“Gone, the Assads: On the rise and fall of Syria’s dictatorial dynasty.” That piece is on the homepage today, here. I have been writing about the Assads for some years. The new piece is something like a summation. Interesting and important subject, however dark. See what you think.

In my Impromptus last Friday, I addressed a painful, painful subject. It is reflected in this headline, from the Washington Post: “Afghan refugees feel abandoned after Trump executive order halts flights.” That report is here. Its subheading reads, “The fate of tens of thousands of Afghans awaiting resettlement in the U.S. hangs in the balance after Trump suspended the refugee admissions program.”

A reader of ours writes,

Jay,

Your mention of the suspension of this program hit close to home.

After I retired from DEA, I spent four and a half years downrange as a contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan. The last two and a half years, I was [in Kabul]. . . . We were transported to and from HQISAF by local drivers who also acted as interpreters and cultural advisers. A few of them immigrated to the U.S. between the drawdown in 2014 and the precipitous (being generous) withdrawal in 2021. Others did not.

For the past three years, my wife and I have been helping support one of these men and his family. The Taliban has been actively hunting him, and he, his wife, and their four children have been living in hiding with relatives. Consequently, he cannot work. . . .

If you can see your way clear to mention this issue from time to time, I’d appreciate it. We owe these people.

It’s hard to move on to other subjects, having started with that one — or so I find. But I will move on regardless. (Actually, this next subject is not so light.) On Wednesday, I had a rare movie review, or sort-of review — an article, in any case. It is about Maria, the new movie about Maria Callas, directed by Pablo Larraín, starring Angelina Jolie.

A reader writes,

Thank you very much for your insightful review. It so accorded with my own feelings when I saw the film — which have been set back by reviews that seem obsessed with what they see as Jolie’s ego trip. I was moved to tears by the sheer beauty of the film itself, the breathtaking music, and Jolie’s conveying of Callas’s sadness.

I am English, but my mother-in-law was Greek, and she, too, had unnerving experiences of occupation. These left her with a brittle confidence, as they did Maria. My mother-in-law fought hard not to be broken.

My Impromptus on Friday began with our new Gulf war, or Gulf contretemps: Are we to stop saying “Gulf of Mexico” and say “Gulf of America” instead, as President Trump demands, and Governor DeSantis, among others, has already started doing?

The mail I received on the subject can be summed up with a few words (not to slight the mail, which was excellent and detailed): “We’re bigger than that.”

Thank you to one and all.