US President Donald Trump said Friday that Christians in Nigeria face an “existential threat,” as right-wing political allies including Senator Ted Cruz push claims of “Christian mass murder” that experts say are false.Narratives of “Christian genocide” and “persecution” in Nigeria have been bubbling up on social media in recent months, finding purchase among the American and European far right.Africa’s most populous country is embroiled in numerous conflicts that experts say have killed both Christians and Muslims without distinction.But according to Trump, “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria.””Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform, without providing evidence to support his claims.Trump said he is naming Nigeria a “country of particular concern” — a State Department designation for nations “engaged in severe violations of religious freedom.”Claims of Christian persecution have also been pushed by some in Nigeria, where ethnic, religious and regional divisions have flared with deadly consequences in the past and still shape the country’s modern politics.Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and largely Christian south.Its northeast has been in the grip of jihadist violence for more than 15 years by the Islamist Boko Haram group, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives and forced two million people from their homes.The northwest is rife with gangs known as “bandits” who attack villages, killing and kidnapping residents.Central Nigeria sees frequent clashes between mostly Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers — giving the violence there an air of religious tension, in a region that has seen sectarian violence in the past.Experts say the conflict is primarily over land, which is being squeezed by expanding populations and climate change.- ‘Indiscriminate’ violence -Massad Boulos, Trump’s senior advisor for Arab and African affairs, said in mid-October that “Boko Haram and Islamic State “are killing more Muslims than Christians.”Ladd Serwat, a senior Africa analyst at the US-based monitoring group Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), told AFP that jihadist violence in Nigeria is “indiscriminate.”According to ACLED data, 52,915 civilians have been killed through targeted political killings since 2009, including those carried out by Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, “ethnic/communal militias in the central and northern regions, violence by groups commonly described as ‘bandits,’ and self-defence militias.”The data also showed there have been at least 389 instances of violence targeted at Christians between 2020 and 2025, with at least 318 fatalities. There were 197 violent attacks against Muslims during the same period, with more than 400 deaths.Trump’s comments come as a lobbying effort is underway on behalf of Nigerian separatists.Moran Global Strategies, representing the Biafra Republic Government in Exile, wrote to US congressional staffers in March warning of the “persecution of Christians” in the country, according to documents disclosed as part of American foreign lobbying rules.Biafra was the name of a short-lived breakaway state that declared independence in 1967, sparking a brutal civil war that lasted until 1970.

The ongoing budget deadlock in the United States is threatening food security of around 42 million Americans who receive food stamps at the start of each month to help get by. The US Department of Agriculture had said that no money could be paid out on Saturday due to the shutdown.But on Friday, a federal judge helped ease some of the uncertainty at the last minute by ordering the government to use emergency funds to ensure the continuity of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which has helped low-income Americans for more than 60 years.The idea that SNAP assistance could be paused is “truly unprecedented,” Meredith Niles, a professor specializing in food policy at the University of Vermont, told AFP.”This has never happened in more than 50 years of the program, despite numerous other government shutdowns,” she said. Here’s how SNAP works, and what its absence could mean for those affected. – How does it work?While food stamps date back to the 1930s during the Great Depression, the SNAP program was created in 1964 and expanded nationwide in 1974, according to Niles from the University of Vermont.Today, around one-in-eight Americans receive SNAP benefits each month based on income, according to the Department of Agriculture. This costs the federal budget nearly $100 billion. Beneficiaries have a payment card, similar to a debit card, which they can use in supermarkets, grocery stores, and some farmers’ markets. The cards are usually reloaded automatically on the first day of the month.To qualify for SNAP, along with being low-income, recipients must meet certain requirements — which can vary from working at least 30 hours a week to being medically deemed unable to work due to disability.  “It is an important program for many Americans,” Niles said, adding that recipients receive an average of around $6 per person day.Every day items like fruit, vegetables, canned goods, chips, and pasta are covered by SNAP, while alcohol and pre-prepared meals are not. From January 2026, around ten states also plan to exclude the purchase of soft drinks using SNAP vouchers.- Impact of SNAP pause – Nationwide, around nine percent of grocery purchases are paid for using SNAP, according to Niles, with a quarter of all purchases using the vouchers made at the retail giant Walmart.”We’re talking about billions and billions of dollars that aren’t going to be in the economy,” if SNAP payments are frozen in future, she added. If SNAP payments are halted, Niles said she expects people will try to compensate by dipping into their savings, skipping meals, or deferring other expenses like repaying loans or attending medical appointments.Households will receive retroactive benefits once the suspension is lifted and federal funding is made available again, according to a US Department of Agriculture document shared with AFP. – Beyond party politics -SNAP is an issue that transcends politics, with millions of Democrats and Republicans registered to receive the support. Close to 24 million SNAP recipients live in states that voted for the current Republican President Donald Trump, while approximately 18 million beneficiaries live in places that voted Democrat in last year’s presidential race, according to AFP analysis. In the event of non-payment, states have invited recipients to make use of food banks — which could be swiftly overwhelmed by the demand.According to the latest available data, 13.5 percent of American households did not have guaranteed access to sufficient quantity and quality of food in 2023, the highest level since 2014. In September of this year, the Department of Agriculture announced it would stop gathering the data for this report. 

