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This common women’s health issue is getting a new name. It’s about time.
Polycystic ovary syndrome was always a misnomer. Its new name will help women get proper treatment.
United States Announces U.S. Government Members of the U.S.-Uzbekistan Business and Investment Council
United States Announces U.S. Government Members of the U.S.-Uzbekistan Business and Investment Council Press Release June 16, 2026 Today, at the fifth annual Tashkent International Investment Forum (TIIF 2026), the United States announced the following inaugural members of the U.S.-Uzbekistan Business and Investment Council: U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) Vice President Bethany Aquilina Brez Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) Senior Vice President Sarah Witten Assistant Secretary of Commerce, David Fogel Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Business Affairs, Caleb Orr U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Jonathan Henick Launched in Washington, D.C., in April 2026, the U.S.-Uzbekistan Business and Investment Council serves as the premier bilateral platform to accelerate trade and catalyze private sector investment between the United States and Uzbekistan. The Council is Co-Chaired by Special Envoy for South and Central Asia, Ambassador Sergio Gor and Saida Mirziyoyeva, Head of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The Council gives American businesses direct access to U.S. government financing, trade promotion, and market development tools to execute large-scale projects in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan holds significant reserves of critical minerals essential to U.S. technology, defense, and energy sectors. The Council provides a direct mechanism to advance U.S. access to these resources through transparent, mutually beneficial partnerships. Through their participation, the American members of the Council will deepen the institutional framework for American commercial engagement in Uzbekistan.
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.
At a UFC watch party, cheers for the fight and dismay over the war in Iran
The frustration of a young crowd at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Pennsylvania shows why President Donald Trump was under pressure to end the conflict.
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
Congress must reauthorize the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act
America’s next health emergency won’t wait for Washington, write W. Craig Vanderwagen and Jennifer B. Alton.
What to watch in Tuesday’s primaries in Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma and Washington, DC
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp survived President Donald Trump’s bid to oust him in a Republican primary four years ago. Kemp’s hand-picked candidate in a Senate primary on Tuesday might not be as lucky.
Stefon Diggs makes his case for joining Commanders in 2026
Stefon Diggs wants to play. And it sure sounds like he's looking for a homecoming with the Commanders.
Washington, DC, voters cast ballots in crucial primaries as Trump reshapes the capital
Voters in Washington, D.C. are heading to the polls to select party candidates for mayor and congressional delegate
Oklahoma begins choosing a new US senator and governor in crowded primary
U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma is hoping to win the Republican nomination for the Senate seat once held by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin
Trump-backed US Rep. Barry Moore battles ex-Navy SEAL Jared Hudson in GOP Senate runoff in Alabama
Alabama voters are deciding party nominations for an open U.S. Senate seat
Can $100 million overcome a Trump endorsement? What to watch in Tuesday's elections
An endorsement from President Donald Trump is worth a lot in Republican primaries
Can $100 Million Overcome a Trump Endorsement? What to Watch in Tuesday's Elections
WASHINGTON (AP) — An endorsement from President Donald Trump is worth a lot in Republican primaries. But is it worth more than $100 million in Georgia? Can it propel a sitting congressman past an insurgent outsider in Alabama? Can it transform a candidate into a front-runner in Oklahoma? Trump has ...
Promoter of election conspiracy theories wins GOP primary for Nevada secretary of state
Former state lawmaker Jim Marchant has won the Republican nomination for Nevada secretary of state
Kansas City Royals vs Washington Nationals Live Discussion
A short road trip against an ascending Nationals team with young talent.
Trump claims victory over Iran, but deal is silent on nuclear weapons
The president promised oil would resume flowing through Hormuz, though U.S. and Iranian officials differed over the initial agreement’s terms.
Alaska boots second Dan Sullivan from Senate race
Republicans alleged he entered the competitive race to syphon votes away from the incumbent, Sen. Dan Sullivan.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says Trump's Justice Department is investigating him and his wife
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that the Justice Department is investigating him and his wife, accusing the Trump administration of targeting him for political purposes as he weighs a presidential bid
PAHO Executive Committee opens 178th session with focus on key health priorities and financing challenges in the Americas
Washington, D.C., 15 June 2026 (PAHO) — The Executive Committee of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) today opened its 178th session, where Member States will address the Region’s main health priorities in a context marked by financing challenges and the need to strengthen preparedness for health emergencies.
