In a country halfway across the world, Agnes remembers the song her dad taught her when she was scared. And that was most of the time. While American children can’t sleep because of invisible monsters, in Nigeria, the nightmares are real life. Would tonight be the night the men attacked, burning, shooting, and killing? “In those moments,” she remembers, “my dad sang to us, ‘God will never forsake us. God will never abandon us. Even when there is suffering and persecution, God will never leave us.’” It is the song of millions of sons and daughters now, passed down through the years of grief—the nation’s unofficial heirloom. Like so much of Africa, Nigeria’s story is one of constant violence, suffering, and mourning. While the government looks away, tens of thousands of Christians have been massacred, buried in mass graves that have taken over miles of desolate countryside. At the hands of Boko Haram or the Fulani herdsman, armed gangs roam across the country—kidnapping, beheading, and setting on fire anyone in their path. Some are held hostage in terror camps, others are forced into brutal marriages against their wills, raped by so many men they don’t know who their babies’ fathers are. It is, most people who have been there will tell you, worse than genocide. Fred Williams, a missionary to Nigeria, has pleaded with the West to intervene. “Since [2001], the attacks have been relentless, continuous,” he stressed. “[These are] stories of carnage and killing and horror. … Thousands are being killed,” he insists. “I’m constantly in those villages. I have interviews. I have photos. Most of what is happening is too graphic to show the media. That is how bad it is,” he tells reporters. Just days ago, a bride and her bridal party were kidnapped in the north, as another pastor and members of his congregation were put in cars and driven away. To where, no one knows. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who’s tried to absolve himself of the world’s criticism, arguing he’s done everything he can to protect Christians, declared a national “security emergency” last week, authorizing the police and army to recruit and train additional personnel. “There will be no more hiding places for agents of evil,” Tinubu vowed. But Nigerians have heard that before. When 300 girls were abducted from a Catholic school last month and Nigerian leaders did nothing, parents started begging America to intervene. “We almost had a heart attack,” Peter Jagaba said emotionally of his daughter Paulina’s capture. Like the thousands of fathers who have walked this dread before him, he’s asking his government to get involved. “I want the Federal Government of Nigeria to bring back my daughter safe and alive,” Jagaba told The Wall Street Journal. “I’m also calling on the American government to help us—we need help from anywhere,” he said desperately. President Trump, who’s become actively engaged in the crisis across Africa these last several weeks, has been open about his disgust with the country’s leaders. “I’m really angry about it,” Trump said during an interview in late November, arguing the Nigerian government has “done nothing” and that “what’s happening in Nigeria is a disgrace.” He’s leaned on Congress to find ways that members can help the administration apply more pressure there, especially in stopping the bloodshed that’s claimed tens of thousands of innocent lives. On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee hosted a joint briefing to investigate the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria with Republicans, Democrats, and experts like former Congresswoman and U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Chair Vicky Hartzler. Together, they agreed, time is short. “The Nigerian government is trying to run out the clock,” longtime human rights advocate Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., warned. “We cannot allow this to happen. We must act quickly and decisively to save more lives.” To be a Christian, or even a moderate Muslim living in Nigeria, Smith explained, “means to be living under the constant threat of murder, rape, and torture by radical Islamist groups. … The most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world—as well as the systemic targeting and killing of moderate Muslims who speak out against radical Islamists or refuse to conform with their extreme ideals—occurs in Nigeria, the ground zero of religious violence.” And while the Nigerian government has a “fundamental, constitutional obligation to protect its citizens,” he underscored, “the perpetrators of this persecution operate with complete impunity.” The United States, he promised, “is committed to standing firmly with the persecuted, no matter where in the world.” Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wanted people to understand the severity of what’s taking place 5,500 miles away. “This is not merely ‘intercommunal violence’ or a ‘resource conflict,’ as many claim. This is a targeted campaign of religious cleansing,” he argued. “Whether it is Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province, or radicalized nomadic Fulani militants, the objective is to drive Christians out of their ancestral lands in the Middle Belt and impose a radical Islamist ideology, as has already happened across the northern states, where blasphemy laws are used to oppress.” He paused, adding solemnly, “I firmly stand with President Trump in his decision to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. We must demand that the Nigerian government disarm these militias, return displaced families to their homes, and bring the perpetrators to justice.” Brad Brandon, CEO and founder of Across Nigeria, agrees that putting the spotlight on the terrorism happening across the country is exactly what believers there desperately need. “The attention that’s happening here in the United States is something that many Nigerians have been waiting for and asking for,” he told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Wednesday’s “Washington Watch.” “Their government has been nonresponsive. … So to get the United States government involved, members of Congress involved, to see the media starting to talk about it—from Bill Maher to Nicki Minaj to President Trump, all of these people drawing attention to it—it’s a welcome change for Nigerians who are suffering under this persecution.” Brandon pointed out the astonishing statistic that 70% of all Christians killed around the world are killed in northern Nigeria. “I’ve stood at the mass graves of friends of mine who’ve been buried, many, many times,” he said somberly. Then he paused, raising the one question that should motivate every leader act: “If the United States does not address this right now globally, who will?” Originally published by The Washington Stand The post ‘We Must Act Quickly’: Hill Leaders Push for Immediate Action on Nigeria appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The holiday season is passing quickly. Thanksgiving is already in the rear view mirror, soon to be joined by Christmas and Hanukkah. And come the fast approaching January 1st the bell officially rings to welcome in 2026. Which is another way of saying, the 2026 congressional election year is about to dawn. Which, in turn, raises what should be obvious questions. Those questions would be:  How will the liberal “mainstream” media cover the 2026 election?  