Background Briefing: September 6, 2026
Germany’s Far Right, Supported by Musk, Vance and Putin, Is On the Rise
We begin with today’s election in the former East German state of Saxony-Anhalt, which the Neo Nazi far-right AfD championed by Elon Musk and JD Vance is poised to win, and speak with Thomas Berger, Professor of International Relations at Boston University who specializes in German politics, International Relations and Political Culture. He is the author of War, Guilt and World Politics After World War II, and we discuss the rise of Germany’s far-right which supports and is supported by Putin and Chancellor Merz’s reaction to the Russian drone attack on Leipzig airport.
Russia’s Strike on Ukraine’s Intel HQ and the Shootout Between Rival Ukrainian Intel Agents
Then we go to Kyiv to speak with Tamar Jacoby, the Kyiv-based director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s New Ukraine Project. She was a senior writer and justice editor at Newsweek and, before that, the deputy editor of the New York Times op-ed page. She is the author of The Ukrainian Refugee Experience and she has an article at The Washington Monthly we discuss, “The New Normal in Kyiv, Ukraine: Nonstop attacks by Russian jet-powered drones empty supermarket shelves and terrorize civilians” as well as the shootout between rival Ukrainian intelligence agents and the Russian strike on Ukraine’s Intelligence HQ in Kyiv.
Following an ICE Whistleblowers’ Warning, a Journalist With Unusual Access to ICE Officers Discusses Their Opinions and Outlooks
Then finally, with a whistleblower, a 17 year veteran of ICE, claiming that DHS has been engaged in “an unprecedented lowering of standards” for hiring ICE recruits, we will speak with Karl Loftus, an independent journalist and filmmaker who covers immigration enforcement and disaster response. He is known for the viral interview series “Confessions of an ICE Agent” and his work has been featured in Rolling Stone and Wired and his latest articles at The Intercept are, “ICE Gave New Hires Access To Restricted Info On Palantir App Before They Passed Background Checks” and “ICE Is Paying a Controversial AI Firm To Hide the Identities of Agents.”