Search headlines

Leader of Myanmar's military-backed government arrives in Thailand seeking political legitimacy

BANGKOK (AP) — The head of Myanmar’s military-backed government arrived in Thailand on Thursday for an official visit that could serve as a major stepping stone in his effort to win political legitimacy more than five years after seizing power from an elected civilian government.

Aug 5 • 11:58 PM EDT • Politics • wral.com

Tommy Sullivan and John Ziegler to Perform at LI Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame on Aug 16th

As part of the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame Soundtrack to Summer Series, Musician Tommy Sullivan (a member of the Brooklyn Bridge) will perform LIVE music and Comedian John Ziegler will open with comedy set at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook Village (97 Main Street, Stony Brook, NY) on Aug. 16th from 3-4pm. The event is free for members or with general admission ticket purchase or $10 at the door concert ticket purchase. For details on this and upcoming events please visit https://www.limusichalloffame.... About Tommy Sullivan A life-long Long Islander and proud U.S. Army veteran, Tommy Sullivan enlisted in 1965 and was accepted to the United States Military Academy Band, where he created the first official rock group at West Point. Reentering civilian life in 1968, he helped create the Rhythm Method, a 7-piece Long Island band which was discovered by Johnny Maestro, then singing lead with the Del-Satins. The combined groups became the Brooklyn Bridge. As band leader and musical director, Tommy penned the group’s horn arrangements on every Bridge hit, including their gold record, Worst that could happen. Upon leaving the Bridge, Tommy co-founded Atlantic Records’ supergroup Ramatam, which was Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell’s first group following Hendrix’ death. For the second Ramatam LP Tommy wrote and orchestrated original material which featured select members of the NY Philharmonic Orchestra. Together with Johnny Maestro, Tommy co-produced Johnny’s final CD, Peace on earth. The critically acclaimed album features Tommy’s arrangements & orchestrations, plus several of his original songs. A Charter Inductee to the LI Music Hall of Fame, Tommy Sullivan continues to write, record, arrange and produce records, serve as musical director/ arranger/conductor for projects across many musical genres plus donates dozens of performances annually for numerous charity events. Tommy Sullivan’s dynamic and unique one-man show, A thousand memories, featuring his vocals and performances on four instruments, has been packing concert auditoriums, nightclubs, private parties–even vineyards-for the past several years. John Zeigler Born and raised in New York, John has performed stand-up comedy for close to 20 years and was the winner of the 2016 "Funniest Comic on the East Coast" Contest at Mohegan Sun. John's opened for such comics as Sebastian Maniscalco, Gilbert Gottfried, Jim Breuer and Robert Klein. He currently headlines clubs across the country and regularly tours with legendary comedian Bobby Collins. John recently released his Dry Bar Comedy Special and Getting My Affairs in Order.

Aug 3 • 3:39 PM EDT • Entertainment • iloveny.com

Neal Milner: There’s So Much We Don’t Know About Hawaiʻi Politics

The only truly documented thing we know for sure is that most people vote Democratic if they vote at all. Not much news there.

Aug 2 • 6:01 AM EDT • Politics • civilbeat.org

Big Money In Hawaiʻi Politics — The Carpenters Union Is Crushing Everyone

Other political action committees are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on candidates, too, but their financial efforts fall far short of the Carpenters Union.

Aug 2 • 6:01 AM EDT • Politics • civilbeat.org

From gendered sacrifice to ancient politics: DNA uncovers early Chinese civilisation

New analysis reveals the Shimao people were a distinct civilisation that evolved locally in a small region over centuries.

Aug 2 • 4:00 AM EDT • Politics • scmp.com

Bangladesh’s future depends on the military distancing itself from politics

The generals’ pursuit of wealth and civilian power fuelled corruption while leaving the army hollowed out

Aug 2 • 12:00 AM EDT • Politics • ft.com

NGA, Dignity.Us Launch Center for Dignity in Politics to Strengthen Democratic Leadership and Promote Civil Discourse

New bipartisan center will equip governors with tools to foster respect, reduce political polarization and strengthen democratic culture OKLAHOMA CITY – The National Governors Association (NGA) today announced the launch of the Center for Dignity in Politics, an initiative that will equip governors with the tools, training and resources to strengthen democratic culture, reduce political polarization and […]

Jul 31 • 2:37 PM EDT • Politics • nga.org

Author's Response: African Americans, Sudan, and the Politics of Solidarity

This post is part of our online roundtable on Christopher Tounsel’s Bounds of Blackness. In April 2023, civil conflict erupted in Sudan between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). While numbers alone never convey a war’s human toll, the statistic

Jul 31 • 5:00 AM EDT • Politics • aaihs.org

Hims & Hers sued over sending users health info to social media platforms

Digital telehealth platform Hims & Hers is facing a civil lawsuit over accusations of sending users’ health information to online advertisers after promising privacy.

Jul 30 • 9:37 AM EDT • Health • fox5dc.com

This 4,000-year-old city defied the rules of history

As Mohenjo-daro prospered, the gap between its richest and poorest households actually shrank. Its shared infrastructure, fair trade systems, and lack of powerful royal elites suggest that equality may have helped fuel the ancient city’s success.

