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Mayo Clinic Q&A: Watch out for summer sports injuries in youth and adult athletes
DEAR MAYO CLINIC: Our teenagers are both student athletes and active in their sports year-round. I'm concerned about injuries that could sideline them. What should we watch for? ANSWER: As the school year ends, summer sports heat up for students and adults alike. Summer may be a prime season for a sport, such as baseball […]
Add Lynn Bartels to Colorado’s roll call of legends
A few weeks after the Rocky Mountain News shut its doors forever in 2009, more than 600 Republicans gathered for the state party’s annual Centennial Dinner. Lamenting the historic significance of the loss of one of Colorado’s great daily newspapers, the state chairman noted the presence that evening of former Rocky political reporter Lynn Bartels […]
Israel missing out on global life sciences recovery
IATI's annual report for 2025 portrays general stagnation in the Israeli industry. with one or two bright spots.
Northern AZ business stays open for community during power shutoff
Arizona Public Service cut electricity to about 8,000 homes and businesses in the Flagstaff and Grand Canyon area Saturday morning.
Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (June 18-25)
There were five restaurants and food establishments ordered closed by Orange County inspectors from June 18 to June 25.
LVMH and Accor's Orient Express sets its sights on new tech billionaire class
Shuttling across the French and Italian Riviera, Orient Express's first giant yacht aims to attract a new class of billionaire.
Nia Long explains why she turned down Prince's advances
Nia Long explained why she once shut down Prince's advances when she was young, and said that she later met the musician again when she'd gained more notoriety in Hollywood.
Schwebel Baking Company to shut down after 120 years in business
Trump Administration Shut Down Climate Website, Former NOAA Employees Have Just Brought It Back
In June 2025, Climate.gov was shut down by an executive order that implied it did not meet the current administration's standards. Climate scientists have just brought the data back.
Game On Retro owner plans entertainment empire expansion, Coram movie theater transformation
Plans include opening a new arcade, store and transforming a shuttered movie theater in Coram.
Notion shutting down its AI-powered email client, including Mac and iOS apps
Last year, Notion expanded its productivity suite to include Notion Mail, an AI-powered email client. Today, the company announced that...
Merck KGaA to buy Bio-Techne for $11.3bn in life science footprint expansion
The deal is Merck’s largest since 2015, when it spent $17bn on acquiring Sigma-Aldrich, also a life sciences specialist.
Brownsville shuts down seven businesses in city's entertainment district over code violations
Seven late-night businesses along Brownsville's Pablo Kisel Boulevard entertainment district have been ordered to close after the city revoked their certificates of occupancy for code and safety ordinance violations.
How should European scientists respond to the US AI kill switch?
Earlier in June, Europe’s worst fears of technological dependence were confirmed when the White House ordered the AI firm Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using its leading models. This kill-switch moment crystalised anxieties in Brussels that the continent, lagging the US on the creation of leading-edge AI models, is now a technological of vassal of Washington. The shock has specific implications for European scientists and universities. Some governments are now worried that with AI being integrated into labs, Donald Trump now has his finger hovering over an off switch for European science. “Having restrictions on this tool, it can have an impact on our own research,” said France’s research minister, Philippe Baptiste, at the VivaTech conference in Paris on June 18.Baptiste, himself a former academic, said that colleagues in mathematics had recently warned him they were now cut off from leading-edge US models, risking their work. “This model is not available anymore now because of the US restriction, and for the first time this had an impact on mathematics,” a field where large language models (LLMs) are making a significant contribution, said Baptiste. So, should European scientists avoid relying on US models in the future? Or would this be a self-harming overreaction? And how is AI being used in science, anyway? What happened?On June 12, it emerged that Washington, citing cybersecurity concerns, had ordered Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using two models: Claude Mythos 5, and Claude Fable 5, a version of Mythos but with guardrails to prevent abuse. Anthropic said Washington’s concerns were overblown. But forced to follow the order, yet with no way to check who was using the models, the company suddenly shut down access for everyone, US citizens included. There’s still no agreement on how to restore broad access. But last week, Bloomberg reported that select US companies, and the US government, still had access to Mythos despite the ban, but the EU’s cybersecurity agency Enisa had been shut out. Class division of researchersIn the longer term, access outside the US should be restored, said Marcel Salathé, co-director of the AI centre at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), because a permanent restriction would be financially ruinous to US AI firms. “Even Trump will eventually budge to economic pressure,” he said.However, US AI firms might end up operating rather like banks, doing due diligence on users of their leading-edge AI models, he went on.European scientists are unlikely to fall