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At 9:30 p.m. on the 29th, KBS1 ‘Correspondents Report: The World Now’ episode 429 covers citizens enraged by soaring prices and the mass abduction incident in Nigeria.

■ Affordability debate, capture public sentiment

“Trump, live in our house for a week and see what we eat to survive.”

The United States is crying out over grocery prices that are hard to bear. And the word meaning ‘affordable’, ‘Affordability’, has emerged as a core term in American politics.

President Trump criticized during last year's campaign that the Biden administration failed to curb soaring prices and pledged that he would lower prices from day one in office. Yet as the second Trump administration approaches its first anniversary, living costs for Americans are rising sharply. Coffee prices are up as much as 40%, and beef and bananas are up 15% and 7%, respectively. According to a CNN poll, 72% of Americans say the economy is not good, and 61% say the policies of Trump are making the economy worse.

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Amid this, Democrat Joran Mamdani ran for New York mayor and won with the slogan ‘For a New York You Can Afford(For a New York You Can Afford)’. In the governor elections in New Jersey and Virginia, ‘Affordability’ also emerged as the biggest issue, and Democratic candidates won.

A sense of crisis is spreading within the Republican Party that they could lose in next year's midterm elections at this rate. Trump, who had stuck to tariff policy, has stepped back by announcing the withdrawal of tariffs on some food items such as coffee, bananas, beef, and cocoa. Can President Trump deliver ‘affordable prices’ and calm Americans?

We examine the United States, now struggling with soaring prices, and the background to the rise of the word ‘affordable(Affordability)’ as the talk of the political world.

■ Kidnappings as soon as people wake up, Nigeria in fear

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Recently, Nigeria has been gripped by fear. Universities nationwide received closure orders, and an order was issued to hire 30,000 additional police officers. What on earth has happened in Nigeria?

At dawn on the 17th, gunshots rang out at a dormitory of a national girls middle school in Kebbi State, Nigeria, and armed assailants who broke in abducted 24 students. The next day, another abduction occurred, when a church in western Kwara State was raided by armed men. They appeared firing guns and abducted 38 church members in total. The tragedy did not end there. On the 21st, 315 students and staff were abducted at a Catholic boarding school in Niger State. Who on earth abducted them, and why?

In Nigeria, an estimated 2,500 people have been abducted over roughly ten years since 2014. In particular, the 2014 abduction of 276 middle school girls by the extremist Islamist armed group ‘Boko Haram’ sparked international outrage, followed by the ‘#BringBackOurGirls’ campaign. Boko Haram, which rejects Western-style education, carried out abductions targeting Christian homes‧schools, and victims were reportedly forced to convert to Islam and to marry members of the group.

Of those recently abducted, 50 returned home safely, but some victims remain unaccounted for. Little is known about the armed group beyond that they approached seeking ransom. President Trump also recently urged the Nigerian government to act and even suggested the possibility of U.S. military involvement in Nigeria. We look into the situation in Nigeria, gripped by fear after a series of large-scale abductions, and explore the background hidden behind the incidents.

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‘Correspondents Report: The World Now’ episode 429 features anchor Yoon Soo-Young, Professor Kim Jae-Cheon (Sogang University), Team Leader Oh Geon-Young (Shinhan Bank WM Division), and Professor Moon Chung-Sik (Chung-Ang University), and will air live on KBS1 at 9:30 p.m. on November 29.