U.S.-Iran Talks Continue, Texas Politics, 2026 Winter Olympics Begin

And the twenty twenty six Winter Olympics officially kicked off in Milan yesterday. We also have the Super Bowl this weekend. Ah, an embarrassment of sports riches. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is Up First from MPR News. It's a midterm year. How are voters responding to President Trump's sweeping federal immigration campaign? The recent issues have Persuaded Latinos that Trump has gone too

We take a look at Texas and its U.S. Senate race. And the U.S. and Iran met for six hours yesterday. President Trump called the talks. This message comes from Mint Mobile. This holiday season, stop overpaying for wireless and switch to Mint. Shop fifty percent off unlimited plans at mintmobile dot com slash switch. Limited time offer, upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for$6 months, or$180 for$12 months.

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The US and Iran held preliminary talks on Friday with the aim of avoiding war. Iran wants the talks to focus on its nuclear program. The US wants much more. And because Jane Araf has been following this story and joins us from Amman. Jane, thanks for being with us. Thank you. What do we know about what happened at the talk? So this was an indirect meeting in Oman in the capital Muscat. There was the US envoy Steve Whitkop.

And President Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner, they were communicating with Iran's foreign minister through Amani officials. Iran described the talks as lengthy and intensive. But really the most important thing is that they met at all because it's really given breathing room to regional Trump had threatened military strikes. Iran had said if that happened, it could spark regional war. Here's President Trump speaking to reporters on Air Force One last night.

We likewise had very good talks on uh Iran. Iran looks like it wants to make a deal very badly. We have to see what that deal is. He noted there are US warships in the region and said the US was in no rush regarding a deal, so that too has diffused some of the considerable tension. And how has uh Iran

Well Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqji said following the six hour meeting that both sides wanted another round. He told Al Jazeera television today that there was no date set yet, but He thinks it should be soon, and asked about the prospect of war, he said Iran was ready for both peace and war. The threat of military attack is is not the only strategy the US is using, is it?

Totally true. Uh obviously that military threat is the biggest one, but this week Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant told a Senate committee that the US had engineered the latest financial crisis in Iran, which sparked widespread protests. He says they did it by creating a dollar shortage in the country.

it came to a uh swift and uh I I would say grand culmination in December when one of the largest banks in Iran went under, the Iranian currency went into free fall, inflation exploded, and hence we have seen the Iranian people out on the street. So that financial crisis left many Iranians unable to afford food and those protests morphed into anti regime demonstrations. At least five thousand people, most of them demonstrators, were believed to have been killed.

And Scott, on Friday the US levied new sanctions. It says are aimed at supporting anti government protesters. Those sanctions are against companies and people. It says are illegally trading Iranian oil. And the White House has threatened additional tariffs against any country trading with Iran. Jane President Trump has been clear he wants to see regime change in Iran. Uh is that a popular idea in the region, near as you can tell?

It is very divided. Israel is very keen. Other countries are terrified of the consequences. I mean, l let's face it, Iran is a powerful, oil rich, very complex country. And what they worry about is the chaos that would result if there were an unplanned change of regime. As for these talks, Iran is insisting they focus on its nuclear program. It says that program is for peaceful purposes.

Now the US bombed Iran in December and insists it was developing nuclear weapons, but the UN nuclear watchdog says there is no evidence Iran was building a bomb. NPS Jane Raff, thanks so much. Thank you.

Texas is gearing up for its primary elections next month. Governor Greg Abbott is seeking reelection this year, as is Senator John Cornyn. And Cornyn will face seven Republican candidates in the primaries, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. At least three Democrats are also vying for the seat. As that US Senate race heats up, so does the debate over what immigration enforcement should look like. Blaze Gainey of the Texas Newsroom joins me now. Welcome. Good morning. Glad to be here.

So what are you seeing in Texas when it comes to political messaging on immigration enforcement? Yeah, well like most political messaging parties tend to rely and repeat what they are hearing from the top. For instance here, Governor Greg Abbott has recently called for the Trump administration to recalibrate things when it comes to enforcement.