foul of such checks, he said. But having a Chinese postgraduate in their lab, or doing a type of research the US disapproved of, could potentially result in access being denied. “It will create a sort of class division of researchers,” he said. More than frontier modelsHowever, successfully deploying AI in science is about far more than just having access to leading LLMs such as Mythos.Instead, many science-specific tools, most famously Alphafold, which predicts protein folding structures, require “far less” computing power to train than frontier models, well within the capabilities of European supercomputers, according to a recent analysis by the Arq Foundation, a Brussel-based AI think tank. Instead, tools such as Alphafold are possible because certain fields, like protein folding, weather prediction or astronomy, have large, clean, standardised datasets that can be used to train predictive models. Rather than compute, “data is the central constraint for AI for science,” the report says. For example, a less powerful physics model trained on CERN’s data “will be more valuable than the best model without certain data,” said Bengüsu Özcan, author of the report. European advantage?Europe could therefore steal a march by using its scientific data and infrastructure to create models US digital giants cannot. “They might actually match or go even beyond what these big [US] companies are doing,” said Özcan.Indeed, some European start-ups hope to create automated testing labs to create the kind of standardised data that could speed up the discovery of new materials. Materials scientists say there’s currently too little data to train models. AI scientistsHowever, even if the bottleneck for AI in science is often data, rather than compute, being at the mercy of the US for LLM access could still become a problem for European scientists. A new class of “AI scientists” based on leading LLMs is also emerging, Özcan’s report says.Unlike domain-specific tools like Alphafold, these try to automate day-to-day scientific work, by providing an overarching tool that coordinates specific models to synthesise existing literature, generate hypotheses or run analysis of data. The problem for Europe, however, is that these tools are sometimes based on US leading models. Google Deepmind’s AI Co-Scientist, for example, is built on Google’s Gemini LLM. Systematic failureThese scientific automation tools are still in their early stages, and still exhibit “systematic failures on scientific tasks,” Özcan’s report says. One of the problems is that the messy, day-to-day process of scientific discovery is largely not documented, meaning LLMs don’t have a good source of data to learn how scientists actually work. Meanwhile, some tasks, such as literature synthesis, don’t typically require access to leading edge models.However, the performance of AI scientific assistants could improve as companies such as Google pour resources into developing them. Rely on US“Unfortunately, for scientific assistants, there is not much we can do right now except rely on US frontier AI,” said Antoine Bosselut, a natural language processing expert based at EPFL. Chinese-built open models, which can run on local computers, lessening the risk of a shutdown, are touted as one alternative to US dependence. There’s also Mistral, once seen as Europe’s main AI hope, but the Paris-based company has seen its recent models fall behind in performance. But the Chinese alternatives are generally not as capable as US frontier AI models, said Bosselut, unless paired with fiddly, custom tools that allows them to act as independent agents. “Most scientists do not have the time,” he said. Don’t jump ship yetAlthough the kill switch moment is seen a warning shot for European scientists, it doesn’t mean labs should abandon US AI tools immediately. “I do not think the right response is simply to abandon US-based models and systems under the banner of sovereignty or independence,” said Mattias Björnmalm, secretary general of the Cesaer university association. “That would be an overreaction.”Related articlesEuropean sovereignty in AI requires ‘ugly trade-offs,’ say experts Robotic lab start-up makes case for €500M EU-funded materials testing facilityAI in science: is it useful? Instead, European researchers need to ask themselves whether they’re becoming dependent on technology that could be turned off in Washington, said Özcan. “They might not see this today, but they should really start asking this question,” she said. European researchers need a plan B, said Salathé. “I would recommend to every researcher, very proactively explore alternatives.”Own toolsIn addition, Björnmalm and others want European research institutions to develop their own scientific AI tools.Instead of signing AI deals with US digital giants, European universities should be using this money to create their own models, which may end up being superior for research, said Sabine Leonelli, an expert on the use of AI in science at the Technical University of Munich. “Universities in Europe seem to be happy to sign commercial contracts with US companies on the assumption [their AI tools] are better,” she said. But US frontier LLMs are typically opaque, and have been developed without independent scientific input, she said. “This is not good enough for science.”Last year, Swiss researchers released Apertus, an LLM designed to be completely transparent, from its development methods to its training data. The idea is that this makes scientific tools built on top of the model far more reproducible than with closed, commercial alternatives.“Europe needs more of this: serious capacity-building that gives researchers, universities and companies credible options,” said Björnmalm.
