As of July 1, what remains of USAID’s programming is being folded into the State Department. The independent agency, created 64 years ago to advance American values and support global humanitarian causes, is no more. With USAID’s demise comes a staggering human cost. The Lancet today published a study finding that more than 14 million people — a third of them children — will die by 2030 if current U.S. foreign aid cuts remain in place.

Behind those numbers are countless stories of tragedy — and heroism.

My guest today, Katharine Houreld, is the Bureau Chief for East and Southern Africa for The Washington Post, who recently reported from Sudan on the devastating impact of the swift and sudden cutoff of American aid. We begin our conversation with the stories of individuals living through it — from the grieving mother of a toddler who died of an easily preventable chest infection, to the soup kitchen volunteers fighting to keep their neighbors alive as food supplies vanish.

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The leaders of NATO met in The Hague on June 25th for a rather truncated meeting with a limited agenda. Unlike recent NATO summits, this one did not focus much on the war in Ukraine, countering China, or other broad international security concerns. Rather, this meeting was dedicated to securing a commitment by most NATO members to double their defense spending from 2.5% to 5% of member states' GDP. This is a massive increase with profound implications for both European security and, according to my guest today, European society as a whole.

Zachary Paikin is a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

We kick off by discussing why Ukraine was not on the agenda and the odd comportment of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, before having a broader conversation about what this summit says about the future of Europe and transatlantic relations.

Will the ceasefire between Israel and Iran actually hold? How might Iran respond to the unprecedented American attacks on its nuclear program? And more broadly, how have events over the last two weeks changed the entire security dynamic of the Middle East?

I’m privileged to bring you a conversation with one of the foremost experts on these questions. Dalia Dassa Kaye is a senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and author of the forthcoming book Enduring Hostility: The Making of America’s Iran Policy, which will be published in December. We kick off by discussing the events of the last few days before having a deeper conversation about Israel’s strategic calculus moving forward, Iran’s options for retaliating against the United States, and whether the American bombing of Iran may have traded short-term gains for a long-term disaster.

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