Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news. We'll begin with the ongoing U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that have already killed the supreme leader,

the head of the IRGC, and members of Hamanese family, but not the powerful and despised son Moshdaba.

While there were celebrations in Tehran, much of the country is in mourning leading to questions about regime change since, while air power alone provides gratification without commitment, it is not clear what kind of government will be left to make a deal with Trump.

However, if Venezuela is the model after getting rid of the top guy but leaving the

torturer Kabeo in charge of the Interior Ministry, then we can expect the IRGC to stay in

power in Iran.

Joining us is Nadeh, the director of the Aloid Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, and

an associate professor of Middle East and Islamic

politics at the Edmund A.Wool School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

A non-resident fellow at Democracy for the Arab World now, he's the author of The People Reloaded,

the Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran's Future, and Sectarianization, mapping the

new politics of the Middle East.

Then with Trump's war in Iran a distraction from the Epstein scandal, we'll look into the leak

by the DOJ to The Guardian and Breitbart of the missing files, Pam Bondi held back of FBI

reports containing accusations by a then 13-year-old girl that Trump raped her,

which cast doubt on the victim's credibility. Joining us as Nina Burley, a senior editor at the

New Republic, best-selling author, documentary producer and publisher of the Substack American Freak Show.

A professor at New York University's Arthur J. Carter Journalism Institute, she has written seven books, the latest of which include Golden Handcuffs,

The Secret History of Trump's Women, and she has a new novel, Zero Visibility Possible.

The producer of the recent documentary series on Apple TV, Epstein Shadow, she has an article

at American Freak Show, Where are the FBI's Missing Interviews with the woman who named Trump?

...