New York Post, Ariel Zilber: Costco is rationing its Kirkland Signature motor oil as a global shortage of a key ingredient used in synthetic lubricants sends prices soaring — with a 10-quart pack that once sold for as little as $30 now fetching nearly $58.

The warehouse giant is limiting members to two units every seven days as supplies of premium base oils remain squeezed by production outages and disruptions in the Middle East.

Costco’s website lists two-packs of its Kirkland Signature 0W-20 and 5W-20 full synthetic motor oil — 10 quarts in total — for $57.99.

That’s nearly double the roughly $30 price the Kirkland oil has fetched in the past, according to The Auto Wire.

Fuel prices have been surging alongside the lubricant squeeze. The EIA’s latest weekly reading put regular gasoline at $4.16 a gallon and on-highway diesel at a record $5.97, while more recent AAA data put diesel above $6 a gallon and regular near $4.29.

Crude oil, meanwhile, has climbed back above $100 a barrel — adding another layer of pressure to motor-oil makers already grappling with a shortage of premium Group III base oils, as refiners have more incentive to steer barrels toward higher-margin gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

The purchase cap on motor oil is an unusual step for a product that generally has a long shelf life and can be stored by consumers for future oil changes.

The shortage is largely concentrated in Group III base oil, a highly refined petroleum product widely used to make full-synthetic and low-viscosity motor oils.

Andrew Lipow, president of Houston-based consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates, said the squeeze is concentrated in the premium base stocks used to make synthetic lubricants.

“What we do know is that Qatar, UAE, and Korea provide what is known as Group III Base Oils,” Lipow told The Post.

“They are used in synthetic motor oil and synthetic blends of motor oil and have superior performance qualities.”

Lipow said the supply crunch is already working its way downstream.

“Yes, there seems to be a supply shortfall, and the packaging plants are seeing it first followed by some of the retailers,” he said.

About 44% of normal US demand for Group III base oil had been supplied from the Persian Gulf before much of that supply was knocked offline this year, according to the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association.

The trade group has said damage, shutdowns and other disruptions caused by the ongoing war in Iran has hit major producers in Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Among the biggest blows was damage to Shell’s Pearl gas-to-liquids facility in Qatar, which had supplied roughly 30,000 barrels a day, according to ILMA.

Repairs there were expected to take at least a year, the group said in April.

The shortage has persisted even as shipping conditions have improved because damaged production capacity and depleted inventories cannot be quickly replaced, according to the industry group.

That has left blenders scrambling for Group III supplies from other regions, including South Korea — itself a major importer of Middle Eastern crude.

Prices across the lubricant market have climbed sharply as those supply pressures have mounted.

The producer price index for finished lubricants jumped about 15.8% between March and August, while an industry survey of 97 motor oil products found retail prices rose 24.2% from February through August.

Valvoline has said higher lubricant costs were adding roughly $5 to $7 to the cost of an oil change, according to industry reporting.

And relief may not come quickly.

Prophetic Link:
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Matthew 24:6-8

Source References

• Costco starts rationing motor oil as global shortage sends prices soaring

WTTW, by Blake Thor: A report from the Presidential Religious Liberty Commission calls for a clawback of the separation of church and state, a fundamental American legal principle for more than two centuries. 

Speaking at the White House Friday, Texas Lt. Gov. and Commission Chair Dan Patrick said the separation of church and state is not in the U.S. Constitution. 

“The separation of church and state is not in the Constitution,” Patrick said. “And from this day forward, if anyone says that to you and they’re in public office or serve in any agency, in any official capacity, they have to point out exactly where you have violated the Constitution, because you have not. And from this day forward, that phrase should have no power over people of all faiths ever again in America.”

President Donald Trump created the commission via executive order last May. Composed almost entirely of White Christians, the commission made a series of policy recommendations based on the underlying assertion that religious Americans have suffered discrimination for expressing their beliefs in public settings.

Recommendations include creating a Presidential Medal of Religious Liberty, establishing a hotline for individuals experiencing religious discrimination and confirming “federal judges with the courage to decide religious liberty cases on the merits.” 

The commission also recommends repealing the Johnson Amendment, which prevents tax-exempt organizations, including houses of worship, from making political endorsements. 

Critics say adopting the recommendations would bring the government dangerously close to endorsing Christianity, while also failing to account for discrimination against other religions like Islam. 

Quincy Worthington, a pastor at the Highland Park Presbyterian Church, said the commission’s report is part of a larger shift toward the government tolerating only certain religions.

“I think we gotta be careful about this. We already see the Department of Defense, taking 200 different known religions and narrowing it down and saying, ‘We’re only gonna accept 30,’” Worthington said, referring to a Pentagon policy change from last month. 

Hassan Aly, an Islamic scholar and founder of the Qiam Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting Islamic values through education, said he admires the American Constitution for preventing the adoption of a state religion. 

“I think that the genius of the American constitutional system is that it allows each citizen who lives in this country to practice their own religion with freedom and dignity, but at the same time prevents the state from advocating or adopting one religion over another,” Aly said. “It’s very obvious in everyday American life.” 

The report mentions Islam sparingly relative to Christianity and Judaism. Aly said he wishes Muslims and practitioners of other religions outside Christianity were represented better on the commission. 

“We’re (Muslims) not the only religion that has no representation in this commission,” Aly said. “We have a lot of other religions in America — minorities, people who practice their own religions. They have temples. They have places of worship, and they have children who go to public schools. To have even a discussion about something as fundamental as faith communities, we have to have representation.”

Much of the report’s 224 pages focus on how religion has operated inside the classroom. The commission argues that students are being forced to suppress their religious beliefs for the sake of a certain curriculum or school policy.

The report mentions the case of 12-year-old Shea Encinas from California, who said he was forced to read a book about changing genders to a classmate despite his Christian faith. 

“The book said you can choose your gender based on feelings instead of how God made us,” Encinas said at a commission hearing in September 2025, with Trump in attendance. “I knew this was not right, but I was afraid of getting into trouble.”

Worthington said students should be able to express their faith, but that the Trump administration should be careful where it draws the line. 

“In this case, it’s a matter of students being able to freely express their religion, but then when you bring in teachers and people in power, you run the risk of them enforcing or promoting a religion onto students,” Worthington said. “I think that’s where the danger comes from, allowing people to express religion without having religion forced upon them.” 

The commission’s report comes on the heels of a Texas state law that made Bible verses required reading across Texas public schools. Texas also requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms. 

Josh Weiner is the chief advocacy officer at the North American Values Institute, a nonprofit that says it’s focused on combating extremism and antisemitism in K-12 schools. He said America must grapple with its relationship to Christianity, which can be traced back to the founding.

“I do think that it’s important that we do have a conversation about this country’s founding and how woven religion is into that founding,” Weiner said. “The Declaration of Independence talks about being endowed by our creator — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are things that do come from hebraic, biblical text. I think teaching that history is important.” 

But he added that students should not be told what to believe by their schools. 

