Reviews the current status of inertial confinement fusion. The recent results of high compression (100*liquid density) and high neutron yields (1012, 1013 per shot) obtained in separate laser experiments are discussed. The joint attainment of high densities and high temperature will require larger drivers (laser or ion beam). For direct drive laser fusion, high uniformity of illumination at short wavelength ( lambda <or=1/3 mu m ) remains an outstanding problem which may be resolvable by advances in the induced spatial incoherence technique.