Bashar al-Assad: "All contracts signed with Russia are implemented"

Translation of an exclusive interview with Syrian President Bashar al_Assad:

“Have they not realised that since the Vietnam War, all the wars their predecessors have waged have failed? Have they not learned that they have gained nothing from these wars but the destruction of the countries they fought, which has had a destabilising effect on the Middle East and other parts of the world? Have they not comprehended that all of these wars have not made people in the region appreciate them or believe in their policies?”

Sarah Stillman is a staff writer for The New Yorker.

"People don't really care about issues so much as they care about the stories and the characters that bring those issues to life. ... A story needs an engine or something to propel you forward and it can't just be a collection of like, 'Oh hmm, this was interesting over here and this was interesting over there.' Realizing that helped me sit down with all my stuff on trafficking and labor abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan and say 'What are the five craziest things that I found here and how could I weave them together in a way that would actually have some forward motion?'"

Thanks to TinyLetter and Hulu Plus for sponsoring this week's episode.

On the Thomas Pynchon Trail

“Now Pynchon hides in plain sight, on the Upper West Side, with a family and a history of contradictions: a child of the postwar Establishment determined to reject it; a postmodernist master who’s called himself a ‘classicist’; a workaholic stoner; a polymath who revels in dirty puns; a literary outsider who’s married to a literary agent; a scourge of capitalism who sent his son to private school and lives in a $1.7 million prewar classic six.”

City of the Lost

Life inside Za’atari, a camp for Syrian refugees just across the Jordanian border, where “the dispossession is absolute. Everyone has lost his country, his home, his equilibrium. Most have lost a family member or a friend. What is left is a kind of theatrical pride, the necessary performance of will.”

Taken

A 55-year-old cold case ends with a conviction. But was justice really served?

  1. A Child Vanishes

    Playing outside after dinner, best friends Kathy and Maria meet a man calling himself “Johnny.” Kathy runs home to grab mittens; upon her return, her 7-year-old friend and the stranger are nowhere to be found.

  2. Women Wronged

    The story of Jack McCullough, once known as John Tessier, a man who once lived near Kathy and Maria and has a troubling history of abusing women.

  3. Bulldogs on the Case

    Police zero in on McCullough after a deathbed confession.

  4. 'That's Him'

    Half a century after her friend was abducted, Kathy identifies the man who took Maria.

  5. The Whole Truth?

    Jack McCullough is convicted of Maria’s kidnapping and murder, but questions are raised about the evidence (or lack thereof) presented at trial.

Sponsor: Nate Anderson's Guide to Internet Crime

This guide is sponsored by </i>The Internet Police: How Crime Went Online, and the Cops Followed</b></a>, the new book from Ars Technica Deputy Editor Nate Anderson.</p>

A excerpt from </i>The Internet Police is available on Longform. Already read it? Here's a collection of Nate's all-time favorite internet crime stories.