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 Trump's meeting with Syria's new leader,

Ahmed al-Shara, alongside Muhammad bin Salman and with Turkey's O'doan,

joining by video, after which Trump praised the former Islamic State fighter

as a young, attractive guy, and lifted sanctions on Syria.

Joining us to discuss the urgent need to stabilize Syria and provide basic needs

before the country spirals into sectarian chaos is Joshua Landis, the Sandra Mackey Chair,

and Director of the Center for Middle East Studies, and the Fasunay Family Center for Iranian and Persian

Gulf Studies at the University of Oklahoma. The past president of the Syrian Studies Association,

he is a fellow at the Quincy Institute and writes Syria Comment, a daily newsletter and blog

on Syrian politics. Then we'll look into the good news of the release of one of the victims of Trump's use

of ICE as his private Gestapo-like militia that disappears people on the streets based

on flimsy evidence or none whatsoever.

Today, a federal judge in Virginia ruled that Dr. Badahans Suri should be released after eight

weeks in detention in Texas and returned to his wife and three children.

Joining us is Dr. Hans Suri's postdoctoral supervisor at Georgetown University, who has visited him

in detention.

Nada Hashemi, the director of the Al of the Aloid Center for Muslim Christian Understanding

and Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Islamic Politics at the Edmunday-Wilf 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,

...