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GitHub's AI surge pushes Microsoft into Amazon's arms
Microsoft is adding AWS capacity to GitHub after AI-driven growth strained infrastructure and triggered a series of reliability issues.
Belpre Homecoming reveals entertainment lineup for 94th year
BELPRE – Local artists and tribute acts will provide the entertainment at the 2026 Belpre Homecoming in August for the festival’s 94th year. The four-day event kicks off Thursday, Aug. 6, in Civitan Park. Local band Insured Sound takes the stage at 8 p.m., sponsored by the Belpre Woman’s Club. Performing for over 50 years, […]
Belpre Homecoming reveals entertainment lineup for 94th year
BELPRE – Local artists and tribute acts will provide the entertainment at the 2026 Belpre Homecoming in August for the festival’s 94th year. The four-day event kicks off Thursday, Aug. 6, in Civitan Park. Local band Insured Sound takes the stage at 8 p.m., sponsored by the Belpre Woman’s Club. Performing for over 50 years, […]
Ebola outbreak strains health system in eastern Congo
In eastern Congo’s Ituri province, a new Ebola outbreak is testing an already fragile health system. In the city of Bunia, hospitals are overwhelmed or shut down after suspected infections, while health workers race to contain the virus.
A vague Iran deal leaves more questions than answers
Trump hailed the document as a breakthrough after months of negotiations. Yet its broad contours remained unclear over a day after the deal was announced.
Bronzeville Businesses Still Cleaning Up After Violent Storms, Water Main Break
BRONZEVILLE— Multiple Bronzeville businesses are still cleaning up from a series of severe storms last week, with fallout including a busted water main
Health sleuths are watching for disease threats during the World Cup
Health officials will be on high alert for germs as millions of soccer fans gather for World Cup matches
Alaska boots second Dan Sullivan from Senate race
Republicans alleged he entered the competitive race to syphon votes away from the incumbent, Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Amazon’s Smart Thermostat is on sale for just $58
It’s under $60 for the first time this year.
Newsom says DOJ conducting baseless investigation of him and his wife at Trump's direction
Newsom said that in recent days, "federal agents have knocked on the doors of family friends and former employees," and have been "demanding records" in a quest to find any kind of wrongdoing by him or his wife.
THE WEEK OF JUNE 15, 2026
- Federal judge rules H-1B fee is unlawful - NIH staff document ongoing disruptions - DOE finalizes strategy for commercial fusion
Indian Health Service payment delays are limiting dental care for Native American patients
Some clinics outside Richmond say they have waited months for reimbursement, forcing patients to switch providers or lose access to routine dental care.
Smart Clerk Celebrates Milestone as More Than 6,000 Small Business Owners Adopt Its AI Bookkeeping Platform
Dover, DE, June 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smart Clerk, an AI-powered bookkeeping platform for small business owners, today announced a milest...
Supreme Court will decide if 'criminal aliens' can be held indefinitely while they fight deportation
The case could give the administration more power to arrest and hold immigrants, including green card holders, who have criminal records.
New Monroe County mental health office director appointed
Melissa Armstrong was previously program director of Rochester Regional Health's Behavioral Health Access and Crisis Center.
Berkeley Wellness Center to close as California shifts mental health funding
The arts-focused community space for people with mental health challenges is one of seven wellness centers in Alameda County that will close.
'All or Nothing: Manchester United' documentary coming to Prime Video in 2027
Prime Video's access-all-areas docuseries will follow the Premier League's most successful club through a transformative 2026/27 season.
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Georgia’s state primary runoff
Georgia Republicans return to the polls Tuesday to pick nominees for U.S. Senate and governor in a state primary runoff election
Visitors' viral World Cup videos show what really makes America great
International soccer fans discovering the wonders of America, from spacious skies to chicken fried steak, is giving the U.S. a much-needed morale (and PR) boost.
What COVID is teaching doctors about the relationship between viruses and cancer
The pandemic has left some evidence that viral infection may play a role in reawakening dormant cancer cells already present in a patient’s body before infection.
Study identifies genetic cause for rare skin condition, points to new therapeutic option
The research highlights the value of studying rare genetic diseases to uncover fundamental immunological mechanisms.
Most parents track their 18-25-year-old kids on their smartphones. Is that healthy?
