World
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.”
World
Sporticast 510: The Sordid Saga of a Legends’s Former Mansion
On the latest Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discuss some of the biggest sports business stories of the week, including the latest in a strange sports real estate story.
In 2012, Michael Jordan listed his Bulls-era mansion outside Chicago for about $29 million, or $41 million in today’s dollars. It took more than a decade and multiple price drops for the home to sell, which it did late last year for $9.5 million. The buyer, a partner in a local real estate firm, has since tried multiple ways to monetize the property. Initially he tried to sell timeshares for $1 million each, but that plan was thwarted by the local town council. He’s back in front of that same council this week, seeking approvals related to his next plan: to build a “multi-sensory experience focused entirely on personal transformation.” The tourist attraction would require the use of a parking lot on an adjacent nature preserve.
Next the hosts discuss major upset in college sports. Nebraska’s women’s volleyball team, the top seed in this year’s NCAA tournament, was upset by Texas A&M in the quarterfinals. Riding a wave of volleyball commercial growth, the Huskers spent more on the sport than any other public school in the country, according to numbers from Sportico‘s college finance database. The team reported $2.57 million in ticket sales during the 2023-24 school year, the third highest total for any women’s team at any public school in the country, trailing only Iowa and UConn women’s basketball.
They close by taking about the Big 12‘s proposed private equity plan. A few days after Big 12 member Utah laid out its own on-campus capital ambitions, Sportico reported that the Big 12 is in talks to set up what essentially amounts to a credit facility for its members via a potential partnership with RedBird Capital-backed Collegiate Athletic Solutions.
(You can subscribe to Sporticast through Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts.)
World
Bystanders seen confronting Australian gunman during ISIS-inspired deadly rampage
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Bystanders were seen on video confronting a gunman before his ISIS-inspired deadly mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, could begin.
Despite their efforts to disarm him, the gunman eventually overpowered the two bystanders and killed them, according to authorities.
The bystanders were later identified as Boris and Sofia Gurman, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The outlet reported that the Gurmans were walking by as they saw the assailant exiting a vehicle. Though Boris had the upper hand for a moment after picking up the shooter’s rifle, the attacker allegedly picked up another rifle during the confrontation and fatally shot the couple, making them the first victims of the massacre.
“We are heartbroken by the sudden and senseless loss of our beloved Boris and Sofia Gurman,” the family said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. “While nothing can lessen the pain of losing Boris and Sofia, we feel an overwhelming sense of pride in their bravery and selflessness.”
RABBI KILLED IN SYDNEY HANUKKAH ATTACK HAD WARNED AUSTRALIAN PM ABOUT RISING ANTISEMITISM
Bystanders were seen confronting one of the gunmen behind the deadly attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Australia’s Bondi Beach. (Jenny/Reuters)
In the video, obtained and verified by Reuters, an eyewitness replaying the dashcam footage recalls how the incident unfolded.
“You see the shooter here — he fired shots from here, shooting from here. And then look, this guy went and tackled him (shooter), knocking him to the ground. At that point, he had already grabbed the gun,” the witness, who was speaking in Mandarin, said in the video, according to a Reuters translation.
Authorities have identified the shooters as a father, 50, and a son, 24. The father was killed at the scene, while the son was shot by police and taken to the hospital in critical condition. Australian authorities also said that the shooters had improvised explosives and homemade ISIS flags in their vehicle.
On Sunday, the pair opened fire on families celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people and leaving more than two dozen injured. The Australian government is investigating the incident as a terror attack targeting the Jewish community.
GAL GADOT, ASHTON KUTCHER CONDEMN ANTISEMITIC TERROR ATTACK AT BONDI BEACH HANUKKAH EVENT
Police teams take security measures at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday after a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community during the first night of Hanukkah. ( Claudio Galdames A/Anadolu via Getty Images)
During the deadly rampage, another bystander, Ahmed al Ahmed, an Australian immigrant, wrestled a gun away from one of the shooters. His attorney said that Ahmed does not regret intervening, despite being “riddled with bullets” and in intense pain.
