lifeline

CHICAGO—Across the street from Wendy Jones’s South Side office, a banner promises an economic lifeline for her low-income neighborhood: A new metro station is coming soon.

It’s an extraordinary tool—camera, compass, communicator, encyclopedia, studio, lifeline.

For nearly two decades, the U.S. provided a lifeline to Haiti: duty-free textile imports that drew American apparel manufacturers and created tens of thousands of jobs in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.

The arrangement, by sidestepping the international banking system, has provided a lifeline to Iran’s sanctions-squeezed economy.

Afghan women have told the BBC that the internet was a lifeline to the outside world since the Taliban banned girls over the age of 12 from receiving an education.