AFP USA

New York’s leftist mayoral candidate and political phenomenon Zohran Mamdani has a message to business leaders looking aghast at his promises of free buses and higher taxes: don’t worry.Mamdani is an unapologetic socialist whose meteoric rise from near unknown to the verge of running the biggest city in the United States has been fueled by vows to fix the crushing cost of living for regular people.He is vilified constantly by President Donald Trump, who calls him a “communist,” and targeted near daily by the right-wing New York Post and Fox News.But Mamdani has shown political savvy in reaching out to the rich in the US financial capital ahead of Tuesday’s election — and apparently getting them to listen.During his primary campaign to win the Democratic Party nomination, Mamdani’s populist message spooked business interests. In a city stuffed with many of the most fabulously wealthy people in the world, he declared “I don’t think we should have billionaires.”And some of those billionaires, including former mayor Michael Bloomberg and hedge fund tycoon Bill Ackman, openly backed Mamdani’s chief rival Andrew Cuomo, who was defeated in the Democratic primary but is still running as an independent.Fix the City, a Cuomo-affiliated group, raised some $25 million before the primary.Since the primary, however, Mamdani has extended an olive branch to business critics, while softening his more controversial positions, including apologizing for past statements that harshly criticized the police.- ‘We’ll be fine’ -Addressing the Association for a Better New York last month, Mamdani spoke of a “deep partnership between the private and the public sector” and he emphasized the role companies play in building housing.The 34-year-old candidate praised elements of the mayoralties of the centrist Bloomberg and progressive former mayor Bill DeBlasio, vowing to “assess things on their merits” rather than be ideological.Construction industry leaders who met with Mamdani and Cuomo earlier this fall came away concluding “we’ll be fine” with either candidate, New York Building Congress president Carlo Scissura told AFP.”Mamdani was clear that he would work with us and would focus on capital construction and doing things to get the economy moving,” Scissura said.The self-identified member of the Democratic Socialists of America further lowered the temperature last month by saying he’d keep current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch on board.The Partnership for New York City called the move “an important signal to the business community that his administration will not reverse the progress the city has made in reduction of crime on her watch.”Mamdani also met with corporate leaders at a pair of July gatherings hosted by the Partnership, whose board includes JP Morgan head Jamie Dimon. Dimon said he’d “offer my help” if Mamdani wins, as expected on Tuesday.The charm doesn’t always work.Bloomberg met with Mamdani, a Muslim highly critical of Israel’s war in Gaza, in September, but donated $1.5 million more to Cuomo-supporting Fix the City last week, according to campaign finance records. Large new contributions have also come from Ackman, fellow hedge fund billionaire Dan Loeb and media tycoon Barry Diller — all vocal supporters of Israel.The reality is that Mamdani would be heavily constrained in office. For example, he might struggle to get backing from New York Governor Kathy Hochul to raise taxes.That doesn’t stop some fearing that business will flee.But Morris Pearl, a former BlackRock managing director who now chairs advocacy group Patriotic Millionaires, said Mamdani’s effort to address regular residents’ cost-of-living concerns are not misplaced.”People don’t move out of New York City because their taxes are too high,” he said. “People move out of New York City because they can’t afford their rent.”

