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5,000 Years of Asian Art in 1 Single, Thrilling Conversation

From “Arts in China,” a bronze wine vessel in the form of a goose, Han dynasty (206 B.C.- A.D. 220). Credit...Brooklyn Museum - The New York Times
From “Arts in China,” a bronze wine vessel in the form of a goose, Han dynasty (206 B.C.- A.D. 220). Credit...Brooklyn Museum - The New York Times
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5,000 Years of Asian Art in 1 Single, Thrilling Conversation

From “Arts in China,” a bronze wine vessel in the form of a goose, Han dynasty (206 B.C.- A.D. 220). Credit...Brooklyn Museum - The New York Times
From “Arts in China,” a bronze wine vessel in the form of a goose, Han dynasty (206 B.C.- A.D. 220). Credit...Brooklyn Museum - The New York Times

Redesigning an American museum’s Asian wing is no mean feat. How to convey the very real throughlines that make terms as broad as “Chinese art” and “Japanese art” meaningful, while also doing justice to the staggering variety of these ancient, and hugely populous, cultures? And what if you are also, like every other museum, under pressure to demonstrate the relevance of your antique artifacts to the present moment?

The Brooklyn Museum, a leading collector of Asian art for more than a century, satisfies these thorny curatorial problems about as well as anyone could in the virtuosic new reinstall of its Japanese and Chinese exhibits. (“Arts of Korea,” with a fascinating array of stark, monochrome ceramics including an 800-year-old sea-green cup with a scalloped rim, opened in 2017; sections on South Asian, Southeast Asian, Buddhist, and Himalayan art are still to come.)

Contemporary pieces, including some of the 50 paintings and sculptures by Chinese or Chinese-descended artists the museum has acquired in the last five years, are now integrated into brisk historical surveys, while a specially commissioned work by the Chinese artist Xu Bing, a curious mash-up of Chinese calligraphy and the Roman alphabet, occupies its own room. Not all this contemporary work is equally strong. But altogether the curators have succeeded in pulling five millenniums of art into a single, thrilling conversation.

One of the enduring preoccupations of Chinese visual culture is a fascination with the inherent formal qualities of ink and paper. Yang Jiechang’s black-on-black “100 Layers of Ink” (1994), a glossy drawing of a crinkled monolith made by saturating rice paper with ink until it buckled, could hold its own in a gallery of postwar American or European abstraction. But Wang Tiande’s 2017 ink painting, “Map of Distant Snowy Mountain Peaks,” a precise vertical landscape marked with delicate incense burns, reminds you that the contemporary Western division between abstract and figurative doesn’t reach around the globe.

Near the new acquisitions, a rapid parade of antique pots and bowls conjures a civilization that has passed through unparalleled heights of luxury without ever shedding the earthier tastes of its prehistory. Black and white stoneware from the Song dynasty (960 to 1279) is as about as elegant as a man-made object can get, while a bronze wine vessel in the shape of a goose, dating back two millenniums to the Han dynasty, has an irresistible burlesque charm. These strands of elegance and baroque whimsy converge in a 14th-century, blue-and-white wine jar discovered in a collector’s Long Island garage in 1952. Around its immaculately detailed, exuberantly bulbous surface swim a whitefish, a mackerel, a freshwater perch and a carp — four fish whose Chinese names are homophones for a phrase meaning “honest and incorruptible.”

The New York Times

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Varieties

Damaged and Drained, Indonesia's Peatlands Go Up in Smoke

(FILES) This aerial picture shows fire fighters battling peatland fires in Sintang, West Kalimantan on September 5, 2026. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)
(FILES) This aerial picture shows fire fighters battling peatland fires in Sintang, West Kalimantan on September 5, 2026. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)
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Damaged and Drained, Indonesia's Peatlands Go Up in Smoke

(FILES) This aerial picture shows fire fighters battling peatland fires in Sintang, West Kalimantan on September 5, 2026. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)
(FILES) This aerial picture shows fire fighters battling peatland fires in Sintang, West Kalimantan on September 5, 2026. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)

For weeks on end, parts of Indonesian Borneo have resembled an Armageddon landscape with masked residents immersed in a putrid, red-brown haze as wildfires devour peatlands near homes and farms.

Burning slowly, mostly under the surface and sometimes for months on end, peatland fires are responsible for much of the dry season haze that this year has tainted air as far afield as Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

- What are peatlands? –

Peatlands are composed of organic material that does not completely decompose in water-logged conditions and has settled over thousands of years into a layered soil-like substance.

Healthy peatlands are home to diverse plants and trees like nutmeg and durian, and animals that can include endangered orangutans, clouded leopards, Sumatran tigers, sun bears and tapirs.

They are porous and absorbent, making them critical for flood containment.

While they cover only about three percent of global land, peatlands store about a third of the world's soil carbon -- double that trapped by forests.

Indonesia has the world's biggest share of tropical peatland, about a third of the global total.

