SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " Labor " 100 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Sign in to save shuffle history.
Small-business optimism steady in face of persistent price, labor and tax pressures
NFIB's October optimism index was nearly unchanged, while uncertainty fell. Owners reported better business health but continued to face concerns about taxes, inflation, prices and hiring.
Students creating documentaries with scientists deepens STEM belonging and public trust in science
In a Rutgers University lab, students and scientists collaborate to tell the story behind scientific research.
Mastercard (MA) Expands Its Business Banking Reach Through New Partnerships
Mastercard (NYSE:MA) is expanding its business banking reach through new partnerships focused on commercial cards and treasury tools. BMO and Mastercard launched the BMO CashBack World Elite Business Mastercard in Canada, targeting small and midsize firms with rewards and protections. Citizens Treasury Intelligence™ went live through a collaboration between Citizens and Trovata, using Mastercard technology to support corporate treasury management. The BMO CashBack World Elite Business...
Athens County, Ohio Health Officials Investigating Four Confirmed Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli Cases; No Source Identified
The Athens City-County Health Department in southeast Ohio said on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, that it is investigating four laboratory-confirmed cases
Your comprehensive guide to MLB labor negotiations
With the December 1 deadline approaching, let’s break down what owners and players want in a new CBA
Medicare Fee Schedule for 2027 Favors Psych Collab Care Models
Behavioral health services, including the psychiatric collaborative care model (CoCM), received rate increases from the Centers for Medicare &
Small-business optimism steady in face of persistent price, labor and tax pressures
NFIB's October optimism index was nearly unchanged, while uncertainty fell. Owners reported better business health but continued to face concerns about taxes, inflation, prices and hiring.
Heated Rivalry Fans Get Massive Surprise With Elaborate 3 Project Reveal
Fans of Heated Rivalry have spent months hunting for clues about the show’s future. New reporting now confirms the wait was worth it, because Crave’s hockey romance is expanding far beyond a single ne...
Boeing refines aerodynamic simulations using world’s most powerful open-science supercomputer
Exascale computing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory helps Boeing predict icing and turbulence effects on high-lift wings
Bangladesh and India ban toxic pesticide to boost suicide prevention and brain health
Regulatory action on an acutely toxic pesticide will save thousands of lives and protect brain health worldwideGlobally it is estimated 1 in 5 suicides are attributable to the ingestion of acutely toxic pesticides. Many of these deaths are easily preventable and occur in rural communities across Africa, Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands. Long-term exposure to toxic pesticides has also been linked to brain health and neurological risks among agricultural workers, and neurodevelopmental disorders among children. In September 2026, Bangladesh and India declared national bans on paraquat, regarded as one of the most dangerous agricultural chemicals due to its severe toxicity and links with suicide, Parkinson disease, and risk to farmer occupational safety. With this historic public health decision, Bangladesh and India join over 70 countries that have prohibited paraquat.Suicidal thoughts and behaviors can be impulsive and often occur during moments of acute distress. In these critical moments, easy access to a highly lethal means like paraquat can make the difference between life and death. Restricting access to lethal means of suicide is highly effective because it allows crucial time for suicidal thoughts to pass and the opportunity to intervene, preventing numerous potentially fatal actions. Evidence from a number of countries including the Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Sri Lanka demonstrate that national bans on paraquat and other acutely toxic pesticides have resulted in substantial reductions in pesticide-related suicides and overall suicide rates, without harming agricultural productivity. Based on international evidence, national regulatory action on paraquat in Bangladesh and India is anticipated to save thousands of lives and protect brain health. These momentous actions build on years of tireless work across government, civil society, academia, community, and the health sector, including WHO. WHO, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, have produced critical resources to support pesticide regulators in phasing out the use of acutely toxic pesticides linked to suicide, including the International code of conduct on pesticide management: guidance on pesticide regulation to prevent suicide, the brochure Preventing suicide by phasing out highly hazardous pesticide, as well as a resource booklet Preventing suicide: a resource for pesticide registrars and regulators. In addition, a WHO study demonstrated that national bans on acutely toxic pesticides are among the most cost-effective interventions for mental health and have been included in WHO’s Menu of cost-effective interventions for mental health.Global momentum to phase out highly hazardous pesticidesOver the last decade, the phasing out of highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) from agriculture has gained increasing momentum in several international fora. HHPs refer to a small number of pesticides that cause disproportionate harm to human health and the environment. In 2023, a resolution on chemicals was adopted which included to address HHPs at the Seventy-sixth World Health Assembly, and in 2026, official and external side events at the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly were held highlighting the need to take action on acutely toxic HHPs for suicide prevention. In November 2026, the First International Conference of the Global Framework on Chemicals will take place to advance key global targets on chemicals including the phasing out of HHPs from agriculture. The regulatory actions taken by Bangladesh and India represent a significant step towards this target and sets an important precedent for the rest of the world. Removing acutely toxic pesticides from circulation protects agricultural workers, children, and individuals in distress, advancing brain health and preventing suicide.
Small-business optimism steady in face of persistent price, labor and tax pressures
NFIB's October optimism index was nearly unchanged, while uncertainty fell. Owners reported better business health but continued to face concerns about taxes, inflation, prices and hiring.
LANL Scientists Fan Guo And Shi-Zeng Lin Recognized For Physics Excellence And Named Fellows By American Physical Society
Fan Guo, left, and Shi-Zeng Lin. Photos Courtesy LANL LANL NEWS RELEASE Two Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists, Fan Guo and Shi-Zeng Lin, have been elected fellows of the American Physical S…
Physics Professor Recalls Role in Nobel-Winning IceCube Neutrino Observatory Research
Assistant Physics Professor Athina Meli, Ph.D., is a former member of the international IceCube Collaboration, which uses detectors embedded deep in Antarctic ice to study neutrinos.
Yale-led local health project earns office space, looks to expand scope
The new office and storage space has already been filled with medical supplies and is set to allow the program, which provides free blood pressure screenings and glucose tests for New Haven residents, to collaborate with more local organizations.
Broadcom Funds 26 Caltech Researchers In Quantum Science Push
Caltech and Broadcom collaborate to advance quantum science research, funding 26 researchers in a five-year partnership.
‘Collaborative effort’ coming for Michigan Football’s offensive play calling
Kyle Whittingham spoke about the “collaborative effort” that will take place with offensive play calling on this week’s Inside Michigan Football radio show:
Usher’s New Look nonprofit has supported more than 50,000 young people, and its 2026 partnership with BET is helping new talent gain experience in the entertainment industry
Usher’s New Look, the national nonprofit organisation advancing economic mobility through entertainment careers, has served more than 50,000 young people worldwide, and its 2026 partnership with BET and Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Detroit is helping new talent gain hands-on experience in the entertainment industry. Announced in August 2026, the collaboration aims to expand career pathways into the sector for young people and to develop the next generation of entertainment leaders.
Longboat Key Fire Rescue Leads Regional Effort to Protect Firefighter Health and Wellness - Florida Hospital News and Healthcare Report
Nov. 13, 2026 – Longboat Key Fire Rescue is helping lead a regional effort to protect the health and well-being of firefighters through an innovative partnership with Sarasota Memorial Health […]
Estée Lauder Companies Expands Focus on Skin Longevity Science
The Estée Lauder Companies has announced the creation of
Dyania Health Brings Clinical Reasoning AI Inside the Hospital Firewall to Advance Patient Care with NVIDIA
Dyania Health today announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to put AI clinical reasoning to work inside health systems, on their own infrastructure, at the scale of their entire patient population. Dyania's Synapsis AI reads a patient's full medical record, across years of notes, operative reports, imaging reports and lab results, and answers clinical questions with evidence from the chart. NVIDIA accelerated computing makes it possible to do that across large patient populations behind the hospit
OceanHackWeek Comes To Canada With Open Science Focus At BMSC
Canada's inaugural OceanHackWeek brought 22 participants from across North America to Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre in August 2026, combining hands-on data science tutorials with field access to ocean research infrastructure including ONC's NEPTUNE observatory and the newly completed PEARL laboratory.
Collaborative research: the beating heart of FP10
Read the latest news and analysis from Science|Business.
How social scientists are helping our chemistry research ...
