Trump’s second term and the global trade war
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — Second presidency of Donald Trump (freely licensed)
Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second term as US president on 20 January 2025 and moved quickly to reshape the federal government and global trade.
A new Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, oversaw sweeping cuts to the federal workforce and the dismantling of agencies, including the foreign-aid body USAID.
The administration launched a large-scale immigration crackdown and ramped up deportations.
On 2 April, a day Trump called “Liberation Day,” he announced sweeping tariffs — a baseline of 10% on nearly all imports, plus higher “reciprocal” rates on dozens of countries.
The announcement triggered the largest global stock-market slump since 2020, though many of the tariffs were later paused or negotiated down, and US courts ruled that Trump had exceeded his authority in imposing them.
Musk and Trump had a public falling-out in the middle of the year, ending their high-profile alliance.
Gaza is declared a genocide
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — Gaza genocide (freely licensed)
The war in Gaza ground into a third year, before ending in a ceasefire.
On 16 September 2025, a UN commission of inquiry chaired by the former judge Navi Pillay concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza — the most authoritative UN finding of its kind — determining that four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention had been carried out, and citing statements by senior Israeli officials as evidence of intent.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars had passed a similar resolution in August, and Amnesty International had reached the same conclusion in December 2024; Israel rejected all such findings as false.
By the time of the ceasefire, more than 67,000 Palestinians had been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry, including around 20,000 children, with thousands more believed buried under the rubble; some researchers suggested the true toll was higher.
UN satellite analysis found that roughly 80% of all buildings in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed — well over 100,000 structures flattened — leaving tens of millions of tonnes of debris, and a famine was declared in Gaza City.
After Trump unveiled a 20-point peace plan in late September, Israel’s cabinet approved a ceasefire that took effect around 10 October.
All 20 living Israeli hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and some 1,700 detainees from Gaza, and the remains of deceased hostages were exchanged as Israeli forces partially withdrew.
The DeepSeek shock
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — DeepSeek (freely licensed)
In January 2025, a little-known Chinese startup called DeepSeek released an artificial-intelligence model, R1, that matched the performance of leading US systems at a fraction of the cost.
The news that a competitive AI model could be built so cheaply upended the assumption that the United States held a commanding lead over China.
On 27 January, it triggered a massive sell-off in technology shares. The chipmaker Nvidia lost close to $600 billion in market value in a single day — the largest one-day loss for any company in history.
The DeepSeek app shot to the top of app-store charts around the world. One prominent investor called it “AI’s Sputnik moment.”
The Los Angeles wildfires
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — January 2025 Southern California wildfires (freely licensed)
Wind-driven wildfires tore through the Los Angeles area in January 2025, among the most destructive in California’s history.
The two largest, the Palisades and Eaton fires, broke out on 7 January, fuelled by drought and unusually fierce Santa Ana winds.
The Palisades Fire reduced much of the coastal community of Pacific Palisades to ash, while the Eaton Fire devastated Altadena, near Pasadena.
Around 30 people were killed and more than 180,000 were forced to evacuate. Over 16,000 homes, businesses, and other structures were destroyed.
Early estimates put the total economic losses in the hundreds of billions of dollars, ranking the disaster among the costliest in US history.
Ukraine and a fracturing alliance
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — Russian invasion of Ukraine (freely licensed)
The war in Ukraine continued into its fourth year, but the sharpest shift came in Washington’s stance.
On 28 February 2025, an extraordinary televised meeting in the Oval Office between Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky descended into an open argument.
Trump accused Zelensky of ingratitude and of “gambling with World War III,” and warned that the US would pull its support unless Ukraine agreed to a deal.
A planned agreement giving the US access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth was left unsigned, and Zelensky left the White House early.
The United States briefly paused military aid and intelligence-sharing with Ukraine in the aftermath. Trump pressed for a ceasefire throughout the year, but the fighting ground on.
The Myanmar earthquake
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — 2025 Myanmar earthquake (freely licensed)
On 28 March 2025, a magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck central Myanmar, near the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay.
The quake, which ruptured along the Sagaing Fault, was shallow and violent, and was followed minutes later by a strong aftershock.
It devastated Mandalay and the Sagaing region, collapsing homes, monasteries, hospitals, and schools.
