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Results for " independent " 1,432 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

The new kings of media are in your inbox

A new class of independent creators is building sustainable media businesses — one newsletter at a time.

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Jun 21 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • washingtonpost.com
Apple Unveiled These Five New Apps Last Week

Apple last week unveiled five new apps, with four announced at WWDC 2026 alongside its upcoming fall software updates, one released in beta for developers, and one released independently by its subsidiary Claris. Siri AI App One of the biggest announcements of WWDC 2026 was Siri AI, a ground-up rebuild of Apple's voice assistant that for the first time comes with a dedicated standalone app.

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Jun 20 • 11:00 AM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
My 91-year-old mom lives independently. She pays about $2,000 a month.

Margaret Burke, 61, lives in Taiwan and is caring remotely for her 91-year-old mother in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, but wants to move back.

businessinsider.com logo
Jun 20 • 8:43 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
The Case Against Science

In debates of vaccination, evolution, and climate change, the case follows a very similar playbook: to undermine trust in established scientific understanding all one needs to do is create doubt.

independent.com logo
Jun 19 • 9:31 AM EDT • Science • independent.com
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As union leader, Democrat-backed Senate candidate Dan Osborn helped alert ICE to claims of undocumented workers

Dan Osborn, the Democratic Party–backed independent running for Senate in Nebraska, has spent part of his campaign courting voters critical of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.

cnn.com logo
Jun 19 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
OPINION: Politics, AI, and human dignity

Whether we are building technology, running campaigns, serving in government, or participating in our local political party, the measure of success is not simply whether we win. It is whether we remember that every person has dignity and value independent of their usefulness to our cause.

cdapress.com logo
Jun 19 • 4:00 AM EDT • Politics • cdapress.com
Lionel Messi releases statement on father Jorge’s health and criticises media coverage

Messi was pictured in tears following his opening goal at the World Cup

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Jun 18 • 1:22 PM EDT • Health • sports.yahoo.com
A surprising discovery reveals the kidney has a secret backup system

Scientists at Mayo Clinic have uncovered a surprising new way the kidneys conserve water, revealing a hidden backup system that works independently of the hormone long believed to control the process. The discovery emerged when researchers testing an old drug called probenecid expected it to worsen polycystic kidney disease (PKD) but found it actually slowed cyst growth instead.

sciencedaily.com logo
Jun 17 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Bernie Sanders unveils plan to give the public direct ownership of AI companies

The legislation would create a sovereign wealth fund overseen by an independent commission.

twincities.com logo
Jun 17 • 5:29 PM EDT • Politics • twincities.com
Radial Entertainment’s new Blue Ant Media distribution deal

Radial Entertainment, operator of the largest independent catalog of film and television in the industry, today announced a new distri | Radial bought streaming rights to three new true crime series: “History Unsolved: The Investigation Files,” “Last Night Out” and “Fatal First Dates.”

streamtvinsider.com logo
Jun 17 • 3:50 PM EDT • Entertainment • streamtvinsider.com
Abarca Health and LucyRx Announce Strategic Combination to Create the Only Modern PBM Built for Commercial and Government Scale

Abarca Health and LucyRx today announced a strategic combination to create the only modern, independent pharmacy benefit manager with the scale, technology, and track record to credibly serve commercial and government clients of any size. Combined, Abarca and LucyRx will provide prescription services to more than 9 million members across the United States.

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Jun 17 • 2:18 PM EDT • Health • finance.yahoo.com
Abarca Health And LucyRx To Merge Into Alternative To Big Three PBMs

Abarca Health and LucyRx - two independent pharmacy benefit managers - have agreed to merge asregulators and the public seek a better price on prescription drugs.

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Jun 17 • 2:00 PM EDT • Health • forbes.com
An EPA Researcher Details the Agency's Assault on Science

In late January, the Trump administration began shutting down projects within the EPA’s independent science division that touched on climate change and environmental justice. Air quality researcher Thomas Luben, who had worked at the agency for 18 years, was fired for objecting.

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Jun 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • e360.yale.edu
Oklahoma independents show up to vote on minimum wage question, denounce closed primaries

Oklahoma’s nearly 500,000 registered independent voters were eligible to vote on State Question 832 in Tuesday’s election, which would raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 per hour.

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Jun 16 • 4:18 PM EDT • Politics • kosu.org
OpenAI Just Started Selling What Your Consulting Business Sells

OpenAI and Anthropic just launched their own AI consulting firms. Here is what independent advisors and small firms should do to keep their clients.

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Jun 16 • 4:14 PM EDT • Business • forbes.com
CNN poll: Political independents hit their highest level in a decade

Nearly half of Americans say they don’t consider themselves a part of either major political party, the highest level of partisan independence measured by CNN polling in more than a decade.

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Jun 16 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Lockton appoints Stéphane Lespérance as CEO of its Canadian Business

/PRNewswire/ -- Lockton, the world's largest privately held independent insurance brokerage, today announced the strategic appointment of industry veteran...

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Jun 16 • 3:00 AM EDT • Business • prnewswire.com
From the Knicks’ Victory to World Cup Matches and Foresters Baseball, Veteran Sports Journalist is Still a Huge Fan

Finding a lot of places to share the love of sports right here in Santa Barbara.

