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Listen and follow 'Hard Fork'Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YoutubeThis week we release the Hard Fork Music Megamix. Plus, we talk to two of the New York Times composers who make the music for our show. There are all the tracks you know and love, all in one place.Today's guests:Dan Powell, creative technical director of the New York TimesElisheba Ittoop, New York Times sound designer and composerAdditional reading:Credits“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Roose AND Casey Newton and produced by Davis Land, Whitney Jones AND Rachel Cohn. The show is edited by Poyant only. Engineering by Dan Powell and original music by Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano, Sofia Lanmann, Diane Wong, Pat McCusker, Rowan Niemisto AND Dan Powell. Fact checking by Caitlin Love.Special thanks to Paula Szuch...

Isfahan is one of the historic and most famous cities in Iran, known for its beautiful mosques with turquoise and purple tiles, picturesque arched bridges and the Grand Bazaar. The area is also home to a number of Iranian military sites.In the early 17th century, Shah Abbas I, known as Abbas the Great, of the Safavid dynasty, set to work creating a showpiece in Isfahan. He built the country's most famous mosques, including the splendid Imam Mosque, topped with onion-shaped domes, and the Ali Qapu Palace. Shah Abbas and his son also built bridges that formed an arch over the Zayanderud River, whose waters filled the fountains outside the palace and mosques, and irrigated their gardens.This has made the city, which is now home to around two million people, one of Iran's tourist hu...

People typically don't think of themselves as at high risk of succumbing to the heat or at greater risk than before, leading them to underestimate how a heat wave might land them in the emergency room, said Kristie L. Ebi, a professor at University of Washington. University of Washington, expert on the health risks of extreme heat.“The heat you were asked to handle 10 years ago is not the heat you are asked to handle today,” he said. One of the first symptoms of heat illness can be confusion, she added, making it more difficult for someone to respond without the help of others.What happens next: States and hospitals are preparing for another summer of extreme heat.Dr. Srikanth Paladugu, an epidemiologist with the New Mexico Department of Health, said the state had nearly 450 heat-rel...

Apple said it pulled Meta-owned WhatsApp and Threads apps from its app store in China on Friday on government orders, potentially escalating the technology war between the United States and China.The House of Representatives was preparing to vote as early as this weekend on a bill that would force Chinese Internet company ByteDance to sell its popular video app TikTok or ban it in the United States. US lawmakers have said TikTok poses a security threat due to its ties to China.Apple said China's internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration, ordered the removal of WhatsApp and Threads from its app store due to national security concerns. Apple said it complied.“We are obligated to follow the laws of the countries in which we operate, even when we disagree,” an Apple spokesperson ...

The United States on Thursday blocked the U.N. Security Council from pursuing a Palestinian bid to be recognized as a full member state of the United Nations, quashing an attempt by Palestinian allies to persuade the world body to support the effort. There were 12 votes in favor of the resolution, while the United States opposed it, with Great Britain and Switzerland abstaining.The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, had described the bid for full member status as an effort "to take our rightful place in the community of nations."After the vote, a visibly upset Mansour gave an impassioned speech affirming the Palestinian people's right to self-determination.“Our right to self-determination is a natural right – a historical right – to live in our homeland Palestine a...

Last spring, Tia Washington, 52, a mother of three in Dublin, California, received a stern warning from her doctor: If she didn't quickly get her high blood pressure back under control, she would likely end up in the emergency room. .He wrote her a prescription for blood pressure medication and urged her to also see a health coach. Mrs. Washington reluctantly agreed.“I didn't want to die,” he said.To his surprise, the health coach wanted to talk about more than just vital signs. Ms. Washington found herself admitting that she didn't like doctors (and medications). How she tended to address work or family needs before her own. How her job had created "tremendous stress".Together, they decided that Ms. Washington would attend two weekly exercise classes, consult regularly wi...

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...