Silk Road

How quickly life changes. One minute you’re making $300 a week as a college researcher—and the next you’re deciding if someone should live or die.

Kinan Azmeh, a celebrated Syrian musician who has lived in New York for 16 years, was out of the US when the travel ban chaos unfolded. A nerve-wracking few days unfolded.

While controversy mounts about the Chinese claim to most of the South China Sea, Beijing’s also got plans to spread its influence on the old Silk Road to Europe.

Lyn Ulbricht was like any other mother, worrying about her son Ross, what he wore at trial. But she couldn’t look at him as testimony laid bare his life as an alleged drug kingpin.

Beyond the far reaches of Google lies a web so “deep” even the FBI had difficulty busting drug trades and decoding usernames.