“Having the Ten Commandments in the classroom could amount to implying that the school actually endorses the Ten Commandments,” Weiner said. “We certainly need to be careful about straying into indoctrinating students with a belief that ‘This is what you need to believe because the school is telling you to.’”

Prophetic Link:
“When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the State to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy.” The Great Controversy, p. 445.

Source References

• Faith Leaders React to Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission Targeting Separation of Church and State

AP News, by Victoria Milko and Niranjan Shrestha: Authorities in Nepal warned of possible fresh flooding on Sunday and urged residents in flood-affected districts to remain on high alert after water levels rose in the Bhotekoshi River.

Flood warning notices were sent to people’s phones early Sunday as rescue crews worked to clear a major highway connecting Kathmandu to one of the areas worst hit by Wednesday’s catastrophic floods, which killed at least 800 people and left more than 3,000 missing in Nepal and Tibet.

The latest warnings came after Chinese authorities informed their Nepalese counterparts of increased water flow upstream, according to Dharam Raj Uprety, chief executive of Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.

The Chinese state news agency Xinhua, citing the country’s water resources ministry, said a new lake formed after Wednesday’s floods high in the mountains had largely drained.

But Xinhua said the ministry warned that a crater located 5.6 kilometers (3.5 miles) upstream, which held an estimated 1.4 million cubic meters (370 million gallons) of water, still posed some risk and required close monitoring.

Nepal’s disaster agency said Sunday the death toll had climbed to 788 with 2,502 missing, while Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths and 546 missing on the Chinese side of the border.

The missing include hundreds of people from over a dozen countries who were in the region to work, visit the mountains or make a pilgrimage to a sacred peak. On Sunday, Chinese state media said 261 foreigners were missing in Tibet, including over a hundred Nepalis and others from around the world.

Some are returning to what remained of their homes

In Dhading, one of the worst-hit regions in Nepal, some residents began returning to ruined homes to see what can be salvaged.

Residents sat in homes with walls washed away by the floods, shoveling sludge-like mud and rubble off balconies or window frames. Others scanned the ground for items they could pick out of the mud and rinse off. One man had returned for his chickens, which he found alive. He tied them up and put them in the cabin of his truck.

“Everything is finished. Nothing is left. Not even our home,” Sharmila Tamang, a Dhading resident who was trying to salvage items from her home, told The Associated Press.

At a key power plant that was severely damaged by the floods, workers started inspecting the facilities Sunday to survey the destruction. The plant serves over 20,000 people across four districts.

In the town of Galchhi, a group of residents sought higher ground on a nearby bridge and watched as the river roared by. Some pointed to enormous rocks washed downriver during the earlier floods, while others standing on a suspension bridge were warned off with whistles.

Along the river, homes, vehicles and farm tractors could be seen jutting from the thick gray-brown sediment that enveloped entire villages in some areas. Parts of rice terraces along the riverside had dropped into the river after landslides hit them.

Residents are receiving constant flood warnings

Homes and businesses left intact after the flooding were still without electricity on Sunday, as twisted power line poles and wires lay tangled in the mud.

Residents of flood-hit villages said they were struggling to make sense of near-constant alarms they’ve received since the initial floods.

“Sometimes they say a flood is coming, then we have to run again to higher ground, even at night. There is also rain,” said Govind Shreshta, a resident. “It’s really difficult for me. I have a 72-year-old father and 70-year-old mom. I must carry them and I am exhausted. It’s going on like this for those who are still alive.”

Large concrete and smaller suspension bridges were destroyed, leaving communities on the other side of the river with less easy access.

“Those who are there are now stuck there. Those who are here are stuck here. It’s going to be very difficult,” said Sattan Singh Tamang, 47, who was working near a bridge when Wednesday’s floods came.

Minister says Nepalis have become victims of climate change

Wednesday’s flash floods started after a glacial collapse high in the Himalayan region. Scientists who studied satellite images said bedrock underneath a glacier high in the Himalayan region had collapsed, taking part of the glacier with it. The rockfall was so extreme that it registered as a magnitude 5.2 earthquake.

The rocks and melted water then swelled the rivers in the valleys below, causing a torrent of water that swept buildings, bridges and earth downstream in Tibet and Nepal.

Nepal’s foreign minister called for a global response to climate change, saying Nepal was bearing a disproportionate share of its impact.

“Despite having only 0.1% contribution to the global emissions, people of Nepal have become major victims of climate change,” Shisir Khanal said Saturday.

Scientists have said it is too early to draw a direct connection between global warming and Wednesday’s catastrophe. However, they said that as Earth’s temperature rises because of human activities such as burning oil, gas and coal, the chances of such disasters increase, especially in the Himalayan mountains, which are warming considerably faster than many other parts of the world.

Meanwhile, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Sunday his country will send a search-and-rescue team to Nepal to assist with relief efforts and help evacuate Malaysians affected by the disaster.

Malaysia has also pledged $1 million in financial aid to Nepal, he said in a statement.

Prophetic Link:
“Already the restraining Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the world. And hurricanes, tempests, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause.” The Watchman, December 25, 1906, par. 8

Source References

• Nepal warns of possible fresh flooding as communities grapple with devastation

AP News: The U.S. government has declared a drought disaster in the U.S. Virgin Islands as dry conditions persist.

St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix are all experiencing an extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and no relief is in sight.

The declaration announced Thursday will allow farmers and agricultural producers to seek federal emergency loans.

“Our farmers are essential to our food security, our economy and our way of life,” U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. said in a statement.

He had requested the federal declaration earlier this month.

“This declaration does not make the drought disappear, but it gives our farmers another tool to withstand its effects,” he said.

The deepening drought also has affected neighboring Puerto Rico, where officials recently implemented water rationing measures for certain neighborhoods in seven cities, including San Juan, the island’s capital.

More than 33% of Puerto Rico is under extreme drought, and another 30% under a severe drought.

Experts blame the lack of rainfall on a natural warming cycle known as El Niño. It is particularly strong this year, leading to an anticipated below-average Atlantic hurricane season.

He had requested the federal declaration earlier this month.

“This declaration does not make the drought disappear, but it gives our farmers another tool to withstand its effects,” he said.

The deepening drought also has affected neighboring Puerto Rico, where officials recently implemented water rationing measures for certain neighborhoods in seven cities, including San Juan, the island’s capital.

More than 33% of Puerto Rico is under extreme drought, and another 30% under a severe drought.

Experts blame the lack of rainfall on a natural warming cycle known as El Niño. It is particularly strong this year, leading to an anticipated below-average Atlantic hurricane season.

Prophetic Link:
“We are amid the perils of the last days, and trying times are before us. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, that those things that cannot be shaken may remain. Drought, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, casualties by sea and land, will multiply. Life will be unsafe anywhere, only as the life is hid with Christ in God. Now, while the angels are holding the four winds, is our opportunity to seek the Lord most earnestly.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 20, p. 285

Source References

• US government declares drought disaster for US Virgin Islands

WRAL News, by Madison Czopek: The eggs are contaminated with salmonella. Frozen berries have been linked to an E. coli outbreak. Iceberg lettuce and who knows what else might give you explosive diarrhea. Some people have endured the barrage of frightening food news with dark humor.

