Background Briefing – May 19, 2025
Background Briefing offers an educational approach to providing information in an era of “fake news.”
Upcoming Episode
Background Briefing
3:00 PM PACIFIC TIME: MONDAYS - THURSDAYS
Background Briefing offers an educational approach to providing information in an era of “fake news.”
Alan Morrison / Gabriel Chin / Gregory Treverton
Trump is Using the Birthright Citizenship Case to Get the Supreme Court to Stop Federal Judges From Blocking His Agenda Nationwide
The History of Birthright Citizenship Which Has been Settled Law Since 1898
Russia’s “Girlfriend” Tulsi Gabbard is Neutering the IC, as MAGAworld Makes America Deaf, Dumb, and Blind When it Comes to What is Happening in the Real World
Joshua Landis / Nader Hashemi / Angela Stent
Trump Lifts Sanctions on Syria Calling Its New Leader, a Former Islamic State Fighter, “a Young Attractive Guy”
A Judge Orders ICE to Release Another Wrongly-Detained Scholar Held for 8 Weeks in Detention in Texas
Will Putin Show Up for Peace Talks? / Tulsi Gabbard Fires Top Intel Officials for Speaking Truth to Power
Sarah Leah Whitson / Jon Hoffman / Alex Lawson
Trump Signs a $142 Billion Weapons Deal In Saudi Arabia, Not the Peace Deal With Putin He Expected To Sign, But He Still Hopes to Sign a Deal With Iran
As Trump Throws His Lot in With Rich Arabs, How Much is Netanyahu Out in the Cold?
The Good “Christians” Speaker Johnson and the OMB’s Vought Are Working Tirelessly to Hurt the Poor and Reward the Rich
Scott Horton / Paul Pierson
Whistleblower Reveals Russian Recruitment of Musk and Thiel
The Mismatch Between Our Constitution and Weaponized Partisan Politics
Massimo Faggioli / Jane Via / Jeff Wise
The 267th Pope is an American and a Peruvian Citizen Who Spent 2 Decades in Peru as a Missionary
A Roman Catholic Woman Priest on the Men-Only Cardinal’s Choice of Pope Leo XIV
Is It Safe To Fly After Musk Gutted the FAA and a Reality TV President Chose a Reality TV Secretary of Transportation?
Annelle Sheline / Sumit Ganguly / Faith Williams
After Claiming the Houthis Have Cried Uncle, Will Trump Announce a Nuclear Deal With Iran, While in Saudi Arabia Next Week?
Tit-For-Tat Military Strikes by India and Pakistan Appear Performative Not Escalatory
Musk’s Alarming Plan to Build a Single Centralized Database for All the Confidential Government Data DOGE has Scooped Up
Frank Vogl / Will Bunch / Laurence Rees
The Unprecedented Monetizing of the Oval Office by the Most Corrupt President in U.S. History
How the Trump Mafia Family’s Extortion Can be Stopped
Understanding the Nazi Mind and How it Applies to Trump
Guy Ziv / Paul Blumenthal / Michael Kimmage
Netanyahu’s Plan to “Capture” Gaza Is a Death Sentence For the Remaining Hostages
Does Trump Want to Repeal the 20th Century or is He Following the Plan of the Oligarchs Who Backed His Reelection?
What If America Abandons Ukraine, the Linchpin of European Security?
Christine Fair / Sidney Blumenthal / Paul Pillar
Two Nuclear Powers — India and Pakistan — are Poised to Go To War
Trump’s 100th Day and the Record-Breaking Collapse of His Poll Numbers
Today’s 50th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, Which Trump is Boycotting While Slapping 46% Tariffs on Vietnam
Andrew Latham / Rick Perlstein / Greg Grandin
Thanks to Trump’s Bullying, Bluster, and Bombast the Liberals Won In Canada
A Presidential Historian on Trump’s 100-Day Reign of Ruin
The Intertwined Two Americas, as the Colossus of the North Exports State Terror to the South