SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " ATTACK " 2,142 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Trump news at a glance: Biden says Trump has ‘diminished’ US standing in the world as he attacks his successor
Former president calls Trump ‘a loser’ and criticizes his attempted makeover of Washington. Key US politics stories from Sunday 28 June at a glance
After budget impasse, business as usual for Virginia Democrats, analysts say
This has been a budget battle like none other, with big personalities, personal attacks and what looked like a high-stakes game of chicken with days to go before the Virginia state government couldn’t pay its bills.
Ossoff banks on Trump attacks in purple state and takes aim at rival Collins
Former McCarthy aide details Trump’s expletive-laden attacks on lawmakers and the wild fight to put McCarthy in office
Pro-Israel influencers criticize Vance, but evangelicals remain open to him
Despite attacks from some conservatives, a heavily pro-Israel crowd still has warm words for Vance, with many saying they could pick him as the party’s nominee.
Meloni and Trump: A very public Italy-US fallout that is proving very hard to fix
Italy's PM was not long ago being called the "Trump whisperer", but their relationship has gone from public attacks to personal insults.
Trump ramps up attacks on Democrats as ‘godless Communists’ ahead of November’s midterms
President Donald Trump on Friday seized on the electoral success of several democratic socialist candidates to ramp up his attacks on the Democratic Party, claiming it was being taken over by “godless Communists” who pose an existential threat to the nation.
What could be next for Gakpo?
Following the departure of Mohamed Salah, at least one more attacking signing is expected at Anfield this summer. Liverpool have already signed Victor Munoz from Osasuna for £34.5m and the pursuit of Yan Diomande is heating up. Talented teenager Rio Ngumoha is also set to play a more prominent role, while Florian Wirtz played off the left for Liverpool at times last season and is featuring there for Germany in the World Cup.
Boone Health earns renewal of Level I STEMI Center designation for heart attack care
Boone Health earned its renewal of Level I STEMI (ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction) Center designation, reaffirming their ability to provide the highest level
FDA-approved drug may finally help immunotherapy defeat rare liver cancer
Researchers found that a rare liver cancer evades immunotherapy by luring immune T cells away from the tumor and trapping them in nearby fibrous tissue. An FDA-approved drug called AMD3100 freed those T cells to attack the cancer, significantly improving the effectiveness of immunotherapy in tumor samples.
White House Melts Down Over Dem’s Attack on Trump’s Health
Steven Cheung hit back with a profane tirade against Rep. Ted Lieu.
Even in Defeat, a Democrat Showed the Upside of Angering the A.I. Industry
Alex Bores’s close loss in New York could pave the way for other Democrats to take political advantage of being attacked by the increasingly unpopular A.I. industry.
The Trump administration has attacked science 574 times. Track each instance with this online tool
The Union of Concerned Scientists is aiming to visualize the scale of the president's anti-science actions, from censorship to the sidelining of experts.
The politics of masculinity: GOP tests new line of attack against Talarico
Republican criticism of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico is focused not only on his politics, but also on his manliness.
California intends to sue Trump administration over offshore wind project
State officials said they are combating the administration's attacks on their offshore wind industry
Cited 23 June: Project Cosmos launch | Science ‘under attack’ at Bonn | Emissions inequality
Carbon Brief explains how it built a major new database of climate science research and unveils a new ranking of the 500 most highly cited publications, authors and institutions in climate science.
This four-winged dinosaur may have terrorized Earth's earliest birds
A newly discovered feathered dinosaur called Jian changmaensis may be the missing predator responsible for mysterious piles of crushed prehistoric bird bones in China. The four-winged glider, a close cousin of Velociraptor, helps reveal how early birds and their dinosaur relatives shared the same ancient landscape.
What I Saw at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Monday Afternoon | WSJ Politics Newsletter for June 23
Plus, how President Trump’s war aims shifted, and ABC launches ads attacking the FCC.
Two rich Democrats were friends. Now they are spending millions to attack each other.
Wine mogul David Trone is spending millions in a comeback bid as wealthy incumbent April McClain-Delaney aggressively defends her seat.