Interdisciplinary collaboration gave Switzerland's NCCR Catalysis a new perspective on what sustainable chemistry really requires
Orchard’s First Fruit
Well, well, well - ask and ye shall receive. From a few weeks ago: I don’t see anything distinct for Orchard customers yet, so either they’re not live or not distinguished as easily as Garden Plot Eight days later, my wish was granted! Epic’s public FHIR endpoint directory added an organization called Enterprise Orchard Shared Services (Epic org ID 38769) managing an endpoint named “PA Health Center Technology Alliance,” along with 36 facilities under the same brand: The Alliance’s main office 18 Union Community Care sites 11 Delaware Valley Community Health sites Six Community Health and Dental Care sites Off to the races we go! As far as I can tell, no trade publication or Epic has covered this yet - the only public traces I see are a PACHC annual report plus a few patient FAQ pages. I’m not sure why - I think it deserves way more attention! We learn who’s actually buying (and it isn’t who Epic pitched at UGM) We get yet another entry in Epic’s playbook for reaching the low end of the market We get a census of who Epic is coming for next Grab a basket and let’s start picking. An Unexpected Harvest When Epic announced Orchard at UGM 2025, the pitch was a dedicated instance for practices of 80 to 180 providers while keeping the prewired third party applications that make Garden Plot appealing. But the first customer to surface is not that profile at all! Instead, we see something entirely different and arguably more valuable to Epic. The Alliance is a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers (PACHC). As I wasn’t totally familiar myself, let’s add some quick background for readers who operate outside the safety net: Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) are community clinics funded under Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act t They serve patients regardless of ability to pay, which results in a payer mix heavy on Medicaid / the uninsured As you might expect, this often results in margins too thin to fund an enterprise EHR on their own (especially in the current very tough funding environment) Every state has a primary care association (PCA), funded in part by HRSA, that supports its FQHCs with advocacy and shared services PCAs have historically been trade associations, so this move is notable in that PACHC is morphing itself into something closer to a holding company. In October 2024, its board voted to form the Alliance to contract directly with Epic and run a statewide technology hub for health centers of any size. A second subsidiary, the Pennsylvania Community Care Collaborative (PC3), is a clinically integrated network of 28 health centers built for value-based contracting. CEO Shelley Riser runs both PACHC and the Alliance and calls the arrangement a “family of companies.” From the latest annual report: PACHC is the only Primary Care Association in the nation with a wholly owned subsidiary directly contracting with Epic. Why does this matter way more to Epic than a single 120-provider group ever could? One contract may only bring in three health centers and 35 sites on day one, but every other PACHC member sits in the pipeline. Moreover, the distributor is an organization those health centers already trust, funded to serve them and literally governed by a board of their own CEOs. And if that wasn’t enough, every state has one! Grafting onto the Safety Net
At Somos, politics and real estate enter a new reality
The annual Somos conference at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan brought together political animals, real estate heavyweights and labor leaders, making for a heady brew of interests vying for top priority across City Hall, Albany and even Washington policy agendas. Dealmakers of every stripe congregated at the hotel’s Caribar — successor to the hotel’s Beachcomber Bar where the piña colada originated — for impromptu meetings and tipsy policy chats, while lobbyists clustered at tables on the patio to arrange agenda-setting sitdowns. Somos attendees looking to unwind away from the conference gravitated to the swanky Fairmont El San Juan Hotel […]
Students creating documentaries with scientists deepens STEM belonging and public trust in science
In a Rutgers University lab, students and scientists collaborate to tell the story behind scientific research.
Lessons from Duracell's R&D Laboratory Design and Relocation
Explore lessons from Duracell's R&D lab relocation, including workflow planning, equipment constraints, chemical storage, and flexible laboratory design.
Chiang, experts present on role of AI in science, research during Trienens event
Experts and Northwestern President Mung Chiang explored the role of artificial intelligence in the development of energy technologies during a Wednesday executive briefing hosted by NU’s Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy and the Network for Collaborative Intelligence. Chiang and NU Trustee Jim DeNaut (Weinberg ’84), co-chair of the Trienens Institute Executive Council,...
UMN art-science installation redefines success through algae and lichen
Exploring the intersection of art and science, a collaborative University of Minnesota project proves that the planet’s most resilient role models might be the ones people overlook every day. Inspired by the slowness, flexibility and omnipresence of terrestrial algae and lichen, Artist-in-Residence Diane Willow collaborated with scientists Daniel Stanton, Beatriz Baselga-Cervera and Daniel Keefe to...
De Pere Health Department and high school team up on InterGen Tech Bar experience
DE PERE – In collaboration, West De Pere High School and the De Pere Health Department will begin their first InterGen Tech Bar sessions for older adults seeking guidance with technology. …
Michigan football starting quarterback vs Oregon? 'To be determined'
"You can't do major changes at this juncture, and so it will be collaborative," Michigan football coach Kyle Whittingham said Monday, Nov. 9.
Could the way we walk give clues about our mental health?
Experts in kinesiology and sport sciences and psychology from the University of Miami are collaborating on research to find out whether the way people walk could give clues about their mental health. ...
Cal Academy exhibit highlights science exploration
West-side museum's new endeavor a collaboration with The Jim Henson Company.
Why science buildings need to think beyond the laboratory
Developers need to prioritise design that encourages collaboration
Yankees President Randy Levine pushes college sports bill, discusses MLB labor negotiations
Yankees President Randy Levine discusses the Protect College Sports Act, and the state of MLB's labor negotiations.
UT San Antonio hosts international brain health conferences advancing research into dementia, stroke
Researchers from around the world gathered in downtown San Antonio Oct. 5-10 for two international brain health conferences hosted by The University of Texas at San Antonio (UT San Antonio). The conferences focused on the biological processes underlying Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and stroke and strengthened collaborations that could help translate scientific discoveries […]
ECU Notes: Golden LEAF helps ECU grow pipeline of clinical laboratory scientists
Clinical laboratory scientists can be described as “behind the scenes” healthcare professionals, yet they are essential to patient care.
Unicaja and the Real Madrid Foundation renew their alliance to promote social inclusion through sports
Unicaja and the Real Madrid Foundation have renewed their collaboration agreement to promote social inclusion through sports. In this way, the...
Beyond Medical Group and Tamarind Health Advance Regional Expansion Through Strategic Partnership in Cambodia
10 November 2026, Beyond Medical Group (BMG) and Tamarind Health have formalised a strategic partnership with SingMed International Medical Centre, marking a significant step in expanding their regional healthcare collaboration and strengthening Singapore–Cambodia healthcare connectivity.
Falmouth high schooler publishes women’s health research in medical journal
The 17-year-old shared what she's learned about the field of women's health — and about herself — while shadowing a hospital's labor and delivery unit and diving into data.
Collaborative research: the beating heart of FP10
Read the latest news and analysis from Science|Business.
“Forced To Play for $4M” – Tarik Skubal’s Agent Scott Boras Invokes LeBron James’ 76ers Contract To Push Back Against MLB Salary Cap
Tarik Skubal’s sports agent Scott Boras spoke at length about the MLB owners’ proposed salary cap structure for the future Collective Bargaining Agreement. The salary cap has long been a point of contention between the labor union and owners as they negotiate terms of a new CBA.
Owner of restored Akron Fulton Airport terminal asks $4M — and a buyer who’ll cherish it
The current owner restored the building as a labor of love and wants someone to care for its future.
Rahway's Roosevelt Elementary Third Graders Put Science into Action with Hands-On Pumpkin Investigation
RAHWAY, NJ — Third-grade classrooms at Roosevelt Elementary School wrapped up their science unit on life cycles this week by turning their desks into active scientific laboratories. Students from...
Facing 17% hike in fees, Paterson looks to leave state's health plan
Facing a 17% increase in costs for city employees' health insurance, Paterson has begun talks with municipal labor unions to switch coverage in 2027.
The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
KIOXIA and Dell Collaborate on 157 PB Single-Rack Object Store
SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 12, 2026 — KIOXIA America, Inc. has announced a new storage-density milestone in supporting modern AI and data lake workloads. In collaboration with Dell Technologies, the company’s 245.76 TB KIOXIA LC9 Series SSDs are used to create the world’s first 157 PB object storage solution in a single industry-standard 42U server rack. […]
Raising the steaks: Mizzou Meat Market carves out new future in state-of-the-art space
The Mizzou Meat Market’s new space in the Michael L. Parson Meat Science Education and Training Laboratory aims to expand hands-on opportunities for students.
The business of healthcare takes center stage at annual conference
Registration is now open for marquee event that sparks collaboration, learning and relationship-building.
Democrats Look to Restore Science
A House Committee to watch as Democrats take control in January will be Science, Space, and Technology, which oversees federal grants and research at the National Laboratories and agencies like NASA, NOAA and EPA. In line to become its Chair is Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California. She discusses some of her priorities with hosts Steve Curwood and Jenni Doering, including investigations of canceled grants and withheld research funds, as well as the possibility of bipartisan legislation.
Business leaders emphasize collaboration, momentum in tri-state area
Business leaders emphasized the importance of collaboration, continuing momentum and workforce attraction and retention at a Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce member breakfast Friday morning.
Media Link, Inc. celebrates 25 years in business
Media Link, Inc., a full-service marketing, advertising, and software development agency based in Rock Island, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Founded on Oct. 24, 2001, the agency now reaches a quarter-century milestone rooted in transparent client partnerships, adaptable strategies, and a collaborative team culture. The agency is located at 1902 17th St. This year also […]
Sam Haskell Shares the Dolly Parton Stories He Hopes Will Live on for Generations
The longtime friends and collaborators teamed up for Dolly’s most famous TV movies.
The Unfinished Business of American Socialism
For generations, Democrats have borrowed socialism’s most workable ideas. Now Silicon Valley has taken up its dream of a world beyond wage labor.
