On September 10, Kirk was addressing an audience at an outdoor event at Utah State University when he was killed by a single rifle shot to the neck. A 22-year-old suspect was arrested on September 12, having been convinced to turn himself in by his father. At the time of writing, the motive remains unknown. The killing triggered widespread bipartisan condemnation and international messages of condolences. Multiple high-ranking officials in the US government vowed to punish people who celebrated Kirk's death or otherwise disparaged his legacy. Most prominently, Matthew Dowd, an analyst for MSNBC, was fired after he commented on-air that Kirk was "one of the most divisive [...] younger figures [...] hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions", and Jimmy Kimmel had his show suspended for a week for a monologue commenting about Trump and his supporters' reaction to the murder.

In a way, this increase in views may be due to an even greater amount of normalization. So many people are now using AI that a significant number of people are typing “ChatGPT” into a browser and accidentally clicking on the Wikipedia page instead of the chatbot itself. This has happened before. The Wikipedia page for Facebook, formerly the dominant social media platform, featured on the annual Top 50 report every year from 2008 to 2018.

Next year, the views could go up again, as even more people use AI for every question that comes to mind. Those views could decrease if ChatGPT loses popularity to another AI brand. Its current popularity is mostly due to it being the first widely available chatbot, so if something comes out in 2026 with more features it might take over the market. When asked for its thoughts, ChatGPT predicted 32,047,182 views next year.

More tangentially, Leo XIV's ascension to the Vatican "throne" marks one of five times this decade, and the first of three times in 2025 alone, a European monarchy has seen a change in leadership. (Contrary to some perceptions, a monarchy is simply a country where a head of state governs for life. This ruler need not be a member of a royal family.) In chronological order, the other instances were:

1. On September 8, 2022, the death of Elizabeth II occurred. Elizabeth was succeeded by her eldest son, Charles III.
   1. For those interested in Top 25/50 Report history, Elizabeth was #5 in the 2022 report, and Charles was #8. And this was how her death unfolded on Wikipedia.
2. On January 14, 2024, the abdication of Margrethe II, Queen of Denmark, occurred. Margrethe was also succeeded by her eldest son, King Frederik X.
3. On May 31, 2025, Joan Enric Vives i Sicília's "reign" as Bishop of Urgell, and by extension Co-Prince of Andorra, ended. His successor: Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat (who #12 appointed as Bishop of Urgell).
4. On October 3, 2025, the abdication of Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, occurred. Henri was also succeeded by his eldest son, Guillaume V, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (who received congratulations from Leo XIV himself).

As an aside, despite identifying as a democratic socialist, not all socialists are pleased with Mamdani. For example, see this article by the World Socialist Web Site, of the Trotskyist variety.

John Michael Osbourne helped create heavy metal music as the singer of Black Sabbath and followed that with an equally successful solo career and all sorts of endeavours, including showcasing the peculiarities of his family in the reality show The Osbournes. It was a downright miracle that he survived for decades taking every drug in existence (scientists even analyzed his genome and found mutations that allowed him to process substances easier!), but eventually Parkinson's disease and various injuries slowed him down, to the point he decided to call his retirement through a massive charity concert in his native Birmingham that had all sorts of rock stars playing before it closed on an Ozzy set and then one with a reunited Sabbath, with him in a throne to show the Prince of Darkness hadn't lost his majesty even if he could no longer walk. Ozzy's goodbye from stages turned out to be very timely, as 17 days later he died at 76, leaving behind an extensive body of work (counting just studio albums, 7 with Sabbath and 13 solo!), 6 children and many grandchildren.

When he was elected Pope at the age of 76, he was seen to be in relatively good health. Over the last few years of his life, he suffered from respiratory infections, leading to hospital stays in March 2023 and February 2025. His last public appearance was to give his Easter Sunday address at St. Peter’s Square before passing away in the morning of Easter Monday.

He appointed 163 new cardinals from 76 countries, including 25 countries that had never previously had a cardinal. The 110 of these cardinals under the age of 80 made up over 75% of the voters at the 2025 conclave where they elected Robert Francis Prevost, who had been appointed cardinal by Francis in 2023. Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV (#6), has been seen as having broadly similar views to Francis.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act was eventually passed in November, becoming widely criticised due to extensive redactions in the documents. Epstein’s connections also continued to have repercussions abroad. His friendship with the British Prince Andrew led to Andrew being stripped of his royal styles in October, renewing public discussions about the former Prince's status within the royal family. The British Ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson was also removed from his position following new information on his association with Epstein. Together, these new developments in the deeper controversy surrounding Epstein illustrate his continued shadow over Western political discourse well into the 2020s.

