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 hope on the horizon for Democrats, following a record-breaking filibuster by Senator

Booker and a defeat of Musk with a decisive victory in Wisconsin to stop a Republican

takeover of the state Supreme Court, which has already enabled gerrymandering to the point a 50-50

red-blue state has six Republican representatives in the House to only two Democrats.

Joining us is Richard Parker, who teaches economics and public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School

of Government and is a senior fellow at the Schoenstein Center.

He is a former managing editor of Ramparts, was a co-founder of Mother Jones magazine, and serves

on the editorial board of the nation.

His books include The Myth of the Middle Class and John Kenneth Galbraith, his life, his politics,

his economics.

Then with Israel's defense minister announcing that Israel will annex

territory in Gaza, we will look into Trump's erratic Middle East policy and speak with

Jonathan Gaia, program director at the Institute for Global Affairs. A reporter and editor focused

on foreign policy, national security and the Middle

East, we will discuss his article at the American prospect, The Trump Factor in the Middle

East, alternatively belligerent, self-enriching, militaristic, and realist. Trump's

haphazard path is different from the establishment's slow road to obliterating Gaza.

Then finally we'll assess how long it will be before the brave people of Burma get rid of the brutal

military thugs who have stolen their country now ravaged by an earthquake.

Joining us is Simon Billenis,

...