2025


The year saw an escalation of major ongoing armed conflicts, including the Gaza war, marked by famine and a humanitarian crisis; the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which prompted peace negotiations involving Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump; and the Sudanese civil war.
Internal crises in Armenia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, France, Georgia, Germany, Haiti, Libya, Pakistan, Peru, Somalia, and South Korea persisted into the year, with the latter culminating in the arrest and removal of President Yoon Suk Yeol from office.
The year also witnessed a wave of protests predominantly led by the younger generation, with some movements—such as those in Nepal and Madagascar—resulting in the overthrow of targeted governments. Several brief conflicts arising from longstanding tensions emerged mid-year, including clashes between India and Pakistan in May, Iran and Israel in June, and Cambodia and Thailand in July. In the latter case, a leaked phone call involving Thai prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Cambodian senate president Hun Sen resulted in the removal of the former from office.
In economics and business, the return of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency ushered in a series of tariffs imposed by the United States on the rest of the world, significantly disrupting global trade and reinvigorating the China–United States trade war. The technology sector was also affected by the release of the DeepSeek chatbot, a Chinese large language model that competed with ChatGPT.
Aviation and aerospace experienced several accidents during the year, including a collision between two aircraft half a mile south of Washington National Airport in January, and the crash of Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787 bound for Gatwick, in Ahmedabad, India, in June. The year also saw notable advances in space exploration, including the first crewed polar-orbit spaceflight and the first fully successful lunar landing by a private company.

Events

January