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| This was the week that the rest of the world finally discovered the migration crisis underway in the Middle East and Europe, where millions of refugees and would-be immigrants from conflict-racked countries in the Middle East and repressive or poverty-stricken nations in Africa are trying to reach points north by land and, more dangerously, by sea. The deadly center of this movement is the Mediterranean, which at least a quarter million people have tried to cross – and 2,500 people have died crossing – so far this summer. In the magazine this week, the photographer Paolo Pellegrin and the writer Scott Anderson tell the story of a tiny sliver of this mass of humanity – 733 of them, to be exact, a group of mostly Eritrean migrants who set out from Libya in July aboard a pair of perilously unseaworthy wooden boats in hopes of reaching Italy. The account of their rescue is so harrowing, and Paolo’s photographs are so arresting, that we tried to tell it in a way we haven’t told a story before; online, you’ll find a mix of words, images and video that we hope will go some distance towards conveying a sense of this crisis as it is seen at the water level by thousands of people every day. |
| Elsewhere in this week’s issue, Robert Draper chronicles the efforts of the wonks working for 2016’s Republican presidential hopefuls to sort out the party’s foreign-policy dilemma: How do you distance yourself from the shadow of the Iraq War while still presenting a more muscular alternative to what Republican voters see as a milquetoast, wavering Obama strategy abroad? Dan Kois, meanwhile, profiles Joy Williams, a “writer’s writer’s writer,” whose new collection of short stories, he argues, should cement her reputation as “our pre-eminent bard of humanity’s insignificance.” |
| Sam Sifton makes an impassioned argument for year-round grilling and gives us a recipe for lamb burgers to get us through the approaching winter months, the TV food personality Alton Brown vents to Ana Marie Cox about foodies and Jaime Lowe celebrates the pragmatic glories of the much-maligned fanny pack. |
Happy reading,
Jake Silverstein
Editor in Chief |
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First Words
Illustration by Jennifer Daniel. Cat: EEI_Tony/iStock. Wig: greg801/iStock.
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The Politics of Distraction
By MARK LEIBOVICH
In American political life, “shiny objects” has become a useful metaphor for the stories – and people – that divert us from the important questions.
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Notebook
Nilufer Demir/DHA, via Reuters
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The Boy on the Beach
By CHARLES HOMANS
The haunting photographs of Aylan Kurdi.
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