Time Magazine International Edition

what you said about

A PARCHED LANDRE “THE DUST BOWL DOWN Under” [March 4]: The Australian poet Dorothea MacKellar summed our country up in her poem “Core of My Heart” when she wrote: I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains. Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains … Let’s be a little more objective: drought is part of the Australian landscape.Garry Krischock, RUNAWAY BAY, AUSTRALIATHE OPENING LINE OF OUR national anthem is “Australians all let us rejoice.” Your beautiful but stark photography and writing suggest rejoicing isn’t appropriate. While we still have politicians strutting the stage, loudly denying climate change, and shaping policies to match, we should feel only shame. We must all awake from our slumber now—there’s no other choice.Anne Maree Teasdale, OCEAN GROVE, AUSTRALIAFOOD FOR THOUGHTRE “THE…

for the record

‘It is simply not good enough to vote for a blindfold Brexit.’JEREMY CORBYN, U.K. Labour Party leader, in the March 12 House of Commons debate of PM Theresa May’s Brexit plan shortly before it was rejected‘When the hell will someone in this government broadcast to the public that Israel is a country for all its citizens.’ROTEM SELA, Israeli TV host and model, in a March 9 Instagram story that prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire back on social media that, according to a 2018 law, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people alone‘THERE WILL NOT BE A SEPARATE ADMISSIONS SYSTEM FOR THE WEALTHY. AND THERE WILL NOT BE A SEPARATE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM EITHER.’ANDREW LELLING, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, announcing on March 12 the…

boeing, the faa and newly nervous flyers

MARCH 10 DAWNED IN ADDIS ABABA WITH excellent visibility and little wind, perfect flying weather that nonetheless became a backdrop for tragedy. That morning, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed minutes after takeoff, killing all 157 people aboard. Emergency responders discovered only burning wreckage and bodies. The victims’ loved ones were left to grieve and wait for answers.The world waits with them. The incident was the second fatal crash involving a Boeing 737 Max 8 in just five months. Another Max 8, flown by Indonesia’s Lion Air, also crashed quickly after takeoff in October, killing everyone aboard. Experts have speculated that a new automated system meant to prevent “aerodynamic stalls”—which occur when a plane isn’t producing enough lift and are addressed by pointing its nose down—may have sent the Lion Air…

foragers

Five days into a massive power outage that cut electricity across Venezuela, people collect water from a broken pipe at the Guaire River in Caracas on March 11. Already dealing with economic crisis, Venezuelans struggled to access food and water, and hospitals were left in darkness. Opposition leaders said at least 21 people died in the blackout and blamed Nicolás Maduro’s regime for failing to invest in the power system. Without evidence, Maduro accused the U.S. of an “attack” on that infrastructure.…

russians rally against plans for an ‘online iron curtain’

CHANTING “HANDS OFF THE INTERNET” and “No to isolation,” thousands of Russians joined protests in Moscow and other cities on March 10 to denounce new legislation that would severely tighten state control of the Internet. Lawmakers say isolating Russia from the global Internet will protect the country’s networks, but critics accuse the Kremlin of trying to create what some are calling an “online Iron Curtain.”ONLINE OVERHAUL In recent years, Vladimir Putin’s government has introduced a raft of measures curbing Russians’ online freedoms, including blocking the messaging app Telegram in 2018. In February, a digital-sovereignty bill took the first step toward becoming law; it’s expected to pass, banning Internet traffic from being routed through foreign servers and requiring it to pass through state-controlled infrastructure. Putin is also expected to sign off…

news ticker

Theresa May’s Brexit deal rejectedThe bargain that British Prime Minister Theresa May struck with the E.U. to ensure an “orderly Brexit” was voted down for a second time by lawmakers on March 12, by a margin of 149 votes, leaving the U.K. on course to crash out of the bloc without a deal on March 29—unless U.K. lawmakers and E.U. officials agree to delay Britain’s exit.Study finds race disparity in air pollutionAir pollution in the U.S. is disproportionately caused by white people, while black and Hispanic people are more likely to suffer its consequences, according to a study published March 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.Yemen strikes kill a dozen childrenThe U.N. said March 11 that 22 civilians, including 12 children, were killed in…