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Shah calls out Collins for votes on ICE funding, leadership

In response, Collins’ spokesperson Blake Kernen said Collins has negotiated funds for body cameras and de-escalation training. In addition, she’s increased by 17% funds for investigations into the types of incidents that occurred Monday in Biddeford.

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Jul 14 • 1:52 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Collingswood’s vibrant downtown needs a weekday evening boost, business owners say

Haddon Avenue is hopping during the day. But restaurant owners say the dinner scene is losing out, perhaps because Collingswood, unlike some neighboring areas, is dry.

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Jul 14 • 5:01 AM EDT • Business • inquirer.com
Lakers have officially signed guard Collin Sexton

Guard Collin Sexton, an instant offense player and high-motor competitor, is now officially a member of the Lakers.

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Jul 12 • 10:31 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics

Taylor Hatch exits DCF, FPL customers get refunds, and Jay Collins has another brutal week.

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Jul 12 • 5:30 AM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com
Senate hopefuls try to keep Platner at a distance while embracing his movement

In Maine, Democrats vying to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins are condemning the scandal-tarred former candidate while wrapping their arms around his populist rhetoric and agenda.

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Jul 11 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Graham Platner submits notice to formally withdraw from Maine Senate race

Maine is considered a key state for control of the narrowly divided Senate, and Democrats were desperate for a candidate capable of defeating Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

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Jul 10 • 7:19 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Graham Platner officially drops out of the Maine Senate race

Democrats have until July 27 to find another candidate to face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November’s midterm elections.

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Jul 10 • 4:55 PM EDT • Politics • nbcnews.com
High-Signal Publisher
Who will replace Graham Platner on the ballot? 7 Democrats to watch

Whoever is selected will have less than four months before facing longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the general election.

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Jul 9 • 1:50 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Graham Platner drops his bid for Senate after facing an allegation of rape

Platner's campaign to unseat GOP Sen. Susan Collins in Maine was marked by repeated scandals. It came to a crashing halt after the allegation led top Democrats to withdraw their support.

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Jul 8 • 8:23 PM EDT • Politics • npr.org
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Graham Platner drops out of Senate race, allowing Maine Democrats to replace him

His decision comes within days of a key deadline, allowing Maine’s Democratic Party to select a new candidate to face Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a critical contest for Senate control.

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Jul 8 • 8:20 PM EDT • Politics • nbcnews.com
High-Signal Publisher
Graham Platner drops Maine Senate bid, clearing way for Democrats to pick new nominee

Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner said Wednesday he was ending his campaign, clearing the way for Democrats to select a new candidate to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins in one of the most important contests of November’s midterm elections.

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Jul 8 • 8:15 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Graham Platner ends U.S. Senate campaign in Maine

Maine Democrats have until July 27 to choose a replacement candidate to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R).

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Jul 8 • 8:14 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Succession fight is underway as calls mount for Graham Platner to drop out of Senate race

The allegation reported Monday prompted a chorus of calls for Platner to depart the high-stakes race against Republican Sen. Susan Collins, which could decide party control of the Senate.

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Jul 8 • 1:12 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Analysis | What Graham Platner’s rise and unraveling reveal about the politics of 2026

In their rush to find a strong candidate to run again Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Democrats should have more thoroughly vetted their party's nominee.

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Jul 7 • 12:40 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Absent frontrunner Byron Donalds dominates Florida GOP governor debate he skipped

Former House Speaker Paul Renner, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and businessman James Fishback took the stage Thursday night, each trying to prove he is the strongest alternative to U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the Trump-backed frontrunner.

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Jul 6 • 10:49 AM EDT • Politics • wptv.com
Small Business Promotion Week: Coquí Café

Arlington residents can get a taste of Puerto Rico, as well as a love for sharing food and culture, at the newly opened Coquí Café at 2442 S. Collins St.

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Jul 6 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • arlingtontx.gov
Platner will prioritize public health, which Collins helped to dismantle

A new television ad (paid for by “America First International Assistance”) portrays Sen. Susan Collins as protecting Maine from the Ebola virus by funding millions in scientific research. While the ad may have historical truth concerning her record (the footage appears to be several years old), Sen. Collins is a member of the Republican Senate […]

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Jul 3 • 4:55 AM EDT • Health • pressherald.com
Fox News Poll: An early look at the Georgia Senate race

A new poll shows Democrat Jon Ossoff leading Republican Mike Collins by 13 points in the 2026 Georgia Senate race, with inflation as the top concern.

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Jul 1 • 3:23 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
John Collins agrees to $51 million contract with Detroit Pistons

The veteran big man strengthens the Pistons' frontline.

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Jul 1 • 8:38 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Zach Collins signs two-year extension with Bulls

Zach Collins signs two-year extension with Bulls

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Jun 30 • 10:20 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Fox News Poll: Maine Senate race is tight, with concerns about both candidates

Susan Collins holds a slim 3-point lead over Graham Platner in Maine, but a 15-point enthusiasm gap among Democrats keeps the race competitive.

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Jun 30 • 3:26 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Platner Has Slight Edge Over Collins in Tight Maine Senate Race, Poll Finds

The Maine race, which both parties see as key to winning control of the Senate, is extremely close as the sprint to fall begins, a Times/Portland Press Herald/Siena poll found.

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Jun 29 • 4:00 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Ossoff banks on Trump attacks in purple state and takes aim at rival Collins
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Jun 28 • 10:11 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
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Platner, Collins’ campaign spar over federal contracts

Platner released a multi-point plan he calls “a corruption crackdown,” which covers issues such as big money in politics, lobbying activities by former members of Congress, and making it more difficult for presidents to cash in on their position while in office.

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Jun 25 • 2:04 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Protests at Sen. Collins’s office on Dobbs anniversary

Members of Indivisible Maine and supporters of Graham Platner gathered outside Sen. Susan Collins’ office on Wednesday to criticize her comment that she does “not regret” supporting Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination.

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Jun 25 • 9:10 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Susan Collins is testing whether old school politics still work

In the modern era, political activists want their representatives to fall strictly in line. To the base, the independent centrist is no longer a hero; they are a villain to be purged. But Susan Collins has a pitch that she is an independent voice.

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Jun 25 • 5:30 AM EDT • Politics • bostonglobe.com
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Khanna: ‘Progressive movement is on the ascendancy’

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said the “progressive movement is on the ascendancy” after recent left-wing wins throughout the country. While appearing on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins,” Khanna…

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Jun 24 • 6:17 PM EDT • Politics • thehill.com
Abortion rights fight underscores key themes in Maine’s U.S. Senate race

Four years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. In the majority of that decision was Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine had voted to confirm after he had told her the landmark decision was “settled law.”

