CNN, by Simone McCarthy, Hira Humayun, Bo Gu, Charlotte Reck, and Sylvie Zhuang: A gas explosion at a coal mine in northern China has killed at least 82 people, according to state media, the country’s deadliest mining disaster in more than a decade.

Rescue efforts are still underway nearly a day after the blast took place, according to state broadcaster CCTV, with emergency teams descending into the Liushenyu coal mine to search for any workers trapped beneath the ground.

The blast happened some 300 meters below ground, according to CCTV. In the aftermath, the explosion site is reported to have filled with water and debris from broken walls. Rescuers are bringing water pipes and kayaks to climb down and access the scene.

But their attempts have been complicated by the fact the underground map provided by the coal mining company and distributed among rescue teams does not match the actual underground condition, state-run Beijing News reported. This has meant rescuers have to search all the tunnels rather than targeting a specific location.

Underground workers are also required to carry a personal GPS tracker, Beijing News reported, but some workers did not have their device with them at the time of the explosion.

Nearly 250 people were working underground at the facility in Shanxi province when the explosion took place Friday evening. At least 201 people were evacuated as of Saturday morning, CCTV reported, adding later in the day that 123 were undergoing treatment in hospital.

Authorities revised down an earlier toll given as 90 on state media, citing confusion at the scene. It remains unclear if there are still workers unaccounted for.

“After the accident, the scene was chaotic,” said the county chief of Qinyuan, where the mine is located, “and the company could not provide a clear count of the number of workers on site, resulting in inaccurate figures reported initially.”

At a press conference held in the city of Changzhi on Saturday evening, Mayor Chen Xiaoyang said that according to preliminary assessment the coal mining enterprise involved committed “major violations of the law.”

Zhang Wenbo, chief of the city’s emergency management bureau, warned that there were further risks ahead.

“During the rescue work…toxic and harmful gas has exceeded the limit for a long time, and there is a risk of secondary disasters,” Zhang said.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping instructed Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing to attend the scene on Saturday evening, according to state media. Zhang is believed to be guiding the emergency response operation as it continues.

Xi has urged a “thorough investigation” and “accountability” for the incident.

A crackdown on illegal mining activities, including falsification of safety monitoring, hidden operations and unclear reporting on the number of people going underground is also believed to be a priority for the country, according to CCTV.

Contacted by CNN, a person answering the phone at the company operating the mine – Shanxi Tongzhou Group Liushenyu Coal Industry – said they were “not aware of the situation,” and ended the call.

State media on Saturday reported that the person in charge of the “involved enterprise” had been taken “under control measures according to law,” a phrase typically used to indicate a person has been detained.

The cause of the blast is under investigation, Xinhua reported.

One injured miner, Wang Yong, told CCTV that he realized something was wrong when he saw a burst of smoke and smelled sulfur “just like firecrackers.”

“I told people to run – while running, I saw people who had been choked and knocked down by the smoke, and then I fainted too,” Wang said. “Later, after lying there for about an hour or so, I woke … (and) then woke up the people next to me, and we left the mine together.”

The disaster is the latest in a long line of devastating incidents linked to coal mining in China and is believed to be the deadliest since a 2009 blast at a state-run mine in Heilongjiang province killed 108 people. The early 2000s saw multiple mining incidents with death tolls over 100.

Safety records have improved since then, alongside industry consolidation and tightened regulation, but tragedies continue to happen – typically followed by central government calls for more accountability and oversight.

In 2023, 53 workers were killed in a mine collapse in Inner Mongolia, state media reported. The following year, Beijing implemented new coal-mining regulations putting more burden on operators to conduct checks, and local officials to enhance supervision.

Coal is a major source of energy in China, accounting for more than half of the energy consumption of the world’s second-largest economy – and playing a critical role in its energy security.

Even as Beijing has pushed forward a green transition, the country has continued to expand coal infrastructure, including to ensure grid stability for renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

Shanxi province, where the latest incident took place, is one of the country’s leading producers, accounting more than a quarter of the country’s coal.

Prophetic Link:
“I read the daily papers and see the casualties by sea, the destruction of life by land, disaster and death without a moment’s warning, hundreds swept into eternity without any time to repent and seek pardon of their sins, contagious diseases in fevers, cholera, smallpox, and various ills to which humanity is subject. Plagues are in our world and the Spirit of God is being gradually withdrawn from the children of men.” Letters and Manuscripts, Volume 7 (1892), par. 5

Source References

• China’s worst coal mining blast in over a decade kills 82

Psychology Today, by Avrum Weiss: Experts are reporting that we may be in an epidemic of adult children cutting off contact with their parents. In one recent study, researchers found that 26 percent of young adults are estranged from their fathers, and six percent are estranged from their mothers. The parents report that these estrangements often happen without notice or explanation, leaving them feeling deeply hurt and in the dark.

Baby boomers were raised by parents of the “greatest generation,” the generation that lived through the great depression and fought in World War II. That generation, as a whole, tended to parent in fairly traditional, authoritarian ways, telling their offspring that “Children were meant to be seen and not heard.” Corporal punishment was still an acceptable way of disciplining children, and children were often afraid of their parents, particularly of their fathers. Mothers frequently threatened their children to “wait until your father gets home.” Children being afraid of their parents was not only normalized, it was often regarded as an essential strategy to ensure good behavior in children. When children misbehaved, it was commonly believed that the cause was insufficiently strict parenting. Many men of that generation have told me that being afraid of their parents was an essential part of becoming a disciplined adult of good character, and they frequently lament that their children are spoiled and lack ambition and resilience because they “had it too easy” and had no reason to fear their parents.

The children of those Boomer parents often parented their children in ways that were a reaction to their dissatisfaction with how they were parented. In contrast to what they experienced as their parent’s uninvolved, hands-off (some would even say neglectful) style of parenting, this newer generation of parents tend to be highly involved in their children’s lives, leading to the term “helicopter parenting.” Fathers, in particular, are often determined to parent differently than the men who raised them, and they have pioneered the acceptance of fathering as an equal role in child-rearing.

These Millennial children of Boomers also strive to create more egalitarian relationships with their children and have rejected using fear as a parenting strategy. Rather than responding to bad behavior punitively with punishment, these younger generations are often averse to conflict with their children and hesitant to set firm limits they worry would risk rejection. As a result, they are more likely to use talking and reasoning as their primary disciplinary strategy.

