Pop culture in 2025: A ring for Taylor, an ill-timed KissCam ... and whatever ‘6-7’ means

Dictionaries define things. It’s their job. So when dictionary.com pronounced “6-7” as their 2025 word of the year, you’d think they would have, well, defined it.

But no. “We’re all still trying to figure out exactly what it means,” they told us of this year’s “linguistic time capsule.”

But that’s just how pop culture works, isn’t it? Who’s to explain why parents alone in their cars were suddenly singing “up up up” from that “KPop Demon Hunters?” song? Or why, in the Venn diagram of pop culture and zoology, it was the capybara that emerged victorious and beloved? Goodbye, Moo Deng. You’re adorable, but so 2024.

Despite our new obsessions, though, some things remained constant — by which we mean Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, of course. It seems like every year gets bigger for Swift. But in 2025, she put a bow — or ring — on it with Travis Kelce, announcing “your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” As for Beyoncé, the musical goddess finally won that best album Grammy she long deserved — and, on tour, introduced a new force: her daughter, Blue Ivy.

So from the inexplicable to the familiar, here's our annual, highly selective journey down pop culture memory lane:

They may not be TAYVIS, but they’re a delightful couple just the same: ZENDAYA and TOM HOLLAND are engaged. Let’s hear it also for DEMI MOORE, who wins a GOLDEN GLOBE for her wild performance in “The Substance.” At the bookstore, fans go wild for “ONYX STORM,” the third installment of REBECCA YARROS' romantasy series. A NIRVANA reunion highlights FireAid, a fundraiser for relief efforts following the Los Angeles wildfires. At the Australian Open, U.S. tennis star COCO GAUFF mourns the temporary loss of TikTok’s app back home, drawing a broken heart on a TV lens.

“Salutations!” says SAMUEL L. JACKSON, introducing KENDRICK LAMAR, the first solo hip-hop artist — and Pulitzer winner — to headline the Super Bowl halftime show. (P.S. Is that SERENA WILLIAMS?) At the GRAMMYS, members of the Los Angeles Fire Department present BEYONCÉ with her best album trophy for “COWBOY CARTER” — the most awarded and nominated artist in Grammy history becomes the first Black woman to win the top prize in the 21st century. In the age of TikTok, you never know what’s going to catch fire — like those hand-penned party invitations from 87-year old DOUG TURNER to his Pennsylvania neighbors, with the priceless line: “4 p.m. until the cops arrive.”

It’s OSCAR month! All hail to SEAN BAKER’S victorious, Brooklyn-set “ANORA” and its star, MIKEY MADISON. Also scoring an acting prize is ADRIEN BRODY for “THE BRUTALIST” — who probably should have found another place to put his chewing gum. “WICKED,” an audience favorite, misses out on big prizes, but its stars, CYNTHIA ERIVO and ARIANA GRANDE, perform a rousing opening number. Meanwhile, the once-promising Netflix contender “EMILIA PÉREZ” wins two prizes but sees best picture chances evaporate in the wake of an uproar over past tweets from star KARLA SOFÍA GASCÓN.

The blender! The poisonous fruit! The lizard! And SAM ROCKWELL! The Thailand-set third season of “THE WHITE LOTUS ” is certainly a talker. KATY PERRY may be wishing she’d headed to Thailand rather than outer space: her Earth-kissing return from an 11-minute trip on a JEFF BEZOS Blue Origin rocket is widely mocked — even by Wendy’s, which writes on X: “Can we send her back.” On BEYONCÉ’S “Cowboy Carter” tour, a star has emerged — 13-year old BLUE IVY. In a megadeal, HAILEY BIEBER sells her Rhode skincare and makeup brand for a cool $1 billion.

A crisis, at CANNES! The film fest bans nudity on the carpet — do they think this will halt the “naked dress” phenomenon? Bonne chance. Also at Cannes, TOM CRUISE again shows he’ll risk life and limb to entertain, this time atop a classic biplane in “MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING.” Across the ocean, the MET GALA turns its focus to menswear and Black style over the centuries. “It took a minute,” says an approving SPIKE LEE. “You belong with me,” SWIFT sings, buying back the rights to her first six albums. Finally, cue the “Chicago Pope” memes — in honor of the first American pope, LEO XIV. Later this year, he'll reveal his WORDLE strategy.

