Politics and views in the United States.

Trump takes a tightrope approach on flag burning crackdown, and attacks cashless bail policies in Democratic cities and states. Federal employee unions sound the alarm on restrictions of union protections and collective bargaining rights.

TRANSCRIPT

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

You burn a flag, you get one year in jail.

You don't get 10 years, you don't get one month.

You get one year in jail, and it goes on your record.

And you will see flag burning stopping immediately.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to prosecute anyone who desecrates the American flag.

That includes the constitutionally protected right of flag burning.

Trump argues the order would not run afoul of the Supreme Court case Texas v. Johnson, which labels flag burning a First Amendment right.

The order instructs Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute anyone who burns a flag and causes harm unrelated to expression.

Trump also says he'll rename the Department of Defense in the coming week to be the Department of War.

In another executive order, threatens to withhold federal funds if states and cities don't end cashless bail policies.

In Gaza, an Israeli airstrike on a hospital killed five journalists who'd been documenting the war and humanitarian disaster.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Israel-Hamas War has been one of the most deadly for the news media, with nearly 200 journalists killed in the 22-month conflict.

Federal employee unions are sounding the alarm after a flurry of attacks on their members' collective bargaining rights.

This month, Trump ended bargaining rights for 370,000 federal employees in five national labor unions at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Registered nurse Irma Westmoreland chairs the VA chapter of National Nurses United.

She warns the end of union protections could mean workers don't report problems involving Veterans Care or safety.

"Nurses and other workers will feel intimidated and possibly silenced and not bring forth issues that could lead to patient safety issues like unsafe staffing or when they need things or there's something going on that they know needs to be reported but they could be afraid because the union contracts protected people."

The Trump administration defends the move, saying removing unions will improve Veterans Care and help implement reforms to the agency.

A federal judge has ruled the detention center in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," must stop construction and not accept new detainees.

The center is considered a pillar of Florida's immigration enforcement, but Adriana Rivera, with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, says the facility violates the rights of people imprisoned there.

When you ask them who has jurisdiction here, the state would point to the federal, the federal would point to the state.

And moreover, the men were being held there for longer than was legally permissible. everything without due process and access to their lawyers.

So this whole operation was illegal, point blank, period. - Lawsuits include one challenging the facility's restrictions of access to legal counsel for detainees.

The Maryland father who was deported to one of the world's most brutal prisons in El Salvador and returned once again faces deportation.

The Trump administration is now threatening to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda.

A federal judge paused Garcia's deportation as he claims the government is targeting him pleading guilty to human smuggling, charges he says are false.

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

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