The children of Boomers have been largely successful in their efforts to raise children who are not afraid of them, but one consequence of this parenting style is that the generation who grew up afraid of their parents is often now afraid of rejection by their children. Because of their parents’ conflict-avoidant style, the children of Millennial parents have fewer opportunities to experience the kind of anger and disappointment with their parents that psychologists tell us is an important part of learning about healthy conflict resolution. In previous generations, the hierarchical, authoritarian relationship between parents and children served as a governor to suppress some of the expressions of anger and disappointment that children and young adults naturally have about their parents’ inadequacies and failings. In the absence of those prohibitions, children’s rage, with nothing to push back against, grew more expansive.

As the newer generations mature and individuate from their families, it may be that their inexperience with healthy anger, disappointment, and conflict resolution with their parents makes it more difficult for them to accept their normal feelings of anger and disappointment. Cutting off their parents may be a way of defending against the bad feelings they are having difficulty tolerating in themselves, blaming their parents for creating those feelings. In extreme cases, particularly if they have not had many experiences of healthy conflict resolution in their families, they may take the extreme step of cutting off their families completely, in an effort to extrude the challenging emotions they are experiencing.

Exacerbating these generational dynamics, experts tell us that it is not unusual for estrangement to begin as the result of an adult child entering psychotherapy. Younger therapists, raised by Boomer parents themselves, may also be less comfortable with anger and less confident in their ability to tolerate strong feelings in their patients. As a result, they may be more inclined to advise their patients to act out those feelings rather than being able to model embracing and containing those feelings in the interest of healthy conflict resolution. When these less-seasoned therapists work with parents who have been estranged, they may unintentionally compound their patients’ feelings of helplessness and hopelessness by counseling them to fear their children, to bite their tongues, and not talk to their children about the impact of their cutoffs.

And so, we arrive at a situation where a generation who grew up afraid of their parents end up being afraid of being estranged from their children.

Prophetic Link:
“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” Matthew 24:12

Source References

• Unpacking the Epidemic of Parental Estrangement

Jazeera: The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda a “public health emergency of international concern” after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths were reported.

In a social media post on Sunday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the outbreak does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency but that neighbouring countries are at high risk of further spread.

Health authorities have confirmed the current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus disease (BVD), a rare type of Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in the DRC and Uganda, this is only the third time BVD has been reported.

The WHO said the outbreak could be much larger, given the high positivity rate of the initial samples and the increasing number of suspected cases being reported.

The DRC accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in neighbouring Uganda, the WHO said.

Officials first reported the spread of the virus in the DRC’s eastern province of Ituri, close to Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday. On Saturday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDCP) reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths.

Later on Sunday, a laboratory confirmed a case in the major DRC city of Goma, under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, health authorities told the AFP news agency.

“A positive case in Goma has been confirmed by tests carried out by the laboratory. It involves the wife of a man who died of Ebola in Bunia, who travelled to Goma after her husband’s death whilst already infected,” Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director of the Congolese National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB), told AFP.

The DRC/Rwanda border closure has put everybody in the region on high alert, said Al Jazeera’s Alain Uaykani, reporting from Goma.

The positive case in Goma demonstrates why Rwanda’s preventive measures were “justified”, Uaykani said.

Uganda on Saturday confirmed one case it said was imported from the DRC, saying the patient died at a hospital in its capital, Kampala. The WHO then confirmed a second case had been reported in Kampala, adding that the two cases did not appear to be linked and both patients had travelled from the DRC.

Uganda’s health authorities have implemented measures at the hospital where the Congolese man died, said Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soy, reporting from Kampala.

Health workers at the hospital “are testing people, they’re checking for fever, they’re sanitising people and they’re giving them masks”, Soy said.

Government officials say “that they managed to trace people that this man interacted with” and are now monitoring them, she said.

President Yoweri Museveni has also said that “there is no need for alarm, as the situation is under control,” Soy said, adding that “the border with DRC has not been closed yet, but government officials say that they are monitoring all this very closely”.

The DRC-Uganda outbreak poses a public health risk to neighbouring countries, the United Nations health agency said, advising countries to activate their national disaster and emergency management mechanisms and undertake cross-border screening and screening at main internal roads.

The WHO advised immediate isolation of confirmed cases, allowing only restricted national travel and no international travel until 21 days after exposure.

It urged countries not to close their borders or restrict travel and trade, as this could lead to people and goods making unmonitored border crossings.

The often-fatal and highly contagious virus, which causes fever, body aches, vomiting and diarrhoea, spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, contaminated materials or those who have died from the disease, according to the ACDCP.

Prophetic Link:
“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” Matthew 24:7

Source References

• WHO declares Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, Uganda a global health emergency

WFSB, by The Associated Press and Adithi Ramakrishnan: A biotech company that aims to resurrect lost creatures said Tuesday it has hatched live chicks in an artificial environment — a development that was met with mixed reviews from scientists and critics of its de-extinction mission.

Twenty-six baby chickens — ranging from a few days to several months old — were born from a 3D printed lattice structure that mimics an eggshell, according to Colossal Biosciences.

Colossal previously announced it had genetically engineered living animals to resemble extinct species, including mice with long hair like the woolly mammoth and wolf pups that take after dire wolves.

Colossal’s CEO Ben Lamm said the artificial egg technology could one day be scaled up to genetically tweak living birds to resemble New Zealand’s extinct South Island giant moa, whose eggs are 80 times the size of a chicken’s and would be difficult for any modern bird to lay.

“We wanted to build something that nature has done a pretty good job of developing and make it better and scalable and even more efficient,” Lamm said.

Independent scientists say the technology, while impressive, lacks some components to be truly considered an artificial egg. And they said the idea of reviving extinct beasts is likely impossible.

“They might be able to use this technology to help them make a genetically modified bird, but that’s just a genetically modified bird. It’s not a moa,” said evolutionary biologist Vincent Lynch with the University at Buffalo.

To hatch the chicks, Colossal scientists poured fertilized eggs into the artificial system and placed them in an incubator. They also added calcium, which is normally absorbed from the eggshell, and imaged the embryos’ development and growth in real-time.

Scientists say Colossal has designed an artificial eggshell with a membrane that allows the right amount of oxygen to get in, just like a real egg. But other components of an egg — like temporary organs that form to nourish and stabilize the growing chick and remove waste — weren’t included.

“That’s not an artificial egg because you’ve poured in all the other parts that make it an egg. It’s an artificial eggshell,” said Lynch.

