deconstruct

A man who beat a 66-year-old Sikh man to death while calling him “turban man” after a fender bender in New York City has been charged with manslaughter as a hate crime, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Gilbert Augustin, 30, also faces charges including assault as a hate crime and unlicensed driving in the Oct. 19 death of Jasmer Singh, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced.

Prosecutors said Augustin called Singh “turban man” during an argument that followed their crash on the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens.

The family of Singh, who wore a turban as part of his Sikh religious practice, had pushed for hate crime charges to be filed against Augustin.

The altercation began after Singh’s Toyota collided with Augustin’s Ford Mustang. Both men pulled over and Augustin got out of his car and confronted Singh, prosecutors said.

A witness said Augustin said “No police, no police” and repeatedly referred to Singh as “turban man” as they argued, prosecutors said.

A popular drug used to regrow hair and thicken thinning locks in both men and women may be difficult to find in some pharmacies, according to new research.

The pill, called minoxidil, must be taken every day for patients to maintain the progress they've made in restoring hair growth. An interruption could be devastating.

"You can go backwards and start losing your hair again," said Dr. Adam Friedman, professor and chair of dermatology at George Washington University.

Minoxidil is often used for androgenetic alopecia, also known as male or female pattern hair loss. It's a condition that affects nearly half of men and about a quarter of women by age 50, according to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology.

In recent months, Friedman noticed that his patients were having difficulty obtaining 30-day supplies of the drug from their Washington, D.C.-area pharmacies.

Earlier this month, he and colleagues called 277 pharmacies in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia to ask about their minoxidil supplies. They found considerable shortages.

Just 40% of those pharmacies had the ability to immediately fill 30-day prescriptions for minoxidil in doses used to treat hair loss (2.5 milligrams). The research has been published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology.

Friedman could not identify a reason for the shortage, but said that the drug had been gaining attention through both mainstream and social media — which could have triggered a rise in prescriptions.

A judge in New York rejected a request by attorneys for Fox News to subpoena billionaire George Soros as part of the cable news channel’s ongoing legal fight with voting systems company Smartmatic.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice David B. Cohen on Monday shot down a request from Fox to compel Soros to provide documents and testimony as part of its process of discovery in the case.

Soros is a progressive billionaire who often draws the ire of conservative media figures and Republican politicians.

Fox, in a court filing earlier this month, sought to depose Mark Malloch Brown, who is the president of the Soros-backed Open Society Foundation and served as chairman of Smartmatic’s parent company.

“I base that on the finding that the crux of Smartmatic’s claims is that Fox has asserted they were part of rigging [the election], not that Smartmatic was affiliated with George Soros, Alex Soros, or the OSF,” Cohen said in open court on Monday, CNN reported. “That’s a peripheral matter — at best, it’s a possible rationale for defamation.”

A man was arrested after he allegedly "bashed" a woman's head into a tree stump because she woke him up on her way to the bathroom, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

Eric Barr was arrested and charged with domestic aggravated battery after the incident that unfolded Friday at the Silver Springs State Park campsite, according to an arrest affidavit.

Deputies on routine patrol in the area were dispatched regarding a verbal disturbance and possible battery. When a deputy arrived, he found the victim "extremely shaken up" with spots of blood on her hands, arms and legs, the report said. She said she was in an argument with Barr, adding that they had been drinking and she "woke him up."

She pointed to the back of her head, which was covered in soaking wet blood, deputies said. They immediately requested emergency medical services.

Deputies found a log on the ground that had blood on it next to a bottle of liquor.

When X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk changed his platform’s verification system, he ushered in a new reality where fringe conspiracy theorists could easily promote false claims about breaking news. That happened again shortly after the deadly mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine, as Media Matters found numerous heavily followed verified accounts claiming that the tragedy was actually a “false flag” attack that was staged or orchestrated by the government.

