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

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with today's White House meeting between President Biden and Iraq's Prime Minister al-Sudani

to discuss the future of U.S. troops in a country heavily influenced by Iran,

with the possibility of an Israeli escalation in response to Iran's drone and missile attack, putting U.S. military

personnel in Iraq and Syria in danger from Iranian retaliation.

Joining us is Adam Weinstein, the deputy director of the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute,

and a former combat veteran who served with the Marines in Afghanistan,

and previously worked as a senior

law and policy analyst at the National Iranian American Council. He has a forthcoming brief

from the Quincy Institute, troops in peril, the risk of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.

Then we'll assess the first day of Trump's so-called hush money trial in New York and get an

analysis of how strong the legal case is against the former president who paid off a pawn

star to avoid further electoral damage following the Access Hollywood tape that came out just before

the 2016 elections. Joining us is Jennifer Taub, a legal scholar and professor of law at Western New England School of Law,

whose writing focuses on corporate governance, banking and financial market regulation,

white-collar crime and corruption, and she's testified as a banking law expert before Congress,

and her latest book is Big Turty Money,

making white-collar criminals pay now out in paperback.

And she's the host of the new podcast, booked up with Jen Taub.

Then finally, we'll examine the vulnerability of election workers who are quitting in record numbers

as Trump continues to claim they help steal the last election from him,

...