In decades past, researchers have used cruder technology to create transparent eggshells that hatched chicks from plastic films or sacks. Such technologies are useful to study chicken development and glean insights that can also be applied to other mammals and even humans.

“Producing a chick from an artificial vessel is not necessarily new,” said Nicola Hemmings, who studies bird reproductive biology at the University of Sheffield. Hemmings is not part of the Colossal team.

There’s a long road ahead before Colossal attempts a moa resurrection using this artificial egg system. Scientists first need to compare ancient DNA from well-preserved moa bones to genomes of living bird species. And they need a bigger eggshell.

“We didn’t want to wait till we were ready to birth a giant moa. We actually wanted to start working on the engineering challenges for surrogacy and birth now,” Lamm said.

Even if Colossal succeeds in creating a tall bird similar to the moa, some scientists are concerned about what happens after — including how it would survive in a landscape that looks nothing like that past.

“The big challenge is, what environment is this animal going to live in?” said bioethicist Arthur Caplan with New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.

Such de-extinction efforts may make more sense with currently endangered species, where scientists could preserve sperm and egg cells from living members to attempt to bring more back, Hemmings said.

“My personal interests lie more in preserving what we’ve got than trying to bring back what is already gone,” Hemmings said.

Prophetic Link:
“The people in Noah’s day possessed sharp intellects, and they sought to show, on scientific grounds, that it was impossible for his prophecy to be fulfilled. Noah was laughed to scorn because of his warnings; he was regarded as a fanatic. Noah’s implicit trust in God annoyed while it condemned them; but they could not move this faithful reprover from his position. The Lord had given the warning, and that was enough for Noah. The arguments of the philosophers were nothing to him, when the message of God was sounding in his ears, “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Signs of the Times, February 27, 1879, par. 14

Source References

• A de-extinction company has hatched live chicks from an artificial eggshell

MSN, by Everett Sloane: Smoke has hung over parts of South Georgia and Southwest Florida for weeks, thick enough to close roads, cancel school outdoor activities, and send residents with respiratory conditions indoors. The source: a string of wildfires that have burned more than 170,000 acres across the Southeast this spring, fueled by a drought that now covers roughly 62% of the contiguous United States. It is the kind of fire season the region has rarely seen, arriving months before the traditional peak out West and stretching federal firefighting resources in ways that could ripple through the rest of the year.

The biggest fires burning in the Southeast

Three blazes account for the bulk of the damage. In Florida, a fire in Big Cypress National Preserve had consumed 30,225 acres with zero containment as reported in a late-February 2026 National Park Service daily update. Crews were conducting strategic firing operations to slow the blaze through the preserve’s swamp-and-sawgrass terrain, but the combination of bone-dry conditions and difficult access made progress slow. By late May 2026, the fire remained a concern as drought conditions in the preserve had not meaningfully improved.

Farther north, two fires in South Georgia have proven even larger. The Pineland Road and Highway 82 fires together burned more than 50,000 acres as of late April, based on Georgia Forestry Commission figures cited in a NASA Earth Observatory analysis. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency on April 22, mobilizing state resources and noting that FEMA had approved a Fire Management Assistance Grant for the Pineland Road blaze. That grant approval means federal dollars can help cover suppression costs, freeing local agencies to focus on evacuations, sheltering, and public safety.

“We are dealing with conditions we have not seen in decades,” Georgia Forestry Commission Director Tim Lowrimore said in an April briefing, describing fuel moisture levels across South Georgia as critically low. In Florida, a National Park Service spokesperson noted that the Big Cypress fire was “burning in terrain that makes traditional suppression tactics extremely difficult,” with crews relying on strategic firing operations rather than direct attack.

The remaining acreage in the 170,000-acre regional total comes from dozens of smaller fires scattered across multiple Southeastern states. No single federal agency publishes a running regional aggregate, so the figure is assembled from individual incident reports, each with its own reporting timeline and measurement method. The documented major fires alone account for more than 80,000 acres; the composite number should be understood as a best available estimate rather than a single-source confirmed total.

A drought with national reach

The fires are not burning in isolation. As of late April 2026, 61.68% of the Lower 48 states fell within the D1 through D4 categories on the U.S. Drought Monitor, the federal classification system that ranges from moderate drought (D1) to exceptional drought (D4). NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has stated that over 60% of the contiguous U.S. is experiencing drought, and its seasonal outlook projects those conditions persisting into summer.

For the Southeast specifically, the drought has turned landscapes that normally stay damp well into spring into ready fuel. The organic soils in Big Cypress, which in a normal year would be saturated, have dried enough to sustain ground fires that are extremely difficult to extinguish. In South Georgia, pine flatwoods and wiregrass understory that would typically carry low-intensity prescribed burns have instead fed fast-moving wildfires under high winds and low humidity.

Nationally, wildfire activity is tracked through statistical summaries maintained by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). Year-to-date tallies show that early 2026 fire activity is elevated compared to recent years, particularly in regions experiencing prolonged dryness. NIFC’s national fire updates have highlighted the Southeast specifically, a region that in past decades rarely competed with the West for top billing during fire season. Recent bulletins note the deployment of interagency crews, aircraft, and logistical support to Florida and Georgia, a clear signal that these fires are significant enough to draw on the national pool of firefighting resources.

What residents need to know

For people in fire-affected areas of South Georgia and Southwest Florida, the governor’s emergency declaration carries immediate practical weight. State agencies have expanded authority to assist with evacuation, sheltering, traffic control, and property protection. The FEMA grant approval for the Pineland Road Fire means suppression funding is flowing, which can prevent local jurisdictions from being forced to choose between firefighting costs and other public safety needs.

Smoke is a serious and underappreciated hazard from fires of this scale. Particulate matter from wildfire smoke routinely degrades air quality across multi-county areas for days or weeks, posing risks for people with asthma, heart disease, and other chronic conditions. Residents should monitor their county emergency management office and local health department for air quality advisories, and check AirNow.gov for real-time particulate readings.

Why federal firefighting resources face a stress test in 2026

The Southeast’s early-season surge has already pulled crews and equipment that might otherwise be staged for summer fires in California, Oregon, or Montana. Federal firefighting capacity is finite: there are a limited number of hotshot crews, large air tankers, and Type 1 incident management teams available nationwide. When those resources deploy to Georgia and Florida in spring, they are not available elsewhere.

If drought conditions hold into summer, as NOAA’s outlook suggests they will, agencies could face difficult allocation decisions. The 2026 fire year is shaping up as a test of whether the nation’s suppression infrastructure can handle simultaneous large-fire campaigns in the Southeast and the West, something that has rarely been required at this scale.