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Jun 15 • 8:28 PM EDT • Sports • independent.com
Independents are on the rise in American politics

CNN’s latest polling shows more Americans are identifying as independent voters, standing at 47% in this new CNN poll - the highest it has been in more than 10 years.

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Jun 15 • 8:00 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Not LG, Not Sennheiser: This Soundbar Gets Consumer Reports' Best Audio Rating

The HW-Q900F soundbar stands out for Dolby Atmos performance, dialogue clarity, and multi-speaker design in independent audio testing.

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Jun 15 • 4:47 PM EDT • Technology • bgr.com
Studios in Microsoft’s Xbox Division Brace for Closures

The studios, which include Compulsion Games and Double Fine, are in active negotiations with Xbox and may be given the chance to go independent.

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Jun 15 • 4:15 PM EDT • Technology • bloomberg.com
Is David Flippo's primary win the death blow for Old Nevada politics?

He rallied Washington's Trumpiest voices, poured in his own money and went straight for the jugular. That approach trounced James Settelmeyer's legacy campaign.

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Jun 14 • 10:00 PM EDT • Politics • thenevadaindependent.com
New York Knicks end 53-year wait for NBA championship

The Knicks produced another comeback to stun the Spurs and take the NBA Finals 4-1

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Jun 14 • 1:08 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Op-ed | Health plans take aim at independent dispute resolution cases; tips for providers

The number of Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) cases between health care insurance plans and out-of-network providers has unexpectedly exploded since the

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Jun 13 • 9:00 AM EDT • Health • amny.com
Independent Cascadia? Greater Idaho? Disunited States Look Toward Divorce

At a moment when even the prospects of dialogue seem far-fetched, movements to redraw state lines to link like-minded regions, or even to secede from the union, are gaining strength.

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Jun 13 • 5:01 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
Whitmer reestablishes statewide task force to help curb gun violence in Michigan

The 23-member task force will consist of state officials, community partners, medical experts, and members of law enforcement.

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Jun 12 • 4:41 PM EDT • Politics • michiganindependent.com
Where Trump has lost support with independents, according to AP-NORC polling

Independents have grown increasingly unhappy with President Donald Trump during his second term, a new AP-NORC polling analysis finds, particularly those without a college degree.

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Jun 12 • 3:15 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
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What new audit shows about Parkview Health finances

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — An independent audit of Parkview Health and its subsidiaries showed strong 2025 financial growth at a time many Indiana hospitals struggled, but did little to quiet …

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Jun 12 • 2:49 PM EDT • Health • wane.com
Beyond red and blue: Pew says Americans fall into one of nine political groups

The Pew Research Center’s new “political typology” was published this past week and was based on surveys from last fall. Most Americans fall within a “politically messy center,” while smaller groups of partisan and politically active voters…

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Jun 12 • 2:43 PM EDT • Politics • baltimoresun.com
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Radial Entertainment Names Brendon Thomas As Chief Revenue Officer

Radial Entertainment, operator of the largest independent catalog of film and television in the industry, today announced the appointment of Brendon Thomas as Chief Revenue Officer. Thomas, who most recently served as Senior Vice President of Distribution and Business Development at Paramount Global, will lead revenue generation across the company's library, recent acquisitions, and expanding global content portfolio.

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Jun 11 • 6:49 PM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com
Radial Entertainment Names Brendon Thomas As Chief Revenue Officer

/PRNewswire/ -- Radial Entertainment, operator of the largest independent catalog of film and television in the industry, today announced the appointment of...

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Jun 11 • 6:49 PM EDT • Entertainment • prnewswire.com
Nicholas Weinstock’s Sweetheart Entertainment Inks First-Look Deal With Prologue Entertainment

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy-nominated producer Nicholas Weinstock (Severance, Escape at Dannemora) has signed a first-look deal with Prologue Entertainment, the independent film and television studio that produce...

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Jun 11 • 2:15 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
‘We’re seeing an opening.’ Sources close to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beta-test her appeal to independents & Republicans
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Jun 11 • 1:42 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com
Cedric The Entertainer Signs With IAG

EXCLUSIVE: Independent Artist Group has signed actor and comedian Cedric the Entertainer for representation across the board. IAG will also represent A Bird And A Bear Entertainment, Cedric’s producti...

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Jun 11 • 11:48 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com
NFIB: SQ 832 will destroy small-business jobs, raise prices

According to the National Federation of Independent Business, SQ 832's substantial increase in labor costs would force many employers to raise prices,…

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Jun 11 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • ocpathink.org
You are witnessing an independent movement in Idaho politics

Because primary elections often nominate candidates who are either too extreme or unlikely to win, many voters are looking for a better option, writes Rod Gramer.

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Jun 11 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • idahocapitalsun.com
Relegated Wolves sack Rob Edwards after seven months in charge

Edwards presided over two important signings as Wolves look to rebuild in the Championship but has now been sacked

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Jun 11 • 4:21 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
PARAGON SPORTS- Specializes in NYC

Paragon Sports, New York City's independently owned Sports Specialty Store, today announced a series of in-store transformations and brand partnerships that underscore the company's strategy as the definitive sports specialty retail authority of New York City. The announcement coincides with the company being voted the #1 Sporting Goods Store in the United States by the USA Today Readers' Choice Awards.

