CNN, by Hadas Gold and Adam Cancryn: President Donald Trump said Tuesday that top tech executives had signed a new commitment aimed at better “self-policing” their companies’ AI models, arguing that the light-touch approach represents the best way to balance safety concerns with his desire to accelerate a technology that he’s dubbed “Super Intelligence.”

Flanked by the tech executives as he addressed reporters in the White House’s East Room and then later outside the West Wing, Trump heaped praise on the CEOs who attended a high-profile White House luncheon — while dismissing concerns about the dangers of the fast-developing AI technology.

“I’m seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police,” he told reporters. “These models are very complex and, again, I believe they’re going to be used for the good.”

The president later posted the accord on Truth Social, which detailed four steps that all the companies agreed to take: implement internal controls to ensure models are adhering to appropriate standards on cybersecurity; empower an internal team to ensure controls, monitoring and detection are working as intended; partner with an external operator to independently assess the models; and designate an “independent committee of the board of directors” to receive those reports and make sure any problems are addressed.

In addition to Trump, the post showed six signatures on the document: Google’s Sundar Pichai, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, OpenAI’s Greg Brockman and X’s Elon Musk.

The meeting came in the wake of a series of episodes that have raised widespread safety concerns tied to AI, including AI agents going rogue and attempting to hack into federal databases.

Several AI industry officials, including some CEOs leading the development of increasingly sophisticated AI models, have even warned of catastrophic results if they lose control of their technology.

But the meeting appeared to do little to dampen Trump’s enthusiasm for the models that he’s referred to as Super Intelligence, instead bolstering his belief that the AI industry is capable of overseeing itself without additional safety regulations. He called the new commitment “morally binding.”

Trump, who said he would soon sign an executive order renaming “artificial intelligence” as “super intelligence,” insisted that the government could not slow AI’s development for fear of falling behind China and other developed nations.

“This is unbelievable growth for our country,” he said. “Whoever wins SI is going to win.”

Inside the meeting

Among those in attendance Tuesday were Amodei, Zuckerberg, Huang, Brockman, Musk, Pichai, Palantir’s Alex Karp and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, along with some members of his Cabinet and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Sources familiar with the meeting described it as an effort to get government and top industry officials on the same page amid increasing security concerns tied to AI models.

Brandon Daniels, the CEO of Exiger who was also at the meeting, said the tech leaders focused on an idea put forth by Huang and Zuckerberg that the group needed to “align to a set of sort of superseding — not just individual, not just everyone for themselves — superseding set of principles and standards that can be reviewed, that can be subject to, you know, maybe future executive orders or future regulations.”

He described it as a “pact that allows us to implement these standards, implement governance, and then have third parties check it and see it.”

“We agree that, you know, having central standards bodies and reviews and audits and internal ways in which we are conducting and building AI, we all believe that those are things that we should have, and we think that those are things that could be centrally audited,” Daniels added.

Daniels described the meeting as “really congenial” and said leaders who weren’t already connected were sharing cell phone numbers. He praised the president bringing the group together, calling his actions “revolutionary.”

Trump in recent weeks has repeatedly talked of how he believes “artificial intelligence” is a misnomer because, in his view, the technology is more appropriately termed “super.” He said that he even broached the name change with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who “seemed to like” the rebrand. (In his own comments, Xi did not refer to it as “super intelligence.) The State Department had already ordered diplomats in its international organizations bureau to use the term “super intelligence,” according to The Associated Press.

Increased safety concerns

Fears over AI’s capabilities reached a fever pitch in recent months, prompting some industry leaders, including Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, to call for more regulation and to slow down the pace of development.

AI safety fears have also spilled over from the corridors of Silicon Valley and Washington and firmly into the mainstream, with Saturday Night Live parodying Anthropic’s Amodei in its season opener this past weekend.

And the drumbeat of safety concerns continue to beat louder, with AI companies revealing more instances of models acting without human authorization in the past week.

Just days before the White House summit, OpenAI announced that for the second time in three months it was pausing all training and testing on its most advanced models after one of them once again found a way out of its testing environment and gained access to the open internet. The incident occurred despite the fact the company had already hardened its security, testing and monitoring protocols following a July case where a swarm of OpenAI agents broke out of their testing environment, gained access to the open internet and hacked into AI company Hugging Face, all to try and cheat on a cybersecurity exam.

Though there was no hacking in this latest incident like the Hugging Face case, OpenAI said it represented a case of “misalignment,” or an AI undertaking unauthorized actions or actions without human values and ethics, because the model’s assigned task did not ask it to try and access the internet. OpenAI’s new monitoring tools put into place following the Hugging Face hack did alert a human reviewer about the actions, though OpenAI noted the model did not stop automatically as it should have under its new system and had to be shut off manually.

In a statement, OpenAI said they will resume training “only when we are confident that we have additional safeguards and alignment improvements in place, which we are working on now.”

“This is not the first time we have hit pause to take such measures, nor do we expect it will be the last as AI capabilities continue to advance,” the spokesperson added.

The voluntary statement that the tech executives signed on Tuesday is unlikely to assuage those alarmed by the spate of security concerns tied to AI, based on the initial description that Trump and others provided.

Speaking with reporters, Zuckerberg said the agreement focused on “a set of principles and commitments around building robust internal controls and detecting if there are any issues with the technology, coupled with multiple layers of of auditing and controls, starting with internal risk review, external auditors and evaluators.”

The companies’ boards of directors would also independently review audit reports under the agreement, he added.

Last three months ‘has been hell’

The run of recent incidents is shocking even those on the inside.

“To say that we were surprised at the jump and suddenness of the capabilities of our models… is an understatement,” wrote one member of OpenAI’s agent security team in a long public essay posted to X.

The employee, who only goes by “Joe” on X and said he purposely doesn’t disclose more information for personal security reasons, said the last few months “has been hell” as his team struggled to keep up with the technology’s latest capabilities. (CNN has confirmed with OpenAI that Joe is an employee who works on agent security). Joe is joining a chorus of AI staffers, including former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who are speaking up and sounding the alarm about fears over the technology they are building.

OpenAI is in a “much better place” than it was three months ago during the Hugging Face hack, he wrote, though “surprise is a real element, and these model capabilities are staggering. And the pace is not slowing.”

“Joe” also left a warning, saying that “time is running out” for organizations to prepare for AI-agent powered cybersecurity attacks.

“If you have leadership that doesn’t prioritize security, or even people in your security organization who claim their systems are perfectly safe, I personally would not keep them in my organization,” he wrote.

