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 will begin with Iran suspending talks to end the war because of Israel's military

escalation in Lebanon and speak with Dr. Annel Sheeline, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute

for Responsible Statecraft, a fellow at Rush University's Baker Institute for Public Policy,

and an expert on religious and political authority in the Middle East and North Africa.

She has worked as a journalist in Egypt and Yemen and served as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the Office of Near Eastern Affairs in the Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, human rights and labor, until resigning over then President Biden's policy on the war in Gaza.

Then we'll examine how the owner of the Delaney Hall Detention Facility Geo Group

is profiting from the misery of the inmates who are on a hunger strike

and how Stephen Miller's cruelty is the point of ISIS random roundup of immigrants, which is to torture detainees to the point where they give up their rights and self-deport.

Joining us is Shusimatha, a senior litigation attorney with the American Immigration Council where she works

to protect the rights of non-citizens through affirmative litigation and practice advisories

for immigration attorneys. Previously, she worked at a Migrants' Rights Organization in Mexico

and was an attorney for the Bronx Defenders,

where she represented individuals incarcerated by ICE.

Then finally, we get an update on the continuing cover-up

of Trump's ties to Epstein by the Maga Toadies,

Todd Blanche, Cash Patel, and Congressman Coma, and speak with Nina Burley, a senior editor of the New Republic, best-selling author, documentary producer, and publisher of the Substack American Freak Show.

A professor at New York University's Arthur Jay Carter at Journalism Institute, she's written seven books, the latest of which include the Trump women, part of the deal. And she has a new novel, Turnaround Don't Drown, and is the producer of a recent documentary series on Apple TV, Epstein's Shadow.

And before you begin with Trump having bombed seven countries and started a war

against Iran while at home is ice thugs, terrorize and break up families, murdering American

citizens in the process, the need to rid the country of the deeply unpopular Trump

...