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Comic Carlos Mencia arrested on suspicion of felony tax evasion
Comedian Carlos Mencia, who broke out in the early 2000s with his Comedy Central series 'Mind of Mencia,' was arrested Thursday morning in Los Angeles on suspicion of a dozen felony tax evasion counts.
Souls and songs take flight in circus musical 'Water for Elephants'
A national tour of the 2023 musical tours to Madison this week, combining a memory play, circus acts and a bluegrass-style score.
Long list of U.S. concessions to Iran raises specter of a 'lost war'
Details of the framework peace agreement were finally shared with the public, revealing a raft of compromises with Tehran long opposed by Republicans.
Takeaways From ‘Regime Change,’ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s Book on Trump’s White House
The book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan of The New York Times, “Regime Change,” reveals a host of details and surprising exchanges as President Trump pushed to drastically expand his power.
How Seattleites are grappling with USA soccer fandom in Trump's America
Some Seattle soccer fans have mixed feelings about patriotically backing the U.S. team during the FIFA Men's World Cup, given the actions of President Donald Trump.
The unlikely mayor for Seattle's biggest sports year
A Super Bowl title, the World Cup and Sonics buzz have thrust Katie Wilson into an unexpected role: mayor of Seattle's sports boom.
The businesses that are doubling down on Seattle
As critics warn of an antibusiness climate in Seattle, the startup artificial intelligence industry is bullish on the city's talent.
Gabe Newell, founder of Bellevue’s Valve, buys $70.8M Florida mansion
The 20,000-square-foot house spans from the ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway, with a private dock and a tunnel leading directly from the house to the ocean shore.
Some changes are afoot for Justin Herbert and the Chargers
Quarterback Justin Herbert is starting from the ground up in Mike McDaniel’s new-look Chargers offense.
An Anaheim vision: The Anaheim Angels in a new stadium, next to a youth sports complex
A new owner could move the Angels, but Anaheim offers a 150-acre site with what every owner in pro sports covets: land around the venue to turn the property into a year-round money-making operation.
Rubio lets Vance take the fall as Iran deal questions mount
A split over Iran between two top presidential contenders has burst into the open.
Middleton-based meal delivery service caters to moms after birth
Vipasha Kumar Chakravarty launched JOIASS last fall with a focus on nutrients and care moms need but struggle to provide for themselves.
Vote in our L.A. Sports Hall of Fame (other colleges edition)
Introducing the L.A. Times Sports Report Hall of Fame, where readers vote for Hall of Famers in various categories.
The pressure to have baby boys can harm African mothers’ health
In Congo and other parts of Africa, some women are having baby after baby under cultural pressure to produce a male heir, even risking their health.
How many Americans can afford high-quality healthcare? A new poll finds the number has fallen
New data from the West Health-Gallup Affordability Index shows that only about half of U.S. adults could afford their healthcare and had access to quality care last year.
Yankees’ power parade flattens White Sox once again
With the Knicks’ parade on the horizon, the Bomber bats kept the good times rolling in the Bronx.
Akin, an Elite Global Law Firm
Akin entertainment, sports & media practice head Chris Spicer and partners Alissa Miller and Vanessa Roman have been named to the 2026 Los Angeles Times Entertainment Business Visionaries list, which…
Federal Trade Commission sues leading transgender health group
The Federal Trade Commission and four states are suing the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
SanDisk's New 8TB PS5 SSD Costs More Than Three Times As Much As The PS5 Pro
The highest capacity Optimus GX Pro 850P drive for the PS5 almost tops the $3,000 mark.
Sandisk 8TB PS5 SSD launches for $2,959.99, almost five times the PS5 price
Officially licensed Optimus GX PRO 850P tops out at 8TB. Sandisk has launched the Optimus GX PRO 850P NVMe SSD for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro consoles.
With Trump, science and health in the US are in a horrifying place
'Albert Einstein said it best: "One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike — and yet it is the most precious thing we have,"' writes an L.A. Times reader.
With Trump, science and health in the US are in a horrifying place
'Albert Einstein said it best: "One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike — and yet it is the most precious thing we have,"' writes an L.A. Times reader.
Macy’s Fourth of July show to feature Post Malone, Blake Shelton, Salt-N-Pepa and Shaboozey
Macy's is set to celebrate America's 250th birthday with a spectacular July Fourth fireworks show featuring performances by Post Malone, Blake Shelton, Salt-N-Pepa, Noah Kahan, Bebe Rexha and Shaboozey.
