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The Nigerian government Tuesday said it does not tolerate religious persecution, responding to US President Donald Trump’s threats of military intervention over the killing of Christians by jihadists in the country.Trump said over the weekend that he had asked the Pentagon to map out a possible plan of attack in Africa’s most populous nation because radical Islamists are “killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers”.Roughly evenly split between a mostly Christian south and Muslim-majority north, Nigeria is home to myriad conflicts, which experts say kill both Christians and Muslims, often without distinction.Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar insisted that his country’s constitution did not allow religious persecution.”It’s impossible for there to be a religious persecution that can be supported in any way, shape or form by the government of Nigeria at any level,” Tuggar told a press conference in Berlin. Nigeria has a “constitutional commitment to religious freedom and rule of law”, the foreign minister added.Claims of Christian “persecution” in Nigeria have found traction online among the US and European right in recent months.Flanked by his German counterpart Johann Wadephul, Tuggar warned against any attempts to divide Nigeria along religious lines, drawing parallels with civil war-ravaged Sudan.”What we are trying to make the world understand is that we should not create another Sudan,” he said.”We’ve seen what has happened with Sudan with agitations for the partitioning of Sudan based on religion, based on tribal sentiments and you can see the crisis even when the partitioning was done according to religion or according to tribe,” Tuggar added.- Muslim victims too -Trump has not suggested any division of Nigeria along religious lines, but said without evidence that “thousands of Christians are being killed (and) Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter”.Ikemesit Effiong, an analyst with the Lagos-based SBM Intelligence consultancy, suggested that Nigeria’s fears of partition are informed by history, with several former British colonies having experienced “violent partitions and secessions”.”Nigeria is actually sensitive to the fact that while our diversity can be a strength, it can also be a lever of division, of violence and eventually of partition,” he told AFP.Ethnic, religious and regional divisions have flared with deadly consequences in the past — notably during the country’s 1967-70 civil war — and still shape the country’s modern politics.The west African political and economic bloc ECOWAS, based in Abuja, issued a statement Tuesday saying that militant groups in the region, including in Nigeria, “target innocent civilians of all religious denominations”.The statement, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump’s recent comments, said claims that one particular group is targeted by violence “seek to deepen insecurity in communities and weaken social cohesion”.Claims of a “Christian genocide” have been pushed in recent years by separatist groups in the southeast.US-based firm Moran Global Strategies has been lobbying on behalf of separatists this year, advising congressional staff on what it said was Christian “persecution”, according to lobbying disclosures.Central Nigeria sees violence between Fulani Muslim herders and mostly Christian farmers, though experts say the conflicts are sparked by dwindling land and resources rather than religious differences.Nigeria also faces “bandit” gangs in the northwest who stage kidnappings, village raids and killings.The north’s population is mostly Muslim — meaning most of the victims are, too.Nigeria’s newly appointed chief of defence staff, Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede, told reporters on Monday that “there are no Christians being persecuted in Nigeria”.Analysts have suggested that Washington’s amped-up rhetoric could be related to Abuja rejecting demands to accept non-Nigerian deportees expelled from the United States as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.burs-sn-nro/sbk

Starbucks has announced it will sell a controlling stake in its Chinese retail operations as it seeks to revitalise performance in a fiercely competitive market it once dominated.Hong Kong-based investment firm Boyu Capital will hold up to 60 percent of a new joint venture operating 8,000 Starbucks stores across China, under a deal which values the business at around $4 billion.Seattle-based Starbucks said on Monday it will retain a 40-percent stake and continue to own the brand and intellectual property.The partnership marks a strategic shift for Starbucks after more than 26 years in China, where it has seen its market share fall to 14 percent in 2024 from a peak of 42 percent in 2017.China represents Starbucks’s second biggest market globally, though the company has faced increasing competition from local coffee chains like Luckin Coffee, which has won over customers with lower prices.Luckin, founded in 2017, has expanded rapidly to more than 26,000 stores by targeting young spendthrift consumers with aggressive discounts, a host of quirky drink flavours, and brand tie-ups with everything from anime to the traditional Chinese liquor baijiu.It opened its first US store in June.- ‘So much more’ -Dozens of other chains have emerged in China, many following Luckin’s model of handling orders through mobile apps and operating small stores with few staff and little or no seating, which helps to lower costs.Cotti Coffee, another competitor, targets smaller cities and towns with drinks starting at 9.9 yuan ($1.40), and already has more China stores than Starbucks despite being founded only three years ago.Starbucks has failed to meet customers’ rising demand for better value, said Yaling Jiang, founder of consultancy ApertureChina and author of a newsletter on Chinese consumers.”Consumers feel they can get so much more from domestic competitors,” she told AFP.Starbucks cut its prices in June, but its cheapest Americano still costs 27 yuan ($3.80).Luckin’s marketing, often focusing on viral online trends, has also given it an edge over Starbucks’ more traditional approach.Luckin also leverages its data-centric operation to analyse and anticipate trends for its product development, said Felipe Cabrera from Ad Astra Coffee Consulting, a specialist in the Chinese market.Boyu Capital will likely “manage the company in a very Chinese style, which will give some advantage to Starbucks China teams to react fast to trends in the local coffee industry”, he said, possibly even surpassing competitors in “creating ‘hot’ new” products.