“The paranoid and those who are continuously sounding alarms about the weaknesses in their organizations are the ones you should keep very close.”

Public pressure mounts in Washington

The spate of security breaches has only intensified pressure on Republicans in Washington who were already struggling to manage a wave of political backlash over data centers. Within the White House, officials have long debated how to approach an AI industry that’s emerged as a primary driver of the US economy — even as it sparks urgent security challenges.

Some senior officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, have taken a more circumspect view of AI models over warnings that they could trigger major disruptions across the economy, multiple people familiar with the matter said.

The voter backlash against data centers and AI in recent months has only sharpened those concerns in some parts of Trump’s orbit, adding to the stiff midterm headwinds facing Republican candidates.

But Trump has so far resisted any slowdown in AI development, arguing that the US needs to keep pace with China — and wary of the importance of the tech boom to the broader US stock market.

“AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX,” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this month.

The sudden uptick in vocal “doomerism” surrounding AI has in some cases only made Trump and a handful of his advisers more suspicious, the people familiar with the matter said, with some in the president’s orbit arguing that the pushback is being amplified by Chinese state actors.

Those Trump allies also expressed frustration with the AI executives who have fed fears that their products might one day wipe out the human race, further complicating the White House’s efforts to chart its own pro-AI path.

“We told them it was going to happen,” one Trump adviser said of repeated warnings to Silicon Valley executives over the last several months that they needed to improve their messaging. “They’re the ones. They’re idiots.”

Another person close to the AI discussions in the administration and Congress lamented Amodei’s calls for a slowdown as particularly damaging to public perception.

“Right now, politically, it’s quite dicey because people are hearing really scary things about the near future,” the person close to the AI discussions said. “Dario just can’t help himself sometimes.”

But Trump was evocative in his praise of Amodei after the meeting Tuesday, calling him “fantastic.”

Prophetic Link:
“They have exalted their human wisdom in opposition to the wisdom of the great and mighty God.” Signs of the Times, March 13, 1884

Source References

• Top AI executives sign commitment to ‘self-police’ after meeting at White House

SACRAMENTO – As a historic El Niño storm season develops, Governor Newsom is proclaiming a state of emergency today, mobilizing state resources ahead of potential winter storms and other impacts. The emerging El Niño event is already breaking records, and forecasters expect it to continue to strengthen, potentially becoming the strongest in recorded history. Today’s emergency proclamation streamlines measures to help California prepare for this historic event.

The Governor’s action puts California in a stronger position before winter weather intensifies. It directs state agencies to begin protecting vulnerable communities, prepare roads and critical infrastructure, stage emergency supplies, and help local partners reduce flood, landslide, and coastal risks. 

“California is strongest when we look out for one another. That is what this action is about. Giving communities the support they need, giving first responders the tools to do their jobs, and giving families the confidence that their state is ready. We are preparing for this El Niño early because every Californian deserves to be safe in their home, connected to their community, and protected when severe weather comes.”

– Governor Gavin Newsom

El Niño is a natural climate pattern marked by warmer-than-average ocean temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific, which can shift weather patterns and bring wetter, more intense winters to California. Climate change can supercharge this natural climate pattern. A study published in the journal Science last month found El Niño events are now more than 36% stronger than before the industrial era, with this trend accelerating over the last 40 years as the planet warms.

Today’s emergency proclamation mobilizes state resources and streamlines procurement to prepare for El Niño’s anticipated impacts, like strong storms and coastal flooding. Among the actions ordered, the emergency proclamation directs state agencies to lead the state’s flood-risk-reduction efforts, stage flood-fighting supplies such as sandbags and pumps, and pre-position other critical equipment. Caltrans will stage traffic-control, road-closure, and snow-removal equipment along the highways most at risk. The proclamation also prepares the California National Guard to support flood response, search-and-rescue, engineering, and logistics missions when needed. State environmental and natural resources agencies will support local efforts to prepare for flooding, landslides, and debris flows, by fast-tracking permitting and identifying other ways to cut red tape.

“We are not waiting for this season’s storms to be on our doorstep,” said Cal OES Director Caroline Thomas Jacobs. “Cal OES is leading California’s statewide efforts by bringing state and local partners together, conducting advance planning efforts, and identifying potential needs before impacts occur. By planning early and coordinating resources ahead of El Niño, we are working to ensure communities and first responders have the personnel, equipment, and support they need to prepare for severe weather, respond quickly when conditions change, and protect lives and property across California.”

“California is already taking steps now to protect communities from a potentially historic El Niño because we know how serious these weather extremes driven by climate change can be,” said California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. “Through the Governor’s state of emergency, we’re cutting red tape and fast‑tracking the flood‑protection and broader preparedness work communities need now. We’re mobilizing with our partners to safeguard people, infrastructure, and natural resources before the worst storms arrive.”

The proclamation also directs the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, in consultation with relevant state agencies, to expand accessible, multilingual public preparedness communications related to severe weather, flooding, emergency alerts, evacuation readiness, power outages, and more.

A Growing Threat

This fall and winter could be dangerous, and Californians should take it seriously. Federal forecasters say El Niño is strengthening, with a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event this fall and winter and a 75% chance it could reach historic strength. In plain terms, the Pacific is unusually warm, and that warmth can shift storm tracks and load the atmosphere with more energy over the months ahead. 

For California, that can mean repeated rounds of heavy rain, strong winds, mountain snow, flooding, landslides, debris flows, large waves, and coastal flooding, especially when storms hit during very high tides. For families, that can mean roads closed by flooding or rockslides, power outages, neighborhoods cut off, damage to homes and businesses, and fast-changing conditions that leave little time to react. 

That is why Governor Newsom is acting early, and why residents and homeowners should act now too: know their flood risk, clear drains and gutters, sign up for alerts, and make a plan before severe weather arrives.

Additional Emergency Actions

In addition, Governor Newsom today proclaimed states of emergency to support recovery efforts for three severe weather events that previously caused significant damage in Glenn, Humboldt, Kern, Mendocino, and Santa Barbara Counties, and a major sewage spill that caused significant damage in Lake County.

Further, after consultation with the affected counties, Governor Newsom also signed a proclamation terminating 34 open states of emergency for various fires, storms, and other events in 2023 and 2024 for which a proclaimed state of emergency is no longer necessary to facilitate response and recovery efforts. 

What is El Niño?