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Jun 10 • 1:46 PM EDT • Sports • finance.yahoo.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
West Ham sponsor Boyle Sports ‘extremely concerned’ by David Sullivan allegations

Bookmaker says it supports football's independent regulator in reviewing the claims against Sullivan, which he denies

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Jun 10 • 6:09 AM EDT • Sports • nytimes.com
Independents are rising in Idaho political contests

For years, I have believed that the future of moderate to right of center politics in Idaho is what I call fusion politics. | Opinion

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Jun 10 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • idahostatesman.com
Rep. Kevin Kiley, Independent, to Face Richard Pan in California House Race

Mr. Kiley dropped his Republican affiliation earlier this year. The newly drawn Sixth Congressional District is widely considered to be favorable for Democrats.

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Jun 9 • 8:04 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com
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Democratic National Committee: Local small businesses continue to suffer under Trump and his cost-spiking Republicans, forcing them to raise prices on families and cut jobs for workers

According to new data released today by The National Federation of Independent Business, small businesses throughout America continue to suffer under Donald Trump and his cost-spiking Republicans. With everything — from food and utilities to gas and building materials — becoming more...

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Jun 9 • 3:13 PM EDT • Business • wispolitics.com
More Small Businesses Are Increasing Prices—Here’s How Accounting Software Can Help

Inflation continues to affect prices, with a net 36% of small business owners reporting raising average selling prices in May—the highest reading since March 2023, according to National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) data published on June 9. If you’re considering raising prices for yo

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Jun 9 • 3:02 PM EDT • Business • forbes.com
Dennis Arfa Inducted by Billy Joel into the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame

Induction part of 2-day Billy Joel Symposium Event Stony Brook, NY — Music Executive Dennis Arfa, Billy Joel’s longtime booking agent and chairman of the Music Division at Independent Artist Group, was recently inducted into the Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame (LIMEHOF) by LIMEHOF Inductee Billy Joel himself at a special ceremony at their Stony Brook Village location (97 Main Street). The induction was part of the 2-day ‘Billy Joel Symposium’.

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Jun 9 • 12:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • iloveny.com
Sidelined U.S. study on alcohol's health effects published in independent journal

A study that found even low levels of drinking alcohol can increase health risks was published in full on Tuesday in an independent journal after being ​sidelined by the Trump Administration, which opted not to consider the federally-commissioned ‌research to inform new U.S. drinking guidelines set out earlier this year.

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Jun 9 • 9:55 AM EDT • Health • reuters.com
Coca-Cola and Notre Dame bring poverty alleviation efforts to host cities during the FIFA World Cup 2026

When the FIFA World Cup 2026 games kick off this week, bringing global attention to cities across North America, communities from Boston and Miami to Toronto, Dallas and Los Angeles will come together for one of the world’s largest sporting events. In these same cities, the University of Notre Dame’s Urban Poverty and Business Initiative (UPBI), a program aimed at helping underrepresented populations create and grow independent businesses, is working with local partners to strengthen small business ecosystems throughout a total of 59 cities, including a strategic activation in 13 soccer host cities.

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Jun 9 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • news.nd.edu
Opinion: Does science need autonomous AI?

As technology developers and researchers rush to develop autonomous AI research tools (i.e., systems that independently perform tasks by designing their workflows and utilizing available tools) an urgent but rarely

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Jun 9 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • yakimaherald.com
U.S. Small-Business Confidence Ticked Down in May

The National Federation of Independent Business said that its small-business optimism index fell 0.6 points to 95.3 in May, remaining below its 52-year average of 98.0.

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Jun 9 • 6:14 AM EDT • Business • wsj.com
iOS 27 Tidbits: Share a Phone Number on Two iPhones, Independent Alarm Volume, Faster AirPlay and More

At the WWDC 2026 keynote, Apple detailed iOS 27 changes like a new version of Siri with a dedicated Siri app and Apple Intelligence features across multiple apps, but there are dozens of smaller but still important changes that Apple didn't have time to go through. Apple shared an image summarizing some of the bug fixes and optimizations it made in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, and there are some interesting changes.

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Jun 8 • 6:23 PM EDT • Technology • macrumors.com
Klinic Raises $24M for Behavioral Health, Speciality Provider Enablement Platform

Frisco, Texas-based Klinic Inc. has raised $24 million. The company offers a digital enablement platform, akin to Shopify for independent healthcare

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Jun 8 • 2:35 PM EDT • Health • bhbusiness.com
Commentary: Does science need autonomous AI?

As technology developers and researchers rush to develop autonomous AI research tools (i.e., systems that independently perform tasks by designing their workflows and utilizing available tools) an urgent but rarely […]

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Jun 8 • 10:36 AM EDT • Science • bendbulletin.com
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Independents 'put politics aside' in Birmingham City Council coalition

But Reform UK say their party had been "completely frozen out" despite being the largest group.