Jul 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

After Hobbes vs Rousseau: Politics must move beyond human nature

Since the great debate between Hobbes and Rousseau, our political theory has been organised around a single question: is human nature essentially good or essentially corrupt? Graham Harman, the philosopher behind object-oriented ontology, argues that this is simply the wrong question to be asking. The real forces governing our collective fate - climate change, artificial intelligence, geography, and pandemics - are non-human; therefore, questions about human nature are not the central ones. Instead, Harman proposes a politics reorganised around our relationship to non-human objects and environments, in which quasi-government institutions incentivise and deter actions with the aim of extending the survival of the human race. “It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” This has become one of the most popular phrases among twenty-first-century intellectuals. Often misattributed to Fredric Jameson, it has been warmly embraced by such influential authors as Slavoj Žižek and the tragically departed Mark Fisher, and has fueled the notion that the major problem with the political Left is that it simply needs to become more speculative and creative. Naturally, this is never a bad idea in any human pursuit. But what if the political distinction between Left, Right, and Center itself results from a failure of imagination? SUGGESTED READING Hobbes vs Rousseau: are we inherently evil? By Robin Douglass This particular division has been with us only since the summer of 1789. During the simmering prelude to the French Revolution, it referred originally to the physical position in the National Assembly of radical figures on one side and loyal monarchists on the other. These positions are linked with two entirely different camps of modern political theory. On the Left we find a series of authors ranging from the moderate (Locke) to the supercharged (Rousseau) to the truly radical (Marx), all of them contending that exploitation of the many by the few justifies revolutionary overthrow of the existing order. On the Right they are countered by the likes of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Schmitt, a group of thinkers convinced that corrupt human nature can be tamed only by force. In the words of the Nazi supporter Schmitt: “One could test all theories of nature and state and political ideas according to their anthropology and classify these as to whether they consciously or unconsciously presuppose [humans] to be by nature evil or by nature good.” This is the division we continue to face today, even in the daily retail politics of Western democracies.___Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims.___The most refreshing feature of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s 2021 book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity was their awareness that the forced choice between Rousseau and Hobbes (as they put it) is no longer sufficient. Our species has regularly proven itself capable of both the noblest gestures and the most scathing cruelties, making it hard to define us as essentially either emancipatory or brutal in our aims. Far from being stationed “beyond good and evil,” we seem to be fully entangled with both. We are not naturally good or evil, Graeber and Wengrow contend, but naturally experimental and imaginative. They rest their case on the archaeological record, which seems to bear witness to numerous episodes of seasonally shifting governments and festivals, which vacillate in the same society (even in the same year) between the egalitarian and the dictatorial. Such praise of political experiment makes a good fit with the generally anarchist position defended by these authors. Yet it is also what I find most disappointing in their position. Although they are right that the forced choice between Hobbes and Rousseau falls short of what our new situation requires, the authors simply replace it with praise for the human being as a political tinkerer and performer. In other words, they give us just another theory of human nature, one that would not have been out of place in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. What other options might we have?___The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature… We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them___One fresh approach would be to treat politics within a broader framework than human nature, given that the polis does not exist in a vacuum filled exclusively with people. When Bruno Latour went to observe the baboons of Kenya with the San Diego anthropologist Shirley Strum, they jointly concluded that these primates were more socially interdependent than our own species. Each baboon is so reliant on the dynamics of the group that they find themselves locked into constant surveillance of their potentially dangerous peers. The group structure turns out to be inherently volatile. Humans, by contrast, are able to stabilize their societies to a large degree through the mediation of inanimate objects. Although one’s position in society may seem to fluctuate over time, considerable stability is produced through such items as apartment keys, wedding rings, and identification cards, all of them serving to secure us a place distinct from that of our fellows. The Italian philosopher Maurizio Ferraris has written at length about the crucial role of documents in establishing social relations, making him a hero among notaries in his country. Proper names and license plates cement our position amidst other humans, as do symbolic achievements such as graduation from a top university or distinguished wartime service with its various medals and ribbons. None of this is found among baboons, despite their closeness to us on the evolutionary tree: after all, we did share a common ancestor just 25 to 30 million years ago. SUGGESTED VIEWING The goodness paradox With Richard Wrangham The time is ripe for a retheorization of politics on the basis of something other than human nature, whether understood in the manner of the Left or of the Right. We are not just alienated and limited by objects, but also empowered and unleashed by them. But initially, it is true, we face non-human things primarily in the form of constraints. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to form a human civilization underwater, deep underground, atop Mount Everest, or in outer space. Human dependence on the non-social background takes on subtler form in discussions of political geography, especially unloved on the more idealistic Left. Consider the luckless position of Poland during World War II, sandwiched between Hitler on one side and Stalin on the other. By contrast, note the good fortune of the United States in not having a military peer positioned on any land border. Anglo-American geopolitics, since the writings of the American naval commander Alfred Thayer Mahan and the British geographer Sir Halford Mackinder, has been wedded to the notion that one or more liberal offshore naval powers should prevent any authoritarian “heartland” regime from gaining effective control of Eurasia. That remains the case whether the opponent is the impatient Napoleon, the swashbuckling German Kaiser, the villainous Hitler, the murderous Stalin, or the industrial juggernaut Chinese. In their current Foreign Affairs article “Heartland vs. Rimland,” Michael Beckley and Hal Brands analyze the current and coming state of the world on the basis of these same rather durable principles. In recent years a similar outlook has been embraced, in inverted form, by the Putin-loving Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, an icon of the Rightist intellectual underworld. For Dugin, the Anglo-Saxons are an evil force bent on destroying the spiritually superior people of the land: much like Athens in its failed war with Sparta, or Carthage in its eventual collapse against Rome. But the shared notion on both sides is that any strategy that fails to take geography into account is likely to end up as a defeated form of excessive optimism.___When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole.___More striking for us today than geography is the non-human object called climate, which threatens rimland and heartland equally. Even if we contend that humans are one hundred percent responsible for triggering the climate crisis, it remains non-human in the sense of being an independent force beyond our effective control. In a major work published just before his death in 2002, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, the American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould noted the tendency of evolutionary theorists to focus too closely on the fate of individuals in view of their successful or failed adaptation to circumstances. With climate change, however, we confront a force that goes well beyond the scope of any individual life. Whereas Richard Dawkins extended evolutionary questions downward from individuals to the sub-individual gene, Gould pushed it upward, speaking of entire species or clades as impacted by environmental change. The asteroid that struck the Yucatán 66 million years ago is only the most famous example of this sort. In the wake of that catastrophe, large animals needing abundant supplies of food were at a fatal disadvantage by contrast with the smaller birds and mammals of the planet. When dealing with environmental degradation, then, we are doing business with forces that promise dire effects on our species as a whole. The effect is to shift our attention away from individual beings towards the survival of the group.In the United States in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked considerable backlash among those who asserted a nearly absolute degree of individual freedom. In California I encountered those who demanded that their businesses be allowed to reopen, that it was enough to cover their mouths but not their noses, or that they should have the right to enter any public area despite refusing vaccination. Yet public health is probably the clearest argument against libertarianism, which often merely asserts the autonomy of individuals against any claims of the commons. In normal times the individual is worth defending; under conditions that threaten the survival of part or all of our species, compulsion may be our only resort, as with perfectly reasonable blackouts and rations in wartime. To rebuild human society under the constraints of climate change will be one of the great challenges of the century to come, as will our improvised grappling with artificial intelligence. Such phenomena pose existential risks for humanity, and leave far less room for tolerance of individual brattiness. Cases are mounting of devastating wildfires caused by arson. Recently it was reported that there is even a website where one can bet on the location of coming wildfires, raising the specter of deliberate blazes set to collect on wagers. The death penalty has steadily lost support in a world where many stress the infinite value of human life. But if we focus instead on entire ecosystems, those who purposely burn the forests may begin to look worse than serial murderers.___The politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere.___So far I have spoken of force, authority, and punishment: measures sure to have greater appeal to those who identify with what we know as the Right. But other implications of the post-anthropocentric world are likely to have different backers. If non-human objects are seen as structuring political space, it stands to reason that they can no longer be introduced solely by the pace of technical breakthrough. Fields ranging from cybernetics to energy will demand increased politicization once they are reconceived not just as products of individual human investment, but as renovations of collective political geography. This need not involve world government, with its inherent risk of tyranny, but may involve quasi-governmental enforcers of prestige along the lines of a less corrupt FIFA or International Olympic Committee, punishing deviant states not with violence but with less tangible incentives.Politics will never lose its historic links with conflict and faction. But rather than factions aligned by differing theories of human nature, the politics of the future may be splintered by disagreement over such topics as how to manage our environing background and how to permit or restrict the entry of new objects into the political sphere. This will prove just as incommensurable with the modern Left/Right spectrum as a globe is with a two-dimensional map.

