The past year wasn’t all doom and gloom; there was plenty to smile about, too. In November, a mysterious “Fedora Man” in an Associated Press photo captured attention after the French crown jewels were stolen from the Louvre. He turned out to be a 15-year-old boy with a flair for historical fashion. In September, scientists solved an art mystery by identifying the blue in a Jackson Pollock painting. Meanwhile, a New Zealand cat named Leonardo da Pinchy spent a year stealing laundry. In February, a kayaker survived being briefly swallowed by a whale in Chile. And in May, a 115-year-old woman shared her secret to longevity: never arguing.

Even the most dedicated doomscrollers smile once in a while. Here’s a look back at some of the Associated Press stories that captured attention around the world and provided moments of brightness throughout 2025:

Art and intrigue

The brazen heist at the world’s most visited museum in November wasn’t just a whodunit, it was a “who wore it.” Hours after thieves snatched the French crown jewels from the Louvre, an AP photographer snapped a picture of a sharply-dressed young man striding past police.

Who was this mysterious “Fedora Man?” A 15-year-old boy who favors elegant clothing inspired by history and fictional detectives.

“I didn’t want to say immediately it was me,” Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux said a week later. “With this photo, there is a mystery, so you have to make it last.”

September marked the solving of another art-related mystery when scientists confirmed the source of the blue color in one of Jackson Pollock’s iconic paintings. While the origins of the reds and yellows splattered across the abstract expressionist’s “Number 1A, 1948” were well known, it took chemistry to confirm the rich turquoise as manganese blue.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, a cat called Leonardo da Pinchy had more in common with the Louvre thieves than the artist who inspired his nickname. The felonious feline with expensive taste in clothing spent a year stealing laundry from clotheslines before his embarrassed owner posted photos of his hauls on Facebook. Those who showed up to claim their belongings in July included a woman who recognized her pink and purple underwear.

“He only wants stuff he shouldn’t have,” said Leonardo’s owner, Helen North.

Tales — and fins and

feathers — of survival

Also in the animals behaving badly category: a humpback whale that briefly swallowed a kayaker off Chilean Patagonia in February.

“I thought I was dead,” Adrián Simancas said. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”

Simancas’ father captured the moment on video while encouraging his son to remain calm, and they both returned to shore uninjured.

Animals elsewhere this year were often facing their own challenges.

Roughly 7,000 baby chickens and other birds perished in an abandoned postal service truck in Delaware in May. But another 5,000 chicks who endured three days without food and water were rescued by a local animal shelter, where workers spent weeks caring for them and finding them new homes. Some of the adopters took hundreds, hoping for egg-laying hens, while others took them as pets.

And though they weren’t in mortal danger, elephants at a San Diego zoo showed off their survival skills in April when a 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck Southern California. Video from their enclosure showed three older, female elephants scrambling to encircle and shield two 7-year-old elephants, named Zuli and Mkhaya.

“It’s so great to see them doing the thing we all should be doing — that any parent does, which is protect their children,” said Mindy Albright, curator of mammals at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.