Peace Garden at UNESCO | © INFGM Located within the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris, the Peace Garden by Isamu Noguchi emerges not merely as a landscape installation but as a profound meditation on postwar diplomacy and cultural synthesis. Commissioned in the mid-1950s, the garden symbolizes the United Nations’ commitment to peace through mutual understanding and cultural dialogue. Peace Garden at UNESCO Technical Information Artist1-2: Isamu Noguchi Location: 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris, France Client: Marcel Breuer / UNESCO Area: 2,400 m2 | 25,800 Sq. Ft. Project Year: 1958 Photographs: © INFGM and Flick Users, See Caption Details It should be a quiet, moving place. – Isamu Noguchi 3 Peace Garden at UNESCO Photographs © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © bbonthebrink, Flickr User © Patrice Todisco © bbonthebrink, Flickr User © bbonthebrink, Flickr User © Dalbera, Flckr user © Dalbera, Flckr user Park View Park View Context and Commission Noguchi, a Japanese-American sculptor and designer, was a poignant choice for the task. His biography embodies a convergence of East and West, as well as a lifelong engagement with public space as a vehicle for social commentary. By the time of his UNESCO commission, Noguchi had already engaged with landscape-scale sculptures, memorials, and playgrounds. The Peace Garden offered an opportunity to distill these threads into a singular work situated at the crossroads of global diplomacy. His selection was shaped by the broader architectural ethos of the UNESCO campus, designed by an international team including Marcel Breuer, Pier Luigi Nervi, and Bernard Zehrfuss. The ensemble called for a complementary but ideologically rich intervention, a space that could resonate as much with symbolic gravitas as with formal clarity. This garden was Noguchi’s first realized landscape design, and its execution was made possible through a personal introduction from Marcel Breuer, the chief architect of the UNESCO headquarters. Breuer not only facilitated the commission but also supported Noguchi’s experimental vision, which would challenge prevailing notions of diplomatic landscaping. Notably, the garden was completed in 1958 and spans approximately 2,400 square meters. It was constructed by renowned Kyoto-based master gardener Sano Toemon, marking a cross-cultural collaboration between modernist sculpture and traditional Japanese craftsmanship. Design Philosophy and Symbolic Intent Noguchi approached the Peace Garden as both sculptor and spatial thinker. He resisted creating a traditional memorial or a didactic allegory of peace. Instead, he crafted a contemplative void, a space that, through its absence of overt narrative, invited personal reflection and multiple interpretations. Drawing on the vocabulary of Japanese rock gardens and Zen traditions, Noguchi created a space of abstract expression that nonetheless maintained universal accessibility. The garden is composed of roughly hewn granite stones, a central water basin, and minimal vegetation. Each element is carefully positioned, creating an orchestrated tension between natural materiality and deliberate composition. This spatial language evokes notions of impermanence, balance, and introspection. The garden does not dictate how peace should be understood; rather, it sets a stage for experiencing peace as a spatial and emotional condition. In Noguchi’s words, the garden was to be “a quiet, moving place” rather than a monument. While inspired by Japanese garden typologies, particularly the stroll garden (池泉回遊式), Noguchi chose not to replicate tradition. Instead, he abstracted and reinterpreted elements such as Mt. Horai rock formations, stepping stones, and a crouching basin. These forms subtly allude to symbolic motifs without prescribing a singular reading. Noguchi negotiated directly with the Japanese government to secure donations of ten tons of stone and plant materials including camellias, maples, cherry trees, and bamboo. This act itself underscored the garden’s role as a diplomatic gesture, embedding it with botanical references to Japanese identity while maintaining a universal design language. Material and Spatial Composition Set at the base of the UNESCO building, the Peace Garden establishes a counterpoint to the architectural massing surrounding it. Its recessed layout forms a kind of spatial cloister, shielding visitors from the city’s rhythm and inviting a slower, more inward pace. The materials, chiefly unpolished granite, gravel, and water, speak to both permanence and mutability. The granite stones, irregular yet intentional in placement, recall tectonic forms and ancient spiritual markers. The central water feature introduces subtle movement and sound, enhancing the sensory richness of the space. The garden’s compositional core is its sculptural use of stone, each placement a spatial decision echoing both tectonic memory and sculptural intentionality. Noguchi collaborated on-site with Sano Toemon, whose craftsmanship adapted in real-time to the artist’s rapidly evolving vision. According to Sano, it was only after intense on-site dialogue and shared experience that he could fully comprehend and execute Noguchi’s aesthetic strategy, a testament to the garden’s improvisational and relational genesis. Spatially, the garden is organized not around pathways but around moments. There is no linear procession or axial symmetry; instead, it offers a field of relationships. Voids and solids, shadows and reflections, horizontality and vertical interruptions all work together to create a space that must be experienced slowly and from multiple vantage points. The absence of overt hierarchy in the layout allows users to construct their own narratives. It is a non-prescriptive space in which silence, texture, and light become the principal mediums of meaning. Peace Garden at UNESCO Plans Floor Plan | © Isamu Noguchi Floor Plan | © Isamu Noguchi Peace Garden at UNESCO Image Gallery About Isamu Noguchi Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was a Japanese-American sculptor, landscape architect, and designer renowned for his fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics. Trained under Constantin Brâncuși and deeply influenced by Japanese traditions, Noguchi’s work spanned sculpture, furniture, stage sets, and public spaces. His practice was rooted in a belief that art should be integrated into everyday life, often blurring the boundaries between art, architecture, and landscape. Notable for his minimal yet emotionally resonant forms, Noguchi’s legacy includes iconic works such as the Noguchi Table, the UNESCO Peace Garden in Paris, and the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in New York. Credits and Additional Notes Style: Stroll Garden, Contemporary Japanese Garden Main Contractor: Sano Toemon, in collaboration with Uetō Zōen Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi by Hayden Herrera Torres, Ana Maria. Isamu Noguchi: Studies in Space. Tokyo: Marumo Publishing, 2000. pp. 96–109. Sasaki, Yōji. “What Isamu Noguchi Left Behind.” Japan Landscape, no. 16, Process Architecture, 1990, p. 87. Treib, Marc. Noguchi in Paris: The UNESCO Garden. San Francisco: William Stout Publishers and UNESCO Publishing, 2004. Overseas Japanese Gardens Database. “UNESCO Garden.” Accessed May 2025.

