A diplomatic battle is being waged between leading Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Nigerian government officials. Cruz has warned he will hold those officials accountable for the reported ‘mass slaughter’ of tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria. Officials have claimed Cruz is lying, with one claiming that despite even the pope publicly calling out the killings, there is religious harmony in the country.

Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian, according to international Christian advocacy group Open Doors International’s 2025 World Watch List (WWL). An estimated 48% of the population is Christian. But of the 4,476 Christians reported killed worldwide in WWL’s latest reporting period, 3,100 of those who died — 69% — were in Nigeria.

On Saturday, the spokesperson for Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, told a Lagos, Nigeria newspaper, that Cruz should ‘stop these malicious, contrived lies’ over the murders.

In response, Cruz, the Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, told Fox News Digital, ‘Nigeria’s federal government and a dozen state governments enforce blasphemy laws in their criminal and sharia codes, and they ignore or facilitate mob violence targeting Christians.’

On Friday, the Nigerian Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital, rejecting Cruz’s claims of Christians being massacred in his country. ‘The Nigerian government rejects that. This is certainly not true,’ he said.

In reaction, Sen. Cruz told Fox News Digital that the killings ‘are the result of decisions made by specific people, in specific places, at specific times. The United States knows who those people are, and I intend to hold them accountable’.

Cruz said, ‘Since 2009, over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria have been massacred, and over 20,000 churches and Christian schools have been destroyed. These atrocities are directly linked to the policies of Nigerian federal and state officials. They are the result of decisions made by specific people, in specific places, at specific times — and it says a great deal about who is lashing out now that a light is being shone on these issues.’

On Friday, Cruz posted on X: ‘Officials in Nigeria are ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists. It’s time to hold those responsible accountable.’ He went on to refer to a new bill he has introduced in the Senate: ‘My Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act would target these officials with powerful sanctions and other tools.’

This drew an immediate response from Nigerian presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga. Interviewed by the Nigerian Daily Post the next day, Onanuga demanded, ‘Senator, stop these malicious, contrived lies against my country. Christians are not targeted. We have religious harmony in our country.’

Idris told Fox News Digital that Cruz’s comments are ‘very misleading. This is not true. This is not the reflection of what is on the ground. I mean it’s false where you say over 20,000 churches have been burned. It’s also false if you say 52,000 (Christians killed), where did he get those numbers from? I think this is absolutely absurd. It’s not supported by any facts whatsoever. The Nigerian government rejects that. No Nigerian officials will willingly, deliberately indulge in the act of siding with violent extremists to target any particular religion in this country. This is absolutely false.’

Idris also stated, ‘Nigeria is a multi-faith country, meaning that it’s a country that has multiple religions. We have Christians, we have Muslims, we even have those who don’t believe in any of these two religions. Nigeria is a very tolerant country. The government of Nigeria is committed to ensuring that there is religious freedom in this country, but we do have extremist organizations in this country.’ 

Idris continued, ‘It’s unfortunate sadly, that some of these extremists have killed a number of Christians and a number of Muslims almost everywhere where this violent extremism has support. So it’s (the accusation by Sen. Cruz) not true. We find that to be very unfortunate. It’s despicable, it’s not right. This is absolutely false to say that there is a calculated or a deliberate attempt to kill a particular religious group, is not correct and we find that really very, very unfortunate.

Open Doors’ Natalie Blair says independent data from Nigeria shows ‘Christians can be targeted by radical extremists, and radical extremists can also kill Muslims who do not conform to their radical ideology.’ But Blair, a senior member of Open Doors Advocacy team, told Fox News Digital, ‘Boko Haram and ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province) have explicitly and repeatedly declared Christians as targets.  And many victims have told us that when Fulani militants attack they don’t just shout ‘Allahu Akbar’, (God is Great), they yell, ‘we will destroy all Christians.’

Blair added: ‘According to the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa, data of civilians killed — exempting out the military and terrorist deaths — in northern Nigeria is unequivocal: more Christians are killed by the extremists than Muslims — if you are a Christian you are 6.5 times more likely to be killed than a Muslim. This does not make the suffering of a Muslim less significant, it just makes it less likely.’

