The Washington Report

There's new evidence out this week that backs up suspicions that U.S. officials think Pakistan's spy service has been helping Afghan militants undermine U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. This week, The New York Times released a thorough review of six years of military documents that the online group WikiLeaks.org released on Sunday. The Times story is called The War Logs.

Last week, the media was abuzz with news of the biggest U.S.-Russian spy swap since the Cold War. This week, another spy story has hit the presses--and at its center is the Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri. American officials say Amiri provided the U.S. information about Iran's nuclear weapons program before asking the Iranian Interests Section of the Pakistani Embassy on Monday for a ticket back to Tehran.

The U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday that it had completed a successful spy swap that's being called the biggest exchange since the Cold War. In Vienna, the United States exchanged ten Russian agents to the Russian Federation for four individuals who had been incarcerated by the Russian Federation.

West Virginia's Democratic U.S. Senator Robert Byrd died on Monday, June 28th, at the age of 92. The country's longest serving senator was an icon in Washington, both as a philosophical political thinker and as a backroom wheeler-and-dealer. WQXR's Kerry Nolan speaks with David Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times, on Byrd's legacy and how the loss of another Democrat in the Senate will affect the Obama administration's ability to pass the financial overhaul bill, coming up for debate this week.

It's a busy time in Washington. President Obama just convinced BP to set up a $20 billion compensation fund to pay for damage caused by the oil spill, but one Republican senator accused him of having an anti-business agenda. Over the weekend, China announced it would finally allow its currency, the yuan, to rise against the dollar. And in a few days, the G-20 summit in Toronto will bring together the world's most powerful countries to discuss global economic policy.

President Obama is using his first Oval Office speech to outline a plan that he hopes will force BP to compensate individuals and businesses for their financial losses from the oil spill.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced on Sunday that even if the energy giant BP is able to stop the flow of oil this month, it could still take months to deal with the damage caused by the Gulf of Mexico's rapidly expanding oil slick. In other breaking political news, four Palestinian divers were killed on Monday by the Israeli Navy, a week after Israeli soldiers raided a flotilla bound for Gaza which was carrying humanitarian aid and over 600 pro-Palestinian activists.

Energy giant BP's top kill procedure failed over the weekend. That means tens of thousands of gallons of oil are still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Obama Administration officials do not have a solution for the spill, and say that it may be two more months before it can be stopped.

South Korea is calling for action against North Korea today, following a suspected torpedo attack that killed 46 South Koreans in March. In this week's Washington Report on WQXR, WNYC's Kerry Nolan talks to David Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for The New York Times, about how South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will punish North Korea, and whether his tactics will work.

This week is a busy one in Washington, D.C. President Barack Obama is expected to nominate U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court today. Then, Afghan President Hamid Karzai pays a visit to the White House to mend ties with the Obama administration.