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FDA-approved drug may finally help immunotherapy defeat rare liver cancer
Researchers found that a rare liver cancer evades immunotherapy by luring immune T cells away from the tumor and trapping them in nearby fibrous tissue. An FDA-approved drug called AMD3100 freed those T cells to attack the cancer, significantly improving the effectiveness of immunotherapy in tumor samples.
Germany's Merck to buy Bio-Techne for $11.3 billion
Merck KGaA has agreed to acquire biotech firm Bio-Techne for $11.3 billion, the German science and healthcare firm said in a statement on Thursday.
Germany's Merck to buy Bio-Techne for $73 per share
Merck KGaA has agreed to acquire biotech firm Bio-Techne Corp for $73 per share in cash, the German science and healthcare firm said in a statement on Thursday.
WATCH: Palmetto Sports Team LIVE at Greenville Drive’s “Game Show Night”
The Palmetto Sports Team gets ready for the Greenville Drive’s “Game Show Night” with a look at the Hot Dog of the Homestand and the help of mascot Reedy Rip’It and Drive host JDew.
Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. Addresses Recent Media Reports Regarding Opry Entertainment Group
NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE: RHP) (the “Company”), a leading lodging and hospitality real estate investment trust that specializes in group-oriented, upscale convention center resorts and entertainment experiences, today addressed recent media reports regarding the Company’s Opry Entertainment Group (“OEG”) business. Colin Reed, Executive Chairman of Ryman Hospitality Properties said, “We are incredibly proud of our OEG business an
Burke County business owner Daniel Cates freed from federal prison
Burke County business owner Daniel Blount Cates has been released from federal prison, where he was supposed to spend more than three years.
Saipem to sell Saudi shallow-water drilling business to ADES for $285 mln
Italian energy contractor Saipem has agreed to sell its shallow-water offshore drilling business in Saudi Arabia in a deal worth $285 million, the company said on Wednesday.
NBA Draft: Spurs beef up with shot-blocking Kentucky F Jayden Quaintance, UConn C Tarris Reed Jr. to play with Victor Wembanyama
WATCH: Trump says nuclear inspectors will be able to enter Iran at 'appropriate time'
President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that Iran agreed to United Nations watchdog inspections of its nuclear sites, but said there is "no rush."
Influence Media Agrees to Buy Anthem Entertainment's Music Assets
Influence Media has agreed to buy Anthem Entertainment's music assets for a price sources suggest is slightly over $650 million.
Alo Yoga primed for public offering or sale after owner's sale of wholesale T-shirt business
In a deal that attracted little interest from Wall Street, the owner of popular yoga clothing maker Alo agreed to sell its wholesale T-shirt division Bella+Canvas last month.
Trump keeps claiming Iran made concessions. Iran keeps denying them
Ever since releasing a memorandum of understanding last week that appeared heavily slanted toward Iran, the Trump administration has kept claiming Tehran agreed to other major concessions in ongoing negotiations.
Creator marketing works best when brands give influencers freedom
Savvy marketers are relinquishing more control to creators, YouTuber Adam W and Google's Sean Downey said at Business Insider's CMO Insider breakfast.
Louisiana Rastafarian man can’t sue staff who shaved his dreadlocks, Supreme Court says
Courts have largely agreed that the man’s religious rights were violated, but have said the law doesn’t allow him to sue state prison officials.
Walmart to Buy Vibe.co in Effort to Fuel TV Advertising Business
Walmart Inc. has agreed to acquire Vibe.co in an effort to expand its connected television advertising business, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
We moved from the US to Barbados. Our 8 kids are more independent now.
Lisa Desai and her husband decided to move to Barbados from Florida because they craved freedom and adventure for their eight kids.
Maine state workers ready to settle contract dispute
In a statement, the Mills administration said four other state employee unions have already agreed to a 2% increase in January of this year, followed by another 2% raise next month.
Backed by threat of clawbacks, feds wield tight grip on $50B rural health fund
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz praised states’ plans when announcing the rural health program awards last year and said his agency would help states “turn their ideas into lasting improvements for rural families.” But state officials and healthcare leaders said it’s also clear the agency wants to encourage specific policy changes and hold states accountable to the promises they made and rules they agreed to follow.
NBA Fans Are In Disbelief Over Julius Randle Trade
In a stunning turn of events, the Minnesota Timberwolves have traded away three-time All-Star Julius Randle. The Timberwolves have agreed to send Randle and the No. 28 pick in this year's NBA Draft to the Brooklyn Nets in a three-time trade. In order to make this deal work, the Chicago Bulls will ...
