The White House, faced with an ongoing and growing tsunami of murderous attacks by Islamic State-allied groups against Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, is now working closely with the State Department to find ways to stop the killing.

Last week, the White House told Fox News Digital, ‘The Trump administration condemns in the strongest terms this horrific violence against Christians,’ after the U.N. reported 49 Christians were butchered with machetes on July 27 in and around a church in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), while Catholic worshipers were praying for peace. Authorities say the killers were Islamist militants from the Allied Democratic Forces, also known as Islamic State DRC.

In neighboring Nigeria last month, 27 Christians were reported killed by Islamist Fulani tribesmen in the village of Bindi Ta-hoss, where residents are predominantly Christian. Eyewitness Solomon Sunday said, ‘I advised my family to seek refuge in the church, which seemed the safest place at the time. I lost my wife and second daughter in the attack; they were burned [alive] by Fulani militias.’ 

Local youth leader D’Young Mangut, who helped retrieve the bodies, added, ‘People are being killed like chickens, and nothing is being done.’

‘Such grisly proceedings have become commonplace in central Nigeria,’ John Eibner, president of Christian human rights organization Christian Solidarity International, told Fox News Digital. ‘It is part of a longstanding process of violent Islamization, of ethno-religious cleansing. Last Palm Sunday, 50 Christians were similarly slaughtered in nearby Bassa. Over 165 Christians have been killed in the last 4 months in Plateau State (one of Nigeria’s provinces) alone,’ he added.

‘Massacres of the sort that happen in central Nigeria are also happening with increasing frequency in predominately Christian places like Congo and Mozambique. There is no simple solution.’

The U.K. division of Open Doors, a global Christian charity which supports and speaks up for Christians persecuted for their faith, told Fox News Digital, ‘The crisis facing large areas of sub-Saharan Africa is hard to overstate. It is potentially existential for the future peace and stability of several nations in the region, not least Nigeria.’

‘Around 150,000 people have been killed in Jihadist violence over the last ten years. Over 16 million Christians have been driven from their homes and their land across the region.’

The Trump administration appears to be preparing for action. This week, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, ‘The Department of State is working closely with the White House to identify opportunities to further the cause of religious freedom around the world.’

The spokesperson added, ‘Religious freedom for all people worldwide is a moral and national security imperative and a U.S. foreign policy priority.  As President Trump has stated, the United States will vigorously promote this freedom.’

Nigeria is among the most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. Recent Open Doors research shows that more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than the rest of the world combined. Local bishop Wilfred Anagbe was threatened, and some 20 of his parishioners killed, after he spoke out against the killings to a Congressional Committee in March. 

This week, the bishop spoke exclusively to Fox News Digital, declaring that ‘the attackers form part of the larger Islamic- Jihadists family headed in Nigeria by the likes of Boko Haram, ISIS West Africa and similar groups. Nigeria has had a long history with Islamic fundamentalism. (But) the violence, killing and displacements without consequences suggests a new pattern where the Islamists have resorted to use their control of official government and apparatus to continue this jihad.

‘There is a strong tendency by fundamentalist Muslims in Nigeria to turn the whole or part of Nigeria (in)to an Islamic State.’

‘This is what the Nazis did to the Jews,’ David Onyillokwu Idah, director of the International Human Rights Commission, told Open Doors, adding, ‘It’s ethnic cleansing, step by step.’

John Samuel, legal expert for Open Doors, told Fox News Digital that where the Islamist groups are operating, if Christians gather for ‘a prayer meeting, let’s say, or go to a church, (it) could be a one-way ticket, or something very deadly.’

‘If you’re a Christian, you either convert to Islam or die.’

Samuel gives an example of a Nigerian Christian who was ambushed by Boko Haram fighters. According to his widow, ‘he was asked to deny his faith and say an Islamic prayer. He refused and he was killed instantly. You are a target. You are a target by the mere fact that you identify with Christ.’

