Welcome to Horror Explorer, a curated column showcasing the month’s best movies, series, books and everything else spooky worth checking out. I’m William Earl, the executive digital director of Variety and the publication’s resident horror enthusiast. Please drop me a line at
Authorities told the New York Times that the operations were fueled by out-of-state cash, concealed ownership and lax marijuana laws.
People gathered at a makeshift memorial in Crans-Montana to remember victims of a deadly bar fire during New Year celebrations.
Start the year with a bit of glamour as we continue celebrating the centennial of this pivotal 20th-century movement.
In Stranger Things, evil has finally been vanquished. If only our own reality was so simple.
A meditation on light, hedonistic dance-floor photos, a filthy history of public bathrooms, and more reading to ring in a new year.
Japan's toy market grew 7.9 per cent year on year to hit $9.1 billion in the year ending March 2025.
The political anthem was originally a 1911 poem by James Oppenheim inspired by the women’s suffrage and labor movements in the United States
Star played "I'm Coming Out" and "Upside Down" during the performance
Being active boosts your daily calorie burn more than previously thought. Researchers found that increased physical activity raises total energy use without triggering the body to conserve energy elsewhere. Basic functions keep running at full speed, even as movement increases.
Newly sworn-in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani defended his ambitious agenda Thursday, rejecting the prospect of “small expectations” in his inaugural address from outside City Hall. Mamdani — a democratic socialist whose policy proposals for rent freezes, city-owned
A brief chapter in Chevy Chase’s illustrious comedy career is his ill-fated late-night talk series “The Chevy Chase Show,” which ran on Fox for six weeks in 1993 and was cancelled after scathing reviews and low ratings. In the new CNN documentary “I’m Chevy Chase and You’re
As long as we're talking about this—the hive definitely plays mono blue, right?
President Trump put the brakes on looming tariff hikes just hours before they were set to hit as voter frustration over high prices continues to simmer.
The Trump administration is said to be backing down from punishing duties of more than 90% after a government review spared major Italian exporters.
Indie rockers were among the many musicians who played a part in Zohran Mamdani's successful campaign to become mayor of New York City. Lucy Dacus, for instance, welcomed Mamdani onstage during her performance at All Things Go. Mamdani is keeping that connection going as his
George Clooney suggested the midterm elections could put the country on the right track in a response to President Trump’s snarky social media posts about the actor’s recent decision to get French citizenship. On New Year’s Eve, the president hailed Clooney’s move as “Good
This marks the K-pop band's first studio album since 2020’s Be
The latest attacks bring the total number of known boat strikes to 35 and the number of people killed to at least 115 since early September, according to official figures.
The assessment was included in support of an indictment against four residents of Bedouin villages in the south who are accused of smuggling weapons by drone and espionage offenses. The head of the Shin Bet recently called the weapon smuggling by drone an 'ongoing catastrophe'
The Stockholm post-hardcore band Feels Like Heaven features three members of Speedway, but their music diverges slightly from Speedway’s breathless head-knock hardcore. As heard on Within Dreams, their debut album out today, Feels Like Heaven practice more of a melodic
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) touted a “new era for New York City” Thursday at the inauguration of fellow progressive New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “This ascent marks a new era for New York City, led by a historic new mayor in Zohran Mamdani, guided by his
Several Gershwin classics, plus cartoons like Betty Boop and Blondie , have reached the U.S. copyright maximum
"I keep thinking nothing can surprise me at this point, but…" Rachel Reid, the author behind the show, said
Who's got time for romance? I've got a job to do!
Researchers working on China's fully superconducting Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) have experimentally accessed a theorized "density-free regime" for fusion plasmas, achieving stable operation at densities well beyond conventional limits.
A new study, published in the journal Science, reveals how millennia of human migration across Pacific islands led to the introduction of invasive pig species all over the Asia-Pacific region.
About 9,500 years ago, a community of hunter-gatherers in central Africa cremated a small woman on an open pyre at the base of Mount Hora, a prominent natural landmark in northern Malawi, according to a new study coauthored by an international team based in the United States,
President Donald Trump has consistently refused to take responsibility for failures and mistakes, instead blaming others and touting his successes, while great leaders like John F. Kennedy, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower have taken responsibility for their failures.
Astronomers just measured the mass of a free-floating planet without a star for the first time
Another year, another grab bag of expired copyrights.
Jan 1 - Russia has asked the U.S. to stop its pursuit of an oil tanker that was heading to Venezuela and is now fleeing the U.S. Coast Guard in the Atlantic Ocean, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
China has wrapped up two days of live-fire drills around the island featuring rocket launches, aircraft and warships.
LA shoegazers Luster popped up with two new songs on consecutive days last April, which made us think they might be building toward some kind of larger release. Instead, their Bandcamp has remained silent until today. Luster have kicked off 2026 with a new single called “Don’t
Protesters and security forces clashed in several Iranian cities on Thursday, with six reported killed, the first deaths since the cost-of-living demonstrations broke out. The protests began on Sunday in Tehran, where shopkeepers went on strike over high prices and economic
Astronomers from the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) in India and elsewhere have conducted a long-term photometric and spectroscopic study of a young stellar object known as V1180 Cassiopeiae. Results of the study, published December 23 on the
Large language models repeatedly chased losses, escalated risk and even bankrupted themselves in simulated gambling environments, a study found.
The first 2026 release from Connecticut hardcore label DAZE is on the poppy side, and I’m ready to offer my endorsement. “Be Your Anchor” comes from Dream Fatigue, a Salem, MA band who are injecting Paramore-style emo theatrics into today’s prevalent grunge/shoegaze style. The
Videos on social media showed cars set on fire during running battles as protests entered their fifth day.
On January 1, 1943, the American folk music legend Woody Guthrie jotted in his journal a list of 33 “New Years Rulin’s.” Nowadays, we’d call them New Year’s Resolutions. Adorned by doodles, the list is down to earth by any measure. Family, song, taking a political stand,
A vehicle carrying the former heavyweight champion and two of his associates crashed into a stationary truck on Monday on a major thoroughfare, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which links Ogun state to Lagos.
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” continued to draw crowds on New Year’s Eve, topping the box office with $8.1 million. The film has become another holiday juggernaut for James Cameron and Disney, which acquired the rights to all things Pandora when it bought Fox in 2019. It has earned
One year ago today, Jane Remover kicked off the rollout for Revengeseekerz, one of the best albums of 2025, with the release of closing track “JRJRJR,” one of the best songs of 2025. It’s New Year’s Day once again, and Jane Remover once again has a new song for us. Just before
The singer shared "Talk To Me” and “Sexistential” while taking the stage at the Brooklyn Paramount
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered contrasting speeches to ring in the new year amid a push to end the nearly four-year war between the two countries. Putin delivered a brief address, suggesting the people of Russia are “united”
Coral reefs are often described as biodiversity hotspots, but new research shows they also act as powerful regulators of the microscopic life in the surrounding ocean.
Dark matter is an elusive type of matter that does not emit, absorb or reflect light, interacting very weakly with ordinary matter. These characteristics make it impossible to detect using conventional technologies used by physicists to study matter particles.
CES always starts the year with a bang.