- Why are they burning? –

Of Indonesia's estimated 24.2 million hectares (93,400 square miles) of peatland, 16.4 million hectares have been degraded and are vulnerable to fire, according to the Pantau Gambut NGO.

The culprit is mainly industrial-scale plantations for timber, pulp and paper, rice paddies and palm oil, of which Indonesia is the world's biggest producer by far.

To cultivate peatlands, they are drained with canal networks that in Indonesia span about 285,000 kilometers (177,000 miles), according to Pantau Gambut research -- seven times the circumference of Earth.

The water runs into rivers or the sea, leaving the dried-out peatlands vulnerable to burning, especially in strong El Nino years that can bring severe drought to Indonesia.

Peatland fires are often imperceptible but for the foul smoke they emit and the heat they generate underfoot, AFP reported.

The many layers of thick carbon can keep smoldering in "zombie fires" for weeks, and are hard to put out.

- What are the impacts? -

While less than a third of wildfires in Indonesia are on peatlands, they produce most of the haze, according to Greenpeace research.

This toxic smog contains harmful elements including formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide and ammonia, as well as PM2.5 particles small enough to penetrate the lungs or bloodstream.

The World Health Organization has linked PM2.5 exposure to increased illness and death.

Indonesia and Malaysia have shut hundreds of schools over haze, and more than 170,000 people in Indonesia required treatment for acute respiratory infections in August and September, according to the health ministry.

Many more fell ill in Malaysia and Singapore.

Peatland fires also ravage the habitats of animals, further imperiling already endangered species such as orangutans and Sumatran rhinos.

- What about greenhouse gases? -

By October 6, Indonesian wildfires had emitted 140.5 megatons of planet-warming carbon, around 13 percent of the global total this year, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.

That was the highest figure for Indonesia fire emissions since 2019, another strong El Nino year.

Indonesia emits significant greenhouse gases from its coal-powered electricity grid, and is seeking to reduce its emissions in part by relying on forests, peatlands and other land ecosystems to absorb more than they emit.

- What is being done? -

Activists and experts say concession licenses for extractive activities on peatlands must be revoked, and peatlands should be rewetted and planted with native species.

Canals should be blocked, they say.

Indonesia has a moratorium in place on new permits to clear 66 million hectares of land designated as primary forest and peatland.

In a statement last year, the government said it had rewetted 4.16 million hectares of peatland, built 45,000 canal barriers and replanted various native species.

But there are doubts about some of that work.

"Today, some of the peat hydrological units that have received major restoration efforts... have experienced fires and have some of the highest hotspot counts," Greenpeace forest campaigner Belgis Habiba told AFP.

Last month, the government announced the creation of a new National Peatland and Mangrove Management agency to replace a body whose mandate expired in 2024.

The agency's remit and resources are still being worked out, but there are concerns its name mentions neither restoration nor protection.

"Does managing in this context serve as a pretext for the state to grant new concessions on peatlands?" asked Belgis.

The forestry ministry did not reply to AFP's request for input.

Varieties

Siberian Hunters Declare Open Season on Bears after Spate of Deadly Attacks

A drone view of a bear in the Siberian taiga outside the settlement of Podtesovo, on the banks of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk region, Russia, September 27, 2026. REUTERS/Vladislav Nekrasov
A drone view of a bear in the Siberian taiga outside the settlement of Podtesovo, on the banks of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk region, Russia, September 27, 2026. REUTERS/Vladislav Nekrasov
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Siberian Hunters Declare Open Season on Bears after Spate of Deadly Attacks

A drone view of a bear in the Siberian taiga outside the settlement of Podtesovo, on the banks of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk region, Russia, September 27, 2026. REUTERS/Vladislav Nekrasov
A drone view of a bear in the Siberian taiga outside the settlement of Podtesovo, on the banks of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk region, Russia, September 27, 2026. REUTERS/Vladislav Nekrasov

A brown bear bounds across the Siberian taiga before two hunters close in on their prey. Three shots ring out and the bear quickly drops dead in the long grass.

Cradling his rifle as he rests his hand on the dead animal's fur, hunter Mikhail Kondakov says he and others have heeded requests from residents in the nearby settlement of Podtesovo after a fatal bear attack on local women.

"The bear situation in the settlement is very difficult at the moment," Kondakov told Reuters.

"Bears have increasingly been coming directly into the settlement. This year we had a tragedy — two women who went mushroom picking were killed by a man-eating bear. We decided to start hunting bears because there are so many of them."

The problem is nationwide. The Russian government said last month it was drawing up urgent measures to control the population of brown bears that has spiraled out of control in some regions, with at least 22 people killed in attacks since this spring, according to state media.

The population of brown bears has more than doubled in the last three decades to 308,000 according to government data, in part due to shorter and milder winters.

Experts ⁠cited in Russian ⁠media have said bears have been forced to look further afield for food this year because an early and dry spring meant there was a lack of berries for them to feed on. People have also been blamed for leaving food waste out in the open where it attracts bears and for ignoring safety rules.