We finally have an opening date for the California Science Center’s space shuttle–centric expansion
Space Shuttle Endeavour is in place, and the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is (almost) ready for takeoff.
Space Shuttle Endeavour: California Science Center unveils vertical shuttle display
The California Science Center Wednesday provided the first public view of space shuttle Endeavour inside its permanent home -- in upright launch position with two rocket boosters and an external fuel tank.
Suit alleges new NCAA rule unfair to high school Class of 2022
Less than 24 hours after the NCAA Division I Cabinet approved a monumental change in eligibility rules, a group of 15 college basketball players filed a lawsuit iclaiming the new age-based model unfairly shuts them out of further competition.
New exhibit housing Endeavour Space Shuttle set to open at California Science Center in November
The Endeavour Space Shuttle will be housed in the newly built Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery.
House speaker looks to reconciliation process to pass Trump's voter ID bill
Johnson suggested tying election integrity proposals to a federal grant program
House speaker looks to reconciliation process to pass Trump's voter ID bill
Johnson suggested tying election integrity proposals to a federal grant program
CALIFORNIA SCIENCE CENTER TO OPEN THE SAMUEL OSCHIN AIR AND SPACE CENTER ON NOVEMBER 13, 2026
/PRNewswire/ -- The California Science Center announced today that the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, the permanent home of Space Shuttle Endeavour, will...
California Science Center visitors will see space shuttle Endeavour in launch position this fall
The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will be free to visit, just in time for the 2028 Olympics.
First look at the Endeavor Space Shuttle at the California Science Center
Science fans will soon get the chance to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor in its ready-to-launch position at the California Science Center in Exposition Park this November.
Fresh closures hit city's hospitality businesses
The Cube Hotel shuts suddenly along with its Marco Pierre White restaurant and a Stirchley cafe.
Shuttered Public Market bar misses World Cup business
An eviction dispute has shuttered The Pine Bar at Boston Public Market, just as downtown perks up around the World Cup.
Businesses seek more help after sinkhole closure
Businesses say they are still struggling after a sinkhole shut a high street for more than a year.
California Science Center sets Space Shuttle Endeavour opening date
On Nov. 13, the California Science Center's Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will open to visitors as the final phase of its 33-year-long master plan.
Central Florida restaurants forced to shut down over health concerns
Last week, another six Central Florida eateries were told to close after a visit from a health inspector, according to state records.
Longtime employees of beloved Burlingame eatery Alana's Cafe purchase business from retiring owners
The owners of the café had announced that they will be retiring. But instead of shutting its doors, its longtime employees stepped up to the plate.
Science Will Not Save the Abortion Pill : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
The facts are not enough. In addition to using evidence, people who support the legal right to abortion must make the moral case for it.
MIO: Memories In Orbit Developer Douze Dixièmes Shutting Down
It's been reported that MIO: Memories in Orbit developer Douze Dixièmes is shutting down after regaining its independence.