AI could breach government and business defenses in months, US and its intelligence partners warn
AI models capable of launching major cyberattacks that could overwhelm the defenses of governments and businesses are months – not years – away, an international alliance of intelligence agencies warned in a joint statement.
Justice Department charges two more in alleged plot to attack White House UFC event
Two more men have been charged in the alleged plot to attack the UFC White House fight earlier this month, providing new insight on how far in preparation the Justice Department believes the group came in carrying out the would-be attack.
The Jacob Engels attacks don't worry me. This does
I never thought he warranted the attention.
Chris Brown $90 million lawsuit ends in mistrial
The $90 million lawsuit against Chris Brown over an alleged dog attack has been declared a mistrial.
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.
Why Trump has been attacking the Supreme Court, with 3 key rulings ahead
As the court prepares to rule on several of the president’s priorities, tensions are running high — even with his own appointees.
Roma eyeing Greenwood and 3 other attackers
Roma are undergoing a makeover in attack, and a revolution is expected. Gasperini has laid out the path: the attacking line will need to be improved ahead of next season, when the team will also be co...
Rep. Jason Crow says he's worried "Americans are at risk" with Bill Pulte as acting DNI
Ukraine spy and attack drones now bringing supplies to soldiers
Ukraine's front lines with Russia has become so dangerous that it wants to use as many unmanned systems as it can, including drones to carry gear.
Trump wanted out of the Iran war. The aftermath is pulling him back in.
The ceasefire reopened diplomacy, but it also left Washington to manage Iran’s leverage, Israel’s attacks and a MAGA backlash.
Trump deepens the dustup with Italy's Meloni, who says his 'unprovoked attacks are senseless'
President Donald Trump on Saturday lashed out at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, insisting that she asked “over and over” for a photo with him at the recent Group of Seven summit and criticizing what he said was Italy’s lack of cooperation during the Iran war.
Judges’ races have been injected with more politics. Here’s what to know.
The Placer County judicial race in the primary election included attack text ads. One consultant called this election cycle for judges “vitriolic.”
The Belfast riots: an anti-migrant ‘pogrom’
Disorder over migrant knife attack shines a light on new era of political violence fuelled by social media
Israel Is Likely to Continue Attacks in Lebanon, U.S. Intelligence Concludes
The new cease-fire between the United States and Iran calls for an end to fighting in Lebanon, but U.S. intelligence officials do not expect Israel to halt its strikes on Hezbollah.
Congressman attacks Evers for his push to apply for federal funding
Wisconsin applied for federal funding through the Rural Health Transformation Program, which was included in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill.
Ebola in DR Congo: Six-year-old 'doing well' after armed men took her from hospital
Health facilities have come under attack during the current outbreak as a result of misinformation and fear.
What are the health implications of the Everglades wildfires, and will World Cup spectators and players be affected?
Dr. Roberto Lucchini works with first responders exposed to carcinogens in the World Trade Center attacks. He discusses how airborne toxins from South Florida fires could impact residents, visitors.
Lil Nas X shares a video update after getting mental health care: ‘There’s less fear in my heart’
The update comes after the musician was charged with attacking Los Angeles police officers last year.
Researchers found 8 common food additives linked to high blood pressure and heart disease
A major study of more than 112,000 people found that eating foods containing common preservatives may be linked to a higher risk of high blood pressure and heart-related diseases. Researchers tracked participants for up to eight years and discovered that people consuming the highest amounts of certain preservatives had significantly greater risks of hypertension, heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular problems.
Thwarted attack on UFC fight is another reason to build White House ballroom, Trump DOJ argues
Federal courts have looked skeptically at President Donald Trump’s assertion that he can construct a massive new ballroom without approval from lawmakers
Science 'under attack' from fossil fuel interests at UN climate talks
A coalition of some rich nations and the world's most vulnerable have vowed to protect climate science in UN negotiations
Nations allege 'attacks' on science at key climate talks
Crucial negotiations ahead of the COP31 summit have been frustrated by a "small group of fossil fuels interests" attacking the science of climate change behind closed doors, envoys said Wednesday.The ...