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Jun 24 • 7:45 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
The 4 GOP senators who broke ranks and voted to block Trump from resuming Iran war

The president seethed at Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul after the war powers resolution passed, saying: "I will get it done, one way or the other."

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Jun 24 • 7:21 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
First There Was Noise, Now There's Just Wyndham

For all of the chatter around Clark, there is now a very simple way to describe him: two-time U.S. Open champion. That’s more U.S. Open wins than Scheffler, McIlroy, Snead, Mickelson, Faldo, Ballesteros, Norman, Singh, Schauffele, Collin and Justin Thomas…combined.

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Jun 21 • 10:48 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Suns reportedly re-signing Collin Gillespie to 4-year, $48 million deal following guard's breakout season

Gillespie, a former Villanova standout, went undrafted in 2022 and then played three straight seasons on two-way contracts. Now he has a long-term NBA contract.

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Jun 20 • 6:56 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Father and son row across Pacific Ocean for veteran mental health

British Royal Marine veteran Tim Crockett and his son, Harrison, join 'Fox News @ Night' with Storybones Media CEO Heidi Collins to discuss their efforts to bring awareness to veteran suicide with the film 'Tame the Kraken.'

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Jun 20 • 8:18 AM EDT • Health • foxnews.com
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Dem Senate hopeful under fire for resurfaced comments calling cops 'opportunistic cowards'

Graham Platner's anti-law enforcement Reddit posts resurfaced as the far-left populist seeks to unseat Sen. Susan Collins in Maine's Senate race.

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Jun 18 • 12:05 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Georgia Republicans choose Collins for Senate and Jackson for governor, a mixed result for Trump

Georgia Republicans delivered a split decision for Donald Trump in Tuesday runoffs, opting for the president’s preferred U.S. Senate candidate but rejecting his choice for governor in favor of a billionaire first-time candidate who spent freely from his personal fortune to win the nomination.

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Jun 17 • 4:59 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Trump-backed candidate wins primary to face Jon Ossoff in Georgia midterms

Republican primary runoff voters chose US representative Mike Collins to face Ossoff in November

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Jun 17 • 5:46 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com
Collins defeats Dooley for GOP U.S. Senate nomination in Georgia

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins will face U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in November after winning the Republican runoff in Georgia's Senate contest.

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Jun 16 • 9:24 PM EDT • Politics • ajc.com
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CNN projects Rep. Mike Collins will win Republican nomination for Senate in Georgia
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Jun 16 • 8:47 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
He Spent a Month Investigating How Susan Collins Keeps Beating Democrats. Here’s What He Found.

Slate's Jim Newell talks about his opus on one senator's seemingly inexplicable success.

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Jun 16 • 6:04 PM EDT • Politics • slate.com
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Secretary Collins: Veterans are a business advantage

VA Secretary Doug Collins told employers at the Disney Veterans Institute Summit to put Veterans at the center of how they think, hire and operate.

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Jun 16 • 9:30 AM EDT • Business • news.va.gov
Nearly half a billion dollars in ads projected in Maine election

Most of the spending will target the crucial U.S. Senate race between Democrat Graham Platner and Republican Susan Collins, according to AdImpact.

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Jun 15 • 3:38 PM EDT • Politics • mainepublic.org
Trump's endorsement of Mike Collins for US Senate creates ‘Georgia politics Jenga game’

Georgia Republicans are weighing in on President Donald Trump's 11th-hour endorsement of U.S. Senate candidate, current U.S. Rep. Mike Collins.

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Jun 15 • 8:45 AM EDT • Politics • wabe.org
Opinion | Your Summer 2026 Politics Quiz Is Here

Ease into the summer with the latest Gail Collins politics quiz.

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Jun 15 • 5:04 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
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Trump endorses Rep. Mike Collins in Georgia Senate runoff
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Jun 14 • 11:37 AM EDT • Politics • cbsnews.com
High-Signal Publisher
Trump endorses Rep. Mike Collins ahead of GOP Senate runoff in Georgia

President Donald Trump on Sunday waded into the Georgia Republican primary for Senate, endorsing Rep. Mike Collins just days before the congressman faces off against Derek Dooley in a runoff election.

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Jun 14 • 10:20 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
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Trump endorses Collins in Georgia Senate runoff. It's his latest 'MAGA' pick in Republican primaries

Days before the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia, President Donald Trump has made an endorsement

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Jun 14 • 8:33 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Trump endorses Mike Collins in runoff, shaking up Georgia’s U.S. Senate race

The decision is a blow to Derek Dooley, the Republican who is backed by Gov. Brian Kemp. Trump's decision will test GOP loyalties in the runoff in June.

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Jun 14 • 7:17 AM EDT • Politics • ajc.com
President Trump Endorses Mike Collins in Georgia Senate Runoff

Mr. Trump backed Mr. Collins over Derek Dooley, a former football coach who is supported by Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican whose relationship with the president is strained.

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Jun 14 • 2:38 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
In Retrospect: Poland, Russia, Europe

