Katty Kay's Blog

If you needed further evidence of the pressure that US President Barack Obama is under to send arms to the Ukrainian government, just listen to my interview with Senator Joe Manchin.

He spoke to me as Russian, Ukrainian, German and French leaders were meeting in Minsk to discuss a truce between Russia and Ukraine.

The Democrat from West Virginia echoes the argument of those who say the US must support an ally that is pro-Western.

While agreeing that a military solution was unlikely, Senator Manchin sees American weapons as a deterrent - a way to force Russia to realise that the costs of meddling in Ukraine are serious.

He holds out little hope, by the way, for the Minsk talks.

Nowhere in the world does it cost as much to go to university as it does in the US. Some private universities here cost more than $50,000 (£38,000) per year just for tuition, and that doesn't cover accommodation, food, or even books (remember those?).

I wanted to find whether an American degree is worth it. What do those exorbitant fees actually buy you?

Right near the BBC bureau in Washington, DC, is one of the more expensive universities in the country - George Washington University. Under its former President Stephen Trachtenberg, prices at GW, as it's known here, have more than doubled over the course of the past few decades.

The world is getting wealthier - but with the gap between rich and poor feeling bigger than ever, who are the winners and losers of this richer world in 2015?

A Richer World 2015

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Trachtenberg invested in fancy dormitories, upmarket sports facilities and state-of-the-art classrooms in a deliberate strategy to make the school more appealing. It worked: the more he spent, the more fees rose and the more students wanted to go there.

He has no regrets about the massive inflation in tuition costs because it all leads to better jobs. If a student can find work after graduation, "then presumably the university," he says, "has served the purpose they wanted, society wanted, and if they can pay the debt back, it's not a problem."

But if you don't come from a wealthy family, those debts can be enormous. The high cost of fees creates a clear division between haves and have-nots among the student body - indeed in the country as a whole.

I sat down for coffee at a local spot with three GW students. Each is working at least one part-time job to pay their college bills, and each is taking on some level of debt.

Cindy Zhang is studying international affairs, and she works two part-time jobs to make ends meet. Her parents help out a bit, but she also has about $10,000 in loans per year.

Shanil Jiwani currently has $60,000 in loans and he expects that number to double by the time he graduates - he'll be $120,000 in debt before he steps out into the world.

Silvia Zenteno's university days are almost over. But even with the maximum amount of financial aid from the university, she still works 30 hours a week, and plans to graduate with $40,000 in loans.

So why do it? Why put all that time, money and effort in? Maybe students here don't have much choice.

"When you're talking about your career and how much money you're going to make, your college investment is basically your down payment," Anthony Carnevale told me. He's the director of Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. And because Americans don't have a social safety net to fall back on, like many European countries, Carnevale says, US degrees are "more valuable than degrees in other countries."

So you pay a lot of money to get a degree from a good school, to get a good job, to pay back the loans of going to a good school. It's a vicious cycle of inflation that shows no signs of stopping. GW has just published its tuition fees for the upcoming school year: $50,367, up 3.4% from last year.

What might just put a cap on the rising costs is that wonderfully egalitarian institution - the internet. More US universities are offering online courses virtually for free.

You don't get the swanky campus facilities and face-to-face interaction, but you do get a good education. And if costs keep rising at the speed they have been, at some point more American students will say that looks like a pretty good deal.

For more on the BBC's A Richer World, go to www.bbc.com/richerworld - or join the discussion on Twitter using the hashtag #BBCRicherWorld

Syria's President Assad seemed calm and confident in his interview with the BBC - that was the conclusion of Richard Haass, former State Department official and President of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Assad does not look like a man who fears he's about to lose his position. But as long as he's there, Mr Haass told me, it's a real problem for the coalition because several coalition members see Mr Assad almost as a big a problem as Islamic State.

Mr Haass believes the only solution for defeating the Islamic State is a ground force made up of Arab troops, but as he readily admits, that may be unrealistic.

Jordan is likely to retaliate - and soon - for the horrendous murder of its pilot by IS.