Across the region, it’s claimed the Islamist attackers want the land belonging to the Christians they attack. Lawyer Jabez Musa fights in court in Nigeria to get this land back. He told Fox News Digital the displaced Christians ‘want their land restored back to them for their livelihood. The cry is always I have been dispossessed of what belongs to me, my house, the food, foodstuff, the land. As we speak, over 64 communities in Plateau State have been dispossessed and taken over by the Fulani militants.’

‘Only Christians are targeted, they’re killed, displaced, and their lands are taken over.’

Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors U.K. and Ireland, told Fox News Digital that ‘African governments must urgently provide three things: justice – because very few of these perpetrators are ever held to account, and this impunity emboldens them.  Restoration – people want their lives back, an opportunity to rebuild their homes, send their kids to school, have a future together.  And protection – the state must protect them from these attacks.  The security forces need to get out of their barracks and be deployed around the most vulnerable.

‘For too long, nobody has been talking about the horrific wholesale slaughter of Christians and moderate Muslims in Africa. The Western world needs to wake up and be outraged,’ she said.

One grieving relative told reporters after the massacre in Nigeria’s Bindi Ta-hoss this past month, ‘We are tired of condolences and statements. What we need is real security, not sympathy.’ 

Fox News Digital reached out to the governments of both Nigeria and the DRC but received no response.

Lawyer Jabez Musa pleaded ‘I urge the American government, especially President Trump personally … to come to the help of Christians.’

China’s bid to strangle the world’s supply of heavy rare-earth elements was about to hit a wall. Vietnamese entrepreneur Luu Anh Tuan had lined up U.S. backing for a technology that could break Beijing’s chokehold on the critical minerals behind everything from smartphones to missile-guidance systems.

Tuan and his family had fled Vietnam for the U.S. to escape Beijing’s tightening grip over Hanoi, where the Chinese Communist Party exerts a heavy influence on domestic governance.

In July 2023, he signed a technology transfer agreement, seen by Fox News Digital, to bring the heavy rare earth separation technology he was using at his Vietnam-based company, Vietnam Rare Earth (VTRE) to VTRU Corporation, a company registered in Nevada. VTRE had also signed a series of memoranda of understanding (MOU) agreements with Western companies. 

‘He had a bad sense of insecurity about being in Vietnam. He was determined to transfer his technology to the US as quickly as possible,’ a source familiar with the rare earth industry, granted anonymity to speak without fear of retribution, told Fox News Digital. 

At the time, the world was entirely dependent on Chinese companies to separate their heavy rare earth metals.

‘China has been really working for the better part of over 20 years now on building this dominance,’ Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an interview. 

And while companies like U.S.-based MP Materials and Australia-based Lynas are in the process of developing their own separation technologies, China still controls up to 90% of the rare earths separation and refining capacity and over half of mining output. 

In October 2023, Tuan, then a U.S. permanent resident and green card holder in the process of becoming a citizen, was back in his Hanoi office when Vietnamese authorities raided the building, seizing all laptops and records. Seventeen employees were arrested, according to Tuan’s American business partner, Richard Dunham, and all but one, Do Hanh Huong, Tuan’s sister-in-law and COO of VTRE, have since been released.

The arrest came shortly after President Joe Biden visited Vietnam and signed cooperation agreements on rare earth minerals. 

In December, China banned rare earth extraction and separation, in what the industry saw as another effort to maintain its monopoly on the market. 

‘When China put in these restrictions, it really made countries like the U.S. and Australia realize that they didn’t actually even have the technical know-how to do it themselves,’ said Baskaran. 

‘The process itself is just very labor-intensive and very toxic,’ said Josh Birenbaum, a minerals expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, adding China cornered the market through state subsidies and lax environmental concerns. 

While the U.S. has one major rare earths mine, MP Materials’ Mountain Pass, until this year, the company was exporting those rare earths to China for separation. The trade war and export controls that followed prompted the U.S. to stockpile its rare earths until separation capacity was up to scale at home. 