Ukraine says even outdated drone tech can work for allies
A Ukrainian official says drone tech that is aging out of his country's fast-moving fight could still help partners preparing for similar attacks.
2026 World Cup billed as ‘largest entertainment attack surface in history’
As the tournament is underway across North America, Palo Alto Networks warns that temporary supplier ecosystems, vulnerable municipal infrastructure, and geopolitical tensions are creating risks fo...
Merchants of Doubt and the attacks on Extreme Event Attribution science
Last week, I attended a meeting at Columbia University on attribution science and climate law, hosted by the Sabin Center. It was a fantastic event, bringing together scientists and legal experts working at the intersection of extreme event attribution and climate law. Subscribe For those unfamiliar with it, extreme event attribution attempts to quantify the contribution of climate change to an extreme event. For example, several groups analyzed the impact of climate change on Hurricane Harvey’s enormous rainfall totals over Houston, Texas and they found that climate change increased rainfall by 15 to 38%. One thing that came up again and again was how terrified fossil-fuel interests are of extreme event attribution science. They are acutely aware that this research could land them in court. And losing those cases would leave them legally liable for billions of dollars in climate damages. Because the legal stakes are so high, the blowback has turned ugly. I spoke with several scientists at the meeting who are facing ongoing harassment over their work. This blowback is a coordinated campaign to make the entire field look suspect. The goal is to create the impression that attribution science is too uncertain, too political, or too conflicted to be useful in court or in public policy. The strategy is not based on actual science or evidence of misconduct, but on the generation of doubt. The new Merchants of Doubt We’ve seen this before. In fact, not that long ago: We only have to go back a year to the Department of Energy (DOE) Climate Working Group (CWG) report to see an example of using doubt as the tool to push back against well-established science. This strategy is laid out in an email from a member of the CWG, Dr. Roy Spencer, that was released during litigation over the Climate Working Group process. The key quote is: About all I can hope is that what we write will provide sufficient “reasonable scientific doubt” regarding the science claims in the 2009 TSD [technical support document], based upon almost 2 decades of new science, to call into question the original reasoning for the EPA Administrator’s decision that CO2 presents a threat to human health and welfare. This statement is strong evidence that at least some members of the committee were working to support a particular policy outcome: revoking the Endangerment Finding. The email also explains how they planned to do it: by attempting to generate “reasonable doubt”. This is going to be hard, Spencer implies. Despite falsely claiming that “2 decades of new science” weakens the case, Spencer explicitly acknowledges that the actual peer-reviewed science of climate change overwhelmingly rejects his position: But if the science argument is decided upon by a vote, or by the number of published citations, we lose the science argument. We can go back even further: This CWG email shares unmistakable DNA with the infamous 1969 tobacco memo that declared: “Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy.” The tobacco memo also acknowledges the limit of this strategy: Like the CWG, they knew the science was not on their side. Share The new new Merchants of Doubt The people attacking the IPCC chapter on extreme event attribution are the newest iteration of the Merchants of Doubt. Their goal, like all Merchants before them, is to introduce doubt into the process. Because the report is not even out yet, they cannot attack its conclusions. So they are attacking the authors instead. Here is a press release from the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee: In the letter, the Chairmen express concerns about potential conflicts of interest involving members of the Attribution Committee, stating that “publicly available information suggests a troubling pattern” in which committee members are affiliated with nonprofits that support climate accountability lawsuits, “raising the appearance of impropriety and member bias.” To be clear, this is just innuendo. There is no actual evidence of bias. And given the robust process that these reports go through, including multiple lines of peer review, it seems very unlikely that significant bias can survive into the report. When the report comes out, critics will have the opportunity to make legitimate criticisms of the report — if any exist. If none do, however, they’ll still make criticisms, but they’ll be bogus, simply designed to generate doubt. We’ll see. A note to the press: Fix your frame To any