Battle with California city's Democratic Socialist government costs man his business
Kevin Brown invested $2 million to turn an abandoned Richmond shipyard building into a thriving waterfront winery. But after a dispute with the city over rent and lease terms, the business was shut down.
Lexington-Fayette Health Department shuts down mall restaurant
The health department closed down a restaurant in the Fayette Mall after repeated failed inspections according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Hodder Tugboat acquires Seaspan's towing business
Hodder Tugboat Co. Ltd., Richmond, British Columbia, has finalized its purchase of the legacy chip and hog fuel barge division of Seaspan Marine, North Vancouver, British Columbia, the companies annou
Records: Rural Michigan ‘overlooked’ in Michigan’s $6B subsidy spending spree
A Bridge analysis finds that the northeast Lower Peninsula got $71 per person in economic development spending since 2022, compared to $854 in west Michigan. Some question the disparities.
Indonesian Academy of Sciences launches journal with Taylor & Francis
Publication will be "source of original research spanning science, technology, mathematics and the social sciences"
Machado homers, King dominates as Padres shutout Braves
The Sporting Tribune's Fernando Ramirez writes that pitcher Michael King has a bounce back outing while Manny Machado homers to beat a talented Atlanta Braves team.
THE WEEK OF JUNE 22, 2026
- NSF reverses ocean observatory shutdown - White House to limit stays of international students - OMB nominee defends grantmaking rule
Community Power Building to Advance Rural Health and Equity
Focus groups with rural health departments revealed core principles and calls to action to better center community voices in decision making.
'Bright' girl's death sparked Bristol's mental health unit's closure
Her death on New Year's Day led to Riverside Adolescent Unit at Blackberry Hill Hospital to shut.
A common vitamin could help fight one of the deadliest brain cancers
A clinical trial is exploring whether high doses of vitamin B3 could give patients with glioblastoma a better chance against the aggressive brain cancer. Scientists found that niacin may help revive immune cells that tumors shut down, allowing them to attack cancer more effectively. Early results have been promising, with patients showing significantly better progression-free survival than expected.
Health clinic in St. Louis loses federal funding. CareSTL was already collapsing.
CareSTL Health, which serves low-income and uninsured patients, has already shuttered four of its five locations.
Basketball powerhouse Putnam Science Academy (Conn.) closing down
Basketball powerhouse Putnam Science Academy (Conn.) is reportedly shutting down due to financial crisis following recent reports.
Luigi Mangione plans to withdraw mental health crisis claims
Luigi Mangione's attorneys have withdrawn their plan to allege at trial that he was undergoing a mental health crisis, court filings revealed on Friday. Mangione pleaded not guilty in 2024 to the murd...
Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (June 11-18)
There were nine restaurants and food establishments ordered closed by Orange County inspectors from June 11 to June 18.
How America's last denim mill survived the collapse of the US clothing industry
Foreign competition has shuttered nearly every US denim mill. We went inside one of the oldest ones left and checked out the high-tech competition.
Free 8-month small business coaching program to expand to Tennessee for entrepreneurs
Tennessee small business owners can now join the waitlist for a free 8-month coaching program offering one-on-one financial mentorship and expert guidance. Applications open late July/early August.
One of My Favorite Xbox Studios Is Being Shut Down – What Xbox Games Are Now Cancelled or Shutting Down Because of the Closures?
Xbox is in the process of a reset, with multiple studios reportedly in danger of closure. What does this mean for the games they're making? We look at which Xbox games could be cancelled, and which are safe.
Springfield schools business manager: When bidding out bus fuel, it’s all about the markup
The sellers' profit margins are really what are up for bid.
Fresno City Attorney investigates unpaid wage claims after local BBQ business shuts down
After Local Drag Queen and Business Owner Banned From Instagram, More Questions Than Answers
Club ERA owner Naomi Dix says that her accounts were shut down this week for purportedly violating community standards.