What hospitals are preparing for during World Cup
Measles? A food poisoning outbreak or a need for lots of CT scans in a hurry? With the World Cup in town, hospitals and public health teams say they're prepared.
Mitch Marner Opens Up On Mental Health Struggles, Reflects On 'Dark Times' During Maple Leafs Years
Mitch Marner Opens Up On Mental Health Struggles, Reflects On 'Dark Times' During Maple Leafs Years
Sculpture will be a key feature of Madison’s new Imagination Center
“The Passage of Being” by artist Nate Page will sit just outside the Imagination Center in Reindahl Park on Madison’s north side.
Protesters block copper exports to China from Rio Tinto mine in Mongolia
Protesters have blocked copper exports from a Rio Tinto mine in Mongolia, partially disrupting supply of a mineral important to China's renewable energy sector.
Neshaminy named Bucks County high school baseball team of year
Third straight season in state baseball playoffs results in Neshaminy winning first PIAA championship
WHO Step-by-Step programme recognized as a promising innovation for mental health in humanitarian settings
WHO, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Lebanon’s National Mental Health Programme, showcased Step-by-Step at the World Bank Group’s biennial Fragility Forum in Washington, DC. The forum convened more than 1500 representatives from governments, international organizations and civil society to advance the development agenda in the world’s most fragile and crisis-affected communities. WHO was invited to demonstrate Step-by-Step – a digital self-help intervention for depression, alongside innovations presented by Stanford University and Google. The World Bank Group selected Step-by-Step from among more than 50 innovations that they reviewed in the lead up to the Forum.About Step-by-StepStep-by-Step is a free digital tool developed by WHO in collaboration with Lebanon’s National Mental Health Programme and other partners, that helps people manage depression and anxiety on their own, with light guidance from a trained supporter. It uses a picture-based story to walk users through evidence-based techniques for managing common mental health conditions. Users complete five modules, with weekly contacts – of around 15 minutes each – from a trained non-specialist helper, such as a community health worker.Evidence-basedClinical trials in Lebanon involving nearly 1250 participants – including 680 Lebanese participants and 569 Syrian participants – showed that Step-by-Step significantly reduced depression, anxiety and stress, and improved daily functioning. By the end of the programme, a reduction in depressive symptoms of more than 50% was reported by almost half (46%) of Lebanese participants and more than one third (37%) of Syrian participants compared to approximately 14% of those who did not use the programme. Cost-effectiveness analyses further suggest that Step-by-Step may offer a cost-saving response to depression in humanitarian emergencies in low- and middle-income countries.Used globallyStep-by-Step is already in use nationwide in Lebanon and Thailand, as part of each country’s mental health system. In India, the NGO – Kaya Guides – has adapted Step-by-Step for delivery through a widely used messaging app. Together, these programmes have provided thousands of people with evidence-based support for depression. The content is freely available from the WHO website for any organization or country to adapt for their own context.A new implementation guideThe Fragility Forum coincided with the recent launch of WHO’s new practical guide: Psychological self-help interventions: delivering self-help for individuals, featuring Step-by-Step and Doing What Matters in Times of Stress (WHO, 2026). The guide is designed to help governments, health workers, organizations and planners bring evidence-based mental health support to more people, particularly in low-resource and crisis-affected settings.
Sensing opportunity, Newsom touts investigation he says is Trump's doing
As he eyes a run for president in 2028, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California is taking advantage of a federal investigation into him and his wife to boost his national profile.
What really happened during Corey Feldman's airport health scare
Corey Feldman is out of the hospital and on the mend after a health scare unfolded at Los Angeles International Airport.
War, sports collide as Iran's World Cup kicks off in Los Angeles
CBC News reported on the unchartered territory FIFA World Cup 2026 is finding itself in as members of Team Iran arrive in Los Angeles, inviting a divisive collision of geopolitics and sports in an area with a large Iranian diaspora. "You've never had two countries engaged in active military conflict matching up against each other, competing in the same tournament," said Salma Mousa, an assistant professor of political science and affiliated faculty with the Bedari Kindness Institute. Mousa, who studies the intersection of sports and conflicts, worries that a potential July 3 face-off between Iran and the U.S. in Texas might “increase tensions to kind of a cataclysmic degree.” Read more about UCLA in today’s Washington Times.
