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 US a drop of food to the starving gardens that many see as a band-aid over a gaping wound,

while talks underway in Cairo could bring about as much as a six-week ceasefire, although Hamas has yet to agree.

Joining us is Rashid Halidi, the Edward Saeed Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University.

He's the former editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies and was president of the Middle East Studies Association

and an advisor to the Palestinian delegation in the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 until June of 1993.

His books include The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917 to 2017, brokers of deceit, how the U.S. has undermined peace in the Middle East, and the

Iron Cage, the story of the Palestinian struggle for statehood.

Then we look into how plutocrats not only dominate politics, but use their power to own

the truth.

Joining us is Tom Burgess, an internationally bestselling author and award-winning investigative journalist,

an investigations correspondent for The Guardian.

He has reported from more than 40 countries covering wars in Africa and Ukraine, corruption, coups,

organized crime and the rise of kleptocracy from Moscow to Washington.

His book, Kleptopia, How Dirty Money is Conquering the World, was a Sunday

Times bestseller, and his previous book, The Looting Machine, about the plunder of Africa

won an overseas press club of America Prize. His latest book, Just Out is Kuku land,

where the rich own the truth. Then finally, with USA to Ukraine stalled, we will assess the growing resolve within

NATO with Sweden now a treaty member, as Francis President Macron warns that Russia must be

defeated in Ukraine and that Western troops might be needed to join the fight. Joining us is

Natalie Miljanshuk, who is a consultant on your-Atlantic Security and a professor of political science at Wayne State University.

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