INTERNACIONAL
Lawmakers sound alarm on ‘deadliest place on earth to be a Christian’ as Nigeria violence escalates
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The U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa held a hearing Thursday on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria in what subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith, R-N.J., described as the «systematic and accelerating violence against predominantly Christian communities in Nigeria.»
Members from both parties questioned administration officials and outside experts as witness after witness described the collapse of security, mass killings, kidnappings and the impunity that has turned Africa’s most populous country into what one lawmaker called «the deadliest place on Earth to be a Christian.»
Smith, who has long been sounding the alarm about the persecution of Christians in the country, described the situation in vivid terms.
TRUMP’S WARNING TO NIGERIA OFFERS HOPE TO NATION’S PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS
Christians hold signs as they march on the streets of Abuja during a prayer and penance for peace and security in Nigeria in Abuja on March 1, 2020. – The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria gathered faithfuls as well as other Christians and other people to pray for security and to denounce the barbaric killings of Christians by the Boko Haram insurgents and the incessant cases of kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria. (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images)
«Nigeria is ground zero, the focal point of the most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today,» he said.
He called the session «a very critical hearing,» noting it was his 12th such hearing and that he has led three human rights trips to the country.
Quoting earlier testimony from Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Makurdi Diocese, Smith cited militants who «kill and boast about it … kidnap and rape and enjoy total impunity from elected officials.»
He highlighted a June 13 attack in Yola, saying reports showed «278 people — men, women and children — were killed in a manner too gory to describe by people shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while slaughtering their victims.»
«This is not random violence. It is deliberate persecution,» Smith said. «There may be other factors, but religion is driving this.»
Smith also noted that moderate Muslims who speak out against extremists are often murdered as well, underscoring the scope of Nigeria’s «culture of denial.»
TRUMP DESIGNATES NIGERIA AS ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’ OVER WIDESPREAD CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION, KILLINGS
At least 51 Christians were killed in another attack in Nigeria’s Plateau state. (Reuters)
Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., the panel’s ranking member, agreed Nigeria faces devastating insecurity but warned against «oversimplistic narratives.»
She cited overlapping drivers — extremist insurgencies, farmer-herder conflict and organized banditry — and said the 25 girls recently kidnapped in Kebbi state were all Muslim.
«Violence affects everyone,» she said. «False narratives erase the real drivers of violence and make it harder to find solutions.»
She condemned President Trump’s remarks about «going into Nigeria guns blazing,» calling such rhetoric reckless and illegal and said unilateral U.S. military action would be «counterproductive.»
Jacobs claimed the Trump administration cut peace-building and conflict-prevention tools that once helped reduce violence, programs, she said, «that proactively prevented and directly addressed the violence this administration is now concerned about.»
CRUZ CLASHES WITH NIGERIA OVER HIS CLAIMS 50,000 CHRISTIANS KILLED SINCE 2009 IN RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE
Women and children held captive by Islamic extremists and rescued by the Nigerian army arrive in Maiduguri, Nigeria, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jossy Olatunji)
Rep. John James, R-Mich., described Nigeria’s crisis in stark terms.
«This is one of the gravest religious freedom crises in the world,» he said. «The deadliest place on earth to be a Christian.»
He cited estimates that nearly 17,000 Christians have been killed since 2019, calling the murders «a sustained pattern of religiously motivated violence, often ignored or even enabled by the Nigerian government.»
Appearing on video from Benue state, Bishop Wilfred Anagbe detailed church burnings, mass displacement and priests targeted for abduction.
«Nigeria remains the deadliest place on earth to be a Christian,» Anagbe said. «More believers are killed there annually than in the rest of the world combined.»
He thanked the administration for putting Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious freedom violations but urged that it be backed with sanctions and greater humanitarian support for displaced civilians.
Two senior state department officials, Jonathan Pratt and Jacob McGee, defended the administration’s approach while acknowledging the horror of the attacks.
Pratt called the situation «a very serious security problem,» saying the U.S. seeks to «raise the protection of Christians to the top of the Nigerian government’s priorities.»
