A shipwreck in the Mediterranean last week claimed the lives of around 500 people, another grim chapter in a wider story of human despair and people smuggling that politicians and authorities seem powerless to tackle.
Since the International Organization for Migration launched its missing migrants project in 2014, an estimated 27,000 people trying to reach Europe have been recorded as dead or disappeared while trying to cross the Mediterranean. More than 21,000 of those deaths have occurred on the route from Libya or Tunisia north to Greece or Italy.
As our cover ponders this week, why do we seem unable to prevent tragedy after tragedy from happening off Europe’s southern shores?
Athens correspondent Helena Smith reports from the Greek town of Kalamata, where grief has turned quickly to anger. Europe correspondent Jon Henley analyses Europe’s long-term policy failures on irregular migration, and diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour considers the problems in divided Libya, from where the ill-fated vessel set sail.
US president Joe Biden has launched his campaign to run again in 2024, but can the 80-year-old last the pace of what is likely to be a bruising re-match against Donald Trump? Our Washington bureau chief David Smith analyses Biden’s chances, while reporter Hugo Lowell asks whether Trump’s federal indictment for allegedly concealing classified documents may kill off the Republican contest – in his favour.
A real highlight in our features pages this week is Carey Baraka’s remarkable interview at home with the 85-year-old Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, whose life has intersected with many of the past century’s biggest events.
In the Culture section, Philip Oltermann finds out why Hito Steyerl is considered one of the world’s most influential artists, Martin Pengelly pays tribute to the late American novelist Cormac McCarthy and Caroline Kimeu catches up with the cellist Yo-Yo Ma as he ended a world tour by busking on the streets of Nairobi.
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