El Niño refers to the periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Usually, the tropical western Pacific is warmer than the tropical eastern Pacific; in El Niño, however, this pattern reverses, and the eastern Pacific warms significantly. This changes circulation and precipitation patterns around the world. Although specific, localized impacts are unpredictable, El Niño often produces more frequent and intense storms over California. These storms can produce dangerous flooding, landslides, debris flows, erosion, and other dangerous impacts. This year, California has already experienced coastal flooding attributed to El Niño—as “Kelvin waves” raise sea levels and offshore Pacific hurricanes (fueled by warm water in the eastern Pacific) drive strong waves battering the California coast.

How Californians can prepare

El Niño does not guarantee a wet winter or any particular storm, but it heightens the risk of strong storms in California. Californians should prepare now for the possibility of heavy rain, snow, and flooding:

– Sign up for alerts.
– Know your flood risk. Find out whether your home or workplace is in a flood-prone area or downslope of an area recently affected by wildfire, where heavy rain can increase the risk of flooding, debris flows, and mudslides.
– Stay informed. Pay attention to weather forecasts and sign up for emergency alerts from your city or county. Conditions can change quickly during major storms, so follow instructions from local emergency officials.
– Have an evacuation plan. Know where you would go and how you would get there if you need to leave quickly. Keep an emergency kit ready, including plans, medications, and supplies for pets and other animals.
– Never drive through floodwater. Water on flooded roads can be deeper and faster-moving than it appears, and roadways may be damaged or washed out beneath the water. Turn around and find another route.

Prophetic Link:
“We are standing on the threshold of the crisis of the ages. In quick succession the judgments of God will follow one another—fire, and flood, and earthquake, with war and bloodshed.” Prophets and Kings, page 278.

Source References

• Governor Newsom proclaims state of emergency to bolster statewide El Nino preparedness, protect California

The Epoch Times, by Zachary Stieber: Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children across three dioceses in Massachusetts, the state’s attorney general said in a report published on Sept. 30.

A years-long investigation found evidence that 275 clerics, including priests and nuns, abused children, and that 944 kids reported being sexually abused, according to the report released by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell.

The probe examined allegations of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester, and how the dioceses handled the allegations.

Investigators said the dioceses failed to respond adequately to child sex abuse allegations, including by failing to act on some allegations, transferring accused priests to other parishes without disclosing reasons for the transfers, and failing to consistently report allegations to law enforcement.

The alleged abuse largely took place before 2002, before The Boston Globe reported that priests at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston abused children, and that officials covered up the abuse. The dioceses under examination have improved policies since then. The Springfield Diocese has signed a policy that mandates reporting suspected abuse of children.

“For decades, survivors of clergy sexual abuse, including those who are no longer alive, have carried the devastating consequences of abuse, while the institutions entrusted with their care too often failed to protect them. This report provides for the first time a public accounting of the unimaginable harms afflicted on children in the Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester dioceses,” Campbell said in a statement.

“While important reforms have been made, the report documents decades of failures by diocesan leaders to adequately respond to allegations of child sexual abuse and protect children from further harm.

“As a woman of deep faith, it is my prayer and profound hope that this report honors the courage and stories of survivors, and serves as a renewed catalyst for Massachusetts to finally do all that is necessary to ensure the safety of our children. No institution should ever put its own reputation and interest above the safety and wellbeing of its constituents especially children.”

Investigators examined more than 300,000 pages, including personnel files for accused clerics, and interviewed more than 100 people, including many who reported being abused.

The attorney general’s report states that the attorney general’s office cannot indict or prosecute the crimes it discovered because of legal constraints such as statutes of limitations. Three cases were referred to local district attorneys, and one resulted in criminal charges.

The Diocese of Worcester said in a statement that it welcomed the new report.

“The report validates our own report originally issued in 2004 and updated following the grand jury investigation, noting the number of allegations which have come forward, the time frame when reported, and when the abuse [is] to have occurred,” it states.

“Both reports point out that the vast majority of cases occurred 40—60 years ago. Our procedures over the past three decades, including the way we screen candidates for ordination, as well as the awareness and safety training which was implemented in all our parishes and ministries, have made an enormous difference.”

Edgar da Cunha, bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, said in a statement that the church failed victims of sexual abuse.

“As a Diocese we are firmly resolved to continue to do all we can to help you heal, to make certain we are accountable, and to protect our children so that no other child suffers as you have,” he said.

William Byrne, bishop of the Diocese of Springfield, told news outlets in a statement that the report “is a humbling reminder of the need for continued vigilance in properly handling all instances of child sexual abuse when reported to us.”

Prophetic Link:
“And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Revelation 18:2

Source References

• Evidence Shows Catholic Officials Abused 944 Children: Massachusetts AG

NBC Los Angeles, by Helen Jeong: The latest sales tax increase in Los Angeles County went into effect Thursday, four months after voters in June approved a half-cent hike to support health care and other essential services.

As of Oct. 1, the Essential Services Restoration Act, or Measure ER, raised the baseline LA County sales tax rate by a half-cent, from 9.75% to 10.25%.

For example, for every $100 in taxable purchases, Measure ER adds 50 cents in tax, bringing the total to $110.25.

The increase is temporary. Measure ER allows the tax to remain in effect for five years until Oct. 1, 2031 as it is projected to generate about $1 billion annually.

But the increase does not apply to groceries, prescription medications and medical equipment.

Revenue from Measure ER is intended to help address reductions in state and federal funding, including changes to Medi-Cal eligibility, and provide health care support for low-income and uninsured residents.

The county said the funding is intended to help prevent people from delaying care and arriving at emergency rooms sicker. Under the county’s initial spending plan, 45% of the revenue would go toward health care for low-income, uninsured LA County residents through nonprofit clinics and other outpatient providers.

Another 22% would go to LA Health Services, the county’s public health care system.

Earlier this year, the LA County Department of Public Health said it had to end clinical services at seven locations because of more than $50 million in federal, state and local funding cuts.

However, after the Libertarian Party of LA County filed a lawsuit challenging the law that authorized the tax, LA County will not be able to spend the funds generated by the sales tax increase while the legal challenge is pending. State law requires the revenue to remain in an escrow account until the case is resolved.

“For patients and families across LA County, Measure ER is a desperately needed lifeline,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, director of LA Health Services. “People do not stop needing care because funding disappears. They still need cancer treatment, diabetes and high blood pressure medications, prenatal care, immunizations, and a doctor when they are sick.”

If the tax is ruled invalid based on the legal challenge, the state will administer refunds, the county government said.

