This past weekend, some of the brightest stars in the conservative sky descended on Phoenix, Arizona, for Turning Point USA’s “Americafest 2025” conference, which quickly shed its veneer of camaraderie to expose deep fracture lines threatening the ultranationalist group. Across four days of dueling speeches, TPUSA’s first major event since the shooting death of co-founder Charlie Kirk became a microcosm of the broader forces jockeying for MAGA power and influence nationwide.

‘Grifters’ and ‘charlatans’ 
Although its annual conferences have been “long billed as a show of unity for young conservatives,” this year’s event was a “public airing of deepening fractures inside the MAGA movement,” said Salon. While “clashes over Israel, antisemitism and leadership” dominated the weekend, Kirk’s death and the “absence of a clear successor loomed large” as tributes “veered into ideological disputes, particularly over foreign policy and the influence of far-right figures within the movement.” 

Conservative broadcaster Ben Shapiro used his address to lash out at “grifters and charlatans” who he claimed were “guilty of misleading their audiences with falsehoods and conspiracy theories,” said CNN. He took particular aim at former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for interviewing avowed antisemite Nick Fuentes in what Shapiro said was an “act of moral imbecility.” 

Carlson returned fire during his speech, calling Shapiro’s attempt at “deplatforming and denouncing people” at a TPUSA event “hilarious,” said CNN. He then “downplayed the problem of anti-Jewish hate,” said the Times of Israel, in part by framing antisemitism as “less pervasive than bias against white men.” Speaking Sunday evening, Vice President JD Vance conspicuously declined to condemn the “streak of antisemitism that has divided the Republican Party,” said The Associated Press. 

All eyes on 2028
The schisms exposed over the weekend “laid bare” the challenge for any conservative hoping to succeed President Donald Trump atop the MAGA movement: how to address the “explosive debate” over whether conspiracy theorists and extremists should be “embraced or excluded from the conservative coalition,” said The New York Times. In Vance’s remarks, delivered after Kirk’s widow and current TPUSA CEO Erika endorsed him for 2028, the vice president signaled he was “more than willing to forgo imposing any moral red lines.” 

Some people may be dreaming of a white Christmas when they wake up on Thursday, but for many parts of the world, climate change could make this a rare event. And snowfall is not the only part of the holiday that could be impacted by extreme weather patterns.

How is holiday weather changing?
Climate change is “causing temperatures to rise across the country, and it’s impacting precipitation patterns,” said Time. In the last 75 years, temperatures in December have “warmed three to five degrees” nationwide, David Robinson, a New Jersey climatologist and Rutgers University professor, said to Time.

This small change in the global temperature “could mean the difference between snow and rain” on Christmas Day, said Time. And this pattern has already been seen for years. From 2003 to 2024, the “average Christmas morning snow cover blanketed just 36% of the contiguous U.S. states,” according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data cited by Time, though this also factors in areas of the country like southern California, where it rarely snows.

What else is impacted?
While the drive to the store for Christmas gifts may not be covered in snow, once shoppers arrive, they may be disappointed. Many of the “most lucrative Christmas commodities are grown” in areas transformed by climate change, said Mother Jones. In African countries over the past few years, plummeting cacao yields altered the production of cocoa, which goes into “all sorts of holiday classics, from yule log cakes to marshmallow-topped cocoa.” 

People’s Christmas trees may look different in future years too, as “modern-day circumstances are slowly transforming the tree-farming industry,” said CBC News. And not even classic Christmas characters like Rudolph will be able to avoid the changing climate. Global warming could cause a 50% decline in the global reindeer population by the end of the 21st century, according to a study in the journal Science. Population decline could be particularly bad in North America, where “projected losses are expected to exceed 80%.” 

A Moscow Investigative Committee expert examines the wreckage of a car bombing that killed a top general this morning. Ukraine may be behind the attack on Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, the third such killing of a senior Russian military officer in a year, according to officials.
Sefa Karacan / Anadolu / Getty Images

From this vantage point, it’s impossible to know how this year will be remembered. But it certainly seems like the very interesting times everyone is living through are reflected in a crop of films that tackle themes of democracy, rebellion, autocracy and madness.

‘A House of Dynamite’
In director Kathryn Bigelow’s unsettling “A House of Dynamite” (pictured above), an unattributed ballistic missile launch from the Pacific heads toward Chicago. Despite an ambiguous ending that may frustrate some viewers, “A House of Dynamite” is a “movie of our time, worth watching, mulling, debating and asking officials why they are doing so little about everything,” said Fred Kaplan at Slate. (Netflix)

‘It Was Just an Accident’
Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi) is traveling with his family when their car breaks down outside a factory after workers strike and kill a dog. One of the employees, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), believes the driver of the car is his torturer from years ago. Director Jafar Panahi explores questions about “prisons — the ones time and memory make for us — and the hard-to-find psychological keys that will release us,” said Robert Daniels at Roger Ebert. (in theaters now)

‘Sorry, Baby’
Released during an ongoing national backlash to the “Me Too” movement, director Eva Victor’s intimate drama looks at the long aftermath of sexual violence through the eyes of one sardonic survivor. Centered around the “sort of multifaceted, beautifully drawn-out protagonist you rarely see in movies,” Victor’s film is a “truly astounding work of art, from start to finish,” said David Fear at Rolling Stone. (HBO Max)