“So the bread has glass in it, the lettuce has diarrhea bacteria, the eggs have salmonella,” wrote one Facebook user, poking at recalls of Pillsbury bread rolls for possible glass contamination and iceberg lettuce for cyclospora contamination. “At this point, grocery shopping is just an overpriced episode of Fear Factor.”

The jokes can be funny, but the unanswered question behind them is not: Is our food becoming less safe?

The U.S. food supply is “among the safest in the world,” said Steven Mandernach, the Association of Food and Drug Officials’ executive director. “It’s always been among the safest in the world. I see nothing that has changed.”

But it’s notoriously difficult to answer in real-time whether our food is getting less safe, food safety experts said. Most expect the Trump administration’s cuts to federal, state and local public health entities to weaken the nation’s food safety guardrails in the long run. Whether that is playing out in the short term is less clear.

Here’s what else we learned from food safety experts, and diving into the data.

The cyclosporiasis situation doesn’t prove food safety is rapidly declining.

Yes, record-breaking numbers of domestically obtained cyclosporiasis cases recorded in 45 states have heightened food safety concerns.

But cyclosporiasis outbreaks are difficult to catch quickly and the time it took for public health officials to identify a link between at least one product and the summer’s rising cyclosporiasis cases was “right on schedule with what we’ve seen with other cyclospora outbreaks,” Mandernach said. “If anything, maybe a tiny bit earlier than normal.”

That suggests the U.S. surveillance system is working, he said.

Plus, previous cyclosporiasis outbreaks were likely undercounted, he said, because testing accuracy has improved in the past five years.

Cyclosporiasis outbreaks vary from year to year, but during some seasons, multiple failures cause big outbreaks, said Don Schaffner, a Rutgers University food science specialist.

“I don’t know that we have a perfect storm this year, but hopefully we will learn something more about why this particular outbreak was so bad,” he said July 22.

Mandernach said this year’s uptick does signal that the U.S. hasn’t invested enough in cyclospora research and prevention in the past two decades. But it’s not a sign that food is getting less safe. However, if health officials never determine what went wrong to cause this record-breaking cyclosporiasis season, that could be cause for concern, he said.

Summer is when foodborne illness is more common and gets more media attention.

More foodborne illnesses happen in summer.

“It’s hot,” Mandernach said. “Refrigeration sometimes fails.”

It’s also when pathogens like cyclospora and salmonella are most common.

Increased news coverage makes people pay closer attention to food safety issues and notice subsequent headlines about other recalls for pathogens or other contaminants.

What does data show about food recalls and illness outbreaks?

To really know if food is becoming less safe, it’s important to analyze cases of foodborne illness. Yet getting complete and current data is difficult.

Historically, the best data on foodborne disease trends came from the FoodNet program, a collaboration between the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and 10 state health departments. Its most recent data is from 2024, and it showed that the incidence of infections acquired in the U.S. were rising for shigella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), Vibrio and Yersinia.

For years, FoodNet participants reported data on eight pathogens including cyclospora, but in July 2025, the Trump administration made it optional to report data for cyclospora and five other pathogens.

Based on the data made public about the FDA’s Coordinated Outbreak Response & Evaluation Response (CORE) Teams’ investigations into foodborne outbreaks, we’re seeing slightly more outbreak investigations this year than before.

So far in 2026, the FDA has posted approximately 2.71 investigations each month. In the first seven months of 2025, the FDA posted 2.29 investigations per month. In 2024, it was 1.43 per month; 1.86 per month in 2023; and 2.29 in 2022.

This data doesn’t include all investigations into outbreaks. It includes many multistate outbreak investigations that were assigned to a CORE team, but that’s a relatively small proportion of the total outbreaks that occur, said Rutgers University epidemiologist Craig Hedberg.

Available food and beverage recall data from the FDA and shows the number of recalls in 2026 is on pace with recent years — at least so far.

Data from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service shows that in 2025, the U.S. recorded a 10-year high total of pounds of recalled meat, poultry and egg products.

From 2015 to 2025, Food Safety and Inspection Services reported that manufacturers recalled an average of about 23.2 million pounds of meat, poultry and egg products. The USDA website’s recall data shows that in 2026, manufacturers have already recalled over 37 million pounds of these products.

Even combined, this data doesn’t tell a comprehensive food safety story. It’s overly simplistic to view increasing outbreak investigations or recalls as proof that the system is getting worse.

Upticks in investigations and recalls “could be a sign that more issues are being caught,” said Sarah Sorscher, the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s director of regulatory affairs.

Trump administration policies could weaken food safety standards, experts warn

Some food safety experts say the administration’s cuts have hindered the government’s response and communication to the cyclosporiasis outbreaks, but Mandernach is among those who disagree.

Mandernach said the cyclospora response played out as he would expect, suggesting the cuts had “very limited, if any impact.”

The cyclospora situation aside, other impacts are clear. In 2025, American inspections of foreign food facilities dropped to historic lows because of the cuts, Sorscher said.

The administration has also deprioritized criminal enforcement for violating regulations, which might mean companies are less motivated to comply. She pointed to a stalled Boar’s Head investigation and the halted prosecution of Abbott Nutrition as examples.

Future food safety is also uncertain, experts warned.

Scaling back FoodNet’s pathogen surveillance will undermine future efforts to monitor trends in foodborne illness, Hedberg said.

Sorscher said the FDA, CDC and state and local public health agencies are losing qualified experts to early retirement and struggling to maintain qualified staff to inspect food and solve outbreaks.

“FDA and USDA have also dissolved advisory committees and de-prioritized enforcement and regulation,” she said. “Long term, this will have an impact on the safety of food as standards deteriorate.”

Prophetic Link:
“The physical surroundings in the cities are often a peril to health. The constant liability to contact with disease, the prevalence of foul air, impure water, impure food, the crowded, dark, unhealthful dwellings, are some of the many evils to be met.” The Ministry of Healing, p. 365

Source References

• Fact-check: Has the US had more foodborne illnesses and recalls than previous years?

USA Today, by Natalie Neysa Alund and Michael Loria: More than 150 people are dead and hundreds of people, including dozens of Americans, were missing on Aug. 26 after flash flooding in the Himalayan nation of Nepal, the country’s tourism board reported.

The flash flood took place at about 8:30 a.m. local time in the Bhote Koshi River in the country’s northern Rasuwa district near China’s Tibet border, authorities said.

Horrifying surveillance video circulating online shows people fleeing before the mudslide hits and a deluge crashes down on them. Drone footage also shows flooding devastation along the river as mud and waters engulf riverside communities.

So far, local police have reported 157 deaths connected to the disaster.

Initially, at least 384 travelers, including 291 foreign nationals, had been reported missing, the Nepal Tourism Board posted on social media.

“It was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us. As it got closer, it kept rising higher and higher. When I saw it enter our home, I tried to grab my wife’s hand and take her to the terrace. But she was swept away by the mud,” Keshav Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor who was being treated at a hospital, told Reuters. “Four or five hours later, a helicopter came to rescue me. My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud. She’s gone.”