- Expansion -Starbucks reported last week that its latest quarterly same-store sales in China increased by two percent, fuelled by an increase in traffic, but added that average spending per ticket had dropped.The company said it expects the total value of its China retail business to exceed $13 billion, including proceeds from the sale, its retained interest, and future licensing fees over the next decade.”Boyu’s deep local knowledge and expertise will help accelerate our growth in China, especially as we expand into smaller cities and new regions,” said Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol.While local brands have embraced franchise models to expand rapidly, Starbucks continues to directly operate large traditional coffee stores concentrated mostly in large cities.Jiang said that “they need a new generation of local and young leaders to make changes, especially in terms of marketing”.”If they keep what they’re doing… Boyu is only going to waste their money,” she said.The companies said they aim to grow the store count to as many as 20,000 locations over time, with the business continuing to be headquartered in Shanghai.The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026, pending regulatory approvals.

New Yorkers are projected to elect Democrat Zohran Mamdani as mayor Tuesday, opening a new front in opposition to Donald Trump and raising the specter the president will retaliate against the city where he made his name.While Mamdani’s rise is dominating headlines, off-year elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey will be seen as even more critical gauges of the US political mood nearly 10 months into Trump’s bruising right-wing reign.Democratic wins there will be seen as signals that the beleaguered opposition is coming back to life ahead of next year’s midterm elections to decide control of Congress.Mamdani, who describes himself as a socialist and campaigned on reducing costs for ordinary New Yorkers, was leading by seven points on 41 percent in the latest AtlasIntel poll.The 34-year-old was trailed by former state governor Andrew Cuomo on 34 percent.Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels citizen crime patrol group, was polling at 24 percent — a margin that could sway the vote if enough of his backers shifted to Cuomo.Shortly after polls opened, Denise Gibbs, 46, a doctor of physiotherapy voted at the Uncommon Bed-Stuy West school in Brooklyn.”I sure hope it improves the city. I want to see it decrease divisiveness and increase livelihoods of working class households and services for children,” she said wearing green scrubs.Polls close at 9 pm (0200 GMT Wednesday).A total of 1.14 million votes were cast in 2021, which saw the election of current Mayor Eric Adams who bowed out after his reelection campaign struggled to build momentum amid scandals and corruption allegations. He endorsed Cuomo, 67.- Trump threat -In a final push for votes, Mamdani toured nightclubs over the Halloween weekend, making a pit stop at one event called “Papi Juice” without ditching his trademark dark suit.If elected, he would be the city’s first Muslim mayor.Far-right Republicans have scorned a video he issued in Arabic to supporters in the famously diverse city.Cuomo visited all five city boroughs Monday, while Sliwa crisscrossed the city pushing his “tough on crime” message.The race has centered on cost of living, crime and how each candidate would handle Trump, who has threatened to withhold federal funds from the city.”If Communist Candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the Election for Mayor of New York City, it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required, to my beloved first home,” Trump wrote on social media.Mamdani fired back during a canvassing event in Queens Monday.”What was rumored, what was feared has become naked and unabashed — the ‘MAGA’ movement’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo,” he said.Syracuse University political science professor Grant Reeher said a Mamdani win would set up a “showdown” with Trump.”Trump will treat New York City more aggressively,” he said. “There will be some kind of political showdown.”Mamdani’s improbable ascent to the cusp of leading America’s biggest city has also sent shock waves through the Democratic Party, which is struggling to decide whether to embrace a centrist or a populist, leftist path.”I think that this has to be a party that actually allows Americans to see themselves in it and not just be a mirror image of just a few people who are engaged in politics,” Mamdani said at a dance event with the elderly Friday.- Big test of US mood -Voters in the states of New Jersey and Virginia will pick a new governor Tuesday.Democratic Party candidate Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, faces off against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a businessman backed by Trump, with the two neck-and-neck according to polling.In Virginia’s race for governor, Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger has been polling comfortably ahead of Virginia’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears.Both sides have wheeled out big guns, with former president Barack Obama rallying support for Spanberger and Sherrill at two separate events over the weekend and Trump scheduling tele-rallies for both Virginia and New Jersey on the eve of voting.Obama also reportedly spoke to Mamdani over the weekend but — reflecting the internal party debate — held off endorsing him.

