Was a long and dark December: Wicked war, martial law, killing, death and an Indian movie with a new chess champ!
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pushpa 2: The Rule |  |
2,707,690 | The much-awaited sequel to the 2021 Tollywood film, Pushpa: The Rise was finally released last week after three years of waiting. It stars Allu Arjun (pictured) in the titular role, paired with Rashmika Mandanna. The film recovered its ₹500 crore (US$60 million) budget within just three days, becoming the first Indian film to gross such a sum in such a period of time. | |
| 2 | Kash Patel | |
2,038,926 |  |
Formerly a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice, he was selected by the president-elect Donald Trump to be the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during Trump's second presidency. |
| 3 | Wicked (2024 film) | |
1,215,749 | .jpg) |
A well-received, star-studded theater adaptation (#7), offering a revisionist take on the Land of Oz where the Wicked Witch of the West is just a victim of prejudice and propaganda that decided to embrace the bad image painted upon her. Along with making lots of money - mostly in North America, where it passed the $300 million mark - Wicked is expected to become an awards contender. |
| 4 | Syrian civil war | |
1,090,108 |  |
A war that started when I was eight months old still continues to this day. Syria's civil war can be described as a hell on earth, with 620,000 deaths (half of whom are civilians) and millions of displaced folks. The reason it's this high is the recent rebel offensive (#9) that wiped out Ba'athist Syria, and Bashar Al-Assad with it, in less than 11 days. |
| 5 | Martial law |  |
1,036,797 |  |
Replacing civilian government with military rule and suspending civilian legal processes with military powers. Only reason it's here now is because, in what has been described as a "self-coup", "political suicide", and "stupid", South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol declared it with no advance warning on December 3. Within two hours, 190 legislators forced themselves into the National Assembly Proceeding Hall (including Lee Jae-myung, who livestreamed himself) and unanimously voted to repeal it. |
| 6 | Deaths in 2024 |  |
1,010,937 |  |
Quoting one of the biggest hits of this year by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga: If the world was ending, I'd wanna be next to you If the party was over and our time on earth was through I'd wanna hold you just for a while And die with a smile... |
| 7 | Wicked (musical) |  |
994,074 |  |
The book adaptation that made a killing on Broadway before getting the film treatment (#3). The original Elphaba (Idina Menzel) and Glinda (Kristin Chenoweth) have cameos in the movie, and many countries that staged their own versions of Wicked brought the women who played the witches to dub their film counterparts (such as the two to the left, Mexicans Danna Paola and Ceci de la Cueva, in the Latin American Spanish version). |
| 8 | UnitedHealth Group | |
939,448 |  |
This American health insurance provider, currently 8th on Fortune's Global 500, places higher than that of its CEO (#10), following his killing in NYC this week. Their alleged greed elicited contempt on social media, even so far as to view Thompson's death as justified, vindicating the thousands of deaths each year, due to the company denying health care coverage. |
| 9 | 2024 Syrian opposition offensives | |
937,915[1] | .jpg) |
The Syrian opposition hadn't done a military offensive campaign since 2020, but with the help of allied Turkish-backed groups, decided to finally go all-in against the forces of Bashar Al-Assad. After taking back cities such as Aleppo, Homs and Palmyra, the rebels ended the week covered by this report invading the capital city of Damascus. By the early hours of Sunday, Assad fled to Russia, ending a totalitarian hereditary dictatorship that had ruled Syria ever since Assad's father had taken over in a 1970 coup. |
| 10 | Brian Thompson (businessman) |  |
925,938 | .svg){kind=small} |
The CEO of #8 left his Manhattan hotel at 6:45 in the morning of December 4 and was walking across the street to attend an investors' meeting. He didn't make it to the door: he was shot several times from behind and died thirty minutes later. He had previously received death threats, and his assailant from out of town had been staying in a NYC hostel for ten days. |
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bashar al-Assad |  |
4,026,589 |  |
Syria's controversial ruler for over twenty years, Assad and his government were recently overthrown in #4. He has fled to Russia, a country ruled by another twenty-year ruler, and given political asylum. What he plans to do is unknown. One thing is for sure: he isn't returning to Syria (#3) anytime soon. |
| 2 | Pushpa 2: The Rule | |
4,023,277 |  |
A sequel that comes three years after the first film, while a third film is already on the way. Released a week ago, Pushpa 2 has already collected ₹1,106 crore (US$130 million) to emerge as the second highest-grossing Indian film of the year, fourth highest-grossing film in India and the eighth highest-grossing Indian film (#5). |
| 3 | Syria | |
2,563,423 | |
A civil war that has been going on for thirteen years was only the most recent part of Syria's decades-long sociopolitical chaos, and the conflict has regained international attention following the opposition taking over capital Damascus and ousting #1. The war is far from over, and with neighboring countries launching invasions, heavy fighting continues, and the country's future is an uncertain one. |
| 4 | Syrian civil war | |
1,822,405 | ||
| 5 | List of highest-grossing Indian films | |
1,270,262 | .svg) |
Indian cinema definitely has a important part in the International film industry. With #2 reaching new feats, it's no wonder this list made it onto the list. Out of the top 8 grossing films, four came from Tollywood, and three from Bollywood. Although Kollywood has actors with international fandom, unlike others, it couldn't make it past 15th place. |
| 6 | Gukesh Dommaraju | |
1,200,900 | .jpg) |
The world of chess welcomes its newest World Champion. Having played chess since the age of seven and won several championships throughout his career, Gukesh is only 18 years old, a remarkable age for a grandmaster. He defeated Ding Liren, who's nearly double his age, in a close World Chess Championship battle, narrowly winning by a single point. Checkmate. (Well, not really. Ding resigned before Gukesh could do that.) |
| 7 | Asma al-Assad | |
1,079,427 |  |
#1's wife, she has also fled to Russia along with her three kids. Despite being born in the UK and retaining its citizenship, the UK government has said that she isn't welcome and is considering sanctions. |
| 8 | Killing of Brian Thompson | |
1,057,985 |  |
Brian Thompson, a low-profile businessman and CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was shot dead in Downtown Manhattan, allegedly by Luigi Mangione. His exact motive is unclear: some say it was revenge for his family members' denied claims, while others say it was political. The killing itself was controversial, with some claiming it was justified and others offering condolences to Thompson's family. Whatever the case, the incident was one of the most famous killings of 2024, and Thompson has been added to #10. |
| 9 | Brian Thompson (businessman) | |
1,026,961 | ||
| 10 | Deaths in 2024 | |
1,000,904 |  |
Now the Sun's gone to hell And the Moon's riding high Let me bid you farewell Every man has to die... |
For the October 11 – November 11 period, per this database report.