The White House will send only partial payments to 42 million Americans who rely on food stamps to buy groceries, as the government shutdown crippling public services nears record length, officials told a judge Monday.Two federal courts ruled last week that President Donald Trump’s administration must use a $4.65 billion emergency fund toward the estimated $9 billion cost for November’s payments before cutting off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).Officials for the Agriculture Department, which oversees the program, said in a filing to a federal court in Rhode Island they would not make up the shortfall with other funding sources, meaning “50 percent of eligible households’ current allotments” would be disbursed.Democrats’ blockade of a House of Representatives stopgap funding bill looks almost certain to hit its 36th day on Wednesday, which would beat the record for the longest shutdown in history.As each weeks goes by, more Americans are feeling the pain from government services being suspended.At the heart of the fight is money to help Americans cover health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.Those subsidies — a lifeline for more than 20 million people — are set to expire at year’s end and, unless Congress acts, premiums will skyrocket when the new sign-up period opens Saturday.But Washington’s warring parties are deadlocked, as Democrats refuse to reopen the government without a deal to extend the subsidies and Trump’s Republicans say they won’t talk until the lights are back on.SNAP funding averaging around $356 a month per household lapsed on Saturday, leaving one in eight Americans uncertain of how they will buy groceries. – ‘Bare minimum’ -A federal judge in Rhode Island — backed by a similar ruling in Massachusetts — gave the fund a temporary reprieve, ordering the White House on Friday to use emergency funds to pay for food stamps during the shutdown, in a case brought by charities and other groups.Democrats had been pushing the White House to use the emergency cash, but the administration argued that it could not legally tap that fund, which it said was meant for natural disasters.WIC — the food aid program for pregnant women, new mothers and infants — is also on the brink thanks to the shutdown, while “Head Start” programs that provide nutrition and family support to 65,000 infants began shuttering on Saturday.Lawmakers on both sides of the political divide have voiced hopes that Trump will swoop in to broker a deal on the health care subsidies. In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump said Friday he had instructed government lawyers to “clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible.”But it remained unclear when food stamp recipients would receive their payments, and the White House has acknowledged that there could be substantial delays because of the shutdown.”There’s a process that has to be followed,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN on Sunday. “So, we’ve got to figure out what the process is. President Trump wants to make sure that people get their food benefits.”But Democrats berated the president for refusing to cover the full SNAP payments for November.  “The letter of the law is as plain as day. Trump should have paid SNAP benefits all along,” said Patty Murray, the top Senate Democrat on government spending.”Just now paying the bare minimum to partially fund SNAP is not enough, and it is not acceptable.”

Two Michigan men have been arrested for allegedly plotting to carry out an attack on behalf of the Islamic State (IS) over the Halloween weekend, according to US court documents unsealed on Monday.FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Friday that the bureau had thwarted a “potential terrorist attack” in the northern US state and made multiple arrests but provided few details about the alleged plot.The criminal complaint accuses Mohmed Ali, Majed Mahmoud and other unnamed co-conspirators of planning to stage an attack in Ferndale, a Detroit suburb, with LGBTQ clubs and bars the potential target.Ali and Mahmoud, who are both US citizens, allegedly purchased firearms and ammunition and visited a gun range as part of a plot to “commit a Federal crime of terrorism,” the complaint said.In an early Friday raid on Ali’s and Mahmoud’s residences in Dearborn, another Detroit suburb, FBI agents seized three AR-15 style rifles, two shotguns, four handguns and more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition, according to the complaint.It said the social media accounts of the two men contained numerous references to “Islamic extremist and IS-related content.”Multiple references to “pumpkin” in online chats and telephone conversations led the FBI to believe the attack was planned for Halloween weekend, according to the complaint.Attorney General Pam Bondi said the suspects had a “detailed plan to carry out an attack on American soil.””This plot was stopped before innocent lives were lost,” Bondi added on X.

Nigerians across the religious spectrum pushed back Monday on US President Donald Trump’s threats of military intervention over the killing of Christians in the country.Africa’s most populous country, which is roughly evenly split between a mostly Christian south and Muslim-majority north, is home to myriad conflicts, which experts say kill both Christians and Muslims, often without distinction.But claims of Christian “persecution” in Nigeria have found traction online among the US and European right in recent months. “Christians are being killed, we can’t deny the fact that Muslims are (also) being killed,” Danjuma Dickson Auta, a Christian and community leader, told AFP.Trump said on social media over the weekend that he had asked the Pentagon to map out a possible plan of attack.Asked by an AFP reporter aboard Air Force One if he was considering putting US troops on the ground or using air strikes, Trump replied: “Could be, I mean, a lot of things — I envisage a lot of things.” “They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers,” he said Sunday. “We’re not going to allow that to happen.”Pushing back on the accusations, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said religious tolerance was “a core tenet of our collective identity”.