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Since June, documents leaked by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have produced revelation upon revelation about the nation's top-secret intelligence gathering operations. The latest information, about U.S. spying on foreign leaders, has angered even some dependable U.S. allies. New York Times national security reporter Scott Shane, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, discuss the latest Snowden-related leaks.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out this week puts a new name at the top of the race for the Republican presidential nomination: Herman Cain. The poll shows the former head of Godfather's Pizza is at 27 percent, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney just 4 points behind. Cain spoke with Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon about his surge to front-runner status.

Afghan officials say the inmates escaped from the main prison in Kandahar city through a tunnel about 1,000 feet long. They say many of the men who dug the tunnel out of the facility were Taliban insurgents.

George Packer's article in The New Yorker follows the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York during an insider trading case. In "A Dirty Business," Packer explores why it's been difficult to build prosecutions directly tied to the financial crisis. Packer talks to Steve Inskeep about what he's learned during his investigation.

Each June, China goes quiet for three days as high school seniors take their college entrance exam. But is the exam a true identifier between excellent and mediocre or trivial and unfair? Foreign Policy's Christian Larson examines the sentiment behind the test.

Coming up this season: a midsummer night's dream of good music at festivals from coast to coast.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a top 2016 GOP presidential prospect, is stirring curiosity among black leaders for his outreach efforts and activism in reforming mandatory sentencing laws.

In 2006, Oregon successfully made pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient of meth, a prescription drug. Since then, Mother Jones' Jonah Engle reports, 24 states have tried to follow suit — and 23 have failed. Engle attributes those failures to pharmaceutical companies' massive lobbying efforts.

The transition of power in China this fall will usher out a generation of engineers and technocrats, and replace them with economists and lawyers who may be less scared of political experimentation. But two distinct factions are emerging, and their biggest challenge will be how to handle changes.

Political unrest in Egypt might seem low on the list of concerns for the U.S. government. But one commentator says the situation there needs to be dealt with swiftly. Guest host Celeste Headlee speaks with Shadi Hamid, of the Brookings Doha Center, about the risks of forgetting Egypt.