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

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

We'll begin with Trump in the witness stand today in a $250 million fraud case that he's already

lost, in which the judge repeatedly told him to answer questions and not make political speeches,

at one point imploring his counsels to rein in their client.

Joining us to reconcile the exposure of Trump as a business fraud and a make-believe billionaire

with the latest New York Times poll that has Trump ahead in five of the six key swing states

is Dennis Aftergat, a former federal prosecutor and chief assistant city attorney in San Francisco,

who has won cases of significance in the United States Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court.

He currently serves as counsel to lawyers defending American democracy,

and we will discuss his article at CNN,

why Trump is so ill-prepared for his testimony today.

Then we'll examine the possibility of an end to the agony in Gaza with an expert on

Palestinian issues, who was an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and

Washington-Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 till June of 1993.

Rashid Halidi, who is the Edward Saeed Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University.

He's the co-editor to the Journal of Palestine Studies and was president of the Middle East

Studies Association and an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington

Arab-Israeli peace negotiations

in October of 1991 until June of 1993. His books include The Hundred Years' War on Palestine,

A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917 to 2017, Brokers of Deceit, How the U.S.

has undermined peace in the Middle East, and the iron cage, the story of the Palestinian struggle for statehood.

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