A new survey from the University of Michigan asks parents about their use of technology to track their adult children, ages 18-25, including using "always on" location tracking on their smartphones.
Vance’s fraud task force is sweeping up legitimate small businesses
The vice president and other officials have downplayed evidence of collateral damage in their crackdown on fraudulent hospices.
Campaigns are embracing influencers, but internet stardom doesn't always win votes
It's becoming common for campaigns to seek out viral moments and the support of internet stars to reach new voters. But the strategy, albeit flashy, has yielded mixed results in key races this year.
Why Squeezing Big Business Harder Won’t Close the UK Tax Gap
The UK’s tax authority should use artificial intelligence to monitor small and medium-sized businesses the way it does large corporations to help close the nation’s tax gap, Ryan’s Jenny Batchelor says.
Mind, Body, Soul: Self-Care Is Health care Community Health Day
Ethan Temple Seventh-day Adventist Church invites residents throughout the Miami Valley and surrounding communities to attend its “Mind, Body, Soul: Self-Care Is Healthcare: Community Health Day” on Saturday, July 25, 2026, at Ethan Temple SDA Church, 4000 Shiloh Springs Road, Clayton, Ohio 45315.The free community event is designed to promote holistic wellness by addressing physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health while connecting individuals and families with valuable healthcare and community resources.The day opens with Morning Worship at 11:00 a.m., featuring guest speaker Alberta Scruggs, a licensed registered dietitian and nutritionist, who will share practical guidance on nutrition, self-care, and healthy living. Following the service, attendees will enjoy refreshments and a light lunch before taking part in the afternoon's health screenings, community resource fair, and wellness-focused activities.From 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., attendees will have access to free health screenings provided through a partnership with Premier Health, along with information and resources from local health and human service organizations.A Community Health Fair from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. will feature representatives from several organizations such as Black Women’s Health Initiative, CareSource, and many more.Recognizing the growing importance of emotional wellness, the event will also feature a Mental Health Panel Discussion from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. led by respected professionals in behavioral health and counseling. The panel will provide an opportunity for open conversation, education, and community engagement around mental health awareness, treatment, and support.In addition to health services and educational opportunities, attendees will receive complimentary lunch bags while supplies last, and school supplies will be distributed to students and families while supplies last.The Community Health Day is open to the public and free of charge. No registration is required.
Prominent Cambodian opposition politician seeks Supreme Court reversal of incitement conviction
A prominent Cambodian opposition politician has appealed his conviction on incitement charges to the Supreme Court
After a lifetime in politics, a former Maine congressman finds his biggest fight at home
Mike Michaud avoided scandal for nearly 50 years in state and federal politics. So how did he wind up in one in a small northern Maine town?
After a lifetime in politics, a former Maine congressman finds his biggest fight at home
Mike Michaud avoided scandal for nearly 50 years in state and federal politics. So how did he wind up in one in a small northern Maine town?
BUSINESS BRIEFS June 15, 2026: Business news in the Berkshires and beyond
Business news from The Foundry, Berkshire Humane Society, Q-MoB, Berkshire Film & Media Collaborative, Construct, and more.
Seth Rogen said he has no plans to work with James Franco
After James Franco was accused of sexual exploitation by several women in 2018, a once-close friend and fellow actor, Seth Rogen, said he had no plans to work with him again.