There is also uncertainty about what the current fires mean for the months ahead. In some Southeastern ecosystems, spring burns consume available fuel and can reduce the risk of more intense fires later. In others, partially burned landscapes leave behind weakened vegetation and dried-out root systems that are vulnerable to reburning. Without detailed post-fire fuel assessments, it is too early to say whether this spring’s fires will ease or worsen conditions heading into fall.

What is already clear is that the old assumption, that serious wildfire is primarily a Western problem, no longer holds. With drought gripping nearly two-thirds of the Lower 48 and the Southeast posting fire numbers that rival some Western states, 2026 is forcing a broader reckoning with where and when the country expects to fight fire.

Prophetic Link:
“All through the Bible we find that a careful observance of the Sabbath is repeatedly enjoined, and God has plainly stated that those who knowingly break the Sabbath shall not prosper. He who has given man six days wherein to labor to obtain a livelihood, has reserved only one day to himself; and he looks with indignation upon those who appropriate any portion of this time to their own secular business. There are some who carry their business into the hours of the Sabbath to such an extent that they write business letters, and even collect debts, pay bills, and settle accounts upon the Sabbath. But God’s eye is upon them, and although they may appear for a time to prosper, he will surely visit them with judgment. He can by a word scatter faster than they can gather. By fire, by flood, by the tempest or the earthquake, he can cause them to lose all that they have gained by violating the Sabbath.” Signs of the Times, April 8, 1886, par. 7

Source References

• Southeast wildfires have now scorched 170,000 acres as 62% of the US sits in drought

Axios, by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen: Las Vegas has long been known as Sin City for its 24/7 access to all kinds of indecencies.

America is quickly becoming Sin Nation. Or, as President Trump put it while discussing prediction markets in the Oval Office last month: “The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.”

Why it matters: Once-forbidden vices — weed, gambling and porn — are no longer confined to back alleys or the desert.

They’re ubiquitous, digital and spreading at a pace that has outstripped the country’s social and regulatory guardrails.

Governments didn’t turn a blind eye to most of this behavior. They encouraged it. We’re scaling sin in real time.

This shift in American governance, both at the national and local levels, didn’t play out all at once — or get kick-started by a singular moment. It happened in a thousand small ones, one app launch and regulatory retreat at a time.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat made sense of our “more immoral society” this way: “As our laws have become less moralistic and more libertarian, addictive behaviors have increased.”

Substacker Derek Thompson points out that in a 2023 Wall Street Journal poll, Americans said patriotism, religion, having children and community all mattered less to them than in years prior. The only metric that mattered more? Money.

The biggest factors that ushered in our more addicted, money-hungry America:

1. Smoking weed. Not long ago, you might’ve gone to jail for using pot, much less selling it. Now, it’s legal for a vast swath of Americans and serves as a primary tax engine for nearly half the country.

24 states plus D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana, with 40 states allowing medical use.

The Trump administration ordered the reclassification of medical marijuana as a Schedule III drug last month, moving it from alongside heroin and ecstasy to the same category as steroids and ketamine.

States have collected nearly $25 billion in cannabis tax revenue since the first legal sales began in 2014, according to the Marijuana Policy Project — with 2024 alone setting a record at $4.4 billion. California topped $1 billion by itself.

2. Betting. There’s no reason to visit a sportsbook when you have one in your pocket. That lack of friction is destroying the lives — and arguably the morality — of countless young Americans, even as it fills state coffers.

More than half of American men ages 18-49 have an account with an online sportsbook, per a Siena poll out last month. 63% of bettors said they’d bet $100 or more in one day. 31% reported having someone express concern about their sports betting, up from 23% last year.

A UCLA study found bankruptcy rates and debt collection amounts rose in states that legalized sports betting — with young men in low-income areas hit hardest.

Prediction markets have raised the stakes beyond sports. They’re not technically gambling — that’s what their founders say, even as the public and some state prosecutors disagree. But their purview goes far beyond prop bets: You can now put money on chaos and destruction, gamifying the outcome of war. The money at stake is huge: April saw a 1,200% year-over-year increase in trading volume for Polymarket and Kalshi combined, per The Wall Street Journal.

3. Porn — and its AI-generated shadow. Online pornography was already ubiquitous before AI. Now, deepfake technology has created an entirely new category of harm that barely existed two years ago.

The average age of first exposure to online pornography is now 12, with 15% of kids first seeing it at 10 or younger, according to a Common Sense Media survey of 1,300+ teens.

AI is making it worse: Deepfake files online exploded from 500,000 in 2023 to an estimated 8 million by the end of last year, with up to 98% being nonconsensual, according to cybersecurity firm DeepStrike.

Trump signed the TAKE IT DOWN Act last year, criminalizing the posting of nonconsensual intimate images, including AI deepfakes. But the law can’t keep pace with the scale: A company named in a recent lawsuit claims to create 1,000 AI-generated “influencers” per week.

The big picture: This is what happens when all three of the tectonic shifts we’ve told you about — in governance, in the post-news era, in the age of AI — collide at once.

AI is supercharging the supply, creating deepfakes at a pace no law can match. Our shattered information ecosystem means there’s no common authority left to set norms or apply social pressure. The government, rather than policing the line, has become the cashier.

Each shift alone would strain our culture. Together, they’ve created Sin Nation.

What’s next: There’s potential for political agreement that some portion of America’s scaling of sin might have been too much, too fast.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) posted on X in March: “Pervasive gambling is not good for society. It turns life into a casino, traps people in addiction & debt, surges domestic violence, and fosters manipulation.”

Figures from varying corners of GOP ideology responded in agreement: Michael Knowles, Ann Coulter, Erick Erickson.

The bottom line: Reining in Sin Nation could be one of the rare issues that unites left and right.

Don’t bet on it — though, of course, legally you could.

Prophetic Link:
“It was by associating with idolaters and joining in their festivities that the Hebrews were led to transgress God’s law and bring His judgments upon the nation. So now it is by leading the followers of Christ to associate with the ungodly and unite in their amusements that Satan is most successful in alluring them into sin. “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean.” God requires of His people now as great a distinction from the world, in customs, habits, and principles, as He required of Israel anciently.” Adventist Home, 460.1

Source References

• Behind the Curtain: Scaling sin

USA Today, by Maureen Groppe: The Supreme Court on May 11 handed Alabama Republicans a major win in their effort to pursue a more favorable congressional map for the midterm elections, the latest boost for the GOP’s chances of keeping control of the U.S. House.