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Jun 8 • 9:31 AM EDT • Politics • bbc.com
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When is Scotland’s first game at World Cup 2026?

Scotland’s opening match against Haiti is a golden opportunity to get a win that could be enough to reach the last-32

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Jun 8 • 4:40 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Gil M Soffer

Scope of work: A former federal prosecutor, Soffer became chairman of Katten in 2024, leading 1,500 attorneys and professionals. Previously, he was Chicago managing partner and co-chaired the firm’s litigation practice.Significant case: He serves as a five-year independent monitor in a global opioid settlement and was previously a DOJ/SEC-appointed corporate compliance monitor in a major Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case.Other contributions: Soffer is on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois' Racial Justice Diversity Committee, is WLS-TV/Channel 7's chief legal analyst and headed the Chicago Bar Foundation Investing in Justice Campaign that raised $1.4 million for pro bono services.

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Jun 6 • 11:57 PM EDT • Business • chicagobusiness.com
Your complete guide to the upcoming season of IU sports

Indiana University's independent student newspaper.

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Jun 6 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • idsnews.com
Football regulator faces 'defining test' over potential Derby investment

English football's independent regulator faces a "defining test" as Saudi Arabian government official Turki Al-Sheikh attempts to invest in Derby County, says Amnesty International.

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Jun 5 • 5:48 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Jamie Carragher sounds concern over Andoni Iraola adapting at Liverpool

The Reds have hired Andoni Iraola to replace Arne Slot after a disappointing campaign, with Carragher analysing one of the key challenges for the Basque at Anfield after a successful spell at Bournemouth

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Jun 5 • 2:53 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Scientists just solved a decades-old mystery about the black hole in the middle of our galaxy

They captured an image 100 times deeper and 80 times sharper than previous maps of the region

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Jun 4 • 4:41 PM EDT • Science • ca.news.yahoo.com
US Small Business Hiring Plans Drop to Lowest Since May 2020

The share of US small businesses saying they’re planning new hires or are having trouble filling jobs fell in May to a six-year low, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.

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Jun 4 • 4:08 PM EDT • Business • bloomberg.com
Scientists have long said we can’t multitask. A new study says we can

‘This is unlocking a whole new set of questions,’ one researcher said

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Jun 4 • 2:35 PM EDT • Science • yahoo.com
You are witnessing an independent movement in Idaho politics

Because primary elections often nominate candidates who are either too extreme or unlikely to win, many voters are looking for a better option.

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Jun 4 • 1:08 PM EDT • Politics • idahoednews.org
Autodesk for Small Business update: Making it more affordable to get started with Autodesk Flex

/PRNewswire/ -- Last month, Autodesk launched Autodesk for Small Business for the small teams, independent professionals, and entrepreneurs who depend on our...

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Jun 4 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • prnewswire.com
Rural health network aims to strengthen independent hospitals

The North Shore Health Board received a presentation from Cibolo Rural Health Network on the benefits of the Headwaters Network, a high-value network made up of Minnesota’s rural independent health care providers. “I would say a relevant correlator to the high-value network is that of a farmers’ co-op,” Brittany Sachdeva, chief operating officer for Cibolo,...

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Jun 4 • 6:20 AM EDT • Health • wtip.org
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Chelsea’s former record goalscorer Bobby Tambling dies aged 84

Tambling made his debut for the Stamford Bridge club as a 17-year-old in 1959

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Jun 4 • 1:28 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
EPA's Science Independence Under Congressional Fire

Congress scrutinizes Trump administration's dismantling of EPA's independent science office. Hear testimony Thursday on federal environmental research impact.

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Jun 3 • 2:02 PM EDT • Science • legis1.com
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Evoke Entertainment Secures $35 Million Production Financing Facility to Accelerate Expanding Film & Television Slate

Institutional capital partnership strengthens independent studio's ability to finance and produce content across film, television, and streaming platforms Stan Spry CEO Stan Spry, CEO Evoke Entertainment LOS ANGELES, June 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Evoke Entertainment has secured a senior secured production financing facility of up to $35 million backed by a leading institutional private credit fund with extensive experience in media, entertainment, and asset-based lending.The revolving produc

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Jun 3 • 9:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com
Not All Wine Glasses Tinkling Happily over Santa Barbara County’s Business Improvement District

The Goldwater Institute sues County Board of Supervisors and vintners association on behalf of Lompoc’s Flying Goat Cellars.

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Jun 2 • 4:37 PM EDT • Business • independent.com
Moving to Japan changed how I think about raising kids

Living in Japan showed me a different approach to raising independent children through school routines and community trust.

