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Next Week, A Record-Breaking Over 7 Billion People Will See The Total Lunar Eclipse

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Get ready for the Blood Moon next week! Our natural satellite will turn crimson as it is experiencing a total eclipse. It will happen during the evening between September 7 and 8 (depending on the timezone) and will be seen by an enormous number of people worldwide. The moon will first go black as the Earth’s shadow covers it during the partial phase, before going full red, when it is completely eclipsed. The full event, from partiality to the full eclipse and then back to partiality, will take 3 hours, 29 minutes, and 24 seconds.

Where Will The Blood Moon Be Visible From?

If you want to see the whole spectacle from start to finish (including the dimming of the penumbral phase), you have plenty of places to pick from. Most of Asia, a sliver of East Africa, and Western Australia will get the complete eclipse. The rest of Africa, Australia, much of Europe, and the east coast of Brazil will get at least part of the totality and the partiality.

You can check Time&Date.com for precise timings to see the eclipse at your location. 

How Is This Lunar Eclipse Record Breaking?

Thanks to the planetary alignment at the time of the eclipse, a record-breaking 7 billion people will be able to see the celestial event.  Obviously, weather permitting, but up to 60 percent of the world’s population will be able to see the full eclipse, which is truly incredible.

If we consider at least partial views of the event, then the number goes up to 87 percent. We’re sure people in the Americas will be annoyed that they were not invited to this party… let’s consider it a cosmic retaliation for the first lunar eclipse of 2025, which took place in March and was basically an American exclusive.

For the March eclipse, the lunar mission Blue Ghost was on the Moon and operational at the time. It captured the incredible event as a solar eclipse, which you can see here. 

To consider a completely different record, the longest eclipse observation, and likely the one with the least spectators, happened back in 1973, where scientists used a Concorde plane to travel across the path of totality for 74 minutes.

Excitingly, the longest eclipse of this century is still to come. It will happen on August 2, 2027, and it will last around 6 minutes and 23 seconds.

How Do Eclipses Happen?

The orbit of the Moon is slightly slanted with respect to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. If the two were the same, we would get a lunar and solar eclipse every month. Instead, they tend to happen more rarely, every six months or so (but certain years are better) when the Moon is at a node.

A node means that the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon are aligned or in syzygy. A total lunar eclipse occurs at full Moon when the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon line up, so the Moon passes completely within the shadow. There are partial lunar eclipses, where the Moon doesn’t fully enter the shadow, and penumbral eclipses when the Moon only crosses the half-shadow.

For the Sun, there are total eclipses when the Sun is fully covered, partial, when only a bit of the Sun is obscured, and annular, when the Sun is fully covered but the Moon is at its most distant point in its orbit, so it doesn’t look big enough to block the whole solar disk.

The total lunar eclipse is also known as the blood Moon because, once in the shadow of the Earth, it turns red. The reason for this is that sunlight filters through the atmosphere of the Earth, losing the blue colors, just like the sky at sunset and sunrise. Our planet’s shadow has a bit of a crimson hue, coloring the Moon when no direct sunlight is reaching it.



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Don’t expect AI Siri to debut at Sept. 9 Apple event

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Google I/O 2025. Samsung Galaxy Unpacked. Made By Google. All these big launch events had one thing in common — new artificial intelligence tools were the headline act.

Now, Apple has announced its next big event will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 9. Will we finally see the newer, smarter, AI-er Siri? Unfortunately, probably not. We, along with the rest of the tech world, would be shocked if it did.

It’s no secret — Apple Intelligence isn’t quite what we expected it to be, and the pressure is on Apple to add new AI-focused features to its products. That’s not to say that there aren’t some Apple Intelligence features that come in handy, but the long-awaited AI version of Siri has yet to make it to the public.

Apple’s next big event is set to be huge, and we’ll get a number of awesome new Apple devices that iPhone fans will love. So, why isn’t the AI-powered Siri ready for its primetime moment?

That’s the billion-dollar question.

Hardware versus software

Apple’s release cadence usually takes the following form: in June, Apple holds its Worldwide Developers Conference, which is its major software event for the year, and where it shows off the big new software features that will ship to customers in September. This year, Apple revealed iOS 26, and we’re eagerly awaiting the iOS 26 release date. On Sept. 9, Apple is set to debut devices, with the new iPhone being the headliner.

However, recent hardware launches from Google and Samsung have focused heavily on new AI tools. 