Five years ago, George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer after Floyd was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill. His death ignited a series of protests in the United States that gave new energy to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and which seemed—at the time—to reshape society, online and offline. As the protests that were born out of Floyd’s death reached their zenith in June 2020, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a poignant message: “To members of our Black community: I stand with you. Your lives matter. Black lives matter.” Zuckerberg also pledged that Meta would revise its content policies to tamp down on hate speech. At the same time, platforms like Twitter—now X—took the unprecedented step of limiting the reach of posts by then-sitting U.S. president Donald Trump, after he warned protestors in Minneapolis responding to Floyd’s death that “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Reddit updated its hate speech policy; TikTok had to apologize that its algorithm inadvertently suppressed BLM content. Five years on from Floyd’s death, a lot has changed, including social media’s tolerance for hate speech, incitement to violence, and racism. “Given the rollback of a lot of DEI friendly policies, I’d say we can tell how performative those approaches were,” says Carolina Are, a researcher at the Center for Digital Citizens at Northumbria University. “Platforms are private companies, not public institutions despite their overshare of online civil space, so they will always seek to protect their bottom line,” says tèmítópé lasade-anderson, executive director at Glitch, a charity focused on digital rights. The end of DEI Perhaps one of the most obvious examples of that backsliding was Meta terminating its major diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs for hiring, training and picking suppliers in response to a “changing” approach to DEI within the United States. That change happened in January, as soon as Donald Trump took office as president. The ease with which those programs were rolled back hints at how firmly the statements made immediately after Floyd’s death were held within tech organizations. “Companies of all stripes are conspicuously scaling back DEI programs for employees, and platforms are no exception,” says Daphne Keller., director of the program on platform regulation at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center. Keller says that change isn’t just trying to reflect the political winds. “The Trump administration has made it clear that companies risk having multi-million dollar mergers blocked or government contracts terminated if they do not eliminate efforts to diversify hiring, training, and promotion,” she says. It’s in that light—tech companies being threatened with losing out on cash—that the decisions are being made, Keller reckons. Meta did not respond to a request to comment for this story. The “free speech” platform In Elon Musk’s case, after he took over X, the company adopt new policies to allow more leeway for, Musk claimed, people to say things that could be offensive, but not illegal, while simultaneously. cracking down on the ability to say other words, such as cisgender. Hate speech and racist tweets rose by nearly half in the period after Elon Musk took over Twitter, according to a February 2025 study by researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Neither Musk nor X’s press office responded to a request for this story. “In general I’d say platforms have been aligning with anti-DEI initiatives, showing that their pro-BLM stances were entirely performative,” says Are. Whether that’s totally fair is uncertain. Roy Austin, a civil rights attorney of three decades standing who was hired as vice president for civil rights at Meta around six months after Floyd’s death, left the company in March 2025. His parting message was largely positive about his time at the company, while acknowledging “the complexity and challenges of our work.” (Austin declined to speak for this story.) Meta’s January winding back of its policies was roundly criticized by some of the same civil rights organizations who the social network had often called on to advise Meta on its decision-making. The platform had shown a “cynical disregard” for the diversity of its user base, the letter, organized by the nonprofit Common Cause, read. Yet Meta’s latest transparency report shows that hate speech has dropped on Facebook, from the average user encountering around 10 posts containing it for every 10,000 they saw, to around two today. That data stops, however, before the big change in January took place. What it looks like five years on from BLM protestors chanting “No justice, no peace” on streets around the United States will have to wait for the company’s next transparency report. 

"In the 1970s, the USSR used nuclear devices to try to send water from Siberia's rivers flowing south, instead of its natural route north..." remembers the BBC. [T]he Soviet Union simultaneously fired three nuclear devices buried 127m (417ft) underground. The yield of each device was 15 kilotonnes (about the same as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945). The experiment, codenamed "Taiga", was part of a two-decade long Soviet programme of carrying out peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs). In this case, the blasts were supposed to help excavate a massive canal to connect the basin of the Pechora River with that of the Kama, a tributary of the Volga. Such a link would have allowed Soviet scientists to siphon off some of the water destined for the Pechora, and send it southward through the Volga. It would have diverted a significant flow of water destined for the Arctic Ocean to go instead to the hot, heavily populated regions of Central Asia and southern Russia. This was just one of a planned series of gargantuan "river reversals" that were designed to alter the direction of Russia's great Eurasian waterways... Years later, Leonid Volkov, a scientist involved in preparing the Taiga explosions, recalled the moment of detonation. "The final countdown began: ...3, 2, 1, 0... then fountains of soil and water shot upward," he wrote. "It was an impressive sight." Despite Soviet efforts to minimise the fallout by using a low-fission explosive, which produce fewer atomic fragments, the blasts were detected as far away as the United States and Sweden, whose governments lodged formal complaints, accusing Moscow of violating the Limited Test Ban Treaty... Ultimately, the nuclear explosions that created Nuclear Lake, one of the few physical traces left of river reversal, were deemed a failure because the crater was not big enough. Although similar PNE canal excavation tests were planned, they were never carried out. In 2024, the leader of a scientific expedition to the lake announced radiation levels were normal. "Perhaps the final nail in the coffin was the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, which not only consumed a huge amount of money, but pushed environmental concerns up the political agenda," the article notes. "Four months after the Number Four Reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev cancelled the river reversal project." And a Russian blogger who travelled to Nuclear Lake in the summer of 2024 told the BBC that nearly 50 years later, there were some places where the radiation was still significantly elevated. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Earth and space mingle in stunning ways for the 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year contest. From the “geological masterpiece” of Coyote Buttes, Utah to the sandstone terrain of desolate Ennedi, Chad to a lava-spewing volcano in Guatemala, this year’s entries dazzle from all corners of the globe. We even get a view of the Milky Way from off-planet with a photograph from NASA astronaut Don Pettit taken aboard the International Space Station. “The Wave”Coyote Buttes, UT, USAOne of my greatest passions is visiting stunning natural wonders and paying my personal tribute to them through night photography. This image was taken at Coyote Buttes, a geological masterpiece located in Arizona, where special access permits are required to protect it for future generations.Despite the intense cold during those days, it was incredibly exciting to visit the great sandstone wave for the first time and enjoy its spectacular shapes and colors.To capture this 360° panorama, I planned for the Milky Way and focused on creating a balanced photographic composition. It’s hard to put into words the beauty of this place, but I hope my photograph manages to convey it.Credit: Luis Cajete / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill The Milky Way contains an estimated 200-400 billion stars, but we can only see a fraction of the celestial bodies with our naked eyes. Photography opens up the skies to the staggering light show floating around us. (Click to enlarge images.) “Echiwile Arch” Ennedi, ChadWhen one first Googles information about visiting Chad, the results aren’t very encouraging from a safety perspective. Nevertheless, the