Day: October 14, 2026

Briefings

Background Briefing: October 14, 2026

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Musk Cuts off Ukraine From Starlink While Trump Sides With Putin to Reward the Mass Murderer and Punish the Victim 

We begin with Musk cutting off Starlink and its impact on the Ukrainian frontlines while Trump sides with Russia against Ukraine and speak with Natalie Melnyczuk, a fellow at the Sapperstein Symposium for Peace and Security at the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University as well as a consultant on Euro-Atlantic security. She has served as NATO Representative to Ukraine as the Head of the NATO Information and Documentation Center in Kyiv, as a Political Officer in the Political Affairs and Security Policy Division at the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Section at NATO HQ in Brussels.

Benn Steil on his Article “Fukuyama, Thiel, and the Revenge of the Last Man”

Then we speak with Benn Steil, director of international economics and the historian in residence at the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as the author of Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order and The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War. His latest book is The World That Wasn’t: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century and he has an article at Project Syndicate we discuss “Fukuyama, Thiel, and the Revenge of the Last Man.”

Hegseth’s Christian Nationalist Cult and Why It Wants a Public Execution of a Muslim Livestreamed

Then finally we look into the Christian nationalist religious cult Hegseth belongs to and the extent to which its crusader theology is behind the livestreamed public execution by firing squad Hegseth plans for the murderer of US soldiers. Joining us is Julie Ingersoll, a scholar of religion and politics specializing in evangelical movements and their influence on American public life, including Christian Reconstructionism, gender and abuse in evangelicalism, and religion and violence. She is a Professor of Religious Studies at University of North Florida and her books include Evangelical Christian Women: War Stories in the Gender Battles, Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction and Baptists and Methodists in America.