West Marine files for bankruptcy, plans to close 5 WA stores
The boating supply chain West Marine plans to close five of its Washington stores. The stores are expected to have sales before they shut down.
Yankees Rivalry Roundup: Rays keep pace, M’s get shelled
Tampa wins another one while Washington trounced Seattle
MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle Moves From ‘The 11th Hour’ To Mornings With ‘Money, Power, Politics’
Ruhle signed off MS NOW's 'The 11th Hour' on Friday, and she debuts in her new role this morning after 'Morning Joe,' with a focus on how the economy and Washington impact real people.
President says 250th celebration on July 4 will be a ‘Trump rally’
The previously planned event for the country’s anniversary will feature the president’s playlist and his keynote address, he said.
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Georgia’s state primary runoff
Georgia Republicans return to the polls Tuesday to pick nominees for U.S. Senate and governor in a state primary runoff election
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Oklahoma’s state primary
Oklahoma voters will select nominees for federal and state offices including U.S. senator and representative, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and both houses of the state Legislature in a state primary on Tuesday
Being open and honest about men's mental health with News4's Tony Perkins
Men gathered at the Macy’s Metro Center to have an open discussion with WHUR’s Joe Clair and News4’s Tony Perkins about mental health on Saturday.
How morals influence food, health decisions
Olin’s Sydney Scott researches why consumers act the way they do in the grocery aisle – and the doctor’s office.
A single oak barrel has spent 30 years traveling America’s craft beer scene
The legendary PH1 keeps traversing the U.S., inspiring brewers to innovate and stay connected.
Science suggests cringeworthy dad jokes may serve a real purpose
Research suggests that humor may play a meaningful role in parenting, and parents, particularly fathers, who use humor report stronger attachments and social bonding with their children.
Reasons for Commanders to hope and mope in 2026
One NFL analyst shares a reason for the Commanders to hope and mope in 2026.
The next mayor of DC will have to navigate its most famous resident: President Donald Trump
Janeese Lewis George, a Washington, DC, councilmember and leading candidate for mayor, was knocking on doors when her team got word that President Donald Trump said he wouldn’t “put up with it” if the democratic socialist wins her Tuesday primary.
At G-7, allies plan for a world less reliant on the U.S.
After a decade of trying to manage Donald Trump, the shape will shift this week as Europe’s leaders balance cooperation with a growing resistance to U.S. pressure.
Vance’s fraud task force is sweeping up legitimate small businesses
The vice president and other officials have downplayed evidence of collateral damage in their crackdown on fraudulent hospices.
Prominent Cambodian opposition politician seeks Supreme Court reversal of incitement conviction
A prominent Cambodian opposition politician has appealed his conviction on incitement charges to the Supreme Court
A new generation of public health students
Public health is often associated with hospitals, disease outbreaks and government agencies. But health also is shaped by architecture — by sidewalks, green space, accessible design and the environments people move through every day. Teddy Basa, a rising junior at Washington University in St. Louis, is seeking to better understand those connections. Basa arrived at […]
Trump sought to break Iran’s regime. He settled for reopening Hormuz.
The emerging agreement ends a costly war but leaves Iran’s leadership intact and its nuclear future still subject to negotiation.
Trump puts himself at center of birthday spectacle
Trump marked his 80th birthday with a UFC fight staged on White House grounds — a spectacle that underscored how he has sought to turn sports, historically an escape from politics, into another front in America's divisions.
Is David Flippo's primary win the death blow for Old Nevada politics?
He rallied Washington's Trumpiest voices, poured in his own money and went straight for the jugular. That approach trounced James Settelmeyer's legacy campaign.