In Krasnoyarsk, the Siberian region where Kondakov is hunting and which is home to nearly 27,000 bears, investigators said last month that they had opened a criminal case into the local environment ministry, accusing it of failing to keep bear numbers under control, negligence which they said had led to the deaths of seven people in September alone.

In Podtesovo, a settlement of around 3,500 people perched on the right ⁠bank of the River Yenisei, a simple wooden cross stands on the grave of Zoya Gubanova along with a color photograph of the late pensioner. Gubanova, 67, was killed on August 31 in a bear attack while out gathering mushrooms, a popular Russian pastime.

Chatting outside her wooden house, Yulia Markova, a local resident, says the situation has become intolerable.

"We have been living in fear for almost two months now, we cannot even go out for a walk in the evening. People are afraid to let their children go out alone. This is not a cuddly toy, it is not some soft, harmless teddy bear. It is a wild animal. And who knows what its intentions are, what kind of mood it is in when it comes here. Maybe it is simply curious, or maybe it is looking for its next victim," she said.

Markova said that locals, like bear attack victim Gubanova, had not fully understood the danger posed by bears and that people had initially felt sorry for them because they clearly did not have enough nuts and berries to eat this year.

But she said hearts ⁠had hardened after the bears ⁠started coming into the settlement in large numbers.

"We have never seen an invasion like this before," said Markova.

Watching her daughter relax at the local playground, pregnant mother Valeriya Efremova said heightened bear activity had changed locals' lives.

"When the bears started coming out of the forest, we restricted outings as much as possible, even to the park. It was really frightening because bears were even coming into the park where children play. Going out after dark was absolutely out of the question. Even now, although the number of sightings seems to have fallen, at least according to the information we have, you still walk around looking over your shoulder," she said.

Nikolai Zhilinsky, another local, said people were waiting for the weather to get colder and for the bears to hibernate, but he said people would still be worried even when that happened.

"We are not sure that all of the bears will hibernate. There are too many of them and they are hungry," he said. He was afraid to go fishing in his boat in case he was attacked by a bear, he added.

Vladimir Vagin, another local, said people feared they could be attacked in their own gardens. He pointed to an area near a raspberry bush in his own garden where he believed a bear had been.

Driving through the settlement after dark, he noted how empty the streets were.

"People don't go out because they are afraid," he said.

Varieties

Failure to Fit Tags Left 5,000 Offenders Unmonitored in England and Wales, Report Finds

More than 5,000 people who should have been monitored were not tagged (AP) 
More than 5,000 people who should have been monitored were not tagged (AP) 
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Failure to Fit Tags Left 5,000 Offenders Unmonitored in England and Wales, Report Finds

More than 5,000 people who should have been monitored were not tagged (AP) 
More than 5,000 people who should have been monitored were not tagged (AP) 

More than 5,000 offenders went unmonitored in the first half of the year because electronic tags were not installed, while 1,600 tags had no signal for more than two weeks due to faults, a report published by The Guardian has found.

The Institute for Government (IfG) has revealed the full scale of the crisis in the probation system in England and Wales, concluding that “rationing probation supervision” due to a lack of staff meant sentences imposed by the court had become “essentially a fiction” for most offenders.

Once the 2026 Sentencing Act – which reduces the release point for many sentences – is fully implemented, most offenders will spend the final third of their sentence on license without any active supervision, the report said.

“This risks further undermining public trust in the criminal justice system and making sentences even more convoluted and opaque, including to victims,” the report by the independent thinktank found.

Cassia Rowland, the associate director at the institute and author of the report, said: “It’s hard to set out just how demoralized and unhappy a lot of probation staff are.”

“They feel everything is really chaotic, all of these changes are being flung on to them, they’re worried about their personal safety and the public protection risk of the people they’re managing,” she said.

Rowland also noted that, “The sentences courts are imposing are having less and less relevance to the time people are actually serving.”

She said the situation we have reached now is if you get given a six-year sentence, you are most likely going to be spending two years in prison, two years on probation and then two years with conditions that no one is monitoring or enforcing. “That’s just not a six-year sentence,” she said.

The report’s most scathing criticisms of the Probation Service included the electronic tagging of offenders, which the report found was “performing poorly and failing to meet demand.”

Between January and April, more than 5,000 people who should have been monitored were not tagged, equating to 15% of all people with an electronic tagging order.

Almost 1,600 people were wearing a tag that did not send a signal to the monitoring system for two weeks due to technical faults or the device not being charged.

The report highlighted how issues of this kind meant that not a single probation delivery unit inspected in 2024 or 2025 received a rating above “requires improvement,” and two-thirds were rated “inadequate.”

The report, based on public data and interviews with frontline staff, found as well as the increased risk to public safety, prisoners were also being let down, with little action taken to reduce reoffending rates.