Top 10 Biggest News Stories of 2025

Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025, becoming the first US president to win a non-consecutive second term since Grover Cleveland. His victory in the November 2024 election over Vice President Kamala Harris reshaped American domestic and foreign policy almost immediately. Within his first week, Trump signed executive orders reversing dozens of Biden-era policies on immigration, climate, and trade.

The Russia-Ukraine war entered its fourth year in February 2025, with front lines remaining largely frozen in eastern Ukraine. Western nations debated the scope of continued military aid as Ukraine reported over 700,000 combined casualties. Peace negotiations remained stalled, with Kyiv refusing to cede occupied territory and Moscow demanding a halt to NATO expansion.

In late 2024 and early 2025, a rapid rebel offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham ousted Bashar al-Assad, ending 54 years of Assad family rule in Syria. Assad fled to Moscow in December 2024, and transitional governance efforts began in early 2025. The collapse triggered a major regional diplomatic realignment involving Turkey, Iran, Israel, and Gulf states.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law on December 3, 2024, citing alleged anti-state activities by the opposition, only for the National Assembly to vote it down within six hours. Yoon was subsequently impeached by parliament and removed from office by the Constitutional Court in April 2025. The crisis was the most severe constitutional emergency in South Korea since the 1980s.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated sharply in mid-2025 following a series of militant attacks in the Kashmir region that New Delhi attributed to Pakistan-backed groups. Both nations conducted cross-border strikes in May 2025, marking the most serious military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed states in over two decades. International pressure from the US and China helped broker a fragile de-escalation.

The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, which erupted in April 2023, continued to devastate Sudan in 2025, producing what the UN declared the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Over 12 million people were internally displaced, with famine conditions spreading across Darfur and Kordofan. International aid access remained severely restricted throughout the year.

The WHO declared a second global health emergency over mpox in August 2024, and the outbreak continued to spread into 2025, particularly through Central and East Africa with a new, more transmissible clade Ib strain. Over 60 countries reported cases by mid-2025, prompting accelerated vaccination campaigns. The event renewed debate about global pandemic preparedness infrastructure after COVID-19.

Claudia Sheinbaum was inaugurated as Mexico's first female president on October 1, 2024, and in 2025 her administration became a major global story as she navigated a trade war with the US, rising cartel violence, and energy policy reform. Trump's tariff threats against Mexico in early 2025 placed Sheinbaum at the center of North American geopolitics. Her governance approach, blending science policy with social programs, drew international attention.

Following a mass student-led uprising in July-August 2024, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India, ending her 15-year rule. In 2025, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus led an interim government attempting to stabilize the country and draft a new constitutional framework. The transition attracted global scrutiny over democratic governance in South Asia.

Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025, becoming the first US president to win a non-consecutive second term since Grover Cleveland. His victory in the November 2024 election over Vice President Kamala Harris reshaped American domestic and foreign policy almost immediately. Within his first week, Trump signed executive orders reversing dozens of Biden-era policies on immigration, climate, and trade.

The Russia-Ukraine war entered its fourth year in February 2025, with front lines remaining largely frozen in eastern Ukraine. Western nations debated the scope of continued military aid as Ukraine reported over 700,000 combined casualties. Peace negotiations remained stalled, with Kyiv refusing to cede occupied territory and Moscow demanding a halt to NATO expansion.

In late 2024 and early 2025, a rapid rebel offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham ousted Bashar al-Assad, ending 54 years of Assad family rule in Syria. Assad fled to Moscow in December 2024, and transitional governance efforts began in early 2025. The collapse triggered a major regional diplomatic realignment involving Turkey, Iran, Israel, and Gulf states.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law on December 3, 2024, citing alleged anti-state activities by the opposition, only for the National Assembly to vote it down within six hours. Yoon was subsequently impeached by parliament and removed from office by the Constitutional Court in April 2025. The crisis was the most severe constitutional emergency in South Korea since the 1980s.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated sharply in mid-2025 following a series of militant attacks in the Kashmir region that New Delhi attributed to Pakistan-backed groups. Both nations conducted cross-border strikes in May 2025, marking the most serious military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed states in over two decades. International pressure from the US and China helped broker a fragile de-escalation.

The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, which erupted in April 2023, continued to devastate Sudan in 2025, producing what the UN declared the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Over 12 million people were internally displaced, with famine conditions spreading across Darfur and Kordofan. International aid access remained severely restricted throughout the year.

The WHO declared a second global health emergency over mpox in August 2024, and the outbreak continued to spread into 2025, particularly through Central and East Africa with a new, more transmissible clade Ib strain. Over 60 countries reported cases by mid-2025, prompting accelerated vaccination campaigns. The event renewed debate about global pandemic preparedness infrastructure after COVID-19.

Claudia Sheinbaum was inaugurated as Mexico's first female president on October 1, 2024, and in 2025 her administration became a major global story as she navigated a trade war with the US, rising cartel violence, and energy policy reform. Trump's tariff threats against Mexico in early 2025 placed Sheinbaum at the center of North American geopolitics. Her governance approach, blending science policy with social programs, drew international attention.

Following a mass student-led uprising in July-August 2024, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India, ending her 15-year rule. In 2025, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus led an interim government attempting to stabilize the country and draft a new constitutional framework. The transition attracted global scrutiny over democratic governance in South Asia.