As 2025 ends, the media landscape stands as a mirror of a year marked by political upheaval, cultural flashpoints, and a rapid evolution in how Americans consume information.
From El Salvador to Russia, Iceland and Syria, women are pushing back against the rise of regressive forces. Let’s support their fight
Rahila Gupta is an anti-racist feminist activist and the co-author, with Beatrix Campbell, ofPlanet Patriarchy
In 2025, the world that had been opened up by women has often seemed to be closing in. The forces behind the rollback of abortion rights in Donald Trump’s US are attempting to do the same in the UK. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has doubled down on its attacks on women and girls. Sexual violence is commonplace in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Mexico, even the president is not safe from sexual assault. A perverse rewilding appears to be taking place.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that around the world, women’s rights are being concreted over. But in researching our book, Planet Patriarchy, Beatrix Campbell and I found women’s resistance erupting like green shoots through the cracks. In El Salvador, women can receive sentences of 30-50 years for miscarriages construed to be abortions. Yet feminists have managed to free all 72 women who had been imprisoned for this, using innovative penal and legal strategies. In Russia, feminists have taken to wearing blue and yellow ribbons, the colours of the Ukrainian flag, to signal their anti-war solidarity.
Rahila Gupta is an anti-racist feminist activist and the co-author, with Beatrix Campbell, ofPlanet Patriarchy
The US president and his allies spent 2025 attacking the Federal Reserve amid a rollercoaster year for the US economy
In the bowels of the US Federal Reserve this summer, two of the world’s most powerful men, sporting glistening white hard hats, stood before reporters looking like students forced to work together on a group project.
Allies of Donald Trump had spent weeks trying to manufacture a scandal around ongoing renovations of the central bank’s Washington headquarters and its costs. Now here was the US president, on a rare visit, examining the project for himself.
From the construction worker who won a place at medical school to an art exhibition in a country with no galleries, we asked journalists for their most optimistic tales of the year
Intensifying attacks on Ukraine’s Danube ports bring blasts, evacuations and fear of escalation to border communities
At the edge of Romania’s Danube delta on the border with Ukraine, in the village of Plauru, cows graze in flat, marshy fields. Houses with blue-painted roofs and window frames line a dirt track, many shuttered or abandoned.
Residents can see the cranes and silos of Izmail, a Ukrainian port city separated from Plauru by the 300 metre-width of the Danube River. By day the scene is deceptively calm. But sometimes, after dark, that calm dissolves.
British veteran Mervyn Kersh, 101, joins other World War II veterans questioning their service's value as he argues the United Kingdom has gone downhill since the war.
Reunification ‘is unstoppable’, says Chinese president, a day after the conclusion of intense military drills
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has vowed to reunify China and Taiwan in his annual New Year’s Eve speech in Beijing.
Speaking the day after the conclusion of intense Chinese military drills around Taiwan, Xi said: “The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable.”
Rafael Quero Silva faces a lawsuit brought by five people who say he oversaw their abuse and mistreatment as a military officer in Venezuela. But he could be deported before the case is heard.
Draft bill to be submitted for legal checks as France aims to follow Australia’s world-first ban on platforms including Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube
France intends to follow Australia and ban social media platforms for children from the start of the 2026 academic year.
A draft bill preventing under-15s from using social media will be submitted for legal checks and is expected to be debated in parliament early in the new year.
Liverpool head coach’s new full-backs have struggled
Slot expects improvement as squad and signings settle
Arne Slot has said Liverpool remain “a work in progress” in both full-back positions but backed Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez to make their mark as his team stabilise.
Slot admits Liverpool are still adjusting to the end of the Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson era with injuries and disruption limiting the impact of their designated successors, including Conor Bradley. Frimpong has improved since returning from his second hamstring injury of the season, however, and provided assists for Hugo Ekitiké and Ryan Gravenberch in the recent victories over Tottenhamand Wolves. Slot believes the summer signings Frimpong and Kerkez, from Bayer Leverkusen and Bournemouth respectively, will prove valuable assets for Liverpool, with their pace essential for the modern game.
President Donald Trump engaged Ukraine, Russian leaders throughout 2025 in unprecedented diplomatic push to end the war, including Alaska summit and Mar-a-Lago meetings.
The heartbroken mother of missing teen Camila Mendoza Olmos hauntingly uttered the same four words as officials recovered a body near the family's San Antonio home on Tuesday.
While GLP-1 drugs promise an easy fix, our bodies still need what they have always needed: healthy food and regular exercise
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
If there has been a hot topic in health in 2025, it’s definitely been GLP-1s, colloquially referred to as “anti-obesity” jabs. These medications, taken weekly as an injection into the abdomen, result in significant weight loss and, despite being developed to manage type 2 diabetes in those with metabolic disorders, have become mainstream in many countries as a treatment for obesity. Clinicians rave about the health outcomes in patients taking the medication, with study after study emerging on the health benefits of the associated weight loss in those who are obese. Celebrity endorsements, online sales and off-label use have seen them widely used by people of all ages and sizes who want to drop weight.
For the public health community, it’s an odd moment. For years, we’ve advocated for government action on obesity – not through new drugs, but by taking nutrition and food systems seriously. We’ve highlighted the need for government action on making nutritious food affordable, regulating ultra-processed foods, bringing in sugar taxes and banning advertising of unhealthy products to young people, alongside encouraging an increase in physical activity. The solutions are simple: get people to eat more nutritious food and move. The challenge has been implementation, especially in deprived areas.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
Fit Forever: Wellness for midlife and beyond
On Wednesday 28 January 2026, join Annie Kelly, Devi Sridhar, Joel Snape and Mariella Frostrup, as they discuss how to enjoy longer and healthier lives, with expert advice and practical tips. Book tickets here or at guardian.live
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