Tuan was accused of forging a value-added tax receipt while trading rare earths with Thai Duong Group, which operates a mine in the northern Vietnamese province of Yen Bai. 

VTRE had partnered with Australian mining companies Australian Strategic Materials and Blackstone Minerals Ltd. Tuan and Dunham had also met with officials from the state of Nevada and the Department of Energy to discuss plans to bring the separation technology to the U.S. through VTRE. Both were ‘enthusiastic’ about the proposal, which ultimately led to the signing of the transfer agreement, according to Dunham.

The arrest also came as Vietnam prepared to auction the Dong Pao mine. VTRE, backed by Western partners, was the only qualified bidder, according to Dunham.

This year, Tuan pleaded guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. He’ll spend 16 years in prison with a fine of $10 million, but his advocates say he was ‘coerced.’ Huong was sentenced to six years in prison. 

‘We believe these charges to be manipulated, charges that were founded by Vietnamese state actors who have realigned themselves with China,’ said Dunham. ‘He was tortured to obtain a guilty plea.’ 

Fox News Digital could not independently verify this claim. The State Department documents credible reports of arbitrary arrests, torture and inhumane treatment by authorities, affecting both political detainees and others in custody.  Medical neglect and forced confessions are frequently reported.

Tuan’s advocates say the company he was purchasing ore from, Thai Duong, refused to provide invoices at the actual rate VTRE was paying for ore. It only provided invoices that claimed it was selling ore at a lower rate, reducing its taxable income. 

According to Dunham, Thai Duong refused to issue invoices reflecting the actual sale price to VTRE, allegedly to avoid environmental, natural resource and corporate income taxes, obligations that fell on Thai Duong, not Tuan.

Tuan was faced with a choice: accept the lower-rate invoices and make up the tax discrepancies with his own money or allow his state-funded minerals project, and in turn, his business, to collapse, per Dunham. 

Though Tuan was convicted on criminal charges, Dunham said the violation of accounting regulations lacks evidence of criminal intent. 

‘Even if he were guilty of an accounting issue, it’s not something that is criminally liable for what they’re trying to do. No place in Vietnam has there ever been an issue with this type of sentencing. It’s totally unheard of. Typically you would pay a fine and that’s it.’

‘He is the only individual outside of China that has a fully integrated rare earth company that’s from mining to metallization; in other words, from digging it out of the ground to the manufacturing of magnets.’

Tuan was also convicted of smuggling rare earth materials, but customs documents show clearance of 63 shipments of heavy rare earth oxide mixtures under tax code 2846, which corresponds to rare earth compounds. The court misclassified the exports under tax code 2530 (raw ore), to falsely claim they were illegal, according to Dunham. 

The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security’s investigation concluded that customs officers who signed the 63 export declarations for VTRE verified Tuan’s compliance.

China’s crackdown since then has only accelerated. Minerals experts have been ordered to surrender their passports to prevent them from sharing any technology outside the country. Beijing has tightened controls on exports of rare earths, prompting major concerns from within the U.S. defense industry. While China allowed them to flow again during trade negotiations with the Trump administration, they remain banned for defense purposes. 

According to Dunham, VTRE has developed the technology to produce heavy rare earth oxides from xenotime, monazite and ion-absorption clay at a purity of 95% through a solvent extraction system. The technology was capable of processing diverse ore types and recycling NdFeB magnets.

Requests for assistance from the U.S. government have not been fruitful, according to Tuan’s advocates. 

Tuan is essentially cut off from his family and lawyers. He’s seen family members around five times since his arrest nearly two years ago. 

‘We are deeply concerned about his physical and mental well-being,’ the source said. ‘He is mentally resilient. He continues to believe the truth will eventually come to light.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House, State Department, Chinese Embassy and Vietnamese Embassy for comment. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 Friday that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg cannot move forward with possible contempt proceedings against the Trump administration.