National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association et al. v. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. et al.
The National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) and its member, the Family Health Council of Central Pennsylvania (FHCCP), sued the Trump administration to protect the integrity of the Title X family planning program. Title X is the country’s only dedicated federal program for family planning services. For more than 55 years, the program has provided access to effective contraceptive methods, cancer screenings, testing and treatment for STIs, and other preventive services, with priority given to patients with low incomes.
Harrison Museum of African American Culture hosts Juneteenth “Health is Freedom” symposium
Discussions included mental health, injury recovery and medical research.
Joe Rogan was completely wrong about Donald Trump’s UFC event
Last weekend, United States President Donald Trump hosted the UFC Freedom 250 event on the South Lawn of the White House with thousands of fans in attendance and millions more watching on television. The event was, by all accounts, a success, but not exactly the type of success that commentator Joe Rogan tried to claim…
Fee Gap Stands Between United and Fernandes Despite Terms Agreed
Manchester United have agreed personal terms with Mateus Fernandes (21), with Football Insider reporting that the Reds are now “making progress towards a full transfer agreement” – though a sign...
Juneteenth festival draws visitors to Peterboro
The Peterboro Juneteenth Freedom Folk Festival featured music, exhibits and local history while raising funds for the Gerrit Smith Estate.
Co-founder of ‘Assassin’s Creed’ video game giant dies in plane crash
Ubisoft co-founder Claude Guillemot, 69, died in the crash on France’s Atlantic coast along with another occupant of a twin-engine Cessna 421.
Claude Guillemot, co-founder of 'Assassin's Creed' maker Ubisoft, killed in plane crash in France
A founder of Ubisoft, the global gaming company behind Assassin's Creed, has been killed in a plane crash in western France.
Assassin’s Creed co-creator killed in plane crash in France
Claude Guillemot, a founder of Assassin's Creed maker Ubisoft, has died in a plane crash in western France.
Founder of Assassin's Creed maker Ubisoft killed in a plane crash in western France
Claude Guillemot, a founder of Assassin's Creed maker Ubisoft, has died in a plane crash in western France
Benton Harbor business celebrates Juneteenth, honors past civic leader
Juneteenth jubilees were held across our area as people came together to celebrate the freedom of African Americans.In Benton Harbor, one business found a speci
Hope from Science and New Polling on America’s Creed
John West discussed the meaning of equality, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, when it’s obvious that individual humans are not all equally gifted.
Juneteenth and the politics of delayed freedom
Celebrating this national holiday is a reminder of the enduring challenges of U.S. democracy.
Vance's push to get Iran talks started hits an early bump as weekend negotiations are put on hold
The U.S. push to start high-stakes talks with Iran has hit a snag just days just after the two countries agreed to reopen negotiations about Iran’s nuclear program and get oil traffic moving through the Strait of Hormuz | KCBS All News 106.9FM and 740AM
Bath House Cultural Center celebrates Juneteenth with food and live entertainment
Bath House Cultural Center. Photo by Renee Umsted. To commemorate the freedom of Black Americans on June 19, 1865, the Bath House Cultural Center will present "Juneteenth: Liberation in Motion!" on June 19 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The event will
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced: Here’s What the Remake Looks (and Plays) Like Compared to the Original
After playing through a few missions of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced recently, I now have a better understanding of what to expect from this ambitious remake, which included narrative additions, new options for carrying out my assassinations, and other bits and baubles along the way that have increased my interest in replaying through Kenway’s epic tale of pillaging and unloading flintlocks into the chests of unsuspecting lawmen.
Islam Makhachev’s next UFC opponent revealed after Ilia Topuria’s defeat
An Islam Makhachev-Ilia Topuria dream fight was dashed after Justin Gaethje's upset win at UFC Freedom 250.
If Your Business Can’t Survive Without You, You Don’t Own a Business — You Own a Job With a Logo
Why small business owners need to stop the endless grind to achieve true financial freedom.