- Ethnic violence -Auta, 56, hails from Plateau state, where Christians and Muslims have long lived side by side. The state has also seen explosions of violence — including deadly sectarian riots in the capital Jos in 2001 and 2008.In recent years, Plateau and other states in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt” have suffered deadly clashes between mostly Christian farmers and Fulani Muslim herders over dwindling land and resources.The conflict has often resulted in massive death tolls on the side of the farmers, with entire villages razed.Smaller-scale attacks on herders — including retaliatory killings of random ethnic Fulanis or their cattle — often generate fewer headlines in both the local and international press.Though the violence appears on the surface to fall across ethnic and religious lines, experts say the root causes lie in poor land management and policing in rural areas.Words like “genocide” have been thrown around by those in Plateau frustrated by the escalating violence, though typically in ethnic, not religious terms.Claims of a “Christian genocide” meanwhile 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.- Row over deportations, visas -Nigeria also faces a long-running jihadist conflict in its northeast and “bandit” gangs in the northwest who conduct kidnappings and village raids.The north’s population is mostly Muslim — meaning most of the victims are, too.”Even those who sold this narrative of Christian genocide know it is not true,” said Abubakar Gamandi, a Muslim who heads a fishermen’s union in Borno state, the epicentre of the Boko Haram conflict.Oxford Economics political analyst Jervin Naidoo said that “while the terrorism threat is real”, 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.”This move differs from countries like Eswatini, Uganda, Rwanda and Ghana, which have complied. In response, the US tightened visa rules for Nigerians,” he noted.Trump previously attacked South Africa over what he called a “genocide” against its Dutch-descended Afrikaner community and has offered them refugee status.Critics of the president said the rhetoric was part of Trump’s hardline diplomatic strategy, yet it has also resonated with some in Nigeria.Reverend Joseph Hayab, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria for the country’s north, said he rejected the framing of “farmer-herder violence” and called Trump’s comments a “wake-up call”. “People are twisting the story as if Trump said he is coming to fight Nigeria. No, he is coming to deal with terrorists,” he told AFP.Tinubu spokesman Daniel Bwala noted that “Donald Trump has his own style of communication”, suggesting to AFP Sunday that Trump’s post was a way to “force a sit-down between the two leaders so they can iron out a common front to fight their insecurity”.

The US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Wednesday on the legality of Donald Trump’s unprecedented use of powers for sweeping global tariffs in a case striking at the heart of the president’s economic agenda.Since returning to the White House, Trump has invoked emergency economic powers to impose “reciprocal” tariffs over trade practices Washington deemed unfair, alongside separate duties targeting his country’s biggest trading partners: Mexico, Canada and China.But these tariffs, a key prong of his “America First” trade policy aimed at protecting and boosting US industries, swiftly faced legal challenges.A lower court ruled in May that Trump exceeded his authority in imposing the duties, although the administration’s appeal allowed them to temporarily stay in place.The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled 7-4 in August that the levies were illegal — affirming the lower court’s finding — prompting Trump to take the fight to the Supreme Court.The top court’s decision will have major ramifications, but this could take months.The conservative-majority Supreme Court could find the tariffs illegal, blocking duties imposed on goods from countries worldwide. Or judges could affirm Trump’s actions, opening the door to further levies.Also at stake are billions of dollars in customs revenue already collected and Trump’s efforts to leverage tariffs for favorable trade deals — or other political priorities.The Supreme Court’s ruling, however, would not directly affect sector-specific tariffs Trump imposed, including on steel, aluminum and automobiles.But even as Trump’s tariffs have not sparked widespread inflation, US companies — especially small businesses — say they are bearing the brunt of additional costs.- Existential threat -“These tariffs threaten the very existence of small businesses like mine, making it difficult to survive, let alone grow,” said Victor Schwartz, a lead plaintiff in this week’s hearing.”I was shocked that those with much more power and money did not step up,” added Schwartz, the founder of a family-run New York wine company called VOS Selections.Pointing to Trump’s fast-changing tariff policies, Schwartz told reporters ahead of the hearing that small firms were “gambling with our livelihoods, trying to predict the unpredictable” as they set retail prices and stocked up on inventory.Another New York-based business owner, Mike Gracie, who imports hand-painted wallpaper from China, said Trump’s steep tariffs meant “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in new costs.As Washington and Beijing engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff fight in April, US duties rocketed to 145 percent, an added bill that Gracie had to absorb.”We didn’t want to risk our business by raising prices,” he told AFP. “But we can’t continue indefinitely to absorb them.”Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania noted that 40 percent of US imports are intermediate goods, meaning they are not for retail consumers. He warned that maintaining tariffs means US businesses “become less competitive.”- Possible outcomes -Ryan Majerus, a former US trade official, told AFP that besides supporting or blocking Trump’s global tariffs, the court could also allow their imposition with certain limitations.The ruling could differentiate between “reciprocal” tariffs seeking to narrow trade gaps and others imposed to crack down on fentanyl entering the United States, added Majerus, a partner at law firm King & Spalding.Even if the top court found Trump’s global tariffs illegal, the administration could tap other laws to impose 15-percent tariffs for 150 days.In the meantime, they could pursue investigations for more “durable tariffs” like those under Section 301 of the Trade Act, Majerus said, which also allows Washington to respond to conduct deemed unfair.Because of these options, Majerus expects partners that have negotiated tariff deals with Trump might prefer to keep those terms rather than reopen talks.Beyond deals, Smetters said the case has bearing on wider authorities.”If the court really allows this to happen, then the question is, what else can the administration do without congressional approval?” he asked.”That might spook capital markets a bit more.”

