Congressional Perks: House Account Spending Jumped 21% in 2022

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Congressional Perks: House Account Spending Jumped 21% in 2022

(, The Center Square) Spending on U.S. House of Representatives office accounts increased by more than 85% over the past three decades but nearly half of that occurred since 2020, an investigation by The Center Square found.

The Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA) provides each of the 435 U.S. representatives in Congress about $2 million a year to pay staff, travel, buy equipment and run their Washington, D.C., and district offices, giving members wide latitude on how to spend the money within House ethics and administration committee rules. Districts receive different amounts depending on cost of living and distance from Washington, D.C., but lawmakers aren’t required to spend all of it – and some do not.

Each member is required to disclose his or her spending, and The Center Square found significant spending on private jet travel, luxury car leasing, meals and catering, questionable mileage reimbursements and subscriptions to news outlets that were recommended for cuts in the executive branch under the Department of Government Efficiency. There was also at least $50 million spent on partisan and issue-specific caucuses.

On top of about $810 million in 2024 for individual lawmakers’ office accounts, the House appropriates billions more for other operations of the House, including perks like a childcare center and an office of attending physician so members didn’t have to deal with waiting for a primary care.

David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a non-partisan, nonprofit that looks out for the use of taxpayer money, said there needs to be a review of all the Congressional spending after The Center Square told him about some of the disbursements detailed in the House office accounts.

“Serving the public should be, you know, public service. [In the past] it was somebody sacrificing something to come to Congress,” Williams told The Center Square. “Now you’re just showered with perks, with benefits, travel, car allowances, now a housing allowance. So it’s turned from public service to really enriching yourself as a member of Congress.”

Senate spends with little transparency

In the Senate, lawmakers get a lot more money per office – between $4.2 million and about $6.5 million, according to a Congress.gov report. But senators are a lot less transparent about what they do with it.

Instead of spreadsheets detailing the spending, the Secretary of the Senate releases PDF files of each office in alphabetical order and with no ability to sort by the top expenses or target specific types of expenditures.

The Center Square called the Senate secretary’s office in an attempt to determine annual spending totals since 1996, but the woman who answered the phone repeatedly said the office only releases the PDF disbursement information. She eventually transferred The Center Square to a voicemail, but no one returned the call.

Congress exempts itself from the Freedom of Information Act so there is no other official mechanism to obtain additional spending information.

Trump Threatens Military Intervention in Nigeria

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Trump Threatens Military Intervention in Nigeria

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Trump on Saturday threatened military intervention in Nigeria, saying the US may go into the country “guns-a-blazing” over allegations that the government isn’t doing enough to protect Christians from Islamist militants.

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” the president wrote on Truth Social.

“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!” the president added.

The Nigerian government, which receives military aid from the US, said that it welcomed US support against terrorism but that the US needs to respect its “territorial integrity.” Daniel Bwala, a spokesman for Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, told Reuters that he was sure “by the time these two leaders meet and sit, there would be better outcomes in our joint resolve to fight terrorism.” He also said that the Nigerian government doesn’t “expect there to be US military action in Nigeria.”

Massad Boulos, US senior advisor for African and Arab affairs, meets with President Tinubu on October 17, 2025 (photo via Boulos’s X account)

Since 2009, the Nigerian government has been fighting against Boko Haram and its ISIS-affiliated offshoot, known as the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP), mainly in the country’s northeast. Nigeria’s population of about 230 million is roughly half Christian and half Muslim, with Muslims mainly residing in the north and Christians in the south, and large numbers of Muslim civilians have been the victims of Boko Haram and ISWAP.

Many Christians have been killed in central Nigeria, where Fulani Muslim herders have been attacking mostly Christian farmers and landowners, which has involved attacks on churches. Fulani herders are also known to attack Muslim farmers in northwest Nigeria.

While many Christians have been killed, churches have been attacked, and priests have been targeted for kidnappings in these conflicts in Nigeria over the years, the government denies the claim that a “Christian genocide” is taking place because it’s not only Christians who have been targeted. Massad Boulos, President Trump’s envoy for Arab and African affairs, a Lebanese-born Christian who has lived in Nigeria, recently made similar comments during a meeting with President Tinubu.

“Of course, any incident of any loss of life is absolutely unfortunate, of course, those who know the terrain well know that terrorism has no colour, no relation, no tribe. People of all religions and of all tribes are dying, and it is very unfortunate, and we even know that Boko Haram and ISIS are killing more Muslims than more Christians. So people are suffering from all sorts of backgrounds. This is not specifically targeted at one group or the other,” Boulos said on October 17.

