The Morning: Your picks

December 25, 2025

Good morning, and merry Christmas. Sam is away. Today through the end of the year, we’ll be showcasing some of The Times’s best work of 2025.

Clockwise from top left: Pope Leo XIV waving at the Vatican, Volodymyr Zelensky and President Trump arguing in the Oval Office, a fire filling the sky and Zohran Mamdani smiling and standing in front of photographers.

Clockwise from top left, Pope Leo XIV; Volodymyr Zelensky and President Trump; wildfires in California; Zohran Mamdani. Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times, Doug Mills/The New York Times, Philip Cheung for The New York Times, Shuran Huang for The New York Times

Your top stories

By Lauren Jackson

I’m an editor for this newsletter.

The list of our most-read stories reflects who we were in 2025. It shows what we were curious about, what we longed for and, above all, what mattered to us.

This year, what mattered to our readers was the news. Of the top 25 most-clicked stories at The New York Times in 2025, all but one was about a major news story. A new pope. The election of a young, democratic socialist mayor in New York. The fires that ravaged Los Angeles. The search for an attacker — in killing after killing after killing.

Only one story that wasn’t news broke into the top of the pack. That was our list of the 100 best movies of the 21st century so far.

Below, we recap the year in news.

The biggest stories

These were the news stories that readers clicked the most, in chronological order.

An aerial photograph of a neighborhood heavily damaged by fire.

In Altadena, Calif. Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Fires: Readers tracked the fires that consumed parts of Los Angeles at the beginning of the year.

Government employees: The government offered two million federal workers payouts to resign.

Gene Hackman: The authorities recovered the bodies of the actor Gene Hackman and his wife in their New Mexico home. They died of natural causes, investigators concluded, but readers followed the details of their deaths closely.

An Oval Office meeting: President Trump berated Volodymyr Zelensky in a televised moment in the Oval Office.

An explosive cabinet meeting: Trump officials clashed with Elon Musk and sought the president’s favor.

A new pope: Robert Francis Prevost became the first American pope. He took the name Leo XIV.

Assassinated Democrat: Readers followed the manhunt after a political assassination in Minnesota.

Iran: Trump bombed nuclear-enrichment sites in Iran.

Charlie Kirk: People were interested in the search for the shooter who killed Charlie Kirk.

Jimmy Kimmel: ABC suspended the late night host Jimmy Kimmel after he implied that the suspect in Kirk’s killing was a conservative, before much was known about him.

Zohran Mamdani: New York City elected Zohran Mamdani as mayor.

The best escapes

While news dominated the top of the list, you loved other types of journalism, too.

Rolling hills in the foreground, dotted with trees and small wooden structures, give way in the distance to massive sharp-peaked mountains.

In the Dolomites. Oliver Whone

Our 52 places to go in 2025 list. The Dolomites, in Italy, were one of the picks.
Four weird signs you’re getting older.
And 10 small things neurologists wish you would do for your brain. They say it’s never too late to start.

The ones you lingered on

These are the stories you spent the most time with.

Clockwise from top left: Bill Murray; text that says “Saturday Night Live, Show 1, 10-11-75”; Jane Curtin; and messy handwriting about a “cold opening” of the show.

Edie Baskin, Ken Regan, Ken Kneitel and Anne P. Beatts; via the Lorne Michaels Collection/Harry Ransom Center

How noise complaints from parrots in a Manhattan co-op led to a $750,000 legal settlement and a shattered friendship.

A look at the history of “Saturday Night Live.”
She was ready to have her 15th child. Then came the felony charges.

The ones you passed around

These are the stories you shared the most.

An illustration uses pills of various colors to form the shape of a child.

Illustrations by Todd St. John

Have we been thinking about A.D.H.D. all wrong?
These words — including female and L.G.B.T.Q. — are disappearing in the Trump administration.

The conversations you joined

These are some of the stories you commented on most.

An illustration depicts a man facing a home and holding a sign that says "Timeshare for sale."

Nadia Pillon

“My timeshare is an albatross. How do I get rid of it?” Readers had feelings.
Readers also answered the question “My neighbors’ kids are driving me crazy! How do I get some quiet?”
Commenters weren’t thrilled that A.I. scanners were working to ensure you pay for every ding on a rental car.

THE LATEST NEWS

Politics

The Justice Department said that it discovered over a million more files potentially related to the Epstein investigation, and that reviewing them could take weeks. The deadline to release files was last Friday.
Trump’s recent seizures of oil tankers near Venezuela appear to bend international maritime laws and customs, legal experts say.

Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelensky unveiled a revised peace plan, portraying it as Ukraine’s best effort to end the war with Russia. Here’s why Russia is likely to reject it.
The composer of “Carol of the Bells” lived in Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine. Russian assaults are erasing markers of his legacy.

More International News

Pope Leo XIV, left, holding papers and reading in front of an ornate background as another church official sits next to him.

Pope Leo on Christmas Eve. Andreas Solaro/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Pope Leo criticized the globalized economy in his first Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Honduras said that Nasry Asfura, a former mayor endorsed by Trump, had narrowly won the country’s presidential election.

OPINIONS

Kristen Soltis Anderson explores why Americans say they want a different approach to politics but vote for more of the same.

Want to have a sane, thoughtful conversation with that relative whose opinions you don’t share? Mark Edmundson offers some tips.

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Save now with our best offer on unlimited news and analysis as part of the complete Times experience: $1/week for your first year.

MORNING READS

A line of people cross-country skiing on a wide snow-covered field. Bare trees are prominent in the foreground and background.

In Norway. David B. Torch for The New York Times

Winter wonderland: Discover Norway’s Troll Trail, a 100-mile journey that includes stunning vistas, snowbound mountain hotels and waffles.

Father-son deal-making: Larry and David Ellison are pushing to make a $108 billion megadeal together. But they didn’t always have a close relationship.

Your pick: The Morning’s most-clicked link yesterday was about the redecorated Oval Office.