As we do every year, we’ve gathered data around some of the most pivotal news stories of 2025, including President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the changing U.S. immigration landscape and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence worldwide. Here’s a look back at 2025 through 12 of Pew Research Center’s most striking research findings. (Jackson & Hatfield, Pew Research)
Read MoreAfter what she describes as a spiritual awakening, [Nala] Ray left OnlyFans and has since become an outspoken critic of the platform. Now, she says, she wants to see OnlyFans − the very website she helped turn into a porn empire − destroyed. (Trepany, USA Today)
Read MoreMrBeast, born Jimmy Donaldson, aged 27, is the current king of YouTube, with more than 450 million subscribers—the most of any account in the history of the platform. (Charity, The Ringer)
Read MoreIn the two months since Sora arrived, deceptive videos have surged on TikTok, X, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, according to experts who track them. The deluge has raised alarm over a new generation of disinformation and fakes. (Myers & Thompson, The New York Times)
Read MoreDespite claims of a revival of religion in the United States, a new report from Pew Research Center finds young Americans remain less religious than their parents or grandparents, with just over half (55%) claiming a religion. (Smiteana, Religion News Service)
Read MoreEven as fewer and fewer young people consider themselves religious, a small percentage of young adults are practicing their faiths with unusual avidity. This cohort of people in their early 20s are rejecting both religion-by-habit (just doing whatever your parents did) as well as the secularism, skepticism and agnosticism that grew among their parents’ generations. (Boorstein, The Washington Post)
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