Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with Sunday's massacre on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia on the first night of

Hanukkah, in which 16 were killed, including one of the two terrorists, and dozens were wounded.

Joining us from Sydney to discuss the alarm and grief in Australia's Jewish community

and reports that Australia's Domestic Intelligence Service had investigated the surviving terrorist

in 2019 for his ties to the Islamic State is Jordan Baker,

chief reporter of the Sydney Morning Herald.

She was previously the Herald's education editor and her latest article at the Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously the Herald's education editor,

and her latest article at the Sydney Morning Herald is,

It was pure chaos when terror spill blood at Bondi Beach.

Then we'll examine Trump's disgusting reaction to the murders of Rob Reiner and his wife

and speak with a friend of theirs,

Jonathan Alter, an analyst and contributing correspondent for NBC News and MS Now.

He's the former senior editor and columnist for Newsweek, where he worked for 28 years.

He's the author of The Defining Moment, FDR's 100 Days and the Triumph of Hope, a New York Times bestseller,

and his very best, Jimmy Carter, Alive. His latest book is American Reckoning, Inside Trump's Trial and My Own,

and he runs a sub-stack newsletter, Old Goats, where his latest article is Trump's secret pardon-for-profit racket.

Then finally, we'll speak with Victoria Hui, a professor of political science at the University

of Notre Dame, where her research examines the dynamics of international politics and state

society relations in historic China and historic Europe.

She's the author of War and State Formation in ancient China and early modern Europe,

...