intrepid astrophotographer in me decided to take the chance and visit this landlocked country, specifically the Ennedi Massif in the north.Sparsely populated and completely devoid of light pollution, the three-day drive from the capital, N’Djamena, was well worth the troubles and risks involved. The region is filled with numerous rock formations, shapes, and arches, offering an abundance of options for foreground elements to frame the dramatic night skies. Seen here is a small arch in the shape of a hoof in the Ennedi region.Credit: Vikas Chander / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Fortress of Light”Jujuy, ArgentinaSince I started shooting the night sky, I’ve always sought out landscapes that feel like they belong to another planet — remote, untouched, and far from light pollution. That’s exactly what I found in “The Cathedral,” a surreal rock formation in Jujuy, Argentina.Photographing at over 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) presented its challenges, but when I arrived and saw the rock formations, I was completely blown away. The landscape felt like something from a fantasy world, and the towering cliffs instantly reminded me of a giant stone fortress sculpted by nature.As twilight gave way to full darkness, the core of the Milky Way appeared high overhead, shining with incredible clarity. I patiently waited as the galactic center slowly descended toward the horizon, perfectly aligning above the cliffs.While capturing the panorama, the camera picked up bands of orange and green airglow, adding a unique glow to the horizon.This image captures everything I love about photographing the Milky Way — the silence of remote places, the peace of standing under a pristine sky, and the deep connection I feel to the moment, fully present and grateful to witness it.Credit: Mauricio Salazar / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “The Night Guardians” Easter Island, ChileEaster Island had been on my bucket list for a long time, and it once seemed almost impossible to reach. On our first night there, the weather forecast looked promising, so we decided to go ahead with the tour our group had booked 4–5 months earlier. However, Rapa Nui sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where the weather is notoriously unpredictable. When we woke up at 3 a.m. in our hotel, the sky was completely covered in clouds. Still, we decided to take the risk, knowing the forecast for the next few nights was even worse.An hour later, we were frantically photographing the statues at Rano Raraku—the quarry where nearly all of the island’s 900 statues were carved—when the sky suddenly began to clear. By 5 a.m., it was completely clear, and we had less than two hours to capture all the shots we wanted. We felt incredibly lucky to be in the right place at the right time.Credit: Rositsa Dimitrova / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Blossom”Hehuan Mountain Dark Sky Park, TaiwanAfter three years of waiting, the Yushan alpine rhododendrons are finally in bloom once again on Taiwan’s 3,000-meter-high Hehuan Mountain. On this special night, distant clouds helped block city light pollution, revealing an exceptionally clear view of the Milky Way. A solar flare from active region AR3664 reached Earth that evening, intensifying the airglow and adding an otherworldly touch to the sky.Together, these rare natural events created a breathtaking scene—vivid blooms glowing softly beneath a star-filled sky.Credit: Ethan Su / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Spines and Starlight”Kanaan, NamibiaOn our second Namibia Photography Tour, we began our journey once again at one of our favorite spots in Kanaan. Last year was an incredible experience, but this time, we decided to explore more of this vast land.During a scouting trip, I stumbled upon the perfect composition—two quiver trees standing tall with a large cactus in the foreground, all beautifully aligned with the Milky Way. I had always wanted to capture the Milky Way alongside a big cactus, so in that moment, it felt like a special gift.Getting everything in focus was a bit challenging, as I had to get extremely close to the cactus without getting poked. To achieve perfect sharpness, I used focus stacking. Additionally, I shot with an astro-modified camera and a GNB Nebula filter to enhance the details of the night sky.Credit: Burak Esenbey / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Galaxy of the Stone Array” Moeraki Boulders, New ZealandThe Milky Way hangs over the sea. The night sky of the Southern Hemisphere condenses the poetry of Li Bai, a poet from China’s Tang Dynasty, into eternity. On a clear night, the Milky Way pours down over the sea like a waterfall from the sky, intertwining with the atmospheric glow on the water’s surface.Credit: Alvin Wu / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “One in a Billion ”ISS (International Space Station)I float in the Cupola, looking out the seven windows composing this faceted transparent jewel. While my mind is submerged in contemplation, my eyes gorge on the dim reflections from a nighttime Earth. There are over eight billion people that call this planet home. There are seven of us that can say the same for Space Station. What a privilege it is to be here. I used an orbital star tracker to take out the star streak motion from orbit.Credit: Don Pettit / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Winter Fairy Tale”Dobratsch Nature Park, AustriaUndoubtedly my wildest location this winter: Austria’s Dobratsch mountain! If I had to describe it in two words, it would be a “Winter Fairytale”!Despite a 5 a.m. work shift, I drove to Austria by 1 p.m., worried about my fitness and lack of sleep. After a 2-hour hike through the snow with a 22kg backpack and sled, the stunning views kept me energized.Arriving at the cabin (where I had planned my winter panorama two years ago), I was greeted by untouched snow, completely free of footprints. I spent the evening exploring compositions, and this is my favorite: a panorama of the winter Milky Way with reddish nebulae, stretching above Dobratsch Mountain.I captured the Zodiacal light and even the Gegenschein glow! The sky was magnificent, with Jupiter and Mars shining brightly. In the foreground is the cabin, where I spent 3 freezing hours (-12°C), waiting for the perfect shot of the Milky Way’s core. It turned out exactly as I envisioned—a true winter fairytale.Credit: Uroš Fink / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Valle de los Cactus” San Pedro de Atacama, ChileA panoramic shot of the Milky Way in a remote area of the Atacama Cactus Valley, known for its large concentration of cactus plants. I love this place with its countless possibilities. The panorama was taken just as the galactic center began to rise, with the spectacular Gum Nebula visible on the right.It was an especially bright night with a breathtaking sky. The valley isn’t easy to navigate, but it’s always worth trying to find new compositions in such stunning locations beneath the night sky.Credit: Pablo Ruiz / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Cosmic Fire”Volcán Acatenango, GuatemalaOn the early morning of June 2, 2024, I summited Acatenango Volcano for the first time, hoping to witness the fiery beauty of the neighboring Volcan de Fuego against the Milky Way’s backdrop. That night, the volcano was incredibly active—each thunderous explosion reverberated in my chest, while glowing lava illuminated the dark slopes. Above, the Milky Way stretched diagonally across the sky, a mesmerizing band of stars contrasting with the chaos below. As the volcano erupted, the ash plume rose vertically, forming an acute angle of about 45 degrees with the galaxy’s diagonal path, creating a stunning visual contrast between Earth’s fury and the cosmos’ serenity.Capturing this required a fast, wide-angle lens (f/2.8), an ISO of 3200, and a 10-second exposure to balance the volcanic glow with the starlight. The challenge was timing the shot during a new moon and aligning the right moment for the Milky Way to cross the frame next to the volcano. I used Lightroom as the editor. This image is special for its storytelling—the raw power of Volcan de Fuego meeting the tranquil expanse of the galaxy.Credit: Sergio Montúfar / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Lake RT5” Zanskar, HimalayasLake RT5 is a pristine alpine lake nestled at 5,700 meters above sea level. My passion has always been to capture the unseen Himalayas in their rawest form. This journey led us through rugged mountains and glaciers, where we discovered several unknown alpine lakes and named them along the way.We endured multiple nights in extremely cold, unpredictable conditions. Due to the ever-changing weather and limited time, I used a blue hour blend to achieve a cleaner foreground. Since my campsite was right beside the lake, I was able to capture the tracked sky shot from the exact same position later that night.I was in awe of the incredible airglow illuminating the Himalayan skies. The raw image had even more intense colors, but I toned them down to stay true to reality. This was undoubtedly one of the most