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Jun 2 • 11:41 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
How Science Works

The 2nd Weather and Climate Livestream is now underway. It is organized by a group of early-career researchers concerned about declining funding for the field and eager to demonstrate how weather and climate research makes a difference in our lives. Last year’s event was a great success, drawing terrific press coverage including a piece in the NY Times. This year features a strong lineup of talks aimed at a general audience — I highly recommend tuning in. Share I gave a talk yesterday about How Science Works in Three Steps. You can see the short presentation here (I’ve appended a transcript below): And please tune into the livestream here. It runs through tomorrow at 6 pm ET. Thanks for reading The Climate Brink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe Cleaned up transcript: Thank you, and thanks to everyone tuning in. I want to talk about something I think a lot of people don’t really understand: how science actually works. Arguments over any scientific topic — climate change, vaccines, you name it — revolve around competing claims. For climate change, the claims are: Is the Earth warming? Are humans to blame? What will the impacts be? Over the last 150 years, the scientific community has developed a remarkably robust method for sorting out which claims are true and which aren’t. That method is what I want to walk through. So how does science generate knowledge? If you ask a high schooler, they’ll give you the version they learned in ninth grade: an individual scientist forms a hypothesis, runs an experiment, and draws a conclusion. That’s more or less what happens at the individual level, though in practice it’s more iterative — you design, test, and refine all at once, landing on a slightly different idea each time until you reach a conclusion about whatever hypothesis you’ve ended up with. But this isn’t science. It’s only step one. Any individual scientist can make mistakes — scientists are human. Maybe there’s a bug in the code, maybe there’s an error in the experiment. Just because someone ran an experiment and reached a conclusion doesn’t mean it’s right, and scientists don’t treat a single result as settled truth. Step two is peer review, the first layer of quality control. The scientist writes up what they did and submits it to a journal, which sends the paper to other experts in the field. Those experts judge whether the methods are sound, whether it properly references prior work, and whether the conclusions actually follow from the data. Ask any scientist and they’ll tell you peer review is miserable — the comments come back brutal, often harsh, and you have to revise and resubmit, sometimes multiple times, before an editor finally accepts the paper. Peer review catches an immense amount of bad science, but it can’t catch all of it. Reviewers get sloppy or overworked, they miss obvious mistakes, and they can’t catch hidden errors — a bug in the code, a misread instrument. So a peer-reviewed paper making it into a journal doesn’t mean the paper is right. Nobody treats a single paper as the final word. That’s where step three comes in: the crucible of science. Important results get retested by the broader community. If you publish something interesting, it gets dissected. Sometimes people try to reproduce your work directly but more often they test its implications. If someone claims X is true, and that implies that Y is also true, then scientists will go check Y. If a claim survives this gauntlet long enough, it becomes accepted. That’s how we generate knowledge. Let me give an example: the ozone hole. In 1985 — and I doubt many people watching were around then, but I remember it well — Joe Farman and his colleagues published observations from Antarctica showing that a huge chunk of ozone was disappearing every year. This was shocking because most atmospheric chemists had expected ozone loss to occur at mid-latitudes and high altitudes, not over the South Pole. When scientists see something they don’t understand, they rush to explain it, and several competing hypotheses quickly appeared in the peer-reviewed literature. One pointed to chlorine chemistry from chlorofluorocarbons. A second blamed nitrogen chemistry, possibly driven by solar proton events — meaning the sun was responsible. A third argued it wasn’t chemistry at all but dynamics: winds were carrying naturally low-ozone air from the lower atmosphere up into the stratosphere. Then the community went to work testing which theory could survive the crucible. Aircraft flew into the ozone hole and found no nitrogen, ruling out the nitrogen theory. Measurements showed the air in the polar vortex was descending, not rising — which would bring high-ozone air down, eliminating the dynamics theory. Meanwhile, those same flights measured enormous amounts of chlorine, strongly correlated with exactly the regions where ozone was being destroyed. That became known as the “smoking gun” paper, and it established that chlorine chemistry was the cause. Through this process, a consensus emerged. And it’s worth being clear that this consensus is organic. There’s no vote, no poll, no meeting where it gets decided. Scientists go to conferences, talk to one another, and independently arrived at the same answer. It’s the ultimate free market of ideas. After the consensus was established, the peer-reviewed literature doesn’t even mention the rival theories — it simply takes chlorine chemistry as given. That’s what a consensus looks like. It doesn’t mean every single scientist agrees, but it does mean there’s no longer any legitimate debate. So where can you see what scientists actually think? It’s all in the peer-reviewed literature, which contains the entire historical record of the argument: the discovery, the competing theories, the debate, the testing, and finally the community coalescing around one answer. But there’s a lot of room for misrepresentation. You can dig up an old paper claiming the ozone hole was caused by dynamics and wave it around as if there still was a debate about the cause of the ozone hole — without mentioning that the idea was disproven long ago and that even its own authors no longer believe it. There’s a bigger problem, though: the peer-reviewed literature is written in a language I call “nerd.” It’s extremely hard to read — honestly, some of it is hard for me to follow. It takes graduate students years to work through the literature in a single field, so we can’t expect policymakers or ordinary people to do it. This is where scientific assessments come in. The most famous is the IPCC — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The job of an assessment is to read and summarize the peer-reviewed literature, synthesizing what’s settled, what’s been disproven, and what remains genuinely debated. To ensure the assessments accurately summarize the peer-reviewed literature, assessments are written by large teams, which are far less prone to bias than individuals and which dilute the influence of any one scientist with an axe to grind. The teams are deliberately assembled to avoid stacking the deck, and the reports themselves go through multiple rounds of peer review. That rigorous process is exactly why you can trust them and why people consider the IPCC to be the gold standard of what we know about the climate system. An assessment produced through a different process may well not be credible. You can even watch the consensus evolve across assessments. Take the attribution of warming. The 1990 IPCC report said the observed warming was broadly consistent with model predictions but also comparable to natural variability — in other words, we don’t know whether humans are responsible. By 1995, it concluded that the balance of evidence suggested a discernible human influence — a sentence only a committee could write, and one that barely commits to anything. By 2001, most of the warming over the previous 50 years was judged “likely” due to greenhouse gases; by 2007, “very likely”; by 2013, “extremely likely.” The 2023 report says essentially the same as 2013 — there’s not much stronger language available. So, to wrap up: science is our ultimate tool for deciphering the universe — the most successful method we’ve ever developed for determining what’s true and what isn’t. Our understanding is written into the peer-reviewed literature, so if you want to know what scientists think, that’s where to look. And for those of us who don’t speak nerd, scientific assessments are the Rosetta Stone — they translate nerd into English. Let me open the floor to questions. Thank you.

