We present a list of the ten most important events in the world in 2025, as selected by the Beta News Agency:
Trump’s dominance in global politics
Donald Trump’s return to the White House significantly reshaped global politics in 2025, and the change was strongly felt within the United States (U.S.) as well. Trump also shook the global economy by increasing tariffs on imports from almost all countries. He forced the European Union (EU) into an unfavourable trade agreement and NATO member states to raise defence spending to five percent of GDP. He restored diplomatic relations with Russia and adopted a confrontational stance toward Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he “lectured” while shouting at him in the White House. In exchange for continued support for Ukraine, he sought and obtained access to its strategic minerals. He invested considerable effort in ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, but has not yet succeeded, despite some progress. Trump’s second term was also marked by military engagement against Venezuela, for now limited to deadly strikes on dozens of ships, under accusations of attempting to smuggle drugs into the U.S. Within the U.S., Trump initiated mass deportations of illegal immigrants, dismantled parts of the federal government, including USAID, and continued sharp attacks on opponents and the media.
War and a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip
After more than two years of bloody war, a fragile ceasefire between the Palestinian Hamas and Israel came into effect in the Gaza Strip on October 10th, agreed under pressure from the U.S. The situation remains unstable, and the two sides periodically accuse each other of violating the ceasefire agreement. Since the ceasefire came into force, several thousand Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes, and more than 69.000 since the start of the war in October 2023. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been almost razed to the ground, remain in a very difficult situation, although the ceasefire has enabled increased deliveries of humanitarian aid. The ceasefire was preceded by Israel’s June attack on Iran, which escalated into a 12-day war, ended by U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. In September, Israel carried out another unprecedented attack on the capital of Qatar, targeting Hamas leadership that was negotiating a ceasefire in Doha.
The Russian-Ukrainian war
Despite diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, the conflict is approaching its fifth year. Ukraine and the U.S. revised the initial U.S. draft peace plan at the end of 2025, which was unacceptable to Kyiv and its European allies because it largely overlapped with Russia’s objectives. Kyiv announced that it was abandoning its intention to join NATO in exchange for security guarantees, but there is still no consensus on the key issue: who will control the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. Fierce fighting continued throughout 2025, in which Ukraine largely resisted the Russian invasion, with significant financial and military assistance from Western countries. Ukraine achieved certain successes, including a series of attacks on Russian oil facilities far from the front line and on Russian oil tankers.
Strengthening of the right in elections in Germany
After three and a half years in opposition, Germany’s Christian Democrats once again became the core governing party after winning the most votes in parliamentary elections marked by a sharp rise of the far right. In the snap elections held on February 23rd, following a vote of no confidence in the government of Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, first place was taken by the Christian Democratic bloc CDU-CSU with 28.4 percent of the vote. After lengthy negotiations, an agreement was reached on a so-called grand, black-red coalition of the Christian Democrats and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which recorded its worst result since 1945, at 16.3 percent. The leader of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, became chancellor. However, the biggest winner of the election was the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which, with 20.7 percent, more than doubled its 2021 result. Out of 630 Bundestag deputies, AfD holds a record 152 seats. Alongside the SPD, other members of the previous governing coalition also suffered heavy losses: the Greens fell to 11.5 percent, and the Liberals, with 4.3 percent, were left out of parliament.
Political turmoil in France
In France, 2025 saw the continuation of a political crisis unlike any the country has faced since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958. France entered a period of political instability after a parliament was elected in mid-2024 in which none of the three mutually opposed blocs, the centrist coalition of President Emmanuel Macron, the alliance of left-wing parties, and the far right, held a majority. Due to the divided parliament and aversion to coalition governments in France, Macron appointed as many as four minority governments since September 2024. Of these, the second government, led by Francois Bayrou, lasted the longest (although only nine months). Parliament passed a vote of no confidence in that government in September 2025 over a budget dispute, and Macron appointed his close associate Sebastien Lecornu as the new prime minister. However, Lecornu resigned after just 27 days (the shortest-serving government since 1958), due to threats from the far left and far right to bring him down, only for Macron to reappoint him as prime minister four days later.
