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 a specialist on Iran, who was just in Tehran, meeting with foreign ministry

officials and members of Iran's nuclear negotiating team. Now that Iran has retaliated against

the U.S. bombing of its nuclear facilities with a missile strike on the U Al-Udid Air Base in Qatar in a very

measured response after having given a warning so that US troops could be evacuated.

We will discuss how, for all of the triumphant blustering from Netanyahu, Trump and Hegeseth,

the Iranian regime's crown jewels,

its 400 kilograms of 60% in rich uranium, appears to have escaped undamaged.

Joining us is Eli Clifton, a senior advisor at the Quincy Institute and

investigative journalist at large at Responsible Statecraft, who holds a master's degree

from the London School of Economics and, as an article, at The Guardian, America is sleepwalking

into another unnecessary war. Then we'll look into the state of the Iranian opposition, now that

Trump has mused about regime change after Netanyahu has state of the Iranian opposition now that Trump has mused about regime change

after Netanyahu has called upon the Iranian people to rise up and risk their lives to be

liberated by Israel, which is bombing their country. Joining us from the UK is Iranian-American

historian Mazia Behrouz, who was born in Tehran and is currently

a professor of history at San Francisco State University.

He's the author of two books on the history of the Iranian left, Rebels with a Cause,

followed by perspectives on the history of Rebels with the Cause, and his latest book is

Iran at war, interaction with the modern world and the struggle with Imperial Russia.

Then finally, we'll assess the MAGA and Project 2025 plan to dumb down America so that it becomes an idiocracy in service of a plutocracy,

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