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 a look inside of Iran to gauge the attitudes of its people as the country

waits for a retaliation from Israel that could lead to a wider war.

Joining us is Asa al-Rad, the former research director of the National Iranian-American Council,

and the author of The State of resistance, politics, culture, and identity in modern Iran. We'll discuss today's

announcements by the Secretary of the Treasury that the U.S. is considering imposing more sanctions

on Iran, whose economy is beset with more than 40% inflation and a shrinking middle class as the

clerical elite and revolutionary guards rob the country blind.

Then we'll look into the symbiosis between Israel's hardline Prime Minister Netanyahu and Iran's

Ayatollah Hamani, who both oppose a two-state solution for the Palestinians

and have delusions of global influence.

Joining us is Mansour Varang, a professor emeritus of international relations at Bennington College in Vermont.

He resigned from his post as revolutionary Iran's first ambassador to the United Nations when Homanese regime

refused to accept the UN's recommendation to release its U.S. hostages. His books include

U.S. imperialism, the Spanish Civil War to the Iranian Revolution, and the U.S. press in Iran,

foreign policy and the journalism of deference. Then finally we'll

assess today's oral arguments before the Supreme Court in a case that could undo felony

charges against hundreds of January the 6th insurrectionists and dismiss half of the charges

Trump faces in the Washington, D.C. trial. Joining us is Claire Finkelstein, who is a professor of law

and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, where she's also the founder and faculty

director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

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