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Jun 2 • 10:35 AM EDT • Science • theclimatebrink.com
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The work you can't always see: Beer is political, part 2

Recently I published a piece about beer, politics, and the question of who speaks up and who doesn’t. I meant every word of it. I still do. And then my inbox opened up. Cleveland Prost is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe I’ve been writing about beer since 2014. For most of that time, I kept things deliberately light — taproom profiles, new releases, the people behind the pints. Gradually, over years of building this thing, you gave me something I didn’t expect: permission. Permission to go deeper. To say what I actually saw in this industry and what I actually believed about it. That trust isn’t something I take lightly. It’s why that piece existed at all, and it’s why this one does too. I’m not walking anything back. But I want to go further. In that piece, I wrote that beer has never existed outside the system. That immigration policy affects who staffs breweries and harvests ingredients. That labor policy affects taproom workers. That civil rights policy affects who feels safe walking into a taproom. That “beer does not exist in a vacuum. The idea that it does is comforting. It is also false.” I believe that as much now as I did when I wrote it. But one idea came back at me, in different forms, over and over (from reader emails, comments, and conversations): that beer itself isn’t political — that it only becomes political when someone decides to make it that way. That what we’re really seeing is a choice by individuals to inject division into something that doesn’t inherently require it. It’s a comforting idea. It’s also wrong — and I think it’s worth being precise about why. That framing assumes that breweries operate outside the conditions shaping everything else. That politics is something you choose to bring into a room that was, until then, clean and neutral. That if you stay quiet, you stay clear of it. But the room was never neutral. It was never clean. Politics is already in the room. It’s in who walks through the door comfortably and who hesitates. It’s in whether a space can be used for organizing without fear. It’s in whether helping someone quietly might carry consequences you have to think carefully about in advance. It’s in who staffed the brewery, who harvested the grain, who can afford to be a regular. The idea that you opt out of all that by staying quiet is an illusion. You only change how visible your response to it is. This is, I realize, a hard thing to hear if you came to a beer newsletter for something lighter. I wrote recently that “beer, for me, has always felt like a refuge — a third place in an increasingly fractured world.” I meant that. I still do. But a refuge is not an escape from reality. It’s a place to gather strength to face it. Here’s what I actually missed — and what I want to correct. Multiple people in the industry reached out to me. I’m not naming them and I’m not identifying their businesses, because that’s not my call. If and when they want to be loud about what they’re doing, that agency belongs to them. What I can share is the substance of what they said, because it complicated something I presented too cleanly. The overall message: *You don’t know what we all are doing.* And they’re right. I don’t. One example involved a collaboration brewed quietly to support another business facing serious challenges in a whole different region, with proceeds directed toward solidarity, community, and keeping operations afloat. No announcement. It could have been broadcast widely. The point was never publicity. Another example involved logistical support for community efforts: organizing safe transportation, providing space for meetings on otherwise closed days, facilitating gatherings under difficult conditions. All of it happening while balancing real financial pressure and genuine concern for personal safety. None of what they described is a brewer “deciding to make beer political.” It’s people responding to the conditions around them — conditions that are already shaping who feels safe, who has access, who can gather, who needs help, and who has the capacity to offer it. Politics, again, already in the room. Already shaping choices. Whether anyone announced it or not. I’ve spent decades in taprooms, at barrel releases, at festivals, in back offices and brewing floors, talking to the people who built this industry from nothing. I know how much happens that never makes it onto social media. I know the owner who quietly comp’d a tab for someone having a crisis. The brewer who drove an hour to pick up a stranger who needed a safe ride. The taproom that stayed dark on a Tuesday so a community group could use the space without it becoming A Whole Thing. None of that gets a post. Most of it never will. So when I wrote recently about silence — when I said that “silence right now doesn’t feel neutral, it feels like complicity” — I was writing about what I could see. And I was right about what I saw. The public silence of breweries that have the platform, the stability, and frankly the safety to say something and choose not to? That still troubles me. I’m not softening that. But some of what I read as silence is actually something else entirely. It’s people doing the work with their hands instead of their phones. It’s people who are genuinely afraid — not of being canceled, but of real consequences for their families, their employees, their ability to keep the doors open at all. That deserves more than a footnote. It deserves to be named clearly. Here’s the tension I want to sit with honestly: public statements matter. They matter because people can’t rally around something they can’t see. Visibility creates awareness and solidarity. It helps people find each other. It tells someone standing outside your taproom door, uncertain whether they’ll be welcomed inside, something they need to know — or whether it’s even safe for them to be in public at all. That’s not performative. I wrote recently that the craft beer movement “was built on collective defiance. It was built on rejecting consolidation. On pushing back against homogeneity.” I believe that too. And I’ll extend it: breweries should be at least as loud about their values as they are when they drop a new seasonal. Your hazy IPA gets a full rollout — the label art, the tap handle photo, the countdown post. Human dignity deserves the same energy. Be as loud about human rights as you are about your beer. There is no reason those two things should require different levels of courage from you. But visibility isn’t the only form of courage. And not everyone can be visible right now without real consequences — financial, personal, sometimes physical. There are people in this industry doing hard, unglamorous, sometimes risky work in the background, and announcing it would compromise it or paint a target on someone who’s already stretched thin. That’s not silence as complicity. That’s operational discipline under pressure. What I want to push back on — clearly, not gently — is the idea that behind-the-scenes action and public visibility are in competition with each other. The person organizing quietly in the back room and the person posting a statement of solidarity on a Tuesday morning are both doing something real. We need both. We need the quiet infrastructure and we need the visible signal. We need people to know that this industry — at its best, at its most independent, and human — gives a fuck. I closed that piece with a question: “Reactive and fearful? Or clear and values-driven?” That question still stands. But having heard from you, I’d add a corollary: the values-driven path isn’t always the loudest one. Sometimes it’s a phone call and a recipe. Sometimes it’s a room made available on a closed Tuesday. Sometimes it’s a drive across town for someone who needed a safe ride home. All of it is political. All of it was always political. You don’t get to opt out of that — you only get to decide what you do with it. I’ve spent more than a decade writing about this industry because I believe it can be exactly that. I’ve been lucky enough to build an audience that lets me say so plainly. That’s a privilege I intend to use. The work is happening. Some of it you’ll see. Some of it you won’t. Support it either way. Cleveland Prost is a reader-supported publication covering beer and brewing across New York state. To receive new posts and support this work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Cleveland Prost 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 2 • 10:13 AM EDT • Politics • clevelandprost.substack.com
What Makes Barrett Business Services (BBSI) a Good Investment?