journalists reading this: The public debate over extreme event attribution science is not going away. The science is simply too dangerous to fossil-fuel interests for them to stop fighting it. You very well might be assigned to write an article about this area of research in the future. When you do, do not automatically adopt the framing that climate misinformers want you to use. They want you to frame the story around questions like: Are climate scientists trying to put their thumb on the scale to achieve a predetermined, politically motivated result? Are climate scientists improperly letting their politics invade the science of the IPCC? That frame is a trap. Instead, you need to view this through the historical lens of the Merchants of Doubt. How does the ecosystem of doubt operate? Who funds it? What methods do they use to misrepresent science and slime researchers? What scientific results are they trying to keep people from understanding are legitimate? Ultimately, you instead need to focus your article on the generation of doubt as a way to maintain the fossil fuel industry’s social and legal license to keep burning oil, gas, and coal. If you treat the misinformers’ frame as a legitimate, good-faith scientific critique, you are helping them produce doubt. Don’t do it. Don’t be a Merchant of Doubt. Thanks for reading The Climate Brink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe other stuff The Staying Curious Substack has an interesting post about the different flavors of climate sensitivity. This is crucial information if you want to understand how scientists think about how much warming the Earth will experience. I’d be grateful if you could hit the like button ❤️ below! It helps more people discover these ideas and lets me know what’s connecting with readers.
FBI says it foiled ‘planned attacks’ targeting White House UFC event
At least five people are in custody in an alleged plot that included 23 people, according to US media reports.
Trump’s war on science is in the fine print
A fresh attack on the U.S. scientific infrastructure could be the most damaging yet.
This exercise ‘sweet spot’ is linked to greater longevity
A new study pinpoints how many minutes per week of strength training might help people avoid death from conditions including heart attacks and Alzheimer’s.
Japan's tech business SoftBank rolls out OpenAI 'patches' against cyberattacks
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group Corp. is launching a service using OpenAI technology to protect against the looming threat of cyberattacks, both companies said Tuesday.
Japan's tech business SoftBank rolls out OpenAI 'patches' against cyberattacks
Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group Corp. is launching a service using OpenAI technology to protect against the looming threat of cyberattacks
Japan's tech business SoftBank rolls out OpenAI 'patches' against cyberattacks
Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group Corp. is launching a service using OpenAI technology to protect against the looming threat of cyberattacks. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son called Japan’s...
Times Opinion: Trump’s war on science is being waged in the fine print
A fresh attack on the U.S. scientific infrastructure could be the most damaging yet.
Can Iraola release the real Wirtz?
Florian Wirtz arrived at Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen last summer amid great fanfare in a then-British record £116m deal - but remained an enigma as he fell far short of expectations. Liverpool still have huge hopes for a gifted attacking player who has only just turned 23, which means one of Andoni Iraola's main tasks is to find a settled position for the German to release the talent he demonstrated before moving to Anfield. This is why Iraola will have been intrigued by what he saw from Wirtz in Germany's 7-1 win against Curacao in their opening World Cup game.
Shark expert says Tony Abbott ‘doesn’t understand the science’ after former PM calls for cull
Another expert says drone technology may have prevented a shark attack at Coogee beach on Saturday
Stranger Than Heaven Reinvents Yakuza Combat Around the Shoulder Buttons, Replacing Heat Moves With Stamina-Based Counterattacks
Stranger Than Heaven overhauls Yakuza combat, replacing Heat Moves with a stamina-based counterattack system built around shoulder buttons.
Critical Splunk Enterprise Flaw Lets Attackers Run Code Without Authentication
Splunk issued security updates for a critical CVSS 9.8 vulnerability in Splunk Enterprise that allows unauthenticated remote code execution.
A year after the Hortmans were killed, legislators are still looking over their shoulders
Minnesota politicians are balancing grief, security and purpose as they adapt to life after the June 14 attacks.
Drones and lone wolf attacks are key concerns as FBI works to secure 11 World Cup cities
On Thursday, the first whistle blew, ushering in the largest sporting event the US has ever hosted — or secured.
