Smoke and Fire – A Review of Significant Events In 2025

Breakfast with Bwana

By Anil Madan

The new year was barely a week old when smoke rose and fire engulfed the Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Altadena areas of Greater Los Angeles. The destructive wildfires burned some 37,000 acres of the densely populated city and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. From thousands of homes lost, businesses burned, neighbourhoods and communities destroyed, the insured losses were estimated at $40 billion with total losses approaching $100 billion when the full financial impact of lost jobs and businesses is tallied in years to come.

2025 Events. Pic – Wikimedia

Somewhat into the year, but still in the first half, black smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel was followed by white smoke as Pope Leo was elected to succeed Pope Francis.

In January, the inauguration of Donald Trump who came back to win a second non-consecutive term as US President, was greeted as a white smoke event by his acolytes. For many Democrats in the US, it was a black-smoke debacle auguring dark days.

From March and into May, South Korea too saw devastating wildfires that displaced some 37,000 people and burned over 200,000 acres. Smoke and fire of a different kind also engulfed South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol who was arrested and eventually impeached for an attempted coup.

2025 was a year of new leaders and old by election or otherwise. This list is long but not exhaustive: Lebanon, Croatia, Ireland, Belarus, Syria (Ahmed al-Sharra), Greece, Poland, Canada, Germany (Merz), South Korea, Japan (Sanae Takaichi), Argentina, Chile.

In addition to the impeachment of South Korea’s President, Jair Bolsanaro, the former Brazilian President was convicted of attempting a coup, the President of Peru was impeached, the Prime Minister of Nepal resigned, and the Prime Minister of Thailand was ousted.

In March, a major power outage shut down London’s Heathrow Airport and thousands of flights were affected around the world. But that aviation disaster was minor in comparison to the mid-air collision of a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and a regional jet in Washington, D.C., resulting in 67 deaths. That, in turn, paled in comparison to the smoke and fire from the crash, seconds after liftoff, of an Air India Boeing 787 at Ahmedabad airport in India. More smoke and fire came in the crash of a UPS Airlines flight at the Louisville Muhammad Ali field in Kentucky.

Natural disasters and Wars

Major earthquakes struck Tibet and Myanmar early in the year. In September an earthquake struck the island of Cebu, Philippines. Afghanistan suffered major earthquakes in August and November.

Natural disasters came in all forms across the world. Storm Éowyn, an extratropical cyclone hit Ireland, the U.K. and Norway. Over a million homes were left without power. The European Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that 2024 was the hottest year on record and the first to pass the Paris Climate Accords threshold of 1.5°C of warming. In October, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as the most powerful hurricane ever to strike the island, with sustained wind speeds of up to 185 mph.

Speaking of homes left without power, Russia’s war against Ukraine continued with targeting of Ukraine’s power grid. Meanwhile, in Gaza, devastated by Israel’s relentless air campaign, a ceasefire agreement went into effect in January and lasted until an Israeli attack in mid-March. Meanwhile, President Trump announced that the US would oversee the reconstruction of the Gaza strip in a deal with Israel.

And who can forget the way that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was dressed down by President Trump and Vice President Vance at the White House? Or indeed, the embrace by Trump of Putin in Alaska? President T\rump’s actions then, and his administration’s National Security Strategy suggest that the new Trump doctrine will cast Europe aside as it divides the world into a tri-polar structure with China, Russia and the US controlling their spheres of influence. 

Back in April the Ukraine-United States Mineral Resources Agreement had suggested a transactional deal with Ukraine for the US to continue to support Ukraine’s defence and eventual reconstruction while getting rights to develop its energy and mineral resources. Perhaps that deal has been replaced with one calling for access to Russia’s energy and mineral resources, but none of this is clear through the smoke. European nations approved a $105 billion loan for Ukraine but failed to agree on using seized Russian assets for that purpose.

Killing went on in other war-ravaged areas of the world, from Sudan to Congo, to Thailand and Cambodia, to mention a few. And there were mass shootings, not just in the US where they have become a way of life, but all the way to Australia at Bondi Beach and Örebro, Sweden. An attack on tourists in Jammu and Kashmir in India, killed 26 and injuring at least 20. India blamed Pakistan. In the ensuing hostilities, each country claimed to have wreaked devastating strikes on the other. Meanwhile, as noted, Israel launched widespread airstrikes in Gaza. The ceasefire agreement ended.

The Nobel Peace Prize

Eventually, there was a ceasefire between India and Pakistan for which President Trump took credit. India denied that he had played a role. In October, when Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a Gaza peace deal, paving the way for a ceasefire, and the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, Pakistan’s President and Army Chief once again declared their support for Trump to win the Nobel Peace Prize, an honour he covets.

Lost in all this was the fact that the US President had ordered B-2 bomber airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. President Trump claimed that the sites had been obliterated, but there are murmurings that Iran is rebuilding its nuclear facilities. And President Trump has threatened to “take back” oil he alleges Venezuela took from American companies following earlier nationalisations.

A naval blockade of Venezuela is now in place. The boats of alleged drug smugglers have been blown out of the water and oil tankers seized. Greenland too remains under threat to be annexed. On the other hand, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a peace deal to end four decades of conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to María Corina Machado, for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela. In a dramatic escape from Venezuela, she made it a day late to the site of award ceremony.

In September, the UK, Canada, and Australia, and France formally recognized Palestine as a sovereign state.

In January, thieves broke into the Drents Museum in Assen, in the Netherlands, and stole the Helmet of Coțofenești. But that museum heist was eclipsed by the far more brazen daylight theft of the French Crown Jewels in Paris.

China demonstrated its technological prowess as DeepSeek, a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT was released. Nvidia’s shares dropped almost $600 billion in one day.

The Trump presidency ushered in a modern era of tariff wars, as the American president-imposed tariffs on a wide range of trading partners. Other countries, most notably China, retaliated.

In the fallout of the scandal related to Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking and abuse of underage girls, Britain’s Andrew Mountbatten Windsor saw his title of “Prince” go up in smoke. Not that it made any difference to anyone. 

In June, the “No Kings” protests took place in numerous cities across the US, as well as in Canada, Europe, Japan, and Mexico.

The year of smoke and fire continued as fire engulfed a building in Hong Kong, and cyclones and typhoons hit Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. Flooding and landslides caused by Cyclone Ditwah left more than 600 dead and hundreds missing in Sri Lanka and South India.

Meanwhile, a conference about the need to curb the smoke and burning caused by our dependence on fossil fuels, seemed to die in its embers. This was the COP30 summit in Belem, Brazil — a COP that had no robbers present.

The United Nations reported that Jakarta has surpassed Tokyo as world’s most populous city with 42 million inhabitants.

Tolerance was not entirely lost as Lichtenstein and Thailand legalized same-sex marriage.

Finally, the saying that “where there is smoke, there is fire” proved not to hold entirely true. The US Department of Justice released more Epstein files but managed to redact what might have been incendiary, leaving only wisps of smoke.

Cheerz…
Bwana

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 24 December 2025