“He doesn’t regret what he did. He said he’d do it again. But the pain has started to take a toll on him,” Ahmed’s attorney, Sam Issa, told The Sydney Morning Herald. “He’s not well at all. He’s riddled with bullets. Our hero is struggling at the moment.”
The outlet reported that Ahmed has undergone his first round of surgery and that Issa fears the hero bystander may lose his left arm.
“He’s a lot worse than expected. When you think of a bullet in the arm, you don’t think of serious injuries, but he has lost a lot of blood,” Issa said.
President Donald Trump praised Ahmed for his actions, calling him “a very, very brave person” and saying that he has “great respect” for him.
People attend a floral memorial in honor of the victims of a mass shooting that targeted a Hanukkah celebration on Sunday, at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 16, 2025. (Flavio Brancaleone/Reuters)
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The Bondi Beach attack is the worst mass shooting Australia has seen since the country implemented sweeping reforms after a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Following the Bondi Beach attack, Australian leaders have vowed to strengthen the country’s already restrictive gun laws.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced several proposed actions, including limiting the number of guns one can possess.
“The government is prepared to take whatever action is necessary. Included in that is the need for tougher gun laws,” he said after meeting with his National Cabinet.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano, Bradford Betz and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.
World
Venezuelan opposition leader Machado injured on covert Nobel Prize trip
President Maduro’s rival was hurt as she sped on a boat through choppy waters in secret escape from hiding to reach Oslo ceremony.
Published On 16 Dec 2025
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was injured as she made a clandestine dash to collect her Nobel Peace Prize last week, her spokesperson has said.
Claudia Macero said late on Monday that the right-wing opposition figure fractured a vertebra during a choppy boat ride that had formed part of a risky cloak-and-dagger journey to reach the Norwegian capital, Oslo, for the Nobel award ceremony.
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Machado has been in hiding since she was banned from running in Venezuela’s July 24 presidential election, fearing that her life is under threat from long-time Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“The vertebra fracture is confirmed,” Macero told the AFP news agency, adding that no further details would be released beyond what had been reported in the Norwegian daily Aftonbladet.
The newspaper had earlier reported that the 58-year-old Machado sustained the fracture while crossing the sea in a small fishing boat battered by high waves.
The opposition leader was examined by doctors at Oslo University Hospital during her time in the city.
Dangerous dash
Media reports in the United States said Machado’s escape last week involved wearing a disguise, including a wig, and travelling from a small Venezuelan fishing village on a wooden boat to the island of Curacao, before boarding a private plane to Norway.
Machado has said she feared for her life during the voyage, which saw US forces situated in the Caribbean alerted to avoid a strike on the vessel.
Several similar boats have been attacked in recent months in a campaign that the Trump administration asserts is a bid to avert drug smuggling into the US.
Maduro has accused Washington of seeking to engineer regime change in the hope of seizing Venezuela’s large oil reserves.
The leader of the opposition Vente Venezuela party was attempting to reach the ceremony at which she was due to be presented with the Nobel Peace Prize.
She was announced the winner of the prestigious award in October, with the selection committee praising her role in the country’s opposition movement and her “steadfast” support for democracy.
‘Broken soul’
Despite her speedy trip, Machado failed to reach Oslo in time for the ceremony. Her daughter received the award on her behalf and delivered a speech that slammed Maduro and warned of the need to fight for democracy.
Hours after the ceremony, early on Thursday morning, Machado greeted supporters from an Oslo hotel balcony in what was her first public appearance in a year.
Despite the fracture, she climbed over a barrier to greet supporters outside the hotel, AFP reported.
Machado said authorities in Venezuela would have attempted everything possible to prevent her journey to Norway.
Appearing set to challenge Maduro in the vote, the opposition leader was barred from running in the country’s presidential election in July last year.
She then announced that she would be going into hiding within Venezuela due to fear for her life while Maduro is in power.
The Venezuelan president commented dismissively on the reports of Machado’s injury on television on Monday.
Machado “says she has a broken vertebra”, he said. “What’s broken is her brain and her soul because she’s a demon – she hates Venezuela.”
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