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SBA administrator says small businesses are the American Dream
SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discusses how small businesses embody the American Dream. She also highlights the transformative power of enterprise while warning against radical socialist agendas.
SBA administrator says small businesses are the American Dream
SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discusses how small businesses embody the American Dream. She also highlights the transformative power of enterprise while warning against radical socialist agendas.
Dear Abby | Man's excuses and absences continue to expand
Dear Abby: I have been married to my husband for 10 years. Ever since I have known him, he has had issues with depression and anxiety. I have tried to
Dear Abby: My husband refuses to get help for his mental health issues. I feel like I’m going at it alone
She's a counselor and can see where this road is leading. Is it time to get off it?
Karlie Kloss attends Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding a decade after reported falling out
Karlie Kloss and her husband, Joshua Kushner, attended Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding at Madison Square Garden a decade after rumors swirled that the singer and the supermodel had a falling out.
SBA, USDA Sign MOU to Combat Lawfare Against Farmers, Ranchers, and Small Businesses
New Partnership Gives Producers a Direct Line to Report Costly Regulations and Advance Lasting ReformWASHINGTON, July 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to combat lawfare targeting farmers, ranchers, rural communities, and small businesses. The agreement gives America’s producers a direct line to report the regulations and rules driving up costs and impacting pro
District Director Catherine Marx Leaves SBA » CBIA
District director Catherine Marx is leaving the agency, concluding nearly six years of service overseeing small business programs.
Celebrating 250 Years of American Small Businesses
Over the last 250 years, small businesses with big ideas have helped make the United States the largest economy in the world. This infographic shows the contribution that small businesses continue to make today, including creating two out of every th
Taylor Frankie Paul's ex-husband Tate Paul files for restraining order against reality star
Tate Paul, the ex-husband of embattled reality star Taylor Frankie Paul, is now the second of her exes to seek a restraining order against her.
Small Businesses Snagged $273 Billion In Federal Contracts, Even As Thousands Continue To Leave Contracting Base
Even as the government meets its goals in working with small businesses, a concerning trend appears to be accelerating.
Small Businesses Could Lose Access To Billions In Contracts As New HubZONE Deadline Kicks In
Certain areas across the U.S. that were previously designated as HUBzones will see that status expire on July 1.
Lionel Richie's ex-wife shares update on singer's condition after hospitalization
Lionel Richie's ex-wife, Brenda Harvey Richie, shared news on her former husband's health after a medical incident led to a concert stoppage and hospitalization.
New York Yankees' Potential Catcher Trade Could Get Very Messy
Will the New York Yankees make a trade for a catcher before the MLB trade deadline?
Slotkin Joins Michigan Delegation Urging Small Business Administration to Approve Disaster Declaration
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, joined members of the Michigan Congressional Delegation in urging the Small Business Administration (SBA) to support Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s request for an administrative disaster declaration following the severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, high winds, large hail and torrential rainfall across the state in April. […]
Jodie Turner-Smith offers rare comments about co-parenting with ex Joshua Jackson
Jodie Turner-Smith says she and ex-husband Joshua Jackson are 'learning' and 'not alway getting it totally right' when it comes to co-parenting their daughter together.
Couple doubled their starter house's square footage for $500K
Olivia DiBona and her husband lived with her parents for six months while they renovated their house. They doubled their square footage for $500,000.
America @ 250: Alex Wysocki asks, ‘Are short-term political gains worth giving up the big picture?’
Alex Wysocki is a television producer, filmmaker, husband and father of three. He and his wife Abigail moved to Champaign during the COVID-19 pandemic and are raising their family here.
Passback finds new life for old sports equipment, equipping youth to take the field
Magdalen Sparrow grew up on St. Louis’ soccer fields chasing after stray balls and picking up lost water bottles to put in overflowing lost and found bins. Then known by her maiden name, Magdalen Pike, she went on to play D1 soccer at Southeast Missouri State University, accumulating a closet full of sports gear in […]
Khalid Robinson takes next step as Warriors' head coach for NBA Summer League
As he enters his 11th season with the Warriors, Khalid Robinson is about to step into a new role as Golden State's NBA Summer League head coach
Warriors reportedly interested in three NBA free agents as LeBron decision looms
The Golden State Warriors reportedly have their eye on several players ahead of NBA free agency.
