Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news. We'll begin

with a brief pause in Russia's war on Ukraine, with Putin calling for an Easter ceasefire on

Saturday, with fighting to resume on Monday. Joining us to discuss Trump's threat to, quote,

take a pass soon if Ukraine-Russia peace talks show no progress is Charles Cupschen,

who was director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the Clinton

administration. He is now a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University School of

Foreign Service and spent the last three years of the Obama administration as special assistant

to President of Obama for national security. He's the author of the end of the America era, U.S. foreign policy

and the geopolitics of the 21st century, power in transition, the peaceful change of international

order, and how enemies become friends, the sources of stable peace. And his latest book is Isolationism, a history of America's efforts to shield itself from the world.

Then we'll examine Trump's threat to fire the chairman of the Federal Reserve that he has no right or authority to do,

but given Trump's lawlessness, it won't stop him from trying.

Joining us is Justin Woffers, a professor of public

policy and economics at the University of Michigan, and a visiting professor of economics at the

University of Sydney. He's also a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research,

a non-resident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, as well as a research fellow with the Brookings Institution, a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson

Institute for International Economics, as well as a research fellow with the Institute for the Study of

Labor in Bonn, a research affiliate with the Center for Economic Policy Research in London,

an international research fellow with the Keel Institute for the World Economy, and a fellow

at the CES EFO in Munich.

And we will discuss his latest article at the New York Times.

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