Ebola cases in eastern Congo climb to 782 and deaths reach 181, authorities say
The Congolese Ministry of Health reports that confirmed Ebola cases in Congo have increased to 782, with 181 deaths
Sen. Mitch McConnell is hospitalized, but his office does not disclose why
The Kentucky Republican is receiving "excellent care," a McConnell spokesperson said in a statement that did not address his condition.
Washington Journalists Offer Insight on 2026 Political Landscape
At the Federal Legislative and Political Forum Sunday, leading political observers talked about the elections, redistricting and the importance of year-round advocacy.
JD Vance says he’ll discuss 2028 presidential run with wife after midterms
Vice President JD Vance also said he doesn't initiate conversations about his political future with President Donald Trump, but noted that Trump is "fascinated by it."
Trump turns 80 with spectacle of cage fights at White House; issues loom
The bash comes while the U.S. and Iran are discussing a deal to the end the war, and after Trump's name was removed from Washington's Kennedy Center.
Trump turns 80 with spectacle of cage fights at White House; issues loom
The bash comes while the U.S. and Iran are discussing a deal to the end the war, and after Trump's name was removed from Washington's Kennedy Center.
Science 4 Everyone: How to spot the different stages of the spotted lanternfly
Yes, that black and white insect you saw outside could be a spotted lanternfly. Storm Team4 meteorologist and science teacher Ryan Miller explains what the spotted lanternfly’s nymph stage looks like.
Rep. James Gallagher on Iran, President Trump and his priorities in Congress
California’s newest Congressman, James Gallagher, described his first few days in Washington as "overwhelming” and filled with emotions as he steps into his new role representing California's U.S. House District 1.
Italy’s Meloni faces a far-right dilemma as 'Il Generale' Vannacci rises
Roberto Vannacci, a former Italian army general, is shaking up Italy’s political scene with his new party, Futuro Nazionale
Trump endorses Collins in Georgia Senate runoff. It's his latest 'MAGA' pick in Republican primaries
Days before the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia, President Donald Trump has made an endorsement
As El Niño develops, climate scientists are losing the tools to study it
Post readers on El Niño, ACA enrollment fraud, a rail merger and more.
Politics ain’t beanbag. But character still matters.
On the wrong lessons to take from the successes of Graham Platner and Ken Paxton.
ADHD is linked to chronic pain and other conditions. Here’s what we know.
Though it’s not yet clear whether the links are biological, research is beginning to uncover promising connections.
Sports betting was once widely outlawed. Now it’s promoted at the White House.
The UFC event on the South Lawn reflects how sports-related gambling has evolved into a powerful mainstream force in American life.
New rules expand ACA insurance choices but could come with risks
Plans could offer 30 percent higher out-of-pocket costs or no set hospital networks. Critics say the changes may reduce enrollment by 2 million.
Politics: Dubuquers share priorities with federal delegation on annual trip to Washington
Dubuque community leaders made their annual “D.C. Fly-in” pilgrimage to Washington last week, where they met with congressional representatives from Iowa and several federal agencies.
Tuberville faces renewed residency challenge in run for Alabama governor
Alabama Republican Party leaders will hold a hearing Sunday on whether U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville meets the residency requirement to run for governor
WHUR’s Joe Clair Brings Men Together for Honest Conversation About Mental Health
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Saturday, June 13, 2026) — Dozens of men filled the event space at Macy’s Downtown Metro Center Saturday for Well-Dressed Well-Being: A Men’s Mental Health Check-In, an afternoon of powerful storytelling, healing, and honest conversations designed to break the stigma surrounding men’s mental health. Hosted by WHUR 96.3 afternoon personality, comedian, and community advocate Joe Clair, […]
In Boston, Haiti’s World Cup return is more than soccer amid US political threats to community
Haiti’s group match against Scotland marked its second-ever appearance in the sport’s biggest tournament more than a half-century after its first in 1974
Opinion | Dennison: I’ll fight for responsible spending, reducing unnecessary regulations and help small business and more if elected
Like many Coloradans, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated watching Washington become more focused on partisan gamesmanship than solving real problems. Families, workers, retirees and small business owners across Colorado are facing challenges that politicians love to...
