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

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with Trump threatening to blow up Oman, a US ally, an important mediator,

and assess how that is playing in the Gulf, as intelligence sources indicate that Ghat and Bahrain are paying bribes to Iran so as not to be struck by their missiles or drones,

which Kuwait and the UAE are not doing and they are getting hit.

Joining us is Eli Clifton, a senior advisor at the Quincy Institute and investigative journalists at

large at Responsible Straitcraft, who holds a master's degree from the London School of Economics.

He is the author of the new book available for pre-order,

Israel's Lobby, America in the grip of a foreign power.

Then we'll examine how the bully Trump is meek as a lamb

when it comes to rolling over for Putin and speak

with Olga Loutman, a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, who is

also the creator and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast series, which features expert

discussions on the Kremlin's internal affairs, global operations and tactics used from their hybrid warfare

kit to destabilize Western democracy.

She has a Substack newsletter covering Russia, Ukraine, Eastern and Central Europe with a focus

on Russia's intelligence operations available at Olga Laotman.substack.com, where her latest articles include,

as Ukraine hits deeper into Russia, Putin retreats into isolation, and Trump moves to cut

NATO bombers, submarines and warships in major win for Russia. Then finally we'll

speak with Theodore Hamm, Professor and Chair of Journalism and

New Media Studies at St. Joseph's University in New York. He's the author of Bernice Brooklyn,

how growing up in the New Deal City shaped Bernie Sanders politics. His articles about New York

...