Month: April 2022

Briefings

Background Briefing: April 19, 2022

On By gram

 

On May 9 Victory Day Could Putin Announce a Ceasefire and Declare Victory?

We begin with the battle for the Donbas underway in Ukraine and assess the likely outcome of some kind of victory that Putin could sell to his people who have been fired up by bloodthirsty propaganda on Russian State TV. With the May 9 Victory Day coming up which is a major celebration of the end of World War Two, will Putin be in a position to announce a ceasefire and declare victory? Joining us is William Arkin, a Senior Editor at Newsweek and one of America’s premier military experts whose investigative work has appeared on the front pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. He served in Army intelligence in West Berlin during the Cold War and has been a consultant to wide-ranging organizations, including the US Air Force, the United Nations Secretary General, Human Rights Watch, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including and The Generals Have No Clothes: The Untold Story of Our Endless Wars, his latest book is On That Day: The Definitive Timeline of 9/11. He joins us to discuss his article at Newsweek, “Putin’s Iskander Missiles Are Battle-Tested—and Can Carry Nuclear Warheads” and how the lesson of this war for NATO is not more military spending but less dependence on oil and gas.

 

Is the Already Mentally Unstable Trump Getting Even Crazier?

Then we speak with a leading biographer of Donald Trump to explore whether this already mentally unstable man is getting even crazier and the extent to which many top Republicans are laughing at him behind his back hoping that he will go away and stop endorsing candidates who could cost the GOP the chance of winning back the House and Senate in November. Joining us is Michael D’Antonio, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting at Newsday before going on to write many acclaimed books, including Atomic Harvest, The Truth About Trump, Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success, and most recently, co-authored with Peter Eisner, High Crimes: The Corruption, Impunity, and Impeachment of Donald Trump.” A contributor to CNN, we discuss his latest article, “Will Trump be able to wade his way out of troubled waters again?”