TIME for Kids - Age 8+ Family Edition G5031822

On March 4, Russia’s government made it illegal for journalists to report the facts about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With that law in place, several major news organizations have suspended broadcasting in Russia. These include ABC and CNN. Journalists face up to 15 years in prison for reporting stories that the Russian government says are fake. Tim Davie leads the BBC. That’s a British news outlet. “The safety of our staff is paramount,” he says. “We are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs.” Some Russian news outlets are run by the government. They are not allowed to use the words invasion or war. They call the war in Ukraine a “special military operation.” They don’t show what’s really happening in Ukraine. This…

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” You’ve probably heard this a million times. Maybe your answer has changed as you’ve gotten older. Or maybe you’ve known since you were little what you were destined to do. When you think about your future career, consider your skills, interests, and passions. There’s no need to make a decision just yet. But thinking about the possibilities can help you learn more about yourself and what excites you. Junior Journalists, we want to know: What’s your dream job? Think about what you’re good at and what you enjoy doing. What career feels right? Is your dream job one that already exists, or is it one that no one else has thought of yet? Write about it, draw it, or interview someone…

Power Words augmented adjective: enhanced avatar noun: a virtual representative: for instance, a character that stands for a player in a computer game GUILLERMO GUTIÉRREZ CARRASCAL—SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET/GETTY IMAGES…

When Cathy Hackl’s son wanted a party for his ninth birthday, he didn’t ask for party favors or decorations. He asked if he could hold the celebration on Roblox, a digital platform where users can play and create games. He and his friends wouldn’t meet in person: Their virtual avatars would attend the party online. “They hung out and played and they went to other different games together,” Hackl says. “Just because it happens in a virtual space doesn’t make it less real. It’s very real to my son.” Roblox is part of the metaverse, a “place” parallel to the physical world. The term has lately entered the mainstream, as millions of people spend hours a day in virtual spaces like Roblox. Other kinds of virtual platforms are growing too, for things…

School isn’t always easy. But I know if I try my best to do something and don’t give up, I will get it. That’s called perseverance. I go to Madison Elementary in Massena, New York. We learned about NASA’s Mars missions. NASA has two active rovers on Mars: Curiosity and Perseverance. Recently, I won NASA’s You’ve Got Perseverance award. The Perseverance rover sent me a message from Mars! I was so happy! I got to talk with people on the Perseverance team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, in California. They told me about the rover’s many different parts. Perseverance wouldn’t be on Mars today if the team hadn’t worked hard and persevered for many years. One day, I’m going to be an astronaut on a team living and working on…

Temperatures can drop to -225°F on Mars, and the air is unbreathable. But around 4 billion years ago, the planet had oceans and seas, and a thick blanket of air. These conditions could have supported life. For the past nine and a half years, NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring the planet’s Gale Crater, which was probably once a lake. Today, the crater contains rocks and sediment. Curiosity has studied these for clues to whether tiny life-forms called microbes ever lived there. They could have left chemical traces on the surface. In January, NASA announced that Curiosity might have found what it was looking for. TANTALIZING CLUES In a newly published study, scientists looked at the chemical analyses Curiosity did on Martian rocks and soil. They found carbon 12, a chemical linked with…