Tony Perkins joins Joe Clair for men's mental health event
News4’s Tony Perkins will join WHUR’s Joe Clair for an important conversation on mental wellness, healing and community.
Trump and Macron will meet over dinner at Versailles palace after G7 summit in France
President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron will meet over dinner at the Palace of Versailles after the upcoming G7 summit of leading industrialized nations in France
Global HIV prevention declined drastically after Trump aid cuts, U.N. finds
Cuts from the U.S. and others have hit hard, with the number of people receiving PrEP dropping by 38% from 2024 to 2025, according to data from 62 countries.
How parents can talk to their kids about vaping as FDA authorizes some flavored e-cigarettes
Nearly 6% of U.S. middle and high school students vape
Emboldened Senate Democrats block even bipartisan bills in hardball approach to counter Trump
The decision by Senate Democrats to let a key surveillance authority lapse comes as they’re increasingly emboldened in their legislative fights against President Donald Trump
Will Trump Spend His $350 Million War Chest to Win Texas? Republicans Are Worried
By Nolan D. McCaskill WASHINGTON, June 13 (Reuters) - Republicans want President Donald Trump to put his money where his mouth is: behind his scandal-plagued ally, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton ousted four-term Senator John Cornyn in a primary runoff last month on the heels of Trump's ...
The Knicks’ hedonistic NBA finals run has been a relief from the exhaustion of US politics
Immersed in the daily churn of Washington DC, I found an unexpected source of hope in the Knicks’ improbable season
Want to be more patient? Try these 6 expert-backed tips.
Modern life makes it easy to have a short fuse. Here’s how experts recommend developing your patience muscle.
Democrats have a one-word defense for supporting Graham Platner: Trump
Platner’s backers in Maine say with Trump in office and Senate control on the line, the bar is low and the stakes are high: “Purity politics don’t get us anywhere.”
Trump trades NBA boos for UFC cheers as sports become dividing line
Once a refuge from political division, major sports have become a partisan arena in the Trump era.
Trump trades NBA boos for UFC cheers as sports become dividing line
Once a refuge from political division, major sports have become a partisan arena in the Trump era.
In Retrospect: Poland, Russia, Europe
In April I spent a few days with Zryw, a Polish non-profit organization that recruits young people to enter politics and public life. Their aim is to build a new generation of civic leaders in Poland. I’ve followed their evolution from the beginning; my son is one of the founders. (“Zryw” means “impulse” or “burst of speed” in Polish). Julie Chmielewska, one of Zryw’s leaders, interviewed me at the event. Here is the conversation, lightly edited for grammar and context: Julia Chmielewska: Assuming that culture shapes institutions, could we conclude that some cultures are more prone to authoritarianism? Anne Applebaum: I don’t think so. Every culture, every nation, and every country has the potential for change. When we look at history, we can see that nations do change. Poland has changed, for example, from the 1980s to today. There’s a completely different mentality here than the one I encountered when I first visited, in 1988. The current generation sees the world through a different frame. So no, I don’t believe that certain nations are doomed to authoritarianism, or to anything. Of course, there are political and cultural traditions, but they can always be challenged. JC: So do you think there’s something intrinsic in human nature that pushes people to democracy, freedom? AA: I think there is something in human nature, a deep instinct, that pushes people towards freedom, yes. People who live in authoritarian countries – and I’ve heard this from them over and over again – sooner or later find themselves angered by a feeling of helplessness. They can see the unfairness of crooked courts, irrational political decisions. They naturally dislike the fact that somebody has all the power while they have none. In those circumstances, people who have no political background at all sometimes are politicized just by that frustration. I’m thinking of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, for example, who was a Belarusian housewife, until the circumstances of her husband’s arrest forced her to become a politician. I met a woman who is a Uyghur from China, and who had come to live in Turkey. After several of her family members were arrested, she too was propelled into a political role. These kinds of experiences make people interested in democracy or political reform, even if they thought they didn’t care. I also think that the opposite is true: some people instinctively prefer homogeneity, order, hierarchy. They don’t like the confrontation of opinions or the noise of debate, and they lean towards a single leader or a unified regime. I think that most of modern history is shaped by the clash between those two different sides of human nature. JC: Which force do you find more powerful today? AA: I think they both have a lot of power and there’s no way