Politics and views in the United States

Rubio threatens to dismantle the international war crimes court. Corporations see returns on political investments, while the boom in data centers is sparking election backlash.

Transcript

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

This administration will not sit by as the ICC and its allies seek to threaten our people.

If they believe they can deprive us of our sovereignty, we will teach them the full meaning of American resolve.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he may try to dismantle the International Criminal Court following a lawsuit challenging U.S. sanctions on its judges.

State Department officials say it could consider more sanctions and might pressure nations to withdraw from the body, designed to stop war crimes and genocide.

The U.S. never joined the ICC, although more than 100 countries have.

Diplomats and congressional Democrats say it's one of the few institutions prosecuting crimes against humanity and human rights violations.

The White House argues it could investigate and charge members of the U.S. military and Israeli nationals.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump officially notified Congress that the Iran war has restarted, saying the U.S. will take control of the Strait of Hormuz and charge a 20% toll.

The administration says this notification restarts the clock before the White House has to seek consent from Congress.

Military strikes never really stopped, but stock markets fell and oil prices rose on the news.

Trump will address the nation Thursday.

A federal judge has forcefully slapped down Trump's plan for a so-called $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund.

The Florida judge described the president's lawsuit against the IRS that would have resulted in the fund to be a false attempt to provide cover for an improper effort.

South Carolina Republican Governor Henry McMaster announced that former Senator Lindsey Graham's little sister, Darlene Graham-Nordone, would serve the remainder of his term.

The move leaves the race in the SNAP-GOP primary on August 11th wide open.

Nearly 90 corporations that together took in over $100 billion in pre-tax income last year paid no federal income taxes.

A new report from consumer watchdog Public Citizen tracks how much these companies spent on political campaigns and backing last year's GOP budget megabill.

That legislation slashed taxes and paid for them by cutting over a trillion dollars in health care and food assistance programs.

Public citizens Eileen O'Grady says if we call the corporation's political influence spending an investment, they saw a 3,000% return.

So what we're seeing here is a self-reinforcing loop where corporate cash buys policy and policy pays cash back.

Backlash against data centers is showing up in political campaigns.

Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has taken a cautious stance following the approval of a $20 billion Amazon project.

His Republican re-election challenger, State Treasurer Stacey Garrity, is using that to attack Shapiro.

In Maryland, several incumbents lost to newcomers over previous supportive data centers.

But pro-data center pro-AI PACs are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into elections.

Josh Johnson with the Idaho Conservation League says they're trying to protect their generous tax incentives, which are under fire there and in Virginia.

We should be not only dialing back the incentives for data centers to come here, because those companies have a lot of money.

They can pay their own way if they want to build in Idaho, but then we also need to better regulate them.

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

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