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'll begin with this week of confirmation hearings for Trump's picks for the top jobs in his administration,

starting on Tuesday with his nominee for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Joining us to discuss the dangerously unqualified nominees to the top national security positions in the country with Hegsteth at Defense, Tulsi Gabbard at Intelligence, and Cash Patel at the FBI, is David K. Johnston, a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

A Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter and best-selling author of the making of Donald Trump, he is the 13-year veteran of the New York Times and won a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and best-selling author of The Making of Donald Trump.

He is the 13-year veteran of the New York Times and won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting that uncovered

loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code.

And he has uncovered so many tax dodgers that he's been called the de facto tax enforcement

officer of the United States.

His latest book is The Big Cheat,

how Donald Trump fleeced America and enriched himself and his family, and he's also the co-founder

of DCReport.org. Then we'll speak with the top official in the Pentagon to discuss how

Hegseth shapes up compared to previous heads of the Pentagon, and the results are alarming.

Joining us is Lawrence Corb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress,

and a senior advisor to the Center of Defense Information.

He served as Assistant Secretary of Defense and is the author of a new national security

in an age of terrorist, tyrants and weapons of mass destruction.

Then finally, we will look into the Lake and Raleigh Act that has passed the House with votes from 48

Democrats and is making its way through the Senate, which will give anti-immigrant state officials and

federal judges new powers in immigration enforcement to detain individual migrants.

Joining us to discuss the disastrous consequences of these new powers in the hands of people

...