of predicting who wins. Even in countries that seem very shut off or stuck in an authoritarian system can change. We’ve seen that happen. And vice versa, I think democracies can also begin to fail and slide into authoritarianism. So it’s very important not to be complacent in either direction. JC: I want to go into your history and your experiences. You’ve lived in Russia during a time of incredible change in the late 80s, and then you came back to do research in post-Soviet Russia. AA: I was a student in Russia just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. I then traveled and worked there extensively in the 1990s, and I met people who really were full of hope. They hoped that Russia could become a democracy, or at least a place that guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of the press. These weren’t ideas that came from Washington. Although now the narrative in the Kremlin is different, I met many people who were working towards exactly that kind of transformation. A friend of mine ran a series of seminars – once a year, and then later several times a year, in cities all over Russia – designed to get people to discuss politics in new ways. She invited young politicians and journalists, as well as foreigners. I went to many of them, in Moscow as well as Volgograd and Novosibirsk. Over two decades, hundreds of people came to these seminars, and all of them wanted Russia to be different. I remain convinced that many Russians still want Russia to be different. It’s just that the old system, in the form of Putin, a representative of that system, returned. The KGB reimposed their power. And this wasn’t because of something to do with culture, this was to do with money and politics, and who was in charge. JC: You’ve partially answered my question... I wanted to ask whether that excitement of the 1990s was an exception from the Russian historical norm which has been rather authoritarian? AA: Of course, if you look at the history of Russia since the 18th century, there have always been liberal groups, reformers and revolutionaries. There were the Decembrists, in the early 19th century, and the rural populists later on, who tried to organize the peasantry. A significant group of liberal Russians appeared at the turn of the 20th century, people like the father of the writer Vladimir Nabokov, who was a Russian politician before the revolution. These groups were small in number, but sometimes had a broader significance. The Russian dissident movement in the 1950s and 1960s actually invented the modern human rights movement. It was their idea to hold the leaders of the Soviet Union accountable for the language they used, to remind them of the treaties they had signed and the promised they had made. They created the Helsinki group, for example, that held Soviet leadership to the language of the Helsinki Treaty, which formally ended the Second World War and which contained guarantees of human rights, at least on paper. That idea spread to Eastern Europe, and similar tactics were used here in Poland. (Benjamin Nathans recently wrote a great book about the Soviet dissidents, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause) JC: But seemingly, even if they do ever get power, they could never hold on to it. AA: We don’t know, because they have never really had power. But in any case, we also don’t know what will happen in the future. There is no reason to assume that Russia will forever be condemned to totalitarianism. Even during the first fifteen years of Putin’s regime there was some form of democratic politics. Only when the full-scale war began did he bring everything to an end: he shut down all remaining independent organizations and killed his most important opponent, Alexi Navalny. But does that mean he is popular, that he enjoys legitimacy? Even now, we don’t really know what Russians think about him, or about the war. There is no way of doing real polling in Russia because nobody will answer an independent pollster over the phone. JC: Do you think that the flock of young people, especially young men, who fled Russia after the start of the war represent a continuation of liberal movements that refuse to partake in the authoritarian state, or do you think they are moving for the sake of self-preservation – “I don’t want to go to the army, so I leave”? AA: I’m sure it’s both. I actually know many people who left Russia for political reasons either in the very last years before the war, or else just after the war began. JC: And do you see a change in the young generation versus the old one that have fled? AA: It’s hard for me to say because the people who I know were mostly already politicized. I do know some younger people who left, but most of them were already either active in the opposition, or working as journalists. Many of them very self-consciously think of themselves as maintaining Russian culture abroad, just as in the 20th century the Soviet dissidents or the anti-communist White Russians once thought of themselves as people who maintained the true Russian culture, outside of Bolshevik Russia. JC: Let’s move on to Poland. One of your first experiences with Poland was reporting on Margaret Thatcher’s first state visit, in the autumn of 1988. You followed her