The case involves the administration’s alleged violation of an emergency court order blocking the administration from using a 1798 law to summarily deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador — the latest in an evolving, high-stakes court clash that has played out for months in various courts. 

Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, two Trump appointees on the majority-Democrat bench, sided with the Trump administration Friday in blocking Boasberg’s contempt motion from moving forward. 

Judge Nina Pillard, an Obama appointee, dissented. 

The 2-1 ruling is all but certain to be appealed to the full court to be heard en banc, where the Democrat-majority bench is seen as more favorable to the plaintiffs, or directly to the Supreme Court for review.

‘The district court here was placed in an enormously difficult position,’ Katsas said Friday, writing for the majority.

‘Faced with an emergency situation, it had to digest and rule upon novel and complex issues within a matter of hours. In that context, the court quite understandably issued a written order that contained some ambiguity.’

Katsas noted that the appellate court ruling does not center on the lawfulness of Trump’s Alien Enemies Act removals in March, when administration officials invoked the 1798 immigration law to send more than 250 Venezuelan nationals to CECOT, the maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

‘Nor may we decide whether the government’s aggressive implementation of the presidential proclamation warrants praise or criticism as a policy matter,’ he added. ‘Perhaps it should warrant more careful judicial scrutiny in the future. Perhaps it already has.’

‘Regardless, the government’s initial implementation of the proclamation clearly and indisputably was not criminal.’

The ruling comes months after Boasberg originally found grounds to move on potential contempt proceedings in the case.

It comes as Boasberg has also ordered ongoing status updates on the location and custodial status of the 252 CECOT class migrants, after they were deported last month from El Salvador to Venezuela as part of a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Venezuela.

It is unclear how many of those migrants had pending asylum applications in the U.S. or had been granted a ‘withholding of removal’ order blocking their return to their country of origin. 

The long-awaited ruling comes months after Boasberg ruled that the court had found probable cause to move on criminal contempt proceedings after he issued a late-night temporary restraining order on March 15 blocking the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport certain migrants to El Salvador.

Boasberg had also ordered all migrants to be ‘immediately returned’ to U.S. soil, which did not happen. 

Despite the order, hundreds of migrants were deported to the Salvadorian prison, CECOT, in March, where they remained until late last month, when they were sent from the prison in El Salvador to Venezuela, as part of the prisoner exchange. 

Boasbeg ruled in April that there was ‘probable cause’ to move on criminal contempt proceedings against the Trump administration for failing to return the planes to U.S. soil and said the court had determined that the Trump administration demonstrated a ‘willful disregard’ for his order.

The appeals court granted the Trump administration’s request for an emergency stay of the ruling months earlier, prompting questions as to why they did not move more quickly on the motion.

Still, the decision is almost certain to be appealed either to the full circuit court to be heard en banc, or directly to the Supreme Court for review. 

The Trump administration for months has sparred with judges who have blocked the president’s executive orders from taking force.

Boasberg, in particular, has emerged as one of Trump’s biggest public foes. Last month, the court attempted to have him removed from overseeing the case and have it reassigned to another case — a long-shot effort that legal experts and former judges suggested is unlikely to go far.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

In a sweeping move aimed at rolling back pandemic-era mandates, the Trump administration on Friday directed all federal agencies to erase any records related to employees’ COVID-19 vaccination status, prior mandate noncompliance or exemption requests.

The guidance, issued by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), was a response to recent litigation and is part of a broader push to reverse what officials have described as ‘harmful pandemic-era policies’ imposed under the Biden administration. 

‘Things got out of hand during the pandemic, and federal workers were fired, punished or sidelined for simply making a personal medical decision,’ OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement.That should never have happened. Thanks to President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we’re making sure the excesses of that era do not have lingering effects on federal workers.’