Business, labor coalition voices support for data centers
More than two dozen Valley businesses and labor groups are joining together to change the narrative surrounding data centers.
Drexel University, Academy of Natural Sciences and Philanthropic Community Collaborate to Assess Possible Future for the Academy of Natural Sciences
As part of this effort, the philanthropic community has committed to underwriting a comprehensive set of studies to assess the Academy’s long-term needs and identify the best path to ensure it remains in Philadelphia and accessible to the public.
Small-business optimism steady in face of persistent price, labor and tax pressures
NFIB's October optimism index was nearly unchanged, while uncertainty fell. Owners reported better business health but continued to face concerns about taxes, inflation, prices and hiring.
'TrumpCare' and commemorative plaques — how Democrats are pitching deal-making with the president
Democrats who swept into power by riding voter backlash to Trump are now pitching ways to collaborate with the president, playing to his vanity and his love of making deals to propel their own agenda.
There’s more than a whiff of politics to the sudden call to slash Labor’s green energy subsidies
EVs and home batteries are in Treasury crosshairs despite a better economic case for scaling back nuclear-powered submarines and diesel fuel rebates for miners
In brief: Paul Wesley joins 'Icebreaker' cast and more
Paul Wesley has joined the cast of Icebreaker. The Vampire Diaries star will play Coach Neil Faulkner in the Netflix series adaptation of bestselling novel by Hannah Grace. The new college romance drama series follows the connection between a figure skater with her eyes set on Olympic gold and a campus hockey star gunning for the NHL ...The 2027 Film Independent Spirit Awards have its hosts. Kate Berlant and John Early are set to host the awards show at the Hollywood Palladium in LA on March 6. The comedy duo have been collaborating for over a decade, including the projects Would It Kill You to Laugh and Maddie’s Secret ... TNCMS.AdManager.render({region: 'fixed-big-ad-top-asset', slot: 1, fold: "above"}); Live from New York, Druski brought Saturday Night Live its best viewership numbers in years. The Nov. 7 episode of the long-running late night sketch comedy series brought in 5.6 million viewers to NBC, ABC Audio has confirmed. This beats the 5.2 million viewers the Halloween episode hosted by Inde Navarrette brought in and marks the most viewers Saturday Night Live has seen in two years ...Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved. Thank you for reading kmaland.comAt KMA, we attempt to be accurate in our reporting. If you see a typo or mistake in a story, please contact us by emailing kmaradio@kmaland.com.
T-Cypher Bio extends footprint in purpose-built laboratory space at Abingdon Science Park, Oxford
T-Cypher Bio ("T-Cypher), a biotechnology company developing novel T cell receptor (TCR)-based T cell engagers that target high copy number antigens, today announced its relocation to Abingdon Science Park, Oxford, UK.
Canada's First OceanHackWeek Unites Marine Scientists and Data Experts at Bamfield
Canada's inaugural OceanHackWeek brought 22 participants from across North America to Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre in August 2026, combining hands-on data science tutorials with field access to ocean research infrastructure including ONC's NEPTUNE observatory and the newly completed PEARL laboratory.
SAP Expands Collaboration with AstraZeneca to Adopt RISE with SAP and Business AI
WALLDORF — Cloud, data and AI create a stronger foundation for innovation at scale.
Scientists discover new way to control magnetic waves for future quantum technologies
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Ames National Laboratory have discovered a way to control the handedness of magnons, tiny magnetic waves that can carry information through materials. ...
The business of healthcare takes center stage at annual conference
Registration is now open for marquee event that sparks collaboration, learning and relationship-building.
Ventric Health collaborates with Stellus Rx on heart failure care
Ventric Health has agreed to a partnership with Stellus Rx to connect outpatient heart failure detection with pharmacist-led medication management.
Collaborating to unlock new business models in the food system
Explore how food value chains can share risk, align commercial incentives, and scale durable business models through collaborative investment and finance.
San Juan County businesses upbeat but strained by labor, housing and ferry costs, survey finds
EDC report draws on responses from 62 businesses across San Juan, Orcas and Lopez islands
New governor begins the ‘Becerra era’ by making nice with Capitol Democrats
Xavier Becerra promises few details but a collaborative start with the California Legislature, a break from Newsom’s last-minute style
Ecologies of Collaboration: Art–Science Methodologies in the Arctic
Transdisciplinary collaboration evolves through shared learning, practical strategies, and effective tools.
PlayStation cancels live-service shooter Fairgames
Haven Games to "shift focus to collaborating with other development teams across PlayStation"
2026 Q3 US Business-to-Business Labor Market Update
The Business-to-Business vertical turned in a relatively sanguine third quarter of 2026, with job postings up over the past year in most categories.
Scientists Trap a Single Antimatter Particle for Months in Quest To Solve the Universe’s Biggest Mystery
A single particle of antimatter, suspended for months in a laboratory trap, could help physicists unravel why matter survived to build the universe around us. Northwestern University physicists have brought a positron, the electron’s antimatter counterpart, into a precisely controlled quantum state for the first time. After capturing the energetic particle from radioactive decay, they
Small business optimism holds steady in October as tax concerns rise
Small business optimism remained relatively unchanged in October, while uncertainty declined to its lowest level since December 2025, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index fell 0.1 points to 97.8, slightly below its 53-year average of 98.0. The Uncertainty Index dropped 6 points to 84. Labor quality…
Editas Medicine Announces Third Quarter 2026 Results and Business Updates
Company received HREC approval to initiate Phase 1/2 Strive™ study of EDIT-401 in patients with hyperlipidemia in Australia New preclinical data presented at AHA Scientific Sessions demonstrating ≥90 percent LDL-C reduction maintained over 10 months supports EDIT-401's potential best-in-class profile Second IND/CTA accepted for CD70 HD Allo CAR T program as part of collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb, triggering milestone payment to Editas Cash runway into second half of 2028, through and be
The Health Financing Crisis Demands Innovation: Lessons From Pooled Sputum Testing For TB
At a laboratory in Cameroon, technicians receive sputum samples from people suspected of having tuberculosis (TB). Until recently, each person’s sample
Learn About Quantum Networks at PubSci Science Cafe Nov. 18
Learn about quantum networks at the next PubSci, a science café presented by Brookhaven National Laboratory, on Wednesday, November 18 in Smithtown.
T-Cypher Bio Expands Oxford Operations with Move to Abingdon Science Park
T-Cypher Bio has relocated its headquarters to Abingdon Science Park in Oxfordshire, UK, expanding its laboratory and office footprint.
Cerabyte to Address Future of Data Storage for HPC and AI at SC26
Cerabyte Joins Los Alamos National Laboratory to Discuss Storage Innovation SANTA CLARA, Calif. and CHICAGO, Nov. 9, 2026 — Cerabyte today announced that it will join experts from Los Alamos National Laboratory for a panel discussion at Supercomputing 2026 (SC26). The experts will examine how industry consolidation, limited investment in long-cycle research/development and growing AI […]
Innovations for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health in Climate and Humanitarian Contexts
Climate change and humanitarian crises are placing growing pressure on essential health services for women, children and adolescents. As part of the Advocacy Forward series, PMNCH is convening an online workshop to explore practical, evidence-based innovations that strengthen service delivery in crisis-affected settings. Participants will gain tools, insights and advocacy strategies to support resilient, inclusive health systems and identify opportunities for collaboration, adaptation and scale.
Politics in plain sight: Tourism and trade-offs
Hawaii, Bora Bora, the Maldives, Costa Rica, Puerto Vallarta. What do they all have in common? These tropical escapes depend on someone else’s dispossession. Our vacations and desire for comfort are connected to complex systems of exploitation of land, labor, and culture. Enclave tourism refers to tourism through methods like all-inclusive resorts and cruises, which...
Early-life environmental exposures linked to multiple health outcomes into adolescence
Environmental exposures during pregnancy and childhood can be associated with multiple aspects of health at the same time, with many of these associations persisting into adolescence health, according to a new study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, and in collaboration with the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm).
From 'Dune' to 'Godzilla,' movie popcorn buckets are getting bigger and stranger — that's kind of the point
Elaborate movie-themed popcorn buckets are becoming a major moneymaker for theaters. An expert explains why fans are embracing the unusual souvenirs and how they're changing the moviegoing experience.
Alliance Entertainment: 3 Key Takeaways for Long-Term Investors
Operating costs climbed 18% as warehouse labor scaled, so margin gains depend on whether management can curb fulfillment expenses.
Newest Sample, Oldest Rock?
Written by Tasha Coelho, Mastcam-Z Student Collaborator at Arizona State University
Christopher Ward’s King of Attainable Grail Watches Drops Its Most Impressive Version Yet
Christopher Ward reteams with Mr Jones for the pair's second collaboration, this time adding colorful illustration to the Bel Canto.
High Impact Optical Partners Make Commitments at Global Summit for Eye Health
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua and Barbuda—Last week, the inaugural Global Summit for Eye Health drew more than 40 governments to St. John’s to tackle the challenge of avoidable vision loss worldwide. Convened by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), hosted by the government of Antigua and Barbuda, and co-hosted by the governments of Bangladesh, Guyana, Ireland and Nigeria in technical collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Summit met its goal with more than $1 billion committed globally to improve access to eyecare screening, spectacles and treatment.