around the farmers’ market. AA: She was making a symbolic gesture. She wanted to welcome free markets, but the only one she could really visit was the farmers’ market at Hala Mirowska. JC: And I want to talk about this area because today you can look out of any window in that district, Mirów, and see rows and rows of skyscrapers. How does it feel to see a country built from the ground in such a short time, both politically and economically? AA: You know, when you’re living in a period of dramatic change, it’s always hard to know whether the change is positive or negative. The transformation in Poland created winners and losers, as well as new classes of people, new political movements of different kinds. At the time, it sometimes just felt like turbulence. Now, we can look back at the 1990s and early 2000s in Poland and see in retrospect that the country was headed in towards prosperity and European integration. In around 2009 or 2010, I remember speaking to a woman who worked cleaning government offices, and who asked me if her daughter should study in Amsterdam or in London. This seemed to me to be a real transformation, and it happened very fast: within a few years, Poles stopped feeling like second-class Europeans, and a generation of younger Poles appeared who had no qualms about crossing borders. JC: We again live in turbulent times. Do you think we’re heading towards positive outcomes? AA: I can’t make predictions, because everything that happens tomorrow depends on what people do today. Also, history doesn’t have a trajectory. It doesn’t move in a particular direction. You only think it does afterwards. As I said, you can look afterwards at Poland in the 1990s and you could say this was a period of great progress. But not everybody at the time saw that. Sometimes people are very wrong about a given country’s trajectory. I remember people writing about Ukraine in the 1990s, about how dangerous it was that Ukraine was independent, that this was going to be an anti-semitic state, that Ukrainian nationalism was going to come back... and although you can say many bad things about Ukraine, the country made many bad choices, actually it became a pretty tolerant state which now has a Jewish president and until recently a Muslim defense minister. JC: In the 1990s Poland’s and Ukraine’s GDP were roughly similar. Ukraine was even a bit richer. So the starting point was similar for both of these countries, but they’ve turned out very, very differently. Even if we stop in 2014. Why do you think Ukraine “chose East”? Was it external influence? AA: No, I think Ukraine was in a different position. First of all, central and eastern Ukraine had been part of the Soviet Union since the 1920s, and had therefore experienced a longer period of occupation, repression, Sovietization and even Russification. Ukraine did not have, as Poland did, an alternative elite: a large cadre of economists and politicians, who already had some experience in opposition politics and in independent thinking. In Poland, the transformative finance minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, had already thought about how an economy might be decentralized before he took office. We can argue about how successful he was, but at least he was prepared to try something new. In Ukraine, people weren’t prepared. For one, there hadn’t been much space even for an illegal opposition in the previous couple of decades. Ukraine was also in many ways still emerging from colonial occupation. For the previous couple of centuries, many of the most capable Ukrainians had moved to Russia, and the first generation of leaders in independent Ukraine tended to be former Soviet apparatchiks. They didn’t immediately seek to become closer to western Europe. Instead, they looked for some kind of economic and political “third way” and an accomodation with Russia. Ukraine became stuck in this position, half-in, half-out and became pretty profoundly corrupt. JC: The Polish alternative elite had a vision of where they wanted the country to go. I think the general perception now is that this vision ends with the next election, right? Is this a natural process of gaining power? AA: Their vision, and it was shared by the time by politicians who now call themselves both left and right, was that Poland should join the EU and NATO, as fast as possible. My husband (Radek Sikorski) was in the very first government that said it wanted to join NATO. At the time this was taken very badly in Washington: the demand for NATO membership absolutely came from Poland, not from the US. But even then, in the early 1990s, many Poles already understood that the Russian sphere of influence would grow once again, that it was important to become part of the transatlantic alliance and an integrated Europe as fast as possible: NATO, the EU, the Council of Europe, all of the trading and security alliances. That consensus lasted through several different governments and over many years, even governments containing former communists. For twenty years, right, left and center disagreed about many things, but they all agreed on the direction that the country should go. In retrospect, that consensus created the basis for prosperity in Poland. JC: And regarding the Polish-Ukrainian