Polymarket Launches Its First Entertainment Podcast: 'What Are the Odds?'
The company clearly hopes to expand its outreach to women.
Raiders’ Klint Kubiak shuts down Kirk Cousins-Fernando Mendoza narrative
Las Vegas Raiders coach Klint Kubiak made his stance clear on the quarterback competition between Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza.
Taking an omega-3 supplement may not boost memory or cognition
Taking an omega-3 fatty acid supplement did not improve memory, cognitive function or brain cell loss for many people, a surprising new study finds.
Ebola's spread fueled by cuts in humanitarian aid | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Harvard Chan School's Phuong Pham shares how the shuttering of USAID and other foreign aid cuts have contributed to the current spread of Ebola—and what it might mean for global health security in the future.
Nancy and the politics of deterrence: reading the French nuclear offer to Poland
A year after the Nancy Treaty, Polish-French defence cooperation is deepening and building a tangible element of European deterrence. The question is what kind of relationship Warsaw and Paris are actually building, and whether it will outlast the leaders who started it.
Mayo Clinic Q&A: Block some time out for health screenings
DEAR MAYO CLINIC: Since I turned 40, my clinic has been sending me a slew of reminders about men's health screenings. Are they really necessary? ANSWER: Yes! Blocking out some time for these important health screenings is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. Historically, men have been hesitant to seek […]
A Nashville business graveyard: How 12 South has priced out local owners
Burger Up will join Mafioza’s, Josephine’s, 12 South Taproom and so many others on the list of shuttered businesses in the area.
Why is Trump’s threat to the Ocean Observatories Initiative so monumental to scientists?
Researchers warn that shuttering a key network of research equipment and analysis will make the country less prepared for climate crises
Blue Jays back Cease with 3 homers in 6-1 victory over Red Sox at Fenway
Davis Schneider and Andrés Giménez hit back-to-back home runs, Dylan Cease pitched five shutout innings and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Boston Red Sox 6-1.
These are the best things to do in Brevard this weekend, June 19 to 25
Find your weekend adventure: Butterflies, Sinatra and the Space Shuttle top our list of Brevard's best things to do.
Mike Trout, Zach Neto Homer, Reid Detmers Tosses Shutout As Angels Beat Diamondbacks
Reid Detmers bolstered his trade value with seven dominant innings in Phoenix, while Mike Trout and Zach Neto provided the offensive sparks for the Los Angeles Angels.
Science without borders: the lasting legacy of Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Over 30 years ago, Europe decided to back researchers, trust their curiosity, and see where it leads in honour of Marie Skłodowska-Curie
An EPA Researcher Details the Agency's Assault on Science
In late January, the Trump administration began shutting down projects within the EPA’s independent science division that touched on climate change and environmental justice. Air quality researcher Thomas Luben, who had worked at the agency for 18 years, was fired for objecting.
Exploring the Current Boundaries of AI for Science at TPC26
Last week’s TPC26 event brought together many of the world’s preeminent experts in using AI for science and engineering. The conference demonstrated that we have come quite far in just […]
SpaceX Bolsters AI Business With $60 Bil Deal. Musk Targets $1 Tril In Revenue.
SpaceX boosts AI business with $60 billion deal for Cursor. Elon Musk makes this bold revenue target. ARK details its SpaceX forecast.
1 Central Florida food truck shut down last week after health inspections
The Department of Business and Professional Regulation shut down a food truck in Volusia County for health code violations during the week from June 7-13.
State tries to shut down Evanston psychiatric facility after string of crimes and violations
The state of Illinois is trying to close Albany Care in Evanston, a home for about 170 people with mental health and substance abuse issues. The facility is appealing the order.
This family-owned Fort Worth business plans to shut down after three decades
The family said it has lost too much revenue to nearby construction and is heartbroken to have to close in a couple of months.
