Host/Producer: Ezgi Toper
Executive Producer: Nasra Omar Bwana
Craft Editor: Nasrullah Yilmaz
Production Team: Afzal Ahmed, Ahmet Ziya Gumus, Mucteba Samil Olmez, Khaled Selim

TRANSCRIPT

EZGI: You're listening to In the Newsroom, and I'm Ezgi Toper. 

NASRA: I'm Nasra Omar Bwana.

EZGI: And as you guys know, in this podcast, we have conversations with colleagues and experts that go beyond the headlines. 

NASRA: This time, the conversation is In the Newsroom with the In the Newsroom team.

EZGI: Wrapping up this year in a nutshell. 

NASRA: And we cannot speak about this year without speaking about one thing, the protests. 

EZGI: The year of the protests. And kicking us off: Serbia had the largest ever rally in Belgrade. 

NASRA: Technically. This is the 2nd year of the protests.  

EZGI: 325,000 people protested against the government. 

NASRA: I believe it was sparked by the train station.

EZGI: Absolutely correct. There was a deadly collapse of the Novi Sad railway station.

REPORTER: They want those responsible for the tragedy which killed 15 people at the train station at Novi Sad to be prosecuted. Nobody’s in jail. Nobody’s in custody. An investigation is very slow.

EZGI: I remember seeing those videos and the images coming out of the country. It was just crazy to see so many people out on the streets, and a lot of Serbians were angry at the government for this negligence.

And so they took to the streets, demanded change. In fact, there was another protest this same year, on June 28th, this time a smaller protest, 140,000 people. 

NASRA: Still in Serbia? 

EZGI: Still in Serbia, still in Belgrade, in other cities at this point, it had also spread. And it actually did result in the prime minister resigning of Serbia. 

NASRA: Most of these protests were sparked by a small thing that led into something bigger. Somewhat of a boiling point. Common themes with these protests that we have been seeing has been the age of the population conducting the protests: very young.  Even in previous decades, it's been the youth that have been on the forefront. But something that's different with these ones is the role of social media. 

EZGI: Mhm.

NASRA: Arguably it's not that this started today, when Tahrir Square happened, that was Twitter. It's just that the platforms have now changed. For example, Nepal, it's Discord.

EZGI: On September 8th, we saw young people gather at the Federal parliament building in Nepal to protest the government shutting down social media, nepotism, and political corruption.

REPORTER: The people of Nepal wanted their voices heard. Their message: anger over allied government corruption and freedom of speech crackdowns on social media. Parliament house set alight, along with several ministerial buildings, homes and political headquarters as prime minister KP Sharma Oli resigned.

EZGI: And actually what was really significant was that in such a short amount of time, they were able to really produce change. The prime minister stepped down, he resigned, and he actually fled the country. 

NASRA: So interestingly, like in the case of Nepal, we see these changes happening very quickly, even the elections are held on Discord, and they had their new prime minister. But a place like Bangladesh, which had their protests in 2024, the previous year, the repercussions, they're feeling them now.

They're yet to go into an election, but at the same time, 2025 was the year that the effects of that protest still being carried forward with Sheikh Hasina, who was toppled or stepped down back in 2024, now being sentenced, we see them gearing up for an election, and that is why we keep calling it the year of protests. It's also the year we've had — Tanzania had its elections, and there were protests after the elections.

EZGI: Right. I think that's an important thing to note, this year was also a year where many countries had elections. So there is sort of that tie between protests and elections.

So, you brought up Tanzania, which is something we also covered on the show, especially in regards to campaigning and that intricacy with music, but something we did not, maybe, anticipate after the show premiered was the chaos that ensued in the country. 

REPORTER: Tanzania’s government has deployed the police to the streets to crackdown on dissent. Protests chant the election is a shame and for an end to state repression.

NASRA: Especially because Tanzanians are known to be very peaceful. It's not a country with a history of such protests, I would say this. 

EZGI: Mhm, mhm.