“The world will know you as pop stars — but you will be much more than that.” Like, perhaps, the surprise, multigenerational hit of the summer? “KPOP DEMON HUNTERS” starts streaming this month, and in August will give Netflix a big box office win with its singalong screenings. On TV, it’s a new season of love — “LOVE ISLAND USA,” that is, chronicling the goings-on at a luxury villa in Fiji. It's the album cover that launched a thousand conversations: Some are offended when SABRINA CARPENTER illustrates her “MAN'S BEST FRIEND” album with a photo of her on all fours, with a man holding her hair. Is it offensive, a purposeful joke, or nothing at all? Meanwhile politics finds its way into the GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL in Britain, as rap-punk duo BOB VYLAN spark a police probe after leading a chant calling for “death” to the Israeli military.

OASIS begins a reunion tour, and the GALLAGHER brothers are still getting along! “SYDNEY SWEENEY has great jeans,” goes the much-discussed advertisement, and American Eagle insists it’s about the denim. CBS says it will end STEPHEN COLBERT'S show in May 2026 — a move that will remove from air one of President DONALD TRUMP'S most outspoken critics. We cannot leave July behind — although at least two people would have loved to — without mentioning the saga of the COLDPLAY KISSCAM. Finally, within six days, the world loses three ’80s icons: mustachioed wrestling icon HULK HOGAN, heavy metal godfather OZZY OSBOURNE, and beloved “Cosby Show” actor MALCOLM-JAMAL WARNER.

Let’s just give this whole entry to pop culture’s biggest “LOVE STORY” — because, baby, she said yes! TAYLOR-TRAVIS skeptics eat their words when the couple announces their happy news, in what's destined to become one of the most liked posts in Instagram history. It’s the fairytale culmination of a courtship that began during the Eras Tour and for two years captivated millions around the world but especially Swifties, the pop star’s loving and fiercely protective fan base.

Proving once again that Hollywood loves stories about itself, the EMMYS heap awards on SETH ROGEN’S movie-biz satire “THE STUDIO.” Also triumphing is “THE PITT,” the edgy medical drama starring beloved “ER” veteran NOAH WYLE that beats out the mighty “SEVERANCE.” Perhaps the biggest Cinderella story of all: 15-year-old OWEN COOPER, the youngest Emmy winner in over 40 years for the searing “ADOLESCENCE.” Also this month, JIMMY KIMMEL is temporarily suspended by ABC bosses for comments that angered supporters of the slain CHARLIE KIRK. The world says goodbye to ROBERT REDFORD, Hollywood’s golden screen idol turned influential activist.

“So, how was your October?” “Oh, 6-7.” That’s apparently how one should use the new viral term — accompanied by that palms-up gesture. You know who has better moves than that? BAD BUNNY, who hosts the season premiere of “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.” In SWIFT updates, her new album “THE LIFE OF A SHOWGIRL”sets sales records. The shocking LOUVRE HEIST captures the world’s attention, not least for the impossibly dapper stranger who walks into an AP photographer’s frame. Another sad loss: DIANE KEATON, famous for her fedoras, vests and especially “La di da, La di da.”

Are we at the end of the yellow brick road? The “WICKED” press tour, which reached all ends of the universe actual and fictional, wraps with the release of JON M. CHU'S second installment, “WICKED: FOR GOOD.” The reviews are much less, er, enthusiastical this time, but the movie defies gravity at the box office. That’s not enough for JONATHAN BAILEY, aka FIYERO, who is named People’s Sexiest Man Alive. Another fan favorite, ROBERT IRWIN, is also having a very good month: a decade after his sister, BINDI, did the same, the son of late conservationist STEVE IRWIN is crowned winner of “DANCING WITH THE STARS.”

One award after another! Excuse the rather obvious pun, but it’s the perfect one to describe momentum in the OSCARS race. While some films see their fortunes fade on GOLDEN GLOBE nominations day, the emerging favorite is “ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER,” director PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON’S father-daughter saga of political resistance starring LEONARDO DiCAPRIO and newcomer CHASE INFINITI. Its success also lends a victory to WARNER BROS. in the middle of its NETFLIX acquisition deal — which, at year’s end, is in a holding pattern, facing antitrust challenges and a hostile takeover effort from PARAMOUNT, and sowing one fear after another that the very nature of entertainment will change.