As the Guardian defined it, the concept of a false flag event “is the idea that powerful forces routinely arrange massacres or terrorist atrocities, and make it appear as if some other individual or group did them, in order to achieve their sinister political goals.” Conspiracy theorists have routinely claimed that mass shootings and other atrocities, including 9/11, were false flags.

Following the deadly October 25 mass shootings in Maine, numerous verified X accounts with tens of thousands of followers claimed that they were a “false flag” or planned by the government.

Rumble host and bigot Laura Loomer, who seems to have the direct attention of former President Donald Trump, raised doubts about the shooting on her formerly banned X account, which has more than 630,000 followers.

Berlin-based business consultant Matt and his colleague were among the first at their workplace to discover ChatGPT, mere weeks after its release. He says the chatbot transformed their workdays overnight. "It was like discovering a video game cheat," says Matt. "I asked a really technical question from my PhD thesis, and it provided an answer that no one would be able to find without consulting people with very specific expertise. I knew it would be a game changer."

Day-to-day tasks in his fast-paced environment – such as researching scientific topics, gathering sources and producing thorough presentations to clients – suddenly became a breeze. The only catch: Matt and his colleague had to keep their use of ChatGPT a closely guarded secret. They accessed the tool covertly, mostly on working-from-home days.

"We had a significant competitive advantage against our colleagues – our output was so much faster and they couldn't comprehend how. Our manager was very impressed and spoke about our performance with senior management," he says.

Whether the technology is explicitly banned, highly frowned upon or giving some workers a covert leg up, some employees are searching for ways to keep using generative AI tools discreetly. The technology is increasingly becoming an employee backchannel: in a February 2023 study by professional social network Fishbowl, 68% of 5,067 respondents who used AI at work said they don't disclose usage to their bosses.

Even in instances without workplace bans, employees may still want to keep their use of AI hidden, or at least guarded, from peers. "We don't have norms established around AI yet – it can initially look like you're conceding you're not actually that good at your job if the machine is doing many of your tasks," says Johnson. "It's natural that people would want to conceal that."

As a result, forums are popping up for workers to swap strategies for keeping a low profile. In communities like Reddit, many people seek methods of secretly circumventing workplace bans, either through high-tech solutions (integrating ChatGPT into a native app disguised as a workplace tool) or rudimentary ones to obscure usage (adding a privacy screen, or discreetly accessing the technology on their personal phone at their desk).

Well before he secured the GOP nomination for House speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., played a key role in efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral victory in the 2020 election.

Johnson, who currently serves as the GOP caucus vice chair and is an ally of Trump, led the amicus brief signed by more than 100 House Republicans in support of a Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate the 2020 election results in four swing states won by Biden: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The lawsuit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, called on the Supreme Court to delay the electoral vote in the four states in order for investigations on voting issues to continue amid Trump’s refusal to concede his loss. It alleged that the four states changed voting rules without their legislatures’ express approval before the 2020 election.

Johnson at the time sought support from his GOP colleagues for the lawsuit, sending them an email with the subject line “Time-sensitive request from President Trump.”

“President Trump called me this morning to express his great appreciation for our effort to file an amicus brief in the Texas case on behalf of concerned Members of Congress,” Johnson wrote in the December 2020 email, which was obtained by NBC News.

“He specifically asked me to contact all Republican Members of the House and Senate today and request that all join on to our brief,” he continued. “He said he will be anxiously awaiting the final list to review.”

America’s drug overdose crisis is out of control. Washington, despite a bipartisan desire to combat it, is finding its addiction-fighting programs are failing.

In 2018, Republicans, Democrats and then-President Donald Trump united around legislation that threw $20 billion into treatment, prevention and recovery. But five years later, the SUPPORT Act has lapsed and the number of Americans dying from overdoses has grown more than 60 percent, driven by illicit fentanyl. The battle has turned into a slog.

Even though 105,000 Americans died last year, Congress is showing little urgency about reupping the law since it expired on Sept. 30. That’s not because of partisan division, but a realization that there are no quick fixes a new law could bring to bear.