The unwanted return of tetanus; why soccer makes people so happy; breast cancer in men; plus other stories with Vanderbilt Health sources
Women’s Health interviewed Kathryn Edwards, MD, Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Pediatrics, for a story about her JAMA Viewpoint article on tetanus making a comeback. Women’s Health interviewed Colin Armstrong, PhD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, for a story tied to the World Cup about why soccer makes people so happy. An NBC News story about the announcement by “X-Men” actor and former wrestler Tyler Mane that he has breast cancer quotes Ben Ho Park, MD, director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. The story focuses on how a prominent man with breast cancer may help remove some stigma from a cancer that is rare in males. Prevention magazine interviewed Caitlyn Mooney, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, for a story about a BMJ study that suggests 90 to 120 minutes per week of strength training may lower the risk of death. William Schaffner, MD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, was quoted by several news outlets about public health issues, including: Women’s Health (norovirus is more common this summer); SFGate (measles in San Francisco just before the World Cup crowds); Travel + Leisure (how to avoid getting sick on a cruise); and Fox News (mosquito-borne diseases). Reporter Liz DeSantis from WKRN News 2 aired a story on the rehab unit at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Kat Hedden, PT, DPT, PCS, CBIS, Acute Pediatric Physical Therapy Clinical Team Lead and Mary McLanahan, MD, Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation were interviewed, as well as the family of patient Will Terry. Reporter Nikki Hauser from WTVF News Channel 5 interviewed Graden Knapp, Gaming and Technology Specialist at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt about his 3-D wheelchair project. Tennesseanreporter Sandy Mazza covered the announcement of the latest Leadership Nashville class, which includes Jane Freedman, MD, Deputy CEO, and Chief Health Systems Office for Vanderbilt Health; and also the announcement of the latest Leadership Tennessee cohort, which includes Jeff Upperman, MD, Surgeon in Chief at Monroe Carroll Jr Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
I freed up 2GB of RAM by changing one Android setting, and my Pixel's been flying ever since
The performance boost was worth every trade-off
Opinion | California Needs a Pro-Business Governor
The state leads the country in unemployment, poverty and the cost of living. Even Fareed Zakaria has noticed.
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.
Latvia pilots citizen engagement in research grant evaluations
Latvia has introduced an element of citizen engagement to the evaluation of nationally funded research grants. The aim is to both create more connections between science and society, and to improve the quality of its evaluations. The move comes as research funders across Europe are experimenting with ways to improve evaluation processes in the face of a sharpened focus on science’s impact on society. Evaluators of grant applications submitted to Latvia’s Fundamental and Applied Research Programme (FLPP), the country’s main research funder, will this year have the option of consulting citizen feedback on challenges the public thinks science should focus on to inform their decisions. “In recent years, both public discussions and policy-level debates in Latvia have highlighted the importance of demonstrating how publicly funded research contributes to society, the economy and the resolution of real-world challenges,” said a source at the Latvian Council of Science (LCS), which manages the FLPP. “At the same time, research institutions themselves expressed interest in improving the project evaluation framework while continuing to ensure that funding is awarded to the highest-quality projects,” the source added. The citizen input comes from a survey that was conducted between 25 February and 16 March 2025, to which 1,737 people responded. It gathered information on what the public views as problem areas for Latvia, and the role of science and technology in providing solutions to these problems. A summary of these responses has been included as an annex to the FLPP 2026 call for proposals that evaluators can refer to, purely in an advisory manner, when judging proposals. Results from the survey show that the main problem areas identified by the public were in healthcare and public health, followed by the development of new treatment methods and medicines, and then digital technology, data security and cyber security. At the bottom of the list was research aimed at acquiring new knowledge about the universe, matter and the laws of nature. Further analysis looked at the public view of the possible role of science in solving these problems. The survey charted 4,167 individual responses based on open-ended questions that were derived from the participants’ answers. The analysis again found that medical and health sciences topped the scoring, with 788 responses referring to the field. Humanities and the arts were bottom of the list, with 625. Digging further into the details, the survey suggests citizens are aware of and concerned about a number of research areas. This includes technologies and innovation to improve the environment or reduce pollution, the development of modern military technologies and cybersecurity tools, and the development and application of artificial intelligence, among others. “We hope this initiative will help strengthen public trust in science and create a more meaningful dialogue between researchers and society,” the LCS source said, adding that it offers benefits to researchers, evaluators and to the general public. More space for citizen engagement in evaluationsThere is a gradual but increasing use of citizen engagement in research evaluation processes around Europe, especially in healthcare, but it remains relatively rare, said Henry Sauermann, a professor at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin and an expert in citizen science.