Trump’s threat of military action came after he labeled Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern,” a designation given by the State Department to countries it deems engage in or tolerate “severe violations of religious freedom.” The designation potentially paves the way for sanctions against Nigerian officials.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.

 

Musk May Quit Tesla if Board Doesn’t Approve Pay Plan

Ken Silva
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Musk May Quit Tesla if Board Doesn’t Approve Pay Plan

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Tesla’s annual meeting is on Thursday, and a lot is on the line—including, potentially, billionaire Elon Musk’s position as company CEO.

Tesla shareholders are reportedly going to consider a plan that would give Musk nearly $1 trillion in stock, which would up his control of the company to roughly 29%. For that, Musk would have to meet a series of goals, including increase Tesla’s value by over fourfold over the next decade, from $1.4 trillion today to $8.5 trillion by 2035, according to a Monday article in the New York Times.

The plan has reportedly sparked controversy in the corporate world. But according to Tesla chair Robyn Denholm, Musk may quit if Tesla’s board doesn’t approve it.

“We run the risk that he gives up his executive position, and Tesla may lose his time, talent and vision,” Denholm said in a letter to shareholders last week, as reported by the Times.

Tesla’s board—which includes Musk’s brother and several of his friends and business associates—is expected to approve the plan. However, a Delaware court struck down Musk’s previous pay plan because the judge reportedly found that too many board directors had cozy relationships with him. According to the Times, the Delaware Supreme Court is considering Tesla’s appeal of the decision.

Musk’s support within Tesla seems to have recovered from earlier this year, when he was receiving public backlash for his role in the Trump administration. In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla started a formal process to find its next CEO.

“Board members reached out to several executive search firms to work on a formal process for finding Tesla’s next chief executive,” the Journal reported in April, citing people familiar with the matter.

“The board narrowed its focus to a major search firm … The current status of the succession planning couldn’t be determined. It is also unclear if Musk, himself a Tesla board member, was aware of the effort, or if his pledge to spend more time at Tesla has affected succession planning.”

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

House Dems Want to Visit the Prison Camp Where Ghislaine Maxwell is Staying

Ken Silva
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House Dems Want to Visit the Prison Camp Where Ghislaine Maxwell is Staying

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., is seeking answers about why convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell is receiving preferential treatment in prison, and why her fellow inmates are being retaliated against for speaking about the matter.

To find those answers, Raskin wants to send his staff to the low-security prison camp where Maxwell is staying.

“My staff intends to conduct an oversight visit of FPC Bryan and speak to inmates about the conditions of their confinement, any special privileges or accommodations afforded to Ghislaine Maxwell, any restrictions, limitations, or censorship inmates have experienced in speaking to the media about Ms. Maxwell, and any retaliation they have experienced in speaking to the media about or voicing concerns related to Ms. Maxwell,” Raskin said in a Thursday letter to FPC Bryan warden Tanisha Hall.

Raskin’s letter follows revelations from the Wall Street Journal, which reported on Oct. 12 that the prison camp in Bryan, Texas locks down other inmates around 8 p.m. so Maxwell can shower. Guards escort her to the recreation area for late-night workouts, too.

Once in August, the prison locked down the facility during recreation time so that Maxwell could meet with several unknown visitors in the federal prison camp’s chapel, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

One inmate, Christiane Irwin, a 46-year-old Texas accountant convicted of defrauding a law firm where she worked, spoke to the Journal about Maxwell’s preferential treatment. “Within days, she had been moved to the higher-security Houston Federal Detention Center,” the Journal reported.

Raskin’s Thursday letter also cited the case of  Julie Howell, a 44-year-old inmate serving a 12-month sentence for theft. Howell was also transferred to FDC Houston after speaking about Maxwell to The Daily Telegraph. In response to her transfer, Howell’s lawyer reportedly said: “Nobody’s going to say anything about Ghislaine Maxwell now.”

“It is hard to overstate the severity of that punishment. FDC Houston is a facility designed for, among other things, ‘the containment of extremely dangerous, violent, or escape-prone inmates,’” Raskin said in his letter.

“Unlike FPC Bryan, FDC Houston has minimal outdoor and recreation facilities, offers sharply reduced educational and occupational programs, and is plagued by constant inmate turnover.”