unforgettable nights I’ve ever spent in the heart of the Himalayas.Credit: Tanay Das / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “A Stellar View From The Cave” Saint Raphael, FranceFramed by the rugged mouth of a coastal cave, this image captures the heart of the Milky Way rising over the Mediterranean Sea. Taken during the peak of the Galactic Core season last May, it blends the natural beauty of the foreground with the awe-inspiring vastness of the cosmos. A winding road, illuminated by passing cars, creates a dynamic trail of light that guides the eye toward the stars above.This photo is a reminder that magic often hides in the most unexpected places. All it takes is a little patience, planning, and passion.Credit: Anthony Lopez / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Boot Arch Perseids” Alabama Hills, CA, USAThe Perseid Meteor Shower occurs every August, raining down hundreds of meteors over a few nights. In 2024, I had planned to photograph it from the Canadian Rockies, but wildfires forced me to change my plans at the last minute. After checking wildfire maps, I found a safe haven in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.After three full nights of capturing meteors, I created this image. Sitting on the rock is my friend Arne, who often joins me on these adventures, gazing up at the magnificent core of our galaxy. Each meteor is painstakingly aligned to its true location in the night sky. The final depiction shows all the meteors I captured, combined into one frame—as if the Earth hadn’t been rotating and all the meteors had fallen at once.Credit: Mike Abramyan / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Starlit Ocean: A Comet, the setting Venus, the Milky Way, and McWay Falls” – California, USACapturing this image was a race against time, light, and distance. With Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS (C/2023 A3) making its approach, I knew I had a rare opportunity to see it with the naked eye before it faded into the cosmos. I embarked on a five-hour round trip to McWay Falls in Big Sur, one of the few Bortle 2 locations accessible along California’s coast. My window was narrow—just six precious minutes of true darkness before the Moon rose and washed out the night sky. But those six minutes were unforgettable.In that brief span, the Milky Way arched high above the Pacific, Venus shimmered as it set over the ocean, and the comet streaked quietly across the sky—a celestial visitor gracing this iconic coastal cove. The soft cascade of McWay Falls and the stillness of the starlit ocean created a surreal harmony between Earth and sky. It was one of the most vivid and humbling naked-eye comet sightings I’ve ever experienced—an alignment of cosmic elements that felt both fleeting and eternal.Credit: Xingyang Cai / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Diamond Beach Emerald Sky”Great Ocean Road, AustraliaWith a clear night forecast and the Milky Way core returning for 2025, I set out to explore the Great Ocean Road. After a few setbacks—such as a failed composition and getting the car stuck on a sandy track—I almost gave up. However, I pushed on and found a great spot above the beach to capture the scene.The night was full of color, with Comet C/2024 G3 Atlas and a pink aurora in the early hours, followed by the Milky Way rising amid intense green airglow near dawn. Despite the challenges, the reward of this stunning image and the memory of the view made it all worthwhile.Credit: Brent Martin / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

Sophie Rucker had been living and working in London for five years when a trip to a yoga training school in Bali presented her with an alternative to the rat race. Despite enjoying life in London, witnessing digital nomads balance work with sun, sea, and relaxed vibes in the Indonesian island province prompted her to pursue more freelance work.  At the start of 2020, having set herself up as a communications strategist for NGOs and social impact organisations, Sophie quit her permanent role and moved to Bali. Despite the uncertainty of the progressing pandemic, she found the space she needed to grieve her mother, whom she had lost not long before. And to Sophie’s delight, the digital nomad lifestyle has fulfilled many of her expectations. She soon noticed, however, a distinct bias against her choice of location. Some potential clients wouldn’t even entertain a conversation, because she was based in Bali. “I couldn’t make sense of it — it felt so stupid,” she explains. “I’m working with organisations like Greenpeace and the UNDP to instigate positive global change, as well as being a somatic trauma counsellor, so when people assume I’m not doing ‘serious work’ out here, it grinds my gears.” Now she has greater control over the projects she pursues, Sophie tells employers she lives in Indonesia, and is transparent about exactly where once she’s secured a contract. It’s the same for many of her remote working friends in Bali, who don’t disclose their location to remote employers for fear of losing work. The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Getting snubbed from projects, haemorrhaging your savings on basic living costs and constantly edging on burnout are usually the hardships associated with full-time home-based working in a metropolitan centre like London, New York, or Amsterdam. Despite the dominant utopian narrative presented in the media — think bossing it at the beach, bottomless cocktails, and a perennial tan — the reality of balancing global travel with remote work has always been hard. And it’s only getting harder: surging costs, political turbulence, and fickle visa rules are pushing digital nomads in new directions. Forking out for freedom New research from the Dutch neobank Bunq has revealed the hidden financial, emotional and mental toll, with its survey of 5,000 workers across Europe who identify as digital nomads and/or living internationally. Indeed, just one in five say that working internationally has positively impacted their career, with Britons in particular (25%) saying their career has actually suffered as a result of being a digital nomad. It’s certainly not the picture that wistful salaried employees conjure when daydreaming at their desks. For experts in the field, however, the tough reality is widely known. “Many of those experimenting with the lifestyle can’t sustain it,” says David Cook, an anthropologist and researcher at University College London who specialises in remote work. “Maintaining self-discipline, staying productive, and finding the space to focus gets worse over time, not better, alongside all the other external circumstances.” Managing the finance side is an area of particular concern. Bunq found that 17% of study participants feel less financially secure, while 14% are spending more than expected. Although this cohort isn’t weighed down by a mortgage or a huge rental deposit, they do have to factor in local taxes, medical bills, nomad visa costs, insurance claims, legal assistance, and banking fees. Sophie boarding a flight from Bali to visit family in Australia. Credit: Sophie Rucker The top unforeseen expenses, according to Bunq, include medical expenses (16%) and local taxes (15%). Less common, but equally unsettling, is that 5% of nomads across Europe have had to pay for emergency evacuation costs.   All that is before budgeting for the rise in everyday living costs, which have impacted home-based and remote workers alike. Everyone is feeling the pinch, with the majority of Europeans (67%) noticing the rise in food and beverage prices in the past 12 months, as per data from the Dutch firm Innova Market Insights. Day-to-day budgeting trumps a laundry list of other anxieties too. In the first quarter of 2025, McKinsey’s ConsumerWise research found that Europeans ranked rising prices and inflation as their number one concern over issues such as job security, international conflicts, climate change, and political tension, to name a few. Geoarbitrage — decoupling life and work from a specific location to make your income go further — has long been a practice employed by digital nomads. Coined by Tim Ferriss in his 2009 book The 4-Hour Workweek, the tactic is now often being reconsidered due to increased outgoings. “Accommodation has always been the biggest challenge, but in the last few years, after COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, it’s significantly more expensive, sometimes €200 extra a month for the same place and conditions haven’t changed,” says Anna Maria Kochanska, a strategist who advises governments on digital nomad policy, and has been nomadic since 2017. Anna Maria tends to avoid Airbnb, negotiating directly with apartment owners for midterm rentals, but even so, her rental outgoings are much higher in 2025. “I’m based in Barcelona at the moment, and of course, one solution is to go to new and emerging destinations, with fewer tourists and nomads, but my travel costs are going up too, so I’m moving around less frequently.” Popular digital nomad hubs like Barcelona, Lisbon, and Mexico City are losing their affordable edge, as available housing dries up, prices rise, and neighbourhoods are transformed to meet the needs of itinerant knowledge workers. Local residents are tiring of the impact remote workers are having, and have been protesting against the influx. The souring of once-beloved hubs is leading nomads to look elsewhere and decamp to more off-the-beaten-track destinations. According to 2025 data from Nomad List, which tracks cities, locations and remote workers through the trips booked on its platform, cities like Sarajevo, Portimao, and Varna are emerging as some of the most popular among nomad, with 46% of them staying in one city for less than seven days, and 33% staying between seven and 30 days. Fatigued by visa strategising While some digital nomads are travelling less and avoiding established hotspots to mitigate rising expenses, others are turning their backs on location independence entirely. Kach Umandap has been nomadic since 2014, originally starting as a virtual assistant, then moving into blogging and e-commerce. “For a Filipino like me, there are a ton of limitations on the places I can visit visa-free, but I was determined to visit every single country in the world,” says Kach. “I had to be really strategic about planning and already figure out where I would go afterwards, which is perhaps not the carefree image you have of digital nomad life.”  