NASRA: And this was unexpected that people would speak up against the present government in such a manner. There are reports of deaths, yet the government is yet to acknowledge or accept that people died or people were killed during these protests, 

EZGI: As well as many people were charged. Over 200 people were charged with “treason.” So, while in the case of Tanzania, there wasn't a government toppling. In fact, the current ruling party still stayed in power. We did see some changes, however, other than Nepal. 

NASRA: Madagascar did result in toppling of the government.

EZGI: The president of Madagascar had to flee the country on October 12th because he was actually scared for his life, apparently, especially when military units joined the youth protests. 

REPORTER: After a day of speculation on his whereabouts, President Rajoelina appeared on Facebook live in an evening address and confirmed what many already knew.

MADAGASCAR PRESIDENT ANDRY RAJOELINA: Some presidents within the African continent offered to send troops to bring about peace in Madagascar. My response was that it is nıt in line with Malagasy values to send troops. So, I declined. For that reason I was forced to find a place and I went to a safe location to protect my life.

NASRA: Morocco, that's another place that had protests for the youth protests again, 

EZGI: Where again the youth protested. 

NASRA: Some people call it Gen Z, but if you look at it closely, there are also millennials who are in this protests, but it's a relatively young population that's protesting.

MOROCCAN PROTESTERS CHANT

NASRA:  There have been protests in the US about Trump

EZGI: A series of “No Kings” protests that occurred in all 50 states across the US that were opposing Trump and his government on the same day as a military parade in DC. 

NASRA: There have been smaller protests in Iran, in Kinshasa. There's one protest, Ezgi, that's happening across the world, and it's been happening for a while. 

EZGI: Solidarity with Palestine and many countries coming together to vocalise outrage at the continuing genocide in Gaza. 

Actually, on that note, this is also the year of the continuation of several wars and conflicts that we've seen carried through from previous years, as well as the start of new conflicts. But let's stay on, let's stay on Gaza. Let's stay on Palestine, as you said. 

So, on June 15th, there were peaceful protests of 100,000 to 150,000 people at The Hague, Netherlands. People were demanding the Dutch government take action against Israel's military campaign in Palestine. And this sort of action, I think, is also what led to one of my favourite episodes that we covered on the show, which is recognising a Palestinian Statehood. 

EZGI: So Australia, the UK, Canada, Portugal, they all announced support of a Palestinian statehood, and then that was followed by France, Luxembourg, Malta, and Andorra. 

CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER MARK CARNEY: Canada intends to recognise the State of Palestine.

UK PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: I can confirm the UK will recognise the State of Palestine.

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON (DUBBED IN ENGLISH): I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine.

EZGI: That's really major. 

NASRA: A state protest to a certain extent when EU governments finally acknowledged Palestine as a country in itself. 

EZGI: Although many scholars, activists have been calling what is taking place in Palestine a genocide for decades now. Before we had South Africa last year take action.

And this is also the year that we saw many people take matters into their own hands, with the flotillas, for example. This summer, several ships that were Gaza-bound, many people like Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, the climate activist, they all boarded these ships and felt this call to change and this empathy that Palestine has been able to… that has been able to resonate with people due to what's been happening over the few years.

NASRA: They were taking more of a personal action on this and not waiting for the government or people to speak on their behalf and a way to push the government to stop the inhumanity that is going on. 

FLOTILLA PARTICIPANT 1: Global Sumud Flotilla is already planning another flotilla for Spring.

FLOTILLA PARTICIPANT 2:  We’ll have to do another one. I’m willing and I’m ready to step up and do it again.

FLOTILLA PARTICIPANT 3: I was ready to come back as soon as I landed in Chicago.

NASRA: A few months later, we got the ceasefire in Palestine. Palestinians are still under attack in Gaza. 

REPORTER: Once again, the dead are mourned and the injured are rushed into hospitals after a wave of fresh Israeli air strikes across Gaza on Sunday despite a ceasefire agreement.

NASRA: Human rights groups say that Israel’s genocide made 2025 the deadliest year for Palestinians since 1967. In fact, there is a new report by 12 human rights groups saying that starvation also became a mass cause of death in Gaza in 2025.