Over the dissent of the court’s three liberal justices, the court lifted a ruling that had blocked state Republicans’ preferred map as racially discriminatory and for illegally diluting the voting power of Black Alabamians.

Derrick Johnson, national president of the NAACP, said the nation is returning to the “Jim Crow” era of racial discrimination.

“And anybody who is alarmed by these developments −as everybody should be − better be making a plan to vote in November to put an end to this madness while we still can,” Johnson said in a statement after the decision.

Alabama had argued that the court’s recent decision weakening Voting Rights Act protections for minorities meant it should not have to use a map that included a second majority-Black district to comply with the civil rights law.

“Alabama’s case mirrors Louisiana’s, and they should end the same way: with this year’s elections run with districts based on lawful policy goals, not race,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote in the state’s emergency appeal last week.

He called the ruling a major victory.

“For too long, unelected federal judges have had more say over Alabama’s elections than Alabama’s voters,” Marshall said on social media. “That ended today.”

The state has been under an order by a lower court to keep in place until after the 2030 Census the map with the second majority-Black district.

In a dissent joined by her two liberal colleagues, Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the majority for lifting the ruling after early voting in the May 19 primary had already begun. The court did so, she said, without “any sound basis” and “without regard for the confusion that will surely ensue.”

The court’s majority said the lower court needs to consider whether its original ruling is in line with the recent Voting Rights Act decision about Louisiana’s congressional map.

Sotomayor said the facts and legal arguments in the two cases are different. She added that the lower court can now decide that for itself, suggesting the court could reapply its judicial block to the map.

In 2023, a closely divided Supreme Court backed the lower court’s ruling that Alabama’s Republican-drawn map likely violated the Voting Rights Act. That 5-4 ruling was authored by Chief Justice John Roberts who was joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Both voted, in last month’s ruling in the Louisiana case, to limit the scope of the Voting Rights Act.

After issuing that ruling, the court expedited making the decision final to give Louisiana time to draw a map preferred by Republicans.

Our Comment:
While most people are focused on race, those who understand prophecy know that increasing the conservative base leads to an increase in conservative power. That has religious implications that may eventually lead to a Sunday law. The Enemy is underhandedly working to set the stage for the final movements. We are already starting to see the dismantling religious protections through conservative control of politics. 

Prophetic Link:
“Those who honor the law of God have been accused of bringing judgments upon the world, and they will be regarded as the cause of the fearful convulsions of nature and the strife and bloodshed among men that are filling the earth with woe. The power attending the last warning has enraged the wicked; their anger is kindled against all who have received the message, and Satan will excite to still greater intensity the spirit of hatred and persecution.” Great Controversy, 614.3

Source References

• In win for GOP, Supreme Court backs Alabama effort to seek new voting map

Zero Hedge, by Tyler Durden: January, February and March were insanely dry. In fact, in all of U.S. history conditions have never been so dry during the first three months of the year. Just think about that for a moment. Not even during the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s were conditions this dry. Many were hoping that 2026 would be the year when our multi-year drought would finally break. Needless to say, that hasn’t happened. Scientists are telling us that the southwestern U.S. is in the midst of the worst multi-year drought in at least 1,200 years. We really are experiencing a “megadrought”, and this is something that experts such as Steve Quayle and Dane Wigington have been talking about for a long time. Unfortunately, it appears that our seemingly endless “megadrought” has gone to an entirely new level in 2026.

If it simply doesn’t rain, there is not much that farmers and ranchers can do.

Right now approximately 63 percent of the continental United States is experiencing at least some level of drought, and the first quarter of this year was one for the record books…

Winter wheat is dying in Kansas fields that should be green by now. Ranchers in New Mexico are selling cattle they cannot afford to feed. Reservoir levels along the Colorado River system are dropping weeks ahead of the season when mountain snowmelt is supposed to refill them. Across roughly 63% of the contiguous United States, drought rated moderate to exceptional on the federal scale has taken hold, and the first three months of 2026 were the driest the nation has recorded in 131 years of continuous measurement.

This isn’t just a crisis.

This is catastrophic.

It appears that the winter wheat crop in the U.S. is going to be a disaster.

At this stage, more than 81 percent of the Southern Plains is experiencing drought…

Heading into the harvesting season for the key winter wheat crop, much of the western side of the U.S. Plains are locked in drought. Over 81% of Southern Plains is experiencing some form of drought, according to the latest data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. Nearly 20% of the region is experiencing either “extreme” or “exceptional” drought.

Only 30% of U.S. winter wheat is in either good or excellent condition as of the start of this week, according to the most recent weekly Crop Progress report from the Department of Agriculture. By comparison, 49% of the crop was good-or-excellent at this point last year.

The situation is particularly dire in the state of Oklahoma.

Last year, the state produced 101.1 million bushels of red winter wheat.

Thanks to the drought, it is being projected that the state will produce less than half of that total this year…

At the 2026 Oklahoma Grain and Feed Association meeting, crop scouts, extension specialists, and grain elevator representatives painted a sobering picture of this year’s hard red winter wheat crop. Their estimates say the 2026 crop is roughly half the size of the previous two years, with production projected at 48.9 million bushels compared to 101.1 million bushels in 2025. The outlook is based on an average yield of 23.93 bushels per acre across an expected 2.043 million harvested acres, highlighting the significant downturn facing Oklahoma wheat producers.

When there is a lot less wheat to go around, prices will go up.

It is simply a matter of supply and demand.

One farmer that grows winter wheat in Kansas is saying that his farm has only had a quarter of an inch of precipitation since last fall…

Southwest Kansas farmer Gary Millershaski says his area has only received a quarter-of-an-inch of precipitation since last fall. “For us to get a 30-bushel crop, you’ve really got to be optimistic and believe in prayer. That’s a fact.”

He has done everything right, but the sky has been silent.

What is he supposed to do?

So far in 2026, Chicago wheat futures are up about 30 percent…

Chicago wheat futures have gained nearly 30% since the start of the year — the biggest gain among row crop futures — due to the combination of U.S. drought, global fertilizer shortages and a looming El Niño.

If this crisis in the Middle East is not resolved, this will only be just the beginning.

Once upon a time, the U.S. was absolutely swimming in wheat, but now we are moving into a time when it will be considered a “luxury grain”.

