A new report has revealed that the persecution of Christians continues to expand worldwide, with countries like Syria, North Korea, and Nigeria driving the surge in oppression. Still, some bright spots of receding persecution have also emerged in south Asia. This week, the religious freedom monitoring organization Open Doors released its annual World Watch List, which catalogues the countries in the world that commit the highest levels of oppression against Christians. The report noted that over 388 million Christians currently “suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.” It found that the total number of believers killed for their faith increased from 4,476 in 2025 to 4,849 in the 2026 reporting period, with 93% of the deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the killings are happening in Nigeria, which totaled 3,490 killings, up from 3,100 the previous year. “There are now 14 sub-Saharan African countries on the World Watch List,” the report stated. “The combined population of these countries is more than 721 million people, nearly half of whom identify as Christian. Over the past decade, violence scores have more than doubled, with four of these countries now in the top 10.” The report further found that 224,129 Christians were forced from their homes, up from 209,771 last year. The concentration of forced evacuations occurred in Nigeria, Syria, and Myanmar. The Open Doors list also tallied 4,712 Christians who are currently detained for their faith, as well as 3,632 churches and other Christian properties that have been attacked. In countries like Syria, the upheaval resulting from rapid regime change has created a dangerous environment for Christians, as Open Doors CEO Ryan Brown explained during “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Wednesday. “Syria [has] actually become our biggest one-year mover in recent history,” he noted. “[L]ast year, [Syria] was number 18 on the list. This year that moved up to number six. … [After] the fall of the previous Assad regime … there were a lot of questions. … [T]he new rulers were giving indications that they wanted to allow religious freedoms and religious liberties. What we have seen over the course of the last year is, well, the rise in persecution has not necessarily been at the direct hand of the new government. It has been … the new government’s lack of control, the lack of presence throughout the country [that] has given rise to extremist ideologies around the country. There have been all sorts of vacuums of power that have been created in these extremist Islamic ideologies have been more than happy to take advantage of that opportunity and step into those vacuums.” Brown went on to highlight why North Korea has remained at the top of the World Watch List for the last several years as the country with the highest level of persecution against Christians in the world. “Just to contextualize what life looks like for believers in North Korea, this is a country where individuals — simply for being found in possession of the Bible, being found in possession of the word of God — you and your entire family can be arrested and sent to hard work camps for the rest of your life,” he explained. “It’s the equivalent of a death sentence. Christianity is seen as … inherently seditious and is seen as a threat to power for the state there.” At the same time, Brown further pointed out that some positive developments have occurred since Open Doors published its list last year, particularly in south Asia. “Bangladesh would certainly be one,” he observed. “That is one where there was a transition … in power. [T]here were overtures that were made [by the government to expand] religious freedoms. By and large, there was a corresponding drop in violence and extremist activity that occurred. [T]hey have elections coming up, about a month from now in February. So we will see if those overtures that they have made and some of the progress that’s been made, whether that continues or whether others start to drive agendas to court political favor in different camps.” In addition, Vietnam was ranked number 44 on last year’s list but was removed entirely from the top 50 in 2026. Open Doors stated that this is “due to a decrease in reported acts of violence, with no killings or church attacks reported.” Still, the communist government “continues to control all registered churches and religious activities through its Committee on Religious Affairs.” Brown concluded by urging the public to use the World Watch List as a prayer guide for persecuted Christians around the globe. “It’s an informational resource, but more than that, it’s a prayer resource because there are specific prayer points for each country there that have been provided by the believers in those countries.” Originally published by The Washington Stand We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Persecution of Christians Has Expanded Across the Globe, Report Reveals appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Global warming has gone cold as an issue. Despite decades of panicked predictions of doom, it’s never been a high priority for voters, and Preident Donald Trump’s bold expressions of “climate denial” went unpunished by voters. The media still sound allied with the Green New Deal pushers, but the thrill is gone. Last November, leftists blasted ABC, CBS and NBC for barely touching the COP30 global climate summit in Brazil. (PBS gave it nearly 16 minutes, and 10 of it was a John Kerry softball interview.) Now Axios.com posted an analysis by Amy Harder on this trend, titled “The world’s great climate collapse.” Greenpeace gang, beware: “The last year has seen an epic reversal that spread quickly from governments to boardrooms to pop culture.” Not only has Trump dismissed climate panic, but Harder noted Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, “once one of the world’s most vocal climate advocates,” is now repealing some of his country’s climate policies. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also issued a memo questioning the wisdom of pursuing “net zero” emissions policies. Then there’s billionaire Bill Gates, an unelected global leader. He circulated a memo criticizing the climate movement while shifting much of his money and focus back to public health—just four years after publishing the book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” a bestseller that drew gushy reviews from AP, CNN, USA Today and Oprah Daily magazine. With Trump in office, Ford pulled back sharply from its electric-vehicle plans, shifting focus to more popular and profitable hybrids and gas vehicles due to slowing EV demand. Europe scaled back its plan to ban gasoline-powered cars in the next decade and softened climate disclosure rules, which The New York Times captured with a dejected headline: “Europe Begins to Tiptoe Away From Key Climate Policies.” The Axios analysis claimed even Hollywood is tiptoeing away, “swapping climate angst … for oil swagger, as seen in the current hit TV show ‘Landman.'” That’s not entirely true. In December, the CBS drama “Fire Country” featured a firefighter lecturing like Al Gore: “We all know damn well there is no fire season anymore. Thanks to climate change, it’s all year round. Just keeps getting worse,” and concluding, “We’re at war.” Also in December, “Daily Show” star Jon Stewart brought on New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert to uncork the usual panic. Manhattan used to be an ice sheet like Greenland, she said. Stewart then quipped, “See, what I hear from that story is, if we keep this up, we could turn Greenland into Manhattan.” Kolbert jumped on the panic button: “That is absolutely true. Keep it up, but there’s 20 feet of sea level rising. So Manhattan will not be here.” This is not a new shtick. In 2008, ABC News showed a picture of New York City vanishing underwater in its prediction of what will happen by 2015. Ooooops. Never forget that in 1989, leftist scientist Paul Ehrlich narrated a segment on NBC’s “Today” show predicting that global warming would trigger a flood to completely cover Washington, D.C., which obviously never happened. After eco-leftists predicted certain climate-change doom by 1995, or by 2000, or by 2015, and now we’re still doom-less in 2026, the public should be skeptical that they’re the most credible experts on predicting what the future holds. If the perpetual climate panic machine has collapsed, it’s because the facts never lined up to prove any reason to panic. Their authoritarian “solutions”—banning everything from gas-powered cars to gas stoves and grills—needed the fuel of panic to be forced on the public. The bloom is off their poisoned rose. COPYRIGHT 2026 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The Perpetual Climate Panic Machine ‘Collapses’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Republicans have a problem. With just two weeks before a deadline to avert a partial government shutdown, how do they get Democrats to fund deportation efforts? In the wake of Renee Good’s death in a shooting involving ICE officers in Minnesota, Democrats are slamming deportation efforts, possibly putting the annual homeland security bill in jeopardy. How to Fund Homeland? Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., who chairs the House Democratic Caucus, likened ICE agents to a “gestapo rounding up individuals,” in reference to Nazi Germany’s secret police force, on Jan. 13. Aguilar explained Democrats are seeking policy riders on the homeland security bill in order to rein in ICE, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. “We like passing appropriations bills, but the appropriations bills have to be fair,” he said of the DHS funding bill. There are four bills left for the House of Representatives to pass: one funding labor, health and education; a second funding transportation, housing, and urban development; a third funding defense, and a fourth funding homeland security. The homeland security bill was originally meant to be attached to a package funding national security and the state department, as well as financial regulatory institutions. The House subsequently excluded homeland from the package, which passed on Jan. 14. “Democrats put additional language forward to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. It’s not language that [Republicans] could support. And so ultimately, the homeland bill fell out of the package… House Democrats want accountability and oversight,” Aguilar said of the homeland security bill’s exclusion. Aguilar added that DHS “should have to continue to testify to Congress as to what they are doing to look out for the American people.” “It’s a politically very sensitive topic,” top House Republican Tom Cole, R-Okla., said of the DHS bill on Jan. 13. “That’s why we decided not to push ahead with a Homeland bill this week.”  The exclusion of the homeland bill allowed the state department funding bill—legislation funding foreign aid and humanitarian projects, which are generally supported by Democrats—to pass without having to be attached to funding for deportation efforts. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Democrats’ leading appropriator in the House, praised the package, saying it “continues Democrats’ rejection of cuts proposed by the Trump White House and Republicans in Congress.” Republicans could still bundle the homeland security bill together with the remaining bills in the House, although that carries the risk of jeopardizing other funding areas. To be sure, House leadership has so far been successful at settling disagreements. Just last week, Republicans were able to use a “bifurcated rule” to cobble together various House coalitions and pass a three-bill package, despite some conservatives’ opposition to the Commerce-Justice-Science bill. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., projected optimism on Tuesday about passing all the bills, telling reporters leadership is “very optimistic” about passing the final four appropriations bills. The Senate In the Senate, the partisan chasm is widening on homeland security. On Monday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., an appropriator, called for “no more money for DHS [Department of Homeland Security] without accountability.” Fellow appropriator Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., similarly said, “I think it is reasonable for Democrats speaking on behalf of the majority of the American public who don’t approve of what ICE is doing to say, ‘If you want to fund the Department of Homeland Security, I want to fund a Department of Homeland Security that is operating in a safe and legal manner.’” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged the awkwardness of the situation at a Jan. 13 press conference, and floated the unorthodox idea of a clean continuing resolution to extend current funding levels for DHS. Thune says the Homeland Security spending bill is the “obviously the hardest” to wrap up and that if the two chambers can’t reach a final agreement they could pass a stopgap spending bill for that department. pic.twitter.com/xYwrmdDzzy— Jennifer Shutt (@JenniferShutt) January 13, 2026 “Homeland is obviously the hardest [bill to pass] and it’s possible that if we can’t get an agreement that there could be some sort of a CR that funds some of these bills into the next year,” said Thune, who added that he hoped there could be some deal to pass all the bills. There is an unusual element of this year’s funding talks, however.  The July budget reconciliation bill which Republicans passed without needing any Democrat votes provided $170 billion for immigration and border enforcement, relieving some of the stress for Republican appropriators. Democrats “have never been supportive of” funding homeland security, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told reporters Monday. “We understood that very clearly, which is why we did so much being proactive with the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill,’ with allowing the bill to have the funding to go enforce our laws.”  The post Will Congress Find a Way to Fund ICE? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A church in Washington, D.C. has gained the attention not only of hundreds of young Christians, but also the mainstream media.   King’s Church has a size of about 600 congregants and is located in the basement of a bar one mile from the White House. With its growth taking off during the COVID-19 pandemic, that appeared unique enough to have earned the church a lengthy exposé in Vanity Fair labeling it a “MAGA” hot spot.   Writing for the magazine, Tara Palmeri painted King’s Church as a “recruitment machine” and asserts that the congregation is a “long-term investment” for the Republican Party.   “What makes King’s so startling—even unnerving—for the secular left is how effortlessly it fills a void progressives never cracked: blending identity, community, and political machinery,” Palmeri writes.   Palmeri describes the church’s nondenominational contemporary worship service as “half revival, half silent disco.”   However, Pastors Wesley Welch, 34, and Ben Palka, 35, say they have never worked in politics. Palka says they would “have no idea how to engineer a ‘recruitment machine,’” adding, “we’re going to be honest about the issues, but we’re not going to wave a particular political banner.”    “What we’re doing is pretty typical church outreach,” Palka said.  “If a church is in a neighborhood, they’ll reach out to their neighborhood, they’ll canvass the neighborhood, they’ll invite people to participate in church and to explore Christianity, and that’s all we’re doing.”   Welch and Palka founded the church in 2018 with a mission to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to Washington, D.C.  More specifically, Palka says King’s Church aims to “take a robust biblical … worldview and apply it to people’s lives in a way that the jobs, the lives that they’re living are Christ focused and Christ centered.”   Pastors of King’s Church Wesley Welch and Ben Palka. (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal) The church’s growth did not begin until 2020, when Palka says he watched amid the COVID-19 pandemic as “young people that previously didn’t take their faith very seriously started taking it very seriously.”  What Palka said surprised him most about the Vanity Fair piece was “how out of touch, the mainstream media is with just Christianity 101.”   “They looked into a pretty normal, young Evangelical church and the only way that they could understand it was through the framework of politics in power, because … that must be how they view the world,” Palka said.  The congregation of King’s Church meeting in the basement of Penn Social bar in Washington, D.C. (King’s Church) Congregants of the church say they chose to join the community because of the positive experience they had after walking through the church, or bar, doors.   “I think it’s evident that God is moving in King’s Church,” Avery Lance, 27, says.   “By all reports and metrics, young people aren’t going to church,” Lance said, adding, “people in a city like D.C. are not going to church, but King’s Church kind of stands in defiance of all of that.”   Lance and his wife Danielle lead one of the 25 small groups for King’s Church, providing a time to study scripture, pray, share a meal and “bear each other’s burdens and encourage each other,” Danielle Lance explained. “It’s my favorite night of the week,” she said.   Avery and Danielle Lance, King’s Church congregants. (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal) On a chilly Sunday morning in January, Welch preached from the book of Daniel in the Bible, using the story of Daniel living in captivity in Babylon as an exhortation to seek the Lord and represent Him regardless of the circumstance.   The church is roughly half Gen Z, 30% millennials, and 20% in the 45 plus age demographic, according to Palka.   “We didn’t set out to be a church for young people. It’s like the Lord’s just done a revival there,” Welch said, adding, “it has been amazing to see the younger generation come hungry for truth and hungry for the Lord, and receiving it.”   Washington, D.C. is young city with 34 being the median age, according to Census Reporter.   