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

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

We'll begin with the Saudis having pressured Trump into pausing his project freedom

blockade on Iran to make way for a peace deal by cutting off US access to Saudi and Kuwaiti bases,

while reports from Israel indicate their defense establishment believes the deal on the table

would be a disaster for Israel, allowing Iran to rush to get a nuke while giving the Mueller's

billions to do so. Joining us is Dr. Nancy O'Kale, President and CEO of the Center of International

Policy, a scholar and advocate of human rights, justice, peace and equity.

She has over 20 years of experience working on these issues across the Middle East and North

Africa as well as globally, and she provides policy recommendations to senior government officials

in the United States and Europe. Then we'll discuss how Chief Justice Roberts complained with hollowed indignation

that the American people think his colleagues are political actors

following the Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act

that had the immediate political impact of Republican legislatures in the South

going back to the Jim Crow era,

erasing up to a dozen black members of Congress to offset the moment when Democrats are

poised to win back control of the House in November.

Joining us is John Nichols, who is the Nation magazine's Washington correspondent.

His books include The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party,

the enduring legacy of Henry Wallace's anti-fascist, anti-racist politics, and his latest article of the nation

we will discuss is the GOP's Jim Crow, gerrymander, rips up Memphis and America's civil rights legacy.

Then finally we will look into the evolution of

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