Of course beef is already considered to be a “luxury meat”.

When I was growing up, my mother would feed us beef constantly because it was so inexpensive.

But now beef prices have skyrocketed, and some of the prices that we are seeing at the meat counters in our grocery stores are absolutely absurd…

I never thought that I would see beef prices get this high.

But this is the reality that we are living in now.

And it appears that beef prices will continue to remain elevated because the size of the U.S. cattle herd is the smallest that it has been since 1951…

The US cattle herd remained the smallest since 1951 at the start of the year, in the latest signal that consumer beef prices will remain near records.

There were about 86.2 million cattle and calves in the US as of Jan. 1, the US Department of Agriculture said in a Friday report. The tally is nearly unchanged from 2025, providing no relief to the ongoing cattle shortage.

The lack of improvement comes as ranchers keep selling animals to slaughter amid high beef demand, rather than retaining the animals to grow their herds. The downsizing — which began years prior when ranchers shrunk their herds due to high production costs and droughts — has sent consumer beef prices to all-time highs.

It is really hard to feed cattle when conditions are bone dry.

Sadly, they could get even drier in the months ahead…

Meanwhile, there’s a 62% chance of the world’s climate shifting from neutral to El Niño between June and August, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center forecast. The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts said that this El Niño could be the strongest on record, with peak intensity hitting in October.

El Niño typically results in hot and dry weather in many growing areas, including the U.S. Corn Belt and in Australia. With fertilizer supplies thin, this may further compound production losses for world wheat.

We are being told that we could soon be experiencing a “super El Niño”, and meteorologist Ryan Maue is warning that the long-term forecast for the second half of this year is “off the charts”…

I have been repeatedly warning my readers that global weather patterns are going nuts, and I was not exaggerating one bit.

We really are facing a historic long-term crisis with no end in sight.

As I discussed last week, for the upcoming season U.S. farmers are planting the fewest acres of wheat that we have seen since records began in 1919.

In 1919, there were 104 million people living in the United States.

Today, there are 341 million people living in the United States.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we have a major problem on our hands.

Many of us have been warning about this crisis for years, and now we really have reached a breaking point.

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, page 285.3.

Source References

• Megadrought: We Just Experienced The Driest First Three Months Of A Year In US History

The Epoch Times, by Victor Davis Hanson: This year, on July Fourth, will be the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, as exemplified in the ratification, signing of the Declaration of Independence. A lot of people ask ourselves, why are we so exceptional?

Are we exceptional, or is this just American braggadocio? Well, if you look at some major indicators, it’s pretty clear that America stands like a colossus over the world today. Look at the economy. The U.S. economy is roughly a $30 trillion nominal economy in goods and services. It’s one-third larger than the Chinese economy. We hear a lot about Ascendant China, but it essentially means that one American is producing as many goods and services as four Chinese counterparts.

It’s a third bigger than the EU, which has about 70 million more people than the United States. If you look at its culture, if you look at Netflix, streaming entertainment, Hollywood, even in its decline, popular music, it accounts for about 75 percent of international box office receipts of all sorts.

Educationally, there’s a lot of global indices and they usually have the United States with eight to nine out of the top 10 universities. That kind of mimics the same economic standards that show that, at the top 10 companies in terms of international market capitalization, I think eight of them now are American.

In the case of the educational surveys, it’s usually Caltech, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, etc., in the top 10. But at the top 50, 40 of them are American.

If you look at politics, the U.S. Constitution is the oldest surviving blueprint for democracy-republic. All the others have either faded or they come in and out of existence, but ours is that continuity of one particular consensual government, and its foundational document is unprecedented.

Finally, militarily, we have about 13,000 combat aircraft and their logistical support craft. That’s larger than China, the EU, and India put together. We have 11 fleet carrier groups. China is struggling to get a third. No other country has a fleet-size carrier and a carrier group. They have smaller carriers.

But then, in addition to our 11, we have nine amphibious carriers that are about the same size as most other countries’ fleet carriers. And we spend more money than most of the world combined in terms of defense budgetary.

Why did we enjoy all of this preeminence? Is it just because we have a continent-size country? Well, actually, Russia and Canada have larger territories (total area) than we do. Many countries have two oceans that border them. So it wasn’t just that we have a large area and we have natural resources.

Other countries have as many or more than we do. There has to be a secret that explains this global preeminence, and one of them, as I mentioned, is the Constitution. No other country has been able to emulate successfully our Constitution. It’s a very rare document.

It assumes that power will be collected in one particular person or one particular area, given human nature, and therefore it’s gonna check the accumulation of inordinate power through the legislative and judicial branches as being separate, each with power over the other to stop their aggrandizement of authority and power.

It has a Bill of Rights. Very few countries have a bill of rights that protect individual liberty against the state, which is outlined in the Constitution proper—the state’s authority—and then the Bill of Rights, refines or hones that in and gives precedence to the individual in terms of free expression, the sanctity of his home from search and seizure, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, etc.

In addition to the Constitution, the United States is not founded on a class system. There are no dukes or earls, where you’re born, who your parents were, how much land your grandfather had. That doesn’t really matter very much, or at least as much as talent.

We are a meritocratic society, and we value someone, I suppose, based on their net worth more than we do their title. That sounds kind of plutocratic, but actually our system of rewarding individual success—measured by materialism or good works or philanthropy—is a much more effective barometer of talent than inherited privilege.

And so that, that lends a message to the people that anybody can make it in America in a way impossible in many of the European countries and, of course, elsewhere in the world.

We have, until recently, had a long tradition of the melting-pot, meritocratic immigration, and that meant that if you came legally and immigrants were diverse and they were of numbers of a size that could be assimilated and integrated, then it was a wonderful thing.

I mentioned the eight or nine companies in the top 10 by market capitalization. I should say that of those American eight or nine companies, four of them were founded by immigrants. So, it’s been a great boom to the United States.

And finally, we have a can-do individual culture. There’s two types of envy in the world: the envy of emulation—the good envy—and the bad envy of, anger or resentment that someone has more than you do.

The old morality tale that an American sees a Cadillac and asks somebody how he got it, rather than kicks in the tires or keys it like someone in another country would do in anger that someone has a nicer car than he does. But that does explain, encapsulate the American ethos of emulating people who are accessible rather than trying to tear them down.

We also are the largest really devout Western country in terms of the Judeo-Christian tradition that offers a brake on the appetites. When you have leisure and affluence that are the bounties of market capitalism and constitutional government, you can get decadent. You can get complacent.

