Politics and views in the United States

The White House calls on all countries to cut Iranian economic ties, the SCOTUS gives a partial green light to mail-in ballot limits and Texas data center opposition goes mainstream.

Transcript

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

Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.

Treasury Secretary Scott Besson is warning world leaders they'll have to choose sides in an economic battle between the U.S. and Iran.

He's threatening what are known as secondary sanctions on Tehran's trading partners and what the White House calls Operation Economic Outcast.

The already extensive Iran sanctions are causing intense suffering for the population, but seem not to impact a regime more focused on survival than popularity.

It's also not clear if the secondary sanctions would hit China, the main buyer of Iran's oil and its largest trading partner.

Next month, President Donald Trump will host Chinese President Xi Jinping for important trade negotiations.

The Democratic candidate for governor of Wisconsin is calling for more regulations on billion-dollar tech companies whose platforms are used to scam customers.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley says the, quote, tech bros have to be held accountable.

They're looking to extract as much as possible from different communities all across this country.

But it's time that we actually take the bull by this horn and really focus on a level of accountability.

Crowley says the state's laws need more teeth to keep residents safe on platforms like Meta's Facebook and Instagram.

Meta contends they aggressively fight fraud and scams, but say they are not legally required to prevent third-party criminal acts.

The Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling that allows an administration attempt to strictly limit mail-in voting to move forward.

Trump wants to create, quote, state citizenship lists, and is directing the U.S. Postal Service to deny delivery of absentee ballots to anyone not included on them.

In response, the Postal Service just announced it wants to put mail-in votes in the same category as replica explosives or human remains.

That would make them what's called sensitive mail, requiring much more proof about who's sending and getting them.

That brought a lawsuit by a coalition of civil rights watchdogs and Democratic-led states.

The court didn't rule on the substance of that challenge, but said it came before the plaintiffs could be negatively impacted, meaning they lacked standing to sue.

The administration moves remain blocked by other court injunctions, largely arguing the White House is not allowed to interfere in voting procedures, the province of states.

The Justice Department is also asking the Supreme Court to remove those separate injunctions.

Opposition to data centers is increasingly a mainstream political issue in Texas.

Republican Governor Greg Abbott announced the moratorium on the centers and rural communities, and the city of Fort Worth is set to vote on its own 90-day moratorium.

Rogelio Mueo, with Green Latinos, says the bans now in place don't go far enough.

The thing we are highlighting the most is the fact that the ban is only on rural areas.

Farthering this divide between rural, urban, communities of color, landowners, even people that rent and own.

Texas Democratic Congressman Al Green has once again filed articles of impeachment against the president.

The article is charged that Trump has used federal immigration officers as his, quote, unaccountable paramilitary police force.

I'm Zamone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.