Bishop Wilfred Anagbe’s Makurdi Diocese is almost exclusively Christian. But the constant and escalating attacks by Muslim Fulani militants led him to testify at a congressional hearing in March in Washington, saying there is ‘a long-term Islamic agenda (in Nigeria) to homogenize. The population has been implemented over several presidencies through a strategy to reduce and eventually eliminate the Christian identity of half of the population all over Nigeria. These terrorists are going about on a jihad and conquering territories and renaming them accordingly.’ 

Idris was dismissive of the Bishop’s Congressional testimony: ‘let me say that the Bishop’s position is an extreme one. It’s not true. The Nigerian government has debunked that in the past.’

Open Doors’ Blair, with access to Nigerian villagers, responded, ‘We must listen to the voices of those who have experienced the violence firsthand.  People on the ground do not trust that anyone will pay for these violent crimes. This is because they have seen hundreds of suspects arrested over the years and then most of them released, having never been charged or brought to trial.’

Blair concluded, ‘the right to life, guaranteed under Section 33 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, is meaningless unless the state acts decisively to punish those who violate it. The ongoing culture of impunity will only result in more bloodshed and continue to erode public trust in the rule of law.’

Then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2015 told the CIA he would ‘strongly prefer’ an intelligence report documenting Ukrainian officials’ concerns with his family’s ties to ‘corrupt’ business deals in the country ‘not be disseminated’ — and so it wasn’t, according to a newly-declassified email and records made public by the agency. 

CIA Director John Ratcliffe declassified the heavily redacted records, which he said he believes is an example of ‘politicization of intelligence.’

Fox News Digital obtained the declassified documents, which were discovered during a CIA review of historical agency records.

A senior CIA official briefed Fox News Digital on the declassified documents and intelligence report, stating that the intelligence was discovered along with an email showing that Biden ‘expressed a preference to not share the report.’

Representatives for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

CIA officials discovered and declassified an email dated February 10, 2016, with the subject line stating: ‘RE: OVP query regarding draft [REDACTED].’ The email was sent to the CIA.

The classification of the email was listed, and crossed out, as ‘SECRET.’

‘Good morning, I just spoke with VP/ NSA and he would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated. Thanks for understanding,’ the email states, signed by a redacted name, but with the title of ‘PDB Briefer.’ The ‘PDB’ is the presidential daily brief.

The report in question included intelligence revealing that Ukrainian officials viewed the Biden family’s alleged ties to corrupt business practices in Ukraine ‘as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power.’

‘Intelligence officials agreed that, at the time of collection, it would have met the threshold [for dissemination], but based on the Office of the Vice President’s preference, the information was never shared outside of the CIA,’ the official said.

The CIA, during its review, confirmed that Biden’s request was granted and that the intelligence report ‘had not been disseminated.’

The senior CIA official told Fox News Digital that it was ‘extremely rare and unusual’ and ‘inappropriate to go outside of the intelligence community and inquire with the White House on the dissemination of a particular report for what appears to be political reasons.’

The newly declassified intelligence report, which Biden sought to keep private, had a subject line of: ‘NON-DISSEMINATED INTEL INFORMATION: Reactions of [REDACTED] Ukrainian Government Officials to the Early December Visit of Senior United States Government Official.’

The document states the date of the information came in December 2015. The document was created in 2016.

At the time, Biden was vice president and was running U.S.-Ukraine relations and policy for the Obama administration.

The intelligence document stated that ‘officials within the administration of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed bewilderment and disappointment at the 7-8 December 2015 visit of the Vice President of the United States to Kiev, Ukraine.’

‘These officials highlighted that, prior to the visit, the Poroshenko administration and other [REDACTED] Ukrainian officials expected the U.S. Vice President to discuss personnel matters with Poroshenko during the visit, and had assumed that the U.S. Vice President would advocate in support of or against specific officials within the Ukrainian Government,’ the intelligence states.

‘After the visit, these officials assessed that the U.S. Vice President had come to Kiev almost exclusively to give a generic public speech, and had not had any intention of discussing substantive matters with Poroshenko or other officials within the Ukrainian government,’ the intelligence states.