Schafer Cullen Capital Management, Inc., an independent investment advisor, released its Q1 2026 investor letter for the “Small Cap Value Equity Strategy.” You can download a copy of the letter here. U.S. equity markets started 2026 with notable volatility due to geopolitical events and shifting macro conditions. The Russell 2000 rose 0.9% for the quarter, […]

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Jun 2 • 9:36 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
Live Results: Montana midterm primaries

Montana has not been at the top of the list of seats Democrats hope to flip to regain control of either body, but the retirements do creak open the door for a candidate to possibly take advantage of the state’s independent streak.

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Jun 2 • 9:00 AM EDT • Politics • pbs.org
Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Dalglish undergoing treatment for cancer

Sir Kenny Dalglish, one of the greatest and most important figures in Liverpool history, has revealed he is undergoing treatment for cancer. “As my inadvertent social media post has indicated, I am currently undergoing treatment for cancer,” Dalglish said in a statement. Liverpool said “the support, best wishes and love of everyone” at the club were with Dalglish and his family.

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Jun 2 • 7:27 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Why interviewing Anthony Joshua made me uncomfortable

COMMENT: Six months after the ex-heavyweight champion survived a car crash that killed two of his friends, he spoke to Alex Pattle and others about how he is coping – whether he wanted to or not

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Jun 2 • 7:12 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Liverpool ramp up pursuit of Andoni Iraola as talks begin

Liverpool want to make a swift appointment following the dismissal of Arne Slot

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Jun 2 • 5:08 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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The Downtown Santa Barbara Improvement Association’s “New Business Openings” Update

Santa Barbara, CA – The Downtown Santa Barbara Improvement Association (DSBIA) is pleased to announce that a total of 19 new businesses have opened or are

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Jun 1 • 4:30 PM EDT • Business • independent.com
Jerome Powell uses JFK award speech to warn against political pressure on Fed, courts and schools

Former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell used one of his first major public appearances since leaving office to deliver a broad defense of independent institutions while accepting the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in Boston

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Jun 1 • 1:27 PM EDT • Politics • latimes.com
Servier to Acquire Edgewise Therapeutics' Muscular Dystrophy Business

/PRNewswire/ -- Servier, an independent international pharmaceutical group governed by a foundation, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to...

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Jun 1 • 8:30 AM EDT • Business • prnewswire.com
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Platner tests Democrats' tolerance for scandal

The race will come down to whether enough Democrats and independents are willing to hold their noses.