Why the penis is a barometer of men's health - and we need to wake up to its warnings
Erectile dysfunction can be an early warning of heart attack, stroke, diabetes and dementia.
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
Over 400 Arch Linux AUR Packages Hijacked to Deploy Infostealer and eBPF Rootkit
Attackers hijacked 400+ Arch Linux AUR packages to run a Rust credential stealer, with optional eBPF rootkit support on root systems.
AMD Stiffs Researcher $10,000 Bug Bounty After Critical Security Flaw, Takes 124 Days to Fix
AMD's auto-updater downloaded software over insecure HTTP, letting attackers inject malware during updates before a 124-day delayed fix.
PLA scientists propose a plan to destroy US carrier groups from 3,000km away
China’s military proposes a strategy to attack out-of-reach American military assets as distance becomes a shield.
Opinion: Science should not be subject to loyalty tests
Opinion: This could be Trump’s worst attack on science yet
A key US government surveillance program is set to expire. A look at what that means
A key surveillance tool seen as vital in preventing terror attacks and catching foreign spies is set to expire after congressional efforts to temporarily extend it failed in bipartisan fashion
First attacks fly in South Carolina GOP governor's runoff. What’s fact and what’s fiction?
Pamela Evette has come out of the gate hard in the opening days of the 2026 runoff election against Alan Wilson, attacking him over his support for Democrat James E. Smith for a judicial seat in 2024.
Experts on uptick in political assassinations and polarization in recent years
Immediately after the shootings of two state lawmakers, some called it part of the rise in political violence they have been observing for some time across the country. Minnesota Now host Nina Moini spoke again with two of those experts a year after the attacks.
Still Under Attack: A Decade of Monitoring Attacks on Health Care after the Adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2286
Analysis in English on World about Protection and Human Rights; published on 11 Jun 2026 by Insecurity Insight
Hiltzik: The Diabetes Association crosses a line
The tally from Trumpian attacks on science now includes billions of dollars in damage to farmers and ranchers and assaults on scientists' freedom of speech.
PSV’s Ismael Saibari awaiting green light for Bayern Munich move
Bayern Munich have proposed a package of €45m plus €5m in bonuses to PSV for Moroccan attacker Ismael Saibari (25), according to a report by Santi Aouna.Talks continue between the two clubs, with ...
Inside the war to sideline stronger climate science, before it’s used in court
An emerging field of research that can measure how much climate change has worsened individual disasters is under attack by friends of the fossil fuel industry. Billions of dollars are at stake.
Parents and doctors should decide what healthcare kids receive, not DC
To end the federal attack on gender-affirming care, residents want its agencies to trust good science, dismiss misinformation and respect medical consensus.
Trump weighs in on Maine's U.S. Senate race
While Trump attacked Platner, he said that Sen. Susan Collins is "a respected person."
Motorcycle taxi drivers in Congo rally for Ebola awareness as attacks hinder response
Dozens of motorcycle taxi drivers have joined an Ebola awareness caravan in eastern Congo.
Public transport and businesses shut down amid fears of further violence
Additional police officers will be on the streets after violence erupted on Tuesday night following a knife attack in Belfast.
Alien: Isolation 2 is Poised to Deliver Another Bold Chapter in Survival Horror
We played the Alien: Isolation 2 prologue at Summer Game Fest: Play Days and lived to talk about it with the creative geniuses at Creative Assembly.
Defying Trump could help Susan Collins win reelection in Maine
Collins has managed to stay close enough to benefit politically while maintaining an independent streak. This strategy has helped her survive Trump's frequent personal attacks and his primary endorsements of opponents3.
Rubrik launches Autonomous Business Recovery to rebuild cloud applications after cyberattacks
Rubrik launches Autonomous Business Recovery to restore cloud applications, identities, networks, and data after attacks.
Man to appear in court over Belfast knife attack as rioting described as ‘race-based pogrom’ by SDLP leader
30-year-old man to appear in court today charged with attempted murder, with Keir Starmer expected to face questions on the disorder during PMQs
Windows BitLocker 0-Day Vulnerability Allows Attackers to Bypass Security Feature
BitLocker bypass enables attackers with physical access to defeat disk encryption and access protected data on Windows systems.