To avoid repeating more information in the article, I present you with the tallest completed buildings in each host country, ranked from tallest to shortest:

1. United States: One World Trade Center (541 meters/1,776 feet) in New York City (governed by #7)
2. Mexico: T.OP Tower 1 (305 meters/1,002 feet) in Monterrey
3. Canada: First Canadian Place (298 meters/978 feet) in Toronto

The main cast includes: Ranveer Singh as Hamza Ali Mazari (which is revealed as an undercover alias of Jaskirat Singh Rangi); Akshaye Khanna as Rehman Dakait, leader of the Baloch Gang and founder of the People's Aman Committee; R. Madhavan as Ajay Sanyal, Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) (based on Ajit Doval); Sanjay Dutt as Superintendent Chaudhary Aslam Khan of Lyari Task Force, Sindh Police; Arjun Rampal as Major Iqbal of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) (based on Ilyas Kashmiri); Sara Arjun as Yalina Jamali, Jameel's daughter and Hamza's love interest; Rakesh Bedi as Jameel Jamali, a senior politician from Pakistan Awami Party (PAP) and a Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan (based on Nabil Gabol); along with Naveen Kaushik as Donga, Rehman's right-hand-man; Manav Gohil as Sushant Bansal, Deputy Director of IB; Danish Pandor as Uzair Baloch, Rehman's cousin and second-in-command of Baloch Gang; Gaurav Gera as Mohammad Aalam, IB agent in Lyari; Raj Zutshi as General Shamshad Hassan; and Saumya Tandon as Ulfat Hasin, Rehman's wife, Uzair's sister-in-law and Babu's daughter-in-law.

As of 2026, the film has grossed over has grossed ₹1,143 crore (US$140 million) becoming only the 9th Indian film to cross the ₹1,000 crore (US$120 million) mark and currently ranks as the highest grossing Indian film of 2025, 3rd highest grossing Hindi film of all time, and 7th highest grossing Indian film of all time (#47). This commercial success has set high bars of hope for its direct sequel set to be released in March 2026. Also another interesting fact, the film was banned in Gulf Cooperation Council countries due to its anti-Pakistani theme, but it reportedly received 2 million pirated digital downloads in Pakistan alone, where all Indian films have been banned since 2019.

But let's take a look at some of the bigger news stories around Ronaldo from this year. By far the biggest story was when he helped Portugal claim their second UEFA Nations League. Ronaldo scored the most goals (8) throughout the tournament, including in the quarter final, semi final and final.

Other key events in Ronaldo's year included: winning the 2024–25 Saudi Pro League golden boot, a three-month ban and one-year probation for elbowing a player in the back, and confirmation that he will play in his sixth FIFA World Cup, but will retire within the next two years.

As for those other endeavors, the MrBeast team has been very busy over the past year. Filmed last year and airing at the beginning of this year, he collaborated with Amazon to put on Beast Games, the largest reality show ever, featuring 1000 contestants and a $10 million grand prize, with another $15 million going to other contestants. Despite the scale, it received mostly negative reviews from critics, and production was marred with allegations of poor treatment of contestants, resulting in a currently ongoing lawsuit. Late in the year, he created a temporary amusement park in Saudi Arabia, a country known for using flashy events to distract from its human rights record. Despite these controversies, the MrBeast brand continues to grow. The YouTube channel is likely to hit half a billion subscribers next year, and Beast Games has already filmed its second season, with a third on the way.

The film's soundtrack achieved similar success as well: highest debut on the Billboard 200 chart for 2025 soundtracks at 8th, highest-charting animated film's soundtrack album on the chart since Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and first Netflix soundtrack to reach number one on the Top Soundtracks since Stranger Things 4. The fictional in-film K-pop groups Huntrix and the Saja Boys – with "Golden" and "Your Idol" respectively – topped the US Spotify chart with Huntrix becoming the highest-charting female K-pop group surpassing Blackpink, and the Saja Boys becoming the highest charting male K-pop group surpassing BTS. The soundtrack went on to get GRAMMY nods as wells as VMA nods.

