Leid Stories

Many would contend it is both false and unpatriotic to suggest that the United States of America is in a state of crisis. Has martial law been declared? No. Is there a run on the banks? No. Is food being rationed? No. The United States, like any developed country, they say, isn’t immune to setbacks and downturns and similar effects in the global economy. And, comparatively speaking, Americans enjoy a better way of life than most people in the world.

Yet polls are showing deep divisions among Americans about the direction of the country, racial polarization, class consciousness, economic opportunity and hot-button issues such as immigration and access to strategic resources such as education, housing and health care.

President Donald Trump and his administration—and the social, political and economic tenor of our times, generally—have come to symbolize the deep divisions America is experiencing that are pushing the nation toward implosion. Leid Stories asks: Are we in fact witnessing America’s demise? Can we do anything to change course or direction?

Few were surprised by the resignation Saturday of Haiti’s prime minister, Jack Guy Lafontant, after widespread rebellion and a two-day general strike over the government’s foiled plan to impose steep hikes in fuel prices. Indeed, Leid Stories predicted Lafontant’s downfall. But if it is meant to appease Haitians, Lafontant’s exit is only part of their much broader demand: An entire coterie of corrupt government officials must make their exit, too.

Veteran journalist Kim Ives, a prizewinning documentarian and editor of the English edition of the news weekly Haïti Liberté, provides an update on the still-fluid situation in Haiti. He also updates his report about Haitians in Central and South America facing monumental hardships in their bid to return home.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin and U.S.A.’s Donald Trump meet today at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland. Their seconds, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, will meet separately, also at the palace. They’ll talk (we don’t know what’s on their respective agendas), then there’ll be lunch and a news conference, and everybody goes home.

Leid Stories listeners discuss what they consider to be the most unusual aspects of the superpower “summit.”