In April I spent a few days with Zryw, a Polish non-profit organization that recruits young people to enter politics and public life. Their aim is to build a new generation of civic leaders in Poland. I’ve followed their evolution from the beginning; my son is one of the founders. (“Zryw” means “impulse” or “burst of speed” in Polish). Julie Chmielewska, one of Zryw’s leaders, interviewed me at the event. Here is the conversation, lightly edited for grammar and context: Julia Chmielewska: Assuming that culture shapes institutions, could we conclude that some cultures are more prone to authoritarianism? Anne Applebaum: I don’t think so. Every culture, every nation, and every country has the potential for change. When we look at history, we can see that nations do change. Poland has changed, for example, from the 1980s to today. There’s a completely different mentality here than the one I encountered when I first visited, in 1988. The current generation sees the world through a different frame. So no, I don’t believe that certain nations are doomed to authoritarianism, or to anything. Of course, there are political and cultural traditions, but they can always be challenged. JC: So do you think there’s something intrinsic in human nature that pushes people to democracy, freedom? AA: I think there is something in human nature, a deep instinct, that pushes people towards freedom, yes. People who live in authoritarian countries – and I’ve heard this from them over and over again – sooner or later find themselves angered by a feeling of helplessness. They can see the unfairness of crooked courts, irrational political decisions. They naturally dislike the fact that somebody has all the power while they have none. In those circumstances, people who have no political background at all sometimes are politicized just by that frustration. I’m thinking of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, for example, who was a Belarusian housewife, until the circumstances of her husband’s arrest forced her to become a politician. I met a woman who is a Uyghur from China, and who had come to live in Turkey. After several of her family members were arrested, she too was propelled into a political role. These kinds of experiences make people interested in democracy or political reform, even if they thought they didn’t care. I also think that the opposite is true: some people instinctively prefer homogeneity, order, hierarchy. They don’t like the confrontation of opinions or the noise of debate, and they lean towards a single leader or a unified regime. I think that most of modern history is shaped by the clash between those two different sides of human nature. JC: Which force do you find more powerful today? AA: I think they both have a lot of power and there’s no way of predicting who wins. Even in countries that seem very shut off or stuck in an authoritarian system can change. We’ve seen that happen. And vice versa, I think democracies can also begin to fail and slide into authoritarianism. So it’s very important not to be complacent in either direction. JC: I want to go into your history and your experiences. You’ve lived in Russia during a time of incredible change in the late 80s, and then you came back to do research in post-Soviet Russia. AA: I was a student in Russia just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. I then traveled and worked there extensively in the 1990s, and I met people who really were full of hope. They hoped that Russia could become a democracy, or at least a place that guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of the press. These weren’t ideas that came from Washington. Although now the narrative in the Kremlin is different, I met many people who were working towards exactly that kind of transformation. A friend of mine ran a series of seminars – once a year, and then later several times a year, in cities all over Russia – designed to get people to discuss politics in new ways. She invited young politicians and journalists, as well as foreigners. I went to many of them, in Moscow as well as Volgograd and Novosibirsk. Over two decades, hundreds of people came to these seminars, and all of them wanted Russia to be different. I remain convinced that many Russians still want Russia to be different. It’s just that the old system, in the form of Putin, a representative of that system, returned. The KGB reimposed their power. And this wasn’t because of something to do with culture, this was to do with money and politics, and who was in charge. JC: You’ve partially answered my question... I wanted to ask whether that excitement of the 1990s was an exception from the Russian historical norm which has been rather authoritarian? AA: Of course, if you look at the history of Russia since the 18th century, there have always been liberal groups, reformers and revolutionaries. There were the Decembrists, in the early 19th century, and the rural populists later on, who tried to organize the peasantry. A significant group of liberal Russians appeared at the turn of the 20th century, people like the father of the writer Vladimir Nabokov, who was a Russian politician before the revolution. These groups were small in number, but sometimes had a broader significance. The Russian dissident movement in the 1950s and 1960s actually invented the modern human rights movement. It was their idea to hold the leaders of the Soviet Union accountable for the language they used, to remind them of the treaties they had signed and the promised they had made. They created the Helsinki group, for example, that held Soviet leadership to the language of the Helsinki Treaty, which formally ended the Second World War and which contained guarantees of human rights, at least on paper. That idea spread to Eastern Europe, and similar tactics were used here in Poland. (Benjamin Nathans recently wrote a great book about the Soviet dissidents, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause) JC: But seemingly, even if they do ever get power, they could never hold on to it. AA: We don’t know, because they have never really had power. But in any case, we also don’t know what will happen in the future. There is no reason to assume that Russia will forever be condemned to totalitarianism. Even during the first fifteen years of Putin’s regime there was some form of democratic politics. Only when the full-scale war began did he bring everything to an end: he shut down all remaining independent organizations and killed his most important opponent, Alexi Navalny. But does that mean he is popular, that he enjoys legitimacy? Even now, we don’t really know what Russians think about him, or about the war. There is no way of doing real polling in Russia because nobody will answer an independent pollster over the phone. JC: Do you think that the flock of young people, especially young men, who fled Russia after the start of the war represent a continuation of liberal movements that refuse to partake in the authoritarian state, or do you think they are moving for the sake of self-preservation – “I don’t want to go to the army, so I leave”? AA: I’m sure it’s both. I actually know many people who left Russia for political reasons either in the very last years before the war, or else just after the war began. JC: And do you see a change in the young generation versus the old one that have fled? AA: It’s hard for me to say because the people who I know were mostly already politicized. I do know some younger people who left, but most of them were already either active in the opposition, or working as journalists. Many of them very self-consciously think of themselves as maintaining Russian culture abroad, just as in the 20th century the Soviet dissidents or the anti-communist White Russians once thought of themselves as people who maintained the true Russian culture, outside of Bolshevik Russia. JC: Let’s move on to Poland. One of your first experiences with Poland was reporting on Margaret Thatcher’s first state visit, in the autumn of 1988. You followed her around the farmers’ market. AA: She was making a symbolic gesture. She wanted to welcome free markets, but the only one she could really visit was the farmers’ market at Hala Mirowska. JC: And I want to talk about this area because today you can look out of any window in that district, Mirów, and see rows and rows of skyscrapers. How does it feel to see a country built from the ground in such a short time, both politically and economically? AA: You know, when you’re living in a period of dramatic change, it’s always hard to know whether the change is positive or negative. The transformation in Poland created winners and losers, as well as new classes of people, new political movements of different kinds. At the time, it sometimes just felt like turbulence. Now, we can look back at the 1990s and early 2000s in Poland and see in retrospect that the country was headed in towards prosperity and European integration. In around 2009 or 2010, I remember speaking to a woman who worked cleaning government offices, and who asked me if her daughter should study in Amsterdam or in London. This seemed to me to be a real transformation, and it happened very fast: within a few years, Poles stopped feeling like second-class Europeans, and a generation of younger Poles appeared who had no qualms about crossing borders. JC: We again live in turbulent times. Do you think we’re heading towards positive outcomes? AA: I can’t make predictions, because everything that happens tomorrow depends on what people do today. Also, history doesn’t have a trajectory. It doesn’t move in a particular direction. You only think it does afterwards. As I said, you can look afterwards at Poland in the 1990s and you could say this was a period of great progress. But not everybody at the time saw that. Sometimes people are very wrong about a given country’s trajectory. I remember people writing about Ukraine in the 1990s, about how dangerous it was that Ukraine was independent, that this was going to be an anti-semitic state, that Ukrainian nationalism was going to come back... and although you can say many bad things about Ukraine, the country made many bad choices, actually it became a pretty tolerant state which now has a Jewish president and until recently a Muslim defense minister. JC: In the 1990s Poland’s and Ukraine’s GDP were roughly similar. Ukraine was even a bit richer. So the starting point was similar for both of these countries, but they’ve turned out very, very differently. Even if we stop in 2014. Why do you think Ukraine “chose East”? Was it external influence? AA: No, I think Ukraine was in a different position. First of all, central and eastern Ukraine had been part of the Soviet Union since the 1920s, and had therefore experienced a longer period of occupation, repression, Sovietization and even Russification. Ukraine did not have, as Poland did, an alternative elite: a large cadre of economists and politicians, who already had some experience in opposition politics and in independent thinking. In Poland, the transformative finance minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, had already thought about how an economy might be decentralized before he took office. We can argue about how successful he was, but at least he was prepared to try something new. In Ukraine, people weren’t prepared. For one, there hadn’t been much space even for an illegal opposition in the previous couple of decades. Ukraine was also in many ways still emerging from colonial occupation. For the previous couple of centuries, many of the most capable Ukrainians had moved to Russia, and the first generation of leaders in independent Ukraine tended to be former Soviet apparatchiks. They didn’t immediately seek to become closer to western Europe. Instead, they looked for some kind of economic and political “third way” and an accomodation