Photographer captures dramatic images of migrants rescued at sea

António Guterres, who spent 10 years as the UN’s refugee chief, has been picked to become the next Secretary General of the UN. Meanwhile, more than 11,000 African migrants were rescued trying to cross the Mediterranean this week. Aris Messinis is a photographer with Agence France Presse who was on one of the rescue boats off the Libyan coast this week. His pictures of the ordeal appear in the New York Times in a photo essay titled “Stepping Over the Dead on a Migrant Boat.”

Tens of thousands of people have fled the drug wars in Mexico, crossing the border into the US seeking safe harbor from the horrors of cartel violence. But in the mid-2000s, the drug war was spilling over the border into US cities, and the cartels started recruiting American teenagers to become foot soldiers in the war. “Wolf Boys” tells the story of the teen assassins of the Zeta cartel.

Then, the development fight is playing out in Santa Monica over a ballot initiative known as Measure “LUVE.” We’ll hear the pros and cons.

Next, the shortlist for the National Book Awards was announced Thursday. We’ll talk about the Young People’s Literature category, a genre that’s exploded in popularity and changed a lot over the years.

And finally, Xeni Jardin reminds us again that we need to be good guardians of our online privacy following news that Yahoo has been scanning every one of their users’ emails on behalf of the government.

Photo courtesy of Irish Defense Forces.