EZGI: Yeah, we also covered this on our show. By October 2025, 461 Palestinians, including 157 children, died of hunger. And 1.9 million people — that’s 90 percent of Gaza’s population — were displaced, with water and electricity systems collapsing. Which is of course devastating.

NASRA: There are other conflicts and other wars that have happened in the world that have been overshadowed by Palestine. Not that it's a suffering Olympics, but we do need to acknowledge that the war in Sudan, it's been happening for 3 years. It's been called a humanitarian… the worst humanitarian crisis that we have had.

EZGI: …by the UN, yup. 

NASRA: Yes, this year, just a few months ago, we had the genocide. The killings in El Fasher, which ended up…

EZGI: With at least 2,000 civilians killed by the Rapid Support Forces.

REPORTER: Hundreds of bodies piled on top of each other inside Sudan’s only health facility in the city of El Fasher. The Sudan Doctor’s Network reported that Rapid Support Forces cold-bloody killed everyone including patients, their companions and anyone else in the wards.

NASRA: Showing us the brutality of what people are experiencing. The displacement. Some people call it a civil war, but others also describe foreign actors being involved in this. And the theme carries on into Congo. 

EZGI: Right in DRC as well. That was again, something that's been happening for several years, but has received little media attention, which is something we spoke about in regards to why media attention is so focused on certain conflicts… 

NASRA: …over others, and even in the episode that we had about DRC, we come to realise: in the entire world, in the history of modern day conflicts, DRC has the highest death toll to have ever existed. The range is about on the high end… six million?

EZGI: Six million. 

NASRA: Yes, estimated though, yet it's not getting as much coverage. There were other conflicts as well.

EZGI: Right 

NASRA: We had…

EZGI: Venezuela and the US. 

NASRA: Yes.

EZGI: I think that was one that was notable, especially in our episodes.

NASRA: It’s new. It's currently ongoing

EZGI: Right at the time that we recorded our podcast about what was happening between the US and Venezuela, it had only been three strikes.

NASRA: And it was on fishermen boats.

EZGI: And it was on fishermen boats, true. But now to date…

NASRA: Drug boats, one of the two. Fishermen or drugs. 

EZGI: Right. And now to date, there's been over 29 strikes across the Caribbean Sea carried out by the US military. 

NASRA: Whoa. And the seizure of an oil tanker Skipper. 

REPORTER: The oil that has been seized. The United States seized 1.9 million barrels of oil on December 10th.

US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We’ll keep it. 

REPORTER: Where’s it going – are we going to sell it? What’s the strategic –?

US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Maybe we’ll sell it. Maybe we’ll keep it. Maybe we’ll use it in the strategic reserves. We’re keeping it. We’re keeping the ships also. 

EZGI: We also saw Trump deploy 10 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to take part in military action against these drug cartels in the Caribbean region. So it was both an on land effort as well as at sea. 

NASRA: India and Pakistan. 

EZGI: India and Pakistan. 

NASRA: Almost – people were scared of a nuclear war. 

REPORTER: India and Pakistan are clashing in the worst violence between the nuclear-armed neighbours in two decades. The two countries exchanged missile and artillery strikes along their contested frontier on May 7th after New Delhi launched missile strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.”

NASRA: We have Israel and Iran again with nuclear weapons being a theme. 

EZGI: Exactly, exactly. In the month of June, Israel struck dozens of targets in Iran, including nuclear facilities, military sites, and private residences. They killed some senior military commanders and scientists in an effort to eliminate Iran's nuclear arsenal.

But I think that also started conversations about the double standards when it comes to nuclear weapons. As we know, there are many reports that suggest Israel itself is in possession of nuclear arsenal. 

NASRA: And this wasn't the only country Israel attacked. We have Lebanon having multiple attacks. We got Syria being attacked. 

EZGI: Right, on July 16th, the Israeli Air Force bombed the Syrian Defence Ministry headquarters and areas around the presidential palace in Damascus. 

