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 Trump's Asian Summit tour, which has him now in Japan and heading to

South Korea tomorrow, where he will meet with China-Shijingping on Thursday. We'll discuss the

reality versus the fiction. Our reality TV star president is spinning in Japan,

claiming $550 billion in Japanese investment is heading for America,

which is the 10th of Japan's GDP, that will be overseen by a fund Trump will control.

We'll discuss what Trump calls a, quote, new golden age of

US-Japan alliance, and the likelihood Trump will come away empty-handed from his meeting with

Xi to restore exports to China of soybeans from American farmers, hurt by Trump's tariff chaos.

Joining us is Michael Hudson, Professor of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends,

a Wall Street financial analyst, and distinguished research professor of economics at the University

of Missouri, Kansas City, and a number of universities in China.

He's the author of many books, including America's Protectionist Takeoff.

Jay is for Junk Economics, an A to Z guide to the Economics of Reality and Fiction.

And his latest book is The Destiny of Civilization,

and we will discuss his article at Counterpunch, Trump's Dest destruction of the U.S. economy.

Then we'll examine further Trump's meeting with Japan's new hard-right prime minister

and prospects for a deal with China and speak with Kent Harrington,

a former senior CIA analyst who served as National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and chief of station in Asia.

He is the author of several novels and his commentary and analysis on global events

has appeared in the Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Asian Wall Street Journal,

...