Jul 30 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • iai.tv

Why Anthony Fauci might not be safe after pleading the Fifth

By now in American politics, we’ve become accustomed to high-profile figures pleading the Fifth to avoid answering questions they believe could be used to incriminate them. That includes President Donald Trump doing it more than 400 times in a civil case in 2022.

Jul 29 • 2:08 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

In novel program, the Pentagon will pay civilian ambulances for blood

The Pentagon will test paying ambulances for blood transfusions, a move experts hope expands lifesaving prehospital care.

Jul 28 • 8:37 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Health financing under pressure as civil society calls for urgent action

Ahead of the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly, the WHO Civil Society Commission and partners highlighted the need for sustainable domestic health financing, stronger accountability, health equity, and meaningful civil society and youth engagement to advance universal health coverage amid global funding challenges.

Jul 28 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • who.int

Civil society pushes for action on health financing

WHO Civil Society Commission dialogue highlighted the need to turn health financing commitments into action through stronger accountability, efficient resource use, increased investment in primary health care, and greater civil society and youth engagement to advance equity and universal health coverage ahead of the 79th World Health Assembly.

Jul 28 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • who.int

Neal Milner: When Political Memoirs Go Bad

Omissions are a sin that does a disservice to the public in these two recent books.

Jul 26 • 6:01 AM EDT • Politics • civilbeat.org

Bus Collision in Syria Kills 35, Health Ministry Says

The accident occurred when a civilian bus collided with another carrying members of the Syrian security forces on a highway in the center of the country.

Jul 25 • 9:20 AM EDT • Health • nytimes.com

Ronald Reagan center director: How to talk politics with family, friends and neighbors, without losing them

A new civility handbook offers a simple framework for disagreeing without destroying the relationships that matter most.

Jul 25 • 7:30 AM EDT • Politics • fortune.com

Kaepernick, Springsteen receive new ACLU award for activism in arts, business, science and sports

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick received a new award from the American Civil Liberties Union recognizing contributions to American thought and culture.