REPORTER: This TRT World crew was just metres away from an Israeli air strike in the heart of Syria’s capital. This channel’s Nour Qormosh caught up in the explosives that rocked Damascus, targeting sites near the Defence Minister and presidential palace.

NASRA We have the attack that happened in Qatar also by Israel, but we also had another attack with Iran as well. 

EZGI: Exactly. Exactly. So Iran launched missiles at US military bases in Qatar and Iraq. Israel then followed suit in September and filed precision strikes on senior Hamas leaders allegedly in a residential area of Qatar. But we saw Qatar take little to no action afterwards, which is also something that many people were protesting. 

NASRA: So in terms of international attacks, most of the attacks were done by Israel, but we also have cross-border conflicts that have been happening. We have Thailand and Cambodia, which keeps on sparking. And how can you forget the biggest European conflict? 

EZGI: Ukraine and Russia. 

REPORTER: It was a sleepless night in Ukraine as some 500 Russian drones and missiles were launched at the country, driving people into shelters and emergency teams out to save who they could.”

NASRA: Still ongoing. 

EZGI: This is the third year. So on April 13th, Russian missiles struck a Ukrainian city of Sumi, killing about 34 people and injuring more than 100. 

NASRA: And this trajectory of the war between Russia and Ukraine, especially with how Ukraine has been tipping the force through the use of technology. We are seeing drones play a significant role in this fight and showing where the direction that war is going to take. It's no longer about how many tankers you have, how many jets or personnel. You no longer need people on the ground to win a war. This is what the Russian-Ukraine war is starting to show us.

EZGI: Mhm mhm.

NASRA: Because it is tech that is winning the war, and tech is shaping the society as we know it. “Not just…” how people are writing their scripts. We've heard that line everywhere, “not just… but also…”. Everybody's speaking like that now because of AI.

AI has shaped personal lives, individual lives, to governments, with Albania now appointing an AI generated minister, the first minister in the world that's made of AI. And now people are looking less at the use of AI. How can AI help us? But we're starting to critique AI to actually check the environmental implications of AI, the policy that is required of AI, the amount of data that AI has and is using, and how much it's impacting our lives.

EZGI: Right, and if you remember at the beginning of the year, China actually launched DeepSeek.

NASRA: I forgot about that.

EZGI: Which was the rival to ChatGPT and many people were shocked. Because I remember that it was being dubbed a Sputnik moment, because it was at the fraction of the cost.

REPORTER: Chinese start-up DeepSeek has shaken up the AI landscape with the launch of a low-cost-AI-powered chatbot. The company, founded in 2023, claims to have developed its R1 model in just two months at a cost of under 6 million dollars, using US-based company Nvidia’s less-advanced H800 chips.

EZGI: Another way in which people were cracking down on technology, we could say, was when Trump issued the TikTok ban. If you remember at the start of this year as well, TikTok went down for many users in the US and there were all of these like memes coming out of it. People were saying goodbye to the American social media users…

NASRA: People thought it was the end of the world. 

EZGI: And then what? It came back in just a day or two, if I'm not wrong. 

NASRA: And we see Trump do this a lot whereby he issued decrees or policies or statements. For example, the tariffs that we had at the beginning of the year, which said countries…

EZGI: Let’s get into that. 

NASRA: Yup.

EZGI: Yes, Trump taxing everyone. So, on April 2nd, you'll remember it as Liberation Day. 

TRUMP: My fellow Americans. This is Liberation Day!

EZGI: when Trump unveiled this big plan to tariff literally every country, whether it was an ally or a foe. So we saw countries like China getting hefty, hefty taxes. We saw the EU also getting a 20 percent tariff, and then we saw allies like Canada also being punished by Trump.

NASRA: We have a running joke that every episode has a Trump effect or has an impact of the US.

EZGI: He’s in every episode.

This is also the year that Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States, so his second term. And in just the first few days of his presidency, there were headlines coming out of the US that were all over the place.

You'll remember: he issued pardons to over 1,500 of his supporters that were connected to the US Capitol attack. He withdrew from the World Health organisation and the Paris Agreement on climate. 