The Democratic establishment begrudgingly moves to embrace Graham Platner
Democrats largely lined up behind their new Maine Senate nominee on Tuesday, while Republicans were quick to launch their attacks.
Victor Wembanyama, other NBA Finals players condemn violence after Spurs fans attacked following Game 3: 'It's unacceptable'
Landsman, Riley Lead the "Drain the Swamp Act"
Cincinnati, OH – Today, Congressman Greg Landsman (D-OH-01) and Congressman Josh Riley (D-NY-19) introduced the most comprehensive anti-corruption bill in U.S. history – a package of reforms to fight corruption and return power to the American people. In response to unprecedented, blatant corruption and increasing attacks on our democracy, Congressman Landsman and Congressman Riley introduced the Drain the Swamp […]
The Science Community Is Stepping Up. Let’s Go Bigger.
The scientific community is fighting a proposed change to research funding. Let's keep this momentum going to take on more attacks on science.
Tottenham remain keen on Hearts' Wilson
Hearts forward remains in thoughts of Tottenham as Hibs attacker is due back for pre-season.
Oil rises slightly as investors await clarity after Iran-Israel halt attacks
Oil prices inched up in early trade on Tuesday after Iran and Israel left the door open to a possible resumption of attacks on each other, though they had called a halt to hostilities following an appeal from U.S. President Donald Trump.
State CFO attacks Jacksonville spending; city calls the criticism politics
Appearing in Jacksonville Beach, CFO Blaise Ingoglia said Jacksonville wasted $275.7 million in its current budget
Anonymous racial attack decried in SC GOP governor's race where 1 candidate is singled out
As South Carolina's Republican primary for governor enters its final stretch, Rom Reddy alleges attacks on his Indian heritage, prompting public condemnations from Pamela Evette and Alan Wilson.
Why Does the Trump Administration Keeping Attacking Science?
The Trump Administration's multi-prong attack on American science seems to come down to ideology, plain and simple.
Reporter's Notebook: Tlaib forces rare House procedure after Republican accuses her of defending terrorists
Rep. Max Miller was sanctioned after attacking Rep. Rashida Tlaib during a Lebanon war powers debate, triggering the rare 'words taken down' process.
Trump repeats claim that California election was rigged
President posts screenshot on Truth Social attacking Californian election, after walking out of NBC interview after refusing to substantiate his claims of election rigging
Protecting Heart Health in an Era of Temperature Extremes
Extreme heat and cold are growing cardiovascular risks that can trigger heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and sudden cardiac death, according to a recent scientific statement by experts at Weill Cornell Medicine and other leading institutions.
Resuming War Is a Short-Term Political Boon for Netanyahu, but Grim Choices Await
If President Trump forces Israel to stand down against Iran, analysts say, it could leave Israel hindered from responding forcefully to attacks by Hezbollah.
Trump doesn’t rule out giving Jan. 6 rioters who attacked police ‘anti-weaponization’ fund payouts
In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Trump also baselessly claimed that Tuesday’s elections in California were “rigged.”
Political dynasties carry new baggage as voters vilify the elite
Family names have long given candidates a boost. In the era of No Kings, they can also make for an easy attack.
Collins’s vote, Platner’s service inject Iraq War politics into key Senate race
Veteran Graham Platner is attacking Republican Sen. Susan Collins's vote to authorize the war in his campaign to unseat her.
How Howie Mandel turned a panic attack into a mental health movement and helped build a company now worth hundreds of millions
Howie Mandel did a campaign with NOCD, a telehealth app to help spread awareness of OCD. Out of that campaign, Billy Bob Thornton and "celebrity galore" reached out.
❌ World champions lose midfielder to injury, see replacement
Germany have suffered a cut in their World Cup squad. Lennart Karl, Bayern’s 18-year-old attacking midfielder, had an injury confirmed after tests carried out this Friday (5). The information was ...