| Title | Revisions | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Killing of Brian Thompson | 2263 | As mentioned above, the CEO of health company UnitedHealthcare was shot dead in Manhattan. Motives are unclear, but the alleged murderer, Luigi Mangione, has shown admiration for the Unabomber Manifesto. |
| Deaths in 2024 | 2029 | Along with Thompson, high-profile departures of the period included presenter Chuck Woolery, drummer Bob Bryar and director Jim Abrahams. |
| 2024 South Korean martial law | 1872 | South Korean president and PPP member Yoon Suk Yeol is not popular: he has had consistently low approval ratings, partly due to him stopping multiple corruption investigations into his wife, Kim Keon-hee. He has also struggled to do much since the National Assembly is controlled by opposition party DP. It seems that declaring martial law was a last-ditch attempt to keep power by Yoon and, considering he had told almost no one beforehand, his decision alone. This is the first declaration of martial law since the coup d'état of May Seventeenth, and to older Koreans, recalled the military dictatorship that South Korea had been under. Koreans immediately went into the streets to call for Yoon's impeachment and arrest. Legislators did try to impeach him, but their attempt failed since Yoon's party refused to cooperate. Still, Yoon is now banned from leaving South Korea. |
| Wicked (2024 film) | 1419 | In 1995, Gregory Maguire wrote a revisionist take on the Wicked Witch of the West, reimagining the Oz villain as Elphaba, a person targeted by prejudice and propaganda. Stephen Schwartz read it on his vacation and made a Broadway musical out of it, whose runaway success led to a film adaptation. Wicked was very well-received, having earned over $500 million worldwide and making appearances on many critics' "best of 2024" lists, raising its profile for awards season and expectations for Part 2 next November. |
| Bigg Boss (Telugu TV series) season 8 | 1141 | India has film industries for all its languages, so why not versions of Big Brother for them as well? |
| Bigg Boss (Tamil TV series) season 8 | 1132 | |
| Bigg Boss (Hindi TV series) season 18 | 949 | |
| 2024 UK Championship | 922 | York hosted this snooker tournament, won by current world #1 and 2019 world champion Judd Trump. |
| 2024 Jharkhand Legislative Assembly election | 870 | A few months after choosing their representatives for the central government, eight of the Indian states voted on their state assemblies. One of them was Jharkand, and the majority of the seats went to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party that rules the country. |
| Donald Trump | 857 | He's returning to the White House. The next four years will certainly be eventful. |
| Brian Thompson (businessman) | 850 | A murdered CEO of a health company, and his tenure saw rocketing profits for increasing denial of medical care, including denying insurance payment for non-critical visits to hospital emergency rooms, and downright using artificial intelligence to automate claim denials. This led to many people not offering condolences for Thompson's death, but rather celebrating it. |
| 2024 United States presidential election | 826 | People are still trying to process all that happened, specially as the news show Biden's lame duck actions (which included a controversial pardon for his son Hunter Biden) and Trump appointing his upcoming cabinet. |
| 2024 Irish general election | 823 | The Emerald Isle chose the members of the 34th Dáil, and the Fianna Fáil remained the party with the most seats. |
| Gladiator II | 813 | One of the least requested sequels of all time (the protagonist of the first film is apparently not happy with it existing). Yet the return of director Ridley Scott to Gladiator, no matter if nowhere as compelling as the Oscar-winning original, is very watchable, with impeccable production values, thrilling action scenes, and an amazing cast, highlighted by Denzel Washington as the devious Macrinus. Hence Gladiator II earned positive reviews and made over $400 million worldwide, providing some return to the massive budget of at least $250 million. |
| South Vietnam | 809 | A few IPs are doing a lot of edits to the page on the country that the Americans supported in the Vietnam War, and that ended up incorporated by North Vietnam in 1975 to create the current nation. |
Discuss this story
Is it not a serious BLP issue to call Mangione a murderer without a conviction? Sincerely, Dilettante 14:07, 25 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]