Americans missing after flash flood in Nepal

Sunil Sharma, a Nepal tourism board spokesperson, told the Toronto Star the missing foreigners include 47 Americans, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 24 from Canada.

Officials said they were working to confirm the nationalities of hundreds of other tourists who remained missing as well as their “safety status.”

A State Department official said for U.S. citizens in the affected areas to follow instructions provided by local authorities and enroll in the department’s emergency updates program.

“We express our solidarity and are united in prayer for the Nepali people following the devastating floods,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on his official X page. The department “stands ready to support the Government of Nepal with needed humanitarian assistance.”

Many households in Rasuwa and Nuwakot are believed to have lost their homes or suffered significant damage, while damage to bridges and roads is also making it extremely difficult to reach some affected communities, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies told USA TODAY in an email.

Nepal Red Cross teams were deploying to affected areas and have begun providing initial assistance, including water, shelter materials, blankets and first aid supplies, the agency said.

“The news of the loss of lives and property caused by the sudden flood in the Bhote Koshi River flowing through Rasuwa and Nuwakot has left me extremely saddened,” Nepal’s President Ram Chandra Paudell said in a statement on X. “I urge everyone to remain vigilant and actively engage in necessary coordination and cooperation in the lower coastal areas.”

Prophetic Link:
“It is on the law of God that the last great struggle of the controversy between Christ and His angels and Satan and his angels will come, and it will be decisive for all the world…. Men in responsible positions will not only ignore and despise the Sabbath themselves, but from the sacred desk will urge upon the people the observance of the first day of the week, pleading tradition and custom in behalf of this man-made institution. They will point to calamities on land and sea—to the storms of wind, the floods, the earthquakes, the destruction by fire—as judgments indicating God’s displeasure because Sunday is not sacredly observed. These calamities will increase more and more, one disaster will follow close upon the heels of another; and those who make void the law of God will point to the few who are keeping the Sabbath of the fourth commandment as the ones who are bringing wrath upon the world. This falsehood is Satan’s device that he may ensnare the unwary.” The Southern Watchman, June 28, 1904 and Christian Service, 155.2

Source References

• ‘Swept away’: Hundreds missing in Nepal after deadly flash floods

CNN: Key developments

• Search for survivors: A frantic search is underway for more than 1,300 people missing after catastrophic flooding swamped a China-Nepal border region Wednesday. Dozens of Americans are among the at least 700 foreigners unaccounted for. President Donald Trump said the US is willing to send “any help” to Nepal.

• Death toll climbs: At least 469 people have been killed in Nepal, authorities said. CNN’s team on the ground has seen destroyed bridges and buried houses. Here’s how you can help.

• Secondary threat: Rain and chilly weather is expected in China’s Gyirong County, where it’s feared a dam created during the initial landslide could breach and cause more flooding.

• What caused it? Scientists are still working to determine exactly what caused the disaster. Video posted on Chinese social media showed where a large portion of glacier broke off a mountain and plunged into the river below.

Prophetic Link:
“The time is at hand when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn. Disasters by sea and by land follow one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! Apparently these calamities are capricious outbreaks of disorganized, unregulated forces of nature, wholly beyond the control of man; but in them all, God’s purpose may be read. They are among the agencies by which He seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger.” Prophets and Kings, page 277.

Source References

• August 26-27, 2026 — Deadly flash flood hits Nepal-China border region

Reuters, by Marta Fiorin, Christian Levaux, Yves Herman and Kate Abnett: Rain over eastern Belgium on Monday brought some relief to firefighters ‌battling to contain the country’s biggest wildfire on record, which had threatened to reach the German border.

Wildfires have ripped through Europe this summer, with successive heatwaves fuelled by climate change intensifying drought and leaving vegetation tinder-dry.

From France and Spain to Greece, fires have killed more than 20 people, forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and burned 576,000 hectares (2,225 square miles) across Europe this year, data from the European Forest Fire Information System shows – an area twice the size of Luxembourg.

ARMY, FARMERS BATTLE BELGIUM’S BIGGEST FIRE

In Greece, an elderly couple died at the weekend as fires swept through the island of Salamina, where 500 people were evacuated by ferry after wind pushed the flames into residential areas.

Spanish firefighters stabilised a massive wildfire in Andalusia in the south that has burned nearly 40,000 hectares (98,842 acres)since August 6, while a fire in the tourist town of Omis, Croatia, forced 1,000 people to flee.

In Belgium, firefighters aided by rain and lower temperatures early on Monday had contained parts of the blaze in the High Fens, a nature reserve in the east of Belgium which has been burning since Friday – following a heatwave that saw thermometers in parts of Belgium hit 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

“This is the biggest ecological disaster in terms of forest fires, that’s clear, for Belgium,” said Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the administration of the Wallonia region.

“We can’t say that the fire is contained. It flares up all the time,” he told Reuters.

Some 500 firefighters from across Belgium, neighbouring Germany and Luxembourg, as well as farmers, soldiers and reinforcement aircraft from the European Union’s emergency reserve, have been battling the blaze.

Having burned 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres), the wildfire is Belgium’s ‌biggest on record, far surpassing a blaze in 2011 which burned close to 1,400 hectares. Evacuated residents have not yet been allowed to return home.

The fire has penetrated the nature reserve’s metres-deep peat bogs – meaning it could take months to fully extinguish. Peat fires can smoulder underground, without flames, for long periods.

EUROPE’S FIRE SEASON FAR FROM OVER

Extreme fire risk has become a regular part of European summers in recent years, as hotter, drier weather caused by climate change has combined with other factors – including rural abandonment, which has left land untended and allowed flammable, dry vegetation to build up in forests – to fuel fast-spreading fires.

Fires were also raging on Monday in northeastern Spain, where a firefighter died on Sunday, and in northern Portugal’s Braganca district.

About 90% of wildfires are ignited by human activities, such as campfires or discarded cigarettes. Prosecutors in Belgium have opened an investigation into the cause of the blaze.

German firefighters were also working to contain a fire front 1.5 km (0.9 miles) away from buildings in the evacuated German village of Ruitzhof, close to the Belgian border. A local fire department spokesperson said the situation was “static”.

Europe had already suffered its worst fire season on record last year, with more than a million hectares of land burned. Some countries, including France, have smashed through their annual records this year, with the traditional June-September fire season far from over.

Dozens of people in the village Le Porge, in southwestern France, where hundreds of homes were destroyed by a megafire last month, booed French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu as he visited on Monday. Residents have criticised the government’s response and accused authorities of prioritising richer areas.

Prophetic Link:
“In fires, in floods, in earthquakes, in the fury of the great deep, in calamities by sea and by land, the warning is given that God’s Spirit will not always strive with men.” Last Day Events, 26.2

Source References

• Rain aids fight against Belgium’s biggest wildfire, as blazes rip through Europe

Faith Scout: Church attendance in America has been one of the most studied and debated social metrics of the past decade. Between the COVID-19 shutdowns, a generational shift in religious identity, and the rapid rise of digital worship, the landscape looks dramatically different than it did even five years ago. But the story in 2026 is more nuanced than any single headline can capture. Some churches are emptier than ever. Others are bursting at the seams. And the reasons behind both trends tell us something important about where American faith is headed.