Prophetic Link:
“They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.” Ezekiel 7:19

Source References

• Los Angeles County’s sales tax increase goes into effect today. Here’s what to know

The Guardian, by Patrick Wintour: Governments across the Middle East are bracing for an escalation of violence after Iran claimed it had received intelligence that the US was preparing for a renewed bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic.

In a potential sign of growing tensions before the UN general assembly in New York this week, Donald Trump cut short a weekend visit to the Camp David presidential retreat on Sunday with no official explanation, and a new security alert was issued by the state department to all US citizens in the Middle East.

Keeping his options open, Trump reportedly told a Fox News reporter “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future” and that the options he was considering were “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal”.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that if an attack does take place, “all US bases and interests in the region will become targets of continuous, effective and painful attacks without any limitations or considerations”.

Iran’s leaders also pledged some of the reprisals could extend as far as US naval forces in the Indian Ocean, and accused some Gulf leaders of “double-dealing” by allegedly giving a green light to the US attacks.

The outburst of sabre-rattling appears to have been prompted by attacks on the Saudi capital, Riyadh, by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The barrage on Saturday marked the first time the capital’s Aramco oil facilities had been subject to such a sustained attack since the Saudi-Houthi ceasefire broke down in June. Riyadh insisted it had intercepted the missiles, but local photographs show smoke pouring from the Aramco facility. The port of Yanbu, vital for Saudi oil exports, was also targeted.

The US largely regards the Houthis as a proxy Iranian force and argues that the group’s attacks on Riyadh would not happen without Tehran’s approval, a claim Iran denies.

Trump last week provoked profound questions about the level of US commitment to its Middle East allies when he spurned a call by the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, asking the US to come to Saudi’s direct military help.

The Saudis wanted US aid after the Houthis suddenly captured strategic ports along Yemen’s west coast overlooking the Red Sea, giving the Houthis control of the Bab al-Mandab strait, the narrow waterway that takes commercial shipping through the Red Sea towards Asia.

On the other side of the Arabian peninsular, the strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman is already effectively closed to western traffic and the pressure on European energy supplies is growing by the day, leading states such as France to take emergency measures to prevent fuel shortages.

In an attempt to keep the US out of its war with Saudi Arabia, the Houthis had given commitments to US officials that they would only target Saudi-related shipping in the Red Sea, a commitment that Trump appeared to regard as sufficient to ensure essential US interests would be protected and that the US need not become involved militarily.

Pressure on the Pentagon budget and dwindling munitions supplies due to the Iran conflict have also made the US reluctant to broaden the theatre of war. Successive bombing campaigns have not dislodged the Houthis, whose lighting advance to the Red Sea coast took the Saudi-backed Yemeni forces by surprise.

Trump appeared to disregard the wider security threat by telling Fox News: “The US is in constant contact with the Houthis and they have agreed not to go to war with the US.”

The Houthi government said 318 ships passed through the strait from 10-18 September.

France will summon Iran’s ambassador after Iranian authorities closed a French-language centre affiliated with its ‌embassy ‌in Tehran, the ‌foreign ministry said on Sunday.

The Iranian judiciary accused the centre of conducting “illegal acts that violated diplomatic conventions”.

The French foreign ministry said: “This new attack on the French cultural presence in Iran … is unjustifiable and unacceptable.”

Trump is due to meet the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council when he attends the UN general assembly in New York, in a meeting that is likely to cover Iran, Yemen, Gaza and the future of the US security guarantee.

Trump said he was also open to a meeting with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in New York, an encounter that would probably be rejected by the Iranians, who refuse to negotiate directly with the US, operating instead largely through mediators.

Pezeshkian is one of many world leaders due to address a general assembly that is likely to be dominated, on the sidelines at least, by Trump’s Middle East crisis.

In the first sign of a potential change of White House thinking about renewing US military action, the state department issued a security alert on Saturday to US citizens across the region warning that “the security environment remains complex with potential for unforeseen escalation. American citizens in the Middle East should exercise heightened vigilance.”

Hizam al-Assad, a member of the Houthi political bureau, said the attacks on Riyadh are a response to “hundreds of airstrikes that Riyadh had carried out against the people of Yemen”.

In a lengthy statement to parliament on Sunday, Mohammad Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator, insisted that Iran was not interested in waging a forever war with the US. But the new secretary of the supreme national security council, Mohsen Rezaei, a hardliner, told Al Jazeera that Iran’s seven preconditions for peace – which include the US lifting its blockade of Iran oil ports, the restoration of its frozen assets and the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil exports – remained.

Rezaei also expressed his anger with the Gulf states, saying they had been invited to a meeting in Salahah in Oman last week to approve the agreed Oman-Iran plan for a new authorised shipping route through the strait of Hormuz, but Saudi Arabia rejected attendance.

He said: “We invited them to the Salahah meeting and they reciprocated with a secret meeting in Germany with US Central Command and Israel.”

Despite the Houthi victories last week, forces allied to the UN-recognised government of Yemen claimed to be pushing back against the Houthis across the country with 75 Houthi soldiers killed on Saturday alone.

Prophetic Link:
“I saw that the powers of earth are now being shaken and that events come in order. War, and rumors of war, sword, famine, and pestilence are first to shake the powers of earth, then the voice of God will shake the sun, moon, and stars, and this earth also. I saw that the shaking of the powers in Europe is not, as some teach, the shaking of the powers of heaven, but it is the shaking of the angry nations.” Early Writings, 41.2.

Source References

• Middle East braces for more violence as Iran claims US is planning to renew bombing campaign

MSN, by Melanie Swan: Donald Trump has approved the sale of 40,000 one-ton bombs to Israel in one of the largest ever transfers of the munitions.

The $2.8bn (£2.1bn) weapons package, funded by American taxpayers, includes 20,000 MK-84 bombs, 20,000 BLU-117s, and 20,000 bunker-busting I-2000 penetrator warheads, according to The New York Times.

Israel has been criticised for its use of heavy bombs in Gaza, and Joe Biden, the former US president, halted their delivery two years ago.

But Mr Trump has approved the sale, despite the US’s reported arms shortage, The New York Times reported, with congressional committees responsible for reviewing major arms transfers notified.

The package will be paid for with foreign military financing, where Israel buys the weapons with US taxpayer dollars. It would significantly replenish Israel’s stocks of heavy munitions after years of fighting across Gaza, Lebanon and the Middle East.

Bombs weighing 2,000lb (907kg) are among the most destructive conventional weapons in Western arsenals.

The MK-84 can tear through concrete and metal and produce a large crater, while the I-2000 is designed to penetrate hardened targets such as bunkers before exploding.

