Transcript of Nigerian Christians Slaughtered & Ukraine’s Peace Obstacle | 10.23.25

Persecution reaches a fever pitch in what's being called the Christian murder capital of the world.

Where media outlets claiming it's not happening, and how is the US responding?

You have a government that is not doing nearly enough to protect those Christians. This legislation is designed to change that.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor, John Bickley. It's Thursday, October 23rd, and this is Morning Wire. Russia ratchets up its sabre-rattling, staging a nuclear drill as a peace summit between Trump and Putin is put on hold.

We canceled the meeting with President Putin.

It didn't feel right to me, but we'll do it in the future. And as attacks on ice continue to skyrocket, an illegal immigrant is arrested for allegedly ramming an ICE vehicle while trying to escape. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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It is specifically religious persecution. They're going after them because they're Christian, and that is unacceptable, and I think we need to stand up and fight back at it.

That was Senator Ted Cruz calling out the Christian genocide in Nigeria. The violence has claimed thousands of lives this year alone, but human rights advocates say the Nigerian government has turned a blind eye.

Here with more is Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. Megan, for people who haven't been following this story, can you summarize what's been happening to Christians in Nigeria?

Yeah. It's devastating, Georgia. The numbers, as many as 7,000 Christians killed since the beginning of this year alone in Nigeria alone. And in some cases, advocacy groups are saying as a result of these Islamic attacks, some Christian villages and communities are being entirely burned to the ground. Now, this has been going on somewhat for the last decade, and it's flown under the radar. The US government has not paid much attention. We're starting to see that change now. In particular, Senator Cruz and Representative Nancy Mace are calling for Nigeria to be reclassified as a country of particular concern for religious persecution.

Many in the media share the same woke mindset that they will not call out radical Islamic terrorism for what it is, especially when it's Christians who are the victims and It takes the rest of us to highlight this needs to end.

I also spoke with Judd Saul, who is the founder of Equipping the Persecuted. That's a group on the ground in Nigeria that's trying to minister to these Christians that are being persecuted and attacked. He said that this crisis has been building for a decade as more and more Muslims and Islamic groups are moving into Nigeria and into these Christian areas.

But what they have done is they move in, they populate, and once they gain population, they start taking political control.

Once they gain political control, the killing starts.

What I really want to emphasize for you, Georgia, is that so often the Christians that are being killed here are the elderly, their women, their children, essentially people who are unable to easily flee when they know that the violence is coming.

If this violence has been so widespread and it's been going on for years, why have we not heard more about it from the mainstream press?

Yeah, that's one of Judd Saul's biggest frustrations. He says that the Nigerian government essentially controls what gets reported. Western outlets too often will repeat the official denials of the government without getting out on the ground to record or document what's happening there themselves.

The mainstream media never shows up to Nigeria. What they do is they take the Nigerian government's word for it. Every time there's an attack, every time Christians are killed, it's always these unknown gunmen. It's always these bandits.

But now Now, what's happening is footage is emerging of burned churches, mass graves, displaced families living in tarps or under tents where they have no food, water, or medicine.

Now, you mentioned earlier that the US government is starting to take notice. What response are we seeing?

Well, one major effort that we're seeing from Senator Ted Cruz is the Nigerian Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025. He introduced that just this month. And what it will do is sanctions on Nigerian officials who are accused of facilitating violence against Christians or any other religious minorities.

We also have 12 states in Nigeria and the federal government in Nigeria that have in place blasphemy laws and Sharia laws. Those blasphemy and Sharia laws are a tool that is frequently used to oppressed Christians as well.

What about the Nigerian government? Are they responding in any way?

The Nigerian government is continuing to deny that these killings are the result of religious persecution. What they say is that this violence is simply clashes between herders and farmers. But a lot of international watchdog groups are simply saying that that is a false narrative. Saul says that the Nigerian military has repeatedly failed to respond to advanced warnings of attacks. So it's because of this inaction that many Nigerian Christians are now looking to the US government, hoping that America's influence on the international stage will turn a spotlight on what they've been experiencing.

Well, an extremely troubling story. I'm glad we're covering it. Megan, thanks for reporting. Yes.

Thank you.

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President Trump canceled a second summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and hours later, a fresh barrage of Russian missiles rained down on Ukraine, killing seven.

Daily Wire reporter Tim pierce is here to talk about the latest in Trump's efforts to end the war in Ukraine. So Tim, there were some hopeful signs as of last week, but maybe that was premature. What's going on in Ukraine?

That's right. Moscow just doesn't appear to want to end the war. And as John noted, Russia recently launched another major missile drone strike against Ukraine that killed seven people. It was designed to be part of Russia's campaign to knock out Ukraine's energy infrastructure ahead of winter. But according to the Wall Street Journal, the US has given Ukraine the green light to launch its own attacks deep inside Russian territory. Now, Trump has denied that report, but on Tuesday, Ukraine used a British Stormshadow Cruise missile to hit a plant in Bryansk, Russia. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, also announced yesterday a substantial pickup in sanctions against Russia. All this came as Trump backed out of a second peace summit with Putin. This one was supposed to be held in Budapest, hungry. Zelenskyy had doubts about it, but he was prepared to join as long as Trump was there to mediate between the two sides. But the White House canceled the summit after a phone call between Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and Russian Foreign Minister, Serge Lavrov. Here's Trump explaining Tuesday why he backed out of that summit.

No, I don't want to have a wasted meeting.

I don't want to have a waste of time until I'll see what happens.

While this certainly deflates some of the optimism from earlier in the week, some foreign policy experts say this was a necessary move by Trump. It's a recognition that Putin just doesn't feel enough pressure yet for peace talks to mean much of anything yet.