Husband and wife Sandra, 45, and Kristopher Klaich, 48, have been attending the church for over four years. As an “older” couple in the community, they quickly became mentors to many of the younger congregants, joking they are shocked so many young people want to spend time with them.    Kristopher and Sandra Klaich, King’s Church congregants. (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal) One of those “young people” is Jack Renner who, now 32, has been attending the church since the first year it was founded and believes so many other young people have chosen to join the church because they are hungry for community.    “When you enter King’s Church you can feel the welcoming hospitality there, the love for God and love for our fellow humans,” Renner told The Daily Signal.    As King’s Church continues to minister to the people of D.C. who join them on a Sunday morning or during the week for a small group, Wesley says the vision for the church is not only to one day have their own building, but also to “create a long term ministry here in D.C.”  The post DC Church Captures Attention of Mainstream Media appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL — California State Assemblyman David Tangipa has told The Daily Signal that he intends to bring his lawsuit against the Golden State’s new congressional map to the Supreme Court ahead of the midterm elections. The plaintiffs are looking to bring the case to the Supreme Court so that it might overturn the U.S. District Court of Central California’s dismissal of the case, known as a ruling without prejudice, or not a final decision. The plaintiffs argue that California’s new Congressional map violates the 14th and 15th amendments of the U.S. Constitution by drawing congressional districts based on race. The lower court declined to review the case over the alleged constitutional violations of California’s new congressional map. The Golden State’s new map was enabled by California voters’ approval of Proposition 50, a ballot measure that handed control of redistricting from the state’s independent commission to state elected officials. Proposition 50 and the new map have been supported by major California Democrats, such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber. “Newsom is trying to take a victory lap right now over the Prop 50 lawsuit that we filed against him,” Tangipa said. “It is not over yet. And we just got information that the federal court denied us a review of the case again, which means we are going to the Supreme Court.” Tangipa’s lawsuit is backed by the Department of Justice and the California Republican Party. “We fully expect us to be in front of the court sometime by next week. We all need some clarity on this. We need to make sure that we are working through every single channel,” the California legislator added. Tangipa also said that for the case to go to the Supreme Court, the plaintiffs needed a verdict from the lower federal court in order for it to be challenged by the superior court. “We need this ruling from the district court to come down first before we get in front of the Supreme Court, and we got exactly that. It’s time we hold these people accountable.” District Court Ruling The lawsuit was previously filed with the U.S. District Court of Central California in November.  A three-judge panel ruled to dismiss the case 2-1, with Obama-appointed Judge Josephine Staton and Biden-appointed Judge Wesley Hsu declined to review the case further. Trump-appointed Judge Kenneth Lee dissented. During the case, Paul Mitchell, the man who drew the state’s new congressional map, refused to appear before the court to explain how he drew it by invoking legislative privilege. “We know race likely played a predominant role in drawing at least one district because the SMOKING GUN is in the hands of Paul Mitchell, the mapmaker who drew the congressional redistricting map adopted by the California state legislature,” Tangipa wrote in an X post Friday night. The most important piece from the Prop 50 lawsuit: “We know race likely played a predominant role in drawing atleast one district because the SMOKING GUN is in the hands of Paul Mitchell, the mapmaker who drew the congressional redistricting map adopted by the California state… https://t.co/v4IT2LUClf— David Tangipa (@DavidTangipa) January 17, 2026 Tangipa claimed that before this lawsuit was filed, Mitchell “publicly boasted to his political allies that he drew the map to ‘ensure that the Latino districts are bolstered in order to make them most effective, particularly in the Central Valley.” Balance of Power If the Supreme Court refuses to strike down the new map, Democrats are expected to add five new congressional seats after this year’s midterm elections. The new Democratic-held congressional seats could change the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives. Impeachments? Republicans are expecting House Democrats to impeach President Donald Trump if Democrats gain control of the House in the midterms. “If we lose the House majority, the radical Left, as you’ve already heard, is going to impeach President Trump,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in December. “They’re going to create absolute chaos; we cannot let that happen, and I know you won’t, I know you won’t.” Other Trump administration officials, such as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, could also face impeachment proceedings if Democrats were to control the House. On Jan. 14, Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., filed three articles of impeachment against Noem for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” “Secretary Noem, you have violated your oath of office, and there will be consequences,” Kelly said in a press conference. After the naval strikes on narcotrafficking boats in the southern Caribbean Ocean in December, Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., filed articles of impeachment against Hegseth.“We cannot allow his reprehensible conduct to continue, which is why I have filed these articles to impeach him,” Thanedar wrote in a news release. The post EXCLUSIVE: CA Lawmaker Intends to Bring Lawsuit Against Prop 50 Map to Supreme Court appeared first on The Daily Signal.