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 the election results in Venezuela and the victory claimed by Maduro

that is widely seen as fraudulent with Chile's leftist president saying,

quote, Maduro's regime must understand that the results are hard to believe.

The international community and above all, the Venezuelan people,

including millions in exile, demand total transparency. With the real results reported to be as

high as 70 to 30% against Maduro, we will discuss the likelihood that Maduro will listen to

anyone except the Cuban leader and Putin. Joining us is Alejandro Velasco, Associate Dean and Professor at New York University,

a historian of modern Latin America focusing on social movements, urban culture, and democratization.

He's the author of Barrier Rising, Urban popular politics, and the making of modern Venezuela.

Then following a missile strike, which killed 12 playing soccer in a Druze village on the Golan Heights,

we'll look into the potential for an all-out war between Israel and Lebanon, as denials from

Hezbollah that it was not their missile are rejected by the US and Israel.

Joining us is Abib Batar, a Beirut, bracing, investigative journalist, filmmaker and founder of

Beirutreport.com.

A contributor to The Guardian, BBC World, Al Jazeera, Lebanon's The Daily Star newspaper and others.

He has covered Lebanon and the Middle East for over 20 years, and he formerly taught journalism

and media studies at the American University of Beirut and now teaches at St. Lawrence

University in New York. Then finally, with one of our two major parties captured by Donald Trump and widely

referred to as a cult, we'll explore America's susceptibility to cults and speak with

Jessel and Cook, an award-winning investigative reporter and journalism lecturer who has written

...