with Russia. Ukraine became stuck in this position, half-in, half-out and became pretty profoundly corrupt. JC: The Polish alternative elite had a vision of where they wanted the country to go. I think the general perception now is that this vision ends with the next election, right? Is this a natural process of gaining power? AA: Their vision, and it was shared by the time by politicians who now call themselves both left and right, was that Poland should join the EU and NATO, as fast as possible. My husband (Radek Sikorski) was in the very first government that said it wanted to join NATO. At the time this was taken very badly in Washington: the demand for NATO membership absolutely came from Poland, not from the US. But even then, in the early 1990s, many Poles already understood that the Russian sphere of influence would grow once again, that it was important to become part of the transatlantic alliance and an integrated Europe as fast as possible: NATO, the EU, the Council of Europe, all of the trading and security alliances. That consensus lasted through several different governments and over many years, even governments containing former communists. For twenty years, right, left and center disagreed about many things, but they all agreed on the direction that the country should go. In retrospect, that consensus created the basis for prosperity in Poland. JC: And regarding the Polish-Ukrainian relations. We know that antagonisms, e.g. the myth of Wołyń [a massacre of Poles that took place in what is now Western Ukraine, in 1943] are increasingly used in Polish political discourse today. In Ukraine, nationalist historians make heroes out of UPA, the Ukrainian revolutionary army, which is held responsible for this tragedy. Where do you see a start for burying the hatchet? Is the reconciliation of our nations possible? AA: So here’s a strange thing: For more than a decade after they both gained independence, Poland and Ukraine participated in a number of projects that were designed to solve exactly these kinds of Polish-Ukrainian differences. Books were published that were jointly written by Polish and Ukrainian historians, monuments were built. These projects were successful: If you’d asked me this question in 2010, I would have said that there are no real historical issues between Poland and Ukraine, that the two countries had mostly reconciled. For a number of reasons, this began to shift. In Poland, children and grandchildren of victims of the Wołyń massacre felt their tragedy hadn’t been fully recognized. In Ukraine, nationalist groups wanted the UPA partisans who had fought against the Soviet Union recognized for their heroism, despite the fact that some in this broad and not well-defined group were also linked to Wołyń. In both eastern Poland and western Ukraine, the memory of the ethnic cleansing that took place there in the late 1940s - Poles were moved West, Ukrainians East - to accomodate new borders has left feelings of displacement and bitterness. The wave of Ukrainian immigration, which started before the war, may have provoked some of this. But don’t underestimate the role played by Russia, which has always wanted to create discord between Poland and Ukraine, and pumps out propaganda to that effect in both countries. Vandalism on both sides of the border, damage done to cemeteries and monuments, is sometimes carried out by provacateurs working for Russia, just to create bad feelings. The Polish-Ukrainian conflict also hides a different reality: although there are real grievances and bad memories, the truth is that the biggest tragedies both nations experienced in the twentieth century were inflicted by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. That should unite these two countries, not divide them. JC: This week (19.04.2026 – Ed.) in Hungary we saw that using historical narratives to create grievance has no longer worked. Are you optimistic about the direction after Orban’s loss? AA: The Hungarian election was really important because it shows that people can actually resist powerful, dominant propaganda. The ruling party Fidesz controlled all of the TV, 90% of the newspapers, the constitutional court, the bureaucracy... and yet people had the nerve to vote against it and resist it. It’s also an important election because Hungary created a huge network of well-funded think tanks and foundations that were funding other far right groups and projects. So that loss is going to have a knock-on effect in other places too, maybe even in Poland. JC: What you’ve said about resisting propaganda reminds me of one of the interviews you did about talking to Russians in the post-Soviet era who claimed that people knew that the system was lying. Why do people choose to believe in these regimes anyway? AA: Because it’s useful. Stephen Kotkin, an American historian, once described how people would learn how to “speak Bolshevik”: It was just a language that you needed to use in order to get by in society. If you didn’t talk the way the regime wanted you to talk, then you might have problems, or lose your job, or your kids would not get into university. It was a way of getting along. Communist Poland was similar, at least in the early years. When I was writing a book about the Sovietization of Eastern Europe after World War II, I met a lot of people who wanted to talk a lot about the war, when many of them had done really heroic things. But almost nobody wanted to talk about the decade afterwards, between 1945 and 1956. This was when you had the short period of terror, violence and Polish Stalinism. To stay safe, people felt the need to just go along with what others were saying, or stay out of politics, or use communist jargon without necessarily believing it. I don’t judge them for it, and I wouldn’t describe all of those people as collaborators. It’s easy to feel moral certainty in retrospect, because we know that communism ended. But if you were living in 1949, it might not have been clear to you that communism was going to end. In very repressive societies, maybe about 10% of people who are really evil – collaborators, torturers. Maybe 10% of people are really brave and who find ways to resist. And then around 80% of people have kids, they have parents, they have to have jobs and they’ve had to get through it somehow. Strange though it may sound, I’ve found that the work I did on that book is now very useful in explaining some of what’s going on in the United States today. There are plenty of members of the Republican Party in Congress who know perfectly well that Donald Trump says many things that aren’t true. But they avoid criticizing him because it’s inconvenient, because they would get in trouble, because someone would attack them on the internet. So actually you don’t even need mass terror to get people to conform. JC: Is Gen Z reinventing agency? AA: We’ll see. In any generation you can find groups of people who want agency. If you live in a society that’s unfair, for example where a tiny number of people have captured most of the wealth, then at a certain point people rebel. This is always easier for younger people, who have you have less to lose. The question now is how the internet will affect the relationships between citizens and the state, and how it will change organizations. The “Twitter revolutions” people spoke about as early as 2008-9, mass protests organized online, have often proved to be very superficial. Although you can easily join something just by clicking, the work of creating a real movement requires physical participation. Successful mass movements of the past, for example the Civil Rights movement in the United States, were built by people who had spent many years together. They had participated in non-violent workshops together. They practiced and prepared. Just using the you can get everybody to show up at a certain moment, but then when the protest is broken up, nothing happens. It’s also true that the repressive regimes have more recently learned how to use the internet to undermine leaders and movements. Most of all, they now understand how to make people cynical. The form of propaganda that most modern authoritarians use - and I think the Russians really pioneered this - deploys sneering cynicism. Instead of praising the rulers, the regime propagandists mock the opposition movement leadership for being supposedly corrupt or sexually degenerate, with the goal of undermining any kind of idealism. JC: MAGA grew on the internet? AA: MAGA is a real grassroots movement. They had symbols, red hats, they showed up at rallies. But you’re right that the cynicism, the sarcasm and the distrust that the movement embodies came originally from the internet, and this is different. Fifty years ago, most European political parties had a social base in real organizations, in trade unions for Social Democrats, in church groups for Christian Democrats. As people stopped going to church and as the trade unions became smaller, the social base of these parties disappeared. Now people who wouldn’t have known one another in the past meet on the internet and create new movements, many of which don’t last. JC: Is history ending? Going in stale circles? AA: History never ends. In truth, human beings want contradictory things at the same time: order and freedom, stability and change. These things are never resolved, and when a society swings too far in one direction, people always push it the other way. But each time that happens, the result is different. Certainly it is true that we are now in a period when old philosophers and ideas from the 1930s are undergoing a revival. Carl Schmitt, who was a philosopher who was very influential on the Nazis, is back as an influence on both the far left and the far right, once again inspiring people to think that all politics has to be existential, that all politics is about defining and defeating enemies. In the US, some are also bringing back dominionism, the idea that we need a Christian and not a secular state. It’s also true that we are living through a more fundamental shift. The old left-right divide, which was mostly about the size of the state, is much less important now. Instead, we are arguing about more fundamental things: what are our rights, what protects our freedom. Or how much power do we want to give small elites, versus how much power to give ordinary people. In America a small group of very wealthy people now control information, because they control the social media platforms and AI, which means they determine what people will read and learn. Finding a way to preserve preserve zones of autonomy and independent thinking, this is going to be the main task for the next generation. JC: What is the one book that a person interested in Central Europe should read? AA: You could read my book “Iron Curtain: the Crushing of Eastern Europe” which tells the story of how the Soviet Union imposed its culture on the region. Or read Tim Snyder’s history of the region, “The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999.” And everyone should read “The Captive Mind” by Czesław Miłosz, which describes exactly the phenomenon we were talking about: why do people collaborate? I joined Scott Galloway and the brilliant Fiona Hill in a discussion about the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the future of global power, and what these conflicts reveal about America's role in the world. Scott told us that this was the 400th edition of his podcast, which is quite a number: My friend Francesco Chiamulera runs a brilliant series of literary events, Una Colline di Libri, A Hill of Books, in the Prosecco Hills, a region of vineyards and elegant hill towns in the Veneto, north of Venice. We did an event in Vittorio Veneto and also drove and biked around the countryside. Buy Autocracy Inc Buy Iron Curtain Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe

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Jun 13 • 4:15 AM EDT • Politics • anneapplebaum.substack.com
The Politics Hour: The final countdown to the D.C. primary and Virginia lawmakers stall over the budget

WAMU's Alex Koma and Washington Informer's Sam P.K. Collins get us ready for the D.C. primaries. Plus, Virginia Delegate Vivian Watts weighs in the data center tax breaks stalling budget negotiations.

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Jun 11 • 4:58 PM EDT • Politics • wamu.org
Parade politics: Collins and Wu-backed challenger Gayle mount-up for summer contest

The contest for First Suffolk Senate got more interesting last week when Mayor Wu back a challenger to Sen. Nick Collins.

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Jun 11 • 8:07 AM EDT • Politics • dotnews.com
Republicans fear of 'fatal mistake' in must-win Platner race

The NRSC warns Republicans that scandal-plagued Democrat Graham Platner remains a credible threat to Sen. Susan Collins in Maine's pivotal Senate race.

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Jun 10 • 3:07 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Trump weighs in on Maine's U.S. Senate race

While Trump attacked Platner, he said that Sen. Susan Collins is "a respected person."

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Jun 10 • 1:49 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Defying Trump ended some Republicans' careers. It could help Susan Collins

She is the rare Republican who sometimes can boost her own popularity back home by keeping her distance from President Donald Trump, and she has perfected that delicate dance even as his tightening grip on the party has cost two of her Senate Republican colleagues their reelection.

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Jun 10 • 12:59 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
The Londoner Pub expanding to Arlington, near entertainment district

The Tate family moved to North Texas from England and opened their first pub in Dallas in the early 1990s on Greenville Avenue. They now own The Londoner, which has locations in Addison, Colleyville, and Dallas, showing European soccer. Their newest pub is opening on Collins Street in Arlington, Saturday, June 13. The Dallas location opened in 2022, just days…

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Jun 10 • 8:02 AM EDT • Entertainment • nbcdfw.com
Defying Trump could help Susan Collins win reelection in Maine

Collins has managed to stay close enough to benefit politically while maintaining an independent streak. This strategy has helped her survive Trump's frequent personal attacks and his primary endorsements of opponents3.

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Jun 10 • 7:26 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Defying Trump ended some Republicans' careers. It could help Susan Collins win reelection in Maine

Maine Sen. Susan Collins often boosts her popularity by keeping her distance from President Donald Trump

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Jun 10 • 5:06 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Top takeaways from the primary elections in Maine and South Carolina: 'Movement about us'

Graham Platner cruises to Maine Democratic Senate nomination despite mounting controversies, setting up a key midterm battle against Sen. Susan Collins.

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Jun 10 • 1:37 AM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Graham Platner tears into Republicans after clinching Susan Collins matchup in Maine, and other primary night takeaways

Graham Platner was all but certain to win Maine’s Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday. But the progressive populist Platner was on course to earn about three-fourths of primary voters’ support — effectively ending any question about whether Maine Democrats wanted him to be their standard-bearer against Republican Sen. Susan Collins in one of the nation’s marquee races in November.

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Jun 9 • 11:39 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
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Platner wins Maine primary to challenge Collins

Voters also headed to the polls in primary elections in Nevada, North Dakota, and South Carolina ahead of the midterms.

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Jun 9 • 9:55 PM EDT • Politics • bbc.com
Graham Platner shrugs off scandals to win Maine Democratic Senate primary

Platner, whose campaign was hit by series of negative headlines, to face Susan Collins in key midterm contest

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Jun 9 • 9:27 PM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com
Platner Wins Maine Senate Primary After a Turbulent Stretch of His Bid

Graham Platner has faced new scrutiny over his personal history, but his Democratic primary victory sets up a high-stakes race against Senator Susan Collins, a Republican.