And also, very notable is the ICE crackdown, which we've seen connecting again to the protests that you mentioned. We've seen a lot of news coming out of the US of a major crackdown on illegal immigrants living in the United States, and the conditions that they are forced into in these detention centres has also been something that's been discussed by many activists and humanitarian aid organisations as being completely in violation of human rights. 

NASRA: They opened up a new detention centre in…

EZGI: Right, right.

NASRA: It was in Florida, South Florida. 

EZGI: Right in Florida. Alligator Alcatraz. That was what it was called. It's a protected wetlands famous for its alligators. Therefore, the name Alligator Alcatraz. 

NASRA: They even had merch for this place that they put out. I remember. It was also the year where Trump deported people, the mass deportations into secondary countries, not necessarily back to the countries they're from. But Trump had agreements with countries such as Panama, and it became a temporary custody centre for these people, some of whom were from as far as China. But now they were being held in a hotel in Panama. 

Panamanian authorities had agreed to take them in and eventually repatriate them. It was reported that nearly 300 migrants were from Asia. The whole ICE thing, we can say that parts of it started as a reaction to students who are protesting against…Palestine. 

EZGI: In solidarity with Palestine. 

NASRA: In solidarity with Palestine. So the first deportations, the first weaponisation of ICE that occurred was when the student visas were being revoked or students were… people even with permanent residency, green cards in the US, were being detained because of their stance. 

NASRA: Interestingly, as the US is closing their borders, and we discussed this in our episode in China, that China is opening its borders and inviting people to get their visas. 

EZGI: Right, we're referring to the K-visa programme, which was to attract global talent that the US was essentially blocking, because if you remember, Trump had put a fee of a hundred thousand dollars on new applicants for the H-1B visa, which is a specialty visa for people that want to work in the US. So, China's counter to that was to launch the K-visa to attract that talent to Beijing. Also, in that same episode, we spoke about China giving up its title… 

NASRA: …of developing country 

EZGI: At the WTO, yes. 

NASRA: It didn't give up its title, but it gave up its benefits as a developing country, but still maintained the title. 

EZGI: And this was something that the US had called for for a long time now. China being the largest developing country. I mean, it's a $1 trillion economy. So the fact that it was receiving benefits was something that the US saw as unfair to these other developing countries that are in need of these benefits. 

NASRA: And also because they were also exempted from contributing to funds such as the global climate crisis.

EZGI: Right.

NASRA: Even if it's one of the world's top polluters, and they were able to export their goods without trade barriers or quotas and tariffs that other developed countries couldn't. So these are some of the things that now China was willing to give up. 

REPORTER: China edging closer to becoming the world's largest economy, proposals to rebalance global power toward Asia, including the idea of establishing a major UN campus in China, are gaining momentum.

NASRA; But there's one place that we have America having an impact, that wasn't technology, that wasn't economic, that wasn't a war. Something that brought people together. Ezgi, can you take a guess? 

EZGI: Hmm.. Something that brought people together?

NASRA: Yes.

EZGI: and America…

NASRA: America was at the centre. Unfortunately, it involved a death. 

EZGI: Oh, of course. You're talking about the Pope. 

NASRA: Yes.

REPORTER: Just hours after an appearance in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis died on Sunday leaving the Catholic Church in mourning.”

NASRA: So 2025 also came with a new pope. 

EZGI: So on April 21st, we'll remember that Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, died. But he was succeeded by the first American pope, as you just said, Pope Leo the 14th.  He took over as the head of the Catholic Church on May 8th, and you'll remember we also covered this in our podcast. 

NASRA: Since we're in the category of major deaths, so impactful deaths, we had the assassination of Charlie Kirk. 

REPORTER: He was killed while attending a university event he was one of president Trumps allies and he received tribute from Benjamin Netanyahu.

NASRA: Interestingly, he was speaking about gun violence at the time of his death. 

EZGI: The irony.

NASRA: His death somehow rippled across the world. People having this discussion in Kenya, in India.

