To the Point

American planes have dropped food, water and medical supplies to Iraqis fleeing the ultra-fundamentalist Islamic State. There have been US air strikes against some of its forces, but the President still says, “no boots on the ground.” 

The first African-American president waited until his second term to hold his first African summit. But this week, he hosted almost 50 African heads of state and American business leaders, hoping the US can catch up in the world’s last great emerging market.

General Motors risked its reputation by instituting a record number of recalls after news of deaths and injuries due to faulty ignition switches.  The company has admitted it failed for years to address safety problems.  So why are sales back to where they were before the recession?

From Eastern Europe to the Middle East, from Africa to the East China Sea, the world is battered by violence and threatened by instability.  Can the US, the lone “superpower,” impose order on chaos?  What are the prospects for World War III?

Wisconsin was the first state to legalize collective bargaining for public employees.  Republican Governor Scott Walker has put an end to that. He survived 3 years of massive political backlash, and last week the State Supreme Court approved laws that make public unions all but irrelevant.

Today’s 72-hour ceasefire in Gaza lasted for about 90 minutes. Once again, professional journalists are caught in the middle, trying to report the claims of Israelis and Palestinians and assess their credibility. But distrust and angry emotion extends to the news media. Is there any chance of achieving “fairness” and “balance?”

The ultra-extremist Islamic State now controls 30% of Syria, refining and selling oil to finance its expanding “caliphate.” Does Syria's President Assad look like the lesser of two evils? What’s the US doing to arm so-called “moderate” forces against both a murderous government and the Islamic State?

Almost 700 people have died, and more than a thousand have been infected, in the worst epidemic since the Ebola virus was discovered in 1976. We’ll hear about a horrific disease with no cure, and West Africa's widespread fear, not just of Ebola, but also of Western doctors and their unfamiliar procedures.

61,000 unaccompanied kids who have arrived at the Mexican border are upsetting the plans of members of Congress about to go home for the August recess. Before they leave, can House Republicans pass a bill that looks like it deals with the problem? What’s at stake for the mid-term elections and the presidential race in 2016?

The US has more people in prison than China, a country that’s 4 times larger. Now, there’s bipartisan support for cutting the sentences of almost half of all current federal prisoners. But some hardliners still maintain that tough sentencing is the reason that crime is on the decline. We’ll hear conflicting opinions.