President Donald Trump reiterated Friday that he wants testing of US nuclear weapons, but again failed to clarify whether he meant live explosions in an order that has provoked global tension and confusion..Asked by an AFP journalist whether he meant conducting underground blasts for the first time in the United States since 1992, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I am not going to say.””You’ll find out very soon, but we’re going to do some testing, yeah. Other countries do it. If they’re going to do it, we’re going do it,” he said on his way to spend Halloween at his golf resort in Florida.No country other than North Korea has conducted an explosive nuclear weapon test for decades. Russia and China have not carried out such tests since 1990 and 1996 respectively.The 79-year-old Republican first made his surprise testing announcement by social media post on Thursday, minutes before entering a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea.The announcement came in the wake of Russia saying it had tested a new nuclear-powered cruise missile, the Burevestnik, and a nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable underwater drone.Iran, whose own controversial nuclear program was bombed by US forces on Trump’s orders earlier this year, called Trump’s directive “regressive and irresponsible.””A nuclear-armed bully is resuming testing of atomic weapons. The same bully has been demonizing Iran’s peaceful nuclear program,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on social media.- ‘Pretty responsible’ -Japanese atomic bomb survivors group Nihon Hidankyo sent a letter of protest to the US embassy in Japan.The order “directly contradicts the efforts by nations around the world striving for a peaceful world without nuclear weapons and is utterly unacceptable,” the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group said in the letter obtained by AFP.Amid concern abroad and some in the US Congress, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon was moving “quickly” to follow Trump’s orders and said testing was “responsible.””The president was clear. We need to have a credible nuclear deterrent,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. “Resuming testing is a pretty responsible, very responsible way to do that. I think it makes nuclear conflict less likely.”But China’s foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun urged the United States to “earnestly abide” by a global nuclear testing ban.United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said through a spokesman that “nuclear testing can never be permitted under any circumstances.”The United States has been a signatory since 1996 to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which bans all atomic test explosions, whether for military or civilian purposes.- Russia pushes back -Russia pushed back against any idea that its recent weapon systems tests could justify a return to live test explosions.The Kremlin questioned whether Trump was well-informed — and implied Russia would conduct its own live detonations if Trump does so first.The recent weapons drills “cannot in any way be interpreted as a nuclear test,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. “We hope that the information was conveyed correctly to President Trump.”According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Russian stockpile of deployed and stored warheads is 4,309, compared to 3,700 for the United States and 600 for China — figures that don’t take into account hundreds of other warheads scheduled for dismantling.The United States conducted 1,054 nuclear tests between July 16, 1945, when the first was conducted in New Mexico, and 1992.Its two nuclear attacks on Japan during World War II make it the only country to have used the weapons in combat.The last US nuclear test explosion was in September 1992, a 20-kiloton underground detonation at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site.Then-president George H.W. Bush imposed a moratorium on further tests in October 1992 that has been continued by successive administrations.burs-sms-dk/bjt

A senior member of the US Federal Reserve on Friday said he voted against cutting interest rates this week because inflation was “too high” for comfort. Kansas City Fed president Jeff Schmid was one of two people who dissented on Wednesday’s vote, at which the US central bank backed a quarter percentage-point rate cut. The other dissent was Fed governor Stephen Miran, who wanted a larger rate cut. “The labor market is largely in balance, the economy shows continued momentum, and inflation remains too high,” Schmid said in a statement. “I view the stance of policy as only modestly restrictive,” added Schmid, who has a vote on the Fed’s rate-setting committee this year. “In this context, I judged it appropriate to maintain the policy rate at this week’s meeting.”US consumer inflation data came in hot at 3.0 percent in the 12 months to September, though the Fed uses a different measure that is also stuck above the two-percent target.The Fed’s rate decision brought interest rates down to between 3.75 percent and 4.00 percent, easing the burden slightly on businesses and consumers looking to borrow money.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday after the decision was published, Fed chair Jerome Powell said that while there had been broad agreement on a cut this time, there was less clarity on what would happen next.”There were strongly differing views about how to proceed in December,” he said. “A further reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a foregone conclusion, far from it.”Speaking in Washington on Friday, President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor sounded a different note on the health of the world’s largest economy, flagging the recent consumer inflation data which came in slightly below expectations. “We’re glad that they reduced the interest rate,” Kevin Hassett, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, told reporters. “The Fed is flying blind a little bit, but we have a government shutdown, which is a negative for the economy,” he said. “And against that backdrop, the idea that the Fed would be backing away from their promised rate reductions in the future is puzzling to us.”Among the 10-2 majority voting for a quarter-point cut this week was Fed governor Christopher Waller, a Trump nominee who is on the five-person shortlist to take over from Powell when he steps down as Fed chair next May. “All of our forecasts have inflation coming back down the target,” he told Larry Kudlow on Fox Business on Friday.”Yes, it’s high, it’s been high, but it’s fully coming back. And the biggest concern we have right now is the labor market,” he said. “So this is why I’m still advocating we cut policy rates in December, because that’s what all the data is telling me to do.”Futures traders slashed their expectations of a December rate cut, and now see only a 65 percent probability of a quarter-point move in December, according to CME Group data.