Will they make the election a referendum on President Trump?  As a result of 2026, who will the media pronounce the presumed winner in the 2028 presidential sweepstakes? For both parties? Common sense says that the answers to all of those questions are not yet knowable. And probably won’t be until the day after the 2026 election. But of one thing, based on past experience with the media, Americans can be sure. They know that the media coverage of the 2026 election will lean left. Beginning long before the election has even been held. With a heavy bias to saying that President Trump and Republicans are the losers.  The off-year elections gave Democrats great hope of a dramatic sweep to retake the House and Senate. Affordability and every other news topic will be grist for Democrats to blame the current status quo on the GOP. Redistricting offers hope of staying in the House majority, but can it match the sway of incessant media bias? In the long ago - the very long ago - of the 1960 presidential campaign between Democrat Senator John F. Kennedy and Republican Vice President Richard Nixon, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Theodore H. White wrote what would be the first of many books and articles following and reporting in detail on a presidential campaign. In doing so White, writing in his bestselling The Making of the President 1960 described the press covering Democrat Kennedy as follows:  There is no doubt that this kindliness, respect and cultivation of the press colored all the reporting that came from the Kennedy campaign, and the contrast colored adversely the reporting of the Nixon campaign. By the last weeks of the campaign, those forty or fifty national correspondents who had followed Kennedy since the beginning of his electoral exertions into the November days had become more than a press corps-they had become his friends and, some of them, his most devoted admirers. When the bus or the plane rolled or flew through the night, they sang songs of their own composition about Mr. Nixon and the Republicans in chorus with the Kennedy staff and felt that they, too, were marching like soldiers of the Lord to the New Frontier. To say the least, there has been much political water over the political dam since 1960, and the shape of the media is very different. But the essence of the problem with the 1960 media following Democrat Kennedy as described by White remains -- if not being even more problematic. The hard fact here is that much of today’s media, as with the 1960 media and Nixon, has a visceral loathing of both President Trump and Republicans in general. Which in turn will, in 2026, affect the media coverage of the election. And affect that coverage both in terms of individual Senate, House and governor races as well as the overall coverage of the election in general.  So as the final lap of the holiday season approaches, rest up. Because when 2026 finally dawns, the media’s 2026 election coverage will begin. And it won’t be pretty.

An 18-year-old New Jersey male is accused of approaching a woman from behind while she was walking her 2-year-old in a stroller — and then putting her in a chokehold and throwing her to the ground.The incident took place Nov. 17 on Pinewood Road, Howell Township Police said. Howell is a little over 30 minutes east of Trenton.'Off with his head!!! Do this the old school way; we don't need people in ... society like that!!!!'According to News 12 New Jersey, police said the suspect ran off after the woman screamed for help.RELATED: Female accused of stabbing 1-year-old in stroller in front of parents on Philly street was out on bail after NYC stabbing Photo by Bob Carey/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesJaden Thompson of Freehold was criminally charged Tuesday for endangering the welfare of a child (3rd degree) and simple assault (Disorderly Persons Offense), police said.But there was no need to lock up Thompson. Turns out he already was behind bars in the Ocean County Jail as of Nov. 29 on unrelated criminal charges, police said.What else is he accused of doing?According to Jackson Police, just after 11:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving, officers responded to the Paragon apartments at 1020 Larsen Road for a report of a female who had been stabbed by an ex-boyfriend. Jackson is about three miles west of Howell Township.A family member of the stabbing victim told police that Thompson was the ex-boyfriend and that he carried out the stabbing.It was determined that Thompson was arguing with the victim when he stabbed her in the lower abdomen, police said, adding that he then fled the area in a vehicle believed to be a black 2012 Nissan Altima.After a two-day search with the assistance of U.S. Marshalls, the suspect was located in Edison, police said. Edison is almost an hour northeast of Trenton.Police said Thompson crashed the car following a vehicle chase. After he fled the crash scene, police quickly apprehended him and transferred him to the custody of Jackson Police.In connection with the stabbing incident, police said Thompson was charged with:Attempted murder (1st degree)Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (2nd degree)Endangering the welfare of a child (2nd degree)Possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose (3rd degree)Unlawful possession of a weapon (4th degree)Criminal trespassSome commenters under the Jackson Police Department's Facebook post about the stabbing seemed as though they've had about enough:"Sad that we have come to the crossroads," one commenter wrote, adding that "the people in town need to really take a stand against this degradation of our community.""Hope he rots in 666," another user said."Off with his head!!!" another commenter exclaimed. "Do this the old school way; we don't need people in ... society like that!!!!"Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The 1965 album is a singular debut that "couldn’t have been made by anyone save these four men," says our writer. The post The Who’s Debut Album, ‘My Generation’: Sharks Circling in the Water appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

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