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 Nobel Peace Prize which Trump lobbied for and expected to get,

instead going to Maria Corina Machado, the leader of the opposition in Venezuela,

who should be the nation's leader since she overwhelmingly won the last election, but is now in hiding.

We'll discuss recent back-channel negotiations Trump's Richard Grinnell held with the dictator Maduro's team,

which had Venezuela offering generous business opportunities

to American oil companies and corporations,

but with Maduro refusing to step down.

We'll discuss how Secretary of State and National Security

Advisor Marco Rubio apparently scuttled the initiative in order to launch a military pressure campaign

on the failed regime to bring about hope for regime change. Joining us is Alejandro Velasco,

Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs, and Associate Professor at New York University, a historian of modern Latin America focusing on

social movements, urban culture, and democratization. He's the author of Barrier Rising,

urban popular politics, and the making of modern Venezuela. Then Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela.

Then we'll look into the latest moves by the shadowy power broker Peter Thiel,

who has promoted his protege, J.D. Vance, to be a heartbeat away from Trump,

who is visibly ailing both mentally and physically.

We'll discuss what is behind Teal's obsession with the

Antichrist and the trillion-dollar campaign fund for a Vance presidency, apparently being

hatched in Silicon Valley with the possibility of the 25th Amendment being invoked sooner

than later and Donald Trump Jr. on the 2028 ticket as President

...