Remembering big moments of 2025

From VE Day commemorations to a sporting success story and political intrigue to turmoil at the BBC, we round up the events from the first half of the past year

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AN UNPRECEDENTED second state visit for Donald Trump, a challenging year in power for Labour and a series of more positive health announcements from the royal family have characterised 2025.

There were major stories beyond the UK too, with talks to end the war in Ukraine, an air crash in India that killed 241 people and pop star Taylor Swift and NFL star Travis Kelce announcing their engagement.

Here's a look back at the first six months of a memorable year...

JANUARY

Axel Rudakubana was jailed for a minimum of 52 years for the murders of three girls who were attending a Taylor Swift dance event at a centre in Southport. Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Bebe King, six, died from their injuries.

The Princess of Wales revealed she was in remission from cancer after making an emotional return to the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, west London, where she was treated to personally thank staff for her care and to comfort fellow patients.

Darts player Luke Littler realised his dream by winning the World Championship after bulldozing his way past Michael van Gerwen. The 17-year-old beat Van Gerwen 7-3 in a one-sided final to become the youngest ever world champion.

FEBRUARY

Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer agreed to begin work on a new US-UK trade deal after the Prime Minister dangled the carrot of an unprecedented second state visit to woo the US president. After a dramatic day at the White House, Sir Keir said the two leaders had decided “to begin work on a new economic deal with advanced technology at its core”.

It emerged that the narrator of Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone, a documentary shown on BBC Two, was the son of a Hamas deputy minister. Following widespread criticism, the corporation found there had been “serious flaws" in the film's production process and pulled it from iPlayer.