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 Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson,

emphasizing Putin's maximalist demands,

which amount to a capitulation by Ukraine as a condition of peace talks,

as Zelensky heads to the White House to try to salvage an aid package,

House and Senate Republicans are stalling.

Joining us to discuss Putin's spontaneous announcement, he is running for another presidential term

and the disappearance of Navalny is George Beebe, the Director of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute

for Responsible Statecraft. He served in government for nearly 25 years, including as Director of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

He served in government for nearly 25 years, including as director of Russia analysis at the CIA and as a White House advisor on Russia matters for Vice President Dick Cheney.

His latest book is The Russia Trap, How Our Shadow War with Russia could spiral into nuclear catastrophe.

Then we'll look into the resignation of the President of the University of Pennsylvania

while the head of Harvard's fate is hanging by a thread following a trap set by Congresswoman

Stefanik in a hearing who badgered them into answering yes or no to whether

calling for genocide of Jews on your campus constitutes harassment, when in fact no such calls exist,

although many are arguing that what is happening in Gaza is genocide. Joining us is Juan Cole,

who is a professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian

history at the University of Michigan. He's the author of the blog Inform Comment at wangol.com

and the author of Engaging the Muslim World and most recently Muhammad Prophet of Peace

amid the clash of empires. We'll discuss his article at Democracy for the Arab World

now dawn, the other Israel-Gaza conflict on campus. Then finally, with Kate Cox, the 20-week

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