Why Creators Are Treating Brand Collaborations as Business Auditions
Creator Alexis Wilkerson uses brand partnerships to build audience trust, test new products, and begin launching her own brand.
Yankees President Randy Levine on college sports and MLB's labor fight
CNBC’s Michael Ozanian spoke with New York Yankees President Randy Levine about his push for the Protect College Sports Act and the uncertainty surrounding MLB’s labor negotiations.
The beauty of falling: why failure belongs in science
Can failure be a part of success? In "The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity", theoretical physicist Claudia de Rham answers this question by reflecting on her own unexpected journey from aspiring astronaut to leading scientist, exploring the importance of persistence, collaboration, and learning to embrace uncertainty. So, grab a cup of tea, get cosy under a blanket, and let's find out...
49ers Launch Mexico City Foodie Passport Program in Collaboration with Local Businesses
The program will bring 49ers-themed culinary experiences and activations to Mexico City businesses during game week
Google’s Tabletop AI experiment lets you build custom collaboration apps
Tabletop provides customizable, collaborative spaces for all your personal planning needs.
Communist Party Politics, Rockets and Komsomol Business in Soviet Dnipropetrovsk
This is an excerpt from Ukraine’s Outpost: Dnipropetrovsk and the Russian-Ukrainian War (2022). Free to download from E-International Relations. The Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk (in 2016 the city was renamed Dnipro) was shown on a movie screen in the Soviet Union for the first time in 1981 as a ‘Russian-speaking’ city in Nikita Mikhalkov’s feature film Rodnia. A story of a Russian peasant woman who visited her daughter in the big industrial city was used by Mikhalkov in his movie to emphasise a growing crisis in Soviet family life during the Brezhnev era when former Russian peasants lost their Orthodox Christian identity during the process of socialist industrialisation and modernisation. Paradoxically, Mikhalkov completely ignored the real social and national problems of the city; instead choosing as the setting for his movie Russian peasants’ adjustment to Soviet modernisation. Even now many Russians use this film as evidence of the ‘Russian character’ of Dnipropetrovsk ignoring the real demographic and social history of this Ukrainian region (Elberg-Wilson 2016).[1] Despite Mikhalkov’s picture, the city of Dnipro and the Dnipropetrovsk region had a multi-national and multi-cultural character coupled with the strong influence of Ukrainian and Jewish culture. Get E-International Relations delivered to your inbox, free. As you sign up, consider becoming a paid subscriber, or make a donation, to support our work. Subscribe Using various archival and published documents, this chapter will cover the social, economic and cultural development of the city and the region of Dnipropetrovsk through the period of late socialism after Stalin, showing the ties between the multi-national Komsomol members and business ventures during perestroika and how this influenced the rise of oligarchic clans in post-Soviet Ukraine. Emergence of Soviet Dnipropetrovsk Paradoxically, from the early beginning, the founding of the ‘city of Catherine’s glory’ (Ekaterinoslav in Russian) and its province in 1776 by the Russian imperial administration of the Catherine the Second involved non-Russian ethnic groups, which shaped a historical demography of this region in Southern Ukraine. These ethnic groups included the local Ukrainian Orthodox Christian peasants and Cossacks, Jewish traders and artisans, Armenian Christians, and Tatar Muslim settlers. By the middle of the nineteenth century, thousands of German Protestant and Mennonite colonists also settled in the province. Moreover, by attracting foreign capital, the Russian imperial administration transformed this multi-ethnic and multi-religious region in the booming industrial centre of the Russian Empire by the beginning of twentieth century (Zhuk 2004, 33–96). After the Russian Revolution and civil war, the province of Ekaterinoslav continued to play an important role in the industrial development of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1926 the Soviet administration decided to change the name of Ekaterinoslav which sounded too ‘old fashioned’ and ‘imperial Russian.’ The new name was a combination of the name of the Dnipro River with the last name of Grigorii Petrovskii, head of the All-Ukrainian Executive Committee of the Soviets, and well-known organiser of the working-class movement in the region of Ekaterinoslav before the Revolution. ‘Dnipro-Petrovske’ was later transformed into ‘Dnipropetrovsk’ (Bolebrukh 2001, 156). Both the city and region of Dnipropetrovsk lived through the New Economic Policy (N.E.P.), industrialisation and the Stakhanovite movement. The region lost millions of human lives during collectivisation and the dekulakisation campaign, and especially during the Holodomor of 1932–33. During industrialisation, the Soviet government restored the industrial base of the region. Former metallurgical giants such as the Petrovskii (formerly Brianskii)plant, the Chodoir (formerly Vladimir Lenin) plant and others resumed production of pig iron and steel. During the 1930s, Dnipropetrovsk became an important centre for Soviet heavy industry. In 1932, Dnipropetrovsk regional metallurgical plants produced 20 per cent of the entire cast iron and 25 per cent of the steel manufactured in the Soviet Ukrainian Republic. After the beginning of the campaign of ‘Ukrainianisation’ in 1923, the number of those who spoke Ukrainian grew, reaching 38.5 per cent in the city by the end of the 1920s. Between 1932 and 1939, the number of city dwellers in Dnipropetrovsk increased to over 500,662. The Dnipropetrovsk region became the most urbanised of Soviet Ukraine with more than 2,273,000 people living in the region (Vasiliev 1977, 55; Bolebrukh 2001, 159–164). Dnipropetrovsk also became the cultural and educational centre of Soviet Ukraine. There were ten colleges, including the State University, 97 secondary schools and 19 vocational schools. The Soviet administration restored local drama and music theatres. During the 1930s, Dnipropetrovsk had 120 libraries, five museums, six movie-theatres, 30 clubs and palaces of culture (Bolebrukh 2001_,_159–164). The Leonid Brezhnev Clan Post-war Soviet modernisation influenced the careers of many young and ambitious Komsomol members in the region. One of them, Leonid Brezhnev, was born in 1906 in Kamenskoe, joined the Kommunystycheskaya Partyya Sovetskoho Soyuza (Communist party of the Soviet Union - KPSS) in 1931 and, after graduation from Dniprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical Institute was elected as a council deputy of the city of Dniprodzerzhinsk. The Stalinist purges of the 1930s removed many old Soviet and Communist officials from government positions who perished in prisons and the labour camps of GULAG. Young people such as Brezhnev filled the void created by Stalinist repressions in the region. In 1938, the young Brezhnev was elected as a member of the regional committee of the Soviet Communist party of Ukraine (KPU) and head of the Department of Agitation and Propaganda. By the young age of 32, Brezhnev had become secretary of the KPU committee of the most important industrial region of Soviet Ukraine. His career was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War when Brezhnev joined the army as an ideological officer (see Mlechin 2005). From August 1941 to October 1943, the Dnipropetrovsk region was occupied by the Nazis, and Soviet troops liberated the entire region by February 1944 (Berkhoff 2004, 11, 36, 49, 149–150, 152–153, 248–249). The Soviet administration restored the industrial base of Dnipropetrovsk, and by 1950 the main metallurgical and machine-building factories had reached their pre-war levels of industrial production and productivity. During this period, Brezhnev began his political career as a talented and ambitious organizer of the industrial re-birth of Dnipropetrovsk. He was an experienced young army ideologist who had proved his loyalty to the Stalinist leadership during the war and was familiar with Dnipropetrovsk before 1941. The Central Committee of the KPSS sent Brezhnev to Dnipropetrovsk in November 1947 when he was elected first secretary of the Dnipropetrovsk regional committee of the KPU, and he ruled the oblast until June 1950 (Vosstanovlenie). His successors were Andrei Kirilenko and Volodymyr Shcherbitskyy, both close friends. Two other young comrades of Brezhnev, Oleksiy Vatchenko and Yevhen Kachalovskii led the region respectively in 1965–1976 and 1976–1983 (Vasiliev 1977, 72; Bolebrukh 2001_,_ 233; Mlechin 2005). Brezhnev promoted the political career of his old friends, many of whom became prominent political figures in Kyiv and Moscow during his leadership of the KPSS. Both contemporaries and scholars who study the ‘Brezhnev period’ call this phenomenon the ‘Dnipropetrovsk mafia’ or rule of the ‘Dnipropetrovsk Family’ (Nahaylo 1999, 36, 69; Wilson 2000, 162). Since the rise of Brezhnev to the pinnacle of Soviet power, the ruling elites of Dnipropetrovsk influenced not only regional, but also republican and All-Union politics. Dnipropetrovsk’s transformation into an important centre of the Soviet military industrial complex was directly related to the sudden rise of Brezhnev to the pinnacle of Soviet power in October of 1964. Brezhnev promoted the political career of his compatriots from the Dnipropetrovsk military industrial complex. Brezhnev’s friends and close colleagues from his post-war years in the Dnipropetrovsk region went to Moscow and became prominent political figures in the Soviet nomenklatura hierarchy during the 1960s and 1970s. Two main industries of the Soviet military industrial complex – metallurgy and missile-building – had important factories in Dnipropetrovsk and therefore provided the Brezhnev clan with new members from 1964 until 1982. Even after the downfall of the Brezhnev clan in Moscow in 1983, when Yurii Andropov began his struggle ‘against corruption and nepotism’ in the Soviet nomenklatura, members of this clan continued to play a prominent role in the political life of Soviet Ukraine. Besides the Physical-Technical Department of Dnipropetrovsk State University, the Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute also assisted the political careers of many of Brezhnev’s close friends who in the 1970s and 1980s became important members of the Kremlin nomenklatura. Nikolai Tikhonov, former head of Dnipropetrovsk Sovnarkhoz during the 1950s, was one of the deputies of the Soviet Prime Minister between 1966 and 1976, First Deputy of the Prime Minister from 1976 to 1980 and head of the USSR Council of Ministers from 1980 to 1985.