During certain weeks, Kach would spend more time arranging visas and doing travel admin than her actual job. She often had to do expensive visa runs to neighbouring countries to reset the clock. For example, when based in Vietnam, she needed to travel to Laos every 30 days, pay for transport, a hotel, and a booking agent each time. Having achieved the goal of working from all 193 UN member states and spending thousands of dollars each year on visa applications, Kach has returned to the Philippines to slowly establish her base there. Kach in Turkmenista, one of the 193 UN states she’s worked in. Credit: Kach Umandap Although new digital nomad visas are being rolled out constantly — the latest include Taiwan and the Philippines — many are launched hurriedly, so governments can have a horse in the race in the global talent tussle. Each one has wildly different eligibility criteria and often high minimum income requirements. Iceland, for example, requires a monthly salary of $7,763 (€6,868). Few digital nomads actually even engage with these visa programs. Grappling with a messy landscape and muddy definitions of “a digital nomad,” those eligible are being deterred. For nomads who do try, an application can take months to process, and putting one in only to find out you aren’t eligible due to poor signposting is hugely stressful. “We have the best lifestyle in the world, yet the worst ecosystem,” says Gonçalo Hall, CEO of NomadX, a global platform for digital nomads and president of the Digital Nomad Association Portugal. “Nomads have the numbers, energy, and economic force, but the cohesion is missing.” What’s more, nomads with ”weaker” passports, such as those from Syria, Pakistan, and Nigeria, have a hard time travelling compared to those from the EU and North America. With ongoing conflicts, political instability, and changing immigration laws, crossing the next border for a period of remote work is getting more intimidating by the day.  People drop off from full-time digital nomad lifestyles for many reasons though, from loneliness and moving too often to dealing with bureaucracy and the precarity of their careers. “It’s not for everyone, and although many people experiment with the lifestyle, they discover the real struggle a few months to a year in,” says Cook, of UCL. “It gets harder over time, so successful, long-term nomads need to be disciplined, resilient and self-motivated — in many ways, the perfect neoliberal person.” Cook is in his eighth year of collecting data in Chiang Mai, Thailand with the same group of people and estimates that 90% of the nomads in his research give up the lifestyle in the first year or two. “They tend to start hyper mobile, but end up craving place and being embedded in communities, which is not easy to sustain while living on the move,” explains Cook. “This is compounded when their income situation is precarious.” A strong pull, no matter the cost With 60 million digital nomads predicted to have joined the ranks by 2030, the lifestyle — despite, or even because of its challenges — remains alluring. For the knowledge workers who are forcibly displaced due to war, climate disaster, or fears of persecution, digital nomadism offers the chance to earn, even when on the move. For today’s remote workers, change is the only constant, and roaming patterns will continue to shift, as people adapt and find ways to thrive amid global change. They might choose to housesit through platforms like Nomador and Trusted Housesitters instead of renting, become an e-resident in a country like Estonia to maximise profit and minimise cost, or travel less and embed themselves deeper in a community. After all, the same autonomy and flexibility that draws people to this lifestyle also enables them to overcome the hurdles that come their way. Back in Bali, the housing and rental market is booming — and the clamour about overtourism is getting louder. To slow its development and ease local worries, the Balinese officials have floated the idea of a tourist tax, set to cost around $100 (€88) per day. In the current climate, Sophie is paying £750 (€881) a month for her cabin in Bali — just £70 (€82) shy of the room she rented in London — so she cannot save and is feeling the pressure to maintain her earnings. “The only thing that means I can make it work is the culture and lifestyle — for example, I work when my clients are sleeping, because of the different time zones,” she explains. “It eases my anxiety and enables me to solve problems more creatively.”  As many of her friends return home due to rocketing costs, Sophie is committed to staying put. “I’m in a privileged position to be working on some big projects, and am paying taxes in the UK and contributing to the local economy here,” she says. “I have to keep checking in on myself, but I’ve come to a very conscious decision: loving Bali and this life as much as I do, why should it be any cheaper than where I started?”  Story by Megan Carnegie Megan Carnegie is a London-based independent journalist who specialises in writing features about the world of technology, work, and busines (show all) Megan Carnegie is a London-based independent journalist who specialises in writing features about the world of technology, work, and business for publications like WIRED, Business Insider, Digital Frontier and BBC. Her work is underpinned by a desire to investigate what's not working in the working world, and how more equitable conditions can be secured for workers — whatever their industry. Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week. Also tagged with

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.If you want to level up your home security, the Arlo Essential 2K Outdoor Camera is now 50% off. For $49.99, this indoor and outdoor camera features high-definition footage, thanks to its 2K video resolution, allowing you to get a clear view of license plates, faces, and more. It also provides peace of mind with nighttime surveillance, featuring an integrated spotlight for color night vision that operates in low-light conditions. Arlo Essential 2K Outdoor Camera $49.99 at Amazon $99.99 Save $50.00 Get Deal Get Deal $49.99 at Amazon $99.99 Save $50.00 A motion detection feature works in real-time and sends notifications to your connected device, keeping you up to date on any alerts. The motion detection feature is rated highly, as is the video quality, which reviewers describe as sharp and crisp. A two-way mic and speaker allow you to listen and speak to visitors through the camera using the Arlo app, where you can also switch between modes such as “Home” or “Away.” It works seamlessly with most smart home systems, including Alexa, Apple,  Google Assistant, IFTTT, and SmartThings. While it’s advertised for outdoor usage, it can also be used indoors. But unlike the Arlo indoor camera, its IP65 water-resistant design makes it durable and allows it to withstand various weather conditions, including rain or extreme temperatures. That said, it may experience issues or lag in extremely cold conditions, but this is a common issue with most outdoor cameras. Amazon reviewers appreciate the ease of installation, which is completely wireless and comes with all installation tools included. The camera uses a rechargeable battery, offering flexibility in placement. Still, there are a few drawbacks. Some features are locked behind a monthly membership, and there are mixed reviews regarding the battery life, with some individuals stating that it drains quickly. Based on the location where you install it, it may be inconvenient to take it down for frequent recharging. At full price, having features locked behind a monthly membership might not be worth the cost. Still, given the 50% discount, the camera’s performance and reliability make it a smart choice for those seeking a versatile outdoor security solution.

