The old year has just passed, so, in an effort to reflect on all that happened in the eventful year of 2025, here are the stories that you, our readers, have found the most compelling based on the amount of traffic they received. We hope you enjoy our compilation, and Happy New Year to everyone!
All three major US stock indices—the Dow Jones, the S&P 500, and the NASDAQ Composite—returned more this year, with President Trump back in office, than their respective average annual gains in the four years under President Joe Biden. The primary stock index Dow Jones is up 14.32 per cent year-to-date, with two more trading days left on the calendar.
2025 is likely to be remembered as the year the post–Cold War order finally collapsed. From Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his America First diplomacy to the erosion of liberal institutions, trade realignment and the retreat of woke ideology, the foundations of a multipolar world have decisively taken shape.
The Game Awards reached a new milestone in 2025, drawing a record 171 million global livestreams and confirming its status as the world’s most-watched video game event. Viewership rose sharply across platforms, driven by co-streaming, global distribution and major premieres.
‘It isn’t easy to find proper intellectual work here. We talked with the Hungarian ambassador about work possibilities, and it came up that there were more and more Hungarian children in Tokyo, so perhaps I could try founding a Hungarian weekend school—there might be interest.’
‘The leaders of the most successful small or medium-sized countries tend to be acutely aware of the dexterity required to maintain security…it seems very unlikely that they and others like them will get lost in their own imagination or succumb to the self-fulfilling fatalism of the postmodernist cosmopolitan mind that gave birth to the “end of history”, the “rules-based liberal international order”, and all the rest of that dangerous nonsense.’
‘The comical mercy the victorious mice show the cats makes Cat City the perfect watch with children this Christmas.’
Black Friday bargains largely failed to materialize for PC buyers this year, as soaring component prices pushed computer costs sharply higher. Memory modules in particular surged, adding up to 10–20 per cent to final prices and threatening further increases across electronics.
Spain’s regional election in Extremadura has delivered a major breakthrough for Vox, which doubled its seats and entrenched itself as a decisive force in a former Socialist stronghold. The surge benefits a close political ally of Viktor Orbán and underscores the expanding reach of the Patriots for Europe alliance within national and regional politics.
A shocking assault on a 75-year-old Jeanette Marken in Seattle has reignited accusations of selective silence in Western mainstream media. Footage shows a known career criminal brutally attacking the victim, yet major outlets have largely avoided coverage, prompting comparisons to earlier cases where politically inconvenient crimes were downplayed or ignored.