Babis’s return to power in the Czech Republic
In the October elections, Czechs decisively returned to power the 71-year-old Andrej Babis, an ethnic Slovak, an agribusiness and chemical industry tycoon, and the seventh richest person in the Czech Republic. His populist party ANO formed a government in December with radical nationalists and Eurosceptics, but Babis’s first moves as prime minister dispelled fears that he would join the Orban-Fico duo in sabotaging EU decisions to assist Ukraine. Most of Babis’s bombastic promises fell through, including: “money only for Czechs, nothing for Ukrainians,” ending the Ammunition for Ukraine initiative, and abandoning the purchase of US F-35 aircraft. Babis’s actions point to moderate populism, combined with the entrenched practice of loud national rhetoric at home and a pragmatic, even transactional approach on the international stage, primarily within the EU, where his company Agrofert operates in 16 member states.
A new corruption scandal in the EU
At the end of 2025, the EU was shaken by another corruption scandal-the arrest of former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, which threatens to undermine the credibility and trust in EU institutions. Following police raids in the EU’s diplomatic wing in Brussels and at the elite university in Bruges, Mogherini was charged with corruption related to a training programme for young diplomats that the European External Action Service (EEAS) awarded to the College of Europe. Also charged alongside Mogherini was Stefano Sannino, head of the European Commission’s department for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf. Sannino, former head of the OSCE Mission in Yugoslavia (2001-2002), was secretary-general of the EEAS at the time the tender was issued. The two Italian diplomats were charged with procurement fraud, corruption, conflict of interest, and breach of professional secrecy. This could trigger a deeper crisis in the EU, given the high positions of the suspects and the seriousness of the charges, at a time when the judicial outcome of one of the EU’s largest corruption scandals-the 2022 “Qatargate” affair-is still pending, as well as the outcome of a new investigation into bribery and lobbying activities by China’s Huawei in the European Parliament.
The killing of Charlie Kirk in the U.S.
The killing of U.S. right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, contributed to further polarisation in the U.S. and triggered numerous reactions worldwide, including condemnations of political violence as well as gloating over his death. The influential 31-year-old conservative, known for promoting far-right ideas and numerous controversial views, was killed on 10 September while addressing young people on a university campus in Utah. The murder was attributed to 22-year-old Tyler James Robinson, who, according to his mother, had adopted left-wing ideas and advocated for transgender rights. Kirk, who amassed a large following through social media and tours of university campuses, is considered to have played a key role in mobilising young voters in Trump’s favour in 2024. Trump posthumously awarded Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom and called for a crackdown on “political extremism on the left.”
Change at the helm of the Vatican
In 2025, the Roman Catholic Church gained a new leader, Leo XIV, who is expected to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Pope Francis. Leo XIV, whose secular name is Robert Francis Prevost, is the first pope born in the U.S. He assumed leadership of the Vatican on May 8th, when white smoke appeared from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel-a sign that a pope had been elected-after the third round of voting at a short conclave of cardinals that lasted less than 24 hours. The smiling and discreet 69-year-old Chicago native, who spent 20 years as a missionary in Peru, was regarded as one of the moderate cardinals. After becoming the 267th pope, he also made certain concessions to conservative circles within the Church. He was elected following the death of Pope Francis at the age of 89 on Easter Monday. The first Latin American pope, who captivated the world with his modest style and care for the poor, died less than 24 hours after his last appearance in St Peter’s Square on Easter, when he sat in a wheelchair, visibly weakened after five weeks spent in hospital.
The Louvre museum robbery
The robbery of the famous Paris Louvre museum on October 19th was described as spectacular, as it was carried out in less than eight minutes in broad daylight without anyone noticing the thieves. They chose Sunday morning for the heist. Several men, disguised as construction workers, entered the museum around 9:30 a.m. by using a truck equipped with a lift, such as those used by moving companies, to reach a first-floor balcony, where they cut a hole in a window with a cutter. In the Apollo Gallery, they focused on two display cases from which they stole eight pieces of jewellery, valued at an estimated 88 million euros. Among the stolen items were jewels that had belonged to French royal and imperial families. As they fled on scooters, they dropped the crown of Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, which was later found damaged near the museum. Eight people were arrested in connection with the robbery, but the stolen jewellery was not recovered. After the robbery-the first at the Louvre since 1998-the museum transferred some of its most valuable jewels to the Bank of France.