‘Following the visit of the U.S. Vice President, [REDACTED] officials within the Poroshenko administration privately mused at the U.S. media scrutiny of the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President’s family to corrupt business practices in Ukraine,’ the intelligence states. ‘These officials viewed the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President’s family to corruption in Ukraine as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power.’

Biden, on Dec. 9, 2015, gave a speech in Ukraine, in which he discussed corruption in the country.

‘And it’s not enough to set up a new anti-corruption bureau and establish a special prosecutor fighting corruption,’ Biden said in the speech. ‘The Office of the General Prosecutor desperately needs reform.’

In that speech, Biden also said Ukraine’s ‘energy sector needs to be competitive, ruled by market principles — not sweetheart deals.’

‘It’s not enough to push through laws to increase transparency with regard to official sources of income,’ he said. ‘Senior elected officials have to remove all conflicts between their business interest and their government responsibilities.  Every other democracy in the world — that system pertains.’

At the time, Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin was investigating Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings. Several months later, in March 2016, Biden successfully pressured Ukraine to remove Shokin. At the time Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden had a highly lucrative role on the board, receiving tens of thousands of dollars per month.

Biden, at the time, threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.

‘I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ … I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’’ Biden recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. 

Biden recollected the conversation during an event for the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.

But during his first term, President Donald Trump was impeached after a July 2019 phone call in which he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch investigations into the Biden family’s actions and business dealings in Ukraine, specifically Hunter Biden’s ventures with Burisma and Joe Biden’s successful effort to have former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin ousted.

At the same time as that call, Hunter Biden was under federal investigation, prompted by his suspicious foreign transactions. 

Trump was acquitted in Feb. 2020 on both articles of impeachment against him — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — after being impeached by the House of Representatives in December 2019. 

Meanwhile, the declassified intelligence report had a ‘warning,’ noting that ‘due to the extreme sensitivity, this report should be distributed only to the renamed recipients. No further distribution is authorized without prior approval of the originating agency. Violation of established handling procedures are subject to penalty, including termination of access to this reporting channel.’

It added that ‘any discussion of or reference to information in this report [REDACTED] is strictly prohibited. Any references to this report in derived or finished intelligence should include this warning.’

A senior CIA official told Fox News Digital that Ratcliffe believes the suppression of this intelligence is an example of ‘politicization of intelligence.’

‘Director Ratcliffe believes this is an example of politicization of intelligence that we need to work to eliminate and for what we have zero tolerance,’ a senior CIA official told Fox News Digital. ‘We believe transparency is important. We will release information and avoid any future weaponization of the intelligence community.’

As for the heavily redacted nature of the intelligence report, the senior CIA official told Fox News Digital that the agency was ‘careful about protecting CIA sources and methods with redactions.’

The official stressed that Ratcliffe believes in ‘maximum transparency’ and said he will continue to declassify CIA information and intelligence ‘when it serves the public’s interest.’

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry against Biden during his presidency, and found, after years of investigating, that he engaged in ‘impeachable conduct,’ ‘abused his office,’ and ‘defrauded the United States to enrich his family.’ 

Two years since the horrific events of Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel and killed 1,200 men, women and children, before they took 251 others into the Gaza Strip, there is still no hostage deal and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is facing possible collapse. 

Netanyahu has found an unlikely ally in former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, who extended a ‘security net’ to the conservative leader this week in a move to secure the government as negotiations with Hamas remain ongoing. 

‘Nothing is more important than making this deal, bringing our hostages back home,’ Lapid said in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

The need for Lapid’s political backing comes as right-wing leaders in Netanyahu’s coalition, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have repeatedly criticized Netanyahu’s acceptance of President Donald Trump’s peace plan with Hamas and threatened to leave the coalition at numerous points over the last year. 

Netanyahu’s coalition lost its majority in the Israeli parliament in July when two ultra-Orthodox parties left their ministerial posts after an exemption that granted religious students a pass for military conscription expired. 

The move left Netanyahu’s coalition in control of just 50 of the 120 seats in the Knesset.