RFK Jr. overrules experts to keep hantavirus cruise ship passenger in quarantine
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has refused to release a cruise ship passenger exposed to hantavirus from a quarantine facility in Nebraska.
People are betting on elections. Congress is watching
As prediction markets stir debate over betting on politics, the Los Angeles mayoral race raised a new question: What happens when people wager on elections?
'Disclosure Day' anchor Courtney Grace breaks down that unforgettable ending
Her name is Courtney Grace and she carries Steven Spielberg's sci-fi thriller to its emotional climax. She discussed her experience working on the film.
The Grammys add 5 new categories and announce changes to best new artist
The Recording Academy has announced changes for the 2026 Grammy Awards, including five new categories.
KERRIGAN IN THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Virginia Should Not Tax Away its Data Center Advantage - Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
“However it is framed, the practical effect would reach far beyond one industry. A tax on digital infrastructure is a tax on everyone, including working families, local governments and small businesses in every corner of Virginia.” In a June 15 Washington Times Op-ed, SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan documents the state of Virginia’s tech […]
Oregon Health Chief’s New York Times Essay Draws Response From State Primary Care Group
Oregon Academy of Family Physicians says maternal health care model promoted by Oregon Health Authority Director Sejal Hathi already exists in Oregon—but needs her support.
‘Paddington’ stage musical to pack its marmalade sandwiches and travel to Broadway
Paddington Bear is heading to Broadway with “Paddington The Musical” set to play at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in March.
Three are elected to the NFL wing of the L.A. Times Sports Hall of Fame
Three people have been elected into the Rams/Chargers/Raiders wing of our Los Angeles Times Sports Report Hall of Fame.
SkinVision Pro Launches Globally at HLTH Europe: AI-powered Skin Health Platform Connected To Healthcare Providers
SkinVision today launched SkinVision Pro, a platform that connects medical practices directly to the SkinVision Service, an AI-powered solution that provides a risk indication for skin spots. The announcement was made at HLTH Europe, responding to growing demand from medical practices seeking to integrate skin assessment results into their clinical workflow. The launch comes as skin cancer incidence has tripled over the past two decades, dermatology wait times reach up to six months in many heal
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, […]
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.
Times Opinion: Trump’s war on science is being waged in the fine print
A fresh attack on the U.S. scientific infrastructure could be the most damaging yet.
June 18 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts-Entertainment Source: Faces and Places
Sem Yeto High School Principal John McMorris announced plans to establish the Jamario Baker Legacy Award Fund to honor Jamario’s memory and support future students who demonstrate resilience, personal growth, perseverance, and…
Cuba quantifies impact of US oil blockade on children’s health and daily life
Cuba says its healthcare system is struggling due to a U.S. energy blockade.
June 18 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts-Entertainment Source: Activities
Bite Night is Thursday night at Vallejo’s Children’s Wonderland.
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
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.
8 premier WA music festivals to go to this summer
The local music festival landscape has seen some attrition in recent years, but these eight preeminent fests are still standing.
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.
West Marine files for bankruptcy, plans to close 5 WA stores
The boating supply chain West Marine plans to close five of its Washington stores. The stores are expected to have sales before they shut down.
The Mother of All Deep Space Radio Telescopes Is Going Up in the Nevada Desert
Caltech says its Deep Synoptic Array will be larger and 100-times faster than any radio telescope ever constructed.
Stephanie Ruhle on Money, Power, Politics and New MS NOW Morning Show
"We're living in unprecedented times," Ruhle tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The management lesson behind FedEx Freight’s break from FedEx
Scale can sometimes become a constraint.
New event venue, Elev8 Entertainment, opens in downtown Troy
Husband-wife duo Margaret Benitez-Green and Rasheem Green opened the space earlier this month, calling it "a place where people can bring their vision to life."
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.
Shreveport Chamber honors six minority business leaders
The Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce honored six local leaders and businesses for their contributions to the community.
Japan’s DJ Rinoka bobs to the beat as a child prodigy techno artist
Never mind she isn’t old enough to get into a club.
Forty Fort business hits the mark: The Hatchet Factory earns $10,000 award
Denise Ogurkis’ ax-throwing gathering spot earns recognition from Citizens as one of the bank’s 20 recipients, from nine states, of its 2026 Small Business Community Champion Award.