Sophie Rucker had been living and working in London for five years when a trip to a yoga training school in Bali presented her with an alternative to the rat race. Despite enjoying life in London, witnessing digital nomads balance work with sun, sea, and relaxed vibes in the Indonesian island province prompted her to pursue more freelance work.  At the start of 2020, having set herself up as a communications strategist for NGOs and social impact organisations, Sophie quit her permanent role and moved to Bali. Despite the uncertainty of the progressing pandemic, she found the space she needed to grieve her mother, whom she had lost not long before. And to Sophie’s delight, the digital nomad lifestyle has fulfilled many of her expectations. She soon noticed, however, a distinct bias against her choice of location. Some potential clients wouldn’t even entertain a conversation, because she was based in Bali. “I couldn’t make sense of it — it felt so stupid,” she explains. “I’m working with organisations like Greenpeace and the UNDP to instigate positive global change, as well as being a somatic trauma counsellor, so when people assume I’m not doing ‘serious work’ out here, it grinds my gears.” Now she has greater control over the projects she pursues, Sophie tells employers she lives in Indonesia, and is transparent about exactly where once she’s secured a contract. It’s the same for many of her remote working friends in Bali, who don’t disclose their location to remote employers for fear of losing work. Getting snubbed from projects, haemorrhaging your savings on basic living costs and constantly edging on burnout are usually the hardships associated with full-time home-based working in a metropolitan centre like London, New York, or Amsterdam. Despite the dominant utopian narrative presented in the media — think bossing it at the beach, bottomless cocktails, and a perennial tan — the reality of balancing global travel with remote work has always been hard. And it’s only getting harder: surging costs, political turbulence, and fickle visa rules are pushing digital nomads in new directions. Forking out for freedom New research from the Dutch neobank Bunq has revealed the hidden financial, emotional and mental toll, with its survey of 5,000 workers across Europe who identify as digital nomads and/or living internationally. Indeed, just one in five say that working internationally has positively impacted their career, with Britons in particular (25%) saying their career has actually suffered as a result of being a digital nomad. It’s certainly not the picture that wistful salaried employees conjure when daydreaming at their desks. For experts in the field, however, the tough reality is widely known. “Many of those experimenting with the lifestyle can’t sustain it,” says David Cook, an anthropologist and researcher at University College London who specialises in remote work. “Maintaining self-discipline, staying productive, and finding the space to focus gets worse over time, not better, alongside all the other external circumstances.” Managing the finance side is an area of particular concern. Bunq found that 17% of study participants feel less financially secure, while 14% are spending more than expected. Although this cohort isn’t weighed down by a mortgage or a huge rental deposit, they do have to factor in local taxes, medical bills, nomad visa costs, insurance claims, legal assistance, and banking fees. Sophie boarding a flight from Bali to visit family in Australia. Credit: Sophie Rucker The top unforeseen expenses, according to Bunq, include medical expenses (16%) and local taxes (15%). Less common, but equally unsettling, is that 5% of nomads across Europe have had to pay for emergency evacuation costs.   All that is before budgeting for the rise in everyday living costs, which have impacted home-based and remote workers alike. Everyone is feeling the pinch, with the majority of Europeans (67%) noticing the rise in food and beverage prices in the past 12 months, as per data from the Dutch firm Innova Market Insights. Day-to-day budgeting trumps a laundry list of other anxieties too. In the first quarter of 2025, McKinsey’s ConsumerWise research found that Europeans ranked rising prices and inflation as their number one concern over issues such as job security, international conflicts, climate change, and political tension, to name a few. Geoarbitrage — decoupling life and work from a specific location to make your income go further — has long been a practice employed by digital nomads. Coined by Tim Ferriss in his 2009 book The 4-Hour Workweek, the tactic is now often being reconsidered due to increased outgoings. “Accommodation has always been the biggest challenge, but in the last few years, after COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, it’s significantly more expensive, sometimes €200 extra a month for the same place and conditions haven’t changed,” says Anna Maria Kochanska, a strategist who advises governments on digital nomad policy, and has been nomadic since 2017. Anna Maria tends to avoid Airbnb, negotiating directly with apartment owners for midterm rentals, but even so, her rental outgoings are much higher in 2025. “I’m based in Barcelona at the moment, and of course, one solution is to go to new and emerging destinations, with fewer tourists and nomads, but my travel costs are going up too, so I’m moving around less frequently.” Popular digital nomad hubs like Barcelona, Lisbon, and Mexico City are losing their affordable edge, as available housing dries up, prices rise, and neighbourhoods are transformed to meet the needs of itinerant knowledge workers. Local residents are tiring of the impact remote workers are having, and have been protesting against the influx. The souring of once-beloved hubs is leading nomads to look elsewhere and decamp to more off-the-beaten-track destinations. According to 2025 data from Nomad List, which tracks cities, locations and remote workers through the trips booked on its platform, cities like Sarajevo, Portimao, and Varna are emerging as some of the most popular among nomad, with 46% of them staying in one city for less than seven days, and 33% staying between seven and 30 days. Fatigued by visa strategising While some digital nomads are travelling less and avoiding established hotspots to mitigate rising expenses, others are turning their backs on location independence entirely. Kach Umandap has been nomadic since 2014, originally starting as a virtual assistant, then moving into blogging and e-commerce. “For a Filipino like me, there are a ton of limitations on the places I can visit visa-free, but I was determined to visit every single country in the world,” says Kach. “I had to be really strategic about planning and already figure out where I would go afterwards, which is perhaps not the carefree image you have of digital nomad life.”  During certain weeks, Kach would spend more time arranging visas and doing travel admin than her actual job. She often had to do expensive visa runs to neighbouring countries to reset the clock. For example, when based in Vietnam, she needed to travel to Laos every 30 days, pay for transport, a hotel, and a booking agent each time. Having achieved the goal of working from all 193 UN member states and spending thousands of dollars each year on visa applications, Kach has returned to the Philippines to slowly establish her base there. Kach in Turkmenista, one of the 193 UN states she’s worked in. Credit: Kach Umandap Although new digital nomad visas are being rolled out constantly — the latest include Taiwan and the Philippines — many are launched hurriedly, so governments can have a horse in the race in the global talent tussle. Each one has wildly different eligibility criteria and often high minimum income requirements. Iceland, for example, requires a monthly salary of $7,763 (€6,868). Few digital nomads actually even engage with these visa programs. Grappling with a messy landscape and muddy definitions of “a digital nomad,” those eligible are being deterred. For nomads who do try, an application can take months to process, and putting one in only to find out you aren’t eligible due to poor signposting is hugely stressful. “We have the best lifestyle in the world, yet the worst ecosystem,” says Gonçalo Hall, CEO of NomadX, a global platform for digital nomads and president of the Digital Nomad Association Portugal. “Nomads have the numbers, energy, and economic force, but the cohesion is missing.” What’s more, nomads with ”weaker” passports, such as those from Syria, Pakistan, and Nigeria, have a hard time travelling compared to those from the EU and North America. With ongoing conflicts, political instability, and changing immigration laws, crossing the next border for a period of remote work is getting more intimidating by the day.  