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 Trump's press conference today at Mar-a-Lago,

at which he rambled on about his grievances,

starting off with a tirade of childlike petulance that Joe Biden had been taken away from him like his favorite toy, and now he's stuck with having to run against a black woman.

Joining us is a biographer of Trump, who has known him for almost 40 years, David K. Johnson,

a Pulitzer Prize winning investor reporter and best-selling author of the making of Donald Trump.

A 13-year veteran of the New York Times, he won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting that uncovered

loopholes and inequities in the US tax code,

and he is now a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

His latest book is The Big Cheat, How Donald Trump Fleeced American and Riched Himself and His Family.

He's also the co-founder of DCReport.org, and we will discuss his latest article.

Donald Trump is suddenly running scared

and he ought to be. Then we'll look into pro-Palestinian demonstrators disrupting Kamala Harris'

rally in Michigan yesterday and more demonstrations set for the Democratic Convention in Chicago

and more pro-Palestinian activism expected on campuses

as students return. Joining us is Shireen Alidemi, a professor of education at Michigan State

University. Having lived through two civil wars in her country of birth Yemen, she has played

an active role in raising awareness about the U.Ssupported Saudi-led war on Yemen since 2015,

and more recently the US supported Israeli war on Gaza.

Then finally we'll get a military analysis of the Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory,

which has rattled Putin and has Western strategists wondering about its objectives.

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