‘Now he’s totally dependent on the extreme alt-right within his government that says no to any deal [with Hamas],’ Lapid explained. 

When asked how likely he thought it was that special elections would be triggered once parliament returns from its Autumn break on Oct. 19, Lapid said, ‘very likely.’

A special election is unlikely to happen sooner than February or March 2026, Lapid explained, pointing to a designated time frame that allows for campaigning in Israel, should the Knesset trigger an early election cycle by November – just seven months sooner than the previously scheduled October 2026 elections. 

Lapid believes the Israeli public will favor a more centrist government that would encompass both the right and left, a move that would still prioritize Israeli security, but also ensure there is an end to the war in Gaza and repairs are made to Jerusalem’s international standing.

‘If there’s one thing I’m sorry about, [it] is the fact that nobody in the government has the political courage to stand up and say…this is a just war, we are doing what needs to be done in order to protect ourselves, but we are sorry for every child that loses his life,’ Lapid said. ‘Children should not die in grownups’ wars.’

‘As Jews, as human beings, as people who believe in Judeo-Christian traditions and morality, it’s heartbreaking,’ he added. 

Lapid said this failure of the current government not only led to ambiguity when it came to Israel’s strategy in countering Hamas, it fueled what he said is media bias and false reporting, and it cost Israel dearly in terms of international support, even among ‘groups that traditionally supported Israel.’

The opposition leader described a meeting he had with Netanyahu on Oct. 7, 2023, in which he said the prime minister appeared ‘gray and tired and old all of a sudden.’

 ‘I said something at that meeting that later on became a cliché – I said, ‘Prime Minister, this is the worst day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. 

‘What we need to do, is form a unity government,’ he said. ‘You have to get rid of the extremists in your government, and we can create a unity of government because we have opposite us, a challenge that is unparalleled to anything you, or I, have ever seen.’

Lapid said Netanyahu was ‘reluctant’ to pursue this route. 

‘Until this day, I’m sorry about this. I thought it was the right thing to do, and I still think it was the right thing to do,’ he added. 

Netanyahu has spent 15 years as Israel’s prime minister, first serving from March 2009 to June 2021, before retaking the top job in December 2022. 

Lapid described his lengthy tenure as ‘admirable’ and emblematic of his ‘resilience.’

‘But in other ways, I can see now, to say politely, the benefits of the two-term limits that you have in the United States,’ he added.

The opposition leader said he thinks Israelis are ready for a ‘unity government’ in response to Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition, noting that he thinks the upcoming elections will be ‘interesting.’

‘It’s going to cross political lines, and it’s going to be based on hope,’ he added in reference to the bloc he is building. ‘I know it sounds like big words, but I’m telling you, it is what we need right now. 

‘It’s been the hardest two years of everybody’s lifetime. And the first time in a long, long time, the fragility of the Israeli society was tangible to us. And we need to rebuild,’ Lapid added. 

Netanyahu’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions by the time this report was published.

The Senate remains deadlocked on a path to end the shutdown as it nears its second week, and Republicans’ meager support across the aisle to reopen the government may be crumbling.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., needs at least eight Senate Democratic caucus members to join Republicans to reopen the government, given that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has consistently voted against the GOP’s bill.

So far, a trio of Democratic caucus members, Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine, have crossed the aisle to reopen the government.

That group has joined Republicans in nearly all five attempts to reopen the government.

But, as time drags on and a deal remains out of reach, at least one is considering changing his vote.

King said ahead of the fifth vote to reopen the government on Monday that he was considering flipping his support of the GOP’s bill, and he argued that he needed ‘more specificity about addressing the problem’ of the expiring Obamacare tax credits.

‘I think this problem is urgent, and just saying, as the leader did on Friday, ‘well, we’ll have conversations about it,’ is not adequate,’ he said.

King’s possible defection comes as Republicans and Democrats engage in low-level conversations on a path out of the shutdown. Those impromptu dialogues have so far not morphed into real negotiations, however.

And the stalemate in the upper chamber has only further solidified both sides’ positions.

Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., want a firm deal in place to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies. Senate Republicans have said that they will negotiate a deal only after the government is reopened and want reforms to the program that they charge has been inflationary and further increased the cost of healthcare for Americans.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has circulated an early plan that includes a discussion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that could be a way out of the shutdown, but so far, it’s in its preliminary stages.

‘It suggests that there be a conversation on the ACA extension for the premium tax credits after we reopen the government,’ she said. ‘But there will be a commitment to having that discussion.’

President Donald Trump signaled on Monday that he would be open to a deal on the subsidies, and he said that negotiations with Democrats were ongoing.

However, Schumer pushed back and called Trump’s assertion ‘not true.’ The top Senate Democrat has also shifted the onus of the shutdown, and lack of negotiations, directly onto House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

‘Clearly, at this point, he is the main obstacle,’ Schumer said on the Senate floor. ‘So ending this shutdown will require Donald Trump to step in and push Speaker Johnson to negotiate.’

Meanwhile, the White House is exerting more pressure on Senate Democrats to cave and reopen the government. A new memo reported by Axios suggested that furloughed federal employees may not have to receive back pay, running counter to a law that Trump signed in 2019 that guaranteed furloughed workers would receive back pay in future shutdowns.

That comes on the heels of a memo from the Office of Management and Budget last month that signaled mass firings beyond the typical furloughs of nonessential federal workers, and it follows the withholding of nearly $30 billion in federal funds for blue cities and states.

Thune argued that ‘if you’re the executive branch of the government, you’ve got to manage a shutdown.’

‘At some point, you’re going to have to make some decisions about who gets paid, who doesn’t get paid, which agencies and departments get priorities and prioritized and which ones don’t,’ Thune said. ‘I mean, I think that’s a fairly standard practice in the event of a government shutdown. Now, hopefully that doesn’t affect back pay … but again, it’s just that simple: open up the government.’

The House Oversight Committee has dropped its subpoena for former FBI Director James Comey, after he said he had no knowledge relevant to the panel’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, The Hill reported, citing a letter Comey sent to the committee.

In the Oct. 1 letter sent to Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky, Comey said he had no ‘knowledge’ or ‘information relevant to the Committee’s investigation’ into the late pedophile.

Comey was slated to sit for a deposition on Tuesday before the committee that is examining Epstein’s contacts and potential government ties dating back to the 1990s. 

‘I offer this letter in lieu of a deposition that would unproductively consume the Committee’s scarce time and resources,’ Comey wrote.

Comey served as deputy attorney general from 2003 to 2005 and later as FBI director from 2013 to 2017 — two periods now under scrutiny by House Republicans seeking answers about Epstein’s federal connections.

‘At no time during my service at the Department of Justice or the FBI do I recall any information or conversations that related to Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell,’ Comey wrote.

Because the letter was submitted under penalty of law — making any false statements a potential federal crime — Comer accepted Comey’s response and withdrew the subpoena.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Oversight Committee for a copy of Comey’s letter and confirmation of the subpoena’s withdrawal.

The late pedophile Epstein committed suicide in 2019 while awaiting prosecution on federal sex trafficking charges, though questions continue to swirl about the circumstances surrounding his death.

Comer issued a wave of subpoenas in August tied to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation — including to Comey and former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Comer also subpoenaed the Justice Department for records related to Epstein’s case.

Others ordered to appear include former FBI Director Robert Mueller and former Attorneys General Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, William Barr, Jeff Sessions and Alberto Gonzales.

Holder and Attorney General Merrick Garland sent letters similar to Comey’s, denying any knowledge of Epstein and prompting Comer to withdraw those subpoenas as well, per The Hill.

It’s unclear if sessions for the Clintons will proceed.

The committee’s work comes amid growing partisan tension over how to handle the Epstein investigation, and the GOP base has fractured over the current administration’s handling of the case.

Top Republicans, including President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., support continuing the Oversight inquiry as the fastest route to uncover new information. Comer has already released thousands of pages of subpoenaed documents from the Justice Department and Epstein’s estate.

Critics, however, accuse the GOP of shielding certain figures by selectively releasing records. Several lawmakers are instead pushing legislation to declassify all government files related to Epstein and Maxwell — a move endorsed by multiple Epstein victims.

Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.