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Jun 9 • 9:26 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Graham Platner wins Democratic nomination to challenge Susan Collins in November

U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner on Tuesday secured the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, withstanding a withering blitz of unflattering revelations and ongoing attempts by Republicans and some Democratic operatives to weaken his candidacy.

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Jun 9 • 9:25 PM EDT • Politics • mainepublic.org
Platner to frame overtly negative campaign against Collins

A speech he intends to deliver Tuesday night when he accepts the Democratic nomination, obtained by The Post, suggests the Maine Senate candidate wants to make the election a referendum on President Trump.

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Jun 9 • 7:35 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Platner seeks the Democratic Senate nomination to set up critical Maine race with Collins

Graham Platner is seeking to make a Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate official in advance of one of the most anticipated contests of the year.

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Jun 9 • 12:08 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
🙂 Positive (35%)
Sen Collins slams Bernie-backed Graham Platner as too far-left for Maine voters

Sen. Susan Collins calls Democratic challenger Graham Platner too extreme for Maine voters, while Platner charges Collins is the "radical" candidate.

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Jun 9 • 10:56 AM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
These teens have the weight of the world on their shoulders. Mental health is taking a nosedive

"Everyone is going through something," one California teen said about the prevalence of mental health concerns among his peers.

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Jun 9 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • calmatters.org
Can Democrats take the Senate? Maine voters may provide a clue

Democrat Graham Platner appears likely to become the party's nominee against Sen. Susan Collins. Platner has been accused of engaging in volatile behavior with women, among other controversies.

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Jun 9 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • latimes.com
Will Platner Scandals Dampen Democratic Vote? What to Watch in Tuesday’s Primaries.

Any indication of tepid support for Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, will be seen as a warning sign about his chances against Senator Susan Collins, the Republican incumbent.

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Jun 9 • 5:02 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
René Garcia endorses Jay Collins for Governor

‘I believe he’s the strongest Republican to win in November.’

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Jun 8 • 12:48 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com
Graham Platner gets a lift from friendly Maine crowd

The Democratic primary is still seen as Platner's to win, but he is facing questions about his past that could make it difficult to defeat longtime incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

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Jun 8 • 10:28 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Jay Collins to pitch senior protection programs in Monday news conference

Collins has his work cut out for him in the gubernatorial Republican nomination for the Primary Election.

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Jun 7 • 7:00 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com
'You can't pull a Biden': Jay Collins keeps pressing for Byron Donalds debate as time runs short in Governor's race

Host Maria Bartiromo said she was showcasing the 'under the radar' fight for the GOP nomination.

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Jun 7 • 11:25 AM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com
Trump Looms Over Pivotal Republican Senate Runoff in Georgia

The president has not yet endorsed Representative Mike Collins or Derek Dooley, a former football coach, in the race to challenge the Democratic senator, Jon Ossoff.

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Jun 7 • 5:02 AM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
Collins’s vote, Platner’s service inject Iraq War politics into key Senate race

Veteran Graham Platner is attacking Republican Sen. Susan Collins's vote to authorize the war in his campaign to unseat her.

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Jun 7 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Byron Donalds calls for GOP to 'unite' as primary opponents call for debates

The biggest debate among Republicans seeking to succeed Ron DeSantis is whether to debate or not.

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Jun 6 • 9:30 AM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com
Things to do in the Loveland area on Saturday: Nearly every NoCo community has a festival happening

Nearly every town in Northern Colorado has a festival happening on Saturday, including Bluegrass & Brews Festival and the Colorado Medieval Festival in Loveland, Berthoud Day, Johnstown BBQ Day, Fort Collins Pride 2026 and FoCo EcoFest…

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Jun 6 • 9:02 AM EDT • Entertainment • reporterherald.com
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Dmen

The top defenseman available at the 2026 NHL Draft took the stage at the Combine. The San Jose Sharks are in need of their star blueliner of the future. Their core of Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa, William Eklund, and Collin Graf is outstanding, but lacks a top blueliner to pair with Sam Dickinson. […] The post Dmen appeared first on San Jose Hockey Now.

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Jun 6 • 12:15 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Graham Platner says his past has been ‘weaponized’ at rally in Maine

Supporters brush off negative stories about the Democratic Senate candidate and rebut suggestions that he is the wrong person to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins.

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Jun 5 • 9:33 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Who is Lyndsey Fifield, Graham Platner's ex-girlfriend?

Lyndsey Fifield made most explosive claims about Platner in Thursday's New York Times story.

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Jun 5 • 1:12 PM EDT • Politics • pressherald.com
Graham Platner to hold rally as scandals shake up campaign

Platner, an oyster farmer and progressive activist, is key to the Democrats' hopes to take back the U.S. Senate this year as the party needs him to defeat longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

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Jun 5 • 6:49 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Four Senate Republicans again unite with Dems to block Trump's SAVE America Act

Four Senate Republicans joined Democrats to kill the SAVE Act voter ID amendment for a second time, blocking it from the budget reconciliation package.

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Jun 4 • 7:03 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
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Ex-Trump WH aide: they were terrified of CNN’s Kaitlan Collins
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Jun 3 • 10:50 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
😐 Neutral (0%)
Wu, a Collins foe, endorses his Senate challenger Latoya Gayle

Michelle Wu and Nick Collins have bitterly clashed the past two years over his vocal opposition to her property tax legislation.

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Jun 3 • 10:30 AM EDT • Politics • bostonglobe.com
WATCH: Schumer met says he with Platner after report on explicit texts, 'we're going to beat’ Collins
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Jun 2 • 4:17 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms show off head start in Georgia as Republicans battle in runoff

Democratic Sen_ Jon Ossoff of Georgia is criticizing his potential election rivals, Rep_ Mike Collins and former coach Derek Dooley, calling them "Trump puppets."

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May 31 • 9:13 PM EDT • Politics • news4jax.com
😐 Neutral (18%)
Graham Platner’s extramarital sexting further complicates Democratic hopes of winning back Senate

Democrats already facing a difficult path to recapture control of the US Senate are grappling with the latest revelations about Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee set to face Sen. Susan Collins in a must-win race for the party.

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May 31 • 9:10 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
UW’s Collins receives posthumous national award for aquatic science excellence

University of Wyoming faculty member Sarah Collins, who passed away in October following a courageous battle with cancer, has been honored posthumously by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology

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May 30 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • wyomingnews.com
Despite inflammatory comments, Platner holds 9-point lead over Collins in new poll

Democrat Graham Platner leads Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a new Maine Senate poll despite controversies over inflammatory online posts and a tattoo.