In other words, our religious tradition—maybe emblemized by the Sermon on the Mount—says just because something is legal and just because somebody has the ability to do it, you should not necessarily do it because of moral and ethical considerations.

Are there dangers to this great American experiment of 250 years? Absolutely. An affluent and leisured society, unless it has familial or religious or community brakes upon the appetites, can become self-indulgent, lethargic—the lotus-eater syndrome—and fall into a slow decline.

We’ve seen that happen in Europe, the foundation of the Western tradition that is really descendant now in terms of economics, politics, culture, and its military.

Another great worry is fertility. The United States fertility rate has fallen just in 30 years from 2.1, the replacement rate, down to 1.6, as if life is too valuable, too fun, too enjoyable to waste it raising kids.

Any society that has a low fertility rate, the population ages, it shrinks, and it becomes risk-averse.

We also owe $30 trillion in aggregate national debt. We are running $1 trillion to $2 trillion annual deficits and, until recently, a $1 trillion trade deficit. These are unsustainable.

And they’ll require, first of all, a major cutback in entitlements and unfunded liabilities. And how we do that when we have a bread-and-circuses attitude, that people think the government owes them something rather than they owe the government, I don’t know, but it’s something we’re gonna have to deal with.

And finally, immigration’s gone haywire. We traded in the successful centuries-long, melting pot for the salad bowl—DEI. We have reverted to tribalism.

If we continue down that pathway, that your superficial appearance determines who you are, that it’s essential rather than just incidental to you, your identity as a human, then we’re gonna end up like every tribal society, which is failure and pre-civilization reversion.

Prophetic Link:
“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.” Revelation 13:11, 12

Source References

• America at 250: Still Dominating the World

BRF, by Roger Pint: “Another heavy blow to the country’s credit rating,” headlines Het Nieuwsblad. “New wake-up call for Belgian finances – Standard & Poor’s also downgrades credit rating,” writes Het Laatste Nieuws on page one.

Following Fitch last year and Moody’s a week ago, the rating agency S&P has now also downgraded the country’s credit rating. While the decision was expected, it remains bad news for the government. The consequence is that the country’s interest rates on its loans will rise, meaning – roughly speaking – that its national debt will become more expensive.

“Shops open seven days a week until 9 p.m. – the unions are furious,” reads the lead story in L’Avenir. The federal government yesterday approved a relaxation of the shop closing law. According to the new regulations, shops will now be allowed to remain open until 9 p.m. Furthermore, the legally mandated day of rest will be abolished. The unions believe this goes too far and are now even considering legal action.

“A reform that nobody wanted”

Le Soir, in a sense, joins this protest. “This is a reform we didn’t wait for and that—apart from the retail association Comeos—nobody wanted,” the paper rages in its editorial. And no matter how often the responsible MR minister, Eleonore Simonet, argues that the measure simply addresses the wishes and expectations of consumers, there is no study to support this claim. Furthermore, Simonet argues that the aim is to give retailers the opportunity to compete against shopping in neighboring countries or against online retailers. But this, too, remains unproven. And when Simonet points out that the whole thing is merely an option and not mandatory, she is deluding herself. Everyone knows that many supermarkets will likely have no choice but to comply. “It’s just one more day or one more hour,” the measure’s proponents might object. Not at all! It is much more than that! It is a fundamental societal upheaval.

La Libre Belgique picks up on precisely this point. Now, the “holy Sunday” is being sacrificed on the altar of flexibility. It wasn’t “holy” for purely religious reasons anymore; it was almost a civilizational compromise. Sunday was the day we could spend time together, a collective break with family, friends, or neighbors. And that’s exactly what they want to dismantle now. In the name of modernization. This is much more than just a “technical” correction; in practice, it amounts to a profound upheaval. Of course, there are professions that already have to work on Sundays: in hospitals, the hotel and restaurant industry, the tourism sector, and, not least, in newsrooms. Nevertheless, the question remains: do we really have to be available all the time?

“Freedom is a precious asset”

“And the anger of the Aldi staff is absolutely understandable,” Het Laatste Nieuws is also convinced. Numerous stores of the discount chain have been on strike in recent days. The employees are protesting against management’s plans to open the stores on Sundays. “Understandable!” the paper says. If the term “day of rest” disappears from dictionaries, then we as a society risk losing something. It’s already difficult enough to organize a get-together with family or friends. “It can only get worse,” one might be tempted to say. A look at Germany is advisable. There, “Sunday rest” is still sacrosanct. Has the economy collapsed because of it? Or are Germans in danger of starving? On the contrary! It simply imposes a different rhythm on the entire society. Because the stores are closed, no one has to choose between a family celebration and a shift at the supermarket checkout. Don’t forget: freedom is a precious commodity.

“It is too late”

Not all newspapers would endorse this argument. “Times are changing,” says Het Nieuwsblad, for example. And in the eyes of many, Sunday rest is a thing of the past. Sunday Mass in church is certainly no longer a valid argument. On the other hand, it’s perfectly understandable that supermarkets want the opportunity to truly compete with online retailers. They want to be available to customers as much as possible, because waiting means losing. Sure, Sunday had its charm: one day a week we collectively found peace and quiet and all watched the same television program together. But is it necessary to cling to it so desperately? This development is unstoppable.

Gazet van Antwerpen sees it the same way. Supermarkets now make almost the same sales on Sundays as during the week. So you can’t claim there’s no demand. In any case, the law of flexibility now applies to many of us. This is no longer limited to supermarkets. It’s understandable, then, that society as a whole is adapting to this development. Of course, this has its downsides. The best proof is the steadily increasing number of burnouts. Naturally, many in our increasingly hectic daily lives would like a true day of rest. But it’s too late. Absolute Sunday peace and quiet will never return.

Prophetic Link:
“This time, when there is such an effort made to enforce the observance of Sunday, is the very opportunity to present to the world the true Sabbath in contrast to the false. The Lord in His providence is far ahead of us. He has permitted this Sunday question to be pressed to the front, that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment may be presented before the legislative assemblies. Thus the leading men of the nation may have their attention called to the testimony of God’s word in favor of the true Sabbath. If it does not convert them, it is a witness to condemn. The Sabbath question is the great testing question for this time.” Manuscript 16, 1890, 21.

This article was translated from German.