Rafael Devers stays silent after loud night at plate in Giants' win vs. Braves
Rafael Devers is back to not talking, even after two majestic homers in the San Francisco Giants' win on Saturday at Oracle Park.
Peters, Bergman lead Michigan delegation in calling on Small Business Administration to approve disaster declaration
WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led members of the Michigan Congressional Delegation in urging the Small Business Administration (SBA) to support Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s request for an administrative disaster declaration following the severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, high winds, large hail and torrential […]
OHS disbanded, $25 minimum wage push, housing grants: CT Politics news
Plus: A $25 minimum wage push, housing grants for small towns, free bus fares for July 4th, and an online forum with Lamont and Elliott.
Bridget and Mike Chiodo on Strong Bond, Health Struggles, Family
Influencer Bridget Bahl and her husband Dr. Mike Chiodo join TODAY’s Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones to celebrate Bridget becoming cancer free, open up about their steadfast bond and share an update on their dream of starting a family.
Jimmy Butler shares ACL rehab update, expectations for Warriors next season
Jimmy Butler shared an encouraging update on his ACL injury rehab and his expectations for the Golden State Warriors in the 2026-27 NBA season.
SBA’s Proposed Update to the 8(a) Business Development Program: A New Approach to Social Disadvantage
On June 11, 2026, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) published a proposed rule that would fundamentally alter how individuals qualify as “socially
Emily Ratajkowski says she rejects the label 'divorced single mom'
Emily Ratajkowski is opening up about resenting the label "divorced single mom" following her split from ex-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard.
EPA Announces Two Public Meetings of the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals
What: On June 22, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced two virtual public meetings of the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC).Why: The SACC provides independent advice and recommendations to the EPA on the scienti
Bigger trade now an option after Sharks deal William Eklund for No. 9 draft pick
San Jose Hockey Now's Sheng Peng dissects what could be next for the Sharks after they acquired another top-10 draft pick for William Eklund.
Melissa Gilbert leaves NYC amid husband Timothy Busfield's legal troubles
Melissa Gilbert is leaving the Big Apple apartment she shared with husband Timothy Busfield after eight years.
Daughter of Oscar-winning director found dead with husband in car
Judith Sheldon, daughter of Oscar-winning 'Ben-Hur' director William Wyler, was found dead with her husband Wylie Sheldon in their car along the side of Interstate 5 near Redding, Calif., on June 15.
Giants' Buster Posey has stern one-word response to possible Logan Webb trade
San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey addressed potentially trading star pitcher Logan Webb.
What they're saying about five frontcourt Warriors prospects in 2026 NBA Draft
Here are some pros and cons of five frontcourt players the Golden State Warriors have evaluated ahead of the 2026 NBA Draft.
We moved from the US to Barbados. Our 8 kids are more independent now.
Lisa Desai and her husband decided to move to Barbados from Florida because they craved freedom and adventure for their eight kids.
The Extraordinary Embezzlement Case That Rocked Scottish Politics
Peter Murrell, the husband of the former Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon, was sentenced on Tuesday after he admitted to buying a bizarre range of items with the Scottish National Party’s money.
Crocker and Paro fight for history and legacy
Lewis Crocker puts his IBF welterweight world title on the line against Liam Paro in the Australian's home city of Brisbane on Wednesday with both aware of the rewards on offer.
Dalton and Tristi's NBA mock draft 4.0: Who Warriors, Kings pick in first round
NBC Sports Bay Area and California predicts who the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings will pick in the 2026 NBA Draft's first round.
Old Dominion University Women’s Business Center Helps Suffolk Company Earn National SBA Award
When Rachael and Joseph Culbertson started Culbertson Contracting in 2021, the couple knew they had the work ethic to succeed; they just needed the right roadmap. Now, thanks to a transformative partnership with Old Dominion University through its Women’s Business Center, the Suffolk-based company has been named Virginia’s Blue-Collar Small Business of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
Savannah Guthrie praises husband Mike Feldman in rare Father's Day post
"Today" show host Savannah Guthrie shone the Father's Day love light on her husband Mike Feldman, calling her supportive spouse of 12 years the family's "hero."
Demi Moore shares moving Father's Day tribute to Bruce Willis
Demi Moore is sharing a moving Father's Day tribute to her ex-husband Bruce Willis.
What Science Knows About Grief
After my husband’s death, I had never been more pliable, tender, open, or raw. It was then that I tried E.M.D.R. therapy.
