Politics and views in the United States.

An FCC Biden appointee contends the Trump Administration is weakening freedom of speech and the press, a tiny New Mexico town is building an innovative green hydrogen plant, and Texas could soon see even more rural hospital closures.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

It was just a tremendous victory for everybody, including Iran.

Look, they've got a country and they've got oil and they're very smart people and they can come back.

Israel was hit really hard.

Those ballistic missiles, boy, they took out a lot of buildings.

President Donald Trump says the U.S. will meet with representatives of Iran next week.

In contradiction to a leaked intelligence assessment, Trump insists Iran's nuclear sites and program have been obliterated and there is no need for a new disarmament deal.

Intelligence sources say Iran probably succeeded in hiding its enriched uranium and negotiation is the best way to end the weapons program.

Senate Republicans are trying to reach multiple competing ends in crunch mega-bill negotiations.

The parliamentarian-ruled cuts to nutrition assistance are subject to a filibuster, leaving budget writers struggling to make up the difference or find a workaround.

And rural communities are defending programs like one that helps small farms supply food pantries.

Wisconsin farmer Rufus Hockey says what looks like modest grants have a big local impact.

Even if it's just $20,000 from my farm, I still spend that $20,000 in Lafarge and Viola and these small areas.

You just can't say how important it is.

Every single penny is important out here.

Kaitlin Cook with West Virginia's Mountaineer Food Bank says proposed SNAP cuts would just shift costs to states that don't have the money, even when it's vital for small towns.

SNAP benefits are lifeline in a lot of rural grocery stores.

For every SNAP dollar, there's $1.50 economic impact.

So without a doubt, SNAP cuts are going to hit our state very hard because of the high level of food insecurity.

Almost one in six West Virginians, a third of them children, get SNAP.

Budget writers have given themselves a little more than a week to negotiate issues including a debt ceiling hike and extending tax cuts, mostly for the wealthy.

But at the same time, the bill is taking fire for the economic impacts of rolling back clean energy investments and health impacts of Medicaid cuts on rural hospitals.

With huge trade and tariff negotiations also looming, labor and environmental groups are calling for revisions to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

Trump hailed the update to NAFTA in 2020, but Arthur Stamoulis with the Trade Justice Education Fund says it hasn't delivered as promised for workers or farmers.

The Trump administration needs to acknowledge the USMCA has not worked out in the ways that the president promised it would and make substantial changes.

Zohran Mamdani is set to become the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor after edging out former Governor Andrew Cuomo in a surprise primary win.

And the Department of Housing and Urban Development says it will relocate its Washington headquarters to an Alexandria, Virginia office currently used by the National Science Foundation.

I'm Farah Siddiqui for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.