[2] Nikolai Shcholokov was the Soviet Minister of Public Order in 1966–1968 and from 1968 to 1982 he was Soviet Minister of Interior. Georgii Tsynev was during 1971–1976 a member of the Central Revision Committee of the KPSS and a deputy head of the KGB from 1970 to 1982. In the KGB he was the 1st Deputy Chairman in 1982–1985 as well as he was a Candidate Member of CPSU Central Committee in 1976–1981 and accordingly was a full Member of the said body in 1981–1986. Victor Chebrikov, who graduated from Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute in 1950, was one of the leaders of the city party organisation in Dnipropetrovsk from 1961 to 1971. In 1971 he became the head of the personnel department of the USSR KGB, First Deputy of the Head of this organization and from 1982 to 1988 a chairman of the KGB (Pikhovshek 1996, 11–12, 272–274). Another of Brezhnev’s close friends, Volodymyr Shcherbytskyy, promoted the careers of other people from the region of Dnipropetrovsk. With his support, Oleksii Vatchenko became the head of the Presidium of the Ukrainian Soviet Supreme Soviet from 1976 until 1984 with the assistance of another politician from Dnipropetrovsk, Valentyna Shevchenko. Aleksandr Kapto, who worked as a secretary of both the Dnipropetrovsk Komsomol organization and the Soviet Ukrainian Komsomol in Kyiv in the 1960s, oversaw the Department of Culture in the Central Committee of the KPU; in 1979–1986 he was a Secretary of the Central Committee and accordingly was the main ideologist of the Soviet Ukraine. Many other members of the ‘Kyiv ruling class’ under Shcherbytskyy were also linked to the Dnipropetrovsk metallurgical and military lobby. Shcherbytskyy’s assistant from 1972 to 1984 was Konstantin Prodan who began his career in the Komsomol organisation of the city of Dnipropetrovsk (Pikhovshek 1996, 48–103). As a contemporary political analyst noted, ‘Officially Prodan was put in charge of industrial production, though, according to insiders of the former KPU Central Committee, his principal function was ‘maintaining’ contact with Brezhnev’s assistant Georgii Tsukanov in Moscow’ (Pikhovshek 1996, 33–34). Another important reason for the rise of the ‘Brezhnev Clan’ was the relative independence of Dnipropetrovsk’s local administration from Kyiv. Because of the status of Dnipropetrovsk as a ‘strategically important centre for military industry,’ different branches of the local administration were under the direct supervision of Moscow, rather than Kyiv (Interviews with Tihipko, Markov and Bocharova). The Military Industrial Complex and Ruling Elite of Dnipropetrovsk The city of Dnipropetrovsk was the location of famous metallurgical and machine-building factories in pre-revolutionary Russia and the Soviet Union. Before 1941, Dnipropetrovsk became the most urbanised region of the Soviet Ukraine. Almost 53 per cent of this region’s population lived in 16 cities and towns of the region (Vasiliev 1977, 55; Bolebrukh 2001, 159–164). In 1980, the industrial enterprises of Dnipropetrovsk manufactured a significant part of the industrial products and customer goods for the Soviet Ukrainian Republic. A total of 5.4 per cent of steel, 9 per cent of rolled iron, 28 per cent of pipes, 62 per cent of combine beet-harvesters, 27.9 per cent of television sets, and 8.5 per cent of knitted wear in Ukraine were produced in the city of Dnipropetrovsk (Bolebrukh 2001, 219). After 1945, the main centre of economic and financial activities of the region and the city of Dnipropetrovsk became neither metallurgy nor mining. The new centre which changed the status of the region and of the city was a secret military factory in Dnipropetrovsk. The entire ideological and cultural situation in the region, and especially the city, depended on this one industrial plant which became the most important part of the Soviet military industrial complex. In July 1944, the State Committee of Defence in Moscow decided to build a large military machine-building factory in Dnipropetrovsk on the location of the pre-war aircraft plant. In December 1945, thousands of German prisoners of war began construction and built the first sections and shops of the new Dnipropetrovsk Automobile Factory (Markov, 1995). In 1947–1948 this factory produced its first cars and special military vehicles. However, on 9 May 1951 the USSR Council of Ministers decided to transform the main shops and sectors of this factory into ‘secret production’ which included not only special military vehicles, but also powerful rocket engines and different types of modern military aircraft. The former Dnipropetrovsk Automobile Factory was transferred to the Ministry of Armament of the USSR and received a new name – the State Union Plant #586 (Lukanov 1996, 12). Stalin introduced the organisation of special secret training of highly qualified engineers and scientists who were to become rocket construction specialists. He recommended the introduction of a new college degree at Dnipropetrovsk State University which would be a Master of Sciences in rocket construction. In 1952 the university administration formed a new department with the name ‘physical-technical faculty’ which was the largest department at the university, admitting on average four hundred students each year. These students received better accommodation and a higher stipend payment than students from other departments and colleges; the lowest stipend for this department was 450 roubles, while the highest stipend at another prestigious school, the Dnipropetrovsk Medical Institute, was only 180 roubles. A special commission from Moscow selected talented undergraduate students studying physics from engineering schools all over the USSR and sent them to the physical-technical department at Dnipropetrovsk State University, where they resumed their studies as rocket engineers. Simultaneously, the university administration announced the admission of new freshmen students in this department. The promise of a good stipend and a ‘romantic’ career of rocket engineer attracted thousands of talented young people to this ‘secret’ department, which provided training specialists for only the Dnipropetrovsk Automobile Factory (Horbulin 1998, 9, 62–63). In accordance with another decision of the Soviet government, in 1954 the administration of this automobile factory opened a secret design office with the name ‘Southern Construction Bureau’ (konstruktorskoe biuro Yuzhnoe). The main assignment of this office was to construct military missiles and rocket engines. Hundreds of talented physicists, engineers and machine designers moved from Moscow and other big cities in the Soviet Union to Dnipropetrovsk where they joined the konstruktorskoe biuro Yuzhnoe (KBYu). In 1965, the secret Plant #586 was transferred to the Ministry of General Machine-Building of the USSR and the next year it changed its name into the ‘Southern Machine-building Factory’ (Yuzhnyi mashino-stroitelnyi zavod) or simply Yuzhmash (in Ukrainian Pivdenmash). The first ‘General Constructor’ and head of the ‘Southern’ design office was Mikhail Yangel, a prominent scientist and outstanding designer of space rockets who led the design office and factory from 1954 to 1971. Yangel designed the first powerful rockets and space military equipment for the Soviet Ministry of Defence. Yangel worked with talented engineers who later became the leaders of military production in Dnipropetrovsk and the official directors of Pivdenmash. Two close collaborators of Yangel were the Pivdenmash directors Leonid Smirnov (1952–1961) and Aleksandr Makarov (1961–1986). Makarov’s successor was Leonid Kuchma, the Director General of the Pivdenmash in 1986–1992, who later became one of the most prominent political leaders in independent Ukraine and was and still is the only President of Ukraine (1994–2005) elected twice (Strazheva; Platonov and Horbulin; Romanov and Gubarev; Baikonur; Baikonur, Korolev, Yangel). In 1951 the Southern Machine-building Factory began manufacturing and testing new military rockets with an initial range of only 270 kilometres. By 1959 Soviet scientists and engineers developed new technologies, and as a result, the KBYu launched a new machine-building project producing ballistic missiles. Under Yangel, KBYu produced very powerful rocket engines which dramatically increased the range of ballistic missiles and from the 1960s, began to be used as launch vehicles for Soviet spaceships. Pivdenmash designed and manufactured four generations of missile complexes which included space launch vehicles Kosmos, Interkosmos, Tsyklon-2, Tsyklon-3 and Zenith. The KBYu created a unique space-rocket system called Energia-Buran and manufactured 400 technical devices which were launched as artificial satellites (Sputniks). For the first time