All posts tagged: Apocalyptic

Online Trump worship has offline consequences”: MAGA makes plans for “apocalyptic battle

Online Trump worship has offline consequences”: MAGA makes plans for “apocalyptic battle

Published by skeptic

Donald Trump is charged with 91 felonies in multiple criminal trials and is facing the reality that he may have to serve hundreds of years in prison if convicted for his obvious crimes. His strategy to escape these consequences is to delay the proceedings until he can be elected president – and as promised, declare himself dictator. As part of that strategy, Trump and his attorneys are arguing that he is above the law like a king or emperor because while president he supposedly had the unlimited power to do such things as command that his political rivals be murdered and take bribes in exchange for pardons and other political favors.  In a parallel argument, Donald Trump is now telling his followers that he is the Chosen One, a messiah or prophet of “god” and “Jesus Christ” who is a tool of destiny, which means he is outside of human law. On Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear Trump’s petition arguing that he has immunity from the law for any crimes committed …

“The Walking Dead” returns Richonne’s apocalyptic love to us. Will departed viewers come back too?

“The Walking Dead” returns Richonne’s apocalyptic love to us. Will departed viewers come back too?

Published by skeptic

At some point a horde of “The Walking Dead” audience wandered off, never to return. I can probably guess when that was for most of us. The seventh season premiere did it for me, which was when a beloved original character was gruesomely bludgeoned to death. Others stuck around long enough to see Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) exit by appearing to sacrifice himself while detonating a bridge, then peaced out with him. When you reached your limit of the series, grisly violence and suffering may have mattered less than the reason why, which is likely linked to a character. If your favorite one died while you weren’t watching, maybe it would hurt less. Danai Gurira’s Michonne didn’t die, thankfully. Neither did Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride), Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan) or the man who drove millions away in the first place, Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Neither did Rick, it turns out, making the post-series spinoffs a palatable alternative to wallowing in the repetitive gristle of “Fear the Walking Dead” and “The Walking …

Middle East thrust into ‘apocalyptic’ humanitarian crisis by war and turmoil | Global development

Middle East thrust into ‘apocalyptic’ humanitarian crisis by war and turmoil | Global development

Published by skeptic

For a region that is no stranger to geopolitical turmoil, UN agencies believe the Middle East is experiencing an “apocalyptic” collective humanitarian crisis. Even before Hamas’s October attack on Israel convulsed the region, neighbouring Lebanon and Syria were experiencing profound challenges, while Yemen has been vying for the unenviable title of home to the world’s worst humanitarian calamity. On Friday, the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) admitted that the situation in the Middle East had probably “never been worse” since it began collating records in 1991. Already, tens of millions of people across the region depend on humanitarian aid with most metrics forecasting a deteriorating trajectory. But it is Gaza, which has been devastated by the continued Israeli military offensive, that experts warn is having a catalysing effect on the region, amplifying historical tensions while conjoining conflicts from the Mediterranean coast to the tip of the Arabian peninsula 2,300km (1,429 miles) away. James Denselow, the head of conflict and humanitarian policy at Save the Children, says: “We’ve got a very recent history of large-scale crises across …

The End We Start From review: Jodie Comer takes centre stage in a moving apocalyptic thriller

The End We Start From review: Jodie Comer takes centre stage in a moving apocalyptic thriller

Published by Sam

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free If it were angled more traditionally, The End We Start From could have been a Hollywood disaster movie. It would be about a bearded, tender-hearted hero, whose partner gives birth just as unprecedented flood waters consume their London home. He’d take them to his parents’s house, on higher ground, but would find only waning food stocks, hysterical crowds, and violent looters. His handsome face would become specked with blood. He would flee, before eventually finding a safe refuge for his wife and child. He, though, would continue onward, making the perilous journey out into a mad, decayed society. All of this does actually take place in The End We Start From. Yet we’re shown it from an entirely different perspective. Adapting Megan Hunter’s slim, lyrical 2017 novel of the same name, director Mahalia Belo and screenwriter Alice Birch focus not on that archetypal intrepid dad, but his partner. It means …

Seal pup die-off from avian flu in Argentina looks ‘apocalyptic’

Seal pup die-off from avian flu in Argentina looks ‘apocalyptic’

