Can we trust our leaders to restore the peace?

Riots, arson, vandalism and looting continue to plague US cities, most recently in Portland, Oregon and Kenosha, Wisconsin. Weary Americans are looking to the Democrats and Republicans to offer solutions to the crisis. How has the civil unrest affected the focus and messaging of the campaigns of former Vice President Joe Biden and incumbent President Donald Trump? And as the campaigns clash over the issue, it occurs to some to ask whether we can really trust what our leaders say. Meanwhile, with the US media fixated on protests and domestic politics, unprecedented developments in the Middle East are going unseen.

RT America’s Natasha Sweatte fills us in on the week’s developments in the race to the White a House. Then Terrance K. Williams, author of “From the Foster House to the White House,” weighs in on the upcoming election, the state of race relations, “law and order,” and the ongoing protest movement and its impact on US politics.

Then former Pentagon official Michael Maloof and Prof. Mohammed Marandi of the University of Tehran join Scottie Nell Hughes to discuss the apparent normalizing of relations between Israel and nearby Arab states like Saudi Arabia and what the move means for Iran and for the plight of Palestinians. They also discuss China’s growing influence in the region and continued collusion between Washington and Riyadh.