The Big Picture: Where Church Attendance Stands in 2026

Let’s start with the numbers that frame the conversation. According to Gallup’s most recent data, roughly 30-31% of Americans report attending a religious service weekly or nearly weekly. That figure has been essentially flat since 2021, when it dropped from the pre-pandemic baseline of about 34% (itself a decline from 42% in the early 2000s). The Pew Research Center’s 2024 survey found that 58% of Americans identify as Christian, down from 65% in 2019 and 78% in 2007.

But raw percentages mask a more interesting picture. Total weekly church attenders in the United States still number somewhere between 75 and 80 million people on any given Sunday. That’s more than the combined weekly viewership of every NFL game during the regular season. The institution is smaller than it was, yes, but it remains one of the largest organized activities in American life by an enormous margin.

What’s changed is who shows up, where they go, and how they engage. Understanding those shifts matters whether you’re a pastor, a church planter, or someone trying to figure out where to spend your Sunday mornings.

The “Dechurching” Phenomenon: 40 Million Missing

The most talked-about research in recent years comes from Jim Davis and Michael Graham’s 2023 book The Great Dechurching, which drew on a massive survey conducted by Ryan Burge and the Evangelical research team. Their central finding: roughly 40 million Americans who were regular churchgoers have stopped attending over the past 25 years. That represents the largest and fastest religious shift in U.S. history.

Critically, the research distinguishes between different types of “dechurched” people:

– Casually dechurched evangelicals — people who drifted away gradually, often due to life changes like moving, having kids, or shifting work schedules. This is the largest group, and the one most likely to return.
– Casually dechurched mainline Protestants and Catholics — similar drift pattern, but from traditions that were already experiencing decades of decline.
– Intentionally dechurched — people who left because of specific grievances: church politics, perceived hypocrisy, the politicization of faith, abuse scandals, or a genuine change in beliefs. This group is harder to reach and less likely to come back under traditional approaches.

The dechurching data matters because it reframes the conversation. The question isn’t just “why don’t people go to church?” It’s “why did people who used to go to church stop?” Those are very different questions with very different answers — and churches that understand the distinction are the ones growing right now.

Post-COVID Recovery: Uneven and Ongoing

The pandemic didn’t create the attendance decline, but it accelerated it dramatically. In-person attendance dropped by roughly 45-50% during the peak of COVID restrictions in 2020. By late 2021, most churches had reopened, but the return has been slower than almost anyone predicted.

The Barna Group’s longitudinal tracking found that by mid-2023, the average U.S. church had recovered to about 85% of its pre-COVID attendance. By early 2025, that number had inched up to roughly 88-90% for churches that actively worked to re-engage members. But many congregations — particularly smaller ones with fewer than 100 members — never recovered. The National Congregations Study estimates that between 4,000 and 5,000 U.S. churches closed permanently between 2020 and 2025.

The recovery pattern is highly unequal. Churches that invested in quality online streaming, maintained personal contact with members during lockdowns, and adapted their programming bounced back faster. Churches that simply waited for people to come back often found that many never did.

There’s also a frequency shift. Pre-pandemic, a “regular” churchgoer attended about 3.5 times per month. By 2025, that number had dropped to roughly 2.5-2.8 times per month. People who consider themselves active church members are simply showing up less often. This has massive implications for volunteering, giving, and community formation — and it’s one of the hardest trends for church leaders to address.

Gen Z and the Surprising Return to Faith

Here’s where the story gets interesting, and where a lot of the popular narrative about “religion dying” falls apart.

Gen Z (born roughly 1997-2012) was supposed to be the most secular generation in American history. And by some measures, they are: surveys consistently show that Gen Z is more likely than any previous generation to identify as religiously unaffiliated (the “nones”). The American Enterprise Institute’s 2023 survey put that number at around 34% of Gen Z adults.

But here’s the twist: among Gen Z members who do attend church, engagement levels are remarkably high. A 2024 Springtide Research Institute study found that Gen Z churchgoers are more likely to attend a small group, serve as volunteers, and describe their faith as “central to their identity” than Millennials were at the same age. They’re also more likely to choose their church deliberately rather than simply inheriting their parents’ denomination.

Several factors are driving Gen Z’s renewed interest in church:

– Mental health and meaning-making. Gen Z reports the highest rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness of any generation. Research from Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program has consistently shown that religious participation is one of the strongest predictors of mental health and life satisfaction. Some Gen Z members are finding their way to church precisely because they’re looking for answers that social media and therapy alone haven’t provided.
– Digital-to-physical pipeline. Many young adults first encountered faith content through YouTube, TikTok, or podcasts — creators like the Bible Project, Fr. Mike Schmitz’s “Bible in a Year,” and various Reformed theology channels have millions of Gen Z followers. Some of these viewers eventually decide to visit a church in person.
– Counter-cultural appeal. For a generation raised on screens and algorithms, the offline, embodied experience of gathering with real people in a physical space has a certain novelty. Several pastors of growing Gen Z-heavy churches have described this to me as the “analog rebellion.”
– Authenticity demand. Gen Z churchgoers have very low tolerance for performative religion. They want churches that practice what they preach — literally. Churches that are transparent about their finances, honest about struggles, and engaged in tangible community service tend to attract younger members.

The Non-Denominational Surge

One of the clearest structural trends in American Christianity is the dramatic growth of non-denominational churches. According to the National Congregations Study, non-denominational congregations now account for roughly 1 in 5 Protestant churchgoers — up from about 1 in 10 in the early 2000s. In some fast-growing Sun Belt metros, that ratio is closer to 1 in 3.

Why are non-denominational churches growing while most mainline denominations shrink? The research points to several factors:

– Brand flexibility. Non-denominational churches aren’t weighed down by association with a larger institutional brand. When denominations become associated with specific political positions or scandals, individual churches under that umbrella suffer even if they had nothing to do with it. Non-denominational churches avoid this guilt-by-association problem.
– Worship style adaptability. Without denominational worship guidelines, these churches can adapt their music, sermon format, and service structure to match what their specific community wants. This often means contemporary music, casual dress codes, and sermon series structured around practical life topics.
– Entrepreneurial leadership. Many non-denominational churches are led by founding pastors with strong vision and communication skills. For better or worse, these churches often function more like startups than traditional institutions.
– Lower barriers to entry for newcomers. People who are new to church or returning after years away often find non-denominational churches less intimidating. There’s no assumed liturgical knowledge, no denominational jargon, and usually an explicit emphasis on welcoming visitors.

This isn’t to say denominations are disappearing. The Southern Baptist Convention remains the largest Protestant body in the U.S. with about 13 million members. The Catholic Church still claims roughly 70 million American adherents. But the center of gravity is shifting, and non-denominational churches are where much of the new growth is happening.

The Multisite and Megachurch Model

Closely related to the non-denominational surge is the continued growth of multisite churches — single organizations that operate campuses in multiple locations, often with a central teaching pastor whose sermons are broadcast to satellite sites.

