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The mother of one of the suspects in the bloody attack at a concert hall near Moscow last month cried as she spoke about her son.How, he wondered, did he go from the bumpy dirt roads of their village in Tajikistan, Central Asia, to sitting, bruised and battered, in a Russian courtroom accused of terrorism? Although he spent five years in Tajik prisons as a teenager, he said he never showed signs of violent extremism.“We need to understand: who is recruiting young Tajiks, why do they want to highlight us as a nation of terrorists?” said her mother, Muyassar Zargarova.Many governments and terrorism experts ask the same question.Tajik adherents of the Islamic State – especially within its affiliate in Afghanistan known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), or ISIS-K – have taken in...

Consumers have become accustomed to the prospect of their personal data, such as email addresses, social contacts, browsing history and genetic ancestry, being collected and often resold by the apps and digital services they use.With the advent of consumer neurotechnology, the data collected is becoming increasingly intimate. A headband acts as a personal meditation coach by monitoring the user's brain activity. Another claims to help treat anxiety and symptoms of depression. Another reads and interprets brain signals as the user scrolls through dating apps, presumably to provide better matches. ("'Listen to your heart' isn't enough," the producer says on his website.)The companies behind such technologies have access to recordings of users' brain activity: the elec...

A relentless deluge of rain hit the United Arab Emirates and Oman this week, killing at least 20 people, causing dozens of delays and cancellations at Dubai airport and shutting down other cities in what experts described as an enhanced weather system from climate change. .The storm first hit Oman on Sunday, killing 19 people, causing widespread flash flooding and turning roads into raging rivers in Muscat, the capital. In the United Arab Emirates, which recorded its heaviest rainfall in 75 years, one person died in the city of Ras Al-Khaimah and authorities urged residents to stay at home as videos showed submerged cars on clogged highways and planes taxiing on flooded runways. The rains had eased by Thursday and Dubai International Airport, one of the world's busiest, resumed some ...

Navigating the healthcare system in the United States can often feel like getting lost in a maze. What kind of doctor should I see? Who takes my insurance? What is a co-payment anyway?For this reason, Chris Hamby, an investigative journalist, has dedicated much of his five-year career at the New York Times to guiding readers through such dizzying questions. His latest article, published online this month, explores the complex topic of insurance bills.Last year, Hamby began investigating MultiPlan, a data company that partners with several major health insurance companies, including UnitedHealthcare, Cigna and Aetna. After a patient goes to an out-of-network medical provider, the insurer often uses MultiPlan to recommend the amount to reimburse the provider.Mr Hamby's investigation...

European leaders visit Israel, seeking restraint on IranDavid Cameron, the British foreign secretary, acknowledged that Israel seemed certain to retaliate against Iran, despite calls for restraint from Israel's allies.“It's clear that the Israelis are making the decision to act,” Cameron told the BBC shortly before meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We hope they do it in a way that does as little as possible to aggravate the situation.”Israel's allies have joined other world leaders in repeatedly pressuring Netanyahu to avoid taking any action that could increase tensions with Iran, which fired more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel over the weekend. Israel's war cabinet has met several times since then to discuss when and how to respond, and official...

The House made another push Wednesday to push through legislation that would require the sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner or ban the app in the United States, accelerating efforts to disrupt the popular social media app.President Mike Johnson has indicated he plans to package the measure, a modified version of a standalone bill passed by the House last month, with foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.While the new legislation would still require TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to owners who have resolved national security concerns, it includes an option to extend the sale deadline to nine months from the original six months , according to the text of the law. legislation enacted by House leadership. The president could extend the deadline another 90 days ...

For days, Israel's closest Western allies have implored the country's wartime government not to risk triggering a wider war by responding too forcefully to last weekend's barrage of Iranian missiles and drones. And top German and British diplomats delivered this message in person to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday.But Netanyahu emerged from those talks determined that his country would not bow to any outside pressure in choosing its response. Before a cabinet meeting he declared that Israel "will do whatever is necessary to defend itself" and warned allies that "we will make our own decisions," according to his office.British Foreign Secretary David Cameron acknowledged shortly before meeting the prime minister that Israel was unlikely to heed the ...

A pill to be taken once a week. An injection given at home once a month. Also a vaccination administered in a clinic every six months.In the next 5 to 10 years, these options may be available to prevent or treat HIV. Instead of drugs that must be taken daily, scientists are moving towards longer-acting alternatives – perhaps even a future where HIV might require attention only twice a day. year, inconceivable in the darkest decades of the epidemic.“This period represents the next wave of innovation, new products are meeting people's needs, particularly in prevention, in ways we've never had before,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the HIV prevention organization AVAC .Long-acting therapies can obviate the need to remember to take a daily pill to prevent or treat HIV...

There are many reasons why a foreigner might enlist to fight a war that doesn't concern him.One, of course, is money. Permanent contracts in Ukraine pay, on average, about $2,500 a month, an attractive sum for some men who arrived there from countries with few good economic opportunities for them.But some fighters at the woods post of the 2nd International Legion, created at the direction of the Ukrainian president in the days after Russia's invasion in February 2022, said they were looking for something more.One soldier, a Pole named Konrad 13, described the war as a calling, even a blessing. Back home, he said, he had a troubled upbringing. Then, at age 41, he felt like he was at a dead end.Yes, the pay is attractive, says Konrad 13, but so is the sense of purpose.“When I got ...

In a time when the headlines are dominated by wars and a divisive presidential campaign, the magazine-world rivalry between The Atlantic and The New Yorker doesn’t amount to much.So you might have missed it when, on April 2, The Atlantic beat The New Yorker in three big categories at the 2024 National Magazine Awards.But to Rusty Foster, who chronicles the media industry and internet culture in his daily newsletter, Today in Tabs, The Atlantic’s victory was big news.Shortly after the awards ceremony, which took place at Terminal 5 in Manhattan, Mr. Foster tapped out a fanciful report for his audience of media obsessives. Under the headline “Shutout at the TK Corral,” he wrote that David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, “solemnly folded up and ate each of his prepared speeches as he w...