Ethiopian Airlines, Brexit, Raheem Sterling: Your Tuesday Briefing
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Version 0 of 1. (Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good morning. Boeing on the defensive, hours until a crucial Brexit vote and Venezuela’s blackout threatens social implosion. Here’s the latest: What exactly brought down an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner just minutes after takeoff on Sunday has not been determined, but both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered. Here’s what we know, and our live coverage. The crash of Flight 302 killed 157 people from around the world, including professors from Kenya, aid workers from Ethiopia, a career ambassador from Nigeria and a fisheries consultant from Britain. One scheduled passenger from Greece missed the flight by minutes. The plane: Boeing is faced with crisis. At least 23 airlines, largely in China, removed from service the Boeing model, the 737 Max 8, involved in this crash and a similar one five months ago, of a Lion Air flight in Indonesia that killed 189 people. In the U.S., the Association of Flight Attendants urged the Federal Aviation Administration to review the model, 350 of which have been delivered around the world. Max 8 jets typically make more than 8,500 flights per week. These are the airlines that fly them. Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain flew to Strasbourg, France, to try to rescue her unpopular withdrawal plan from the E.U. She secured new legal pledges, but it was unclear whether the concessions from the E.U. would be enough to prevent another defeat of her deal in Parliament today. What next? If her plan is again defeated, Mrs. May has promised to offer a vote on whether Britain should leave the E.U. without a deal — a situation that could brutally upend Britain’s economy and one that a majority of lawmakers oppose. If they decide against that, they would then be allowed a vote on whether Britain should request an extension of its negotiations with Brussels. If Mrs. May can limit the size of any defeat today, she might even be able to hold a third, final vote on her plan just before the scheduled departure from the E.U. on March 29. Related: A protest by customs officers in France has delayed Eurostar trains and backed up trucks for miles, providing Britain with a taste of a post-Brexit world. Labour Party: The British opposition party, which is losing both Remain and Leave voters while facing serious accusations of institutional anti-Semitism, is in crisis. The country’s electric system has been down for five days, plunging most of Venezuela into sporadic darkness and threatening social collapse. Food is spoiling in a country with not enough of it. Looting and protests have broken out, and desperate patients have been begging doctors to be kept alive. Since Venezuela’s largest power producer went down on Thursday, no date has been set to restart the plant — the source of 80 percent of the country’s electricity. Finger-pointing: President Nicolás Maduro blames U.S. sabotage and cyberattacks for the blackout, without providing evidence. Energy experts and Venezuelan power sector contractors dismissed that explanation, instead citing mismanagement and corruption. Other developments: The Treasury Department penalized a Moscow-based bank that it accused of helping Mr. Maduro’s government evade American sanctions. A few hours later, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a sarcasm-laced speech accusing Cuba and Russia of propping up Mr. Maduro. On Tuesday, he announced the removal of all American diplomatic personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas because of worsening conditions in the country. Raheem Sterling, one of the finest English players of his generation, has become part of the global conversation about racial equality led by athletes like Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James. After a fan screamed a racial obscenity at him at a Premier League match in December, Sterling responded with a pointed Instagram post. In an interview with our reporter, he expanded on themes of racial abuse and racist tropes the British news media uses to describe him. “It is a stereotype of black people: chains and jewelry, bling and money,” he said. “I just wanted people to pause and think.” Afghanistan: As the Taliban’s peace talks with the U.S. in Doha, Qatar, entered an extraordinary third week, the group pressed its offensive in a western province, killing 16 Afghan National Army soldiers and capturing 40 — an entire company. U.S.-China trade war: In high-stakes negotiations with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, President Trump’s strategy of relying heavily on his own personality and ability to read people failed. The same strategy faces a serious test with China’s president, Xi Jinping. Turkey: The country is officially entering a recession, with government figures showing two consecutive quarters of falling economic growth. The currency has tumbled and investor concerns are rising, a damaging combination for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of crucial elections at the end of the month. Algeria: Yielding to weeks of protest in the tightly controlled country, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the 82-year-old ailing president who has ruled for 20 years, announced that he would not seek a fifth term in office — but he also canceled the election scheduled for April, raising questions about how long he would remain in power. U.S. budget: The record $4.75 trillion proposal President Trump sent to lawmakers has no chance of passage. Instead, our Washington reporters write, it serves as a declaration of Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign priorities: $8.6 billion for the construction of a border wall, a 5 percent increase in military spending and deep cuts to domestic programs. Tesla: Days after its chief executive, Elon Musk, announced that the carmaker would shut most of its dealerships, Tesla reversed course, saying it would keep “significantly more stores open” and raise most of its vehicle prices about 3 percent worldwide. Super bloom: Forest fires followed by heavy rains in California this year have spurred colorful wildflowers to blossom across the state, turning arid landscapes into explosions of purples, yellows and greens. The internet: The memes, Wikipedia pages and emails that you look at every day travel to your device via nearly 750,000 miles of extremely thin cables strung across the ocean floor. Now a few tech giants, notably Google, are working to lay their own cables to keep pace with demand for faster and faster data speeds. Tips for a more fulfilling life. Recipe of the day: With spaghetti carbonara, the main goal is creaminess. Expensive smart home gadgets are still niche and of limited use. Smart lights, on the other hand, are useful to just about everyone. Wheelchair users offer tips on air travel. Charles Boycott couldn’t buy food. He couldn’t find employees. He could hardly walk down the street in peace. Boycott, born on this day in 1832, wasn’t the first person shunned as a form of protest, but it’s his name that signifies the practice. In 1880, residents of County Mayo, Ireland, were facing potential famine after several failed harvests, and many could not pay their rent. Boycott, the land agent for a wealthy nobleman, was responsible for evicting those on his employer’s 40,000 acres. When he tried, the Irish National Land League suggested nonviolent protest. Boycott’s neighbors shunned him. Stores declined to serve him, his laborers quit and jeering mobs followed him. Boycott’s plight attracted international attention, including front-page articles in The New York Times. Boycott left Ireland, but his name remained, reportedly popularized by a priest who thought “ostracize” would confuse common people. Within months, The Times was using it to describe events elsewhere in the world. Aodhan Beirne wrote today’s Back Story. Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings. Check out this page to find a Morning Briefing for your region. (In addition to our European edition, we have Australian, Asian and U.S. editions.) Sign up here to receive an Evening Briefing on U.S. weeknights, and here’s our full range of free newsletters. What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes.com. |