The Leadership Network’s most recent multisite research found that over 5,000 U.S. churches now operate at least two campuses, up from roughly 1,500 in 2010. Some of the largest — Life.Church, Church of the Highlands, Elevation Church, Transformation Church — operate 15 to 40+ campuses across multiple states.

The model works for several reasons. It’s more capital-efficient than building new standalone churches. It allows proven teaching and programming to scale. And it gives attendees the experience of a large, well-resourced church while often maintaining a smaller campus feel with 200-500 people per location.

Critics argue that the multisite model creates a celebrity-pastor dependency, reduces local pastoral care, and can feel more like a franchise than a congregation. These are legitimate concerns. The research is mixed: Hartford Institute studies show that multisite campuses generally maintain strong volunteer engagement and giving rates, but pastoral care satisfaction scores tend to be lower at satellite campuses compared to the main campus.

Megachurches (defined as congregations with 2,000+ weekly attendance) now number over 1,750 in the U.S. — a figure that has roughly tripled since 2000. They account for a disproportionate share of total churchgoers. About 10-12% of all weekly church attenders in America go to a megachurch, even though megachurches represent less than 1% of all congregations.

Hybrid and Online Worship: Here to Stay

Before COVID, only about 10% of U.S. churches offered any form of online worship. By the end of 2020, that number was over 90%. In 2026, online and hybrid worship have settled into a permanent feature of the church landscape, though the models vary widely.

The Barna Group’s 2025 State of the Church report categorizes digital church engagement into three tiers:

– Supplement viewers — people who primarily attend in person but occasionally watch online when sick, traveling, or unable to make it on a given Sunday. This is the largest group, accounting for about 35-40% of regular churchgoers.
– Hybrid attenders — people who split their engagement roughly evenly between in-person and online. This group makes up about 10-15% of regular churchgoers and has been growing steadily since 2022.
– Online-only attenders — people who watch church services online but rarely or never attend in person. Estimates range from 15-20 million Americans, many of whom live in rural areas without nearby churches, have physical disabilities that limit mobility, or work schedules (healthcare, hospitality, first responders) that conflict with Sunday morning services.

The debate over whether online church “counts” has mostly given way to a more pragmatic reality: churches that offer high-quality digital options reach more people. Period. The theological and pastoral questions about embodied community remain important, but most church leaders have moved past the binary of “online vs. in-person” and are instead asking how to create meaningful connection points for both.

Some of the most innovative work is happening in midsize churches (200-800 weekly attendance) that use online platforms not just for broadcasting services but for small group facilitation, prayer request management, and weekday devotional content. These churches are finding that online tools can actually increase in-person attendance by keeping people connected during the week.

Geographic Shifts: Sun Belt Growth, Rural Decline

Church attendance patterns closely mirror broader U.S. population trends. Sun Belt metro areas — Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Nashville, Phoenix, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Austin — are seeing significant church growth, driven largely by population influx and church planting. The North American Mission Board (NAMB) reported planting over 600 new churches in 2024, with the majority in Sun Belt and suburban markets.

Meanwhile, rural churches and congregations in population-losing regions of the Midwest, Northeast, and Appalachia continue to struggle. The average rural church in America now has fewer than 60 regular attenders, and many are led by bivocational pastors who work another job during the week.

Suburban churches remain the healthiest segment overall. They benefit from growing populations, younger demographics, available land for expansion, and the financial resources of suburban households. This is where most multisite expansion is happening, and it’s where new non-denominational church plants are most likely to succeed.

Urban churches tell a split story. Downtown congregations in cities with strong population growth (Nashville, Denver, Raleigh) are often thriving. But urban churches in shrinking or stagnant cities face the same challenges as their rural counterparts, compounded by higher facility costs.

Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Pews

Martin Luther King Jr. famously called 11 a.m. on Sunday “the most segregated hour in America.” While Sunday mornings remain more racially homogeneous than most other public gatherings, the trend is slowly shifting.

Multiracial churches — defined by researchers as congregations where no single racial group makes up more than 80% of the attendees — have grown from about 6% of U.S. congregations in 2000 to roughly 16% in 2024, according to data from the Multiracial Congregations Project at Rice University. Among churches founded after 2010, the share is even higher: about 25%.

Hispanic/Latino church growth is one of the most significant demographic stories in American Christianity. The Pew Research Center found that about 47% of Hispanic Americans attend church at least monthly, and Hispanic evangelical and Pentecostal congregations are among the fastest-growing churches in the country. Many Catholic parishes in the South and West have become majority-Hispanic in the past decade.

Asian American church growth, particularly among Korean, Chinese, and Filipino congregations, continues in metro areas with large Asian American populations. Second-generation Asian American Christians are increasingly moving from ethnic-specific churches to multiethnic congregations, creating interesting dynamics around cultural identity and worship style.

Black church attendance has remained more stable than white church attendance over the past decade, though it’s not immune to the broader dechurching trend. The Black church continues to serve as a center of community life, social services, and political organizing in ways that distinguish it from most white evangelical and mainline congregations.

What Growing Churches Have in Common

Across denominations, geographies, and church sizes, the congregations that are growing in 2026 share several characteristics. These aren’t guarantees — context matters enormously — but the research patterns are clear.

– Strong, consistent teaching. Growing churches invest heavily in sermon quality. This doesn’t mean flashy production values — it means thoughtful, well-prepared messages that connect scripture to real life. The Hartford Institute’s research consistently finds that “quality of preaching” is the #1 factor churchgoers cite when explaining why they chose their church.
– Genuine hospitality (not just a greeting team). There’s a difference between someone handing you a bulletin and someone actually learning your name. Growing churches train their members — not just a volunteer team — to notice and engage newcomers. The follow-up after a first visit matters enormously: a personal text or email within 24 hours is far more effective than a form letter.
– Small groups and relational depth. Sunday morning alone doesn’t build community. Growing churches have robust small group, home group, or life group systems that give people a place to belong, not just attend. Research from the Exponential Network found that churches with over 50% of their congregation in small groups grow at nearly twice the rate of churches without structured small group programs.
– Clear next steps for newcomers. Growing churches don’t leave visitors wondering what to do after their first Sunday. There’s a visible path: attend a service, come to a newcomer event, join a small group, find a place to serve. The simpler and more explicit that path is, the better the retention.
– Active community engagement. Churches that are known in their neighborhoods for tangible good — food pantries, tutoring programs, disaster relief, addiction recovery support — tend to grow faster than churches that are only known for their Sunday services. This is especially true among younger demographics.

Giving and Financial Realities

Church finances tell their own story about engagement trends. The Giving USA Foundation reported that religious giving totaled approximately $145 billion in 2024, making it the largest single category of charitable giving in America. However, adjusted for inflation, religious giving has been essentially flat for a decade while other charitable categories have grown.

Per-capita giving to churches has declined. The average churchgoing household gives about 2.2% of income to their church, down from about 2.5% in 2010 and far below the 3.1% average from the 1970s. Megachurches and larger congregations tend to have higher per-capita giving, likely because they attract more engaged members and have more sophisticated giving platforms (online, mobile, recurring).

