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 one of Trump's new targets, who Trump's lawyers named in court filings,

asking the Department of Justice for documents to support a lunatic conspiracy theory

that our first guest today encouraged violence on Capitol Hill on behalf of the deep state. Joining us is John Nichols,

who is the Nation Magazine's Washington correspondent. His books include The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic

Party, the enduring legacy of Henry Wallace's anti-fascist, anti-racist politics, and most recently

coronavirus criminals and pandemic profiteers,

accountability for those who cause the crisis.

Then we'll examine reports from Egyptian and Jordanian officials that Secretary of State

Blinken leaned on the Jordanian and Egyptian leaders to allow Palestinians to be expelled

into their territories.

Joining us is Rashid Haldi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia

University.

He's the editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies and was president of the Middle East

Studies Association and was an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab

Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 until June of 1993. His books include A Hundred

Years' War on Palestine, A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917 to 2017. Brokers of Deceit, how the U.S. has undermined peace in the Middle East,

and the Iron Cage, the story of the Palestinian struggle for statehood. We will discuss his

article at the Los Angeles Times, how the U.S. has fueled Israel's decades-long war on Palestinians.

Then finally, with fossil fuel lobbyists vastly outnumbering climate scientists, activists and indigenous peoples at the COP28 climate summit

led by the head of a petro state oil and gas company, we will speak with Susan Joy Hassel,

the director of the non the nonprofit organization Climate Communication.

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