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 begin with the confirmation hearing today before the Senate and Foreign Relations Committee

for Jeremy Carr to become the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations,

in spite of his white supremacist, anti-Semitic and homophobic views and social media posts since deleted.

Joining us is Desiree Cormier-Smith, the co-founder and co-president of the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice,

who was formerly the State Department's special representative for racial equity and justice,

and we'll discuss how Carr would be in charge of managing

relationships with the UN and other international organizations he disdains

and insults. Then we'll look into Trump's meeting with Netanyahu yesterday and

whether Trump's yearning for a Nobel Peace Prize overwhelms Netanyahu's opposition to Trump making a nuclear deal with Iran.

Joining us is Mark Fitzpatrick, an associate fellow for strategy, technology and arms control,

and former executive director of the Washington-based America's Office of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, as well as former head of the Institute's work on non-proliferation.

He served as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer and as acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for non-proliferation,

and his books include Asia's latent nuclear powers, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, overcoming Pakistan's nuclear dangers and the

Iranian nuclear crisis, avoiding worst-case outcomes. Then finally, we'll speak with Lisa Graves,

one of the nation's foremost experts on the right-wing influence on the U.S. Supreme Court

and other levels of power. She leads True North Research and co-hosts

Legal AF and has served as a senior advisor in all three branches of the federal government,

as Deputy and Attorney General in the Justice Department, as Chief Counsel for Nominations

on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as a Deputy Chief of the Article III judges' division

for the U.S. courts.

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