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His ominous warnings, at the end of a two-day trip to North Korea and Vietnam, placed Russia and the West in a new phase of escalation over Ukraine. They come against a backdrop of distraction and political uncertainty among Kiev's core supporters, with potentially game-changing elections on the horizon in the United States and France.In addition to using nuclear weapons or causing further destruction on the battlefield in Ukraine, the Russian leader is trying to demonstrate that he can pressure and antagonize the West in other ways and in other places.“I fear that we are in a bad spiral, that politicians have the illusion of control,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center. “The truly dangerous part of what is happening is that Russia is ready to act a...

Thousands of auto dealerships across the United States and Canada are experiencing disruptions to their businesses due to cyber attacks against a provider of critical software and data services used in auto retailing.The provider, CDK Global, said it was targeted in two attacks on Wednesday, prompting the company to shut down its systems to prevent the loss of customer data and to allow testing and other measures to restore its services.“We are evaluating the impact and providing regular updates to our customers,” CDK Global said in a statement. “We remain vigilant in our efforts to restore our services and return our retailers to normal operations as quickly as possible.”CDK provides services to more than 15,000 stores. Its dealer management systems store customer records and automate m...

During Saudi Arabia's annual Hajj pilgrimage, one of the most important events in the Muslim calendar, at least 450 people died under a scorching sun while praying at holy sites around the holy city of Mecca.In the midst of maximum temperatures that ranged from 108 Fahrenheit to 120, according to preliminary data, and crowds of people, many of whom fainted and needed medical attention. Pilgrims, some of whom have saved their lives for the hajj, spend days walking and sleeping in tents on their journey to Mecca, the holy city for Muslims. The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and all physically or financially able Muslims are obliged to undertake the pilgrimage.Indonesia has so far reported the most deaths, 199, and India 98. The countries said at this point they could not be s...

When PBMs are overburdened, they can increase costs for patients, not just employers and government programs like Medicare.The country's most popular Medicare drug plan, SilverScript Choice, covered nearly 3 million Medicare beneficiaries last year. Caremark is its PBM and it overcharges.Caremark uses Medicare money to pay pharmacies, including its own, about $2,000 a month for a generic blood cancer drug, imatinib, according to a pricing tool on the SilverScript plan website. Because the payment is so high, the out-of-pocket cost for Medicare patients is also high: $664 in most months.That's more than 10 times the selling price of imatinib – often less than $50 – at online pharmacies when patients forgo insurance and pay with their own money.For patients, the situation amounts t...

Edi Rama's best friend during the summer of the 1982 World Cup was the only person he knew who owned a color television. So, every evening, Rama found himself crammed into his kitchen with countless others, desperately hoping that the fuzzy, flickering signal would hold.Then Albania was an island, under the repressive and conspiratorial government of Enver Hoxha. Foreign travel was banned for all but a few industry insiders. Communication with the outside world, particularly the West, was also limited. Rama and his friends were only able to follow that World Cup through what he later called a "dark web" run by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster.In a recent interview with Tuttosport, he said he still remembers that month fondly. Italy was Albania's avatar for the tournament; t...

Listen and follow 'Hard Fork'Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YoutubeThe Surgeon General calls for warning labels on social media platforms: should Congress like his proposal? Then, former Stanford researcher Renée DiResta joins us to talk about her new book on modern propaganda and whether we're losing the war against disinformation. And finally, Times reporter David Yaffe-Bellany stops by to tell us how cryptocurrencies could reshape the 2024 election.Credits“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose AND Casey Newton and produced by Davis Land AND Rachel Cohn. The show is edited by Poyant only. Engineering by Alyssa Moxley and original music by Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano, Sofia Lanmann AND Rowan Niemisto Fact checking by Caitlin Love.Special thanks to Paula Szuchma...

Election billboards adorning the streets of Iran for the upcoming presidential election make big promises: economic prosperity, an end to corruption, freedom of the press, reversing the brain drain, and a candidate's pledge to "save the citizens" from all troubles that afflict the country.In their efforts to attract votes, all six candidates – five conservatives and one reformist, all selected by a committee of clerics – are unleashing violent attacks on the status quo. In speeches, television debates and roundtables they criticized the government's economic, domestic and foreign policies, as well as the moral police's violent treatment of women, and ridiculed official rosy assessments of Iran's economic prospects as harmful illusions.Extraordinary presidential elections w...

When U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy announced Monday that he intended to push for a mental health warning label on social media platforms, he was met with applause from many parents and teachers, who described a long and lonely fight to break children from a habit that hurt them.It drew, however, a colder reaction from some scientists who study the relationship between social media and mental health. In interviews, several researchers said that the general warning offered by Dr. Murthy – “social media is associated with significant harm to adolescent mental health” – extends and oversimplifies the scientific evidence.For many years, researchers have been trying to determine whether the amount of time a child spent on social media contributes to poorer mental health, and "the result...

Barbara Gladstone, an art dealer whose eye for spotting talent and skill in cultivating it helped her build one of New York's largest and most influential contemporary art galleries, died Sunday in Paris. She was 89 years old.His gallery says that his death, in hospital, was caused by an ischemic event, the symptoms of which are similar to those of a stroke. Mrs. Gladstone, who was on a business trip to Paris, lived in Manhattan.Mrs. Gladstone represented more than 70 artists and estates, including Americans such as Robert Rauschenberg, Keith Haring and Elizabeth Murray; the provocative video and installation artist Matthew Barney; key figures of the Italian Arte Povera movement such as Mario Merz and Alighiero Boetti; Richard Prince, the pioneer of photographic appropriation; th...

TikTok explained Thursday why it believes a new federal law that could lead to a ban on the popular video app in January is unconstitutional, calling the legislation an "extraordinary restriction on free speech."The company said Congress has not given the law — which would force TikTok's Chinese owner to sell the popular social media app or face a ban in the United States — with nearly enough scrutiny and attention.TikTok made the arguments in a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where the company sued to block the law in May.“This law represents a radical departure from this country's tradition of supporting an open Internet and sets a dangerous precedent that allows political branches to target an unfavorable speech platform and force it t...