Why Marketing Feels Harder as Your Business Grows by Nathan Tayloe
At some point, most growing businesses hit the same moment. What used to feel straightforward starts to feel more complicated. Marketing takes more effort. Results feel less predictable. What once worked consistently begins delivering mixed outcomes. It is easy to assume something is broken. In many cases, nothing is. The business has simply reached a different stage. What Worked Before Starts to Lose Its Edge Early on, growth is often driven by a few things working well at the same time: Referrals are strong The value of the offering is clear The team is aligned Decisions are made quickly Marketing, in that stage, tends to feel easier because the business itself is easier to understand. As the company grows, that simplicity fades. The audience expands. Services evolve. New people join the team. More channels are added. More decisions are made across more touchpoints. Marketing is no longer communicating one clear story. It is trying to represent a more complex business. Complexity Creates Friction That added complexity does not always show up immediately. It builds over time. Messaging starts to drift. Different parts of the business describe what they do in slightly different ways. The website no longer reflects how the company actually operates. Sales conversations evolve faster than the brand. At the same time, more activity is introduced to try to keep growth moving: New campaigns More content Additional platforms More tools and reporting The volume increases. The clarity does not always keep pace. That is when marketing starts to feel harder. It’s Not a Lack of Effort Most teams respond to this stage by doing more. More output More meetings More adjustments More experimentation That effort is not misplaced. It is often pointed in the wrong direction. When the underlying issue is a lack of alignment, more activity tends to create more noise. Results become harder to interpret. Decisions take longer. Progress feels inconsistent. From the outside, everything looks active. From the inside, it feels less certain. The Real Shift As businesses grow, marketing becomes less about execution and more about alignment. The companies that navigate this transition well tend to refocus on a few fundamentals: A clearly defined audience A strong, consistent position in the market Messaging that reflects how the business actually operates Alignment between leadership, marketing, and sales When those elements are in place, execution becomes more effective again. Marketing does not necessarily become easier, but it becomes more consistent. A Different Kind of Discipline Growth introduces more opportunity, but it also demands more discipline. What worked when the business was smaller often cannot be scaled without adjustment. The systems, messaging, and decision-making that once felt intuitive need to become more intentional. That is not a sign of failure. It is a normal part of growth. Marketing feels harder because the business has become more complex. The solution is not to outwork that complexity. It is to bring clarity to it. The companies that do that well tend to regain momentum quickly. Those who do not often stay busy without seeing the same level of progress. — Learn more about how we help organizations align strategy, brand, and execution. Visit tayloegray.com, or reach out directly at nathan@tayloegray.com.
Hurricanes finish off Knights, win Stanley Cup
LAS VEGAS — The Carolina Hurricanes won their first Stanley Cup championship in 20 years on Sunday night, using a suffocating defense in Game 6 to shut down the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 and winning three straight games of a thrilling final filled with momentum swings and spectacular offense. Brandon Bussi, who entrance late into […]
Reporter’s Notebook: The politics of love
The month of June plays a recurring role in my life, which is odd given that my birthday is in July. For example, storied (and sometimes infamous) Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd died on June 28, 2010. In a way, the death of Byrd was the catalyst for meeting Jessica, who would become my […]
U.S. and Iran reach agreement to end war, Trump says
The deal commits Tehran to forgo the development or acquisition of nuclear weapons in exchange for helping reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Jets are swapping speed for size
The Jets may yet again go home without a playoff berth, but they're nevertheless going big.
Ebola cases in eastern Congo climb to 782 and deaths reach 181, authorities say
The Congolese Ministry of Health reports that confirmed Ebola cases in Congo have increased to 782, with 181 deaths
Google ads tease next Pixel Drop with Screen Reactions and Gemini Omni [Video]
We’re due for Google’s next Pixel Drop and, thanks to some early ads, we now know that Screen Reactions and...
Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hospitalized
A spokesman for former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Kentucky republican was admitted to a hospital on Sunday.
The U.S.-led war in Iran will dominate Trump's G7 trip to France
The gathering was originally expected to be a meeting focused on a variety of separate economic and security issues.
Mysterious Amazonian ‘ghost dog’ caught on camera
This wild short-eared canine is not your average pup.
Italy’s Meloni faces a far-right dilemma as 'Il Generale' Vannacci rises
Roberto Vannacci, a former Italian army general, is shaking up Italy’s political scene with his new party, Futuro Nazionale
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
As El Niño develops, climate scientists are losing the tools to study it
Post readers on El Niño, ACA enrollment fraud, a rail merger and more.
Scientists find a whale graveyard in the Indian Ocean that’s millions of years old
Scientists have documented a whale graveyard in the Indian Ocean with some carcasses dating back 5.3 million years, and it's supporting a thriving community of marine life.
Under Trump, hopes for a mining boom in the Nevada desert
Tonopah has boomed and mostly busted since it's heyday more than a century ago. Trump has raised expectations for renewed prosperity and one local businessman is sprucing up his motel in anticipation of better times.
New rules expand ACA insurance choices but could come with risks
Plans could offer 30 percent higher out-of-pocket costs or no set hospital networks. Critics say the changes may reduce enrollment by 2 million.