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Jun 1 • 5:10 AM EDT • Politics • axios.com
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South Jersey woman turns health scare into dream bookstore in Bordentown

Austen’s Shelf is opening a permanent New Jersey bookstore as readers increasingly seek independent bookstores centered on community and connection.

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Jun 1 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • whyy.org
James Milner retires from football with all-time Premier League appearance record

Milner broke the record for the most Premier League appearances in February, and ends his career with a total of 658

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Jun 1 • 4:49 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Jerome Powell uses JFK award speech to warn against political pressure on Fed, courts and schools

BOSTON (AP) — Former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell used one of his first major public appearances since leaving office to defend independent institutions while accepting an award Sunday honoring his efforts to preserve the central bank’s independence.

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May 31 • 9:33 PM EDT • Politics • wral.com
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Jerome Powell uses JFK award speech to warn against political pressure on Fed, courts and schools

Former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell used one of his first major public appearances since leaving office to deliver a broad defense of independent institutions while accepting the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in Boston

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May 31 • 9:28 PM EDT • Politics • abcnews.com
Buy Local Fair puts spotlight on Louisville businesses at Lynn Family Stadium

The Louisville Independent Business Alliance hosted its annual Buy Local Fair at Lynn Family Stadium on Sunday.

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May 31 • 8:54 PM EDT • Business • wave3.com
Move more for your health, not just for the scale

Statement Highlights: Regular physical activity improves blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, cholesterol levels and cardiorespiratory fitness in adults with overweight or obesity, independent of weight loss, according to a new scientific statement...

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May 31 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • newsroom.heart.org
Neon head Tom Quinn decries “Uberisation of entertainment”

"The lack of competition is bad," the independent veteran told the Produced By Conference.

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May 31 • 6:25 PM EDT • Entertainment • screendaily.com
Neon head Tom Quinn decries “Uberisation of entertainment” at ...

"The lack of competition is bad," independent veteran says.

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May 31 • 6:25 PM EDT • Entertainment • screendaily.com
WCADAMHS approves funding for local mental health and addiction services agencies for FY 27

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May 30 • 7:15 PM EDT • Health • bgindependentmedia.org
John Rodgers Brashier

Ready to lead Delta Council as President Recently named as the new and 92nd President of Delta Council, John Rodgers Brashier believes that his 40 years of being an independent farmer not only will help him in the role—it also humbles him to work for an organization that has done so much for the agricultural […]

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May 30 • 12:38 PM EDT • Business • deltabusinessjournal.com
Trump’s doctor says he is in ‘excellent health’ after latest checkup

While the president’s medical reports says he remains fit to serve, independent physicians have raised questions about the recurrent bruises on his hands and swelling in his legs.

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May 30 • 12:17 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Trump’s doctor says he is in ‘excellent health’ after latest checkup

While the president’s medical reports says he remains fit to serve, independent physicians have raised questions about the recurrent bruises on his hands and swelling in his legs.

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May 30 • 12:17 AM EDT • Health • washingtonpost.com
EAST TEXAS POLITICS: Mayoral candidates discuss vision for Tyler ahead of runoff election

Blake Holland interviews Tyler mayoral runoff candidates John Nix and Stuart Hene in the debut episode of East Texas Politics on East Texas Now. Pine Tree ISD superintendent Steve Clugston also discusses his run as a conservative independent for Texas Senate District 1.

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May 29 • 8:00 PM EDT • Politics • kltv.com
State Democrats’ bill would help small-business owners pay for employees’ healthcare

'At this moment, we’re in the thick of a massive affordability crisis,' said Rep. Jen Mazzocco.

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May 29 • 4:30 PM EDT • Business • pennsylvaniaindependent.com
Microsoft under fire for threatening security researcher with criminal investigation

A public spat between Microsoft and an independent security researcher reopens a long-running debate over who is responsible for securing software.

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May 29 • 1:03 PM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com
Power Is Essential to Women’s Health

Editor’s note: This article was first published in the Santa Barbara Independent here. Santa Barbara residents understand that power outages can be more than inconveniences. In recent years, …

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May 29 • 9:14 AM EDT • Health • directrelief.org
The two problems created by Ibrahima Konate’s surprise Liverpool exit

Konate had said he had been close to a new contract with the club, but his departure leaves a hole alongside Virgil van Dijk

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May 29 • 8:41 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
What will the deal to acquire Caesars Entertainment mean for Las Vegas? Gaming expert weighs in

Abel Garcia talks to Nevada Independent senior reporter Howard Stutz about the far-reaching impacts of Fertitta Entertainment's deal to acquire Caesars Entertainment.

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May 28 • 9:18 PM EDT • Entertainment • ktnv.com
Fireweed pitch: Unwinnable Democrats should back GOP, independents

If Democrats cannot win the 1st U.S. Congressional District race in Montana, the party is better positioned backing select moderate Republicans or independent candidates who can advance at least some of the agenda. That’s what Fireweed Campaigns, a self-described politically independent Helena-based firm with only Republican clients pitched to a room of approximately a dozen ‘Democrat-adjacent’ strategists mixed with representatives during a quiet strategy meeting in Anaconda in the summer of 2025.

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May 28 • 4:00 PM EDT • Politics • bozemandailychronicle.com