Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news. We'll begin

with revelations from a joint investigation by CBS's 60 Minutes, De Spiegel and the insider,

that the AHA anomalous health incidents, known as Ivana Syndrome, which have incapacitated a number

of high-ranking U.S. intelligence officials serving abroad

were caused by a directed energy weapon wielded by members of Russia's military intelligence

GRU Unit 29155. Joining us is Michael Weiss, editor at The Insider, a Russia-focused independent

media outlet who has reported on international

affairs for over 10 years with a focus on the Middle Eastern Russia. He has interviewed ISIS

operatives and Russian spies, published and curated a series of still classified KGB training

manuals, reported from rebel-held Syria and war-torn Ukraine, broken major stories about financial corruption,

and exposed the Russian intelligence services' ongoing subversion efforts

in the United States and Europe.

He's the author of The Menace of Unreality,

How Russia Weaponizes Information, Culture and Money,

and co-authored the New York Times bestseller ISIS inside the Army of

Terror. We'll discuss his article at The Insider, Unraveling Havana Syndrome. New evidence

links the GIUs assassination unit 29155 to mysterious attacks on U.S. officials and their families.

Then we'll speak with Marci Shaw, a professor of history at Yale University,

who teaches the intellectual history of 20th and 21st century Central and Eastern Europe.

She's the author of Cavaire and Ashes,

a Warsaw generation's life and death in Marxism,

...