relations. We know that antagonisms, e.g. the myth of Wołyń [a massacre of Poles that took place in what is now Western Ukraine, in 1943] are increasingly used in Polish political discourse today. In Ukraine, nationalist historians make heroes out of UPA, the Ukrainian revolutionary army, which is held responsible for this tragedy. Where do you see a start for burying the hatchet? Is the reconciliation of our nations possible? AA: So here’s a strange thing: For more than a decade after they both gained independence, Poland and Ukraine participated in a number of projects that were designed to solve exactly these kinds of Polish-Ukrainian differences. Books were published that were jointly written by Polish and Ukrainian historians, monuments were built. These projects were successful: If you’d asked me this question in 2010, I would have said that there are no real historical issues between Poland and Ukraine, that the two countries had mostly reconciled. For a number of reasons, this began to shift. In Poland, children and grandchildren of victims of the Wołyń massacre felt their tragedy hadn’t been fully recognized. In Ukraine, nationalist groups wanted the UPA partisans who had fought against the Soviet Union recognized for their heroism, despite the fact that some in this broad and not well-defined group were also linked to Wołyń. In both eastern Poland and western Ukraine, the memory of the ethnic cleansing that took place there in the late 1940s - Poles were moved West, Ukrainians East - to accomodate new borders has left feelings of displacement and bitterness. The wave of Ukrainian immigration, which started before the war, may have provoked some of this. But don’t underestimate the role played by Russia, which has always wanted to create discord between Poland and Ukraine, and pumps out propaganda to that effect in both countries. Vandalism on both sides of the border, damage done to cemeteries and monuments, is sometimes carried out by provacateurs working for Russia, just to create bad feelings. The Polish-Ukrainian conflict also hides a different reality: although there are real grievances and bad memories, the truth is that the biggest tragedies both nations experienced in the twentieth century were inflicted by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. That should unite these two countries, not divide them. JC: This week (19.04.2026 – Ed.) in Hungary we saw that using historical narratives to create grievance has no longer worked. Are you optimistic about the direction after Orban’s loss? AA: The Hungarian election was really important because it shows that people can actually resist powerful, dominant propaganda. The ruling party Fidesz controlled all of the TV, 90% of the newspapers, the constitutional court, the bureaucracy... and yet people had the nerve to vote against it and resist it. It’s also an important election because Hungary created a huge network of well-funded think tanks and foundations that were funding other far right groups and projects. So that loss is going to have a knock-on effect in other places too, maybe even in Poland. JC: What you’ve said about resisting propaganda reminds me of one of the interviews you did about talking to Russians in the post-Soviet era who claimed that people knew that the system was lying. Why do people choose to believe in these regimes anyway? AA: Because it’s useful. Stephen Kotkin, an American historian, once described how people would learn how to “speak Bolshevik”: It was just a language that you needed to use in order to get by in society. If you didn’t talk the way the regime wanted you to talk, then you might have problems, or lose your job, or your kids would not get into university. It was a way of getting along. Communist Poland was similar, at least in the early years. When I was writing a book about the Sovietization of Eastern Europe after World War II, I met a lot of people who wanted to talk a lot about the war, when many of them had done really heroic things. But almost nobody wanted to talk about the decade afterwards, between 1945 and 1956. This was when you had the short period of terror, violence and Polish Stalinism. To stay safe, people felt the need to just go along with what others were saying, or stay out of politics, or use communist jargon without necessarily believing it. I don’t judge them for it, and I wouldn’t describe all of those people as collaborators. It’s easy to feel moral certainty in retrospect, because we know that communism ended. But if you were living in 1949, it might not have been clear to you that communism was going to end. In very repressive societies, maybe about 10% of people who are really evil – collaborators, torturers. Maybe 10% of people are really brave and who find ways to resist. And then around 80% of people have kids, they have parents, they have to have jobs and they’ve had to get through it somehow. Strange though it may sound, I’ve found that the work I did on that book is now very useful in explaining some of what’s going on in the United States today. There are plenty of members of the Republican Party in Congress who know perfectly well that Donald Trump says many things that aren’t true. But they avoid criticizing him because it’s inconvenient, because