Jul 25 • 7:26 AM EDT • Science • wtop.com

Kaepernick, Springsteen receive new ACLU award for activism in arts, business, science and sports

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick received a new award from the American Civil Liberties Union recognizing contributions to American thought and culture.

Jul 25 • 7:26 AM EDT • Business • wtop.com

Hawaiʻi AG Investigation Into Political Bribery Case Goes Before Grand Jury

What began four years ago with the convictions of two state lawmakers is now looking at the lieutenant governor and other officials.

Jul 24 • 2:41 PM EDT • Politics • civilbeat.org

Patch towns, powwows and politics coming to the Schuylkill County Historical Society

Discussions on coal patch towns, the Civil War and Pennsylvania Dutch powwows are on the agenda at the Schuylkill County Historical Society in August and September.

Jul 24 • 12:41 PM EDT • Politics • republicanherald.com

Small Business, Childcare And Safety: State House District 14 Candidate Q&As

The seat has three Democratic candidates on the primary ballot.

Jul 24 • 6:01 AM EDT • Business • civilbeat.org

Brian Kilmeade reveals the internal 'political civil war' that is dividing Democrats

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade examines what he describes as a growing political divide within the Democratic Party and examines what is to come for Democrats.

Jul 23 • 8:01 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com

NASA programs feel effects of workforce reductions

More than two dozen major NASA projects say they have been affected by the loss of a fifth of NASA’s civil servant workforce in the last year.

Jul 23 • 5:31 PM EDT • Technology • spacenews.com

GOP senators unveil move to memorialize communism victims on CCP's doorstep amid Dem civil war: 'No tolerance'

The proposed memorial would sit across from the Chinese Embassy, forcing CCP officials to face victims of Mao Zedong's rule and the Uyghur genocide daily.

Jul 22 • 8:53 AM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com

Saudis Reach Deal With U.S. That Could Let Them Enrich Nuclear Fuel

U.S. lawmakers and Israeli officials have expressed opposition to such a plan, to be announced Wednesday, fearing that the kingdom could use a civilian nuclear project to develop nuclear weapons.

Jul 21 • 10:43 PM EDT • Politics • nytimes.com

Federal civil rights agency moves to stop requiring demographic data collection after 60 years

The Trump administration is moving to toss aside a 60-year-old requirement for tens of thousands of private sector employers to submit workforce demographic reports each year to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the workplace.

Jul 21 • 8:08 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org

Miss Manners: Is there a place for civility when it’s not demonstrated by our politicians?

Advice from Judith Martin, Nicholas Ivor Martin and Jacobina Martin.

Jul 21 • 4:19 AM EDT • Politics • adn.com

Accused Puna Killer Faces Mental Health Evaluation. Here’s What That Means

Jacob Baker’s case has been suspended while examiners determine whether he is fit to stand trial for the murders of three people on the Big Island that sparked a manhunt. The process has proven to be controversial.

Jul 20 • 6:01 AM EDT • Health • civilbeat.org

The Race For Lieutenant Governor: A Coveted Political Stepping Stone

While the job itself doesn’t amount to much, it helped elevate four politicians who later became governors, and two others who eventually became U.S. senators.

Jul 20 • 6:01 AM EDT • Politics • civilbeat.org

'Complete 180': How the DOJ has redefined its civil rights mission and targeted California

California has been the target of more civil rights actions than any other state. The civil rights division is led by California-native Harmeet Dhillon.

Jul 19 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • latimes.com

We must return to decency and civility in politics

Enough swearing, enough insulting others.

Jul 17 • 4:00 AM EDT • Politics • centralmaine.com

‘Enemies of civilization’: top Trump officials disparage leftism at event

Marco Rubio and Stephen Miller took aim at only leftwing activism at meeting of 66 nations against political violence

Jul 16 • 3:53 PM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com

Families USA and Leading Civil Rights and Health Care Advocacy Groups Release New Report for More Inclusive Health Care

Substantial cuts to health care under the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act could result in nearly 15 million people becoming uninsured by 2034.

Jul 16 • 10:05 AM EDT • Health • familiesusa.org

Business leaders call for stronger partnerships to accelerate sustainable development at 2026 SDG Business Forum

/PRNewswire/ -- Business leaders, policymakers, United Nations officials and representatives from civil society came together yesterday at the 2026 SDG...

Jul 15 • 2:19 PM EDT • Business • prnewswire.com

How the failed 2016 coup reshaped Turkiye’s civil-military relations

Takeover bid 10 years ago sped up efforts to expand civilian oversight, experts say, reducing chances of another coup.