And what he means by that is the White House needs to make sure respect for ICE is reinstilled and for them to recalibrate to make sure they can continue deportation efforts without intervention from citizens. The wording on that is really important because he didn't condemn their actions. Rather, he said they essentially need people to give them respect.

This was carried into the race for Texas U.S. Senate seat by incumbent Senator John Cornyn, who said he thinks it's a good idea to de-escalate. But then went on to say that American citizens should not continue to cross the line from peacefully protesting to interfering with law enforcement activity.

So they haven't necessarily shifted their message, but more so made an adjustment to call for peace while deportation efforts continue. On the Democratic side of the Senate race, both Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and State Representative James Talarico have said they would abolish ICE if given the chance. And how are Texans responding to this adjustment? Yeah, just last week high school students across the state participated in a walkout over ICE's enforcement efforts.

And there were also protests at the Capitol building in Austin and other areas across the state. People are extremely upset and want to let it be known, and this is not fully a partisan issue, as we should remember in twenty twenty four, Trump and the Republican Party as a whole got a lot of support from the Latino community for the promises they made on fixing the economy.

Latinos say they haven't seen that and instead feel tricked by the fact deportation efforts haven't been solely centered on finding and removing hardened criminals. So how are Latino voters responding to what they're seeing on immigration enforcement right now?

Yeah, I will say Latino voters are furious with the way immigration enforcement efforts have played out, not only in Minneapolis, but around the country. I just spoke with Gloria Lyell, who lives in Austin, Texas. The recent issues with ICE. enforcement um immigration law. throughout the country. have I believe persuaded Latinos that

Trump has gone too far in his immigration enforcement efforts. So as you can hear, it's having an impact. And as you see, they aren't forgetting the events that have taken place concerning ICE and Border Patrol over the past few years. And from everything I'm hearing, it doesn't seem like the Republican Party will have anything close to the support they had from Latinos last time around. Well, i if Latinos aren't likely to vote for Republicans in large numbers

Uh does a Democrat really have a chance against the Republican nominee in the Senate race? And which Democratic candidate is better positioned to pick up those voters? Listen, if I had a crystal ball, I promise I'd tell you exactly who, but it's up in the air right now. Both Democratic candidates, State Representative James Talarico and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, have very similar wants and priorities if elected. For voters, what is separating them from one another is their demeanor.

I spoke with Gabriel Rosalez, the Texas League of United Latin American Citizens director. He explained why he's back in Crockett. She's just got a very powerful mannerisms about her. She's no hold bar. And she gets in their face. I think we need people like that that are gonna fight. Right. They're gonna fight for They're gonna fight. They're not gonna look at color or race or gender.

And as a reminder, Texas is still a red state and no Democrat has won a statewide seat in three decades. So it'll be an uphill battle for the party, but they believe right now the energy and engagement is at a higher level than in the past. Which is giving them hope that they can break the Republican streak. That's Blaze Ganey of the Texas Newsroom. Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Sports fans have a real culinary challenge this weekend. What's next go with both the Milan Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl? How about risotto sliders? Or chicken parm tenders? That sounds good. Maybe seven layer tiramisu dip. Ah, leave the cookies. Take the cannole. Sports writer Howard Bryan joins us now.

To talk more about food. I mean all the fine sporting events we're watching this weekend. Howard, thanks for being with us. Good morning, Scott. How are you? Fine, thank you. Winter Olympics opening ceremony took place yesterday. Norway, that winter Olympics juggernaut. But I I don't know, it's it's nice to see the world come together again on this, isn't it? Yeah, I loved the Olympics and I did love the the extremely artistic and very fashionable opening ceremonies.

It's what the Olympics is all about. And I had the pleasure and the fort good fortune of covering the twenty ten Winter Olympics in Vancouver. And it's just such a great event where you do see the world coming together and you do see all of these different uh sports that you don't see except for every four years, especially in the United States or And no h nobody's talking about luge, bobsled, or skeleton in you know unless it's an Olympic year.

because of that sort of international flavor and I also feel that uh journalistically it feels very sad in a lot of ways because one of the great fun parts about the Olympics is covering is joining a lot of these international journalists and where the state of journalism is with the news with the Washington Post here.

