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Weekend Edition is answering your questions about issues and candidates. This week, we address inquiries about foreign policy and U.S. involvement in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Speaker John Boehner also said that he had little hope of bringing the issue to a resolution.

President Obama has a delicate dance in dealing with the Chicago teachers strike. Unions are traditionally his staunchest supporters and enthusiastic campaigners. And while they're not happy with the reform policies his administration is pursuing, they're likely to stick with the president to a point. Mitt Romney meanwhile says he's on the side of parents and students.

A high-energy form of dance developed in the churches and gang communities of Los Angeles has made its way to Liberia. The krumping craze is sweeping the West African nation and providing a way to harness the creativity of the first generation of Liberian youths who didn't lose their teenage years to civil war.

As many as 40 percent of urban families in sub-Saharan Africa farm in household or commercial gardens. A survey from the United Nations finds that these urban farms, which feed millions of people each year, are in jeopardy if they're not protected during Africa's growth spurt.

Just 2 percent of delegates at the Republican National Convention were black. That's higher than the percentage that supported Mitt Romney in a recent poll: 0. And getting blacks on board may prove especially hard for the GOP presidential candidate given the tone of some recent campaign ads and a wave of new voter ID laws.

Among the many sea changes enacted in one struggling school district is a mandate no one expected. All students, of all grade levels, are being enrolled in Chinese language classes. The superintendent says being familiar with Asian culture is crucial to students' future success.

Now that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in charge of raising really big dollars for a superPAC that supports President Obama, wealthy Democrats all over the country may be eyeing their phones nervously. Sources tell NPR that Emanuel will be pushing for donations of $10 million and more.

There are several daytime talk shows starting up, featuring Katie Couric, Steve Harvey and Ricki Lake, among others. TV critic Eric Deggans says they are all still jockeying to be the next Oprah — but there probably won't be another Oprah.

A group of political scientists counted 40,974 ads on behalf of President Obama versus 17,779 for Mitt Romney during the two weeks of the political conventions.