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May 28 • 11:27 AM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Poll: Vote for Blue FCU's top girls athlete from spring sports

Vote for your top girls athlete from Fort Collins-area spring sports, with nominees from Windsor, Timnath, Rocky Mountain and Fossil Ridge.

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May 28 • 7:31 AM EDT • Sports • coloradoan.com
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Platner leads Collins in UNH poll

Broken down by party, 91% of Democrats would vote for Platner and 87% for Collins. Independents are divided, with 47% choosing Collins and 44% Platner, the pollsters noted.

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May 27 • 1:54 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Platner stands by ad slamming Red Sox over private equity

Platner has since been all too eager to capitalize on the ad's removal, using it to push his populist message as he campaigns to unseat longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine.

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May 27 • 7:39 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
Texans, WR Nico Collins Agree to Revised Contract

Houston’s star WR is getting $17 million in new guarantees!

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May 26 • 6:45 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Jay Collins on Ron DeSantis: 'I'm grateful for his support'

But there's still no formal endorsement.

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May 26 • 3:45 PM EDT • Politics • floridapolitics.com
UW’s Collins Receives Posthumous National Award for Aquatic Science Ex

University of Wyoming faculty member Sarah Collins, who passed away in October following a courageous battle with cancer, has been honored posthumously by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology

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May 26 • 11:53 AM EDT • Science • uwyo.edu
Holding the Veterans Affairs Secretary Accountable for the Severely Damaged Veterans’ Health Care System | American Postal Workers Union

In February 2025, representatives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began working with the newly appointed Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins to identify alleged wasteful contracts and improve VA operations. DOGE cancelled hundreds of VA contracts and carried out thousands of staffing reductions, including the dismissal of probationary employees, under […]

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May 26 • 10:39 AM EDT • Health • apwu.org
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Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner embraces democratic socialism at Bernie Sanders rally in Portland

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner embraces democratic socialism at a Bernie Sanders rally, condemning U.S. support for Israel and Sen. Collins.

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May 25 • 10:28 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com
Everything We Know About <i>Emily In Paris</i> Season 6

Emily In Paris Season 6 is the end of an era. We've rounded up everything you need to know about the Lily Collins-led Netflix final season.

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May 25 • 2:56 PM EDT • Entertainment • refinery29.com
Bond breakout? Big effects of bad data. Immigration and thermostatic politics & dad-chat is coming for dad-books.