Digital Science launches self-citation screening tool
Dimensions Citation Check identifies self-citation, assesses its significance, and helps editors make informed decisions
Ebola outbreak strains health system in eastern Congo
In eastern Congo’s Ituri province, a new Ebola outbreak is testing an already fragile health system. In the city of Bunia, hospitals are overwhelmed or shut down after suspected infections, while health workers race to contain the virus.
Do Michigan parents have a right to see everything in kids’ medical records?
In Michigan, parents may face limited access to certain medical records, such as substance abuse treatment, as their children get older. State Rep. Joe Aragona, R-Clinton Township, would change that.
Xbox is reportedly considering closing South of Midnight studio, Compulsion Games, with Double Fine and Ninja Theory also allegedly at risk
Xbox is allegedly shuttering We Happy Few and South of Midnight developer, Compulsion Games, with Tim Schafer's Double …
Putting Cape Verde’s Historic Draw Against Spain In Historical Context
Cape Verde pulled off a stunning upset to shut out heavily favored Spain in a 0-0 draw. How shocking was the upset? Here are the numbers.
South of Midnight Maker Said to Be Shuttered by Xbox
Update: Negotiations with Microsoft allegedly taking place
Compulsion Games Might Be Getting Shut Down By Xbox, Says Report
Update: Source says they're in negotiations with Microsoft
Xbox Is Planning To Shutter Peabody Award-Winning Compulsion Games
It is unclear how many individuals will be impacted
The shifting landscape for Black-owned businesses: An update to the Black Business Parity Dashboard
The latest Black Business Parity Dashboard reveals where Black-owned employer businesses are growing, where ownership gaps persist, and how closing those gaps could generate jobs, wages, and economic growth nationwide.
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.
Robert De Niro's message for Donald Trump on his 80th birthday: 'Shut the f--- up'
As the president was hanging with UFC fighters at the White House on his 80th birthday, Robert De Niro delivered a fiery anti-Trump speech, declaring that he wants to "love my country again."
Amid Marathon slump and Destiny 2 player resurgence, former Bungie employee claims studio was "very close" to shutting down before Sony's acquisition
The fight to keep Destiny 2 going has been a long one, according to a former member of staff.
Scientists Finally Discover How Venus Flytraps Snap Shut So Fast
Exceeding the plant 'speed limit'.
Hurricanes defeat Golden Knights to win Stanley Cup Final
The Carolina Hurricanes won their first Stanley Cup championship in 20 years on Sunday night, using a suffocating defense in Game 6 to shut down the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 and winning three straight games of a thrilling final filled with momentum swings and spectacular offense.
Hurricanes defeat Golden Knights to win Stanley Cup Final
The Carolina Hurricanes won their first Stanley Cup championship in 20 years on Sunday night, using a suffocating defense in Game 6 to shut down the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 and winning three straight games of a thrilling final filled with momentum swings and spectacular offense.
Mark Gongloff: The White House’s top science goal is ignorance
Shutting down scientific inquiry because it discovers things you don’t like is a bit like turning off all the instruments on your plane because they warn you there’s a mountain
Carolina Hurricanes win Stanley Cup in Vegas
The Carolina Hurricanes won their first Stanley Cup in 20 years by shutting out Vegas 3-0 behind goaltender Brandon Bussi.
Hurricanes finish off Knights, win Stanley Cup
LAS VEGAS — The Carolina Hurricanes won their first Stanley Cup championship in 20 years on Sunday night, using a suffocating defense in Game 6 to shut down the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 and winning three straight games of a thrilling final filled with momentum swings and spectacular offense. Brandon Bussi, who entrance late into […]
Orange County restaurants shut down by health inspectors (June 3-11)
There were nine restaurants and food establishments ordered closed by Orange County inspectors from June 3 to June 11.
Blizzard Sues To Take Down Another Private World of Warcraft Server, Project Ascension
Blizzard shut down a different, popular player-run server, Turtle Wow, in April
Why The Beatles' Final Performance Was Shut Down by Police
And so the lore of the Fab Four's last-ever show lives on.
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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