EZGI: As you were saying earlier about social media spreading things, the fact that that was caught on footage, his assassination, the moment that the bullet actually hit him in the neck, I think that very graphic image also just shocked everyone across social media. 

NASRA: Yeah, then this year, normally, it could be maybe the conflicts in the world were much louder, but we didn't see as much coverage of shootings that were happening with the exception of the shooting that happened in Australia, recently. 

EZGI: Recently, right. So, that's the Bondi Beach shooting in which there was an attack on a Jewish community event that happened there. So, but at least 16 people were killed, including a child, as well as 38 people were injured.

REPORTER: On Australia’s most famous beach when a Jewish Hanukkah event was in full swing. Two gunmen opened fire, filmed close-up from inside a building. Someone bravely tackles one of the gunmen himself, wrestles the weapon away and tells him to get back. Another man throws a rock at him.

EZGI: But there probably could have been a lot more victims if it wasn't for Ahmed al Ahmed, who tackled and wrestled a gun from an alleged shooter. 

NASRA: What happened after this was a lot of people praised him for being a hero, but that was before they knew his name and his religion. So once it was discovered that this hero was a Muslim man, some people pulled down their remarks on it, not wanting to be associated by praising a Muslim. 

This wasn't the only attack on a mass gathering that happened this year. During the Liverpool Premier League victory parade in May. There was a man who drove into the crowd and he injured more than 130 people. 

REPORTER: On May 25th during Liverpool FC’S victory parade, a 53-year-old white British man drove a car into a crowd. Police say it was deliberate. He tailgated an ambulance to bypass parade security, then crashed into fans. 

EZGI: We could also say this was the year of many natural disasters. So, at the start of the year, there was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck off Tibet, and it caused major damage in Nepal, China, India. 126 people were killed.  

And after that, it just seemed to follow back-to-back. 

On the same day, there were wildfires in California, in LA, which was extremely devastating.

Poor Afghanistan had 3 back to back earthquakes, 

NASRA: Oh wow.

EZGI: Which I don't think made as many headlines as you would expect. That left more than 4400 people dead and at least 7000 injured and hundreds of people missing. That's crazy. 

NASRA: We have the floods that happened in Pakistan, this was this year as well. 

EZGI: Exactly.

NASRA: We also had floods in Malaysia…

EZGI: Mhm, mhm.

NASRA: …Indonesia, Thailand. We had floods in India. We had floods in Morocco. We had floods in Saudi Arabia. There was an increased amount of rainfall experienced in large parts of the world. And so with that came…

EZGI: A lot of landslides or cyclones, like the cyclone that hit Sri Lanka and caused flooding recently and landslides just a few months ago. At least 480 people were killed in this, and hundreds are still missing. 

Then there was that volcano that erupted in Ethiopia.

NASRA: Yes.

EZGI: for the first time in like… 10,000 years. 

NASRA: 12,000 years,

EZGI: 12,000. That's crazy. There were no injuries reported in that one, but the ashes actually drifted across the Red Sea and it travelled as far as Yemen, Oman, Pakistan, and India. 

NASRA: This is also the year we had COP30. It was expected to be a big one because it was happening in Brazil 

EZGI: Right, right.

NASRA: And Brazil has the Amazon, and the Amazon is considered the lungs of the Earth. But again, it did not meet the expectations that many people had. Still a lot of countries were in deadlock and back to having hope again in COP31, which I believe is going to be in Türkiye? 

EZGI: Right. COP 31 is going to be in Antalya. Australia is the presidential chair, but Türkiye is the host country. Correct.

NASRA: We already talked about tech, but we would say – when Amazon Web Services had an outage back in October, that sent a quake in the tech world. People didn't realise how many websites, services, apps were using the AWS service. So, tech-wise, also, a couple of big changes. We covered this in our last episode: when Airbus had to update their…

EZGI: The software on their aircrafts, right right.

NASRA: So, it put aviation or air traffic on a standstill for a couple of hours in multiple countries. 

EZGI: 6,000 planes were affected. Crazy. 

NASRA: This is our other tragedies.