Credit: Apple

Apple has a rocky history with AI features, especially after the company failed to ship many of the promised Apple Intelligence features that it announced at WWDC 2024. Since then, reports in the New York Times and Bloomberg have revealed that Apple is struggling to rebuild Siri with generative AI capabilities, and that the company has fallen far behind rivals like Google and OpenAI in the AI arms race.

In the meantime, Apple has turned to OpenAI and ChatGPT to power some Siri features. A recent report from Bloomberg suggests that Apple is also in talks with Anthropic and Google to help power new Apple Intelligence and Siri features. But according to all reports, AI Siri still isn’t done cooking.

Mashable Light Speed

Regardless, most of these reports point toward Apple making early business decisions, not readying a new Siri for the iPhone 17 launch. In fact, Apple forecasters don’t expect to see the revamped Siri until at least 2026 – potentially around the time of WWDC 2026.

Apple Intelligence rumors

We do expect Apple to show off plenty of new AI toys at the Apple Event 2025, and there are plenty of Apple Intelligence rumors going around.

Technically, it’s still possible that Apple will surprise everyone and announce the new, revamped Siri. But in all likelihood, we expect to hear about iterative improvements to existing Apple Intelligence features.

a screenshot of a menu in iOS 26 offering ChatGPT access


Credit: Apple

Notably, Apple confirmed to 9to5Mac that it plans on supporting Siri using OpenAI’s new GPT-5 large language model. This builds on existing features, though. You can already sign into your OpenAI account on your iPhone and have Siri direct certain questions to ChatGPT as needed.

Other Apple Intelligence announcements should include improved real-time language translation on AirPods and iPhones, new photo editing tools, and more advanced Genmoji options. Some of these features were already teased during WWDC 2025 and should arrive with iOS 26.

What’s coming in iOS 26?

Rumors aside, there are plenty of AI-based features that we know for a fact are coming in iOS 26, which we do expect to be released alongside the iPhone 17. We know this because Apple has announced them already. The beta version of iOS 26 has been available since June, after Apple announced all of the new operating systems at WWDC 2025.

So what new AI features are there? For starters, there’s a new feature in Visual Intelligence that allows users to ask questions about screenshots in addition to what your camera sees. 

A screenshot of Apple iOS 26 analyszing an image of a ring on the palm of a hand, using a new Visual Intelligence search service


Credit: Christian de Looper

There are also new live translation features built into Messages, FaceTime, and the Phone app, which use AI to provide real-time translations in communication. And there are some features that work a little more in the background, like AI-powered reminder suggestions, order tracking within Apple Wallet that uses information from emails in your inbox, and more.

Yes, Apple will probably focus heavily on other changes to iOS, like the new Liquid Glass design language, rather than on AI-based features, but that doesn’t mean that AI won’t be a big part of the new release.

The future of Apple Intelligence

It’s very clear that Apple is indeed still working on building the all-new generative AI Siri. We’ve seen plenty of reports highlighting executive team changes at the company meant to speed up AI development. But these kinds of developments take time, and most experts think the company will finally ship major new AI features in 2026.


Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.



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South Korea vows support for citizens detained by ICE

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South Korea’s government has held an emergency meeting and vowed to swiftly respond to the arrests of hundreds of its citizens in a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in the US.

Seoul has dispatched diplomats to the site in Georgia, while LG Energy Solution, which operates the plant with Hyundai, said it was suspending most business trips to the US.

US officials detained 475 people – mostly South Korean nationals – who they said were found to be illegally working at the battery facility, one of the largest foreign investment projects in the state.

The White House defended the operation, dismissing concerns that the raid could deter foreign investment.

“They were illegal aliens and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] was just doing its job,” President Donald Trump said following the raids on Friday.

Video released by ICE officials showed Asian workers shackled in front of a building, with some wearing yellow vests with names such as “Hyundai” and “LG CNS”.

“People on short-term or recreational visas are not authorized to work in the US,” ICE said, adding that the raid was necessary to protect American jobs.

“This operation sends a clear message that those who exploit the system and undermine our workforce will be held accountable,” Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Steven Schrank said in a statement on Saturday.

South Korea, a close US ally, has pledged tens of billions of dollars in American manufacturing investment, partly to offset tariffs.

The timing of the raid, as the two governments engage in sensitive trade talks, has raised concern in Seoul.

