Joanna Gill

Greenland is at the centre of a diplomatic storm after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he wants to make the Arctic island part of the United States and refused to rule out using economic or military might to force Denmark to hand it over.

Acquiring the world's largest island has been on Trump's wish list since his first term, and any takeover would expand U.S. influence, as well as counter Russian and Chinese competition in the region.

The race for minerals to power renewable technologies is set to ramp up in 2025 as governments in Europe and North America compete to secure access to crucial materials and break China's grip on the supply chain.

With demand for 'net zero' minerals set to almost triple by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency, mining of lithium, cobalt and nickel found in countries like Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Philippines is gathering pace.

Growing support for far-right parties across Europe looks set to shape migration policy in 2025 after a bumper election year in which immigration became a major political battleground.

With the European Union gearing up to implement its revamped asylum pact by 2026, some countries are calling for the rules fast-tracking asylum processes and returns to be sharpened or implemented sooner.

Throughout 2024, European countries have stepped up border controls, cracked down on smuggling gangs and outsourced asylum processing in a bid to stop migrants reaching their borders.

December saw a fresh flurry of activity after Syria's former president Bashar al-Assad was ousted by rebels, prompting some European Union countries to pause Syrian asylum claims.

Britain has announced an indefinite ban on puberty-blocking drugs, a contested treatment for children experiencing gender dysphoria, or discomfort over the sex they were assigned at birth.

The decision faces pushback from trans activists, while the British Medical Association (BMA) - the professional body for doctors - has called for the ban to be lifted.

Days after rebels seized the Syrian capital after nearly 14 years of civil war, many European countries have put asylum applications from Syrians on hold, while some are considering returning them home.

The United Nations special envoy to Syria has warned European countries should not rush to repatriate the millions of refugees who fled the conflict.

The Pacific states of Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa want to class ecocide - large-scale environmental destruction - as a crime that could be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) alongside offences such as war crimes and genocide.

Suffering some of the worst effects of climate change, the island nations submitted a proposal to the ICC in September to recognise ecocide, which could allow for the prosecution of heads of state or bosses of large polluting companies.

The power of Big Tech to shape the democratic process and the expanding influence of social media in the political sphere have become big issues in this bumper election year.

Tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping Donald Trump win November's U.S. presidential election and looks set to have a key role in the incoming administration.

From relative unknown three months ago to winning the first round of Romania's presidential elections, hard-right candidate Călin Georgescu's meteoric rise has stirred suspicions of interference and social media manipulation.

With the Constitutional Court ordering a recount of votes, TikTok faces a possible shutdown in Romania pending an investigation into its part in the first round of the presidential election on Nov. 24.

Amazon workers plan to walk out and protest across the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, and Brazil this weekend in a standoff over pay, union rights, climate action and working conditions at the giant U.S. online retailer.

Trade unions and workers' groups are staging the protests to coincide with one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year from Black Friday to Cyber Monday when Amazon and other retailers offer major discounts and warehouse workers rush to fulfill orders.