Production and delivery could take months

Israel has used 2,000lb bombs extensively against Hamas and Hezbollah, arguing that the groups deliberately operate from civilian areas and maintain underground bunkers and tunnel networks that can require heavy weapons to destroy.

Their use has attracted international criticism because of the potential for civilian casualties when deployed in densely populated areas.

Last year Mr Trump approved a $2.04bn munitions package containing more than 35,500 MK-84 or BLU-117 bomb bodies and 4,000 I-2000 penetrator warheads after reversing Mr Biden’s decision.

Production and delivery could take months or years, although Washington has mechanisms for accelerating transfers.

The package is likely to face opposition from Democrats increasingly critical of US military support for Israel, though several attempts led by Bernie Sanders, the US senator, to block sales have fallen flat.

Congressional leaders could object to the sale, but Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, could ultimately move ahead regardless. Blocking a formally approved sale would require Congress to pass a resolution capable of overcoming a presidential veto.

The US has been dogged by accusations that it is running low on arms after months of fighting against Iran. This week, a report by the US defence department’s inspector general said there was a shortfall of US munitions and “bottlenecks” in supply chains.

Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, denied the claims, while Mr Trump previously boasted of “virtually unlimited” supplies of ammunition.

The state department and Israeli embassy have not publicly commented on the proposed deal.

Meanwhile, JD Vance, the US vice-president, warned that Washington could not allow its Middle East foreign policy to become “subservient to the State of Israel”.

Speaking at a conference organised by the All-In Podcast on Wednesday, Mr Vance said Israel remained an important partner in military technology and intelligence-sharing, but stressed that the countries would not always agree.

“More than frankly any president in the last 40 years, [Donald Trump] has shown a willingness to actually part ways with Bibi Netanyahu when he feels like the interests of the American people are different from the interests of the government of Israel,” he said.

Mr Vance added that Washington should pursue its own interests while working with allies where their priorities align.

“Sometimes we have interests that are perfectly aligned and sometimes we have interests that are misaligned,” he said in an interview with CBS News.

His comments follow a series of public disagreements between Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu over the war with Iran and Israel’s military operations in Lebanon.

In June, Mr Trump admitted calling Mr Netanyahu “crazy” during a phone call. The president had reportedly shouted and cursed at the Israeli prime minister over the prospect of Israel resuming bombing in Beirut.

Prophetic Link:
“Everything in the world is in an unsettled state. The nations are angry, and great preparations for war are being made. Nation is plotting against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” Manuscript 117, 1908. Manuscript Releases, Vol. 3, 313.1

Source References

• US sends 40,000 one-ton bombs to Israel

The Associated Press: Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, world leaders meet at the United Nations this week facing new fears that runaway artificial intelligence could threaten humanity even as climate shocks and escalating prices are already making life much tougher for hundreds of millions of people.

The annual high-level gathering at the U.N. General Assembly will also be consumed with major wars in Iran, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Congo and Myanmar and a persisting question: Can the leaders do anything to end them?

And what can they do about the relentless rise of global warming threatening the future of the planet, the growing inequalities within and among nations, and shocks to the global economy as blocked shipping routes and supply chains increase the cost of living and slow growth?

The future of the United Nations will also definitely be on the agenda. At 81, its powers are still the victorious nations from World War II, not the 21st century’s major global players. The U.N.’s 193 member nations have agreed to a wide-ranging reform package that includes updating key institutions such as the powerful U.N. Security Council, where the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France hold inordinate sway because of their veto power. Reform, however, is easier said than implemented.

Behind the scenes, there will be speculation about who will lead the United Nations next. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ second five-year term ends Dec. 31 and no clear successor has emerged.

This meeting is still pivotal

There is still no question that the U.N. remains THE gathering place for its 193 member nations and their leaders. Some 130 heads of state and government are expected to speak at the General Assembly starting Tuesday along with dozens of ministers.

Among the headliners will be U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emanuel Macron. Both will speak Tuesday after Guterres’ opening “state of the world” address. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian speak Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whom New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani wanted arrested for his treatment of Palestinians in Gaza until he learned he has no such authority — will address the assembly on Thursday. For a second year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won’t be coming to the U.N. because the U.S. has refused to give him a visa. He will nonetheless address the assembly by video the same day.

The United States, under its agreement with the U.N. to host the organization, is required to allow diplomats from all member nations to attend meetings.

Equally telling is who else isn’t coming. China’s President Xi Jinping is meeting Trump in Washington on Wednesday, yet he is skipping — some diplomats say snubbing — the U.N. gathering and sending a vice president instead. Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t coming either, and Indian President Narendra Modi has backed out.

France’s U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said it is “extremely critical” for world leaders this week to support the U.N. as the place where the world’s nations meet — especially at a time of such polarization.

“We believe in multilateralism,” he said, “and we believe that the high-level week is the occasion for countries in the world to reaffirm that they prefer cooperation and dialogue to confrontation.”

United Nations has not had a great year

There is no doubt it’s been a tough year for the world body. It has been pushed to the sidelines when it comes to its key responsibility of ensuring international peace and security and trying to end major conflicts in the Mideast and Ukraine. The U.S. failure to pay billions of dollars in outstanding arrears has left the organization’s finances in rocky shape.

But veteran U.N. watcher Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group’s global issues and institutions program director, says 2025 was even worse.

A year ago, he said, people were contemplating that Trump would use his U.N. speech to announce that the United States would leave the world organization. Trump didn’t announce a pullout last September and the U.N. muddled through the past 12 months with financial troubles that forced cutbacks to its peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid.

In recent days, the U.S. paid $725 million of its dues to the U.N.’s regular operating budget for this year, enough to keep the Trump administration from losing its vote in the General Assembly. The payment was a strong indication Trump will keep the U.S. in the United Nations.

The U.N. is no longer “in freefall,” Gowan said, but it “is stuck in an open-ended or permanent crisis.” Put more graphically, he said, “The U.N. may not be in emergency care like it was last year, but it does seem to be trapped in a trauma center for the foreseeable future.”

Former U.N. deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch-Brown, a United Nations Foundation board member, said, “While the world still trusts the U.N., the global public is eager for change.”

AI is pushing toward the center of the agenda

The future of artificial intelligence has pushed to the forefront of global concerns, with its speeding advances and the dawning recognition that there are no industry controls, let alone any global guardrails for a technology that has many advantages but also many disadvantages and unknowns.

Days before the global gathering, leaders of three major AI companies warned about the technology getting out of human control and called for a pause, but Trump dismissed their concerns as “a hoax,” and urged continued advances to keep the U.S. ahead of China.