Jul 15 • 2:29 AM EDT • Politics • aljazeera.com

County business park to get first infrastructure, new name

New Hanover County’s Holly Shelter Business Park could be getting its first infrastructure and a new name in the coming months. The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a $6.5 million infrastructure construction contract and renaming on Monday. Once developed, the approximately 300-acre master-planned industrial park is expected to accommodate more than 2 million square feet of industrial space. The construction contract was awarded to Carolina Civilworks, which submitted the lowest responsive bid for the construction of the infrastructure, Akin Akinola, the county’s engineer, told commissioners on Monday. In May 2023, the county approved a development agreement with Sidbury Land & Property Company to establish the business park. The firm then conveyed approximately 52 acres to the county, giving officials the option to purchase another 200 acres, Akinola said. “The county’s role is to construct the initial public infrastructure that will make the site ready for future development,” he said. “Today’s contract award represents the first major construction phase of that project.” The first phase of development will include approximately 2,750 linear feet of business park roadway, a water main and fire hydrants, along with a sanitary sewer pump station, sewer force main and gravity sewer. Other infrastructure will include a right-turn lane on Holly Shelter Road, along with associated drainage, utilities and traffic control improvements. “Completing this work establishes the backbone infrastructure necessary to serve future development and positions the site for future economic investment,” Akinola said on Monday. County staff, in consultation with Wilmington Business Development officials, are also recommending renaming the park as the I-40 Coastal Commerce Park, said Jennifer Rigby, the county’s chief strategy officer. The new name would emphasize the park’s proximity to I-40 and its location on the coast, she said. Several county commissioners also asked to add New Hanover County's name to the business park's name to commemorate the county's contributions. “We are hoping to achieve space for our businesses to grow and expand here in New Hanover County,” Rigby said. “We’ve had great success with out Blue Clay Business Park and this is another opportunity to really provide locations for our businesses to grow and expand.”

Jul 14 • 3:24 PM EDT • Business • wilmingtonbiz.com

LAPD lets agreement with Flock Safety expire over privacy concerns

LAPD will not renewed its agreement with Flock Safety, citing concerns over "civil liberty" and a lack of clarity over terms regarding privacy.

Jul 13 • 8:01 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

WSAZ+ | U.S. Reaches $4.17 Million Civil Settlement with WVU Health System Over Controlled Substance Violations

Kimberly Keagy has a look at the top stories for Monday, July 13th.

Jul 13 • 3:12 PM EDT • Health • wsaz.com

Paul Wesley marries Natalie Kuckenburg in an intimate civil ceremony

‘The Vampire Diaries’ star Paul Wesley got married in an intimate wedding to Natalie Kuckenburg.

Jul 13 • 2:45 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

WVU Health System reaches $4.17 million civil settlement over alleged controlled substance violations

Both U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in West Virginia have announced that West Virginia University Health System has agreed to pay a $4.17 million civil settlement to resolve allegations that it viol…

Jul 13 • 11:28 AM EDT • Health • wboy.com

Bridging divides: Alumnus helps legislators find common ground, reach policy solutions

Jack Thomas ’22, M.P.P. ’23 is the director of congressional engagement and public policy at the National Institute for Civil Discourse in Washington, D.C.

Jul 12 • 8:00 PM EDT • Politics • news.wm.edu

Joe Klein: At 80, Here’s What I’ve Learned About Politics—and Life

I am 80 years old, this year of our 250th anniversary, and I find myself a cliché. My life has been a common political journey, from left to center. I recently took the Pew Research Center’s “political typology” test and found that I was a “pragmatic and polite conservative,” which seemed a rather abstruse basket: A politically mixed (though Republican-tilting) group, they lean conservative on economics and the role of government, while tilting more liberal on issues related to race and foreign policy. They prize civility and cooperation in politics. Well, that sounds pretty mushy—and I find it hard to square with the strong opinions I have on many issues. I’ve voted for Democrats in federal elections, but I grow more Republican the closer I get to local politics. Democrats, I’ve found, simply aren’t very good at running things, especially school systems, where they are in the thrall of the teachers unions. My friends joke about my obsession with the unions. They know all my lines. If industrial unions are organized against the power of capital, who are the public employees organized against? But enough of that. I’ve ranted that rant too often, and my political journey has been more complicated than that one issue. It has been empirical, based on actual experience—on a lifetime of reporting and a lot of reading. An early example: I was a journalist with the underground press in Boston at the turn of the 1970s and considered myself a member of the antiwar and civil rights movements. The first big issue I covered was busing to achieve school integration. Yes, the white bigots were disgusting. But I couldn’t find any black parents who favored the plan to bus their children to schools outside their neighborhoods either. Black activists and politicians—and white liberals—were gung ho, but not actual parents of black kids in school. Busing was a form of social engineering imposed from on high, by a judge—W. Arthur Garrity—who lived in a wealthy liberal suburb. Wealthy liberal suburbs were not affected by his plan, of course. I began to see that there were limits to what government could do, especially when it came to changing a society’s culture.

Jul 10 • 4:21 PM EDT • Politics • thefp.com

Kelley Paul: America's Founders were the 'first civil rights heroes'

Kelley Paul's new book, "Good Night, Young American" takes children on a fantastic journey through early and colonial American history.

Jul 10 • 3:49 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com

Elon Musk’s plans refer to an idea conceived in the 1960s. What is the Kardashev scale?

A Soviet astronomer in the 1960s proposed a scale to classify hypothetical alien civilizations. Here’s why the framework is still coming up today.

Jul 10 • 7:30 AM EDT • Science • cnn.com

The Plan To Make Climate Science Harder To Erase

As climate information disappears from federal websites, scientists are rebuilding it elsewhere.

Jul 9 • 6:03 AM EDT • Science • civilbeat.org

Through the teargas, I saw something missing from German politics for too long: hope

I joined thousands of people blockading the AfD’s congress. A civil disobedience movement is showing how to beat the far right, says the journalist Scott Roxborough

Jul 8 • 7:00 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com

Dem civil war hits primary debate stage as El-Sayed and Stevens clash: 'What are you hiding?'

Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens clashed in a fiery Michigan Senate debate as the Democratic primary exposes a rift between progressives and moderates.