Trump has actively encouraged major investments from other countries while also tightening visa allocations for foreign companies.

Many of the LG employees arrested were on business trips with various visas or under a visa waiver programme, officials say.

South Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun said he felt a “great sense of responsibility for the arrest of our citizens” as he presided over an emergency meeting about the issue on Saturday.

He said the government had set up an Overseas Korean Protection Task Force to respond to the arrests and that he may travel to Washington if needed.

“Immediately after this incident became known, the President stressed that U.S. law enforcement actions must not unjustly infringe upon the rights of our nationals or the economic activities of our Korean-invested companies,” he said.

On Saturday, LG Energy Solution announced it was sending its Chief Human Resources Officer Kim Ki-soo to the Georgia site on Sunday.

“We are making all-out efforts to secure the swift release of detained individuals from our company and partner firms,” it said in a statement.

“We are confirming regular medications for families through an emergency contact network for detainees and plan to request that necessary medications be delivered to those detained.”

The company said it was suspending most business trips to the US and directing employees on assignment in the US to return home immediately.

South Korean media widely described the raid as a “shock,” with the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper warning it could have “a chilling effect on the activities of our businesses in the United States”.

The factory, which makes new electric vehicles, had been touted by Georgia’s Republican governor as the biggest economic development project in the state’s history, employing 1,200 people.

The arrested workers were being held at an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, until the agency decides where to move them next.

LG Energy Solution said 47 of its employees and about 250 workers for contractors at the joint venture factory were detained.



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Silksong Reviews Tank Following Massive Release, Developer Responds

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Hollow Knight: Silksong is currently enjoying a wide wave of enthusiasm and praise after the long-awaited indie sequel was finally released yesterday. Silksong‘s player count is already through the roof and it’s being lauded for its tight mechanics and accessible low price. However, despite this overwhelming success, there is a contingent of fans who are not happy with the game.

On Steam, Silksong is currently suffering from a deluge of negative reviews over the state of its Chinese translation, which disgruntled fans feel is worse than the original Hollow Knight and leans too heavily into archaic speech and pretentious prose. While the game currently has a “Very Positive” rating from reviews in all languages, Hollow Knight: Silksong only has a 51% “Mixed” rating in Simplified Chinese language reviews. This brings the game’s entire average down compared to review languages like English, where it has reached “Overwhelmingly Positive.”

Team Cherry Responds to the Translation Backlash

Wanting to address this situation quickly and succinctly, a representative for Team Cherry issued an apology over the translation issues with the game and promised to address it in the near future. “To our Chinese speaking fans: We appreciate you letting us know about quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation of Hollow Knight: Silksong,” wrote Team Cherry marketing & publishing representative Matthew Griffin wrote on X. “We’ll be working to improve the translation over the coming weeks. Thanks for your feedback and support.”

According to complaints, the equivalent of this unpopular translation in English would be like if they suddenly switched the dialogue to Old English and completely changed the tone from the previous game. The prose was compared to a “wuxia novel written by a teenager” by one user on X.

Chinese translations have been notoriously tricky to get right, especially in the Western indie space. Stardew Valley encountered trouble last year when it attempted to fix translation issues through an update patch, which sparked controversy and led to an eventual rollback. Chinese language characters rely on precise linework to be read correctly, and specific fonts can present issues for readers since characters can look similar and might have overlapping meanings depending on the context.

Those who play Western games in Chinese often complain about the quality of translations that haven’t improved much over the years, despite Chinese language customers making up a larger part of a game’s potential audience than ever before. Earlier this year, GameDiscover reported that Chinese slightly surpassed English as the primary language for Steam users for the first time in 2024, underscoring the need for better Simplified Chinese translations.

I think that, as the release of a massive game like Silksong has shown, translation issues will start having more outsized effects on user and review scores, forcing developers to put more effort into outputting better games in the future. No longer is having a bad translation a niche issue, since the majority of users on a platform like Steam, according to the data, have their primary language set to one other than English. This issue seems to be on the platform’s mind, as recently, Steam changed the way review scores are displayed to reflect the “vastly different experiences” that users were having in different languages for the same game.

What are your thoughts on the reviews of Silksong over the unpopular Simplified Chinese translation? Is the reaction justified, and does Silksong deserve a lower overall review score because of this misstep?

Editor’s note: The title of the article was updated as “review bombed” was not appropriately accurate.



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