Grim

This winter was the warmest ever recorded in the mainland United States, data showed Friday – the latest sign the world is moving towards an unprecedented era as a result of the climate crisis.The average temperature in the so-called lower 48 US states from December 2023 to February 2024 was 37.6 degrees Fahrenheit (3.1 Celsius), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, the highest in a record that goes back to the 1890s.It was 5.4F (3.0C) above the 20th-century average for the world's second biggest…

It’s still too early to say if Amazon’s live-action take on Fallout will be any good. But the first few trailers at least make one thing clear: the show seems like it’s nailing the distinct vibe of the games.The newly released second trailer follows a lot of the same beats as the first, tracking a Vault Dweller named Lucy (Ella Purnell) heading out into the Wasteland only to discover how dangerous things have become two centuries after the apocalypse. The show looks gritty and violent, as you’d expect from a…

Credit: Forest Fire Management Victoria In the four years since the Black Summer bushfires, Australia has become more focused on how best to prepare for, fight and recover from these traumatic events. But one issue has largely flown under the radar: how the emissions produced by bushfires are measured and reported. Fires comprised 4.8% of total global…

Iceland-based Australian composer Ben Frost has the portfolio career of most avant garde musicians, dividing his time between scores for film, TV and video games while also making opera and art installations. An album project seems almost quaint, but his first in seven years houses some of his very best work.Cover art for Scope Neglect. Photograph: Publicity imageFrost has long tended towards symphonic grandeur, disrupting it with punkish guitar, glitching electronics and spooky sound design – with occasional spells of…

Snap investors are in a world of hurt this morning after a few whirlwind days that saw the company lay off 10% of its workforce and report worse-than-expected Q4 financial results. As of the time of this writing, shares in Snapchat’s parent company are down over 32% to $11.74 in premarket trading. Just yesterday, SNAP stock was trading at $17.45 per share.The catalyst for Snap’s massive stock pummeling was the company’s disappointing Q4 results, which were reported after the bell yesterday. While Snap’s revenues were up…

The tech industry has had a rough start to the new year. As the first month of 2024 comes to a close, it goes out in much the same way as it came in: with more tech layoffs. According to tech layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi, January 2024 has seen a total of 28,970 jobs lost across 104 companies. In the past two days alone, job cuts at several high-profile tech companies were revealed. They include:PayPal: On Tuesday, PayPal CEO Alex Chriss sent a letter to employees saying executives have decided to “right size” the company by…

There are few things worse than the “It was all a dream” plot twist. It’s lazy, and tired, and really only used when creatives have exhausted every possible scenario. This, mind you, is different from the worthy plot twists that have powered some of the best films from our lifetime, be it Fight Club, The Usual Suspects, Parasite, or Chinatown. They had narrative twists that had us rethinking everything that we watched. But a recent fan theory has us reconsidering the blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, and even director…

Signage is displayed on a Humana Inc. office building in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019. Humana is scheduled to release earnings figures on February 6. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesShares of Humana plummeted on Thursday after the health insurer issued dismal full-year earnings guidance, citing soaring medical costs that are dogging the broader insurance industry.Those expenses have spiked as an increasing number of older adults return to…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeThere’s nothing quite like It’s a Wonderful Life. The beloved 1946 Christmas film, in which James Stewart plays a despairing man who is shown what the world would look like if he’d never been born, is, to many of us, as treasured and essential a part of the festive period as Santa Claus himself.Yet like so many of the best Christmas stories – including this film’s key antecedent,…

Forecast for rainfall from November 2023 through January 2024. Credit: Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) The Amazon is facing an unprecedented drought that is projected to continue affecting the region at least until mid-2024. The lowest water levels in 121 years of river-level records have been recorded in the city of Manaus. Vast areas of the Amazon River's bed have been exposed, and more than 150 dolphins died in a lake…