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 Israel's killing of the leader of Hezbollah, along with seven top commanders and the deputy head of Iran's Quds Force,

which has prompted Iran to hide its supreme leader and have its foreign minister vow that Israel's actions will not go unanswered.

Joining us to discuss how much Iran has lost its insurance against an Israeli attack

by the degrading of Hezbollah and the possible death of the Hamas leader Sinwa is Moshen

Malani, the executive director of the World Center for Strategic and Diplomatic Studies

and Professor Politics at the University

of South Florida. Professor Malani has served as a fellow at Harvard, Oxford and Foscari University,

Italy, and is the author of the making of Iran's Islamic Revolution, and he's currently

writing a book about Iran's foreign policy. Then we'll look into J.D. Vance's doubling down on his embrace of Christian nationalism and

Christofascism by speaking at an event on Saturday arranged by a self-appointed apostle

who talks to God and believes Kamala Harris is under the spell of witchcraft.

Joining us is Frederick Clarkson, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates,

and an analyst of the religious right for over 30 years.

He has worked as communications director at the Institute for Democracy Studies

and co-founded the important group blog about the Christian right talk to action.

His books include dispatches from the religious left, the future of faith and politics in America,

and eternal hostility, the struggle between theocracy and democracy.

And he has a series of essays on the new Apostolic Reformation,

the cutting edge of the Christian right, at the online magazine Religion Dispatches.

Then finally investigate the role of the electoral college in the election just weeks away

in which most of the country is excluded from the campaigns because all the focus is on a few swing states.

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