What deals are on the table right now?

Well, Trump said this week that the battle line should be frozen right where they are as a precondition to peace talks. That's been the position of Europe as well, and it has support from Zelenskyy. Here he was after landing in Oslo, Norway. After our conversation, you saw messages, public messages from Trump.

He proposed, Stay where we stay and begin conversation.

I think this That was good compromise, but I'm not sure that Putin will support it. I said it to President.

The Ukrainian President continued to press this case for Tomahawk missiles after his disappointing meeting at the White House last week. Zelenskyy said in a post on X, Russia continues to do everything to weasel out of a ceasefire, and that, quote, as soon as the issue of long-range capabilities for Ukraine became less immediate, Moscow's interest in diplomacy fated. This signals that deep strike capabilities may hold the key to peace.

Now pivoting a bit, the Trump administration has also been brokering a peace deal between Israel and Hamas. Vice President Vance was in Israel working on that just this week. What came of that meeting?

Well, the visit, first and foremost, signaled the Trump administration's investment in these ongoing peace negotiations and Trump's 20-point plan for peace in the Middle East. Now, there's only so much that can be done at this stage regarding Hamas's refusal to disarm. Here's the vice President talking about that.

You basically have two regions in Gaza, one of which is relatively safe and one of which is incredibly dangerous. And part of ensuring that we get to a durable peace is to broaden the scope of the area that's safe. And the International Security Force is a big part of that. We don't yet have the International Security Force set up. That's something we're working towards.

He was also critical of media coverage of the Gaza ceasefire as well.

There's almost this desire to root for failure, that every time something bad happens, that every time that there's an act of violence, there's this inclination to say, Oh, this is the end of the ceasefire. This is the end of the plan. It's not the end. It is, in fact, exactly how this is going to have to happen when you have people who hate each other, who have been fighting against each other for a very long time. We are doing very well.

A lot of questions still up in the air about this ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but the White House really showing that it is invested in securing a durable peace in the Middle East.

Well, that would be a major accomplishment if they can land that plane. Tim, thanks for reporting.

Good to be on.

An illegal immigrant was shot by federal authorities in Los Angeles after he tried to evade arrest for a second time and allegedly rammed a federal vehicle. The illegal immigrant behind the attack is a well-known TikToker who regularly exposes ICE operations online.

Joining us now to discuss is Daily Wire immigration reporter, Jennie Tear. Hey, Jennie. What do we know about what led up to this shooting?

He was previously wrapped up in an ICE raid when he was apparently trying to impede on their operations. Now, he's since been identified. His name is Carlitos Ricardo Piraas. He's an illegal immigrant from Mexico. At the time, the officers had handcuffed him, and they were trying to load him into their vehicle when outside agitators actually scooped him up and brought them into a car and drove him away, apparently to a nearby hospital. So this is something that was shown in a separate TikTok from his account that sources shared with me. He was involved, again, in trying to impede an ICE operation. This week, he tried to ram the vehicle of the ICE officers. And because of that, those officers chose to fire defensive shots at him. He was shot, and a ricochet bullet also hit a US marshal. Both were taken to the hospital and are expected to be okay. But he's notorious for these types of actions. At the same time, we learned that he was actually recognized by the Los Angeles City Council recently for his efforts in exposing ICE. They even said on the award that it was for his, quote, tireless efforts to safeguard our neighborhoods from illegal raids.

So he's known as this individual that goes on TikTok, that posts about this to his over 100,000 followers, and also, apparently, is now wrapped up with the law.

All right, so here we have a known activist had a prior incident, and then he was awarded by the city for his past actions. Do we know if the Trump administration is doing anything to stop this?

They're really trying to throw the law at him when it comes to any charges they can carry out against him in addition to immigration violations. The US attorney in California, Bill O'Saley, has also hit him with charges for assaulting a law enforcement officer. Having those two consecutive cases will really ensure that he is removed from the United States because no matter whose custody he's in, he will eventually end up in ICE custody, where the goal will be to remove him from the United States.

Now, on the other side of the country, in New York City, we're hearing about a major ICE operation that took place on the infamous Canal Street on Tuesday. Can you tell us what exactly occurred there?

Right. So Canal Street is an area that is known for the sale of counterfeit goods, drug markets, all kinds of illicit activity. Ice has done operations in this area for a while. But because there's so much scrutiny on the Trump administration right now, you're seeing a lot of attention towards this issue, this raid that happened, that even drew a mob of rioters. So there were nine arrests of mostly illegal immigrants from Africa. Five of them actually were led into the United States by the Biden administration. And they have pretty egregious rap sheets for things like forgery, for drug trafficking, for assault. The reason that these individuals were out on the streets, despite having already been wrapped up with the law, is because of the sanctuary laws that have protected them. We actually spoke with the head of the office in New York, and this is what he said about the issue.

The residents and the business owners about them being in front of the area. You have the regular public that sometimes interacts with them, complaints because They get harassed by them. It's something that NYPD has done quality of life operations on, which is great.

The only issue is with the sanctuary status here in New York City, once NYPD arrest them, either due to bail reform or the sanctuary policies, they are released back into the community.

They're never turned back over. They're never called. Ice is never called, so we don't know about it. We have to then try and find them and research them.

Like I said, being a transient population, moving around, it's tough to pinpoint exactly where they might be at that time.

But we had an intelligence-driven up for this one with many leads in this area. Well, as usual, a lot going on on the immigration front. Jennie, thank you so much for reporting on this force.

Thank you.

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