Published by skeptic

A very contagious strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is wreaking havoc on elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) on the coast of Patagonia, Argentina. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), almost 96 percent of elephant seal pups living at three breeding sites where the H5N1 strain of HPAI was detected have died. The WCS team estimates 17,000 elephant seal pups died in these areas in 2023. [Related: Thriving baby California condor is a ray of hope for the unique species.] “It’s the first report of massive elephant seal mortality in the area from any cause in the last half century. The sight of elephant seals found dead or dying along the breeding beaches can only be described as apocalyptic,” WCS Executive Director of Health Chris Walzer said in a statement. “This 2023 die-off contrasts starkly with the 18,000 pups born and successfully weaned in 2022.” The WCS believes that the elephant seals had little to no interaction with infected bird populations, which is further evidence of mammal to mammal transmission. According to veterinarian Marcela …

‘Her waters break and the flood comes’: author behind new Jodie Comer film on motherhood in an apocalyptic London | Environment

‘Her waters break and the flood comes’: author behind new Jodie Comer film on motherhood in an apocalyptic London | Environment

Published by skeptic

At an unknown point in the near future, a woman is giving birth. As her contractions start, her home in London is flooded and, as her baby is born, it becomes clear that a climate catastrophe of biblical proportions has begun. A sea of water invades the city as the woman takes her first postpartum, post-apocalyptic pee, then flees for higher ground with her newborn in a car seat. So begins the story of a new survival film starring the British actor Jodie Comer. The End We Start From goes on general release in UK and Irish cinemas from Friday and has a star-studded cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Fry, Gina McKee, Nina Sosanya and Mark Strong all appear alongside Comer. For the author Megan Hunter, who wrote the extraordinary 2017 novel – her debut – which the film is based on, the plot was obvious: “I’ve always had an apocalyptic imagination – I remember, even as a child, dreaming about the sea overwhelming the Earth,” she says. After having two children in her 20s, the …

IDF campaign in southern Gaza has created ‘apocalyptic’ conditions, top UN official says | Israel-Hamas war

Published by Sam

The UN’s top aid official has said the Israeli military campaign in southern Gaza has been just as devastating as in the north, creating “apocalyptic” conditions and ending any possibility of meaningful humanitarian operations. Martin Griffiths, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said he was speaking on behalf of the entire international aid community in saying the continuing offensive had robbed aid workers of any significant means of helping the 2.3 million people of Gaza, other than to call for an immediate end to the fighting. His comments came as the Israeli military said it had stormed southern Gaza’s main city in the most intense day of fighting so far, and hospitals struggled to cope with scores of dead and wounded Palestinians. “What we’re saying today is: that’s enough now. It has to stop,” Griffiths said in an interview with the Guardian, adding that the small amount of aid being allowed into Gaza could no longer be distributed, since the Israeli ground offensive had spread to southern Gaza and the city of Khan Younis, bringing the …

Trump’s Apocalyptic Rhetoric – The Atlantic

Trump’s Apocalyptic Rhetoric – The Atlantic

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November 18, 2023, 4:16 PM ET Editor’s Note: Washington Week with The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings or watch full episodes here. Former President Donald Trump has never been moderate in rhetoric and action. But there’s a real sense out there that, as he comes under further legal pressure, he’s become more apocalyptic: During a Veterans Day speech, echoing the language of authoritarian dictators, he described his political foes as “vermin.” Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, a rash of angry altercations erupted this week. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, allegedly elbowed fellow GOP Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee in the kidneys, and Senator Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, challenged a hearing witness to a fight. Joining the editor in chief of The Atlantic and moderator, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss this and more are Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent at The New York Times; Leigh Ann Caldwell, a co-author of The Washington Post’s Early …

Donald Trump’s Apocalyptic Rally in Florida

Donald Trump’s Apocalyptic Rally in Florida

Published by skeptic

“Anybody ever hear of Hannibal Lecter?” former President Donald Trump asked last night. “He was a nice fellow. But that’s what’s coming into our country right now.” The leader of the Republican Party—and quite likely the 2024 GOP nominee—was on an extended rant about mental institutions, prisons, and, to use his phrase, “empty insane asylums.” Speaking to thousands of die-hard supporters at a rally in South Florida, Trump lamented that, under President Joe Biden, the United States has become “the dumping ground of the world.” That he had casually praised one of the most infamous psychopathic serial killers in cinema history was but an aside, brushed over and forgotten. This was a dystopian, at times gothic speech. It droned on for nearly 90 minutes. Trump attacked the “liars and leeches” who have been “sucking the life and blood” out of the country. Those unnamed people were similar to, yet different from, the “rotten, corrupt, and tyrannical establishment” of Washington, D.C.—a place Trump famously despises, and to which he nonetheless longs to return. His candidacy is …