Former President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14043 in September 2021, directing federal agencies to require COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of federal employment. 

After the controversial demand, numerous lawsuits were filed by federal employees, unions and states alleging the mandate violated constitutional rights and federal labor laws.

A federal appeals court blocked enforcement of the order in 2022m and Biden repealed the mandate in May 2023, prompting OPM officials to issue a memorandum to human resources directors stating that ‘agencies should review their job postings … to ensure that none list compliance with the now revoked Executive Order 14043 as a qualification requirement.’ 

The memo also reminded agencies that the executive order could no longer be enforced.

In a memo to heads and acting heads of departments and agencies Friday, Kupor announced that, effective immediately, agencies are barred from using a person’s vaccine history or exemption requests in any employment-related decision, including hiring, promotion, discipline or termination. 

Unless an employee affirmatively opts out within 90 days, all vaccine-related information must be permanently removed from both physical and electronic personnel files.

Agencies must certify compliance with the memo by Sept. 8, according to the memo.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Republican senators offered a range of responses when pressed on how the Trump administration has been handling the Epstein files controversy, with some calling it a distraction and others arguing the American people are ‘entitled’ to answers.

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the ‘first phase’ of declassified files related to Jeffrey Epstein Feb. 27, noting the move was following through on President Donald Trump’s commitment to ‘lifting the veil’ on Epstein and his co-conspirator’s actions. Bondi also said the same month she was in possession of an Epstein ‘client list.’

However, the February declassification contained mostly information and files that had already been publicly available, and the Justice Department subsequently indicated that no ‘client list’ exists. Since then, a series of events, including a clash between FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and Attorney General Bondi, have led to mounting pressure on the Trump administration to release more files. 

‘This is factual. Epstein trafficked a lot of young women, some of whom were minors. The American people are entitled to know who — if anyone — he trafficked these young women to, besides himself, and why they weren’t prosecuted,’ John Kennedy, R-La., said. 

‘Now that’s a very simple question that’s at the bottom of all of this. The Department of Justice is going to have to answer that question to the satisfaction of the American people.’

Kennedy’s call for transparency comes after the president described the Epstein situation as a ‘hoax’ while blasting Democrats and other ‘weaklings’ who continue to buy into it. 

‘Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bull—-,’ hook, line, and sinker,’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform last month amid mounting reports of internal division within the administration over its handling of the Epstein case 

When asked about how the Trump administration was handling the Epstein furor, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said he thought the situation was being used by Democrats to create a ‘distraction’ from the ongoing investigations into former President Biden and others, like the probe related to Biden’s use of an autopen tool to sign important documents and the investigation into whether Obama-era officials manufactured evidence to accuse Trump of Russian collusion.

‘Look what’s being investigated right now through the Biden administration. … So, what are they going to talk about now?’ Mullin asked. ‘This is nothing but a distraction from the actual facts that is coming out about the Biden administration. Of course, the Democrats say, ‘Well, we’re just about transparency.’ Well, where was the transparency the last four years?’

Democrats have suggested Trump could be implicated in the files, but Mullin said that if such a circumstance were true, the information would have been leaked by the Biden administration. 

Mullin’s counterpart in the Senate, Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford took more of a middle ground in his response about how the administration has been handling the Epstein files.

‘The challenge is there are people that are victims that are in it, and there are folks that are not criminals that are in it as well,’ Lankford said. ‘And the challenge the Department of Justice has is you’ve got a girl that was 14, 16 years old and was abused. Well, now she’s, let’s say 26 or 30, married and has children. 

‘Maybe her family knows about this, maybe they don’t. I don’t know the situation, but we gotta figure out a way to be able to protect those folks that are genuine victims on all this as well as getting out as much information as you possibly can.’

For Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the debate about the Epstein files was not something she was interested in talking about when approached by Fox News Digital.

‘I’m going,’ Collins responded when pressed on the matter outside the Capitol complex.