The U.N. Security Council added a high-level meeting on AI to its agenda on Wednesday afternoon, a sign of the growing apprehension and need to address the issue. It was already slated to hold a high-level meeting on Ukraine with Zelenskyy on Wednesday morning.

For the U.N. chief, this will be his last assembly meeting with global leaders. He previewed his speech last week, telling U.N. reporters that power is shifting in “an era of deep uncertainty.”

“At a time when the world faces three existential threats,” he said, “international cooperation is more necessary than ever.”

Others will be vying for the spotlight on issues from rising sea levels and funding education to the fight for gender equality. Hundreds of private meetings will also convene in U.N. cubicles, hotels, diplomatic missions and restaurants.

Esther Brimmer, a senior fellow in global governance at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs in the Obama administration, said in-person meetings can help countries hash out ideas that get implemented months later.

She called the situation in 2026 “much more serious and complex than in decades past.”

“With that said, I’m also not without hope as well,” Brimmer said. “Over the past decades we’ve learned a lot about international cooperation.”

Prophetic Link:
“There comes a time when Satan works with all power. All the power that this world knows will then be in the hands of Satan, to be used against the saints of God… the time comes just before his second coming, when all the power that this world now knows is again to be banded together at the command of the enemy, to be used against the Lord and against His people.” The Home Missionary, Vol. 5, August 1893, Page 3.2

Source References

• War, runaway AI and climate shocks to take center stage as world leaders meet at UN

Iran International, Iran has conveyed seven conditions to Washington for the start of any negotiations, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said Saturday, as President Donald Trump weighs whether to resume major attacks on Iran.

“The United States, if it wants to extricate itself from the predicament it has created, must accept Iran’s rights and conditions,” Rezaei wrote on X, saying the seven demands had been communicated to Washington.

He did not spell out all seven in the post. Earlier Saturday, however, Rezaei told Al Jazeera that Tehran was demanding an end to the war “on all fronts,” the release of frozen Iranian assets and an end to the US naval blockade as conditions for a settlement.

He said a Qatari mediator had conveyed Iran’s terms to Washington and that Tehran was awaiting Trump’s response.

Iran and the United States have remained engaged in indirect diplomacy throughout months of fighting and since the collapse of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding.

The memorandum, signed in June after Pakistan-hosted talks, was intended to halt the fighting and pave the way for a broader agreement. Both sides later accused the other of violations, and it expired in August without producing a lasting settlement.

Trump told Axios on Thursday that he had a “big decision” coming over whether to resume large-scale attacks on Iran, while saying Tehran remained in direct contact with Washington and wanted a deal. He is due to discuss the war with leaders of six Persian Gulf states in New York next week.

Pakistan, another key intermediary, is sending Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to Tehran on Sunday. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the visit was focused on bilateral ties and previous agreements between the two countries and that he was not aware of any specific US message or proposal due to be conveyed.

Baghaei acknowledged Pakistan’s continuing mediation role, saying it was natural for Islamabad to pursue diplomatic efforts, but said he had no information about any particular initiative attached to the visit.

Rezaei meanwhile struck a harder military tone, saying Iran had changed its strategy toward Washington after the United States withdrew from the memorandum. He said Tehran had recently tested an anti-ship missile near a US aircraft carrier and claimed Iran was better prepared to confront American air attacks after identifying weaknesses in the US military.

Nuclear pressure

On nuclear policy, Rezaei said Tehran remained committed to the late supreme leader’s fatwa against nuclear weapons and had not changed its nuclear doctrine, though he added that “we do not know what will happen in the future.”

He said Israeli and US actions already provided grounds for Iran to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but Tehran had not made such a decision and any move would depend on Washington’s conduct.

Last month, Rezaei suggested Tehran could reconsider its longstanding rejection of nuclear weapons, arguing that US attacks on Iran have strengthened the case for acquiring an atomic bomb as a deterrent.

Rezaei told the state TV Washington had demonstrated that adherence to the global nuclear non-proliferation system offered countries little protection from military attack.

US President Donald Trump’s war on Iran has made nuclear weapons more attractive worldwide by demonstrating that neither the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty nor membership in the International Atomic Energy Agency offers protection, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security… pic.twitter.com/RNSSxOulAI

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) August 23, 2026

Saudi-Yemen escalation

In his Saturday interview, Rezaei also said Iran wanted the fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen to end and believed the Yemeni side also sought an agreement with Riyadh.

Hours earlier, an air attack struck a jet-fuel storage facility at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, marking the first direct assault on the Saudi capital in months, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Houthis later claimed two operations using missiles and drones, saying they struck “sensitive and important” targets in Riyadh and Saudi Aramco facilities in Yanbu. Military spokesman Yahya Saree did not explicitly identify the airport as a target.

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.” Matthew 24:6

Source References

• Iran sets seven terms for renewed US talks, says ready for escalation

DAWN, by Syed Irfan Raza: The federal government reintroduced austerity measures on Thursday in an effort to conserve fuel amid renewed tensions in the Middle East, setting 9pm as the time for closing markets and reducing fuel provision for official vehicles by 50 per cent for a period of three months.

The measures are to be implemented with immediate effect, the Cabinet Division’s notification detailing the government’s directives said.

According to the Sept 17 notification, seen by Dawn, businesses and commercial establishments are to close at following timings:

– Shops, markets, shopping malls and bazaars, as well as departmental, grocery, general and kiryana stores are to close by 9pm
– Marriage halls, marquees and all other commercial places where festive events are held are to close by 10pm
– Restaurants, cafés, eateries, and food outlets, as well as standalone fruit and vegetable shops are to close by 11pm. Takeaway and home delivery services are exempted from the restriction
– Pharmacies, medical and medical supplies’ stores, medical laboratories, clinics, hospitals, standalone bakeries, standalone tandoors, standalone milk and dairy shops, fuel and CNG stations, electrical vehicle charging stations, gyms, sports facilities and sports/padel courts, IT companies and call centres are also exempted from any time restrictions.

Moreover, just a single dish should be served at all marriage-related functions or events, the notification said.

The Cabinet Division also detailed comprehensive instructions for government entities and officials.

These include the reduction in fuel provision by 50pc for official vehicles for three months.

Vehicles of armed forces, civil armed forces, vehicles in use of law enforcement agencies, those used for essential services and those in use of the Federal Board of Revenue are excluded from this restriction barring those of administrative or non-operational formations of these entities.

This measure is also not applicable in the case of development projects, according to the notification.

