Politics and views in the United States

Cuban-American lawmakers call for regime change, after Cuba kills four. The Department of Justice sues GOP-led states for voter information and anti-data center advocates caution elected leaders who greenlight projects.

TRANSCRIPT

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

We need that regime to go.

The regime is causing this humanitarian crisis in Cuba, and the faster they go, the faster that we can help the Cuban people.

Florida Republican representative and staunch anti-communist Cuban-American Carlos Jimenez is calling for regime change in Havana.

That government says the 10 well-armed men on a speedboat intended to infiltrate the island, and when challenged, initiated a firefight that ended with four on the boat being killed.

U.S. officials have said they're investigating, but haven't contradicted that description.

The Trump administration has said it will increase pressure on Cuba by tightening the long-standing embargo, but American military pressure is intensely focused on Iran currently.

The Washington Post reports someone in the White House is circulating a draft executive order that would declare a national emergency and take control of midterm voting.

The order appears to use Chinese interference in the 2020 election as a justification for the president banning mail-in ballots and electronic voting machines.

There's been no proof that China interfered in 2020.

A U.S. intelligence report says Beijing did consider the plan, but decided against it.

Washington state watchdogs are backing a bill to require the state attorney general to challenge any changes to voting procedures that would result in discrimination.

Local governments with a history of voter suppression would need advance approval for actions like redrawing district boundaries or reducing language assistance.

Melissa Rubio is with One America.

This bill is about giving the voters of the state more power.

Our hope is that this bill, when it passes, will make it easier for us as voters to make voting maps more equitable, which helps everyone in Washington state.

Opponents of the bill argue it overlaps with existing law, and doesn't provide a good procedure for defending proposed changes.

The U.S. Justice Department has announced a new barrage of lawsuits demanding access to unredacted state voter rolls, this time targeting GOP-led states.

Republican election officials in Utah, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma have resisted turning over the voter data, with some arguing publicly that it would violate privacy laws and the constitutional mandate that states, not the federal government, run elections.

Opponents of data centers are winning more cancellations, starting last summer.

Northern Virginia is an industry hotbed, but Elena Schlossberg with the Coalition to Protect Prince William County says elected officials that support the developments may pay for that at the ballot box.

If you deny the people an opportunity to control the future of where they live, and you impact their water and their air, and you threaten their ability to pay their electricity bills, you lose your job.

In 2023, the county chairwoman lost re-election to a newcomer who campaigned on opposition to data centers.

Netflix announced it would back out of the running to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing the way for Paramount's Skydance, which has ties to Trump.

The more than $100 billion deal came as Trump called on Netflix to fire board member Susan Rice, who served in the Clinton, Obama, and Biden administrations.

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

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