Year in focus: Images that defined America in 2025

An electronic board displays 'Happy New Year' as confetti falls after the ball drop at Times Square during New Year's celebrations in New York City, New York on January 1, 2025.  (REUTERS/Kent Edwards)

Police investigate a crime scene on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana on Wednesday, January 1, 2025.  (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

A Tesla Cybertruck exploded in flames outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, killing the driver and injuring seven others in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 1, 2025.  (EyePress News/Shutterstock)

Firefighters fight the flames from the Palisades Fire burning the Theatre Palisades during a powerful windstorm in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on January 8, 2025.  (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

Donald Trump takes the oath of office as his wife Melania and his children look on during inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on January 20, 2025.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Emergency response units search the crash site of the American Airlines plane on the Potomac River after the plane crashed on approach to Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia on January 30, 2025. The American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas collided in midair with a military helicopter while approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Demonstrators hold banners as they march during a protest following the arrest by US immigration agents of Palestinian student protester Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University, in New York City, New York on March 10, 2025.  (REUTERS/Jeenah Moon)

A crane vessel lifts the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River in New York, New York on April 10, 2025. (Seth Wenig/AP)

Members of the clergy attend the funeral Mass of Pope Francis at the Vatican on April 26, 2025.  (REUTERS/Dylan Martinez)

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on May 8, 2025.  (REUTERS/Yara Nardi)

A search and rescue volunteer holds a T-shirt and backpack with the words Camp Mystic on them in Comfort, Texas on July 6, 2025.   (Danielle Villasana for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Charlie Kirk speaks before he is assassinated during Turning Point's visit to Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on September 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP)

A memorial dedicated to Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 11, 2025. Zarutska was stabbed to death on a train in Charlotte. (Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)

This redacted photo released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows files documented on August 12, 2019, during a search of Jeffrey Epstein's home on Little St. James island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  (U.S. Department of Justice via AP)

Members of the U.S. National Guard stand at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on December 22, 2025.  (REUTERS/Tyrone Siu)

A makeshift memorial is seen on the Brown University campus near the scene of a shooting in Providence, Rhode Island on December 15, 2025. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP)

Kilmar Abrego Garcia shakes hands with his attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg as he arrives with his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura at U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Greenbelt, Maryland on December 22, 2025.  (Alex Wong/Getty Images)