So in a nutshell, Netflix delivered yet another pop culture phenomenon, and Sony continues its animation victories, but live-action not exactly—will it change?

It all began with, of all things, an ad for American Eagle Outfitters. There are many who would decry the current state of "woke culture": that people are oversensitive and make a fuss about nothing. But I grew up in the 80s. I have an entire mental library of jokes I can't tell anymore. And speaking as an ambassador from that time, I can say with certainty that a commercial stating that a blonde, blue-eyed registered Republican has "great jeans" (har har) would have caused commotion even then. Perhaps more so. Remember, my little Back to the Future cultists: the 80s were as far from the Holocaust as they are from now. And as far from segregation as you are from Iron Man. That said, advertisers do stupid things all the time. It could have blown over. But again, insane world, and the right-wing media ecosystem exploded in response, far more intensely than the initial outcry had been, turning what had been a minor cultural blip into a political firestorm, to the point that the President of the United States commented on it, calling it "the HOTTEST ad out there", because apparently we live in a simulation crafted by a toking frat lounger. Subsequently, some would argue as a result, her two next films, the boxing drama Christy and the crime drama Americana, bombed. Still, her latest film, the domestic thriller The Housemaid, opened to a respectable $19 million, so perhaps the madness has passed.

Of course, it's a biopic, not a documentary; people and events are added, removed, changed, and composited throughout. Director James Mangold fully states that the film is "not a Wikipedia entry". Perhaps that's a good thing; his Wikipedia entry is already one of the best. Dylan's artistic process was actually quite wiki-ish itself: he ravenously listened to and took (often heavy) inspiration from many other folk musicians during his rise, and conversely was awed and inspired by covers of his songs such as the Byrds' "Mr. Tamborine Man" or Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower", and this attitude cemented him not only as a great musician, but as a great contributor to the musical canon. And in this turbulent world (see... most of the other entries), his poetic verse still finds resonance with us.

Though she starred in films, including modest hits like Ice Princess and Inspector Gadget, Trachtenberg was primarily known for her television roles. She made her breakthrough at the age of nine in the surreal Nickelodeon sitcom The Adventures of Pete & Pete, which likely led to her starring role in the Nickelodeon-produced film Harriet the Spy, and had a recurring role on Gossip Girl, but is likely best known as Dawn, the magically created sister of Buffy Summers in the final seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The film received mixed reviews from critics, though some deemed it an improvement over previous entries. But, it grossed less than the previous Jurassic World films with $868 million worldwide against a budget of $180–$225 million while, all three previous films (including the worst received film in the franchise, Dominion) grossed over a billion dollars. This shows that how critics are very different from the real audience, or that those who didn't like the previous movies wouldn't give the franchise another shot. Meantime as of this report, there has been no official information about the future installments in the franchise but, there are rumours and speculations that a sequel to the film is in development with the cast returning and is expected to be released in June 2028...!

The film received mixed-to-negative reception and faced controversies and was threatened with a ₹100 crore (US$12 million) lawsuit for allegedly depicting historical inaccuracies and misrepresentation. The film also fueled religious hostility of the long-strained Islamic–Hindu relations in India. Right-wing Hindu groups condemned the glorification and threatening to demolish the Tomb of Aurangzeb, as they claimed it as "a reminder of centuries of oppression, atrocities, and slavery of Hindus during his [Muslim] rule", which even led to the 2025 Nagpur violence as well. Despite all this, the film managed to gross over ₹809 crore (US$96 million) to emerge as the 2nd highest grossing Indian film of 2025, 9th highest grossing Hindi film of all time, and 15th highest grossing Indian film of all time (#47).

Now there is a saying (in South Asia at least) that, "Indian cinema is the second biggest film industry in the world after Hollywood"; but is it true..? These are the only three non-US, non-UK cinema-related entries this as was last year (but with Pushpa 2 and Kalki) so, maybe, in terms of that. But in terms of box office, not yet; not even close.

Another interesting coincidence I must add: 2025 had three billion-dollar Hollywood movies (Zootopia 2, Avatar: Fire and Ash and Lilo & Stitch – none of which made the report), all from Disney! Meanwhile, the highest grossing Indian film of 2025, Dhurandhar (#18), was co-produced and distributed by Jio Studios whose parent company Reliance Industries co-owns JioStar – which was formed by their Viacom18 merging with Disney Star and is co-owned by Disney India as well. So, Disney everywhere...!