Jul 7 • 8:20 PM EDT • Politics • foxnews.com

The Politics of Provocation: The ECtHR’s Ruling in Miladze v Georgia

A recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights concerning a TikTok video published by a Georgian self-defined civil activist adds another layer to the Court’s increasingly messy Article 10 case law. The applicant repeatedly insulted public officials in crude and sexually explicit terms while broadcasting to a large online audience. Domestic courts imposed only a modest administrative fine, later reduced on appeal. The ECtHR did not find a violation of the applicant’s right to freedom of expression – raising several questions about the limits of legitimate political speech online.

Jul 7 • 11:27 AM EDT • Politics • verfassungsblog.de

America has been deeply divided before. Here’s why today’s divisions are different

At 250 years, America’s fault lines are showing. Partisan and regional divisions rival the most intense internal conflicts it has faced since the Civil War.

Jul 5 • 6:30 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

Grassroot Institute Aims To Keep Growing Its Political Influence

Now in its 25th year, the nonprofit policy research organization wants to play a larger role in influencing state and county governance.

Jul 5 • 6:01 AM EDT • Politics • civilbeat.org

For America’s 250th, we’re reopening our public square: Letter from the Editor

the cleveland.com news site has reopened comments on politics stories for subscribers, aiming to foster civil, moderated debate.

Jul 4 • 8:13 AM EDT • Politics • cleveland.com

Moon school district, PIAA sued after students barred from sports following family’s move

A mother this week sued Moon Area School District and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, alleging her constitutional rights were violated when district administrators barred her sons from playing school sports after the family moved there from the neighboring Sto-Rox district. The civil rights lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court

Jul 3 • 5:35 PM EDT • Sports • triblive.com

32 dogs seized from Iowa breeder who allegedly blocked inspections of her business

Law enforcement officials have seized 32 dogs from an Iowa breeder facing civil charges related to inspections of her facility in Farmington.

Jul 2 • 4:09 PM EDT • Business • iowacapitaldispatch.com

A Nation Larger Than Its Politics

As America approaches its 250th birthday, I find myself wondering whether we have lost sight of something that earlier generations understood instinctively.Americans have never agreed on politics.We have argued over wars, taxes, immigration, religion, civil rights, economic policy, and the proper ro...

Jul 2 • 12:50 AM EDT • Politics • thefulcrum.us

Raveheart by Graeme Armstrong review – ravers rebel in a Scottish political satire

A veteran techno DJ embarks on a campaign of civil disobedience in this passionate and at times hilarious tale of underground resistance

Jun 29 • 4:00 AM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com

How Do U.S. Farmers Vote? It’s Complicated.

Political scientist Michael Shepherd studies rural communities. Here’s what his research says about farmers as voters.

Jun 29 • 4:00 AM EDT • Politics • civileats.com

‘Noxious odors’ lawsuit involving organic residuals lagoon dropped by Fort Smith business owners

VAN BUREN -- A civil lawsuit focused on a widespread foul odor linked to an Arkansas River bottom organic residuals storage lagoon has been dismissed at the request of the plaintiffs.

Jun 27 • 9:00 PM EDT • Business • nwaonline.com

You’ve never seen this before: the shocking moment the sound barrier breaks - Futura-Sciences

The XB-1 is a critical stepping stone toward commercial supersonic travel, representing the first civil designed aircraft to break the sound barrier since the Concorde retired. To verify the aircraft’s aerodynamic performance during its supersonic transition, NASA deployed an advanced optical technology called schlieren imaging to make the invisible forces...

Jun 27 • 3:00 PM EDT • Science • futura-sciences.com

Is the Democratic party headed for a civil war over socialism?

Jun 27 • 12:18 PM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

Civility advocates look for ways to restore 'Iowa Nice' to campaigns, public discourse

A group of former and current officeholders are looking to encourage civility by encouraging civic participation and civil interactions.

Jun 26 • 1:42 PM EDT • Politics • iowacapitaldispatch.com

Small Creatures, Big Mission: NMHM Bugapalooza 2026 Connects Science and Military Readiness

Mosquitoes, ticks, flies, and pollinators drew a crowd at the National Museum of Health and Medicine's Bugapalooza on June 13. Nearly 400 visitors attended the annual event to explore the world of insects through hands-on activities, exhibits, and conversations with military and civilian experts.

Jun 26 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • dvidshub.net

Remembering Victory Stadium: How Roanoke’s lost landmark changed sports and civil rights

It’s been 20 years since Victory Stadium was demolished, but the memories and legacy remain alive in Roanoke.

Jun 26 • 4:27 AM EDT • Sports • wsls.com

California’s Billionaire Tax Kicks Off a Democratic Civil War

The divisive proposal heads to the ballot after attempts to reach a compromise deal failed.

Jun 25 • 9:08 PM EDT • Politics • wsj.com

Online violence against women in politics: what shapes political party responses to technology-facilitated gender-based violence?