Digital giving has been a bright spot. Churches that adopted online and mobile giving platforms saw giving increase by an average of 15-20% compared to churches relying solely on physical offering plates. Recurring automated giving, in particular, smooths out the seasonal fluctuations that have traditionally made church budgeting difficult.

Looking Ahead: What Comes Next

Predicting the future of church attendance is a fool’s errand, but the current data suggests a few likely trajectories:

Continued polarization between growing and declining churches. The “middle” is hollowing out. Small-to-midsize churches that were already struggling before COVID are closing at an accelerated rate. Larger, well-resourced churches are absorbing many of those members. This consolidation is likely to continue.

The “nones” plateau. The percentage of religiously unaffiliated Americans has been growing for two decades, but there are early signs that the growth is decelerating. Some researchers, including Ryan Burge at Eastern Illinois University, have suggested that the “nones” may plateau at around 35-38% of the population — still a massive shift from the single-digit figures of the 1990s, but not the inevitable march toward total secularization that some predicted.

Church planting will remain critical. New churches reach new people. The data on this is unambiguous: church plants are 6-10 times more effective at reaching unchurched people than established churches, according to research from the Exponential Network. Denominations and networks that invest in planting will be better positioned than those that only try to revitalize existing congregations.

Technology will keep evolving. AI-powered tools for sermon preparation, member management, and community engagement are already emerging. Churches that thoughtfully adopt technology — without losing the human connection that makes church meaningful — will have an advantage.

The re-churching opportunity is enormous. Remember those 40 million dechurched Americans? The Great Dechurching research found that a significant majority of them are open to returning under the right circumstances. They didn’t leave because they stopped believing — they left because of a bad experience, a life transition, or simple drift. Churches that learn to re-engage this population compassionately and without judgment have a generational opportunity.

Your Next Step

Whether you’ve been attending church for decades, you’re thinking about going back after a long break, or you’re exploring for the first time, the data makes one thing clear: there are more options and more ways to engage than at any point in American history. The challenge isn’t a shortage of churches — it’s finding the one that actually fits who you are and what you need right now.

Prophetic Link:
“Our young people need to be helped, uplifted, and encouraged… They need good, sanctifying religion more than anything else.” Messages to Young People, p. 287.

Source References

• Church Attendance Trends in 2026: What the Data Shows

AP News, by Angela Charlton: The new leader of Iran’s top security body is threatening neighbors against joining new U.S. efforts to squeeze Tehran’s economy. Egypt is trying to revive Iran-U.S. negotiations. And Iraq and Iran say Tehran has helped some ships carrying Iraqi oil to transit the Strait of Hormuz. France and Saudi Arabia are expected to discuss plans to bypass the waterway.

Meanwhile, Israel has carried out strikes in Syria and in Gaza.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East on Saturday. Full coverage can be found here.

Iran’s new top security adviser issues threats

The hard-line new leader of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council threatened Tehran’s neighbors against joining the new U.S. effort to hurt Iran’s economy, and accused the United States of increasing global nuclear insecurity with months of war.

“If (Trump) wants to do something, we will retaliate in a seismic manner,” he said in an interview with the state broadcaster that aired Saturday.

Mohsen Rezaei was named this month as part of senior appointments widely seen as hardening Tehran’s political and military stance. His interview with IRIB is his most extensive public statement since then.

Rezaei said Iran would target oil-shipping routes out of the Persian Gulf — alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz — if neighbors join what he described as the economic war against Iran. Those neighbors would be considered enemies and “we will target their interests,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump in the past week has vowed to increase Iran’s pain by imposing an “unprecedented” level of economic warfare and isolation. Iran has lived under sanctions for years.

Rezaei said discussions with Oman, located on the other side of the strait, over management of it were ongoing, and said fees would be imposed. Iran asserted control over what was seen as an international waterway shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked on Feb. 28.

Rezaei also vowed to make changes to Iran’s diplomacy and bring new capabilities to what he called the next war. He warned the U.S. against sending more military personnel to the region, and said the U.S. had increased nuclear insecurity because countries see that participating in international monitoring efforts, as Iran has done, is no protection against attack.

Egypt tries to revive US-Iran negotiations

The top diplomats for Egypt and Iran discussed efforts to bring Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table to settle the war, Egypt’s foreign ministry said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty also discussed the Iranian-Omani talks, the ministry said.

Araghchi briefed Egypt’s foreign minister about “Iran’s view of ongoing developments, the course of negotiations and their challenges,” the ministry said, without elaborating. Araghchi confirmed the call. Separately, Araghchi said he had a call with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir.

Iran and Iraq say some Iraqi oil is facilitated through the strait

The governments of Iraq and Iran said Tehran has helped some ships carrying Iraqi oil to transit the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil, natural gas and other supplies, but there were few details.

“There is facilitation for some ships carrying Iraqi oil in the Strait of Hormuz,” Iraqi President Nizar Amidi said in comments published Saturday by the state-run news agency, adding that Iraq doesn’t have a national carrier for transporting oil.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said a number of Iraqi oil tankers have been permitted to transit. It was not clear how many or what Iran might have received in return.

Syria says an Israeli drone strikes inside a village

An Israeli drone strike on a vehicle wounded one person on Saturday in the southwestern Syrian village of Beit Jin, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA. Syria’s foreign ministry said several civilians were injured and called the strike a flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty.

The Israeli military said it targeted a “terrorist who advanced terror attacks in final stages of preparation,” without elaborating. It wasn’t immediately clear if it was the same strike.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes around Syria after the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in late 2024, mainly destroying army assets to keep them out of the hands of his successors.

Messages differ on the Golan Heights

In an interview on Friday with Mario Nawfal, a Lebanese-Australian entrepreneur, U.S. Ambassador Tom Barrack said Israel “still” occupies the Golan Heights in violation of U.N. resolutions.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Saturday in a statement called Barrack’s remarks “full of inaccuracies and positions that contradict Trump’s own position.”

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981. The U.N. considers the territory occupied Syrian land. But in March 2019, Trump signed a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, reversing decades of U.S. policy.

French president and Saudi crown prince will meet

French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are expected to discuss plans to develop alternatives routes to the Strait of Hormuz during the Saudi leader’s two-day visit to Paris that starts on Sunday, according to officials in the presidency who weren’t authorized to be publicly named.

Proposals include increasing trade through Omani ports outside of the Persian Gulf, expanding or doubling pipelines in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and developing new rail links, the officials said.

France and Saudi Arabia have formed a task force on energy and logistics connections between the Middle East and Europe that is scheduled to meet at the ministerial level Monday. The officials said the work would focus on identifying the most strategic projects, securing financing and establishing roles for French companies.

An Israeli strike in Gaza kills 1 Palestinian

An Israeli strike on the backyard of a house in central Gaza killed one Palestinian and wounded another Saturday, according to health officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.

