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'll begin with the damage control underway at the White House today as European

leaders and President Zelensky try to prevent the total sellout of Ukraine following Trump's

craven gift of caving in and siding with the murderous, make Russia great again imperialist in Alaska

after threatening severe consequences

if Putin didn't agree with the ceasefire,

which is now off the table.

Joining us is Charles Cupsin,

who was Director of European Affairs

on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.

He's now a professor of

international affairs in Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and spent the last three years of

the Obama administration as special assistant to President Obama for national security. He's the author

of Power and Transition, the Peaceful Change of International Order and How Enemies Become Friends, the Sources of Stable, 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 with Trump taking Putin's advice to get rid of mail-in ballots,

we'll examine the dangers posed by Trump's executive order to take over elections

from the states, which is an attempt to overturn a foundational fact in the Constitution that

states run elections. Joining us is Richard Hassan, Professor of Law and Political Science at the

University of California, Los Angeles. He is a nationally

recognized expert on election law and campaign finance regulation and is the co-author of a leading

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