The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/category/politics)
A rarely used federal panel voted to exempt Gulf oil drilling from endangered species protections, drawing legal challenges and environmental concern. The decision coincides with new USDA efforts to streamline environmental review, signaling a broader shift in how protections are applied.
The Department of Education’s new guidance affirms protected religious expression in public schools, while raising questions about how neutrality, enforcement, and the absence of non-Abrahamic examples may shape its real-world application.
A now verified Pentagon memorandum circulating online suggests new scrutiny of religious grooming exemptions for service members, raising concerns among Pagan and Heathen practitioners and echoing tensions following earlier controversial “Nordic Pagan” remarks by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in 2025.
Spain’s King Felipe VI acknowledged that “much abuse” occurred during the Spanish conquest of the Americas, a rare public admission amid ongoing tensions with Mexico over demands that Spain formally recognize and apologize for colonial-era violence against Indigenous peoples.
Weekend Editor Eric O. Scott reviews the new exhibition at the St. Louis Art Museum, “Ancient Splendor: Roman Art in the Time of Trajan.”
“I have never kidded myself about Kansas,” writes Luke Babb. “There are parts of it I love, sure, in the way any kid loves the home where they grew up. But I was not yet out of high school before I knew that I was never going to come back.”