Israel’s military said it targeted Sharif al-Hasanat, a Hamas commander who “advanced terror attacks and took part in efforts to restore Hamas’ underground infrastructure.” Days earlier, a U.S. negotiator reportedly asked Israel to draw down attacks while seeking to make progress on the ceasefire.

Prophetic Link:
“There are wars, and rumors of wars. The nations are angry, and the time of the dead has come, that they should be judged. Events are changing to bring about the day of God which hasteth greatly. Only a moment of time, as it were, yet remains.” Christian Service, p. 56.

Source References

• Iran security chief threatens neighbors against economic measures, and other Mideast developments

Scripps News: Days of storms and flooding in Indiana left at least six people dead as floodwaters peaked in Indianapolis’ White River and rains were expected to ease in the state capital region and other parts of the state Sunday.

A 4-year-old boy, two men and three women were among those who had died since the storms began Aug. 11, said Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security.

Officials in Jennings County, in the southern end of the state, said the boy was killed Tuesday when a tree crashed through his bedroom during strong winds.

“This is obviously unexpected,” Jennings County Deputy Chief Cody Low told the local ABC affiliate. “There’s nothing we can say that is going to make it any better. We’re going to push through this as a community.”

The other victims included a 19-year-old man whose body was recovered Saturday. Officials in Delaware County, located east of Indianapolis, said Matthew Morey had jumped off a bridge into the rushing waters of the Mississinewa River with friends three days earlier.

Family and friends gathered earlier in the week at the bridge to remember the recent high school graduate, who was headed to Purdue University, and warn of the dangers of swollen rivers.

Delaware County officials also said they recovered the body of Stephanie Sallee and her dog in a cornfield on Saturday, not far from her car. They believe the 58-year-old had been driving on a flooded road when the vehicle was swept away. In a statement shared with local news outlets, her family remembered her as a compassionate and loving person who adored her grandchildren and other young relatives.

In Indianapolis, flooding from the White River peaked early Sunday morning, with high water levels expected to hold for a few hours before beginning to recede, according to the city Department of Public Works.

The agency said it would reopen the city’s floodgates Sunday and that emergency shelters remained open after hundreds of homes along the river and its canals were evacuated. First responders used boats to rescue people stranded by rapidly rising floodwaters.

Recovery efforts, meanwhile, started in earnest as northern parts of the state began drying out.

“I must admit it is a good morning,” Christine Altman, president of the Hamilton County board of commissioners, said during a Sunday briefing. “It’s not raining, and the water is receding.”

She said the county, located just north of Indianapolis, escaped without any loss of life, though officials were assessing whether a significant bridge damaged in the flooding could be repaired or if it needed to be completely replaced.

Heavy rain and flash flooding were still possible across portions of the central part of the state throughout the day, the National Weather Service warned.

The weather service urged residents to check river and weather forecasts and “stay out of dangerous, fast moving waters” as heavy rain has led to significant flooding along most rivers and creeks across central Indiana. Roads and bridges across the state have also been seriously damaged or washed out entirely by the powerful rushing waters.

Nearly 130,000 utility customers statewide remained without power by midday Sunday, down from a peak of around 300,000, according to Woods and the online utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

Heavy rains have hammered Indiana over the past week, causing rivers to crest and setting new records.

The White River crested at more than 24 feet (7.32 meters) in the communities of Anderson and Noblesville, surpassing records set in 1913.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the flooding was the worst the capital city has seen in more than 30 years.

Gov. Mike Braun’s office said more than 350 evacuations and scores of rescue and welfare checks have occurred elsewhere in the state, including at a senior mobile home community north of Indianapolis.

President Donald Trump on Saturday approved Braun’s request for federal disaster assistance to help with flooding response and recovery efforts.

The drenching rains and destructive flooding were among the impacts of severe storms that have wreaked havoc across the Midwest and beyond in recent days.

Tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding brought serious damage to communities from Illinois to western Pennsylvania.

Prophetic Link:
“The restraining Spirit of God is even now being withdrawn from the world. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, fire and flood, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause. Men cannot discern the sentinel angels restraining the four winds that they shall not blow until the servants of God are sealed; but when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture.” Testimonies to the Church, Vol 6, page 408.1.

Source References

• At least 6 people have died from days of storms and record-setting flooding in Indiana

AP News, by Ty Oneil and Dorany Pineda: Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, has plummeted to its lowest water level since it was filled some 90 years ago, another sign of the crisis plaguing the Colorado River system.

Water levels at the reservoir, which straddles the Arizona-Nevada border outside Las Vegas, hit 1,040.4 feet (317.1 meters) above sea level on Friday, according to federal data. That’s just below the record set on July 28, 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

“It’s extremely significant and extremely concerning. You have three-quarters of the population of the Colorado River Basin, some 30 million people, who are directly impacted by risks to Lake Mead,” said J.B. Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California and a board member of the Imperial Irrigation District, the largest user of the river’s water.

Hamby said it is vital for states that use Colorado River water to reduce water use.

Drought and dry conditions have stretched along the length of the Colorado and are particularly intense at its source in the Rocky Mountains.

Melting snow provides important water for the river. This past winter, however, saw the worst snowpack on record for the Colorado River Basin, adding more stress on farmers, industry, wildlife and hydropower producers, as well as the 40 million people across seven U.S. states, tribal nations and Mexico who rely on the waterway.

Years of overuse combined with drought and rising temperatures have been depleting Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir. Both are the lowest they have been in nearly seven decades.

To protect the strained system’s ability to produce hydropower, federal officials said Thursday that they will not release cool Lake Powell water from Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona to protect a threatened native fish, the humpback chub, whose habitat is between the reservoirs.

Federal officials recently announced a short-term proposal to stave off a crisis in the beleaguered waterway, after states that rely on it — California, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah — failed to reach an agreement on how to share the dwindling resource in the long term.

The federal proposal called for the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada to take less water. The Bureau of Reclamation, which released the plan, said it was flexible: Deeper cuts could happen in drier times, while states would have more time to collectively agree on how to manage the scarce resources.

Severe drought in 2022 on Lake Mead, which is held back by Hoover Dam, exposed human remains and forced water officials in Las Vegas to pump water from deeper within the reservoir to continue to supply water to millions of people.

Levels at Lake Powell have dropped so much that it has become difficult to descend far enough to reach the water. Boat ramps have had to move, shut down or be built anew.

Lake Mead and Lake Powell are not alone. Of the 54 Western reservoirs tracked by the Bureau of Reclamation, nine recently recorded their lowest levels in the last three decades.

Federal officials do not believe the record will stay where it is. According to modeling done in July, Lake Mead is forecast to continue dropping through much of the rest of the year.

Prophetic Link:
“We are amid the perils of the last days, and trying times are before us. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, that those things that cannot be shaken may remain. Drought, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, casualties by sea and land, will multiply. Life will be unsafe anywhere, only as the life is hid with Christ in God. Now, while the angels are holding the four winds, is our opportunity to seek the Lord most earnestly.” Letters and Manuscripts, Volume 8 (1893), Letter 113, par. 19

Source References

• Lake Mead hits historic low water level as Colorado River struggles