People drop off from full-time digital nomad lifestyles for many reasons though, from loneliness and moving too often to dealing with bureaucracy and the precarity of their careers. “It’s not for everyone, and although many people experiment with the lifestyle, they discover the real struggle a few months to a year in,” says Cook, of UCL. “It gets harder over time, so successful, long-term nomads need to be disciplined, resilient and self-motivated — in many ways, the perfect neoliberal person.” Cook is in his eighth year of collecting data in Chiang Mai, Thailand with the same group of people and estimates that 90% of the nomads in his research give up the lifestyle in the first year or two. “They tend to start hyper mobile, but end up craving place and being embedded in communities, which is not easy to sustain while living on the move,” explains Cook. “This is compounded when their income situation is precarious.” A strong pull, no matter the cost With 60 million digital nomads predicted to have joined the ranks by 2030, the lifestyle — despite, or even because of its challenges — remains alluring. For the knowledge workers who are forcibly displaced due to war, climate disaster, or fears of persecution, digital nomadism offers the chance to earn, even when on the move. For today’s remote workers, change is the only constant, and roaming patterns will continue to shift, as people adapt and find ways to thrive amid global change. They might choose to housesit through platforms like Nomador and Trusted Housesitters instead of renting, become an e-resident in a country like Estonia to maximise profit and minimise cost, or travel less and embed themselves deeper in a community. After all, the same autonomy and flexibility that draws people to this lifestyle also enables them to overcome the hurdles that come their way. Back in Bali, the housing and rental market is booming — and the clamour about overtourism is getting louder. To slow its development and ease local worries, the Balinese officials have floated the idea of a tourist tax, set to cost around $100 (€88) per day. In the current climate, Sophie is paying £750 (€881) a month for her cabin in Bali — just £70 (€82) shy of the room she rented in London — so she cannot save and is feeling the pressure to maintain her earnings. “The only thing that means I can make it work is the culture and lifestyle — for example, I work when my clients are sleeping, because of the different time zones,” she explains. “It eases my anxiety and enables me to solve problems more creatively.”  As many of her friends return home due to rocketing costs, Sophie is committed to staying put. “I’m in a privileged position to be working on some big projects, and am paying taxes in the UK and contributing to the local economy here,” she says. “I have to keep checking in on myself, but I’ve come to a very conscious decision: loving Bali and this life as much as I do, why should it be any cheaper than where I started?”  Story by Megan Carnegie Megan Carnegie is a London-based independent journalist who specialises in writing features about the world of technology, work, and busines (show all) Megan Carnegie is a London-based independent journalist who specialises in writing features about the world of technology, work, and business for publications like WIRED, Business Insider, Digital Frontier and BBC. Her work is underpinned by a desire to investigate what's not working in the working world, and how more equitable conditions can be secured for workers — whatever their industry. Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week. Also tagged with

Summer Game Fest 2025 returns in June to fill the vacuum left by E3 — may it rest in peace — and will be joined by a long list of showcases from the likes of Xbox and tireless independent organizers who will put on shows like Day of the Devs and Wholesome Direct.This year’s Summer Game Fest and Not-E3 extravaganza may look a little lighter, though. Publishers like Sony, Nintendo, and Ubisoft haven’t yet confirmed their brand of events — PlayStation Showcase, Nintendo Direct, and Ubisoft Forward, respectively — but some of that may change as we approach what would normally be E3 season.In this guide to Summer Game Fest and not-E3 2025, we’ll run down the conference schedule, with dates and times across time zones in North America and Europe, and what to expect from each one. (This story will be updated with new events and details as they are announced.)Table of ContentsSummer Game Fest 2025Image: Summer Game FestWhere to watch: YouTube, TwitchWhen it starts: Friday, June 6, at 2 p.m. PST/5 p.m. EST/10 p.m. BSTSummer Game Fest 2025 kicks things off on Friday, June 6. Geoff Keighley’s annual showcase of the big games coming in 2025, 2026, and beyond will stream live from the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles. SGF 2025 is expected to run about two hours.With its focus on the types of games that would normally be reserved for E3 showcases past, expect the biggest reveals of AAA sequels, surprises, and world premiere exclusives to show up at Summer Game Fest 2025. Also, probably expect an appearance from Hideo Kojima. Here’s everything that was announced at SGF 2024, for an idea of what to expect.Day of the Devs: Summer Game Fest EditionImage: Day of the Devs, Summer Game FestWhere to watch: YouTube, TwitchWhen it starts: Friday, June 6, at 4 p.m. PST/7 p.m. EST/12 a.m. BSTThe Summer Game Fest edition of Day of the Devs will stream live on June 6, at 4 p.m. PST/7 p.m. EST/11 p.m. GMT, immediately after SGF 2025 wraps. Day of the Devs, a non-profit co-production from Double Fine Productions and iam8bit, will reveal and highlight some of the best, most creative indie games from a wide variety of creators. Looking for something original and maybe a little weird? Then don’t miss this show.Wholesome Direct 2025Image: Wholesome GamesWhere to watch: YouTube, TwitchWhen it starts: Saturday, June 7, at 9 a.m. PST/12 p.m. EST/5 p.m. BSTYou wanna get cozy? Let’s get cozy. Wholesome Direct returns Saturday, June 7, promising “a vibrant lineup of artistic, uplifting, and emotionally resonant games from developers of all sizes from around the world.”Future Games Show Summer ShowcaseImage: FutureWhere to watch: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, TikTokWhen it starts: Saturday, June 7, at 1 p.m. PST/4 p.m. EST/9 p.m. BSTThe Future Games Show Summer Showcase promises to highlight “some of the most exciting games on the horizon,” with world premieres, exclusive game demos, developer interviews, and new trailers from more than 40 games. Confirmed to appear are Supermassive Games’ Directive 8020, Hangar 13’s Mafia: The Old Country , and Crisol: Theater of Idols from Blumhouse Games. Actors Laura Bailey and Matthew Mercer will host this year’s Future Games Show Summer Showcase.Xbox Games Showcase 2025Image: MicrosoftWhere to watch: YouTube, Twitch, FacebookWhen it starts: Sunday, June 8, starting at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST/6 p.m. BSTMicrosoft’s Xbox Games Showcase 2025 will be streamed live on Sunday, June 8, starting at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST/6 p.m. GMT. The Xbox team promises a look at upcoming titles from Xbox Game Studios and third-party partners.Immediately following the Xbox Games Showcase, Obsidian Entertainment will get its own The Outer Worlds 2 Direct showcase, offering a deep dive into this year’s highly anticipated sci-fi RPG sequel.PC Gaming ShowImage: FutureWhere to watch: YouTube, Twitch, FacebookWhen it starts: Sunday, June 8, at 12 p.m. PST/3 p.m. EST/8 p.m. BSTPC Gamer’s PC Gaming Show will show PC games — and nothing but PC games — on Sunday, June 8. Organizers say that this year’s PC Gaming Show will be “brimming with exclusives, announcements, world premieres and behind the scenes developer interviews,” viewers can look forward to over 50 games on PC, Steam Deck, Linux and MacOS this season of summer events and broadcasts—in the one and only show designed solely to celebrate all things PC gaming.” Some 50 games will be showcased, with publishers Ubisoft, Failbetter Games, Devolver Digital, and Astra Logical confirmed to appear.PlayStation State of Play/PlayStation ShowcaseGraphic: James Bareham/PolygonSony Interactive Entertainment hasn’t announced a PlayStation Showcase or State of Play event for the Summer Game Fest/Not-E3 season, though it typically holds one in late May or early June. According to frequent leaker Jeff Grubb, Sony has a State of Play showcase in the works for sometime in June.Nintendo DirectGraphic: PolygonNintendo also typically has a Nintendo Direct presentation sometime in mid-to-late June, though the company has not yet announced such an event for 2025. But since Nintendo is about to launch Switch 2 on June 5, don’t be surprised if it has more to show regarding the next-gen console’s lineup near or after launch.See More:

