Former President Bill Clinton arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea, in a surprise move to negotiate for the release of two American journalists imprisoned there. The two women, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, were arrested near the Chinese border while working on a story for Current TV, a media company owned by former Vice President Al Gore. Bill Clinton's mission marks the highest ranking visit to North Korea since Madeleine Albright. Sang-hun Choe, New York Times correspondent in Seoul, South Korea, and Jim Walsh, a North Korea watcher and professor at the MIT Security Studies Program join The Takeaway with their thoughts. Professor Walsh traveled to Pyongyang in 2005 and has met with North Korean officials in Europe and the U.S.

The Swiss bank UBS has struck a deal with the U.S. government. Washington has been fighting for the release of some 52,000 names of wealthy Americans suspected of evading taxes by hiding billions of dollars in secret bank accounts with UBS and other Swiss banks. To help us understand the details of the deal and the impact on clients of the bank, The Takeaway turns to Bill Sharp, a lawyer who represents a number of clients with Swiss bank accounts.

The preparations have begun for the First Family's summer vacation. At the end of the month they’ll be joining other beach-bound tourists and heading to Martha’s Vineyard. The locals are getting ready. Nelson Sigelman, managing editor of the Martha’s Vineyard Times, talks about whether everyone's making much ado about nothing more than a vacation.

This morning nine rockets were fired by the Taliban into the Afghan capital of Kabul. Two people were injured, and one of the rockets landed in the diplomatic district close to the U.S. and other Western embassies and headquarters of NATO. The BBC correspondent in Kabul says the rocket attacks are a new tactic for the Taliban, less than three weeks before Afghanistan's presidential election. We're joined by David Loyn, BBC correspondent in Kabul, and author of the book In Afghanistan: Two Hundred Years of British, Russian and American Occupation.

Last week three young American hikers were arrested in Iran for crossing the border from Iraq. Yesterday the captured Americans were identified as Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal. Kurdish officials who are working with their Iranian counterparts on the case said they were students, two of whom were studying Arabic in Damascus, Syria. The status of the three remained unknown Monday despite efforts by Swiss diplomats to obtain details from the Iranian Foreign Minister. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also appealed to Iran for information. Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd worked as freelance journalists in the region. Sandy Close is the executive director of Pacific News Service. Shane and Sarah both wrote pieces for the organization. Ms. Close thinks Shane Bauer was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She joins The Takeaway to discuss her young employees' capture.

U.S. auto sales soared in July. Auto analysts like The Takeaway's guest Tom Libby, a Detroit-based independent auto analyst, say the government’s Cash for Clunkers program is giving a big push to the numbers. The program, which gives people $4,500 to buy a new car when they trade in their rusted hulks, blew through a billion dollars in its first week. Now the Senate is deciding whether to allocate another $2 billion to the program. The House already agreed to the re-up. So what happens to the cars when you trade them in? And are dealers really making a mint? The Takeaway talks to Brian Willian, sales manager for the Albany Honda dealer in Albany, Georgia, and J.C. Cox, owner of an auto salvage business in Moultrie, Georgia, to find out the cradle-to-the-grave of Cash for Clunkers.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begins her seven-country tour of the African continent tomorrow. Will this trip signal a new day for U.S. foreign policy or will it be an extended overseas photo-op? To examine her agenda and its possible implications, The Takeaway is joined by Will Ross of the BBC in Nairobi, and Steve Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation

On Capitol Hill and across the nation, the debate over the future of American health care rages on. It’s President Obama against the Republicans; the Blue Dogs versus the progressive Democrats. For a view from the Hill as well as the heartland, The Takeaway is joined by our Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich and public radio reporters Adam Allington of KWMU in St. Louis, Missouri, and Michael Puente of member station WBEZ in Chicago.

To hear some of the strong emotions surrounding the debate, watch the footage of Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Senator Arlen Specter at a health care town hall in Philadelphia yesterday:

Name one film that involves someone with Asperger's syndrome. And it can't be Rain Man. Cat got your tongue? Well, after this summer season, the task might get a little easier: from animation (Mary and Max) to a rom-com (Adam), movies — and even some novels — are giving men with Asperger's the leading role. With the new interest in this autism spectrum disorder, The Takeaway is left wondering: how do such films affect the community they portray? We've asked David Corcoran and David Edelstein to help us start this conversation. Corcoran is health editor at The New York Times, where he worked on the piece about Asperger's in today's Science Times, Asperger's Syndrome, On Screen and in Life. Edelstein is chief film critic for New York Magazine.

Here's the trailer for "Max and Mary":

Parents are worried about the spread of H1N1 (or swine flu) when school starts up in September. In advance of potential outbreaks, the Obama administration is finalizing guidelines that could scale back government-recommended school closings in response to outbreaks of H1N1. The goal is to keep schools open as much as possible. This fall, federal authorities will recommend closures only under "extenuating circumstances," such as if a school has many children with underlying medical conditions or if many students or staff members are already sick. For more we turn to Spencer S. Hsu, a staff writer for the Washington Post.