When Grace Jin Drexel lost contact with her father in China weeks ago, her worries swiftly turned into fear — he, alongside more than 20 others, had been detained in a national crackdown on his underground church.She recalls being consumed by franticness: “I was texting literally everyone in my contacts, like, ‘what do I do?'”Her father is Jin Mingri, who founded the unregistered Zion Church in 2007 in Beijing. It grew to 1,500 members before shuttering in 2018 under pressure from Chinese authorities.But the church maintained an online presence that flourished during the Covid-19 pandemic, amassing a following across 40 Chinese cities.On October 10, Jin — who also goes by Ezra — was detained on “suspicion of the illegal use of information networks.” Around this time, authorities also rounded up several pastors and church members in cities like Beijing.”None of the family members have been able to meet those detained,” Jin Drexel told AFP in Washington, where she works.She and her brothers are American citizens, and she now devotes much of her time advocating for the detainees’ release.But the 37-day window in which authorities may detain someone before making formal arrests is narrowing.”We call on the Chinese government to also look into this case and realize that potentially, this was a mistake,” she said.Most of the pastors have secured legal representation, and her father has met his lawyers at least twice.Still, Jin Drexel frets: “We want to see him. We’re really concerned about his medication and his health.””He has pretty severe Type 2 diabetes, and the detention center initially didn’t even give him any medication,” she added.She teared up recounting her father’s condition, describing how he remained “an optimist” in a recent letter.”He was just telling his family members to not worry about him and that he is feeling comforted to be able to suffer with Christ.”- Basic dignity -“My father started Zion Church to be an independent church away from being controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” Jin Drexel said.”It’s not that we were against the government. We just wanted to have our own decision-making power for simple things like, how many people can attend?”She moved to the United States for studies shortly after, and regularly visited her family in China.But things changed in 2018, a few years after President Xi Jinping assumed top office.Officials tightened oversight on religious and other groupings, calling for the “Sinicization” of religious practice.China’s officially atheist government has been wary of organized movements outside its control, and the country’s Christians had been split among those attending unofficial “house” or “underground” churches and those visiting government-sanctioned places of worship.Around September 2018, authorities shuttered Zion Church and froze its assets, Jin Drexel said, months after its leadership resisted installing facial recognition cameras.Her family relocated abroad but her father returned to China to be with the church — and has since faced a travel ban.He has not seen most of his family, including two young sons, for seven years, she said.She last saw Jin in 2020, after a visit that extended to 11 months as authorities, too, restricted her movements.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has criticized the crackdown, and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee introduced a resolution condemning the CCP for the detentions.Growing up Christian in China, Jin Drexel has wondered how she would act if she is detained one day.But when it happened to her father, the weight of facing the power of China’s government hit her: “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.””This is a religious freedom issue,” she said. “It is about basic human dignity, and that the Chinese government wants to control everything about everyone, including what is so intimate — like your own beliefs.”