The shaking was felt hundreds of miles away in Bangkok, Thailand, where an under-construction high-rise collapsed, killing dozens. The death toll climbed to more than 3,700, with thousands more injured.
The relief effort was severely hampered by Myanmar’s ongoing civil war, which had gripped the country since a 2021 military coup.
India and Pakistan clash
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — 2025 India–Pakistan conflict (freely licensed)
Tensions between India and Pakistan flared into their most serious military confrontation in years.
On 22 April 2025, militants killed 26 civilians, most of them tourists, in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Blaming Pakistan-based groups, India launched Operation Sindoor on 7 May, striking nine sites it described as terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The two nuclear-armed neighbours then exchanged missiles, drones, and artillery fire over roughly four days, with each claiming to have struck the other’s airbases.
A ceasefire understanding was reached on 10 May. It was the most dangerous escalation between the two countries in decades.
The death of Pope Francis and a new pope
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — Pope Leo XIV (freely licensed)
The Catholic Church saw the death of one pope and the election of another within the space of weeks.
Pope Francis, the first pope from Latin America, died on 21 April 2025 at the age of 88, a day after delivering his traditional Easter blessing.
Around a quarter of a million people paid their respects before he was buried, at his own request, at the basilica of St Mary Major rather than in St Peter’s.
On 8 May, a conclave of 133 cardinals elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV. Chicago-born, he became the first pope from the United States in the Church’s history.
He had spent many years as a missionary and bishop in Peru, and also held Peruvian citizenship.
The Israel-Iran “12-day war”
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — Iran–Israel war (freely licensed)
In June 2025, a long shadow conflict between Israel and Iran erupted into open war.
On 13 June, Israel launched a surprise air campaign, code-named Operation Rising Lion, striking Iranian nuclear sites and military targets and killing top commanders — including the head of the Revolutionary Guard and the armed forces’ chief of staff — along with several nuclear scientists.
Iran retaliated with waves of ballistic missiles and drones, some of which penetrated Israeli air defences.
On 22 June, the United States joined the attack, striking three Iranian nuclear sites — Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — with B-2 bombers dropping massive “bunker-buster” bombs, the first US strikes ever on Iran’s nuclear programme.
President Trump claimed the sites had been “totally destroyed,” though later intelligence assessments of the damage varied.
Iran fired missiles at a US airbase in Qatar, warning of the attack in advance so that it caused no casualties, and a US-brokered ceasefire brought the “12-day war” to an end on 24 June.
The Air India crash
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — Air India Flight 171 (freely licensed)
On 12 June 2025, an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad, in western India.
Flight 171, bound for London Gatwick, lost height moments after leaving the runway and, following a brief mayday call, crashed into a medical college hostel and exploded.
Of the 242 people on board, 241 were killed; the sole survivor was a British passenger who escaped through an emergency exit.
Around 19 or more people on the ground were also killed. The victims included Indian, British, Portuguese, and Canadian nationals.
It was one of the deadliest aviation disasters in years, and early analysis pointed to a sudden loss of engine thrust just after takeoff.
The Texas floods
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — 2025 Central Texas floods (freely licensed)
Over the Fourth of July holiday weekend in 2025, catastrophic flash flooding struck the Texas Hill Country.
Torrential overnight rain sent the Guadalupe River surging some 26 feet in under an hour, sweeping away homes, vehicles, and campsites across Kerr County.
Among the hardest hit was Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp on the riverbank, where many young campers and counsellors were killed.
The disaster claimed more than 130 lives, making it one of the deadliest floods in the state’s history. Scores of people were reported missing for days as search teams combed through mud and debris.
Questions were raised afterward about whether flood warnings had reached people in time.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons — Assassination of Charlie Kirk (freely licensed)
On 10 September 2025, the American conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Kirk, 31, was the co-founder of Turning Point USA, a major conservative youth organisation, and a prominent ally of President Trump.
He was shot once from a nearby rooftop as he addressed a crowd of around 3,000 people at an outdoor event. Utah’s governor called the killing “a political assassination.”
A suspect, Tyler Robinson, was arrested days later and charged with murder. A memorial service for Kirk drew a crowd of more than 100,000 people in Arizona later that month.