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Sept. 24, 2025, 6:20 PM EDTBy Dalila MuataThis week, dozens of Christian creators on TikTok prepared for what they thought would be a biblical Rapture. In Australia, Tilahun Desalegn said he sold his car. Thousands of miles away in Colorado, Melissa Johnston created flowcharts and care packages for those who would be left behind.In Chicago, De’Mico Harden began documenting the signs — pointing out anytime the clock struck 9:23, a date that was among the three-day window when the Rapture was supposed to take place.But by Wednesday afternoon, no such end had come — instead, confusion and disappointment had set in for some believers. Many had been posting videos to TikTok about what people should expect when the Rapture occurs, namely that Jesus will take true believers to heaven as Earth enters an apocalypse.“OK, um, Rapture update, Wednesday, 9/24, sorry to report, I don’t think it actually happened,” TikTok creator AveragePickleballGuy said. “Everybody I know is still here. … A lot of people on my comments have told me that I was duped and didn’t know what I was talking about. I just kind of fell into this, I didn’t have all the facts, so I wanted to issue a public apology to anybody who took me seriously.”The prediction that the Rapture would begin on Sept. 23, during the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, appeared to originate with a South African pastor named Joshua Mhlakela, who had shared his theory in an interview with religious YouTube channel Centtwinz TV in June.Pastor Joshua Mhlakela’s Rapture prediction went viral in June.Got Reality? via YouTubeMhlakela doubled down on the theory in a later appearance on the podcast, saying that when the Rapture happens, people will disappear in the blink of an eye and “God’s judgment will leave the world unrecognizable.”As the date neared, his apocalyptic prophecy, which he projected with “100% confidence,” went viral.“For believers, the Rapture represents the ultimate validation,” Landon Schnabel, an associate professor of sociology at Cornell University, said. “Rapture beliefs create powerful in-group/out-group dynamics. Believers develop a sense of special knowledge and moral superiority, while simultaneously feeling persecuted by a world that doesn’t understand them.” The Rapture now joins the ongoing list of doomsday theories that have captivated the masses, such as the 2000 Y2K bug or when the ancient Mayan calendar predicted the apocalypse on Dec. 21, 2012.But according to Schnabel, what sets this Armageddon apart from the rest is the explosive reaction from the public. Interest in the word “rapture” increased by 1,000% in the last three days, with a search volume of over 1 million, according to Google Trends. Peak interest in “rapture” in the U.S. hit around midnight on Tuesday, the day Mhlakela had said it would happen. On TikTok, more than 290,000 posts use the #rapture hashtag.The meme-ification of the Rapture across social media also helped thrust the prediction into the mainstream. Many of the videos posted to TikTok are sketches or jokes surrounding the theory. Even Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” poked fun at the theory.“Previous predictions spread through niche religious networks or required mainstream media coverage to go viral,” Schnabel said. “TikTok’s algorithm can take a South African preacher’s prediction and put it in front of millions of young people in hours.” In the last 24 hours, some who gave up after waiting for the Rapture to arrive have called on Mhlakela to apologize for his “fake Rapture prophesy.”Mhlakela could not be reached by NBC News. He is expected to appear on Centtwinz again on Friday for an exclusive interview, the YouTubers said in their Instagram story on Wednesday.Others online wanted TikTokers who pushed Mhlakela’s theory to admit they were wrong.But some believers continue to hold out hope, which Schnabel said is unsurprising. “The public mockery actually strengthens believers’ commitment by confirming their persecution narrative,” he said. “The social bonds created around shared belief are often stronger than the belief itself.”Or, as TikToker Desalegn put it in a video to his followers Wednesday: “At this point, I’ve got nothing to lose but to continue to believe.”Dalila MuataDalila Muata is the newsroom coordinator for NBC News Digital. 

- Latest News - September 24, 2025

Dozens of Christian creators on TikTok prepared for what they thought would be a biblical Rapture. But by Wednesday afternoon, no such end had come — instead, confusion and disappointment.

