President Trump’s April announcement of tariffs on nearly every US trading partner—from allies to an island populated only by penguins—declared a new world economic order. Trump wants the import duties to reduce trade imbalances and spur US manufacturing, but critics claim they’re an unnecessary tax on American businesses that drives up prices for consumers. Meanwhile, it’s up to the Supreme Court to decide if it was even legal for Trump to impose them. So far, the tariffs have brought a lot of volatility to the stock market, but they haven’t caused either an economic revival or a recession.

Last year, Elon Musk spent $250 million to help get President Trump elected and jumped into the air in excitement at a rally to support him. Both men got the outcome they wanted. After Trump took office in January, the two appeared super close—until they had a falling out. From Oval Office appearances to a Tesla plug on the White House lawn to Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the CEO was a fixture of the Washington scene in the early months of Trump’s presidency. But by mid-year, the pair were publicly feuding after Musk came out against the tax and spending overhaul the president pushed for. Despite threatening to create a new political party, Musk seems to have backed off from the fight, and there appears to be a truce, even if no one is calling it a bromance anymore.

The costliest wildfire on record raged through Southern California in January. The deadly and fast-spreading Pacific Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire burned down homes and forced 180,000 people to flee. Nearly a year later, rebuilding efforts remain ongoing, but the first new house in Pacific Palisades recently secured a certificate of occupancy—though it’s a showpiece for a developer rather than a home someone will be returning to.

Whatever Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expected when he came to Washington in February to meet with the leader of a country that had been supplying Ukraine with necessary weapons in its war with Russia, it probably wasn’t an angry tirade in front of television cameras. But that’s what happened when President Trump and Vice President Vance berated Zelensky, claiming he wasn’t grateful enough for the US’ help before cutting the visit short. Trump and Zelensky later patched things up, and Zelensky returned for a calmer visit in August—though tensions have occasionally flared up, including over the US’ recent push for a peace plan that would cede Ukrainian territory to Russia.

As the Trump administration has sought to fulfill the president’s campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration, ICE raids have become common—especially in cities with Democratic leadership. But protests against the raids have also proliferated, and President Trump has responded by sending National Guard Troops into US cities, including Los Angeles, Portland, OR, and Washington, DC. Lawsuits to block the troop deployments have had mixed success, although the Supreme Court issued a preliminary ruling last week refusing to allow them in the Chicago area.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place between Israel and Hamas since October—but each side has accused the other of violating it, and humanitarian concerns about the conditions in Gaza persist. In August, a UN-backed panel confirmed famine conditions existed. Israel allowed aid into Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal, and on December 19, the panel reported that famine conditions were no longer present—though it cautioned that 1.6 million Gazans still face profound food insecurity. A controversial aid group backed by Israel and the United States recently shut down after facing criticism that it put Palestinians needing food in danger as some aid seekers were killed trying to access its sites.

Charlie Kirk, who galvanized the conservative political youth movement with his organization Turning Point USA, was assassinated while speaking at a Utah college on September 10. In the wake of the shocking act of violence, many, including Vice President Vance, advocated that anyone perceived as celebrating Kirk’s death online should be identified and lose their job—an issue that boiled over when Disney temporarily suspended Jimmy Kimmel due to comments he made about the suspected shooter. At a memorial service, President Trump called the 31-year-old conservative activist “a martyr now for American freedom.” Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, has taken over his role as CEO of Turning Point.

Following the death of Pope Francis and a period during which people around the world anxiously watched the movie Conclave to get a sense of what was going on behind closed doors, Cardinal Robert Prevost, originally of Chicago and a citizen of Peru, was elected to be the new leader of the Catholic Church and took the name Pope Leo XIV. Leo is the first American to become pope, as well as the first Augustinian friar—and we can only assume the first White Sox fan.

The good news: The WNBA is more popular than ever. The league has scored record attendance and broadcast ratings for the past two years, and a new media rights deal will bring in ~$200 million per season. The bad news: The players don’t feel they’re getting a big enough share of the league’s success, and negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement have been contentious. Under their old agreement, which will remain in place until early January, WNBA players receive 9.3% of league revenue compared to the 50% that NBA players receive. WNBA players haven’t been shy about expressing their concerns, donning “pay us what you owe us” shirts before an All-Star game in July.

While Shrimp Jesus blessed social media feeds in 2024, 2025 was really the year AI image-making came into its own—getting past the strange hands and into the realm of hyperrealistic deepfakes. OpenAI’s AI video-maker, Sora, established itself at the top of app download charts, and the company struck a $1 billion deal to allow users to include beloved Disney animated characters in their creations. And it’s not just amateurs churning out AI videos: Coca-Cola doubled down with an AI-generated holiday ad that it promised was less creepy than an earlier effort. Meanwhile, the studio that made the controversial AI “actress” Tilly Norwood (pictured above) said she was taking meetings with talent agencies.

Despite wrapping up her Eras Tour at the end of last year, Taylor Swift continued to dominate pop culture this year, buying back her masters and releasing her twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl, and a documentary series about her experience on the tour. But the billionaire singer’s action that spawned the most squeals and think pieces was her dropping the photo above and confirming her engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Finding love has always been a theme in Swift’s oeuvre, and fans were thrilled to see her love story had a happy ending.