Current events are the news items that are happening or about to happen. They are often covered in newspapers, magazines and radio. Educators assign current event summaries as assignments in junior and senior high school to help students learn to write about important and relevant topics in their communities.
In the short term, 2025 is likely to be dominated by the politics of division – with the great powers divided between an America sphere in Europe and Africa and a China-led bloc in east Asia. As technology transforms what it means to be human, however, that balance will change rapidly.
The challenge for journalists is how to keep people engaged with stories that seem to offer no hope of a resolution and give readers a sense of purpose amid conflicts that can feel exhaustingly intractable. In one strategy, the Guardian runs a daily explainer with key bullet points about Russia-Ukraine – attracting strong reader engagement and serving audiences who don’t want to follow the exhausting pace of live blogs or developments.
In 2025, expect to see more media companies experimenting with audio – whether as standalone podcasts or as part of their website and app offerings. The Economist is putting its podcasts behind a paywall, and Nordic publishers are including audio in their all-access subscription packages. Also, expect to see more personalised and automated audio alerts – especially on smartphones. For example, the BBC will soon launch a new service called Newsbeat that will send you the key news and updates from the day on your phone or tablet.