Want obesity drugs covered by insurance? Telehealth companies have a big say
Telehealth companies offer lifestyle support so people taking obesity drugs can have the most success losing weight. But employers also want the telehealth providers to limit spending on the drugs.
Mainers are turning to plants for health care as conventional treatment is harder to get
Maine companies sell herbal supplements, tinctures and other products made from plants, and Mainers also make their own products at home.
Tuberville faces renewed residency challenge in run for Alabama governor
Alabama Republican Party leaders will hold a hearing Sunday on whether U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville meets the residency requirement to run for governor
In Boston, Haiti’s World Cup return is more than soccer amid US political threats to community
Haiti’s group match against Scotland marked its second-ever appearance in the sport’s biggest tournament more than a half-century after its first in 1974
Former NFL DE Aldon Smith dies at 36
Smith was a dominant pass rusher early in his career.
Louisville Kings cap first UFL season with championship
The Louisville Kings have lived up to their name.
Odem Area Lions Club hosted a free Star Spangled Health Fair
Joan McKaughan, President of the Lion's Hall said the residents of the rural community don't have enough information on services in their area.
Opinion | Dennison: I’ll fight for responsible spending, reducing unnecessary regulations and help small business and more if elected
Like many Coloradans, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated watching Washington become more focused on partisan gamesmanship than solving real problems. Families, workers, retirees and small business owners across Colorado are facing challenges that politicians love to...
Paper or pixel? Science settles divisive debate over best way to read
Here's the word on the best medium for reading
From the mat to Mount Elbert, Summit County’s female athletes find success in male-dominated sports
Jess Gresho’s nails are usually painted pink. She often has glitter on her face, and her athletic gear — from her ski pants to her running shoes — boasts bright colors and funky patterns. But...
2026 United Bowl is sold out
One of the best ways to get people to watch football on TV is to make them think the game is a big deal.
Trump and Macron will meet over dinner at Versailles palace after G7 summit in France
President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron will meet over dinner at the Palace of Versailles after the upcoming G7 summit of leading industrialized nations in France
From rockets to brain implants, here's a look at Elon Musk's vast empire
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and now first-ever trillionaire, controls a lot of different businesses.
Every Major Streaming Device Brand Ranked Worst To Best
Nvidia, Apple, and Roku lead our ranking of the best streaming device brands, while Google, Amazon, and Onn offer distinct strengths.
Global HIV prevention declined drastically after Trump aid cuts, U.N. finds
Cuts from the U.S. and others have hit hard, with the number of people receiving PrEP dropping by 38% from 2024 to 2025, according to data from 62 countries.
Signs continue to point to a Seahawks sale by September
The Seahawks got their latest Super Bowl rings on Thursday night.
How parents can talk to their kids about vaping as FDA authorizes some flavored e-cigarettes
Nearly 6% of U.S. middle and high school students vape
Court Blocks Censorship and Erasure of American History and Science at National Parks
Injunction Halts Effort to Unlawfully Remove History and Science from Park Displays
Emboldened Senate Democrats block even bipartisan bills in hardball approach to counter Trump
The decision by Senate Democrats to let a key surveillance authority lapse comes as they’re increasingly emboldened in their legislative fights against President Donald Trump
Letters: Bill Plaschke takes heat for Caitlin Clark complaints
Readers of the Los Angeles Times Sports section share their thoughts on Caitlin Clark, the Dodgers' gay pride effort, gambling and the NBA Finals.
A plan to get lifesaving food to malnourished kids was working -- until it wasn't
Through an innovative program, parents in Senegal had easy access to a therapeutic food that's a boon for malnourished kids. Now there are shortages. Health specialists say U.S. aid cuts are to blame.
L.A. Grand Prix brings track meet back for Olympic preview
This weekend's two-day meet serves as an important check point for track and field’s hope to break out of the four-year popularity cycle.
Democrats have a one-word defense for supporting Graham Platner: Trump
Platner’s backers in Maine say with Trump in office and Senate control on the line, the bar is low and the stakes are high: “Purity politics don’t get us anywhere.”
Trump prosecutor in L.A. is searching for voter fraud before final count
First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli is waging an unusual campaign to find election fraud in California despite DOJ guidelines saying not to during vote counting.
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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