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 formally accepting a $400 million luxury jumbo jet from the Emir of Qatar

while pressing the House to pass his big, beautiful bill that cuts over a trillion from

Medicaid, food stamps and other programs in order to pay for $3.8 trillion in tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy

and corporations. We'll discuss how Trump is making the richest Americans even richer by taking

money from the poor and the middle class who rely on an inadequate social safety net that

the Republicans are now shredding.

Joining us is Rebecca Riddell, a senior policy lead for economic and racial justice at Oxfam America, an international human rights lawyer with a background in addressing

extreme inequality and excess corporate power and promoting economic and social rights.

She served as a senior advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur

on extreme poverty and human rights, carrying out investigations and advising governments on policies

relating to tax, social spending and other areas. And she's a contributor to a new report at Oxfam.

Wealth of 10 richest U.S. billionaires increased by over $360 billion in the last year as President Trump and Congress prepare massive tax giveaways for the ultra-rich.

Then we're looking to today's Oval Office ambush of South Africa's President Rambaposa, who came prepared to diffuse the racist lies Elon Musk has filled

Trump's head with, which should have led to an apology from Trump, but that will never happen.

Joining us is Dr. Stephen W. Rogers, the executive director of the Africa Faith and Justice Network.

He has a background in public

policy and urban planning with a special interest in globalization and governance in Africa.

With several years of experience in higher education in Sierra alone and South Africa, he was a

faculty member and all-mutual research fellow at the University of Cape Towns Graduate School of Business in

South Africa. Then finally, with the country's most powerful purveyor of conspiracy and quackery,

RFK Jr. in the hot seat again in a Senate hearing, where he lost it, refusing to answer a question

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