THE Economist hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist.
I'm your host Jason Palmer.
Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.
The Trump administration's mission to trim America's federal workforce has been slashing
and burning its way through the country's science institutions.
We take stock of what's on the chopping block and assess how self defeating it all is.
And for lots of reasons, Brazil never really reckoned with the horrors of its 20 year dictatorship,
not as much as its neighbors Chile, Uruguay and Argentina did.
Now an Oscar nominated film is making Brazilians sit up and look to that past.
First up, though, in Gaza almost six weeks ago, a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas began.
Hostages were freed, the bombs stopped.
At last, Palestinians returned to what was left of their homes.
No one expected the progression to peace to be straightforward, and it hasn't been.
Just this morning,
Israel agreed to restart hostage exchanges after delaying them
on Saturday in protest over the treatment of its detainees.
Despite all these bumps in the road, a shaky peace has somehow endured.
But the threat of renewed violence has never been far away.
Now the two sides are approaching a far more significant turning point
without much of a plan in place.