Headlines

Indonesia’s most dangerous fires are burning underground

Indonesia’s dangerous peat fires are surging early in the 2026 fire season as a strengthening El Niño and severe drought dry out wetlands that can burn underground for months. These slow smoldering fires are especially destructive because they release far more fine particles

Are Russian Filmmakers Finally Coming in From the Cold?

The Venice Film Festival found itself under fire in the weeks leading up to opening night over the inclusion of “DAU,” by Russian filmmaker Ilya Khrzhanovsky, in the main competition of its 83rd edition. In a joint statement released on Aug. 17, the Ukraine Ministries of

At flood-destroyed China-Nepal border, no sign of a once-busy port

GYIRONG, China, Sept 6 - About 20 Chinese rescue workers in bright orange operated excavators, shovels and ground-penetrating radar detectors on Sunday in an effort to find hundreds of people missing since a tsunami-like mudslide destroyed China’s main border crossing with Nepal.

Asia

AI can now control fusion plasma faster than humans can react

Princeton researchers have tested an AI system that can monitor and control fusion plasma in milliseconds, reacting far faster than a human operator. In one experiment, it predicted a damaging instability about 200 milliseconds before it appeared and adjusted the plasma to stop

Moonfish’ Director and Stars Lucy Liu and Morgan Spector Break Down Their Black-and-White Animated Film About Isolated Astronauts And Why It’s an Allegory for ‘The Current Human Condition’

For Lucy Liu, who has voiced memorable characters in everything from “Kung Fu Panda” to “Strange World,” being part of the independently made, black-and-white animated film “Moonfish” was all about lending her name and support to first-time filmmaker Daniel Zvereff. “These are