in the world space industry, the Dnipropetrovsk missile plant produced space Sputniks. By the 1980s, Pivdenmash manufactured 67 different types of spaceships, 12 space research complexes and four defence space rocket systems. These systems were used not only for purely military purposes by the Ministry of Defence, but also for astronomical research, for global radio and television and for environmental monitoring. Pivdenmash initiated and sponsored the international space programme of Eastern European socialist countries, called Interkosmos. Twenty-two of the 25 automatic space Sputniks of this programme were designed, manufactured, and launched by engineers and workers from Dnipropetrovsk. Pivdenmash and KBYu became not only an important centre of the Soviet space industry and Soviet military industrial complex, but also the main rocket producer for the entire Soviet bloc. (Hall and Shayler 2001, 316ff; Siddiqi 2003, 97, 113, 114, 164, 177, 285) The military rocket systems manufactured in Dnipropetrovsk created the base for the Soviet Strategic Missile Forces (Dnepropetrovskii raketno 1994; Bolebrukh 2001_,_ 209–211, 229; Lukanov 1996, 13). On the eve of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, KBYu had nine regular and corresponding members of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, 33 full professors and 290 scientists holding a Ph.D. More than 50,000 people worked at Pivdenmash. Pivdenmash was ‘a state’ inside the Soviet state. In 1969, after a long competition with Moscow’s V. Chelomei Centre of Rocket Construction, Pivdenmash rocket designs won, and from then leaders of the Soviet military industrial complex preferred only Pivdenmash models. The Soviet state provided billions of Soviet roubles to finance Pivdenmash projects (Horbulin 1998, 6, 24–31). Officially, Pivdenmash also manufactured agricultural tractors and special kitchen equipment for everyday needs, such as mincing machines or juicers for Soviet households. In official reports and public information there were no details given about its production of rockets or spaceships. However, hundreds of thousands of workers and engineers in the city of Dnipropetrovsk were employees of this plant, and members of their families and therefore most local people knew about the ‘real production’ of Pivdenmash. Dnipropetrovsk as a KGB “Testing Ground” The Soviet government approved the KGB’s proposal to introduce the highest level of secrecy over Pivdenmash and its products. According to the Soviet government’s decision, the city of Dnipropetrovsk was officially closed to foreign visitors in 1959. No citizen of a foreign country (even Eastern European socialist) was allowed to visit the city or district of Dnipropetrovsk. From the late 1950s, Soviet people called Dnipropetrovsk ‘the rocket city’ or ‘closed city.’ (Bolebrukh 2001, 211). Members of the Brezhnev clan in the Moscow offices of the KGB and Ministry of Interior also contributed to centralised ideological control in Dnipropetrovsk, which especially influenced the KGB and security operations in the closed city. The local KGB office was always more Moscow-oriented, ignoring the interests of the authorities in Kyiv. At the same time, for Moscow officials who began their careers in Dnipropetrovsk, the city became the testing ground for many All-Union KGB campaigns which they attempted to initiate. Dnipropetrovsk KGB officers were ‘pioneers’ in the organisation of ideological campaigns which became ‘models’ for other ‘closed’ industrial Soviet cities. [This phrase – ‘pioneers of ideological campaigns’ – belongs to a local retired KGB officer. According to the KGB documents, Moscow’s representatives in the Dnipropetrovsk clan always interfered in local KGB business, imposing their own practices on the local officers.] (Igor T.; DADO, f. 19, op. 52, spr. 72, ark. 1–18) As a result, the inhabitants of Dnipropetrovsk experienced more ideological limitations and more brutal anti-Western campaigns than people in many other Soviet cities. Facing direct Kremlin supervision, the local KGB and KPSS ideologists sought to prove their ideological reliability and occasionally exaggerated the ‘threat from the capitalist West.’ KGB officers transformed one building in the Dnipropetrovsk Special Psychiatric Hospital (psikhushka), located in a town of Ihren (now a suburban district of Dnipro), into a special police facility for ‘political dissidents.’ All over the Soviet Union, Ihren psikhushka (especially its Section 9) became notorious and known as the worst incarceration for political prisoners. The Dnipropetrovsk KGB tested various drugs on prisoners and performed different medical experiments, treating the most ‘opinionated’ political dissidents as mentally sick patients. Many religious and civil rights activists and ‘bourgeois nationalists,’ such as national communist dissident Leonid Plyushch, described the Dnipropetrovsk Psychiatric Hospital as ‘mental hell’ because of its police system of harsh treatment and everyday humiliation (Plyushch 1979, 304–326, 340–349). Meanwhile, local KGB officers explained their harsh treatment of dissidents such as Plyushch as an ideological necessity to protect a strategically important centre of the Soviet military industrial complex (Igor T). Growth of the Population and Standards of Living in the Region The new status of the city brought more state investments and contributed to the overall improvement of the standard of living of its inhabitants. During the 1950s, the main sponsor of city improvements and renovations was the metallurgical industry. During the 1960s and 1970s, the space rocket industry and its biggest factory, Pivdenmash, sponsored all major city programmes, renovations and new architectural projects which included the sports palace Meteor with a large indoor pool, football team Dnipro, city airport, city theatre of opera and ballet, historical museum of Yavornitskii, department store ‘Children’s World,’ construction of thousands of modern apartments, libraries and movie-theatres, and celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the city of Dnipropetrovsk in 1976. (Bolebrukh 2001_,_ 211–212). Even the expansion and renovation of the Dnipropetrovsk Central Farmer Market (known as Oziorka) was supported by Pivdenmash as part of its improvement of the city’s life, and a reflection of the growth and strategic importance of the city. From 1958 to 1965 the city administration invested money in building a new covered location for the market and by 1970 they had re-built the entire neighbourhood transforming it into a modern and convenient place for the ‘socialist consumption of goods and services.’ (Lazebnik 2001, 167–185) As a result, the missile factory, the centre of the Soviet military industrial complex, contributed to a new level of cultural consumption among not only the city’s dwellers, but also among all guests of Dnipropetrovsk. Consequently, the pioneering efforts in the popularisation of new modern forms of Western music such as jazz and rock-n-roll also began among engineers and workers of Pivdenmash who contributed to the spread of new cultural forms and activities among those who lived in the city and region of Dnipropetrovsk. The improving living conditions in Dnipropetrovsk led to an increase of the regional population from 2,339,800 people (with a 56 per cent urban population) in 1951 to 2,850,700 (with a 72 per cent urban population) in 1961. The larger salaries and better distribution of food and industrial goods also attracted young people from other regions of the Soviet Union to Dnipropetrovsk. From the 1950s onward, most of the Dnipropetrovsk population were people younger than 30 years old. In 1970 there were 3,343,000 people in the region (76 per cent of who lived in cities) which by 1984 had increased to 3,771,200 people (with 83 per cent urban population). The population of the city of Dnipropetrovsk grew from 660,800 people in 1959 to 1,066,000 in 1979 and more than 1,153,400 people in 1985 when Gorbachev came to power (Glushkina 1985, 10, 11). The Dnipropetrovsk region had a young multinational, predominantly Russian speaking population. Three major ethnic groups shaped the cultural development of the region – Ukrainians, Russians, and Jews. During the peak of ‘international harmony and prosperity of developed socialism’ in 1979, Ukrainians made up the overwhelming majority of the regional (72.8 per cent) and urban (68.5 per cent) population. Due to massive emigration from the Soviet Union, the Jewish population decreased from 2.7 per cent in 1959 to 1.7 per cent in 1979 and 1.3 per cent in 1989. The number of Russians in the region’s population grew rapidly from 17.2 per cent in 1959, 20.9 per cent in 1970, 23 per cent in 1979 and 24.2 per cent in 1989 (O vozrastnoi structure 1971; Goskomstat USSR 1991, 100, 102). By 1985, more than a third of the population in the city of Dnipropetrovsk was ethnically Russian. If we add to this number the 3.2 per cent of Russian-speaking Jews and more than 33 per cent of Ukrainians who considered Russian their native language, we will have more than two thirds of the city’s population who associated themselves with Russian rather than with Ukrainian culture. According to contemporaries, the high salaries and better conditions of living attracted representatives of various nationalities from different republics who also spoke Russian rather than the Ukrainian language in Dnipropetrovsk (Goskomstat USSR 1991, 106, 108, 119, 122; Prudchenko and Smolenska 2007). Komsomol ‘Business’ During the Late Soviet Era The regional economic activities of local ‘businessmen and women’ from the Komsomol during perestroika had their roots in the pre-perestroika era. They also strengthened trends for independence from Moscow which had earlier existed in Dnipropetrovsk. All the elements of their