Source References

• Press review from Saturday, April 25, 2026

National Post: A massive gilded statue of President Donald Trump installed at his Miami golf course is definitely not a “golden calf” to be worshipped, the pastor who led a dedication ceremony for the eyebrow-raising effigy insisted Friday.

Financed by cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and supporters of Trump, the 15-foot (4.6-meter) tall bronze statue is covered in gold leaf — a favourite style of the president — and its fate had been uncertain as its creator awaited final payment for months.

But the “Don Colossus” statue, which depicts Trump raising his fist after surviving an assassination attempt in 2024, was finally unveiled Wednesday at Trump National Doral.

Televangelist Mark Burns, an ally of the 79-year-old billionaire president who led the dedication ceremony, quickly sought to get ahead of any claims of idol worship — which is expressly forbidden in the Ten Commandments.

“Let me say this plainly: this is not a golden calf,” he said later that night on X, referring to the Old Testament idol that famously made Moses irate after he received the Commandments.

“This statue is not about worship. It is about honour,” said Burns. “It is a celebration of life and a powerful symbol of resilience, freedom, patriotism, courage, and the will to keep fighting for America.”

Apparently, many people were not convinced — so Burns doubled down on Friday.

“What amazes me is how quickly some people have compared this beautiful statue, created and made possible by more than 6,000 patriots, to a golden calf or idol worship,” Burns wrote.

“Let me be very clear. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone,” he reiterated.

“Honour is not worship. Respect is not idolatry.”

The devoted support among many of Trump’s followers has, for years, raised allegations of cult-like worship.

Some believe his surviving the June 2024 shooting with only an ear injury — and other foiled assassination attempts — are seen as signs of divine intervention.

The statue at Doral “reminds us of the hand of God over President Trump’s life,” Burns wrote in his initial post.

“We thank God for preserving him and not allowing his life to be taken, not once, but multiple times.”

The creator of the statue, Alan Cottrill, told AFP on Friday that after months of waiting for the payments to come through, he had finally gotten paid in full two weeks ago.

“The next day I installed the statue in Florida,” he said. “And no, I was not invited to the dedication.”

Prophetic Link:
“None should be neglected because of their apparent devotion to worldly things. Many in high social positions are heartsore, and sick of vanity. They are longing for a peace which they have not. In the very highest ranks of society are those who are hungering and thirsting for salvation. Many would receive help if the Lord’s workers would approach them personally, with a kind manner, a heart made tender by the love of Christ.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 231.1

Source References

• Gold leaf covered Trump statue ‘not about worship,’ televangelist says

Zero Hedge, by Tyler Durden: While the digital US economy, if proxied through the earnings growth and stock prices of AI companies and their “picks and shovels” support ecosystem, has never been stronger, the traditional US consumer, responsible for 70% of US GDP, has rarely been more depressed than right now (and according to the latest University of Michigan sentiment survey, Americans have literally never been more pessimistic). 

That was the take home message from the latest earnings week, when various executives across retail, restaurants and packaged goods indicated they are increasingly worried about US shoppers – especially those from the” lower half” of the K-shaped economy – with tighter budgets amid surging gas prices caused by the Iran war, and consumer electronics prices through the roof thanks to record memory chip prices.

“They’re literally running out of money at the end of the month,” Kraft Heinz CEO Steve Cahillane said in an interview with the WSJ . “We’re seeing negative cash flows in the lower-income brackets where they’re dipping into savings.” Sure enough, last week we showed that as a result of personal spending growth far outpacing personal income the personal savings rate has collapsed to a 3 year low.

This underscores a remarkable trend: since the pandemic, Americans have continued to spend at surprising levels despite high inflation, keeping the US economy growing and thwarting recession fears, with much of the spending growth fueled by credit card debt, with February’s $10BN+ increase in credit card debt the highest since February 2024.

But soaring fuel costs might be the straw that breaks the overlevered camel’s back: “The war in Iran amplified consumer concerns about the cost of living,” Whirlpool. CEO Marc Bitzer said Thursday on a call with analysts. The maker of washers and dryers said it’s counting on purchases picking up after a harsh US winter slowed shopping, but the war caused a collapse in consumer sentiment. The company described the resulting 15% hit to industry demand as similar to the global financial crisis in the aughts. In other words a depression.

In fast food, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said confidence among shoppers isn’t improving and may be getting worse. The company cited “heightened anxiety” and gas prices that disproportionately impact low-income consumers.

Sit-down dining is also taking a hit. “Our price-sensitive, more value-oriented guests seem to be staying home a bit more,” Dine Brands CEO John Peyton said on an earnings call this week. The company, which owns the Applebee’s and IHOP chains, said it hasn’t seen a similar pullback in other income levels.

Meanwhile, eyewear retailer Warby Parker  said younger shoppers are feeling the pinch from higher-than-usual unemployment and student debt bills.

Gas prices, now at $4.56 a gallon on average, are at their highest levels since July 2022, according to data from the American Automobile Association. As shoppers put more of their income toward fuel, they have less money for discretionary spending like eating out. Enlarged tax refunds helped blunt some of the impact, but sentiment has still soured to a record low.

Americans are putting less away as they try to keep up, with the savings rate dropping in March to the lowest in three years. Meanwhile, economists warn the disruptions from the war in Iran could lead to higher prices for a range of goods over time, including groceries, putting even more pressure on low-income households and draining what little savings are left. 

Low-income consumers have already cut back on real gasoline consumption to try to limit costs, according to recent research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

In the near term, Americans can draw down savings or tap credit cards, but the longer gas prices stay high, the more consumers will change their spending patterns to balance their budgets, said Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank.

Planet Fitness on Thursday fell the most on record after cutting its full-year outlook on weaker-than-expected member signups during the typically busy New Year period.

The gym chain also said it paused the national rollout of a price increase to its top-tier membership, with CEO Colleen Keating making it clear why that decision was made. “The consumer and economic backdrop have shifted,” she said.

Prophetic Link:
“I was shown the inhabitants of the earth in the utmost confusion. War, bloodshed, privation, want, famine, and pestilence were abroad in the land…. My attention was then called from the scene. There seemed to be a little time of peace. Once more the inhabitants of the earth were presented before me; and again everything was in the utmost confusion. Strife, war, and bloodshed, with famine and pestilence, raged everywhere. Other nations were engaged in this war and confusion. War caused famine. Want and bloodshed caused pestilence. And then men’s hearts failed them for fear, “and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol 1, page 268

Source References

• Kraft Heinz CEO: “Consumers Are Literally Running Out Of Money Toward The End Of The Month”