North Korea fired multiple artillery rockets an hour before US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the border separating it from the South, Seoul’s military told AFP on Tuesday.Pyongyang also fired similar weapons minutes before South Korean President Lee Jae Myung held talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last week, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.The JCS said they had recently “detected about 10 artillery rockets fired into the northern part of the West Sea”, Seoul’s name for the Yellow Sea.The weapons were fired at around 3:00 pm (0600 GMT) on Saturday and around 4:00 pm on Monday.”Details of the projectiles are currently being closely analysed by South Korean and US intelligence authorities,” the JCS added.Hegseth visited the heavily fortified border dividing North and South Korea on Monday, becoming the first Pentagon chief in eight years to do so.He toured Panmunjom, the symbolic truce village where troops from both Koreas stand face-to-face, following a stop at Observation Post Ouellette overlooking the Demilitarized Zone.Hegseth and South Korean counterpart Ahn Gyu-back “reaffirmed the strong combined defence posture and close cooperation between South Korea and the United States”, Seoul’s defence ministry said in a statement.Hegseth said at a joint news conference with Ahn on Tuesday that South Korea faces a “dangerous security environment” and the two ministers agreed to remain “clear-eyed about the threats” they face.He also said South Korea’s increase in defence spending would accelerate its “ability to lead its conventional deterrence and defence against North Korea”.President Lee said Tuesday Seoul would make its biggest defence budget increase in six years with an 8.2 percent rise from this year to 66.3 trillion won ($4.6 billion). Hegseth’s trip comes after US President Donald Trump’s overtures to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his Asia tour last week drew no public response from Pyongyang.However, Trump has indicated that he would still be willing to “come back” for a future meeting with Kim.On Saturday, Lee met Xi on the sidelines of an Asian economic summit, urging the Chinese leader to help Seoul “resume dialogue” with North Korea.Lee stressed the need for regional “stability” and noted “recent high-level exchanges between China and North Korea” — a reference to Kim’s attendance at a major military parade in Beijing in September.

Lawyers for US aviation giant Boeing and the families of victims of a fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash will give opening statements Tuesday in the first civil trial stemming from the disaster.The legal proceedings began Monday with the selection of an eight-person jury who will hear the case concerning the March 10, 2019 flight that went down six minutes after departing Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.Family members of 155 victims filed lawsuits between April 2019 and March 2021, alleging wrongful death and negligence, among other claims.On four prior occasions, attorneys reached last-minute settlements that averted a trial. But this time is different.Each side will have 90 minutes on Tuesday to present its case. An out-of-court settlement is possible even during the trial, which is intended to establish compensation owed by Boeing to the victims’ relatives.The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 am in Chicago (1530 GMT).The two principal plaintiffs in this week’s trial are the families of Shikha Garg of New Delhi and Mercy Ndivo of Kenya.Garg had been a consultant for the United Nations Development Program who had been traveling to Nairobi for a UN Environment Assembly.She had gotten married three months earlier and had planned to travel with her husband, who canceled his flight at the last minute because of a professional meeting. Garg had attended the landmark 2015 UN climate talks in Paris.Ndivo and her husband, who also died in the crash, were parents of a girl who is now almost eight years old. She was returning from London, having attended a graduation ceremony after earning a Masters in Accountancy.Boeing has said it is “deeply sorry” for the Ethiopian Airlines crash and for a separate MAX crash on Lion Air that killed 189 people on a domestic flight in Indonesia in 2018.The American manufacturer has also stressed its commitment to settling cases when possible.The firm has “accepted responsibility for the MAX crashes publicly and in civil litigation because the design of the MCAS… contributed to these events,” a Boeing lawyer said last October.The MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) flight stabilizing software was implicated in both the Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes.Boeing also faced dozens of complaints from Lion Air family victims. Just one case remains open.

