Free Republic

In Southeast Asia's only landlocked country, the Mekong River is a lifeline. From a slow boat heading up the river in Laos, you'll see fishermen working in their boats, riverside farms where bananas grow, and domesticated buffalo lazing. Occasionally a ferry chugs by. From time to time, steps leading to a riverside village become visible on the banks through the foliage. The wind is swift, and the brown fresh water laps up onto the side of the boat. Just over 9 miles north of Luang Prabang, a startling aberration appears: five giant concrete pylons rising out of the water. Red...

Royal Caribbean’s newest vessel - Symphony of the Seas - will be the world’s largest cruise ship when it is delivered in April 2018, the cruise line confirmed today. At 1,188 feet long and 215 feet wide, the new 16-deck ship will weigh 230,000 GT (gross tonnage), nearly 3,000 more than the current record holder, another Royal Caribbean ship, Harmony of the Seas.

The ITER fusion reactor will fire up for the first time in December 2025, the €18-billion project’s governing council confirmed today. The date for “first plasma” is 5 years later than under the old schedule, and to get there the council is asking the project partners—China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States—to cough up an extra €4 billion ($4.5 billion). “It is expected, if there are no objections, that we can approve [the schedule] by November and then we can move forward,” says ITER director general Bernard Bigot. ITER aims to show that it...