The government has also announced a 5pc reduction in the budget for non-employee related expenditures for FY2026-27, with deduction to be made on a monthly basis.

“This measure will also apply in the case of foreign missions and the officers/officials, belonging to any occupational group or service, posted in these missions; however, obligations relating to their rents, educational fees and medical care arrangements will be met,” the notification read, adding that this measure too was not applicable in case of development projects.

According to the notification, the government also imposed a complete ban on the purchase of vehicles of all types, with the restriction not applicable to development projects.

It also prohibited the purchase of all durable goods, except IT-related equipment and services, while clarifying that the measure would not apply to development projects.

It further imposed a three-month ban on foreign visits and travel, including obligatory trips for government officials. The restriction, however, would not apply to scholarships offered by international development partners, or to training and courses arranged through the Economic Affairs Division or under institutional agreements of the Government of Pakistan.

According to the notification, Pakistan’s ambassador or high commissioner concerned would represent the country at obligatory and important events during the period.

However, in case of “unavoidable visits” all ministers, advisors, ministers of state, special assistants to the premier, parliamentary and government functionaries shall “travel only in economy class”.

The government further directed that official meetings will be preferably held through teleconferencing, except intra-city meetings.

“No official dinners shall be hosted, except in the case of visiting foreign delegations,” the notification added.

The notification also prohibited all government-funded official seminars, trainings and conferences. However, where such events were deemed unavoidable, government facilities, including auditoriums and committee rooms, would be used to host them.

It further said requests for exemptions from any of the measures could be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Committee for Monitoring and Implementation of Fuel Conservation and Additional Austerity Measures. The committee would then submit its recommendations to the prime minister for approval.

Earlier this week, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that the government was considering reviving austerity measures introduced during a previous fuel conservation drive amid renewed hostilities in the Middle East.

The government had earlier imposed austerity measures on March 9 to mitigate the impact of the ongoing US-Iran war. These included a 50 per cent cut in fuel allowances for official vehicles, salary cuts for lawmakers, and a partial work-from-home policy in the public sector.

The government ended the measures on June 19, except for market timings.

The move comes amid renewed hostilities in the Middle East, which have disrupted major oil supply routes and led to a rise in fuel prices.

In addition to the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz stemming from the US-Iran war, trade through Bab al-Mandab — which has become a vital route for Saudi oil exports in recent months — is also facing a growing threat from Houthi rebels.

Prophetic Link:
“The condition of things in the world shows that troublous times are right upon us. The daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in the near future.” Welfare Ministry, p. 134

Source References

• Markets to close at 9pm as govt reintroduces austerity measures for fuel conservation

AXIOS, by Herb Scribner: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took a surprise call from President Trump onstage at the All-In Summit Monday in Los Angeles, where the two dismissed fears of an AI takeover.

Why it matters: Trump and Huang are staking out an increasingly clear rejection of AI doomerism right as some of the world’s most powerful CEOs and AI experts call for slower AI development over safety concerns.

Driving the news: Huang appeared to receive a call from Trump in the middle of an All-In Podcast interview Monday, according to video footage circulating on social media.

Huang put the president on speaker so the crowd could hear the conversation.

What they’re saying: Trump and Huang shared an optimistic view of AI, highlighting its potential for economic growth and national security.

“The robots will not be taking over,” Trump told Huang. “The AI will not be taking over the rest of the world. The whole thing is a hoax,” he said, referring to the recent wave of warnings about catastrophic AI risks.

Huang told Trump: “We’re going to make sure that everybody wins in the AI race of America. Every industry, every company, every state, every people.”

Zoom out: Huang separately addressed the AI safety fears that erupted over the weekend, striking a more nuanced tone than Trump.

He said warnings from whistleblowers should be taken seriously, praising Anthropic whistleblower Jacob Coxon for having “great courage” to raise his concerns about the company’s AI development going too quickly.

Yes, but: Huang rejected predictions that AI could end the world as “not grounded in science.”

He said AI companies should pause or pace their work “if they feel that their company is out of control.”

The big picture: Huang has repeatedly dismissed AI doomer fears, suggesting that some cybersecurity alarm around AI can help drum up business for the security industry.

“What better way to create demand than to create a problem,” Huang said at a Goldman Sachs conference in San Francisco last week, per Forbes. “Who doesn’t want their market to be hysterical about their product and line up around the corner for it?”

The bottom line: Nvidia has an enormous stake in the continued success of AI as a major supplier of the chips powering advanced AI models.

Prophetic Link:
“And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” Revelation 13:13, 14

Source References

• Trump and Huang unite against AI doomers in surprise on-stage call

CBS News, by Joe Walsh: The Defense Department’s inspector general released estimates Monday on the cost of the Iran war in its first four months, tallying up the cost of expended munitions, damage to U.S. diplomatic facilities and destroyed equipment.

The Iran war cost the Defense Department an estimated $33.4 billion as of June 29, the report said. That includes $22.3 billion for expended munitions and $3.7 billion in lost equipment, along with $7.4 billion in incremental costs, mostly to fund the military’s day-to-day operations.

The $33.4 billion price tag does not include the cost of repairing U.S. bases that were damaged by Iranian counterattacks, the government watchdog said. Military facilities were damaged in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan.

The expended munitions have “resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply,” the report said, citing the Defense Department’s Office of the Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment. Concerns that the Iran war has depleted U.S. munitions stockpiles have circulated for months.

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.” Matthew 24:6

Source References

• U.S. expended $22.3 billion worth of munitions in Iran war’s first 4 months, watchdog finds

Vatican News, by Isabella Piro: How can humanity respond, from a Christian perspective, to the “ecological and social crisis” into which it has fallen, a crisis that is “short-sighted and suicidal”? This is the question at the heart of the new document of the International Theological Commission (ITC), entitled “Caring for Our Common Home – A Responsible and Fraternal Response to the Triune God”. Published today, 2 September, with the authorisation of Pope Leo XIV, the text is the fruit of reflections carried out between 2022 and 2025.

The starting point is the “threefold transformation” that over the years has led to the loss of the spontaneous perception of nature as God’s creation; to the emergence of an increasingly anthropocentric and predatory vision in the relationship between humanity and Creation; and to the spread of a planetary crisis.

No one is a monad; everything is connected

The document is divided into three chapters. The first, “The Common Home, Work of the Triune God”, emphasises the “imprint not only of God, but of the Trinity”, in Creation. This is explored through the teaching of four Doctors of the Church: Augustine of Hippo, Hildegard of Bingen, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and Thomas Aquinas.

