Vivian Chenxue Lu

Also, now this piece is out, I can finally publically say that the Editor-in-Chief of Time Magazine personally BLOCKED this piece in Feb, right after Musk's ascent to DOGE, despite MONTHS of edit/legal review rounds. Shame on @sampjacobs @TIME! slate.com/news-and-polit…

The rate of sepsis in Houston surged 63% after Texas banned abortion. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where hospital leaders empowered doctors to intervene before patients’ conditions worsened, it rose 29%. propublica.org/article/texas-…

Houston City Council approved a proposal from three city council members limiting Houston police officers’ cooperation with ICE agents on Wednesday, with Mayor John Whitmire in support. houstonchronicle.com/politics/houst…

BREAKING: In response to huge cuts in Trump's budget request, NSF is closing its social sciences directorate. Staff will be transferred elsewhere in NSF, and "grants that align with Administration priorities" will be kept. W/ @dangaristo for @Nature nature.com/articles/d4158…

In the past 30 days, Idris Robinson, a philosopher at Texas State University, Shirin Saeidi, a political scientist at the University of Arkansas, and Aris Fani, a scholar of Persian Studies at the University of Washington, have all been fired for speaking about the wars.

Texas is cutting undocumented immigrants off from school, work and driving. The sweeping rule changes, all enacted outside the typical legislative process, have upended life for noncitizens, including those who are here legally. texastribune.org/2026/04/02/tex…

Texas AAUP Conference President Brian Evans on the external and internal attacks on higher education we are currently facing in Texas. Faculty need the freedom to teach so that students can have the freedom to learn! ✊📢👏 youtube.com/shorts/bZZCyEN…

TEXAS NEWS: A documentary about Florida’s conservative takeover of New College provides eerie parallels to what's happening at UT Austin and Texas A&M, and offers insight into what could be next for the flagship programs. Read full review of “First They Came for My College” 👇

As bombs sink metallic toxins into the earth and destroyed oil refineries send chemicals into the air, coating whole cities, we are thinking of the many harms caused by war's environmental violence as well as its military force. We've been here before: culanth.org/fieldsights/se…

"From public syllabi to surveillance, universities across the country are embracing unprecedented policies that professors say are undermining their academic freedom. And North Carolina is front and center." wunc.org/podcast/the-br… | @wunc

Removed titles include “Heartstopper” by Alice Oseman; “Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen” by Jazz Jennings; and multiple titles focused on LGBTQ+ history and rights. bit.ly/4qX9tb0

The UT system populating is nearly 46% Latino. Calling the histories, literatures, and political realities of these communities “controversial” is not about neutrality. It is about deciding whose knowledge is expendable. texasobserver.org/ut-system-new-…

We obtained the Dilley detention center’s 911 call logs. Among them are pleas for help for toddlers having trouble breathing, a pregnant woman who passed out and an elementary-school-aged girl having seizures. propublica.org/article/life-i…

The Trump administration has issued a sweeping new order that could lead to the arrest of tens of thousands of refugees who are lawfully in the United States but do not yet have permanent residency, overturning years of legal and immigration safeguards. to.pbs.org/3OQZCG1

The UT System has voted to limit "controversial topics" in class, as the state moves to exert more control over what is taught by professors. kut.org/education/2026…

Texas has the most ICE centers and detainees, and is the “blueprint and the epicenter” of immigration enforcement in the country. It’s “where immigration enforcement begins, where it ends, and sometimes, where it does both.” graphic by @ApurvaMahajan_

Less than two years ago, Texas Tech University suspended me for speaking out against genocide. Today I found out I was denied tenure.

Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped. - reuters.com/legal/governme…

In December, ICE detained 18-year-old HISD student and soccer captain Mauro Henriquez. In October, ICE detained 16-year-old Arnoldo Bazan and his father while driving to school. If HISD students tell you they fear coming to school, it is because ICE has given them reason to. We must protect our children at school. That's one of the things congressional Democrats are fighting to do. And we have more than a tweet to rely on.

“The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its efforts to identify Americans who oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement by sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency.” nytimes.com/2026/02/13/tec…

Currently incarcerated writer Kwaneta Harris gives a firsthand account of the harrowing experience she and her fellow inmates face while living through record high extreme heat waves in Texas’ non-air conditioned prisons. scalawagmagazine.org/2024/04/extrem…