The Sunday Read: ‘What Deathbed Visions Teach Us About Living’

As the Middle East braces for another year of extreme heat, climate change is turning the soil to dust in the landscape that has long been known as the fertile crescent — and water has become a new source of conflict. Alissa J. Rubin, who covers the Middle East, tells the story of Iraq’s water crisis and what it means for the world.

At a time of enormous economic upheaval and uncertainty prompted by President Trump’s trade war, we asked our listeners what they wanted to understand about this financial moment. Ben Casselman, the chief economics correspondent for The New York Times, tries to answer some of those questions.

When Taffy Brodesser-Akner became a writer, Mr. Lindenblatt, the father of one of her oldest friends, began asking to tell his story of survival during the Holocaust in one of the magazines or newspapers she wrote for. He took pride in telling his story, in making sure he fulfilled what he felt was the obligation of all Holocaust survivors, which was to remind the world what had happened to the Jews. His daughter Ilana knew it was a long shot but felt obligated to pass on the request — it was her father, after all. Taffy declined because after a life hearing about the Holocaust, she said, she was “all Holocausted out.” But, years later, when she learned of Mr. Lindenblatt’s imminent passing, Taffy asked herself what would become of stories like his if the generation of hers that was supposed to inherit them had taken the privilege that came with another generation’s survival and decided not to listen? So here it is, an old Jewish story about the Holocaust and a man who somehow survived the pernicious, organized and intentional genocide of the Jews. But right behind it, just two generations later, is another story, one about the children and grandchildren who have been so malformed by the stories that are their lineage that some of them made just as eager work of running from it, only to find themselves, same as anything you run from, having to deal with it anyway.

The poet and novelist on the real reason he became a writer.

In his first 100 days in office, President Trump has struggled to fulfill his promise to carry out mass deportations, a reality that has prompted his administration to change its strategy. Rather than putting its focus on migrants with a criminal record, or those who recently crossed the border, the White House is increasingly seeking to deport those who came to the United States decades ago and have established a life, career and family in America. Jessica Cheung, a producer on “The Daily,” tells the story of one such migrant through the eyes of his daughter.