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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleSept. 24, 2025, 5:49 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 24, 2025, 6:03 PM EDTBy Babak DehghanpishehIranian President Masoud Pezeshkian lashed out at the U.S and Israel for their attacks in June during a speech at the United Nations on Wednesday, one day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in the country, ruled out talks with President Donald Trump about Iran’s nuclear program.“The aerial assaults of [Israel] and the United States of America against Iran’s cities, homes and infrastructure, precisely at a time when we were treading the path of diplomatic negotiations, constituted a grave betrayal of diplomacy and a subversion of efforts towards the establishment of stability and peace,” he said. At the podium, Pezeshkian held up a book with the words “Killed By Israel” printed on the front and leafed through pages with pictures of families and children. There have been calls among moderates in Iran for direct talks with Trump, but on Tuesday Khamenei rejected negotiations with the U.S. about the country’s nuclear program and in many ways set the parameters of what Pezeshkian could discuss in New York.Trump: Iran ‘can never be allowed to possess the most dangerous weapon’01:56“In my view, negotiating with America about the nuclear issue and maybe other issues is an absolute dead end,” Khamenei said in an address, adding that Iran would not stop uranium enrichment because it would not be acceptable to the people of the country, according to his official website. He added, “This negotiation will be beneficial for the current American president. He will hold his head high, say I threatened Iran and I brought them to the negotiating table. He will be proud of this in the world. But for us it’s an absolute loss and has no benefit.”Khamenei also said on Tuesday that Iran does not intend to build a nuclear weapon, a point that Pezeshkian highlighted in his speech Wednesday, and that it will not negotiate on its ballistic missile program.NBC News has reached out to the White House for comment.Khamenei’s remarks came as the Trump administration appeared to be showing a willingness to hold talks. Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said Wednesday that Iran is in a tough position and that the administration wants to negotiate with it, according to Reuters.”We’re talking to them,” Witkoff said when asked if there is a diplomatic path forward with Iran.But the hard line drawn by Khamenei against talks with Trump about the nuclear issue could significantly ramp up tensions with the U.S. and Israel.The value of the Iranian rial against the U.S. dollar hit a record low Wednesday after Khamenei’s remarks.Moderate voices in Iran pushing for direct talks with the U.S. were hoping to stave off more devastating attacks on the country by either the Israeli or U.S. military, which pummeled the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites in late June with airstrikes, including the first combat use of massive “bunker buster” bombs. Trump, addressing the United Nations on Tuesday, said the attacks had targeted “Iran’s key nuclear facility, totally obliterating everything.” But analysts have raised questions about the extent of the damage caused by the attacks and the whereabouts of the approximately 880 pounds of enriched uranium that Iran is thought to have produced.The Israeli attacks, which Israeli officials said were intended to stop the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon, also hammered nuclear targets but expanded to include energy infrastructure and even the country’s notorious Evin prison, and killed more than 1,000 people, according to state media.Even if Iran does not talk to the U.S. directly, Pezeshkian and his foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, only have until Sep. 27 to negotiate a diplomatic solution with Britain, France and Germany before they face a “snapback” of sanctions. Negotiated under the 2015 nuclear deal, the snapback would lead to an arms embargo, freezing of assets outside the country and restrictions on enriching uranium, among other penalties.The sanctions could hit at a time when the country is reeling from an economic crisis, which critics blame on current sanctions as well as corruption and mismanagement. French President Emmanuel Macron met with Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the U.N. meeting in New York on Wednesday and posted on X that a diplomatic solution to avoid snapback could still be reached if Iran allows full access to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, is transparent about its stockpile of enriched materials and resumes negotiations. “An agreement remains possible. Only a few hours are left,” Macron wrote. “It is up to Iran to respond to the legitimate conditions we have set.”In recent months, Pezeshkian has been fighting for his political, and actual, life. He narrowly escaped an Israeli attack on a meeting of top officials in June, and his conservative critics have pressed him hard on the economy as well as restrictions on social freedoms. Security forces kicked off a massive crackdown during and after the war. The crackdown was ostensibly to ferret out spies, but in many cases the security forces used the war as a pretext to detain ethnic and religious minorities as well as Afghan migrants, according to Amnesty International. A police spokesman said in mid-August that 21,000 people had been arrested in the 12-day period of the war and observers say that more arrests have subsequently taken place and pending executions have been expedited. “They’re targeting already marginalized groups even further, and that’s one way for them to exert and show the control that they have and try to retain their power while also instilling fear in the population,” said Nassim Papayianni, an Iran campaigner at Amnesty International. “You’re talking about scapegoating. So essentially they are trying to use the conflict as a way to ramp up the crackdown and the arrests.”With Pezeshkian’s hands tied on the international stage by the supreme leader and his hard-line opponents pressing a crackdown on real and perceived enemies at home, the Iranian president appears more isolated than at any point since assuming his position last year. Babak DehghanpishehBabak Dehghanpisheh is an NBC News Digital international editor based in New York.

- Latest News - September 24, 2025

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian lashed out at the U.S and Israel for their June attacks at a speech in the U.N. after the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled out.

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Sept. 24, 2025, 6:17 PM EDTBy Daniel ArkinJimmy Kimmel’s return to late-night television after a brief suspension drew 6.26 million total viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings, making it the show’s highest-performing regularly scheduled episode in over a decade.The robust ratings are remarkable partly because a typical episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” attracts roughly 1.6 million viewers. Disney, which owns ABC, highlighted that the latest episode did not air in 23% of American households. That’s because Nexstar and Sinclair, two major owners of ABC broadcast affiliates, continue to refuse to run the show following Kimmel’s remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.Jimmy Kimmel becomes emotional during monologue after returning to air01:57Kimmel had been at the center of a political firestorm for nearly a week after he commented on the political motivations of the man suspected of killing Kirk at an event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.“The MAGA gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he said on his Sept. 15 show.Investigators had not yet released details about the suspect’s possible motive at the time.Authorities have charged Tyler Robinson, 22, with murder. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has said the suspect grew up in a conservative household in Utah but later became influenced by what he characterized as “leftist ideology.”Two days after Kimmel’s remarks about MAGA, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr accused him of being part of a “concerted effort to lie to the American people” and threatened to “take action” against Disney at the regulatory level. Disney’s decision to temporarily pull the show drew backlash from Hollywood talent and lawmakers in both parties, stoking a national debate over free speech.In the opening minutes of Tuesday’s episode, Kimmel, 57, passionately defended free speech and mocked President Donald Trump.“This show is not important,” Kimmel said. “What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”He also attempted to smooth tensions.“You understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” Kimmel said, his voice breaking. “I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”In less than 24 hours, Kimmel’s opening monologue has netted more than 26 million views across YouTube and other social media platforms, according to Disney.The initial data does not include streaming viewership, Disney said.Nexstar said Wednesday it was “continuing to evaluate the status of” Kimmel’s show.“We are engaged in productive discussions with executives at The Walt Disney Company, with a focus on ensuring the program reflects and respects the diverse interests of the communities we serve,” Nexstar said in a statement.Sinclair struck a similar chord: “Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”Daniel ArkinDaniel Arkin is a national reporter at NBC News.

- Latest News - September 24, 2025

Jimmy Kimmel’s return to late-night television after a brief suspension drew 6.26 million total viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings, marking the show’s highest-performing regularly scheduled episode in over a.

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