McGee added, «The levels of violence and atrocities committed against Christians are appalling. … Nigerians are being attacked and killed because of their faith.»
He pointed to blasphemy laws in 12 northern states that can carry the death penalty, calling them «unacceptable in a free and democratic society.»
‘GENOCIDE CAN’T BE IGNORED’: GOP LAWMAKER BACKS TRUMP’S THREAT OF MILITARY ACTION IN NIGERIA
Onlookers gather around a car destroyed in a blast next to St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Nigeria, Dec. 25, 2011, after an explosion ripped through a Catholic Church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria’s capital. (Associated Press )
Both officials said the U.S. is developing a plan to «incentivize and compel» the Nigerian government to protect religious communities.
In one exchange between Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., and an expert on Nigeria, he asked bluntly, «Ma’am, are we frenemies? Are we — what are we?»
Oge Onubogu, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, replied, «We’re friends.»
She added that U.S.–Nigeria engagement must be «from a place of honesty» and that Nigerians «acknowledge something must be done quickly about the levels of insecurity.»
Onubogu warned, however, that a «narrow narrative that reduces Nigeria’s security situation to a single story» could deepen divisions.
Stutzman pressed her further, noting, «If Nigeria’s government cannot stop the violence, they should be willing to ask the international community for help.»
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People gather July 2, 2014, where a car bomb exploded at the central market in Maiduguri, Nigeria, the birthplace of terror group Boko Haram. (AP Photo/Jossy Ola)
As the hearing came to a close, Smith warned, «The Nigerian government has a constitutional obligation to protect its citizens. If it cannot stop the slaughter, then America — and the world — must not look away.»
africa,christianity religion,donald trump,hearings house of representatives politics,terrorism
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GOP rips FISA court for tapping ex-Biden ‘disinformation’ lawyer to advise on surveillance
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Republican lawmakers called it «insane» that the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court appointed to a key advisory panel a lawyer with past ties to the Biden administration’s controversial Disinformation Governance Board.
Judges on the FISC appointed Jennifer Daskal this month to serve as an amicus curiae, meaning Daskal is now among a small group of lawyers designated to advise the secretive court, which approves warrants for federal authorities to surveil targets for foreign intelligence purposes. The GOP lawmakers say Daskal’s history with the disinformation board raises worries about her ability to discern whether warrants are appropriate.
«The same person who helped to build a board to censor American speech now advises judges on how to protect American liberties,» House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in a statement. «That’s ridiculous — and exactly why Congress must continue our oversight.»
HOUSE PASSES FISA RENEWAL WITHOUT ADDED WARRANT MANDATE FOR US DATA
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, looks on during a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., echoed Jordan’s concerns, saying Daskal’s appointment was «insane» and calling for reforms to the FISC.
Schmitt shared a video of himself on X questioning Daskal during a hearing about what he called the Biden administration’s «censorship enterprise,» referencing Daskal’s role in aiming to dispel what the administration viewed as inaccurate information about COVID-19 masks and vaccines and information about election security.
FISC proceedings are classified and «ex parte,» meaning a judge reviews the federal government’s warrant application and the target of the warrant has no awareness of the proceedings. A judge reviewing the application can, however, turn to an amicus curiae to present counterpoints to the government’s application, meaning Daskal is among a handful of lawyers who could be tapped to argue against allowing the government to wiretap a person’s phones or otherwise surveil them.
The logo of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seen at the Los Angeles Federal Building after a news conference to provide an update on the investigation into a May 18, 2025, bombing at a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, on June 4, 2025, in Los Angeles. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the government has access to these powerful spy tools for foreign intelligence purposes, but it has sometimes, whether inadvertently or intentionally, improperly targeted U.S. citizens.
Building more guardrails into the legislation has long been a point of contention for privacy hawks. Republicans, in particular, became highly critical of the FISC after finding that the court approved the FBI’s warrant applications, which contained flimsy and inaccurate evidence, to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page beginning in 2016.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told the Washington Free Beacon, which first reported on Daskal’s appointment, that the «American people need to have confidence in the people tasked to serve as amici» before the FISC. Grassley pointed to a bill he introduced, the FISA Accountability Act, which would allow Congress to have a say in who is chosen as an amicus curiae.
