been working on an app or building one for more limited use, this is a major and disheartening change. “Without warning and on a major holiday, Spotify cut access to a bunch of very useful API endpoints” “Basically, without warning and on a major holiday, Spotify cut access to a bunch of very useful API endpoints that they’d been providing for years,” Faisal Alquaddoomi, who had been working on an app to visualize music on a DIY LED display, tells The Verge. Alquaddoomi wasn’t aware of the changes until seeing the blog post and says that Spotify didn’t send a proactive notification. Douglas Adams, a software engineer (who is not the famous author), uses Spotify’s APIs to “measure the therapeutic impact of music on patients undergoing life saving treatments” as part of a project he’s working on with UCLA. He says the APIs are “critical” to the study and that he had to work through the holiday weekend to mitigate the impact of the changes on the project. “The alternative is not a straight-forward replacement and will take weeks of work to approach the capability I had before Spotify’s change,” Adams says. Broken Holiday, a lo-fi producer, has been working on an app for artists to manage multiple playlists using automation. But with the API changes, the app can’t see what’s on a given playlist, Broken Holiday says. Spotify has vaguely attributed the need for the API changes to improving security: In its blog post, Spotify says that it rolled out the changes with “the aim of creating a more secure platform.” In a community forum post, a Spotify employee says that “we want to reiterate the main message from the blog that we’re committed to providing a safe and secure environment for all Spotify stakeholders.” The post has many pages of replies from frustrated developers. In a statement to The Verge, Spotify spokesperson Brittney Le Roy says that “as part of our ongoing work to address the security challenges that many companies navigate today, we’re making changes to our public APIs.” The company hasn’t explained why it changed its policies so suddenly and with no warning. But like with Strava’s recently-announced API changes that restrict data sharing to other apps and Reddit’s API pricing changes that sparked protests last year, Spotify’s API changes are yet another reminder of the tenuousness of building apps for other platforms.

US telecom companies, including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen, have been the target of massive and seemingly sophisticated spying attacks for several months now. China is the main suspect behind the hacks. As a result, law enforcement is advising the general public to use encrypted apps for their messages and calls to avoid having hackers potentially access their communications. Using unencrypted apps like regular SMS always poses the risk of interception by a nefarious party who obtains access to a telecom's network. In this case, AT&T and Verizon customers are at risk of having their communications spied upon. Luckily, in the age of smartphones, there are plenty of end-to-end encrypted apps for messages and calls. End-to-end encryption refers to the kind of strong security that hackers can't breach. And the best part is that you might already have encrypted apps on your iPhone and Android device without knowing it. Whatever the case, the following solutions can help until law enforcement says the hackers have been thwarted for good. Continue reading... The post 5 encrypted apps you should use while US telcos are under attack appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Cyber Week deals: $180 iPhone SE 3, $199 Bose QC headphones, $29 Roku Stick 4K, $279 Google Nest WiFi Pro, more Sonos has 10 Black Friday deals that are all at record-low prices Early Black Friday deals: $159 AirPods Pro 2, $99 Ninja blender, $998 Sony 85-inch TV, $199 Bose soundbar, more Black Friday blowout: Massive Apple sale, LG OLED TVs, KitchenAid mixers, Instant Pots, laptops, more