This Trinitarian imprint has the features of sacramentality — that is, it is a sign of “a sacred and hidden reality” that finds its “highest elevation” in the Eucharist — and of interrelationship, since human beings respond to their vocation by correctly developing their relationships with God, with others and with Creation.

This means, the ITC highlights, practising “filial gratuitousness towards God”; “solidarity and mercy towards one’s neighbour”; and “care for the Common Home”. It is a question of balance: “Nothing and no one is a monad,” the document states. “Everything is interrelated” to form “a single community of life”.

The origin of the universe according to science and faith

The first chapter also develops a dialogue with some scientific and philosophical views of the cosmos, such as immanentism, pantheism and supernaturalism, showing how faith in God the Creator offers something that science cannot provide, even as it “legitimately” investigates the earliest stages of the universe.

While cosmology reflects on how the world came into being, faith explains why: God gives the universe a metaphysical, not merely physical, origin, and freely calls into existence that which would not exist in itself.

The Sabbath principle

The second chapter, “The human being in the Common Home”, opens with a reflection on human beings created in the “image and likeness of God”, providing an opportunity to reaffirm that differences — of ethnicity, gender, culture, social or economic status — in no way imply a hierarchical gradation. Using them to discriminate against or subjugate another departs from God’s plan.

The document then emphasises the importance of the “Sabbath principle”, which, one day a week, allows the Earth to rest in respect of its original rhythms, and humanity to give thanks to the Lord through prayer.

This principle also teaches people to “adopt a disinterested gaze, freed from the appetite to possess, dominate or attack”.

Call for ecological conversion

The ITC then summarizes some “very alarming data on ecological deterioration”: the loss of biological diversity, which “is not an exotic luxury” but “a key factor” for food security; air pollution; the deterioration of water quality; war, which “brutally” accelerates the destruction of the environment; and the “extremely serious” repercussions of all this on the poorest, whose natural resources are exploited and who are forced to migrate.

Hence the strong appeal launched by the Commission: in the face of an “unprecedented” ecological crisis, not only scientific and technical solutions are needed — such as substantial changes in systems of production, consumption, transport and energy use — but also and above all “, a change in cultural values”, a genuine ecological conversion in the way people live.

Sin against Creation and against the Creator

In this regard, the document proposes speaking of “sin against Creation and against the Creator”, a theological formulation that links environmental harm to rejection of God’s plan for creation, while avoiding both purely scientific language, such as “ecocide”, and the dispersal of responsibility.

The present historical moment, in fact, “requires everyone, beginning with those responsible for public life, to take urgent action in favour of the sustainability of the planet and the habitability of the Common Home. This is not only an ethical requirement, but also a theological one”.

The Eucharist, “ecological school”

The perspective of faith also leads to the rejection of “two unacceptable extremes”: predatory anthropocentrism, which considers humanity the “absolute master of all creation”, and biocentrism or ecocentrism, which absolutises nature.

The Christian proposal, instead, is that of a “situated anthropocentrism” — an expression of Pope Francis taken up by Pope Leo XIV — which places human beings as “stewards and servants of Creation”: they are called both to care responsibly for the Common Home, in accordance with “the mind and legitimate interests of the owner”, who is God; and to cooperate with the divine plan through “generous service”.

This twofold vocation finds its culmination in the Eucharist, an “ecological school” through which “a positive and proactive attitude towards nature” is promoted, that is, far removed from utilitarian or fearfully defensive approaches.

Jubilee logic and ecological spirituality

The third chapter, “Care for the Common Home”, offers some practical guidelines, organised around five fundamental relationships of the person.

From the relationship with God comes “Jubilee logic”: based on fraternity and solidarity, which “set an insurmountable limit to greed in the use of the Earth”, as well as on the gratuitousness and humility of those who “do not give in to the impulse to take possession of everything”, this logic leads to social justice.

From the relationship with oneself comes “an ecological spirituality”: faced with the current technocratic paradigm, which imposes frenetic rhythms on work and on personal, family, social and religious life, this spirituality looks to the Benedictine ora et labora to encourage a healthy, attentive and responsible lifestyle, including consumption (“every act of purchasing is a moral act”).

The cry of the Earth and of the poor

From the relationship with Creation come principles such as reverence; sustainability (“an indispensable criterion that must regulate the system of life and the economic model that sustains it”); listening to the “shattering cry” of the Earth, “tragically linked to the cry of the poor”, who suffer most from “the consequences of the mistreatment of the planet”; respect for life, which allows human beings to use natural resources according to necessity and moderation, rather than through indiscriminate exploitation; asceticism and fasting, a moral response to the overexploitation of resources, especially in wealthy countries; and a differentiated commitment according to the responsibilities of different nations.

The sacredness of human life and the rejection of war

Again, from the relationship with one’s neighbour emerge the sacredness of human life — an unconditional and inalienable right that States must protect and promote, including through the rejection of war —; the universal destination of goods — according to Christian Tradition, “private property is not an absolute right” and therefore the Common Home must also be cared for on behalf of future generations —; fraternity, an antidote to violence, injustice and a “false, selfish, atrocious and greedy” individualism; mercy, since without love, human life moves away from God and becomes subhuman; and the preferential option for the poor, who are increasingly exposed to environmental degradation and increasingly deprived of resources to mitigate its effects.

Interreligious cooperation

As the fifth and final relationship, the ITC reflects on the contribution to the care of Creation offered by different religions: Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, African religions, and the Indigenous religions of the Americas and Oceania.

Particular attention is given to the elements they have most in common: the interconnectedness of everything that exists, the duty to respect all living beings, and human responsibility.

Therefore, “from the standpoint of the Christian faith, the doors are open to interreligious cooperation in the common task of respectfully caring for all Creation, in the service of the flourishing of life and communion with the Transcendent, who is at the origin and is the foundation of all life”.

Moral responsibility

In the conclusion of the document, the Commission reaffirms that the ecological question is ultimately a theological question: the way in which Creation is cared for reveals and shapes our relationship with God himself.

Freedom and moral responsibility remain the indispensable foundation of every authentic ecological commitment.

The text therefore calls for an “ecological turning point” that is both cultural and spiritual — following the example of St Francis of Assisi — and concludes on a note of hope: however serious the environmental crisis may be, it does not undermine trust in God, who makes “all things new”.

Prophetic Link:
“The papacy is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the apostasy of the latter times. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4. It is a part of her policy to assume the character which will best accomplish her purpose; but beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon she conceals the invariable venom of the serpent.” The Great Controversy, page 571

Source References

• Care for Creation is a theological question