“Given that we are at a point where citizen involvement is extremely limited, there is presumably space for more, but it's not that we should do it just because we want to do it,” he told Science|Business. He said some research lends itself better to having citizen input, and this usually tends to be on the applied end of the science spectrum where the public can offer useful feedback based on their experiences. He added that advising scientists on certain topics to study is also a useful approach, in the way that Latvia is doing. “The public does fund a lot of science, there's a lot of tax money going into this. We of course do want to preserve academic freedom, but it's also not unreasonable to incorporate more feedback or input from citizens where possible,” he said. Related articlesCitizen science: where, when, and how to let the public contribute to researchHow can Europe cope with a flood of AI-assisted research grant proposals?Data Corner: Horizon Europe’s AI, digital and data call success rate is 5.2%There are several ways of involving citizens in science funding. The most minimal way is having a few representatives on a panel, such as members of a patient group or union. The most direct way is crowdsourcing funding for specific projects. There is an increasing number of online platforms that allow the public to chip in to support scientific proposals.Sauermann studied this in a recent paper and found that it can have its uses, but it still is not clear if there are benefits to it. There are various assumptions linked to citizen engagement, for example that it increases public trust in science, or that it provides a representative view of what the public thinks about science. These are not necessarily true, Sauermann found. People who participate in engagement activities tend to already be very trusting of science, and, on the whole, it is generally the well-off and well educated who contribute, giving a narrow view of public opinion. On whether citizen input can help manage the increasing number of proposals that are being submitted due to assistance from AI, Sauermann is more sceptical. “The obvious answer to the flood of AI-written proposals is AI-driven evaluation,” he said, adding that it doesn’t mean citizen engagement shouldn’t be a part of evaluations in a well thought-out manner. Southern Denmark’s successful approachOne successful example of citizen engagement in science evaluations was implemented in southern Denmark. Between 2019 and 2025, citizens in the region were invited to vote to fund one of five pre-selected projects in the field of healthcare. The project, called A Healthier Southern Denmark, was a collaboration between regional authorities, the University of Southern Denmark, and two media partners. Over the seven years, there were 75,000 votes and significant public engagement online and on social media. “It was a bit of a wild project, we’d never done something like that before and we were a bit nervous about what would be said in the media about it. But actually, people were very positive,” said Anne Kathrine Overgaard, one of the main organisers of the project from the University of Southern Denmark. The university and its researchers have learned a lot from the experience, particularly about engaging with society and shaping their research to match real-world needs. This is important with Europe’s increasing focus on competitiveness and bringing innovations to market faster, Overgaard said. She hopes to see more citizen engagement in evaluation processes and in science more broadly. “For many years, citizen engagement has been a bit of an add-on to proposals, just to check a box. But I think things are changing,” she said. It’s less about citizens just gathering data and more “about the dialogue between the public and the scientists,” she said. The initiative ended last year as the team wanted to regroup to find fresh momentum. The development of AI and AI-written proposals has made Overgaard reflect on how the project could be reworked to help evaluators. She hopes to bring it back in the future. “It could be a good idea to try this initiative again in a slightly re-worked format,” she said.
Accenture to Acquire Alfahealth, Expanding Digital Health Capabilities to Accelerate Healthcare Transformation in Italy
Accenture has agreed to acquire Alfahealth, a subsidiary of Engineering Group.
Senate rejects resolution to block Trump from further strikes on Iran
The vote, just days after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a limited deal to stop fighting, is a setback for Democrats’ effort to force the president to bring the conflict to a conclusion.
'Freedom is not finished': Legislative Black Caucus celebrates Juneteenth
As caucus leaders celebrate the Juneteenth holiday, they say the fight for freedom and equality is ongoing.
Harassment order requested in Knox County GOP dispute
On May 14, several members of the county executive committee wrote to Heather Sprague to say they disagreed with several assertions she was making about other committee members.
The science behind restoring the White House South Lawn after UFC Freedom 250
After UFC Freedom 250, this company plans to provide funding, resources and technical expertise to restore the White House South Lawn.
KU Health System Pharmacy Technicians Hold Rally to Demand Every Union Election Vote Be Counted
KU Health System has not yet agreed that all timely postmarked ballots in closely contested union elections be counted. KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Pharmacy Technicians at The University of Kansas (KU) Health System held a rally to demand that every timely cast ballot be counted in their union election and to call attention to the
WNBA power rankings: Who’s struggling most with the league’s new whistle
The league has placed an emphasis on freedom of movement to address growing physicality and some teams have adapted better than others.
Assassin's Creed Shadows Update 1.1.11 Out This Week, Includes Switch 2 Handheld Improvements
"The final Title Update is coming"
Joe Rogan makes bold declaration about UFC Freedom 250
UFC commentator Joe Rogan had some lofty praise for the company's Freedom 250 card on Sunday night.
Veteran Sire Social Inclusion Returns To Pennsylvania In 2027
Social Inclusion, a classic-placed runner and veteran sire, will return to Pennsylvania for the 2027 breeding season, standing at Bonner Hill Farms in Littlestown, Pa. The announcement was made Monday via the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association's social media accounts. The 15-year-old son of ...
