Politics and views in the United States.

Utah's governor emerges as a Republican voice of peace, as Trump threatens to send troops to Memphis. Opponents call Idaho s execution by firing squads unethical and voting groups slam a new ban on registration at citizenship ceremonies.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Every one of us has to look in the mirror and decide, are we going to try to make it better or are we going to make it worse?

I pray that God will help us find him again and find our souls and find each other again.

Utah Republican Governor Spencer Cox went on the major television networks to urge for calm and peace in the wake of the assassination of right-wing organizer, Charlie Kirk.

Cox says President Trump told him nonviolence, although Trump himself is labeling Democrats and the left as quote "vicious and horrible."

Others on the right are calling for retribution against liberals they call quote "demonic."

Trump is threatening to send the National Guard to Memphis, even as crime there is at a 25-year low.

Tennessee's Republican governor says he supports the plan.

Pastor Earl Fisher of the Memphis Abyssinian Baptist Church calls it political theater that would do nothing for public safety.

I'm not ruling out that they're not going to try to deploy them to the blackest parts because this is about a show of force.

I don't think it's fundamentally about lowering crime because the facts show that crime is already trending downwards.

Fisher questions why troops aren't headed to Utah following the political violence there.

Immigration officials have banned non-governmental groups from registering new citizens to vote at their naturalization ceremonies.

That's been done for decades, but they say it's too difficult to ensure it's nonpartisan.

Celia Canavan, with the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, calls the new policy the latest attack on the rights of immigrant communities.

To have that right suppressed from the minute they become a new citizen, it's terrifying.

It's a real, real dark day in democracy.

The League registered more than 50,000 new citizens at ceremonies last year.

Anti-death penalty advocates are raising concerns about a new Idaho firing squad law.

Officials say they plan to build an automated firing squad that doesn't involve humans.

Robin Marr with the Death Penalty Information Center says the need to make a machine do the killing shows how immoral it is.

The idea that executions are legal and morally correct really can't be reconciled with efforts to remove responsibility from the people who conduct executions.

U.S. executions have been declining for decades, with Texas, Florida, and South Carolina now performing 6 in 10.

Last year, South Carolina carried out two executions by firing squad for the first time since 2010, and in one case, an executioner missed.

Four states used firing squads, but Idaho will become the first state where it is the main form of capital punishment.

European Union leader slammed Russia for its second breach of NATO airspace in under a week by drones, this time in Romania.

Trump again threatened increased sanctions.

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is asking a court to reject efforts to fire her.

Just as newly released mortgage records show she listed a second home as a vacation house, not a primary residence.

The Central Bank is set to vote on interest rates this week.

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

Find our syndicators at publicnewsservice.org.