FILE - Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis appear during their reunion tour in Toronto on Aug. 24, 2025. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift kiss after the AFC Championship NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills, in Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — No quick dispatching of disease investigators. No televised news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.

In the midst of a hantavirus outbreak that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been uncharacteristically missing in action, according to a number of experts.

To President Donald Trump, "We seem to have things under very good control," as he told reporters Friday evening.

To experts, the situation aboard a cruise ship has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, hantavirus does not spread easily. It has been health experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the past week.

“The CDC is not even a player," said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. “I've never seen that before.”

Not until late Friday did CDC actions accelerate.

Health officials confirmed the deployment of a team to Spain's Canary Islands, where the ship was expected to arrive early Sunday local time, to meet the Americans onboard. They said a second team will go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate American passengers from the ship to a quarantine center. Also, the CDC issued its first health alert to U.S. doctors, advising them of the possibility of imported cases.

The CDC's diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said.

The hantavirus outbreak is “a sentinel event” that speaks to “how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. And right now, I’m very sorry to say that we are not prepared,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. More people became sick, including the man's wife and a German woman, who both died.

Hantavirus was first identified as a cause of sickness of one of the cases on May 2. The World Health Organization swung into action and by Monday was calling it an outbreak. About two dozen Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on board.

For decades, the CDC partnered with the WHO in such situations. The CDC acted as a mainstay of any international investigation, providing staff and expertise to help unravel any outbreak mystery, develop ways to control it and communicate to the public what they should know and how they should worry.

Such actions were a large reason why the CDC developed a reputation as the world's premier public health agency.

But this time, the WHO has been center stage. It made the risk assessment that has told people the outbreak is not a pandemic threat.

“I don’t think this is a giant threat to the United States,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. But how this situation has played out “just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now,” she said.

The current situation comes after 16 tumultuous months during which the Trump administration withdrew from the WHO, has restricted CDC scientists from talking to international counterparts at times and embarked on a plan to build its own international public health network through one-on-one agreements with individual countries.

The administration has laid off thousands of CDC scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency's ship sanitation program.

As this was playing out, Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said he was working to “restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.”

The CDC has not been completely silent on hantavirus.

The agency on Wednesday issued a short statement that said the risk to the American public is “extremely low,” and described the U.S. government as “the world’s leader in global health security.”

Said Nuzzo: “Not only was that not helpful, it actually does damage because a core principle of public health communications is humility.”

The CDC's acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, posted a message on social media that the agency was lending its expertise in coordinating with other federal agencies and international authorities. Arizona officials this week said they learned from the CDC that one of the Americans who left the ship — a person with no symptoms and not considered contagious — had already returned to the state. WHO officials said the CDC has been sharing technical information.

The CDC also is “monitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all of the American passengers on the cruise,” Bhattacharya wrote.

But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests.

In interviews this week, some experts made a comparison with a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Japan that became the setting of one of the first large COVID-19 outbreaks outside of China.

The CDC sent personnel to the port, helped evacuate American passengers, ran quarantines, shared genetic data on the virus, coordinated with the WHO and Japan, held public briefings and rapidly published reports “that became the world’s reference data on cruise ship COVID transmission,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director.

Some aspects of the international response to the Diamond Princess were criticized, and it did not halt the outbreak or stop COVID-19’s spread across the world. But some experts say it was not for the CDC's lack of trying.

“The CDC was right on top of it, very visible, very active in trying to manage and contain it,” Gostin said, while the agency's work now is delayed and subdued.

Instead of working with nearly all of the world's nations through the WHO, the Trump administration has pursued bilateral health agreements with individual nations for information sharing, public health support, and what it describes as “the introduction of innovative American technologies.” Roughly 30 agreements are currently in place.

That's not sufficient, Gostin said. “You can't possibly cover a global health crisis by doing one-on-one deals with countries here and there,” he said.

Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York, Darlene Superville in Washington and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Crew members of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, wait their turns for a first interview with epidemiologists, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Health workers in protective gear evacuate patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship into an ambulance at a port in Praia, Cape Verde, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

A Spanish Civil Guard officer inspects the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)