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 an open letter from leading mental health professionals,

a statement of medical concern about the President of the United States,

and speak with one of the signatories as concerns grow about Trump's mental and physical health.

Now his long-held narcissism and sociopathy is

undergoing the stress of the real world consequences on somebody that lives in his own world,

as Trump's war, which he's losing, is making him erupt with unhinged fury on social media

and at the press.

Joining us is Dr. Henry Abraham, who has served as unit chief of the Westborough State Hospital,

Director of Psychiatric Research at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Boston, and as a consultant

to the National Academy of Sciences, and as advisor for several revisions of the

diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric Association.

A member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the International Physicians for the Prevention

of Nuclear War, he was an author of the constitutions of those, and shared in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize.

He is a signatory to an open letter from leading mental health professionals, a statement of medical concern about the President of the United States.

Then we're looking into how Israel and the United States have destabilized the Persian Gulf and global oil and natural gas supplies for the foreseeable future and speak with Juan Cole,

a professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian history of the University of Michigan.

He's also the author of the blog Informed Comment at Wainancol.com and the author of Engaging the Muslim World,

Muhammad Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires, and most recently Gaza yet stands.

We'll discuss his article at Tom Dispatch, The Electric Car won the Iran War, the twilight of oil.

Then finally we'll assess how much the word

...