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 on this third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine,

marked by a shameful vote in the UN today by the Trump administration against a resolution

condemning Russia for the Ukraine war, in which the U.S. voted with Russia, North Korea, Belarus,

and 14 other Putin-friendly countries.

Joining us to discuss Trump's sellout of Ukraine to Putin and the results of the German elections is Laura Thornton,

senior director for global democracy programs at the McCain Institute.

Prior to joining the McCain Institute, she was a senior vice president of the democracy hub at the McCain Institute. Prior to joining the McCain Institute, she was a senior vice president of the Democracy Hub

at the German Marshall Fund,

where she oversaw the Alliance for Securing Democracy,

and was also the director of global programs

at the International IDEA,

a Stockholm-based intergovernmental think and do tank

with a mission to advance democracy.

Then we'll speak with Alfred McCoy, who holds the Harrington Chair in history at the University of

Wisconsin-Madison, the author of Policing America's Empire, the United States, the Philippines,

and the rise of the surveillance state, and in the shadows of the American century,

the rise and decline of US global power.

His latest book is To govern the globe, world powers and catastrophic change.

We will discuss the rise and fall of the French, Soviet and American empires,

as well as the new Chinese empire already on shaky ground,

...