Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news. We'll begin with Trump already having claimed victory in the war underway against Iran,

as well as already announcing that Cuba will be the next to fall in his crusade to assert the Donro Doctrine.

Joining us is William Leogrand, a professor of government and former Dean of the American University School of Public Affairs.

He is a specialist on Latin American politics and has been a frequent advisor to Congress on issues of U.S. foreign policy towards Latin America,

including as a staffer to the Democratic Policy Committee of the United States Senate.

He has written five books, including most recently Back Channel to Cuba,

the hidden history of negotiations between Washington and Havana,

and has an article at the conversation we will discuss.

Cuba's speedboat shootout recalls long history of exile groups engaged in

covert ops aimed at regime change.

Then with the Democrats holding up funding for DHS, we will look into what can be done to

rein in, if not abolish, this dysfunctional hodgepodge of agencies run into the ground by Christy Noem and

Corey Lewandowski. Joining us is Mike Loftren who formerly spent 28 years working in

Congress as a Republican aide, 16 of which as a senior analyst on the House and

Senate budget committees. He's the author of The New York Times bestseller.

The Party is Over, how Republicans went crazy, Democrats became useless, and the middle class got shafted.

We will discuss his article at Salon, Abolish Ice, Absolutely, and DHS, too.

Then finally, Sasha Lyndon Coen speaks with Karen Howe, an award-winning investigative journalist, author and former engineer,

recognized for her coverage of AI's sweeping impact on every aspect of society.

Formerly the senior AI editor at MIT Technology Review and a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal,

she authored the 2025 New York Times bestseller Empire of AI Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's Open

...