Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 247 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 increasing threats coming from Trump and Rubio,

warning Venezuela's Maduro not to fly his F-16s near the U.S. Navy ships off Venezuela's coast,

while Rubio in Ecuador outlined plans for a broader regional campaign

of extrajudicial murder of drug traffickers, giving

Latin American countries a choice.

Quote, for cooperative governments, there's no need because these governments are going

to help us.

They're going to help us find these people and blow them up if that's what it takes.

Joining us is Miguel Tinkasales and Professor Emeritus of Latin American history at Pomona College

and an authority on political and social issues confronting Latin America.

He's the author of Venezuela, What Everyone Needs to Know,

The Enduring Legacy, Oil, Culture and Society in Venezuela,

and co-editor of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez,

in the decline of an exceptional democracy.

Then as Trump claims he is disappointed with Putin, who has stiffed him after his amateurish

Alaskan cemetery to end the war in Ukraine, but continues to do nothing about it,

we'll examine U.S. plans for a buffer zone between the warring sides of the war in Ukraine, but continues to do nothing about it. We'll examine US plans for a buffer zone between the warring sides with non-NATO troops and a $100 billion arms deal in exchange for Ukraine giving the US all of its cutting-edge drone

and other technology it has developed to hold off the Russian onslaught.

Joining us is Aram Shabanian, a national investigative reporter and the former

open source information gathering manager at New Lions Institute.

...