Eldest son of Norway’s crown princess sentenced to 4 years in prison for rape
Marius Borg Høiby, the eldest son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit, has been sentenced to four years in prison.
‘Ponies’ merges comedy with a gritty spy story in TV dramedy
The Peacock series “Ponies” starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson blends comedy and drama as widows of CIA operatives become intelligence assets in the 1970s Soviet Union.
Safety or surveillance: Tracking of young adults
Half of parents report tracking their young adult child’s location at least occasionally. Nearly all parents who track their young adult child’s location say their child is aware of the tracking. 1 in 4 parents who track their young adult child’s location say it sometimes makes them more anxious than reassured. Only half of parents say they gave their young adult child the option to opt out of location tracking.
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.
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.
Hackaday Links: June 14, 2026
Times are tough out there, and many are starting to feel the pressure at the grocery store checkout line or the gas pump. But whenever you start to worry about affording life’s necessities, t…
Trump Claims Strait Will be ‘Permanently Toll Free’ Under Agreement With Iran
In a call to The New York Times, President Trump praised Russia and China’s leaders and described Israel’s prime minister as “a very difficult guy.”
MarketInk: Health Care Communicators honor Mission Valley nonprofit’s PR director
The 2026 Communicator of the Year Award went to Anne Slate, director of public relations for LifeSharing, a Mission Valley nonprofit.
68 quadrillion underground miles of fungi
With machine learning and a high-resolution imaging robot, scientists measured and mapped the extent of Earth’s carbon circulatory system.
Marin Voice: Addressing LGBTQ+ mental health needs requires affirming care
LGBTQ+ young people are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers. Queer individuals face higher rates of anxiety, depression and suicide — not because of who we are, but because of the stigma, discrimination and r…
Puerto Rican Day Parade marches through Manhattan with pulsing music and vibrant colors
New Yorkers who weren’t partied out after the Knicks championship found another excuse to celebrate as the National Puerto Rican Day Parade marched through Manhattan with pulsing music and vibrant colors.
Residents can get a look at new Talent Health Center in late June
Rogue Community Health helps lead effort; onsite weekly food pantry operates through ACCESS Rogue Community Health is offering the public a chance to tour its new clinic in Talent. The […]
Justin Trudeau skipped Canada World Cup opener because girlfriend Katy Perry performed at US game
Former Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended the United States’ World Cup opener against Paraguay rather than his own nation’s game vs | KCBS All News 106.9FM and 740AM
Leader of California Assembly elections committee defends state's process
The leader of the California Assembly’s Elections Committee defended the state’s elections system despite criticism this week from some voters, the President and various national media outlets including the New York Times.
Brandon Marsh Takes Change to Heart
Sometimes success comes from taking the middle of the road. Or of the zone.
Scientists crack a decades-old CO2 problem and triple fuel production
A new catalyst design could significantly improve the conversion of CO2 into methanol, an important fuel and chemical feedstock. Researchers separated key reaction steps across different catalyst sites, avoiding a long-standing trade-off between speed and efficiency. The result was about three times more methanol production than standard commercial catalysts.
Trump litigation has helped lift AG Campbell's political star
Attorney General Andrea Campbell has sued the federal government more than 50 times since President Trump took office, using millions of dollars in extra taxpayer funding to help form the state-level bulwark that, more often than not, has won in court.
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.
Chris Borland stunned the NFL by leaving. But he never quit caring.
The Wisconsin Badgers linebacker, now a UW Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, talks about life since walking away from the San Francisco 49ers and football.
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.
Healthcare organizations celebrate milestones at annual reception
The Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Health Care Foundation recently held their annual reception to review the progress and impact of the NEPA Health Care Foundation Scholars Program. The program…
FIFA World Cup schedule June 14: Games, kickoff times, livestream
Matchday 4 features four games in the U.S. and Mexico.
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.
I've started doing 'grief math' when I think about my future
Knowing my partner and I may have less time together, and confronting the future sooner than my peers, is difficult at times.
Kirby Center celebrating 40 years of entertainment, education, community impact
WILKES-BARRE — Joell Yarmel, executive director of the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, said this week that 40 years ago, a group of dreamers believed that live performance could transform a community.
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.
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.
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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