• Trump warns of “guns-a-blazing” strike to “fully wipe out” militants.
• Says goal is to target “terrorists committing horrible atrocities.”
• Instructs “Department of War” to prepare for possible action.
  

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he has asked the Defence Department to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria if the Nigerian government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”

The US government will also immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump said the US may “very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the … Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”

“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!” he further wrote in the post.

Trump’s smoking statement comes hours after the Nigerian government vowed to keep fighting violent extremism and said it hoped Washington would remain a close ally after Trump added the West African nation to a US watch list over what he said were threats to Christianity.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria will continue to defend all citizens, irrespective of race, creed, or religion. Like America, Nigeria has no option but to celebrate the diversity that is our greatest strength,” its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

“Nigeria is a God-fearing country where we respect faith, tolerance, diversity and inclusion, in concurrence with the rules-based international order,” the ministry added.

On Friday, Trump said he was putting Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer and most populous country, on a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations the US finds have engaged in religious freedom violations, which also includes China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan.

The Republican US President had designated the country a concern during his first term in the White House, but his Democratic successor Joe Biden removed it from the US State Department list in 2021.

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radicals are responsible for this mass slaughter,” he wrote in a social media post on Friday without offering any specifics.

A nation of more than 200 ethnic groups practising Christianity, Islam and traditional religions, Nigeria has a long history of peaceful coexistence with mosques and churches dotting its cities.

But it also has a long history of violence breaking out between groups, in which religious differences sometimes overlap with other fault lines such as ethnic divisions or conflict over scarce land and water resources.

For 15 years, the extremist armed group Boko Haram has also terrorised northeast Nigeria, an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly Muslims.

Trump also asked the US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee to examine the issue and report back to him. A US congressional subcommittee held a hearing on Christian killings in Nigeria earlier this year.

Appropriations Committee Chairman US Representative Tom Cole, in an X post on Friday, said the designation “sends a strong message: the US will not ignore Christian persecution.”

• Lee hosts Xi in Asia-Pacific leaders’ forum after 11 years.
• South Korean leader also promises to strengthen ties with US.
• Lee calls for phased approach to denuclearising North Korea.
  

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung sought Chinese President Xi Jinping’s help in efforts to resume talks with nuclear-armed neighbour North Korea on Saturday, while Xi told Lee he was willing to widen cooperation and jointly tackle the challenges they face.

Lee hosted Xi at a state summit and dinner after an Asia-Pacific leaders’ forum in the South Korean city of Gyeongju, marking Xi’s first visit to the US ally in 11 years.

Beijing attaches great importance to relations with Seoul and sees South Korea as an inseparable cooperative partner, Xi said ahead of the summit according to Lee’s office.

Lee, who was elected president in a snap election in June, has promised to strengthen ties with the United States while not antagonising China and seeking to reduce tensions with the North.

“I am very positive about the situation in which conditions for engagement with North Korea are being formed,” Lee said, referring to recent high-level exchanges between China and North Korea.

“I also hope that South Korea and China will take advantage of these favourable conditions to strengthen strategic communication to resume dialogue with North Korea.”

Lee has called for a phased approach to denuclearising North Korea, starting with engagement and a freeze on further development of nuclear weapons.

In a statement on Saturday, Pyongyang, a military and economic ally of China, dismissed the denuclearisation agenda as an unrealisable “pipe dream”.

North Korea has repeatedly and explicitly rejected Lee’s overtures, saying it will never talk to the South. In recent years Pyongyang abandoned its longstanding policy of unification with the South and called Seoul a main enemy.

Leader Kim Jong Un said he would be willing to talk to the United States if Washington drops demands for denuclearisation, but he did not publicly respond when US President Donald Trump offered talks during his visit to South Korea earlier this week.

Trump and Lee announced a surprise breakthrough in talks to lower US tariffs in return for billions of dollars in investment from South Korea. The US president then departed before the main APEC leaders’ summit.

South Korean national security adviser Wi Sunglac told a briefing that China expressed its willingness to cooperate for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, but the leaders did not specifically discuss what kind of role China would play. Both sides also agreed that US-North Korea dialogue was most important, Wi said.

Chinese state media reports on the meeting with Lee made no mention of the North Korea discussions.

According to Xinhua, Xi proposed ways to open a new chapter in relations, including having each country “respect each other’s social systems and development paths, accommodate core interests and major concerns, and properly handle differences through friendly consultation.”

Xi also called for upholding multilateralism and increasing cooperation in areas such as artificial intelligence, biopharmaceuticals, green industries and aging populations, Xinhua reported.

During Xi’s visit, China and South Korea signed seven agreements including a won-yuan currency swap and memorandums of understanding on online crime, businesses that cater to aging populations, and innovation, among other issues.

• 25,000 devotees throng temple built for 2,000.
• 18 injuries reported so far: district collector.
• Govt to compensate families of victims: Indian PM.

A stampede at a temple in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh killed at least nine people early on Saturday, government officials said, with several injured.

The stampede occurred as worshippers crowded into the Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple in the city of Srikakulam on Ekadashi, a day Hindus consider auspicious, said Pawan Kalyan, the state’s deputy chief minister.

“An inquiry will be conducted into the tragic incident,” Kalyan said in a statement, adding that the temple was run by private individuals. He put the death toll at nine.

As many as 25,000 devotees crowded into the temple, which can accommodate only about 2,000, leading to the crush, state minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy added, while district officials have been told to provide the injured with medical help.

A total of 18 injuries have been reported so far, the collector and magistrate of Srikakulam district Swapnil Dinkar Pundkar said, while two critically injured patients have been moved to a tertiary care hospital for treatment.

The government will pay compensation of INR200,000 ($2,300) to the families of the dead, and INR50,000 ($570) to the injured, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X.