they would get in trouble, because someone would attack them on the internet. So actually you don’t even need mass terror to get people to conform. JC: Is Gen Z reinventing agency? AA: We’ll see. In any generation you can find groups of people who want agency. If you live in a society that’s unfair, for example where a tiny number of people have captured most of the wealth, then at a certain point people rebel. This is always easier for younger people, who have you have less to lose. The question now is how the internet will affect the relationships between citizens and the state, and how it will change organizations. The “Twitter revolutions” people spoke about as early as 2008-9, mass protests organized online, have often proved to be very superficial. Although you can easily join something just by clicking, the work of creating a real movement requires physical participation. Successful mass movements of the past, for example the Civil Rights movement in the United States, were built by people who had spent many years together. They had participated in non-violent workshops together. They practiced and prepared. Just using the you can get everybody to show up at a certain moment, but then when the protest is broken up, nothing happens. It’s also true that the repressive regimes have more recently learned how to use the internet to undermine leaders and movements. Most of all, they now understand how to make people cynical. The form of propaganda that most modern authoritarians use - and I think the Russians really pioneered this - deploys sneering cynicism. Instead of praising the rulers, the regime propagandists mock the opposition movement leadership for being supposedly corrupt or sexually degenerate, with the goal of undermining any kind of idealism. JC: MAGA grew on the internet? AA: MAGA is a real grassroots movement. They had symbols, red hats, they showed up at rallies. But you’re right that the cynicism, the sarcasm and the distrust that the movement embodies came originally from the internet, and this is different. Fifty years ago, most European political parties had a social base in real organizations, in trade unions for Social Democrats, in church groups for Christian Democrats. As people stopped going to church and as the trade unions became smaller, the social base of these parties disappeared. Now people who wouldn’t have known one another in the past meet on the internet and create new movements, many of which don’t last. JC: Is history ending? Going in stale circles? AA: History never ends. In truth, human beings want contradictory things at the same time: order and freedom, stability and change. These things are never resolved, and when a society swings too far in one direction, people always push it the other way. But each time that happens, the result is different. Certainly it is true that we are now in a period when old philosophers and ideas from the 1930s are undergoing a revival. Carl Schmitt, who was a philosopher who was very influential on the Nazis, is back as an influence on both the far left and the far right, once again inspiring people to think that all politics has to be existential, that all politics is about defining and defeating enemies. In the US, some are also bringing back dominionism, the idea that we need a Christian and not a secular state. It’s also true that we are living through a more fundamental shift. The old left-right divide, which was mostly about the size of the state, is much less important now. Instead, we are arguing about more fundamental things: what are our rights, what protects our freedom. Or how much power do we want to give small elites, versus how much power to give ordinary people. In America a small group of very wealthy people now control information, because they control the social media platforms and AI, which means they determine what people will read and learn. Finding a way to preserve preserve zones of autonomy and independent thinking, this is going to be the main task for the next generation. JC: What is the one book that a person interested in Central Europe should read? AA: You could read my book “Iron Curtain: the Crushing of Eastern Europe” which tells the story of how the Soviet Union imposed its culture on the region. Or read Tim Snyder’s history of the region, “The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999.” And everyone should read “The Captive Mind” by Czesław Miłosz, which describes exactly the phenomenon we were talking about: why do people collaborate? I joined Scott Galloway and the brilliant Fiona Hill in a discussion about the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the future of global power, and what these conflicts reveal about America's role in the world. Scott told us that this was the 400th edition of his podcast, which is quite a number: My friend Francesco Chiamulera runs a brilliant series of literary events, Una Colline di Libri, A Hill of Books, in the Prosecco Hills, a region of vineyards and elegant hill towns in the Veneto, north of Venice. We did an event in Vittorio Veneto and also drove and biked around the countryside. Buy Autocracy Inc Buy Iron Curtain Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
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