Californians go to the polls Tuesday in a ballot likely to further tilt the liberal state towards the Democrats, as the party seeks to neutralize gerrymandering ordered by President Donald Trump.Governor Gavin Newsom and his allies want voters to approve a temporary re-drawing of electoral districts that would give the Democratic Party five more seats in the scramble for control of the US Congress in next year’s midterm elections.They say they are only doing it to level the playing field after Texas Republicans pushed through their own redistricting — under White House pressure — to help maintain a narrow Congressional majority that has so far given Trump carte blanche.Republicans say it is a naked power grab that will disenfranchise the party’s voters in California, a state where they are heavily outnumbered by Democrats.The vote is “a political ink-blot test,” Los Angeles Times columnist Mark Barbarak wrote Monday.”A reasoned attempt to even things out in response to Texas’ attempt to nab five more congressional seats. Or a ruthless gambit to drive the California GOP to near-extinction.”What many California voters see depends on, politically, where they stand.”- Gerrymandering -Electoral districts across the US are traditionally drawn following the national census taken every ten years, theoretically so the electoral map reflects the people who live there.In reality, most boundaries are party political decisions, so whichever grouping is in power at the time gets to set the rules for the next decade’s contests.California did away with such partisan gerrymandering under former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, giving the power instead to an independent panel. If “Proposition 50″ passes on Tuesday, politically drawn boundaries will take effect for all elections until the next census, when the panel will once again determine the maps.- ‘Stick it to Trump’ -Like almost everything in US politics at the moment, one figure looms over Tuesday’s vote.”Stick it to Trump on November 4th,” booms one of the largest advertising campaigns.The accompanying TV commercial has an irate Trump gorging on fast food as he hate-watches the imagined election result, jabbing at his TV control as he mutters about his victimhood.”If the Democrats don’t get dirty and get in the mud with the Republicans to fight back, we’re going to get run over,” 61-year-old contractor Patrick Bustad told canvassers in Los Angeles last week.Trump “wants to be a dictator, not a president,” said Bustad, recalling how the Republican refused to concede the 2020 presidential election.Opponents of Proposition 50 have their own bogeyman.Newsom “wants it his way so he can rig it,” retiree Paula Patterson told AFP in the oil-producing town of Taft last month.”The Democrats are going to take over, and we’re not going to have any rights,” she said.Polls predict the initiative will pass handily — offering Newsom high-profile proof of his willingness to stand up to Trump.For a man widely expected to take a run at the White House in 2027, that would be very helpful.The telegenic governor has already begun projecting an air of confident authority, with his campaign largely winding up a week before the ballot.”You can stop donating,” he told supporters.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government presents its first budget on Tuesday, a spending plan he says will provide “the answer” for an economy starting to buckle under US tariffs.Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and England before entering politics this year, has pitched himself as the ideal person to steer Canada through unprecedented disruption in US ties caused by President Donald Trump. Trump’s tariffs have hit Canada hard, driving up unemployment and squeezing businesses in crucial targeted sectors like autos, aluminum, and steel.”Where are we going to find the growth given the headwinds from the new US trade policy?,” Carney told reporters in South Korea this weekend, following an Asia summit.”What this budget will do is provide the answer to that question.” His Liberal government says the budget will address the stark new geopolitical realities facing Canada.Specific details of the spending plan are being kept under wraps until the finance minister unveils the budget in parliament on Tuesday. Among the headline items will be expected major increases in defense spending to bring Canada in line with NATO targets.Funds will also be allocated to a series of national projects that Carney has said are key to Canada’s economic sovereignty, given the “rupture” in economic relations with the United States.These range from port expansion to energy production and the infrastructure needed to boost extraction of critical minerals from remote areas.Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne called the measures he’ll present on Tuesday as “an investment budget.””The idea is to build the Canada of tomorrow.”