initial business had already been developed during the Brezhnev era when the cultural consumption of late socialism combined the structures of Soviet international tourism with the ideological efforts of Komsomol activists into one business network. Mass rock and discotheque music consumption among Soviet youth was delivered by Komsomol and trade union apparatchiks. International tourism and discotheque enthusiasts provided these apparatchiks with music and video material for their entertainment business. Without these relations it would be impossible to imagine the development of post-Soviet capitalism. The first pioneers of organizing Komsomol business in the region were two graduates of Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute, the Ukrainian-Moldovan Sergiy Tihipko, the First Secretary of the Dnipropetrovsk Komsomol regional organization in 1986–91, and the Ukrainian Oleksandr Turchynov, who worked with Tihipko as head of the agitation and propaganda division in the same Komsomol regional organisation in 1987–90. Tihipko and Turchynov initiated and ‘ideologically justified’ the first Komsomol businesses in the region. Two other Komsomol members, who also graduated from the same institute as Tihipko and Turchynov, Kolomoyskyy and Viktor Pinchuk, both of Jewish origin, started their careers not in the official Komsomol business, but on the black market of Dnipropetrovsk, trading various goods, and using their financial and engineering skills for their own survival in the conditions of economic collapse of late socialism. Kolomoyskyy used his financial skills and connections with Tihipko to organize its own financial corporation Privatbank, which became the most successful bank in post-Soviet Ukraine. Pinchuk, using his engineering and managerial skills, founded his own metallurgical venture, entitled Interpipe Company. It is noteworthy that all four of those Komsomol members, two Ukrainian and two Jewish, used their personal connections through their friends and partners from Pivdenmash, including through its last director Leonid Kuchma, to start their first businesses in Dnipropetrovsk (see Golovko 2012). In the mid-1980s, when perestroika created favourable conditions for the managerial skills of Komsomol activists, this system produced new activities for cultural consumption, such as video salons which brought their organisers more profits than traditional discotheque clubs. The video business used the same infrastructure and network of the discotheque movement; namely international tourism, Komsomol activists, trade union leaders and the ‘discotheque mafia.’ This network contributed to the business career of two fans of Western popular music, Yulia Tymoshenko and her husband, Oleksandr (Popov, Milshtein, 55; Ponamarchuk). Yulia Grigian (Telegina) was the daughter of Armenian taxi-driver Grigian and Russian technical worker Telegina, a fan of British rock music. Yulia Grigian married Oleksandr Tymoshenko, son of a member of the city KPU committee in the Pivdenmash administration. In 1978, Yulia Tymoshenko joined the student Komsomol organization in the Department of Economy at Dnipropetrovsk State University. This department was opened on the initiative of the Pivdenmash administration in 1977 to provide training for qualified economists in Dnipropetrovsk’s growing military industrial complex. Yulia Tymoshenko graduated with honours from the Department of Economy in 1984 and began her first job as an engineer-economist through the connections of her father-in-law, Hennadii Tymoshenko. For five years, she worked at the Lenin machine building plant, another factory which belonged to the Soviet military industrial complex. In 1979, she gave birth to her daughter Yevhenia, and until 1988 she and her husband enjoyed a typical Soviet upper-middle class life in their one-bedroom cooperative apartment. They continued to watch movies, listen to Western pop music, and occasionally visited and danced in well-known discotheque clubs in downtown Dnipropetrovsk (Popov and Milshtein 2006, 64–67; Suvorov 1991). Perestroika changed the young Tymoshenko family. Hennadii Tymoshenko recommended his son and daughter-in-law to join the co-operative movement and promised his support through the city’s KPU and Soviet administration. In 1988, the young Tymoshenkos used their old connections in the Komsomol discothèque world to open a public service enterprise, a video-rental shop in Dnipropetrovsk, with 5,000 borrowed Soviet roubles. The profits made from this first venture were used to open a chain of video rental stores. They used the experience of Komsomol apparatchiks, who brought their first VCRs in Dnipropetrovsk through Sputnik. Contacts in the discotheque movement helped provide these apparatchiks with Western video tapes and an audience which was ready to consume new Western cultural products. Former discotheque enthusiasts tested these new business practices and proposed the idea of video salons, which had already become the most popular and fashionable form of entertainment Moscow and the three Baltic republics. As a result, during perestroika both the Komsomol and ‘discotheque mafia’ provided infrastructure for these salons in Dnipropetrovsk. When in 1987the KGB opened the city of Dnipropetrovsk to foreigners, Pivdenmash imported thousands of VCRs using barter agreements with South Korean businessmen. As a regional KPU apparatchik who oversaw the distribution of movies throughout the Dnipropetrovsk region (kinoprokat), Yulia Tymoshenko’s father-in-law had access not only to these Korean VCRs but also to local movie theatres which provided the first mass audience for video films. The main base of a Tymoshenko’s ‘video enterprise’ was the location of the former central Komsomol discotheque club of Dnipropetrovsk oblast– the Student Palace in the Taras Shevchenko Park of Culture and Relaxation in downtown Dnipropetrovsk (Popov and Milshtein 2006, 52–89; Ponamarchuk 2007). In 1989, she quit her old engineer-economist job and became the head of the Terminal co-operative. The same year, another participant in the ‘discotheque mafia,’ Serhiy Tihipko, was elected as the first secretary of the Komsomol organization of Dnipropetrovsk oblast. He not only supported Tymoshenko’s enterprise, but also brought his additional discotheque and Sputnik connections into Terminal. In this way, discotheque activists and Komsomol apparatchiks contributed to the growth and popularity of Tymoshenko’s business (Tihipko). In 1991 after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Soviet state tourism, the representatives of the Brezhnev era Komsomol elite, such as Tymoshenko demonstrated again that a skilful adjustment of this network to the new economic situation was an important foundation for success in post-Soviet business activities. The initial capital of Terminal, the music and video Komsomol enterprise which Tymoshenko had launched during ‘the discotheque era’ of late socialism, became the foundation of her business and political career in post-Soviet Ukraine. Epilogue: Dnipropetrovsk Komsomol Entrepreneurs and the Formation of Post-Soviet Oligarchs Political corruption in the post-Soviet geopolitical space is rooted in cultural consumption during the Brezhnev era, especially in the so-called ‘discotheque effect’ on society during the era of ‘mature socialism.’ During this period of late socialism in the USSR, millions of Soviet young people, loyal members of Komsomol, fell in love with the catchy sound of ‘beat music’ by the Beatles and hard rock by Deep Purple. Even ten years after dissolution of the Soviet Union, the post-Soviet space was ruled by former Soviet hard rock fans, representatives of the so-called ‘Deep Purple generation,’ new post-Soviet politicians, such as Russian Prime-Minister Dmitri Medvedev, twice Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, President Petro Poroshenko and former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Paradoxically, détente in the 1970s led to the influx of Western cultural products into the USSR, such as popular music and feature films. As a result, Soviet ideologists, including the Komsomol, attempted to control Soviet consumption of cultural products from the West using ‘Komsomol discothèques’ where Soviet young people could dance to ‘ideologically permitted’ Soviet and Western music. Contemporaries called these organizers ‘disco mafia’ in the industrial cities of Eastern Ukraine. By the end of perestroika in 1991, more than 100 Komsomol businesses had emerged in industrial cities in Eastern Soviet Ukraine, of which more than ninety originated in the city of Dnipropetrovsk (Zhuk 2010, 301). Only a few of the most successful enterprises survived post-Soviet competition during the 1990s and created ‘new business corporations’ such as Yulia Tymoshenko’s ‘Gas Empire,’ Kolomoyskyy’s and Tihipko’s Privatbank, Aleksandr Balashov’s ‘Trade Corporation’ and Rinat Akhmetov’s Liuks. The overwhelming majority of these post-Soviet successful businesses were organised by or directly connected to the ‘disco mafia.’ At the same time, the first Dnipropetrovsk ‘capitalists’ demonstrated a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, from the Ukrainian Tihipko, Armenian-Russian Tymoshenko, Russian Balashov and Jewish Kolomoyskyy contributing to the multi-national identity of the city of Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro. Some contemporaries noted how the business activities of Komsomol ‘entrepreneurs’ in the 1980s contributed to regional identity in Eastern Ukraine. Many of these ‘entrepreneurs’ who were not ethnic Ukrainians became active participants in the Ukrainian independence movement in 1988–1991 to protect their regional business interests rather than defending Ukrainian culture and language. In the 1990s, former members of the Soviet ‘discotheque mafia’ and their former KPU supervisors became an integral part of the business and political life of independent Ukraine. As leaders of oligarchic clans in Ukraine they have resisted Russian expansion into their ‘spheres of influence.’ The case of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, elected in April 2019, whose entire career was generated inside the Soviet-based system of television entertainment, continues to demonstrate the connection between ‘post-Komsomol‘ business and political careers. Zelenskyy began his acting career in 95-yi Kvartal, which was a reference to a neighbourhood in Kryvyy Rih, where he had grown up and was inspired by the 1960s Soviet television show KVN. As we see, the Dnipropetrovsk and Dnipro elites, who are still rooted in their Soviet past, play a significant role in the development of independent Ukraine. References Berkhoff, Karel C., (2004). Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine under Nazi Rule. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bolebrukh, Anatolii G. et al., eds., (2001). Dnipropetrovsk: vikhy istorii. Dnipropetrovsk: Grani. Derzhavnyy arkhiv Dnipropetrovskoyi oblasti (hereafter – DADO), f. 19, op. 52, spr. 72. Dnepropetrovskii raketno-kosmicheskii tsentr: Kratkii ocherk stanovlenia i razvitia. (1994). DAZ-YuMZ-KBYu: Khronika dat i sobytii. Dnipropetrovsk: YUMZ. Glushkina, Liudmila G. ed. (1985). Tsentral’noe Statisticheskoe Upravlenie Dnepropetrovskoi oblasti. Dnepropetrovshchina v tsifrakh. (K 40-letiu pobedy v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine). Dnipropetrovsk: Gosstat. Golovko, Volodymyr. (2012). Ukrainski finasovo-promyslovi grupy v modernizatsiinykh protsesakh 1991-2009. Kyiv: Instytut istorii Ukrainy NAN Ukrainy. Goskomstat USSR. Dnepropetrovskoe oblatnoe upravlenie statistiki. (1991). Naselenie Dnepropetrovskoi oblasti po dannym Vsesoiuznoi perepisi naseleniia 1989 goda. Dnepropetrovsk: Gosstat. Hall, Rex, Shayler, David J. (2001). The Rocket Men: Vostok and Voskhod, the First Soviet Manned Spaceflights. Chichester, NJ: Springer. Horbulin, Volodymyr P. et al. eds. (1998). Zemni shlyakhy i zoryani orbity. Shtrykhy do portreta Leonida Kuchmy. Kyiv: DrUk. Kuznetskii, Mikhail I., Stazheva, Irina V. eds. (1995). Baikonur – chudo XX veka: Vospominania vevteranov Baikonura ob akademike Mikhaile Kuzmiche Yangele. Moscow: Kosmos. Kuznetskii, Mikhail I. ed. (1997). Baikonur, Korolev, Yangel. Voronezh: Kosmos. Lazebnik, Valentina I. (2001). G. A. Efimenko ed., Oziorka nasha: Istoricheskii ocherk o Dnepropetrovskom Tsentralnom rynke. Dnipropetrovsk: Grani. Lukanov, Yuriy. (1996). Tretii president: Politychnyi portret Leonida Kuchmy. Kyiv: Taki Spravy. Markov, Karlo A. (1995). Uchastie nemetskikh voennoplennykh i internirovannykh v vosstanovlenii narodnogo khoziaistva Dnepropetrovskoi oblastiv pervye polevoennye gody. Voprosy Germanskoi istorii: Ukrainsko-nemetskie sviazi v novoe i noveishee vremia. Mezhvuzovskii sbornik nauchnykh trudov, In: Svetlana Bobyliova, ed., Dnipropetrovsk: DDU, 158–172. Mlechin, Leonid M. (2005). Brezhnev. Moscow: Molodaia gvardia. Nahaylo, Bohdan. (1999). The Ukrainian Resurgence. Toronto: Hurst. O vozrastnoi structure, urovne obrazovania, natsional’nom sostave, iazykakh i istochnikakh sredstv sushchestvovania naselenia Dnepropetrovskoi oblasti po dannym Vsessoiuznoi perepisis naselenia na 15 ianvaria 1970 goda. (1971). Dneprovskaia Pravda, June 26. Pikhovshek, Vyacheslav, et al., eds. (1996). ‘Dnipropetrovska simya’: Informatsia stanom na 25 lystopada 1996 roku. Kyiv: Ukrainian Centre for Independent Political Research. Pikhovshek, Vyacheslav et al. Eds. (1996). Dnipropetrovsk vs. Security Service. Kyiv: Lybed. Platonov, Vitalii P. and Horbulin, Volodymyr.P. (1979). Mykhaylo K. Yangel. Kyiv: Nauka. Plyushch, Leonid. (1979). History’s Carnival: A Dissident’s Autobiography. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Ponamarchuk, Dmytro. (2007). Prosto Yulia. Izvestia, September 20. Popov, Dmitrii, and Milshtein, Ilia. (2006). Oranzhevaia printsessa. Zagadka Yulii Timoshenko. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Ol’gi Morozovoi. Romanov, Aleksandr P., Gubarev, Vladimir S. (1989). Konstruktory. Moscow: Molodaia gvardia. Siddiqi, Asif A. (2003). Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Elberg-Wilson, Eliot. (2016). ‘Eduard Artem’iev and the Sonics of National Identity,’ Slovo, 28, 2: 2–25. Strazheva, Irina V. (1978). Tiulpany s kosmodroma. Moscow: Molodaia gvardia. Vasiliev, I. V. et al. eds. (1977). Istoria gorodov i siol Ukrainskoi SSR v 26-ti tomakh: Dnepropetrovskaia oblast. Kyiv: Glavnaia redaktsia Ukrainskoi Sovestskoi Entsiklopedii. Vosstanovlenie Pridneprovia (1946–1950). (1980). Dokumenty i materially. Kyiv: Nauka. Wilson, Andrew. (2000). The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press Zhuk, Sergei. (2004). Russia’s Lost Reformation: Peasants, Millennialism and Radical Sects in Southern Russia and Ukraine, 1830–1917. Baltimore, MD & Washington D.C: Johns Hopkins University Press and Woodrow Wilson Centre Press. Zhuk, Sergei (2010). Rock and Roll in the Rocket City: The West, Identity, and Ideology in Soviet Dniepropetrovsk, 1960–1985. Baltimore, MD & Washington D.C: Johns Hopkins University Press and Woodrow Wilson Centre Press. **Interviews**Igor T., KGB officer, 15 May 1991, Dnipropetrovsk. Karlo A. Markov, 12 April 1992, Dnipropetrovsk State University. Mikhail Suvorov, 1 June 1991, Dnipropetrovsk. Natalia V. Bocharova, 15 March 1993, Dnipropetrovsk State University. Sergiy Tihipko, director of Privatbank in Dnipropetrovsk, 12 October 1993, Dnipropetrovsk. Yevhen D. Prudchenko and Halyna V. Smolenska, 18 July 2007, Central Library of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, Dnipropetrovsk. Notes [1] I used also numerous interviews conducted with my relatives, who are ethnic Ukrainians, but live in Moscow, Russia, who still support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s anti-Ukrainian politics. [2] Sovnarkhoz is abbreviated from Russian Sovet narodnogo khoziaistva, an economic department in the Soviet government during the early Stalin era and during Khrushchev’s reforms.
PsiQuantum-AMD collaboration could reach Chicago
A Silicon Valley startup and a powerhouse are tackling quantum together.
PLOCAN Hosts Canary Islands Fisheries Delegation to Explore Ocean Science Collaboration
PLOCAN hosted a Canary Islands Government fisheries delegation at its Taliarte facilities, covering topics ranging from offshore wind energy and aquaculture to marine robotics, ocean observation, and AI-driven vessel identification. The visit concluded with a tour of PLOCAN's underwater vehicles laboratory.
Roma favored over Milan in race for Endrick
The Endrick option is gaining momentum ahead of the January transfer window. This time, it’s being relaunched by Matteo Moretto, a transfer expert who regularly collaborates with Fabrizio Romano. Mo...
Dyania and NVIDIA partner to scale AI-driven clinical reasoning across health systems
Dyania Health today announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to put AI clinical reasoning to work inside health systems, on their own infrastructure, at the scale of their entire patient population.
Science got a lifeline: Now comes the hard part.
One of the most maddening things that has happened in the last two years of Trump 2.0 has been the gutting of medical research. Since losing my husband to colon cancer and my sister to pancreatic cancer, as well as many friends to various cancers and other diseases, supporting science and scientists has become a mission for me. That’s one reason I co-founded Stand Up To Cancer in 2008 — to raise money and awareness for cancer research and encourage scientists to collaborate instead of compete, which was a novel idea back then. If two heads were better than one, we reckoned that ten heads were better than two. So we organized our scientists and researchers into “dream teams” where they could share ideas and approaches and move science forward faster. Our work has been fruitful — we have raised over $800 million, and our research has contributed to several new FDA-approved drugs, like Keytruda. But I know very well that we have miles to go before we sleep and so much work to do when it comes to all kinds of diseases that take the lives of far too many Americans every year — often in the prime of their lives. So when the Trump administration started cutting our scientific infrastructure, it made me crazy. Clinical trials were stopped midstream, labs were abandoned, Ph.D. programs were dismantled, and talented scientists with potentially lifesaving ideas were left unfunded and dejected. In fact, many left their fields altogether or moved to countries where their work would be more valued and supported, financially and otherwise. That’s why, amid all the post-election analysis, I’ve been especially interested in what the midterms could mean for the future of American science. With Democrats winning both chambers of Congress, there’s finally an opportunity to push back against the Trump administration’s attacks on scientific research and public health. Will anything change now that a whole slew of new sheriffs is in town? My friend Dr. Jeremy Faust recently posed this question to a group of physicians, researchers, and health policy experts for his newsletter, Inside Medicine: What could the new Congress realistically accomplish with President Trump still in the White House? Jeremy asked me, too.
St. Louis Cardinals Center Field Target: Luis Robert Jr
We’re only 22 days away from the Owners locking out the Players in the major labor dispute that has loomed over the sport for the last 18 months. Chaim Bloom, newly minted GM Rob Cerfolio, and the St. Louis Cardinals front office have a very limited window to operate to improve the big league roster […]