We are pleased to present the first issue of 2025 with four new original articles and a country report from the Czech Republic. Less pleasing is the societal development where political, social and economic structures – and democracy itself – are being questioned by populist movements and leaders. Naturally, such upheavals in general society have consequences for Academia. In mid-March, the JSSE was informed by the US Department of Education that the current administration and the Musk-led “DOGE” are – in an attempt to reduce government spending – slashing funding for the database ERIC, where educational research from all over the world is being indexed and made available for researchers and teachers. In their budget cuts, ERIC will now stop indexing many journals, and the JSSE is among them. We are probably only at the beginning of the process where US research will become increasingly pressured to follow governmental guidelines that please the current administration.