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 the UN's warning that Israel is in breach of humanitarian law

following attacks on UNIFIL UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon by the IDF

in which two Indonesian soldiers were injured when an Israeli tank shot up a UN watchtower.

Joining us is Thanasi Kambanis, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and director

of the Center for International Research and Policy. Until recently, he worked as a journalist

based in Lebanon, and his books include A Privileged to Die, Inside Haselah's Legions and their

endless war against Israel, once upon a revolution, an Egyptian story, and most recently

Shia power comes of age, the transformation of Islam's politics in Iraq 2003 to 2003.

Then we'll assess the impact of Hurricane

Halene on North Carolina and the

fire hose of lies and disinformation coming from

Trump and Vance about FEMA and Democrats

geoengineering the weather in terms of how it will

affect Kamala Harris's chances of winning the state.

Joining us is Jonathan Weiler, a professor of global studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He's the authoritarianism and polarization in American politics.

And his latest book, co-author with Mark Hetherington, is Prius or Pickup,

How the Answers to Four Simple questions explain America's Great Divide.

He writes regularly at jonathanweiler.substack.com, where his latest article is The Pathological Endgame.

Then finally, we'll look into the border industrial complex and the profitable business of emigration

...