Summer Game Fest 2025 returns in June to fill the vacuum left by E3 — may it rest in peace — and will be joined by a long list of showcases from the likes of Xbox and tireless independent organizers who will put on shows like Day of the Devs and Wholesome Direct. This year’s Summer Game Fest and Not-E3 extravaganza may look a little lighter, though. Publishers like Sony, Nintendo, and Ubisoft haven’t yet confirmed their brand of events — PlayStation Showcase, Nintendo Direct, and Ubisoft Forward, respectively — but some of that may change as we approach what would normally be E3 season. In this guide to Summer Game Fest and not-E3 2025, we’ll run down the conference schedule, with dates and times across time zones in North America and Europe, and what to expect from each one. (This story will be updated with new events and details as they are announced.) Summer Game Fest 2025 Where to watch: YouTube, TwitchWhen it starts: Friday, June 6, at 2 p.m. PST/5 p.m. EST/10 p.m. BST Summer Game Fest 2025 kicks things off on Friday, June 6. Geoff Keighley’s annual showcase of the big games coming in 2025, 2026, and beyond will stream live from the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles. SGF 2025 is expected to run about two hours. With its focus on the types of games that would normally be reserved for E3 showcases past, expect the biggest reveals of AAA sequels, surprises, and world premiere exclusives to show up at Summer Game Fest 2025. Also, probably expect an appearance from Hideo Kojima. Here’s everything that was announced at SGF 2024, for an idea of what to expect. Day of the Devs: Summer Game Fest Edition Where to watch: YouTube, TwitchWhen it starts: Friday, June 6, at 4 p.m. PST/7 p.m. EST/12 a.m. BST The Summer Game Fest edition of Day of the Devs will stream live on June 6, at 4 p.m. PST/7 p.m. EST/11 p.m. GMT, immediately after SGF 2025 wraps. Day of the Devs, a non-profit co-production from Double Fine Productions and iam8bit, will reveal and highlight some of the best, most creative indie games from a wide variety of creators. Looking for something original and maybe a little weird? Then don’t miss this show. Wholesome Direct 2025 Where to watch: YouTube, TwitchWhen it starts: Saturday, June 7, at 9 a.m. PST/12 p.m. EST/5 p.m. BST You wanna get cozy? Let’s get cozy. Wholesome Direct returns Saturday, June 7, promising “a vibrant lineup of artistic, uplifting, and emotionally resonant games from developers of all sizes from around the world.” Future Games Show Summer Showcase Where to watch: YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, TikTokWhen it starts: Saturday, June 7, at 1 p.m. PST/4 p.m. EST/9 p.m. BST The Future Games Show Summer Showcase promises to highlight “some of the most exciting games on the horizon,” with world premieres, exclusive game demos, developer interviews, and new trailers from more than 40 games. Confirmed to appear are Supermassive Games’ Directive 8020, Hangar 13’s Mafia: The Old Country , and Crisol: Theater of Idols from Blumhouse Games. Actors Laura Bailey and Matthew Mercer will host this year’s Future Games Show Summer Showcase. Xbox Games Showcase 2025 Where to watch: YouTube, Twitch, FacebookWhen it starts: Sunday, June 8, starting at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST/6 p.m. BST Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase 2025 will be streamed live on Sunday, June 8, starting at 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. EST/6 p.m. GMT. The Xbox team promises a look at upcoming titles from Xbox Game Studios and third-party partners. Immediately following the Xbox Games Showcase, Obsidian Entertainment will get its own The Outer Worlds 2 Direct showcase, offering a deep dive into this year’s highly anticipated sci-fi RPG sequel. PC Gaming Show Where to watch: YouTube, Twitch, FacebookWhen it starts: Sunday, June 8, at 12 p.m. PST/3 p.m. EST/8 p.m. BST PC Gamer’s PC Gaming Show will show PC games — and nothing but PC games — on Sunday, June 8. Organizers say that this year’s PC Gaming Show will be “brimming with exclusives, announcements, world premieres and behind the scenes developer interviews,” viewers can look forward to over 50 games on PC, Steam Deck, Linux and MacOS this season of summer events and broadcasts—in the one and only show designed solely to celebrate all things PC gaming.” Some 50 games will be showcased, with publishers Ubisoft, Failbetter Games, Devolver Digital, and Astra Logical confirmed to appear. PlayStation State of Play/PlayStation Showcase Sony Interactive Entertainment hasn’t announced a PlayStation Showcase or State of Play event for the Summer Game Fest/Not-E3 season, though it typically holds one in late May or early June. According to frequent leaker Jeff Grubb, Sony has a State of Play showcase in the works for sometime in June. Nintendo Direct Nintendo also typically has a Nintendo Direct presentation sometime in mid-to-late June, though the company has not yet announced such an event for 2025. But since Nintendo is about to launch Switch 2 on June 5, don’t be surprised if it has more to show regarding the next-gen console’s lineup near or after launch.

War is hell, but for the movies, it’s something more complicated. Some directors see war as a stylistic challenge, while others view it as an opportunity to drive home the trauma of the men and women on the ground. Netflix has a selection of war films spanning costume drama, science fiction, and recent history, all valuable in reflecting on the human drama of combat. We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Recommended Videos The King (2019) Pl A David Michôd-directed adaptation of several of Shakespeare’s history plays, The King was arguably the first big-budget film anchored solely by Timothée Chalamet, whose two Oscar nominations followed shortly thereafter. Chalamet, in his gruff-young-striver mode, plays the young King Henry V during his invasion of France as part of the Hundred Years’ War. The sword-clanging action is pleasurable, solid, and steely in places and realistically anti-climactic in others. Joel Edgerton, also a co-screenwriter, is Henry’s fictional drinking buddy Falstaff; most entertaining, though, is Robert Pattinson as Louis, the Dauphin of France, with an outrageous accent and a Lord Fauntleroy simper that make him a perfect foil to Chalamet. Stream The King on Netflix. Black Hawk Down (2001) Co If you prefer your war films jaw-rattling and glamor-less, Ridley Scott’s brutal verité will be right up your alley. In October 1993, the United States led a UN peacekeeping operation in Mogadishu to capture the leader of a Somali terrorist group. A Black Hawk helicopter carrying a contingent of American Special Forces was shot down over the insurgency-torn city. The men aboard were forced to fight their way out, and Hollywood came calling about eight years later. Black Hawk Down is suffused with eardrum-shattering gunfire and almost relentlessly unwilling to depict soldiery as anything but horrifying. A mile-long cast list led by Josh Hartnett heaves with sweat and anxiety. Stream Black Hawk Down on Netflix. Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) Re Aaron Sorkin’s script for this Mike Nichols film, about the United States’ arming of the mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, is Sorkinesque to its bones, down to the obligatory Gilbert and Sullivan reference. (Philip Seymour Hoffman’s sclerotic CIA agent, roaring out his qualifications, finishes with “And I’m never ever sick at sea!”) That’s why it’s so curious that the story has the air of being unfinished, leaping from the meddling of one wily Congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) to its consequence — the attacks of 9/11, carried out by the very men the US had trained — without deigning to trace the line between points A and B. Still, the film, Nichols’ last, is delightful, an absurd exploration of the backroom kibitzing that populates battlefields. Stream Charlie Wilson’s War on Netflix. Dune: Part Two (2024) Le Director Denis Villeneuve has made plenty of films about violent conflict —2010’s Incendies (2010) is about the Lebanese Civil War, and 2015’s Sicario is about a CIA strike against a drug cartel. An artistically minded Villeneuve is drawn to the elegant warfare of science fiction. His two-film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel Dune tells the orange-saturated, visually stunning tale of an interplanetary war that is both technologically unsophisticated — our heroes fight with blades and crossbows — and high-tech. (The threat of nuclear warfare hovers.) The action sequences in Dune: Part Two drift rather than rush and sweep rather than shudder. It’s war as a visual exercise, like a battle plan plotted on an otherworldly map. Stream Dune: Part Two on Netflix. Starship Troopers (1997) Sony Pictures A more literal transposition of America’s imperialistic desert wars onto science fiction can be found in Paul Verhoeven’s gloriously dumb adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s crypto-fascistic 1959 novel. Verhoeven wanted to make a satire — a film about an expansionist human species defeating an insectoid alien species called the Arachnids. The goal was to question the militaristic undertones of twentieth-century sci-fi by seeming to espouse them. In Verhoeven’s words, the film’s characters are “fascists who aren’t aware of their fascism.” This metafictional component of the story doesn’t entirely work because the movie lays on the stupidity too thick to be entirely satirical. However, Starship Troopers is a rare film that seems to profit from its shallowness. It was made for a popcorn era that seems to have faded, with Verhoeven’s trademark borderline-softcore love scenes and a cast (Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris) of surpassingly dopey gorgeousness. (Verhoeven says he cast the film to recall the preferred subjects of Leni Riefenstahl, the Nazi documentarian.) Stream Starship Troopers on Netflix.