Political parties have a primary role to play in tackling online violence against women and gender diverse politicians. While the prevalence and impact of TFGBV, such as coordinated disinformation campaigns, deepfake image-based sexual abuse or trolling are well documented, many parties are still building their knowledge on how to respond effectively and have not put in place internal practices and policies that respond to the rapidly evolving, poorly regulated digital ecosystem. About the ReportIn order to promote and protect fair and democratic participation in politics, this ALIGN Report explores what political parties are doing in response to TFGBV and what factors shape their action. The findings, based on existing literature and interviews with gender and politics professionals, indicate there are three sets of factors which donors, civil society and practitioners should consider when designing action to support political parties to respond to TFGBV internally. These are: (1) gender norms; (2) socio-political environment; and (3) internal party factors.Key messagesUnequal gender norms are ubiquitous across politics, shaping expectations of leaders to be strong and assertive, and practices of political parties to uphold masculinist values and sustain cultures of silence. These often lead to weak response to TFGBV against women politicians.The socio-political context can incentivise or disincentivise action, depending on the salience of gender issues, which are increasingly weaponised. Electoral competitiveness, domestic laws (i.e. quota requirements), and even the political system or global normative frameworks influence political will to act.Internal party factors that shape responses will vary across countries and contexts, but include: structures to enforce codes of conduct, policies and reporting mechanisms on (TF)GBV, political ideology, extent of centralisation of leadership, and crucially the meaningful participation of women in decision-making positions, not least through internal women’s wings.Party responses can be seen as a spectrum, with actions falling between active discouragement to address TFGBV to commitment to transform unequal norms and practices within the party.About the ToolkitTogether with the report, this ALIGN toolkit offers gender professionals and others working on democratic strengthening a set of guiding questions and reflection prompts to identify which responses could be most effective and suitable in different contexts. These actions can complement other solutions to TFGBV, such as regulations promoting safety by design. The assessment spans a broad range of factors including: (1) different manifestations of gender norms, (2) the socio-political environment and (3) internal party structures.Key messagesPolitical parties are duty-bound to take action internally to respond to the significant threats posed to women members and candidates, including from their own party colleagues, affiliates and political peers.Existing party approaches to TFGBV can be assessed along a spectrum which ranges from active discouragement and passive acceptance to minimal response and transformative change.To generate effective and context-appropriate solutions to TFGBV, it is important to consider how gender norms shape leadership expectations and internal party practices, while also analysing the impact of the socio-political environment. While actions to support women to stay safe online are very common, codes of conduct and measures to strengthen women’s voice and power in the parties are proposed as most transformative solutions.

Jun 24 • 2:08 PM EDT • Politics • odi.org

The universe may be hiding conscious minds stranger than we can imagine

What if consciousness isn’t limited to brains like ours? Philosophers Eric Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober argue that consciousness could arise in many different forms of life, even in beings built from radically different materials than those found on Earth. Drawing on the vastness of the universe and the likely existence of countless alien civilizations, they suggest it would be surprisingly Earth-centric to assume that only Earth-like biology can support conscious experience.

Jun 24 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Florida AG launches investigation into CVS Health over pharmacy competition concerns

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued a Civil Investigative Demand to CVS Health Corporation, the owner of the Caremark pharmacy benefit manager and hundreds of CVS retail pharmacies across the state.

Jun 23 • 3:20 PM EDT • Health • news4jax.com

Andy Burnham to get briefings on taking over as prime minister

Sir Keir Starmer is offering "access talks" with the civil service to Labour leadership candidates.

Jun 23 • 9:59 AM EDT • Politics • bbc.com

Opinion | The I Ching, Leibniz and AI: how old China-West links shaped modern science

The connection between Chinese civilisation and Western scientific thinking is far deeper and more intricate than commonly understood.

Jun 22 • 9:00 PM EDT • Science • scmp.com

Justice Department opens civil rights probe after Giants’ Pride protest

The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into MLB, claiming discrimination against Giants pitchers after the team’s Pride Night.

Jun 19 • 9:51 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Obama Opens Center With Celebrities, Rebuke of Trumpian Politics

Former president calls for civility, inclusivity as he unveils $850 million campus

Jun 18 • 4:04 PM EDT • Politics • bloomberg.com

HHS’ Office for Civil Rights Settles Ransomware Investigation with Health Plan

HHS, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced a settlement with Spencer Gifts LLC Flexible Benefits and Welfare Benefit Plans.

Jun 18 • 3:22 PM EDT • Health • hhs.gov

"Lost Civilizations" Linked by DNA: What Scientists Just Uncovered Changes Everything - Futura-Sciences

Megalithic Mysteries: A Shared Heritage Revealed At the closing of the Neolithic era, roughly between 4500 and 2800 BCE, vast megalithic monuments began to rise across Europe. These massive stone structures, often used as collective burial chambers, are a testament not only to strong local traditions but also hint at...

Jun 18 • 7:30 AM EDT • Science • futura-sciences.com

The state that will tell us who’s winning the Democratic civil war

Longtime Colorado Democrats are facing anti-establishment challenges. Who will prevail?

Jun 18 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • vox.com

Climate advocacy by scientists shows mixed effects, no clear trust boost or backlash

Scientists have become more visible in climate debates, engaging in public communication, policy advice, open letters, political demonstrations and even civil disobedience. Scientists who speak out on ...