Raskin asked Warden Hall to contact his staff by Nov. 13 to coordinate a visit to Maxwell’s prison camp. He also asked a series of questions, including about the identities of the unknown people who met with Maxwell while other inmates were locked down in August.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Energy Secretary Says No Nuclear Explosions ‘For Now’

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Energy Secretary Says No Nuclear Explosions ‘For Now’

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sunday clarified that the US has no plans to conduct nuclear explosions, at least for the time being, comments that came amid confusion over President Trump’s order for the Pentagon to start testing nuclear weapons.

“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests,” Wright told Fox News. “These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call non-critical explosions.”

Wright added that such tests involve “all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion,” but don’t involve a nuclear detonation. The tests, also known as “subcritical experiments,” have been ongoing and would be nothing new for the Energy Department.

Nuclear bomb test at the Nevada Proving Grounds in 1951

It was unclear when Trump first issued the order in a post on Truth Social if he meant the US would restart tests that involve detonating nuclear bombs, something that the US hasn’t done since 1992, or if he meant testing nuclear-capable missiles, something the Pentagon does regularly.

The president said he directed the US War Department to “start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis” as other countries, but all nuclear-armed powers except for North Korea, which last detonated a nuclear weapon in 2017, have maintained a moratorium on detonating nuclear bombs since the 1990s. In response to Trump’s post, Russia warned that it would respond if the US broke the moratorium.

Trump could have been referring to Russia’s recent tests of a nuclear-capable missile and a nuclear-capable drone. The last known US test of a nuclear-capable missile was on May 21, when the US Air Force launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile from California for a 4,200-mile flight to the Marshall Islands.

If the Energy Department ever did move toward detonating a nuclear bomb, arms control experts say it would take about 36 months to restart such tests. The explosions would be conducted underground since the US is a party to the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits all nuclear test detonations except for those conducted underground.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.

 

Mississippi Woman Kills Escaped Monkey

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Mississippi Woman Kills Escaped Monkey

(Headline USA) One of the monkeys that escaped last week after a truck overturned on a Mississippi roadway was shot and killed early Sunday by a woman who says she feared for the safety of her children.

Jessica Bond Ferguson said she was alerted early Sunday by her 16-year-old son who said he thought he had seen a monkey running in the yard outside their home near Heidelberg, Mississippi. She got out bed, grabbed her firearm and her cellphone and stepped outside where she saw the monkey about 60 feet away.

Bond Ferguson said she and other residents had been warned about diseases that the escaped monkeys carried so she fired her gun.

“I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” Bond Ferguson, who has five children ranging in age from 4 to 16, told The Associated Press. “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a social media post that a homeowner had found one of the monkeys on their property Sunday morning but said the office didn’t have any details. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks took possession of the monkey, the sheriff’s office said.

The Rhesus monkeys had been housed at the Tulane University National Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, which routinely provides primates to scientific research organizations, according to the university. In a statement last week, Tulane said the monkeys do not belong to the university, and they were not being transported by the university.

A truck carrying the monkeys overturned Tuesday on Interstate 59 north of Heidelberg. Authorities have said most of the 21 monkeys were killed. The sheriff’s department has said animal experts from Tulane examined the trailer and had determined three monkeys had escaped.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol has said it was investigating the cause of the crash, which occurred about 100 miles from the state capital, Jackson.

Rhesus monkeys typically weigh about 16 pounds and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. Video recorded after the crash showed monkeys crawling through tall grass beside the interstate, where wooden crates labeled “live animals” were crumpled and strewn about.

Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson had said Tulane officials reported the monkeys were not infectious, despite initial reports by the truck’s occupants warning that the monkeys were dangerous and harboring various diseases. Nonetheless, Johnson said the monkeys still needed to be “neutralized” because of their aggressive nature.

The monkeys had recently received checkups confirming they were pathogen-free, Tulane said in a statement Wednesday.

About 10 years ago, three Rhesus macaques in the breeding colony of what was then known as the Tulane National Primate Research Center were euthanized after a “biosecurity breach,” federal inspectors wrote in a 2015 report. The breach involved at least one staff member failing to adhere to biosafety and infection control procedures, it said.

The facility made changes in its procedures and retrained staff after that happened, according to the report from the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Rhesus macaques “are known to be aggressive,” according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. It said the agency’s conservation workers were working with sheriff’s officials in the search for the animals.