Thank you for opening your Chartbook email. Anna Airy, A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London, 1918 Bond breakout - John Authers Across the developed markets, bond markets are staging a slow-motion car wreck. Looking at the drastic moves in the US, Japan, the UK and France, Barclays’ Ajay Rajadhyaksha commented: “Last week, long bonds broke. Not in one country. In all of them. Simultaneously. Four countries. Four different political systems. Four different central banks. But the same trade — “get me out of duration!”” Each country has its own contributing political problems, but the uniformity of the shift out of long-term bonds with high duration makes clear that something broader is afoot. For Rajadhyaksha, it is “simple and uncomfortable.” The developed​ world “has too much debt, too little fiscal discipline, and no political appetite for fixing either.” If there’s a trigger, it has been the Iran war and the resulting shock to oil supply. Source: Bloomberg G7 countries are now borrowing at rates that were enjoyed by EM in the early 2020s For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe Trade between China and Russia has grown in recent years For contributing subscribers only. Subscribe Big effects of bad data A decade ago nearly nine in ten Americans, when approached, agreed to fill out the Current Population Survey, which is administered to about 60,000 households each month and asks about, among other things, employment. Fewer than seven in ten do so now (see chart 1). For the Consumer Expenditure Survey, which tries to capture 3,700 households monthly, the response rate is down from 68% to 40%. … When the information becomes less reliable, investment decisions get more difficult to make. Some may be delayed, creating a potential drag on the economy. A new working paper by Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, Erica Groshen, former head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) now at Cornell University, and Duncan Hobbs and Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, hazards an estimate. Preserving trust in “the integrity and quality of official statistics”, the authors claim, generates economic benefits of about $25 for every $1 spent on the BLS, the agency with an annual budget of $700m that is responsible for many of these data. To arrive at their conclusion the quartet analysed an ignoble episode in the BLS’s recent history. On August 1st 2025 Donald Trump sacked Erika McEntarfer, appointed as the agency’s commissioner by his predecessor, Joe Biden. The president alleged, without evidence, that the BLS’s steep downward revision to recent jobs numbers had been “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad”. In fact, it was the wanton dismissal that looked bad in the eyes of many observers. In the following seven days there was a 50% leap, relative to the week before, in the average value of the index of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU), which tracks the number of articles mentioning such uncertainty that are published daily in American newspapers. This was a discernible jump even when compared to the chaos caused by Mr Trump’s trade war in April 2025 and his real one in Iran in the past two months (see chart 2). Based on Mr Bloom’s earlier study with other colleagues of the EPU’s impact on business investment, industrial production and employment, the authors estimate that the jump reduced American GDP by over $100bn (0.3%) and non-farm payrolls by 168,000 (0.1%). Source: The Economist Immigration and thermostatic politics (Sarah O’Connor in the FT) A strange thing happened a year and a half ago. No sooner had Americans elected Donald Trump as president on an explicitly anti-immigration platform than US public opinion began to swing much more favourably towards immigration. … to political scientists who study “thermostatic” politics, this development is no surprise at all. Public opinion often moves against the prevailing party, especially if they are perceived to have gone “too far” in one direction. The phenomenon was first explored in the 1990s with reference to fiscal policy, but in recent years it has been particularly evident in the realm of immigration policy. While these swings in opinion polls can make it seem as if people don’t know their own minds, they can be a useful democratic check on governments by sending bright flashing warning lights when policies stray too far from the public’s comfort zone. The problem comes when politicians misinterpret those signals. When people tell pollsters they want less immigration, or think it is bad for the country overall (or the converse), they are often expressing an opinion about how things appear to be going in that moment relative to their preferences, rather than a deep shift in their underlying views. According to Alexander Kustov, a political scientist, most Americans’ views are quite stable and moderate: they support immigration that is controlled and in the national interest, and oppose flows that are disorderly or under-enforced. In the US, he argues the Trump administration over-interpreted dissatisfaction with high immigration under Joe Biden, and implemented policies that went too far for many voters. “People don’t necessarily change their idea about their ideal immigration policy, but they can react to what the government is currently doing,” he told me. “A lot of people are not happy with what the Trump administration are doing — right now we’re not talking about border enforcement, we’re talking about people not just getting harassed, but killed.” But similarly, he added, pro-immigration advocates would be making a mistake to interpret the recent, more favourable swing towards immigration as a deep-seated ideological shift in attitudes. The recent history of UK immigration policy offers another cautionary tale. After the 2016 Brexit referendum, public concern about immigration fell. This was partly because net migration statistics declined, but also because people felt a sense of catharsis and control, says Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think-tank. By 2019, the public ranked immigration as only the ninth biggest issue of concern, according to Ipsos polling. But when the Conservative government liberalised visa routes for students and care workers between 2019 and 2022, that helped net migration to surge. And so, too, did public concern. Today’s Labour government has implemented another sharply restrictive turn in immigration policy. As Kustov and researcher Caitlyn Yates argue, thermostatic public opinion should be a useful check on politicians. Instead it seems to have helped to magnify the pendulum swing in the UK. The government over-interprets and overreacts to a change in public opinion, which reacts in turn, prompting a sudden swing the other way. Source: Financial Times HEY READERS, THANK YOU for opening the Chartbook email. I hope it brightens your day. I enjoy putting out the newsletter, but tbh, what keeps this flow going is the generosity of those readers who clicked the subscription button. If you are persuaded to click, please consider the annual subscription of $50. It is both better value for you and a much better deal for me, as it involves only one credit card charge. Why feed the payments companies if we don’t have to. Subscribe Anna Airy, Shop for Machining 15-Inch Shells: Singer Manufacturing Company, Clydebank, Glasgow, 1918 Racing for a vaccine … we have been here before! The deadly Ebola outbreak in two African countries driven by a virus species with no vaccine has triggered an urgent search for a potential jab, in a test of troubled global efforts to avert threats posed by emerging diseases. A World Health Organization advisory group is due to would meet on Tuesday to recommend candidate jabs to prioritise for clinical trials, the global health body said. It will assess data including an analysis by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi), which was set up after failures in the international response to a previous Ebola crisis. The latest Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has infected hundreds of people and killed more than 80, health authorities say. Cepi’s reaction will be a crucial indicator of its progress towards its wider goal of producing vaccines for pandemic threats in just 100 days, despite steep cuts to international health funding. “If there was ever a time that we could show the world why Cepi is needed and show the world why the 100-day mission is needed, it’s now,” Nicole Lurie, the organisation’s executive director for preparedness and response, told the FT. “We’re happy to accept that responsibility, but obviously we need help from partners — particularly financial help in the long run.” DR Congo and Uganda would make the final decision on whether to press ahead with any vaccine candidates endorsed for clinical trials by the WHO experts, the global health body said. “Other ethical and community acceptability issues will be considered,” said the WHO, which declared the latest outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday. “This will be important to make sure that the trial, if it happens, will be adequately communicated to the population.” Lurie said Cepi had provided information from a survey of research teams and companies working on drugs that might be effective against the Bundibugyo virus behind the outbreak. The organisation hoped soon to announce partners in the quest for a jab, she added, although she declined to give a timescale for when one might be developed. Cepi’s Nicole Laurie said global health bodies were ‘getting some live-fire drills’ with hantavirus and the latest Ebola outbreak. The hunt for a vaccine should be helped by scientific advances including the use of artificial intelligence to find drugs active against viruses, Lurie said. Existing jabs against the Zaire Ebola virus responsible for many previous outbreaks might provide a basis for tackling the Bundibugyo species, she added. “We’ll see how far and how fast we can get,” Lurie said, adding that Cepi had done preliminary work recently on a possible jab for the rat-borne hantavirus responsible for a recent fatal outbreak on a cruise ship. “Both with hantavirus and now with Ebola, [we] are getting some live-fire drills.” Source: Michael Peel in the Financial Times Dad-chat is coming for dad-books. (By Pamela Paul and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in the WSJ) They were the go-to gifts for Father’s Day: a book about some little-known chapter of World War II, the sweeping narrative of a shipwreck, perhaps the latest presidential biography. These days, dad books are a dying breed. Nonfiction book sales have been in decline for the past four years, and are now the most challenged segment of the print book market. Publishers say certain types of books still fare well—including celebrity memoirs and religious titles. But in recent years, print sales in such categories as biography, current affairs and business and economics—what publishers refer to as “serious nonfiction” and which tend to resonate especially with men—have fallen considerably. Sales of nonfiction print titles were down nearly 8% through May 9 this year, and sales of books about politics and current affairs were down 19%, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. Publishing has long been subject to cyclical changes, with trends in format and genre taking over bookshelves in grand sweeps. (Remember the adult coloring-book craze? Or the stratospheric rise of romantasy?) But many in publishing believe the decline in serious nonfiction is more existential. “The trend couldn’t be clearer,” said Jonathan Karp, the former chief executive of Simon & Schuster and publisher of the new Simon Six imprint. “This is a sea change and people should wake up and realize we’re living in a new world.” One culprit for the shift: a new media diet for fans of more serious nonfiction. … Sixty-two percent of men and 54% of women consumed a podcast in the prior month, according to a recent survey by Edison Research at SSRS, up from 46% and 39%, respectively, in 2023. “When we have internal meetings to talk about this problem, it always comes around to podcasts,” said Jonathan Burnham, president and publisher of the Harper Group at HarperCollins Publishers. “The man who wants to read American history is now tuning into one of the many good podcasts about history that lends the quiet attention to a serious subject he’s looking for. It makes the idea of sitting down with a 700-page Ron Chernow book less appealing. You’ve scratched that itch.” Source: Wall Street Journal Remarkable report by Novara from the nationalist rally in London in mid May. Anna Airy, Leopard Moth and Plums, 1915 If you’ve scrolled this far, you know you want to click: Subscribe

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May 23 • 6:45 AM EDT • Politics • adamtooze.substack.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (6%)
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As Collins and Platner make their pitch to voters, sports become part of the game

It's hard to watch sports these days without campaign ads of all stripes taking up a lot of space.

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May 22 • 7:52 PM EDT • Sports • pressherald.com
What Will Graf’s Next Contract Look Like? (+)

What will Collin Graf’s next contract look like? Graf, 23, emerged as a likely core piece of the San Jose Sharks’ rebuild this season. The 6-foot-1 winger dropped 21 goals and 46 points, averaging 16:27 a night. That was sixth among Sharks forwards. Notably, Graf also led San Jose up front in overall penalty kill […] The post What Will Graf’s Next Contract Look Like? (+) appeared first on San Jose Hockey Now.

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May 21 • 10:28 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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