EZGI: Right. And we're seeing some positive changes as far as technology, for example, Australia, they set the minimum age to 16 to use social media. 

NASRA: The 16-year-olds will not call that positive.

EZGI: Right, right. For them that unfortunately is probably the worst news of the year. However, a lot of, I think, parents and adults stand by that. There is a lot of harmful content out on the internet and to protect kids has been something that's also been talked about this year, especially with the release of more details on the Epstein files. 

REPORTER: In the initial release of US government files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Photos of former Democratic President Bill Clinton with Epstein and his co-conspirator Galain Maxwell. The photos have no context, no word on when or where they were taken.

EZGI: On lighter news, maybe we can get into some social media memes and themes this year. So labubus were all the rage. If you remember, everyone wanted one

NASRA: I have five of them. I'm joking. 

EZGI: I actually saw this meme the other day that was like, you know, 2025 was hard, but at least I didn't buy a Labubu. 

(LABUBU THEME SONG)

EZGI: Other things that were significant, Kendrick Lamar performed the halftime show at the Super Bowl. We'll remember that he also won Best Song with “Not Like Us” of the Grammy Awards earlier that year. 

Do you also remember, I think this is extremely noteworthy, the Atlantic. Published that article that was titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans” because a journalist was included in this group chat 

NASRA: Yes.

EZGI: with the US Secretary of State – the US Secretary of Defence, and they were detailing their plans to strike Yemen – but actually that was something that we needed to mention is the US launched airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. 

NASRA: You know something else Ezgi, that Trump did. Trump created a wall with presidential portraits in the White House. 

EZGI: Oh, I did see that recently, right.

NASRA: And he put…

EZGI: his own descriptions.

NASRA: Before the descriptions, first, he had put pictures of the presidents, and for Biden, he put Biden's auto pen. So that already raised eyebrows. And then now he's added the descriptions that you’re talking about. 

EZGI: He called Joe Biden the “worst president of the United States.” 

NASRA: and he called him Sleepy Joe. 

EZGI: Sleepy Joe. Something also that we forgot to mention was, of course, the infamous robbery that took place…

NASRA: Gasp. Yes.

EZGI: Right? At the Louvre. 

NASRA: And this one will steal the show, this show as well. 

EZGI: So, on October – Ah! I like what you did there! On October 19th, thieves disguised as construction workers forced their way into the museum's upper floor window. They smashed display cases, and do you remember what they fled with? 

REPORTER: Priceless historic jewelry has been stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. The highly-orchestrated robbery happened in broad daylight in just a few minutes.

EZGI: I still think we don't have a perpetrator, a very clear perpetrator. And what's going to happen to these jewels? 

NASRA: This is what we'll find out in 2026, hopefully. 

EZGI: If Katy Perry can go to space, I think this episode can go out. 

NASRA: This was the year?

EZGI: This was the year. 

NASRA: OK, wow. 

EZGI: Speaking of space, do you remember when there was the first ever warning that a meteor was going to hit Earth? And everyone was thinking that we were going to get hit by that asteroid. 

REPORTER: NASA's James web Space Telescope is monitoring the 2024 Y4 asteroid aka the city killer which is on a collision course to hit Earth on December 22 2032.

EZGI: And the chance is still 1.3% in 2032.

NASRA: We still have a lot more episodes to do. 

EZGI: And that being said. 

NASRA: This brings us to the close of “In the Newsroom” 2025. 

EZGI: And the close of the year. 

NASRA: And with that the 2025 season comes to an end. 

EZGI: Oh. Good reference. Good reference. Nasra, thank you for everything. Shoutout to our entire team throughout the year starting off with…

NASRA: Nasrullah Yılmaz. Khalid Selim.

EZGI: Mucteba Samil Olmez.

NASRA: Ahmet Ziya Gumus, Burak Bayram, Afzal Ahment, Tugba Cinali, and Hanan Karvatil.

EZGI: And for the final time this season, thanks for turning in. Until next time, I’m Ezgi Toper.

NASRA: And I’m Nasra Omar Bwana.

EZGI: And this was “In The Newsroom”.