Driving in a golf buggy with Donald Trump recently, his 18-year-old granddaughter Kai asked him if there was a dream he was still trying to chase.”You become president — that’s the dream, right?” Trump replied in a video that Kai posted to her 2.5 million Instagram followers. Then he added: “Now you’re president, your dream is to become a great president.”It was a rare personal insight into 79-year-old Trump’s grand ambitions a year after he won a second term in the White House, capping an astonishing political comeback.Yet for Trump, being a “great president” more than ever involves exercising executive power on a historic scale.And in recent weeks Trump has accelerated these power moves, taking revenge on his political opponents, sending more troops into more US cities, muzzling the media and asserting control over every lever of government.”Absolutely, there’s an authoritarian aspect to him,” Todd Belt, director of the political management program at George Washington University, told AFP.While Trump had been tightening his grip since he returned to office in January, the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in September had “augmented his approach to the us-versus-them idea,” said Belt.- ‘Enemy within’ -For critics, it raises fundamental concerns about the rule of law and overreach by a president who openly admires monarchs and strongman rulers — and who received a replica crown as a gift during a recent trip to South Korea.Trump’s retribution drive has been perhaps the most blatant flex of presidential muscle.At the behest of Trump’s social media postings, justice officials have pursued charges in recent weeks against political foes including former national security advisor John Bolton and ex-FBI chief James Comey.As he trumpets peace deals abroad, at home Trump has openly targeted the “enemy within” — whether leftists or migrants. He even said in a recent speech to top military officers that American cities could be “training grounds” for troops.Trump has meanwhile taken an imperious approach to the month-long US government shutdown. He has refused talks with Democrats and hosted a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at his Florida resort the day before food aid for poor Americans was due to halt.The former reality TV star has also increasingly attempted to stifle the media and academia using lawsuits and threats to merger applications and federal funding.Trump has even shown his power in the heart of the presidency itself. He demolished the East Wing of the White House to build a huge new ballroom, with no public consultation or federal approval process.Meanwhile Trump has returned in recent days to mulling the ultimate power move — a third term in 2028 — although he appeared to back away after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said it would be unconstitutional.- ‘Gone too far’ -But with eyes turning to the US midterm elections a year away, Trump may have already reached the apogee of his power.”Polls suggest he doesn’t have as much running room as he did in the first 10 months,” Brookings Institution senior fellow William Galston told AFP. “They suggest people think he’s gone too far.”A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released on Sunday showed a majority of US voters saying he has exceeded the powers of his office.That’s not to say, though, that Trump is anywhere near finished.He faces several key Supreme Court decisions later this year that could effectively decide the extent of executive power against Congress and the judiciary.While that could impose some restraints, analysts say a lot depends on just how far Trump is determined to ignore the decades-old presidential norms.”If you have a president who will disregard long-established precedent, the office becomes more capacious than anyone imagined,” Galston said.Anything less than a major setback for Republicans in next year’s midterms will also likely embolden Trump. The Ipsos poll showed Democrats had made little headway so far.”If people say it’s OK, then it will continue,” added Galston.

Paramount’s “Regretting You,” the latest film adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel, finished first place in a lackluster Halloween weekend at the North American box office, industry estimates showed Sunday.Directed by Josh Boone, the romantic drama tells the story of a mother (Allison Williams) and teenage daughter (McKenna Grace) navigating life and love after tragedy strikes.The film took in $8.1 million in its second week out, according to industry watcher Exhibitors Relations, narrowly beating Universal’s horror sequel “Black Phone 2,” which earned $8.0 million.The thriller sees Ethan Hawke’s devilish villain return to terrorize a group of youths, this time at a camp.Last week’s first place finisher — Japanese anime feature “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” — dropped to third place with $6.0 million.It tells the dark fantasy story of orphaned teenager Denji, who is killed by the yakuza but reborn by merging with his pet devil to become Chainsaw Man.In fourth place at $4.8 million was “Bugonia,” Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest collaboration with Oscar-winner Emma Stone.The apocalyptic satire, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival, follows the abduction of a high-profile CEO (Stone) by two conspiracy theorists who believe she is an alien.Fifth place went to “Back to the Future,” re-released for the film’s 40th anniversary.The top 12 films took in $44.8 million for the weekend, according to Exhibitor Relations, a 32 percent drop from the same period the previous year.Rounding out the top 10 were:”Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,” ($3.8 million)”Tron: Ares,” ($2.8 million)”Stitch Ahead,” ($2.1 million)”Good Fortune,” ($1.5 million)”One Battle After Another,” ($1.2 million)