President announces July Fourth festivities to include 'Trump rally'
In a separate post, the president touted the Freedom 250 Great American State Fair, a 16-day expo slated to kick off June 24 and run through July 10
Trump’s Iran accord offers exit from war
The Trump administration and Iran's leadership agreed on Sunday to terms to end their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a development that has delivered significant relief to global markets.
UFC fighter Josh Hokit shouts, 'Michelle Obama is a man,' at White House Freedom 250 event
Josh Hokit made a distasteful comment about Michelle Obama during the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows final update launches June 16, adds new story quest and end-game feature
Publisher Ubisoft and developer Ubisoft Quebec will release the final update for Assassin’s Creed Shadows on June 16, the companies announced. It will add the new story quest “Black Tid…
Assassin's Creed Shadows 1.1.11 update announced, patch notes - new story quest, Nintendo Switch 2 handheld GPU improvements, more
Assassin's Creed Shadows announced last free content drop with 1.1.11 update, and here are the patch notes.
Justin Gaethje addresses retirement decision after Ilia Topuria upset
Justin Gaethje scored a massive upset against Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250, becoming the undisputed UFC Lightweight Champion.
Talking With The Cast of the Controversial New Movie: 'Blue Film'
Actors Reed Birney and Kieron Moore open up about playing their roles in the controversial film.
Supreme Court to decide if migrants detained for months must receive bond hearings
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide if the government may hold noncitizens in detention for prolonged periods without a bond hearing, a case that could have significant implications for the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
More fouls, more frustration: What’s really going on with WNBA officiating?
There’s been an uptick in fouls in the WNBA due to an emphasis on freedom of movement, the result of an officiating task force.
Gaethje's 'Miracle' moment highlights UFC Freedom 250
Let’s just call a spade a spade, whoever wrote the script for UFC’s Freedom 250 card at the White House on Sunday had the Midas Touch.
Saint-Gobain sells Dahl business to Kesko for $1.7 billion
France-based construction group Saint-Gobain agreed to sell its specialist distribution business in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, primarily under the Dahl brand, to Finnish retailer Kesko for €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion), the company said on Monday.
'The hype is over': Fighters react to Justin Gaethje's shocking UFC Freedom 250 upset of Ilia Topuria on the White House lawn
Cambodia Politics
Supporters of Rong Chhun, a prominent Cambodian opposition politician, shout slogans outside the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, June 15, 2026. A banner, front, reads "Granting freedom to
BUSINESS BRIEFS June 15, 2026: Business news in the Berkshires and beyond
Business news from The Foundry, Berkshire Humane Society, Q-MoB, Berkshire Film & Media Collaborative, Construct, and more.
Zac Brown's UFC performance was about 'patriotism, not politics'
Before he took the stage to sing the national anthem outside the White House to kick off UFC Freedom 250, Zac Brown stood firm despite blowback.
UFC Freedom 250 Live Results
The octagon is on the South Lawn of The White House for tonight's UFC Freedom 250 event. The fight is headlined by a lightweight title unification bout between champion Ilia Topuria and interim titleholder Justin Gaethje. In the co-main event, former two-division titleholder ...
Florida High School Football: Ocala Vanguard releases slate
Florida high school football schedules for the 2026 season are coming out one-by-one out of every state around the country and one region that is always a breeding ground for college prospects is over in the North Central Florida region, with a number of squads finalizing their fall slates. [ $19.99 gets you a FULL […]
Peterboro festival to mark Juneteenth celebration
The Peterboro Freedom Folk Festival on June 20 will feature live music, exhibits and food vendors at the Gerrit Smith Estate.
Coast FIRE offers a flexible path to financial independence
FIRE is known as a path to financial freedom but also has a reputation for extremes. Some who have tried say they've found a more relaxed method.
UFC Freedom 250 Final Face-Offs
During Saturday's UFC Freedom 250 Ceremonial Weigh-In at the Lincoln Memorial, the fighters competing on Sunday's historic event at The White House faced off with their opponents a final time. The event takes place on the South Lawn of the White House and is headlined by a lightweight title ...
Freedom's Not Free Wears Down Favorite Sumter In Daytona Thriller
Freedom’s Not Free rallied furiously under Juan Hernandez in the final furlong and nailed favorite Sumter in the final jump to win a thrilling edition of the $100,000 Daytona Stakes (G3) going about 6½ furlongs on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita. Sumter (2-1), with Mike Smith aboard, ...
Jamie Dimon says remote work breeds ‘rope-a-dope politics’ and stunts young workers’ growth
The JPMorgan CEO has a message for remote workers: The customer comes first.
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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