The country's former foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, told me he wouldn't be surprised if convicted IS terrorists being held by Jordan would be put to death in the next few days.

Mr Muasher said the popular demand for some kind of revenge will need to be satisfied.

He also said this incident has united Jordanians in the way that the 2005 bombing of an Amman hotel also did.

Mr Muasher, who is based in Jordan, said that same sense of unity today would override any opposition to Jordan being a member of the coalition.

America will not respond directly to the killing of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh - but it will keep up pressure on Islamic State.

Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon's spokesperson, says America never responds directly to these killings, even when it was Americans being executed by IS. He insisted, however, that there are lots of ways the US-led coalition can challenge IS even harder.

"We're going to have to keep the pressure on, we're going to have to keep our foot on the accelerator, as we continue to take the fight to these guys," he told me.

When I asked him what concrete impact the five months of allied bombings have had against the militant group, he said they can see IS changing its behaviour in Iraq in response.

For example, he said, IS fighters don't travel in convoys anymore because those are easy targets, some have taken to hiding, and their supplies have been badly diminished.

A group of senior foreign policy experts is pushing the White House to arm Ukrainian forces with lethal weapons because of the recent surge in fighting in the east of the country.

This would be a significant policy shift for the White House which has so far opposed sending what's known as "lethal aid" (read weapons) to Kiev because it didn't want to risk escalating the situation there.

However, since the situation is clearly already escalating, the White House may be more receptive to giving Kiev what it says it needs.

"Well there are Russian military forces on Ukrainian territory without the permission of the Ukrainian government. I think most countries would consider that an invasion," was how one of the report's author's, Steven Pifer, former US Ambassador to Ukraine, put it to me this evening.

America's former Ambassador to India says China is watching President Obama's visit to Delhi "through a microscope".

Tim Roemer believes that with a bit more foreign policy confidence, India can play a useful role in balancing power in Asia. Translated, that means America is keen to have a counter to China's clout and is wooing India to play that role.

This trip is clearly a big deal for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As head of the world's largest democracy, he wants to assume the role of global statesman - and sitting next to a smiling Mr Obama at the Republic Day parade is a great PR coup for him.

But it's worth remembering that questions over Mr Modi's human rights record and Hindu nationalist policies meant that a year ago the Indian leader couldn't even have obtained a visa to come to America.

So for Mr Obama, there are risks in this relationship too.

The United States is a country founded on the ideal of freedom and equality, values later underlined by key historical figures like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King.

But democracy needs structure to work, in the form of laws and policies.

And the sight of the US Congress building in Washington enveloped in scaffolding is an ironic reminder of the political gridlock that has brought the democratic process to a grinding stop. My essay for the BBC's Democracy Day.

America's top infectious diseases official says he thinks we can get to "zero cases" of Ebola in West Africa.

In our interview today, Dr Tom Frieden was keen to stress to me that he was optimistic, not confident, that this could be achieved - saying on a recent trip to the region he saw a lot of improvement.

What worries him is complacency now that progress is being made in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Guinea, he says, still has a long way to go.

On grading how the world has handled Ebola, Dr Frieden would only say that no one would pretend mistakes had not been made.

Ten thousand more troops will be on the streets of France by the end of the day Tuesday in a bid to stop another terror attack.

The forces will join 5,000 police who are being sent specifically to protect Jewish sites and some mosques.

For more on the increased security measures, as well as the recent hack of US Central Command sites, I spoke with Daniel Benjamin, who formerly served as coordinator for counter-terrorism at the US State Department.

America's first Secretary of Homeland Security is adamant - national security concerns must be weighed against the principles of democracy, even after the attack in Paris.

Tom Ridge told me the attack showed just how difficult it is to combat this kind of terrorism, from both an intelligence and a security point of view.

French intelligence is very good, he said, and these suspects were on police radars and yet it still happened.

But Mr Ridge also insisted that any effort by far right groups to isolate Muslims in general is counterproductive, integration, he said, is the only answer.