It all feels a little bit gloomy or a lot gloomy, but one of the beauties of of the Olympics is Uh once you get started, uh the individual stories and the individual achievements, this is not hundred million dollar uh athletes doing their thing in large cases. Usually it's it's individual small stories, people doing things that they love and the stories have always been really inspiring.

Lindsey Vaughn coming out of retirement, gonna compete despite tearing her ACL. Uh NL chill players have been away from the Olympics for more than a decade. They're back. What what what are you looking forward to?

Well, I think what I always look forward to is that you know there are certain spaces that are gonna dominate. If you happen to be there, you know that when you get to the speed skating rink, you know the Dutch are gonna are gonna be there, they always show up, that's fun. You know, the Swiss and the Italians.

uh are are up on the ski mountain, you know, they're they're gonna represent and of course I mean from the United States standpoint, you've got Michaela Schiffrin, an unbelievable and un you know, probably the greatest female Skier of all time, if not the greatest skier of all time. And then of course there's Lindsay Vaughn, who is not just forty-one, who isn't just competing with a partially uh replaced knee, but also with no ACL. She ruptured her ACL

uh in a crash uh you know a couple of weeks ago. And so that individual story is great. And yeah, it's wonderful to see the NHL players playing again, even though that does take away a little bit from the amateurish side of it. But who doesn't want to see Connor McDavid um and the great NHL players on the world stage. I'll t I'll tell you who we're not gonna see, however, is we're not going to see Russia in any large number of because of the uh

invasion of Ukraine. So Belarusian and Russian athletes not gonna be seeing them especially out on the rink. Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow, uh Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots. What do you foresee? The thing that we always get. You're gonna get seven million dollar ads for for your Super Bowl commercials. You're going to try to get a lot of pageantry here, but it all feels a little bland to me simply because

It's hard to l love sports when the world feels like it's on fire. But those two fan bases are gonna be into this. Seattle, the Patriots, of course they are linked because of the last time they met him. Oh yeah, there's a history there. There's a history there with it.

Pass. That's right. A pass and Malcolm Butler intercepts the game winning throw by Russell Wilson. All that's under the bridge. The Patriots are underdogs here. I think Seattle is very much considered to be the better team, but not by that much.

But the Patriots have been underestimated all year. You've got a young quarterback, Drake May, in his second year now in the Super Bowl, and you've got another quarterback, Sam Darnold, who used to play for the Jets and the Vikings, and everybody sort of underestimated and called him a bust, and here he is in the Super Bowl, one game away from being a world champion and so

This is a game where the you're dealing with one team that is rising. The s the Seahawks had been considered the best team in the league for weeks. And another team, the Patriots that are still there, and everyone keeps saying, How are they still here? Um and Oh you prediction? Come on, Scott Simon. I don't know. That's why they play the games. Don't put me on the spot. Somebody's gonna win. How about that? Oh perfect. I'll bet on that. Howard Bryant, thanks for being with us.

Oh my pleasure. Thank you, Scott. And for more Olympics coverage, you can check out Up First Winter Games and new video podcast from NPR. Find new episodes at youtube.comslash. And that's up first for Saturday, February seventh, twenty twenty-six. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Andy Craig produced today's podcast along with Gabe O'Connor, Dave Mistich, and Martin Patience. Our editor is Samantha Balaber.

Miguel Messias, Fernando Naro, D Parvas, and Megan Pratt. Michael Radcliffe is our director. Here is Simon Laszlo Jansen, who, with a name like that, really should be a downhill skier, with engineering support from Zoe Van Genhoven, Valentina Rodriguez Sanchez, and Damian Harry. Sir and Jim Kane is our But financially before his first term in office. Our friends at NPR's Planet Money and New Yorker writer David Kirkpatrick help us understand how president. Plus all the ladies news.

Tune in to NP. And thank you for listening. I know. You gotta find out about those chickens. Chicken farm tenders. We may have hit on something. This message comes from Mattress Firm. Tired of waking up sore? Mattress Firm sleep experts can match you with a temperatic adapt mattress built to relieve pressure. Shop the President's Day Sale and save up to$500 on select Tembroped Exets. Restrictions apply.

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