Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org, I'm me and Masters,

and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We begin with the last days leading up to the Iowa caucuses on Monday with the final candidates debate tonight on CNN between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, which will pale in terms of ratings up against a Fox News town hall with Donald Trump, which is likely to be replete with

wild accusations and fact-free assertions. Joining us for an appraisal of the candidates is Robert

Leonard, news director for KNIA, KRLS, Knoxville and Pella, Iowa, where he covered the current

and the last several Iowa caucuses.

He's an anthropologist and author of Yellow Cab, Deep Midwest, and Riding the Caucus Roller Coaster.

Then we'll look into yesterday's televised mayhem in Ecuador, where gangs took over live

TV broadcasts, terrifying news anchors showing police held hostage at gunpoint begging for their lives.

Joining us to discuss how Ecuador is close to a failed state, descending into gang violence and the role of Mexican drug cartels in the chaos, is Guadalupe Correa Cabrera, a professor at the Sharr School of

Policy and Government at George Mason University, whose research focuses on Mexico-U.S. relations,

organized crime, immigration, border security, and human trafficking. She was recently the

principal investigator of a research grant to study organized crime and trafficking in persons in Central America and along Mexico's eastern migration routes,

supported by the Department of State's Office to monitor and combat trafficking in persons.

The president of the Association of Borderland Studies, her latest book is Los Zetas Inc., criminal corporations,

Energy and Civil War in Mexico. And her forthcoming book is Frontera, a journey across the U.S. Mexico

border. Then finally we'll assess the asymmetrical clashes in the Red Sea between the powerful

navies of the U.S. and other coalition

partners and the Houthi rebels who just fired salvos of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic

missiles at ships and towards Israel. We will speak with Charles Schmitz, a professor of geography at Tausen University.

He has researched and written extensively on Yemen and its relationship with other nations on the Arabian Peninsula and with the United States

and joins us to discuss how attacking Houthi bases in Yemen is unlikely because it could upend the country's peace deal close to resolution.

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