Aiming to expand access to treatment, Congress in December eliminated the waiver and training requirements physicians needed to prescribe buprenorphine, which helps patients stop taking fentanyl. The Drug Enforcement Administration recently extended eased pandemic rules for prescribing it via telemedicine through the end of 2024.

A bipartisan group of representatives focused on mental health and substance use has proposed more than 70 bills this Congress to fight the overdose crisis, but none of them has inspired the kind of urgency lawmakers showed five years ago when they packaged bills into one landmark package: the SUPPORT Act.

The law’s expiration on Oct. 1 means states are no longer required to cover all of the FDA-approved treatments for opioid use disorder through Medicaid but public health advocates don’t expect any state to drop that coverage.

A former National Security Agency employee from Colorado pleaded guilty Monday to trying to sell classified information to Russia.

Federal prosecutors agreed to not ask for more than about 22 years in prison for Jareh Sebastian Dalke when he is sentenced in April, but the judge will ultimately decide the punishment.

Dalke, a 31-year-old Army veteran from Colorado Springs, had faced a possible life sentence for giving the information to an undercover FBI agent who prosecutors say Dalke believed was a Russian agent.

Dalke was arrested on Sept. 28, 2022, after authorities say he arrived at Denver’s downtown train station with a laptop and used a secure connection set up by investigators to transfer some classified documents.

According to the indictment, the information Dalke sought to give Russia included a threat assessment of the military offensive capabilities of a third, unnamed country. It also includes a description of sensitive U.S. defense capabilities, some of which relates to that same foreign country. He allegedly told the undercover agent that he had $237,000 in debts and that he decided to work with Russia because his heritage “ties back to your country.”

A $10,000 reward is now being offered for information that leads to the arrest of a man accused of fatally shooting a Maryland judge in a "targeted attack" outside his home.

The U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that it is seeking the public's help in finding Pedro Argote, 49, who is wanted in connection with the killing of Washington County Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson. The shooting occurred hours after the judge gave the Argote's estranged wife custody of their four minor children, according to officials.

Argote has ties to multiple areas outside of Maryland including Brooklyn and Long Island, New York; Columbus, Indiana; and Tampa and Clearwater, Florida, the Marshals Service said in a news release. He also has connections to unknown locations in North Carolina.

Argote should be considered armed and dangerous. He may be driving a silver 2009 Mercedes GL 450, authorities said.

Wilkinson was the judge overseeing Argote’s divorce case, filed in June 2022. On Thursday morning, hours before the shooting, he had presided over a hearing in the case and granted Argote's wife an absolute divorce from him as well as sole legal custody of their four children, ages 12, 11, 5, and 3.

A Detroit synagogue president was found fatally stabbed outside her home Saturday morning.

Samantha Woll, 40, led the congregation of Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue. The synagogue confirmed Woll's death Saturday in a statement writing, “We are shocked and saddened to learn of the unexpected death of Samantha Woll, our Board President.”

“May her memory be a blessing,” the statement continued.

Authorities said a 911 call was made to Woll's home early Saturday, reporting an individual lying on the ground unresponsive. Police discovered multiple stab wounds on Woll's body and found a trail of blood leading to her house, where they believe the crime occurred.

An investigation is underway. At this time, the motive for the crime remains unknown.

Speaking from the Oval Office starting at 8 p.m. ET, Biden made the case to Americans that it's vital to both global and U.S. national security to assist Israel as it responds to terror attacks by Hamas as well as to continue help for Ukraine as it fends off Russian invaders.

"Hamas and Putin represent different threads but they share this in common: They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy," Biden said, referring to the extremists and Russia's president.

Biden said he knows the conflicts can seem distant and Americans might be asking why it's vital to U.S. security interests that Israel and Ukraine succeed.

"History has taught us that when terrorists don't pay a price for their terror, when dictators don't pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and debt and more destruction," Biden said. "They keep going -- and the cost and the threats to America and the world keep rising."