Politics and views in the United States

One Democrat and one Republican resign from Congress following allegations of sexual abuse, the war in Iran is raising food and fertilizer prices and West Virginia is the latest state to push back against DOJ demands for voter data.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

Bring in all the victims.

Allow them to be heard.

Allow them to be questioned.

That will clear his name if he's indeed innocent.

And if he's not, for the sake of the credibility of the court, I hope that the senators would vote against him.

In 2018, Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell offered support to the women, accusing then-Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

Swalwell says he'll resign from Congress after similar allegations from multiple female staffers, and he's ended his campaign for governor of California.

Texas Republican Tony Gonzalez says he'll also leave the House after an alleged affair with a former staffer who later committed suicide.

Two Republicans and one Democrat from Florida could also lose their seats due to allegations of dating violence, campaign funding violations, and financial misconduct.

President Donald Trump says the U.S. is now also blocking the Strait of Hormuz, while Tehran is sending a warning directly to American consumers that they may soon feel nostalgic about $5 gas.

Oil prices rose after weekend peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran failed to strike a deal.

The White House aims to exert greater economic pressure on Iran, but American farmers warn food prices may spike due to a fertilizer shortage.

Natural gas a key raw material for it, and a third of the world's fertilizer normally passes through the strait.

Catherine Alexander is with the Greater Boston Food Bank.

Hunger exists everywhere, and we're really not seeing anybody who's escaping this difficulty.

Following widespread backlash, Trump has deleted an AI-generated image portraying him as Jesus, healing a sick patient.

The Truth Social Post followed Trump's criticism of Pope Leo and his opposition to the war in Iran.

The Department of Justice is suing to force West Virginia state officials to turn over voter data.

Similar to suits in half of the states to gain access to the names, addresses, and social security numbers on voter rolls, the DOJ says it wants to ensure election integrity by cleaning the rolls and excluding non-citizens.

But Julie Archer with West Virginia Citizen Action Group says she's concerned the overreach could deny the ballot to people with every right to vote.

They are requesting an unredacted version of the file, and really they have no valid basis for asking for that data and trying to seize it.

West Virginia's Republican Secretary of State is refusing to turn over the information, citing voter privacy.

And voters in Festus, Missouri, have ousted all four members of their city council after they approved a $6 billion data center deal.

Public backlash against data centers has grown nationwide over concerns of rising energy prices and other environmental impacts.

I'm Katherine Carley for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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