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

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We begin with the latest presidential assassination attempt last night at the same site where

40 years ago President Reagan was shot. We'll discuss how a bipartisan gathering to celebrate the

First Amendment turn into yet another example of how the Supreme Court's interpretation

of the Second Amendment is failing us.

Joining us is Adele Stan, an independent journalist and long-time chronicler of the right wing of US politics,

a winner of the Hillman Prize in Opinion Analysis Journalism.

Her work has appeared in Mother Jones, the nation, the American

prospect, as well as on the op-ed pages of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

Then we'll assess the latest diplomatic dance without a partner as Trump cancels

Whitkoff and Kushner's latest planned trip for talks to Pakistan to meet nobody at the table

since the Iranian foreign minister had already left, and Iran had no plans to send another delegation.

Joining us is Matthew Petty, an assistant editor at Reason Magazine,

who has recently reported for the BBC in Persian and English,

The Intercept, The Daily Beast, New Lines magazine, Responsible State Draft, Middle East Eye, and the

national interest, among other publications. He covers US national security policy and its

interactions with American society and domestic politics.

And his latest articles at reason include neither war nor peace with Iran, and Trump's Iran deal looks a lot like the previous ones he hated.

Then finally we'll speak with Alfred McCoy, who holds the Harrington Chair in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

and is the author of two dozen books, including the Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia,

in the shadows of the American century, and to govern the globe.

...