Jordan and Grassley have been some of the most vocal proponents of reining in the federal government’s use of FISA after identifying instances in recent years of intelligence officials allegedly abusing their authority and infringing on U.S. citizens’ Fourth Amendment right to privacy. In the case of Page, DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz released a report in 2019 that identified more than a dozen «significant errors or omissions» across the FBI’s four warrant applications used to surveil the former Trump aide. Daskal, in her new role, could offer confidential, weighty legal arguments to a FISC judge that support or oppose intelligence officials’ requests to surveil someone.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is seen in the U.S. Capitol during votes related to the government shutdown on Thursday, October 16, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Daskal served as a top lawyer in the Department of Homeland Security when she helped launch the Disinformation Governance Board. Conservatives heavily criticized it, describing the board as a «Ministry of Truth» that sought to censor their viewpoints in violation of the First Amendment.
Daskal chartered the board, while Nina Jankowicz was named its executive director, an appointment that fueled Republicans’ fury over it after finding Jankowicz’ past social media posts that they said revealed she was too partisan. Jankowicz, for instance, cast doubt on the New York Post’s bombshell story in 2020 about Hunter Biden’s laptop, which she said fit a pattern of Russian «information laundering.» Biden administration officials vehemently objected to the claims in the New York Post’s story about Joe Biden’s handling of Ukrainian foreign policy, though the authenticity of the laptop itself has been verified through court proceedings.
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Republicans put so much pressure on DHS about the board — calling it an «abuse of taxpayer dollars» and raising alarm that it painted policy disagreements over COVID-19, election security and immigration as mis- or dis- information — that it disbanded just a few months after its launch.
In Daskal’s hearing exchange with Schmitt, Daskal said «it’s not appropriate for the government to censor any points of view.» Daskal did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
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Russia urges Iran, ‘all parties’ in Middle East to show restraint amid US military buildup
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Russia warned Iran and «all parties in the region to exercise restraint and caution» Thursday amid a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the remark as the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its strike group are moving from the Caribbean toward the Middle East.
«Russia continues to develop relations with Iran, and in doing so, we call on our Iranian friends and all parties in the region to exercise restraint and caution, and we urge them to prioritize political and diplomatic means in resolving any problems,» Peskov said Thursday, according to Reuters.
«Right now, we are indeed seeing an unprecedented escalation of tensions in the region. But we still expect that political and diplomatic means and negotiations will continue to prevail in the search for a settlement,» he added.
WORLD’S LARGEST AIRCRAFT CARRIER HEADS TO MIDDLE EAST AS IRAN NUCLEAR TENSIONS SPIKE DRAMATICALLY
A F-18E fighter jet takes off from aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford as it sails during NATO Neptune Strike 2025 exercise on Sept. 24, 2025, in the North Sea. (Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images)
The move of the USS Gerald R. Ford would place two aircraft carriers and their accompanying warships in the region. The USS Abraham Lincoln and three guided-missile destroyers arrived in the Middle East more than two weeks ago.
Negotiations between the United States and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program advanced Tuesday toward what Tehran described as the beginning of a potential framework, but sharp public divisions between the two sides underscored how far apart they remain.
IRAN FIRES LIVE MISSILES INTO STRAIT OF HORMUZ AS TRUMP ENVOYS ARRIVE FOR NUCLEAR TALKS
The USS Gerald R. Ford is heading toward the Middle East as tensions with Iran escalate and President Donald Trump demands full nuclear dismantlement. (Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images)
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the two sides reached a «general agreement on a number of guiding principles» and agreed to begin drafting text for a possible agreement, with plans to exchange drafts and schedule a third round of talks.
Yet Washington has publicly insisted that any agreement must result in the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program — including its enrichment capacity — along with limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile program and an end to its support for allied militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
The world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, is seen in the North Sea during NATO Neptune Strike 2025 exercise in September 2025. (Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images)
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Those demands go well beyond temporary enrichment pauses or technical adjustments.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
iran,russia,military,nuclear proliferation,middle east,world
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