- ‘Not a game’ -Carney, who replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister in January before being elected to a full term in April, has consistently warned Canadians that the Trump-era disruptions in US-Canada relations are not a passing phase.He said this weekend that the budget would help “reduce our reliance on the United States,” but noted that such a transformational shift “can’t happen overnight.”Carney’s April election win left his Liberals three seats short of a majority in parliament. That means the government needs opposition support — or abstentions — to pass its budget.Because the budget is a confidence vote, its defeat would trigger fresh elections.The Conservatives, the largest opposition party in parliament, may be the least likely to help.Party leader Pierre Poilievre has made a range of demands in exchange for his support, including deficit reduction.But University of Ottawa public policy expert Genevieve Tellier told AFP she expects the deficit to be “very large.”The left-wing New Democrats, who no longer have official party status in parliament after a dismal election performance in April, may prove reluctant to trigger another vote and could abstain on Carney’s budget.Tellier said she saw “little chance” of the government falling.Asked over the weekend if he was confident his budget would pass, Carney said: “I am 100 percent confident that this budget is the right budget for this country, at this moment.””This is not a game,” he added, voicing readiness to defend his proposals in an election if necessary.

Diane Ladd, the Oscar-nominated “Wild at Heart” actress and mother of Laura Dern, died Monday. She was 89.In a career spanning eight decades, Ladd was nominated for the best supporting actress Academy Award three times: in Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart,” and “Rambling Rose.” The news of Ladd’s death was announced by Dern, Ladd’s Oscar-winning actress daughter from her first marriage to Bruce Dern.”My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother passed with me beside her this morning at her home in Ojai, California,” Laura Dern wrote in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.Born in Mississippi in 1935, Southern belle Ladd appeared in many television and stage shows before Scorsese gave her a breakout role as a sassy waitress in 1974’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.”Lynch cast Ladd to play the murderous, vengeful mother of Dern’s Lula in his surreal, Cannes Palme d’Or-winning black comedy “Wild At Heart” in 1990.Ladd once again shared the screen with her daughter in the following year’s “Rambling Rose,” a period drama set in the Deep South during the Great Depression.Ladd’s other film credits included “Chinatown” and “Inland Empire.””She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created,” wrote Dern.”We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.”No cause of death was provided.

A key US central bank official warned Monday that inflation would likely remain elevated in the coming year as tariffs bite, while vowing to fulfill her duties even as President Donald Trump seeks her removal.”My outreach to business leaders suggests that the pass-through of tariffs to consumer prices is not yet complete,” Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.She noted that many companies have adopted a strategy of running down inventories at lower prices before raising consumer costs, while others are waiting for tariff uncertainty to dissipate before hiking prices.”As such, I expect inflation to remain elevated for the next year,” Cook added.But she vowed to “be prepared to act forcefully” if tariff effects appear to be larger or more persistent than expected.Cook on Monday also nodded to her ongoing legal battle, saying she was “beyond grateful” for the support she has received.She declined to comment further but pledged: “I will continue to carry out my sworn duties on behalf of the American people.”Trump had moved in August to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud, although the Supreme Court has barred the president from immediately ousting her.The court awaits oral arguments in January, allowing Cook to remain in her post at least until the case is heard.Cook is the first Black woman on the Fed’s powerful board of governors, and her case is set to have broader ramifications for the independent central bank.On Monday, she added that even though the effects of tariffs on costs should be one-off, with inflation likely to continue cooling once the full impact has played out, there remains a risk of persistent effects.The Fed has a long-term inflation target of two percent.Cook also expects the ongoing government shutdown to weigh on economic activity this quarter, with possible spillover effects in the private sector. But she believes these should be “largely temporary.”For now, Fed officials continue balancing between the risks of higher inflation and a sharply weakening labor market.”Every meeting, including December’s, is a live meeting,” said Cook. The Fed’s next policy meeting is set for December 9-10.Last week, the Fed made a second straight interest rate cut, a decision Cook said she backed as “the downside risks to employment are greater than the upside risks to inflation.”