Politics and views in the United States

Alabama gets ready to redistrict, after the SCOTUS ruling. Florida approves its new congressional maps and rural voters express pessimism about the economy, while young voters sour on the GOP.

Transcript

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

I think it's a terrible decision.

I think it's a travesty of justice.

I think it's outrageous to be redrawing maps when voters have already been casting absentee ballots for the May 19th election.

Robin Hyden with Alabama Arise says Republican Governor Kay Ivey is throwing out legitimate absentee votes by telling state lawmakers to redraw congressional districts just two weeks before the primary election.

Alabama and Tennessee are rushing to redistrict days after the Supreme Court struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act that maintained black majority districts in the Deep South.

Lawmakers say they might target majority minority districts in Birmingham and Memphis.

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has signed new congressional districts into law there, potentially netting the GOP for additional seats in spite of a state ban on partisan gerrymanders.

He insists that wasn't the motivation.

This is something that we've been fighting for a number of years and the fact that we've had so much population growth and the districts are really not representative of where Florida is today versus four years ago.

And so we had justification.

The Navy shot down Iranian missiles and drones aimed at ships the U.S. was guiding through the Strait of Hormuz and sunk several armed speedboats.

A separate drone attack damaged an oil storage area in the UAE.

Military actions in the Gulf are threatening a return to all-out war.

Rural voters are voicing unusually high levels of pessimism about the state of the country, and notably, they say they want government to take a bigger role in the economy.

A Center for Rural Strategies poll found more than half are worried about the cost of living, and the number who wanted government to, quote, get out of their way dropped to less than a third.

Dee Davis, with the center, says the change in attitudes is striking.

Right now, people are admitting that they need government support, their weakness in the private sector, and the high cost of living are really influencing world voters.

Another voting block that helped propel President Donald Trump back to the White House is expressing deep frustrations.

Young people broke with Democrats in record numbers in 2024, but polling shows many of them are discontented with Republicans and feel more enthusiastic about voting blue.

The Supreme Court has temporarily restored telehealth access by the abortion pill Mifepristone, but warned that restrictions could return in two weeks.

A lower court said patients could not get the drug through the mail.

Advocates warn the back-and-forth rulings are confusing patients.

Kayla Montgomery is with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

You know, this is a very difficult time, and we have to make sure that we're reminding our lawmakers that people want more health care and more accessible health care and not these restrictions on abortion.

A gunman exchanged fire with law enforcement near the National Mall in Washington.

Officials did not comment on a possible motive, but a teenage bystander suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

This comes a week after a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

A new survey finds nearly 60 percent of Americans believe Trump is mentally and physically unfit to serve.

The president will be 80 next month.

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

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.