Louisville

Netanyahu support for Trump on UNRWA exposes political-military divide.

When the Trump administration announced last month it would immediately cut all US aid for UNRWA, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately hailed it as a “praiseworthy” and “important” decision. Established to care for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East has long been a punching bag for Israeli politicians. It upends a 50-year old accommodationist policy supported by the defense establishment, which considers UNRWA’s social welfare work – for all its political warts – as a stabilizing force among some 2.1 million registered refugees in the West Bank and Gaza.

The prospect of no people living in extreme poverty

For the first time in recorded history, fewer than 1 in 10 people are living in “extreme poverty,” according to a new World Bank report. This progress has been so steady that many experts now ask if a zero level of extreme poverty could soon be possible. According to poverty expert Esther Duflo at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the anticipation of future poverty has long exacerbated current poverty.

Why both Iran and US have taken hits from nuclear deal withdrawal

As President Trump prepared to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal last spring, a debate flared over who would wind up more isolated as a result of such a move: Iran, or the United States. Four months after Mr. Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 seven-nation accord, the evidence is increasingly clear that not just one of the two principal antagonists of the landmark agreement is isolated, but that both are – though in different ways and to different degrees. Simply put: While Iran’s growing isolation is economic, for the US the repercussion from exiting the nuclear deal has been diplomatic.

What 'pink wave'? Why GOP women candidates are minding the gender gap

“I am!” Lena Epstein, candidate for Michigan’s 11th congressional district, beams and gives her a hug. “I heard you talking about your values and I knew that it had to be you,” the woman tells Ms. Epstein. It radiates the optimism that has infused the 2018 campaign cycle, especially among women candidates.