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 mash casualties from an explosion that struck a hospital in Gaza,

which Palestinians are blaming on Israel, while Israelis are blaming a rocket fired by Islamic jihad.

While information wars play out and the facts of what happened are yet to be verified,

we will go to London to speak with David Hurst, the editor of Middle East Eye,

who formerly was the chief foreign leader-writer for The Guardian,

former associate foreign editor, European editor, Moscow Bureau chief, European correspondent

and island correspondent of The Guardian.

He has an article at Middle East Eye, the Nakbah that Israel has started will backfire.

Then we will get an assessment of today's vote in the House for a new speaker brought by Jim Jordan,

who fell short by 20 votes from Republicans, leading to further wrangling in another

vote later tonight that may be even worse for Jordan.

Joining us to discuss Trump's attempt to take over the House via his loyal toady, Jim Jordan,

is Ryan Cooper, a managing editor at the American Prospect.

He is the co-host of the Left

Anchor podcast as well as the author of How Are You Going to Pay for that Smart Answers to the

dumbest questions in politics? And his latest article at The American Prospect is Spinalist House

GOP moderates line up behind Jim Jordan. Then finally we'll speak with Michael

Hilzig, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and columnist at the Los Angeles Times, who currently

writes a twice-weekly column covering business and economic issues relevant to life in California.

His books include The New Deal, A Modern History, and Iron Empires, Robert Barron's,

...