The search comes about one year after 43 Rhesus macaques escaped from a South Carolina compound that breeds them for medical research because an employee didn’t fully lock an enclosure. Employees from the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee, South Carolina, had set up traps to capture them.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

DOJ Scuttled Money Laundering Investigation into Jeffrey Epstein

Ken Silva
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DOJ Scuttled Money Laundering Investigation into Jeffrey Epstein

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) It’s been known for years that Jeffrey Epstein received what’s been widely described as a sweetheart plea deal for sex crimes against minors—receiving a 13-month sentence in 2008 and 2009, serving much of it on work release.

On Friday, Bloomberg revealed that Epstein also escaped potential money laundering charges as a result of that plea deal. According to Bloomberg, the Justice Department opened that probe in February 2007—focusing on “a pattern of transactions in which Epstein directed some of his employees to withdraw large amounts of cash to disburse to women around the world he was suspected of having victimized.”

“The evidence [former DOJ prosecutor Marie] Villafaña collected was serious enough that she wrote in the prosecution memo that Epstein should be charged with money-laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business,” Bloomberg reported, citing an anonymous source.

Bloomberg also unearthed emails between the DOJ and Epstein’s defense team, in which the latter party pushed back against the money laundering allegations. Ultimately, Epstein’s lawyers were successful.

Records unsealed last week in a civil lawsuit involving JP Morgan support Bloomberg’s reporting. They include letters between Villafaña and former Bear Stearns official David Petercsak, seeking records about Epstein’s financial transactions pursuant to a DOJ subpoena. JP Morgan acquired Bear Stearns in 2008.

Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Alex Acosta, whose office oversaw the mid-2000s Epstein investigation, told the House Oversight Committee in September that he had no knowledge about the DOJ probing Epstein’s finances.

“I don’t recall a financial aspect,” Acosta said, according to a transcript of his interview. “We were focused on the inappropriate acts that took place in Palm Beach.”

House Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia told Bloomberg that its reporting casts doubt on Acosta’s testimony.

“This information makes it incredibly clear that there is a massive cover-up happening right now,” he reportedly said. “It appears that DOJ is likely sitting on evidence that Epstein’s crimes were perhaps even bigger than have been publicly reported. I think this calls into question Acosta’s entire testimony.”

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Charlie Kirk’s Widow Weighs in on Whether Tyler Robinson’s Case Should be Televised

Ken Silva
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Charlie Kirk’s Widow Weighs in on Whether Tyler Robinson’s Case Should be Televised

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Both the prosecution and the defense in the Charlie Kirk assassination case want to prohibit cameras from the courtroom. Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, has something to say about that.

“There were cameras all over my husband when he was murdered. There have been cameras all over my friends and family, mourning. There have been cameras all over me, analyzing my every move, analyzing my every smile, my every tear,” she said in an interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters.

“We deserve to have cameras in there.”

Kirk’s comments comes as some national media outlets are also pushing for transparency in the Kirk case, including Human Events and Court TV.

“In the absence of official courtroom footage, speculative secondary content (YouTube commentary, AI-generated reenactments, partisan edits) will fill the void. This would stand to increase, not decrease, prejudicial distortion,” the Human Events letter from last week says. “Live unedited coverage is the most reliable antidote to misinformation, allowing the public to see proceedings as they occur, not as filtered through third-party narratives.”

Court TV’s Julie Grant called for the judge to “let the cameras roll.”

Local media has joined the fray, too. In a motion to Judge Tony Graf on Thursday, Deseret News, KSL, KUTV, the Utah News Dispatch and the Utah Headliners Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists all asked to be heard on the matter before the judge makes a decision.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the attorneys for accused Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson want to ban cameras so that their client’s physical appearance is “no longer the subject of interest” in media coverage. The Utah County Sheriff’s Office has also requested cameras to be banned.

Judge Graf is expected to rule on the matter in January.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Hegseth Declines To Say Whether the US Is Planning To Bomb Venezuela

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Hegseth Declines To Say Whether the US Is Planning To Bomb Venezuela

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Saturday declined to comment on whether the US was planning to bomb Venezuela amid a major US military buildup in the Caribbean and frequent strikes on alleged drug boats in the waters of Latin America.

“Appreciate the question, but, of course, we would not share any amount of operational details about what may or may not happen,” Hegseth said in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when asked if the US was preparing to strike inside Venezuela.

The Miami Herald reported on Friday that the US has made a decision to attack military targets inside Venezuela as part of a campaign against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, whom the US seeks to oust. The report said that the US strikes could begin within a matter of “hours or days,” but President Trump claimed he was not considering bombing Venezuela.