Barbra Streisand posts photo celebrating Anne Hathaway’s pregnancy
Hathaway shares sons Jonathan and Jack with husband Adam Shulman.
'Our hero': Savannah Guthrie celebrates husband in Father's Day post
"Today" show host Savannah Guthrie shone the Father's Day love light on her husband Mike Feldman, calling her supportive spouse of 12 years the family's "hero."
In post-DEI era, Trump admin turns to San Antonio for more veteran-owned businesses
As governments scrap their race- and gender-conscious preferences, there's suddenly more demand for veteran contractors than supply.
James Van Der Beek's widow Kimberly posts moving Father's Day tribute
Kimberly Van Der Beek is paying tribute to her late husband, James Van Der Beek, on the first Father's Day after the beloved "Dawson Creek" actor's death.
James Van Der Beek's widow posts moving Father's Day tribute
Kimberly Van Der Beek is paying tribute to her late husband James Van Der Beek on the first Father's Day after the beloved "Dawson Creek" actor's death.
'The Pitt' star Katherine LaNasa on Dana's emotional breakdown over sexual assault survivor
Katherine LaNasa explains how her own battle with cancer and ex-husband Dennis Hopper's death informs her work on 'The Pitt' — and why her character had an emotional breakdown over a sexual assault survivor.
Dua Lipa shares new photos of second wedding with husband Callum Turner
One wedding is not enough for everyone's favorite celebrity travelers, Dua Lipa and Callum Turner.
Jason Bateman reveals Katharine Hepburn told him to 'stop acting,' offering 'really great' but 'painful' advice
Jason Bateman said that Katharine Hepburn gave him 'painful' advice that confused him at first but ultimately proved to be 'really great' wisdom as he struggled through a scene: 'Stop acting.'
Dear Abby | Keystones of a happy marriage have slowly crumbled
Dear Abby: I'm a gay man who has been married to a wonderful man for seven years (together for 12). Throughout our relationship, my husband has struggled with religious trauma
A day in the life of GORUCK cofounder Emily McCarthy
Emily McCarthy, who founded GORUCK with her husband Jason McCarthy, spends her days biking with her kids to their school and taking rucking meetings.
Brandin Podziemski details ideal Warriors pick at No. 11 in 2026 NBA Draft
Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski detailed the ideal candidate for Golden State with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Anne Hathaway is pregnant! Oscar winner expecting third child with husband Adam Shulman
Anne Hathaway announced that she is pregnant, expecting her third child with husband Adam Shulman.
Andrews University Students and Faculty Win Awards at Business Conference
Graduate students and faculty in the Andrews University School of Business Administration (SBA) won five awards and presented 17 papers at the Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA) International Conference, on March 25-26, 2026. Held annually in Chicago, the MBAA International Conference is a multidisciplinary academic gathering, bringing together more than 6,000 academics and professionals, with […]
Governor Sherrill Secures SBA Economic Injury Disaster Assistance for Businesses and Nonprofits Affected by Belleville Fire
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 17, 2026 Governor Sherrill Secures SBA Economic Injury Disaster Assistance for Businesses and Nonprofits Affected by Belleville Fire Business Recovery Center Opened June 16 in Belleville TRENTON – Small businesses and private nonprofit organizations affected by the devastating May 3, 2026 fire in Belleville Township may now apply[...]
Risch Leads Request for Idaho-Based Veteran Business Outreach Center
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) sent a letter to Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler requesting a Veteran Business Outreach Center (VBOC) be established in Idaho to provide entrepreneurial support to veterans, service members, and military spouses. “Idaho is home to more than 120,000 veterans and 12,000 veteran-owned businesses. [. . .] These […]
Revision of Regulations for Grazing Administration, Small Business Roundtable
The Office of Advocacy is hosting a virtual roundtable focusing on the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) proposed rule, “Revision of Regulations for Grazing Administration, Exclusive of Alaska.”Date: June 30, 2026Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ETMeeting Pla
MLB issues warning to Giants pitchers for writing Bible verses on Pride caps
Major League Baseball issued a warning to three Giants pitchers who wrote Bible verses on the team's "Pride Night" caps, citing policy violations.
CMS Requests Information on Review of the Essential Health Benefits Framework
What: On June 15, 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public input to support a comprehensive review of the Essential Health Benefits (EHB) framework and the requirement
Marian Ilitch: A Michigan billionaire in business, sports and family
The co-founder of Little Caesar's Pizza with her late husband, Marian Ilitch became one of America's wealthiest women.
