Everything is political, and always was - the difference now is the volume RTÉ bowing out of Eurovision this year feels less like a bold political gesture and more like an act of basic self-preservation. Because, really, what sane Irish performer would have put themselves forward anyway?
A new report argues the while increasing politicization of university governing boards has contributed to the erosion of academic freedom in recent years, boards also have the potential to adopt frameworks focused on protecting institutional autonomy. "Decisions that were once guided by academic standards and institutional autonomy have become arenas for political influence and ideological control. The consequences have been profound,"
On Friday, Judges Amber George, Jeremiah Johnson, Louis Gordon, Shuting Chen and Patrick Savage were fired from San Francisco's immigration court, which at the start of the year had more than 20 judges, according to Milli Atkinson, the director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program with the Bar Association of San Francisco.
But a pattern is becoming clear: Donald Trump is purging the higher ranks based on his prejudices and demands for loyalty; the military is being turned into a partisan instrument and a political prop; more dangerous still, the president is instilling the logic of impunity that has come to characterize his entire approach to governance. Figures deemed too close to Trump critics, such as general Mark Milley, have seen promotions delayed or canceled; those targeted by far-right influencers might face professional backlash.
The monkey jailbreak went viral: it was the day after the election, and the divided nation was eager for distraction. How did the macaques make it out? The escape quickly became politicized. In a new investigation, the New Yorker staff writer Ava Kofman reports from the small town of Yemassee, South Carolina, about the macaque mass exodus-which fuelled an unlikely alliance between animal-rights proponents and the MAGA movement.
According to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, about 724,000 youth ages 13-17 in the United States identify as transgender. This corresponds to approximately 3.3% of that age group, and these numbers are rising (Herman & Flores, 2025). Although a 3.3% prevalence rate among adolescents may not seem like a lot, the issue of youth transitioning has taken on an outsized role in American political discourse.
Previously, the routine would be we express our shock; we express our sadness; we offer our thoughts and prayers; we spend a day, maybe two, arguing about the appropriateness of bringing up guns at all; and then we do nothing until the next time. But as our politics becomes more polarized, even that learned cycle of helplessness has been replaced by a new, post-shooting pastime. That new pastime is, Was this one of yours?'
The decision comes two and a half months after President Donald Trump signed legislation sharply reducing food aid to the poor. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the tax and spending cuts bill Republicans muscled through Congress in July means 3 million people would not qualify for food stamps, also known as SNAP benefits. The decision to scrap the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Household Food Security Report was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk should have been a moment of pause. However one felt about the brash conservative provocateur and free speech advocate, his killing was shocking and sobering. The instinct in a healthy civic culture would be to stop, to grieve, to allow space for shock before the machinery of politics whirred back to life. That instinct has all but vanished. Instead, Kirk's death became instant fodder for partisanship.
Just after 6 p.m. last Wednesday, FBI director Kash Patel said on X that he was praying for the family of Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in Utah hours earlier. Many expected Patel to fly to the scene of the shooting to lead the hunt for the suspect who had killed his friend. Instead, he was reportedly seated at Rao's, the exclusive East Harlem Italian restaurant once favored by wiseguys.
The random and unprovoked killing of a young woman in North Carolina several weeks ago has become a viral video, a political football, and a powerful rightwing talking point even as the horror and anger her death has provoked obscures what experts say is a vital story about the failures of the American mental health system. The alleged perpetrator, Decarlos Brown Jr, 34, has a long history of problems with the law and mental health issues.
TJ Malone says for too long the rollout was a 'political football' A few short years ago, the National Broadband Plan (NBP) was one of the most fiercely debated news topics in the country. Arguments raged daily: did the country need it? Was the State's €2.6bn subsidy value for money? Was the right technology being used for it? Was the procurement process flawed?
It seems like lately, there's a new - and confounding - political melee surrounding a company branding decision every other week. One company sniffles, and someone declares it woke. Another coughs, and it's white supremacist. Just look at what happened with American Eagle and Cracker Barrel over the summer. Or a couple of years ago, when the green M&M got sneakers. The near-constant meltdowns over simple business moves are a sign of the times, though. Americans are seeing everything as politically coded, even when it's not.
She also "got 37 individuals'" security clearances revoked by National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard after the conspiracy theorist targeted them online, Warner said in a video posted to YouTube Wednesday evening. "When is the purge going to end? This is the kind of thing that happens in authoritarian regimes," Warner told reporters Thursday. "You purge your independent intelligence community and make them loyal not to a constitution but something else."
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has faced a lot of backlash recently. Once celebrated as a win-win solution that tackled systemic injustice and boosted business performance, DEI has become politicized and scrutinized within an inch of its life. As it was happening, those of us working to advance DEI didn't adjust as the ground shifted beneath our feet. DEI was recast as an anti-meritocratic overreach that prioritized identity over skills or qualifications.
