*Question*
The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan dropped more bombs during the first quarter of 2018 than it has in the same period in any of the last 15 years, according to Pentagon data. The increased bombing is the latest evidence the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan is significantly intensifying since U.S. President Donald Trump announced his new military strategy for the country in August. Coalition planes dropped 1,186 weapons on Afghanistan during the first three months of 2018, according to figures released by U.S. Air Forces Central Command. The previous record (1,083) was set during the height of the war in 2011. The U.S. has not released 2001 to 2003 airstrike data. Those figures do not include activity by the Afghan Air Force (AAF), which has stepped up its aerial bombardment since gaining the ability to conduct airstrikes two years ago. The AAF carries out between 4 to 12 airstrikes every day, according to the Afghan Ministry of Defense. If recent trends are any indication, 2018 is likely to get even more violent. Fighting traditionally picks up during the warmer months, and the coalition has expanded its bombing campaign against the Islamic State group, as well as narcotic labs and other Taliban revenue sources. But there is little indication the expanded airstrikes are helping end the conflict, says Thomas Johnson, an Afghanistan specialist who teaches national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. "It's basically a tactic of desperation," said Johnson, author of Taliban Narratives: The Use of Power and Stories in the Afghanistan Conflict. "There's never been an insurgency in history that's been defeated purely through air power." Even high-level U.S. military officials concede the conflict remains a stalemate. According to the latest U.S. military estimate, the Afghan government controls 56 percent of Afghanistan's districts, with insurgents controlling or contesting the rest. Insurgent attacks also have continued. Nearly 60 people died Sunday when an Islamic State... Why is the US putting airstrikes on Afghanistan? Pick the correct answer from the following options: - due to robberies - war on terror - due to people having too many abortions - not enough information
**Answer**
war on terror

*Question*
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA North Korea and its neighbors in the region reacted with caution to U.S. President Donald Trump's decision Thursday to cancel the U.S.- North Korea nuclear summit. North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan said in a statement released by the North's central news agency (KCNA) that his country remains open to resolving problems with the United States "whenever and however," and offered praise for President Trump's diplomatic engagement efforts. "We had held in high regards President Trump's efforts, unprecedented by any other president, to create a historic North Korea-U.S. summit," said the vice foreign minister in a statement released Friday by KCNA. The conciliatory tone that came from Vice Foreign Minister Kim stands in sharp contrast to earlier criticisms, insults and threats made by another North Korean official that prompted Trump to cancel the June summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. On Thursday North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui called U.S. Vice President Mike Pence a "political dummy" and threatened a "nuclear-to-nuclear showdown" with the U.S. over comments made by Pence calling for North Korea to follow the Libya denuclearization model. The Libya model refers to the rapid and complete dismantlement of that country's nuclear program in 2003 and 2004, before the easing of any sanctions. But North Korea is acutely aware that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed by his own people a few years later, with support from a multinational military coalition that included the United States. Pyongyang has called for a more incremental process that links concessions to partial nuclear reductions and postpones complete denuclearization until its undefined security demands are met. Trump blamed the "tremendous anger and open hostility" from Pyongyang for forcing the cancelation of the summit, but many analysts say the issue was more about substance over tone and the unbridgeable gap between the two denuclearization positions. But... After Trump canceled the U.S.-North Korea nuclear summit, how did the North Koreans view this? Pick the correct answer from the following options: - They were very angry with Trump - They were still hopeful that the summit could be held in the future - They were very angry with Mike Pence - not enough information
**Answer**
They were still hopeful that the summit could be held in the future

*Question*
Ironically, J. Paul Getty never saw the Getty Villa. He died two years after his museum opened to the public in January 1974 in a new building modeled on an ancient Roman luxury home. It was not until after Getty's death in June 1976 that he returned from his estate in England to his "ranch" on the Pacific Coast: he is buried there at the edge of the property on a private plot overlooking the ocean, alongside his eldest and youngest sons, George and Timothy, both of whom predeceased him. Following a renovation and reinstallation of the galleries, the Getty Villa opens a new chapter in its history. Although Getty never set eyes on his creation, the story of how he built the Villa and assembled his collection pervades the galleries even today. A suite of revamped roomsGalleries 105 to 108share this history. Featuring ancient works of art Getty bought himself along with archival documents, the new displays place the objects in their cultural contexts and shed light on Getty's personal relationship to his museum and final resting place. From a Ranch House to an Ancient Villa Getty bought the 64-acre ranchonce part of the Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, an early-nineteenth-century 6,656-acre Mexican land grantjust after the end of World War II, intending it as a weekend retreat where his fifth wife Theodora ("Teddy") could ride horses and he could display his growing art collection. He knew the area well, for he already owned a small house on the beach in nearby Santa Monica, just steps from the sprawling complex his friend and rival collector William Randolph Hearst had built for the actress Marion Davies. (The Davies estate is now the Annenberg Community Beach House, while Getty's beach house has been replaced by a large modern condo complex, 270 Palisades Beach Road.) Who never set eyes on his creation of galleries at a Villa? Pick the correct answer from the following options: - J. Paul Getty - not enough information - Renoir - Da Vinci
**Answer**
J. Paul Getty