Jun 17 • 2:20 PM EDT • Science • phys.org

WHO Step-by-Step programme recognized as a promising innovation for mental health in humanitarian settings

WHO, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Lebanon’s National Mental Health Programme, showcased Step-by-Step at the World Bank Group’s biennial Fragility Forum in Washington, DC. The forum convened more than 1500 representatives from governments, international organizations and civil society to advance the development agenda in the world’s most fragile and crisis-affected communities. WHO was invited to demonstrate Step-by-Step – a digital self-help intervention for depression, alongside innovations presented by Stanford University and Google. The World Bank Group selected Step-by-Step from among more than 50 innovations that they reviewed in the lead up to the Forum.About Step-by-StepStep-by-Step is a free digital tool developed by WHO in collaboration with Lebanon’s National Mental Health Programme and other partners, that helps people manage depression and anxiety on their own, with light guidance from a trained supporter. It uses a picture-based story to walk users through evidence-based techniques for managing common mental health conditions. Users complete five modules, with weekly contacts – of around 15 minutes each – from a trained non-specialist helper, such as a community health worker.Evidence-basedClinical trials in Lebanon involving nearly 1250 participants – including 680 Lebanese participants and 569 Syrian participants – showed that Step-by-Step significantly reduced depression, anxiety and stress, and improved daily functioning. By the end of the programme, a reduction in depressive symptoms of more than 50% was reported by almost half (46%) of Lebanese participants and more than one third (37%) of Syrian participants compared to approximately 14% of those who did not use the programme. Cost-effectiveness analyses further suggest that Step-by-Step may offer a cost-saving response to depression in humanitarian emergencies in low- and middle-income countries.Used globallyStep-by-Step is already in use nationwide in Lebanon and Thailand, as part of each country’s mental health system. In India, the NGO – Kaya Guides – has adapted Step-by-Step for delivery through a widely used messaging app. Together, these programmes have provided thousands of people with evidence-based support for depression. The content is freely available from the WHO website for any organization or country to adapt for their own context.A new implementation guideThe Fragility Forum coincided with the recent launch of WHO’s new practical guide: Psychological self-help interventions: delivering self-help for individuals, featuring Step-by-Step and Doing What Matters in Times of Stress (WHO, 2026). The guide is designed to help governments, health workers, organizations and planners bring evidence-based mental health support to more people, particularly in low-resource and crisis-affected settings.

Jun 16 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • who.int

Trump moves oversight of special education, civil rights out of Education Dept.

The Department of Justice will take on enforcement of civil rights in education, while the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee special education

Jun 16 • 1:54 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Trump moves oversight of special education, civil rights out of Education Dept.

The Department of Justice will take on enforcement of civil rights in education, while the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee special education

Jun 16 • 1:54 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Trump Administration Shifts Special Education Programs to Health Department

Officials announced that the Education Department’s civil rights office would also be broken off, the most aggressive move yet to dismantle the department.

Jun 16 • 1:41 PM EDT • Health • nytimes.com

Jeff Bezos Just Raised $12 Billion. He’s Betting His Newest Business Will Create the Next Elon Musk or Henry Ford

Jeff Bezos is back in an operating seat for the first time since stepping down from Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), pointing a $12 billion war chest at what he calls the engine of civilizational wealth: invention itself. In a CNBC interview on June 11, 2026, Bezos and co-CEO Vik Bajaj outlined Prometheus, a Series B round raising ... Jeff Bezos Just Raised $12 Billion. He’s Betting His Newest Business Will Create the Next Elon Musk or Henry Ford

Jun 16 • 12:20 PM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com

As Civilization 7's lengthy revitalisation continues, much-requested hotseat multiplayer is one of several new features arriving next week

Almost 18 months after Civilization 7's bumpy launch, Firaxis' slow and steady course correction is set to continue with the launch of another major update.

Jun 15 • 1:10 PM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

Til politics do us part

A decade after civil unions, Italy still doesn’t allow same-sex marriage — a sign of a political system unable to keep pace with its own society

Jun 15 • 4:55 AM EDT • Politics • ips-journal.eu

Til politics do us apart

A decade after civil unions, Italy still doesn’t allow same-sex marriage — a sign of a political system unable to keep pace with its own society

Jun 15 • 4:55 AM EDT • Politics • ips-journal.eu

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

Jun 13 • 4:15 AM EDT • Politics • anneapplebaum.substack.com

Judge blocks Trump national parks order, calling it ‘censorship’

A federal court barred the Trump administration from continuing to remove information about civil rights, climate change and other topics from national parks, directing the government to restore what it changed within the coming weeks.

Jun 12 • 9:55 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com

20 Nations Strengthen Regional Crisis Response at Indo-Pacific Health Security Summit in Malaysia

Military, civilian, and non-governmental leaders from 20 countries gathered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 7–8, 2026, for the 3rd Summit of the Indo-Pacific Health Alliance for Security (IPhas). Hosted by the Malaysian Armed Forces ahead of the Global Health Security Conference (GHSC), the summit strengthened regional collaboration and advanced shared approaches to health security under the theme, “Civil-Military Collaboration for Whole-of-Society Resilience.”

Jun 12 • 5:16 PM EDT • Health • dvidshub.net

R.I. to make crash data public after years of secrecy

The House and Senate also passed three bills in response to ICE actions, prohibiting civil arrests at R.I. courthouses without a valid judicial warrant.

Jun 11 • 9:29 PM EDT • Politics • bostonglobe.com

Pragmatic and Polite Right

Pragmatic and Polite Right hold a mix of conservative, moderate and somewhat liberal issue positions: They skew more conservative on economics and the role of government, while tilting more liberal on issues related to race and in their orientation to the rest of the world. They are also moderate in their style, prizing civility and […]

Jun 10 • 2:03 PM EDT • Politics • pewresearch.org