Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 247 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 a meeting today in Mexico City between Mexico's President Lopez-Abrador,

Amlo, and the U.S. Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Attorney General

in an attempt to address the fentanyl scourge, immigration, and border security, issues the Republicans are campaigning on, while Amlo denies fentanyl scourge, immigration and border security, issues the Republicans are campaigning

on, while Almelo denies fentanyl is made in Mexico and blames the U.S. for the flood of immigrants

from Cuba and Venezuela. Joining us as Sam Cagnonis, a journalist, author and storyteller,

whose two acclaimed books on narrative nonfiction about

Mexico and Mexican immigration, true tales from another Mexico, and Antonia's Gunn and Delphino's Dream,

made him, according to the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, the most original writer on Mexico

and the border. His books include Dreamland, the true tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, and, most

recently, The Least of Us, True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.

Then, with Biden promising a major speech on Ukraine as Russia strikes a supermarket killing 51

shoppers, we will speak with George Beebe, the director of

Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Stakecraft. He served in government for

nearly 25 years, including as director of Russia analysis at the CIA and as a White House

advisor on Russia matters for Vice President Dick Cheney. His latest book is The Russia Trap, How Our Shadow

War with Russia, could spiral into nuclear catastrophe, and we'll discuss his article at

Responsible Staircraft. Will Ukraine's effort go bankrupt gradually, then suddenly? Then finally,

we'll assess the blowback Armenia's leader faces after the ethnic

cleansing of Nagorno-Katabakh by Azerbaijan and speak with Shushan Katapentian, the director of the

University of California Institute of Armenian Studies, who previously taught Armenian studies at

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