The world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), transits the Strait of Gibraltar, October 1, 2025 (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Alyssa Joy)

When asked by reporters if he was planning strikes inside Venezuela, Trump said “no,” though he has previously suggested that the US may begin bombing alleged drug shipments inside the country “by land.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as Trump’s national security advisor and has been leading the push toward regime change in Venezuela, also denied the Miami Herald report.

“Your ‘sources’ claiming to have ‘knowledge of the situation’ tricked you into writing a fake story,” Rubio wrote on X in response to the report.

For weeks, multiple media outlets have been reporting that the US is considering launching strikes in Venezuela, and the US has built up a force in the region that’s well beyond what is needed to bomb small, defenseless boats. US officials have also made clear that the real goal of the campaign is regime change in Venezuela, something Rubio has wanted for many years.

A US aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, is also being deployed to the Caribbean, and the US has begun to run weekly bomber flights near the coast of Venezuela. Much of the military action and the leaks to the media are part of a psychological campaign aimed at getting Maduro to voluntarily step down or someone in his inner circle to turn on him, but it’s unlikely that will happen.

Trump Considers Military Action to Stop Christian Genocide in Nigeria

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Trump Considers Military Action to Stop Christian Genocide in Nigeria

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump has directed the Department of War to prepare for possible action in Nigeria to target Islamic militants committing genocide against Christians.

“If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” the president said on Truth Social. “I am hereby instructuring our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST.”

In response, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, “Yes Sir. The killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria — and anywhere — must end immediately. The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a country of particular concern [CPC] but that is the least of it,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like what is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 worldwide), something must be done. The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world.”

Trump made the decision after U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called on him to protect Christian Nigerians and introduced a bill to do the same last month.

“I am deeply gratified to President Trump for making this determination,” Cruz said in an emailed statement to The Center Square. “I have fought for years to counter the slaughter and persecution of Christians in Nigeria, and this year introduced legislation that will lock in the designation made today.”

The CPC designation “is a critical step in holding accountable and changing the behavior of Nigerian officials who have facilitated and created an environment conducive to the outrages in Nigeria,” he added. “My legislation implements additional steps, including targeting those who implement blasphemy and sharia laws in Nigeria.”

Last month, Cruz introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 to protect Christians and other religious minorities from persecution by Islamic militants. The bill, if signed into law, directs the federal government to impose sanctions on the Nigeria government and its officials “who facilitate Islamist jihadist violence and the imposition of blasphemy laws” against non-Muslim Nigerians.

“Nigerian Christians are being targeted and executed for their faith by Islamist terrorist groups and are being forced to submit to sharia law and blasphemy laws across Nigeria. It is long past time to impose real costs on the Nigerian officials who facilitate these activities,” Cruz said when introducing it.

In the first 220 days of this year, more than 7,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria, a new report published by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (InterSociety) states. Persecution of Christians escalated in 2009 after an Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram uprising. Since then, an estimated 189,000 civilians have been killed, 125,000 of whom were Christians, InterSociety, a Nigerian non-governmental organization, says.

By 2015, Boko Haram began self-identifying as ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province). ISWAP, Fulani fighters, soldiers with Operation Safe Haven, a joint military force, and other Islamic terrorist groups are targeting Christians for annihilation, according to multiple reports, The Center Square reported.

Under two laws, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016, the president is required to review religious freedom in every country and make several designations based on the findings of “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.” Examples include torture, forced disappearances and murder, among others. The IRFA requires CPC designations; the Wolf Act requires non-state actors to receive similar designations as Entities of Particular Concern (EPC) and be added to a Special Watch List (SWL).

CPC and other designations are made by the secretary of State. Those currently on the CPC list are Burma, People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Countries currently on the SWL are Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam.

Those on the EPCs are al Qa’ida affiliate Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS-Sahel (formerly known as ISIS-Greater Sahara), ISIS-West Africa, al Qa’ida affiliate Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, and the Taliban.

Under the Biden administration, a record number of illegal border crossers, at least 1.6 million, were reported illegally entering the country from four CPCs: China, Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia, The Center Square exclusively reported.

Trump directed the leaders of the House Appropriations Committee to immediately look into the slaughter of Nigerian Christians and report back to him.

Others are also calling on Trump to take similar action to protect Christians in Sudan who are also facing genocide.

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