Warriors' 2026 NBA offseason outlook: Who stays, who goes during pivotal summer?
Dalton Johnson breaks down the current state of the Golden State Warriors' roster heading into the 2026 NBA offseason.
New event venue, Elev8 Entertainment, opens in downtown Troy
Husband-wife duo Margaret Benitez-Green and Rasheem Green opened the space earlier this month, calling it "a place where people can bring their vision to life."
New event venue, Elev8 Entertainment, opens in downtown Troy
Husband-wife duo Margaret Benitez-Green and Rasheem Green opened the space earlier this month, calling it "a place where people can bring their vision to life."
Raphael Warnock shares vision for straightening out politics in new book
A sermon on "crooked places made straight" Rev. Raphael Warnock preached during President Donald Trump's first term has become the basis of a book from the now U.S. senator.
Game Thread: DRaysBay reporting live from Anaheim!
If you squint in the outfield you might see City Connect Brandon Lowe jersey - that’s me!
Carlsbad tightens rules for massage businesses after prostitution arrests
Background checks, application fees, 5-year ban for violators added in updated massage ordinance.
SBA moves to revise 8(a) rules while preserving tribal, ANC eligibility
Details By Brian Edwards Native Contracting June 13, 2026 The U.S. Small Business Administration has proposed changes to its 8(a) Business Development Program that would eliminate race-based presumptions of social disadvantage for individually owned businesses while leaving eligibility standards unchanged for tribally owned enterprises, Alaska Native corporations and other Native entity-owned participants. In both the title and summary of the proposed rule published in the Federal Register, SBA emphasized that the changes only apply to individually owned firms and “do not impact entity-owned firms,” including tribes, Alaska Native corporation, Native Hawaiian organizations and community development corporations. The proposed rule, announced June 11, would require all individual applicants seeking admission to the 8(a) program to submit evidence demonstrating social disadvantage. Membership in a racial or ethnic group alone would no longer establish eligibility, according to the SBA. For Indian Country, the agency said eligibility standards for businesses owned by federally recognized tribes, Alaska Native corporations, Native Hawaiian organizations and community development corporations would remain unchanged. The proposal comes after the Department of Defense reaffirmed that participation by tribes and Alaska Native corporations in the 8(a) program is based on their political status under federal law rather than diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. In a May 28 letter to Alaska's Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael P. Duffey wrote that participation by federally recognized tribes and Alaska Native corporations in federal programs is “grounded in their political status as Native Americans, not DEI initiatives.” The SBA proposal follows a 2023 federal court ruling that found unconstitutional the program's rebuttable presumption that members of certain racial and ethnic groups were socially disadvantaged. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the proposed rule would establish a single standard for individually owned applicants by requiring evidence of social disadvantage. The 8(a) Business Development Program provides participating firms with business development assistance and access to federal set-aside and sole-source contracting opportunities. The program remains a major source of federal contracting revenue for tribal enterprises and Alaska Native corporations. Native-owned firms received $16.1 billion of the program's approximately $26 billion in federal contract awards during fiscal 2024, according to data previously reported by Tribal Business News. The proposal also arrives amid ongoing concerns from Native contractors about SBA administration of the program. In May, the Native American Contractors Association and 53 Native-owned businesses urged SBA to address delays in processing 8(a) applications, saying some reviews had stretched beyond regulatory deadlines and appeared to have stalled since August 2025. The proposed rule is open for public comment through July 13. The Federal Register notice does not reference tribal consultation or indicate whether SBA determined consultation was unnecessary because tribal eligibility standards are unchanged. The SBA has not announced when the proposed rule would take effect. The agency is expected to accept public comments before issuing a final rule.About The AuthorAuthor: Brian EdwardsBrian Edwards is associate publisher and associate editor of Tribal Business News and Native News Online. He is a longtime publisher, editor, business reporter and serial entrepreneur. Subscribe Today!Other Articles by this authorDefense Department reaffirms tribal, ANC eligibility in SBA 8(a) programTribal heritage projects eligible for up to $100K in federal funding through NPS programIHS launches tribal long-term care construction initiative with three projectsIḷisaġvik College acquires site for long-planned Utqiaġvik campus This article is available to paid digital subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
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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