Suicide is a tragic epidemic among US military veterans, but a new documentary charts how psychedelic drugs offer a glimmer of hope to elite soldiers battling post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.”We’re not scientists, we don’t know exactly what’s happening,” said Jon Shenk, who co-directed “In Waves and War” with his wife Bonni Cohen.”But it does seem like there’s something to it,” he told AFP.Streaming on Netflix from Monday, the documentary follows three retired US Navy SEALs coping with the invisible scars of their many tours of Iraq and Afghanistan.After years spent under enemy fire, the veterans have become trapped on an altogether different battlefield, contending with PTSD, brain injuries, depression and alcoholism.They have been prescribed cocktails of antidepressants, which not only fail to help, but leave them unrecognizable to their loved ones, and bring their families to “a breaking point in their treatment of their own trauma,” says Cohen.The trio head to Mexico for an experimental treatment, which offers an unexpected lifeline via two psychedelic drugs: ibogaine, extracted from an African shrub, and 5-MeO-DMT, derived from the secretions of the Colorado River toad.- ‘Reboot’ -“It’s like a complete reboot,” Marcus Capone, a former soldier and subject of the film, told AFP.”It kind of brings you back to your truer self, before you had any real struggles or real issues in your life.”According to his wife Amber, the treatment “is bringing hope to the hopeless.”With their organization Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, the couple have taken some 1,200 US veterans to Mexico for treatment since 2019.Once there, they can receive substances that are illegal in the United States and most other countries.By gaining the Capones’ trust, the documentary makers were able to infiltrate and spotlight a community where secrecy and moral rectitude are musts.At first, many patients are skeptical about substances historically associated with the excesses of the American sub-culture.Among them is veteran Matty Roberts, another of the film’s subjects.”If this crazy hippie-ass shit helps, if it helped my friends, then maybe I should do it,” he says with a sigh in one scene from the film.His transformation is all the more dramatic. The documentary shows Roberts groaning with nausea and breaking down in tears from the drugs, before emerging with a new perspective on life.These intimate moments are accompanied with animated sequences, illustrating the veterans’ inner journeys through the dark corners of their unconscious and their deepest wounds.- ‘Expand’ -In recent years, the therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances like psilocybin — the active ingredient of magic mushrooms — as well as LSD and MDMA has sparked renewed interest among scientists for treating depression and addiction.The documentary shows Stanford University researchers intrigued by the veterans’ sudden mental improvement after treatment. But it does not delve into how exactly these drugs rewire the brain, or their potential dangers — ibogaine, for example, can damage the heart.”We wanted to make an emotional film that drew you in,” said Cohen.”Also the studies are really exciting, but they’re just at the beginnings.”For their part, the veterans hope their stories can convince US politicians to change regulations that currently impede the study of these drugs.”We need all these medicines to be researched more,” said Marcus Capone.His wife Amber said they are not calling for these drugs to be legalized.”What we’re saying is, let’s expand the data. Let’s reduce the barriers to research so that we can grow the data set and better understand if these therapies are viable,” she said.It is a plea that resonates across party lines in the United States.Democratic-led Oregon and Colorado have recently allowed the supervised use of psilocybin. And this summer, Republican-controlled Texas passed a law to invest $50 million of public funds for research into ibogaine.According to the most current data available from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, there were 6,407 veteran suicides in 2022 — more than 17 a day.If you are a US veteran in need of help, or concerned about one, you can dial 988 and press 1, or visit www.veteranscrisisline.net.

US President Donald Trump threatened on Saturday to send the military into Nigeria with “guns-a-blazing” if Africa’s most populous country does not stem what he described as the killing of Christians by Islamists.In an explosive post, the Republican leader — who had campaigned unsuccessfully for the Nobel Peace Prize — said on social media he asked the Pentagon to map out a possible plan of attack, one day after warning that Christianity was “facing an existential threat in Nigeria.”Nigeria is embroiled in numerous conflicts that experts say have killed both Christians and Muslims without distinction.”If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump said.”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,” he added, warning the Nigerian government that they “BETTER MOVE FAST!”Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, shared Trump’s post and wrote on social media: “Yes sir.””The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Hegseth said.Trump posted on Friday, without evidence, that “thousands of Christians are being killed (and) Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter.”Conservative politicians have fueled the accusations. In March, US congressman Chris Smith called for Nigeria to be listed by the State Department as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) — a move announced by Trump on Friday over what he called an “existential threat” to the African nation’s Christian population.And in early October, US Senator Ted Cruz and House Republican Riley Moore accused the Nigerian government of turning a blind eye to the “mass murder” of Christians.- ‘Tolerance’ -Claims of Christian persecution have also been pushed by some in Nigeria, where ethnic, religious and regional divisions have flared with deadly consequences in the past and still shape the country’s modern politics.Some US officials argue Christians in Nigeria are facing a “genocide” — a claim that Abuja denies.”The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality,” Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said on social media Saturday after Trump made his CPC announcement.”Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so,” Tinubu added.Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and a largely Christian south.The country is consumed by security issues. Its northeastern region is at the epicenter of a Boko Haram jihadist insurgency, which has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced more than two million since 2009, according to the United Nations.In central Nigeria, majority-Muslim herders have repeatedly clashed with majority-Christian farmers. The conflict is frequently portrayed as inter-religious but generally stems from competition over land access.