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August 14, 2026 Questioning God “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” (Romans 9:20) Whenever one begins a question with “why,” he should realize that the answer must necessarily be theological, not scientific. Science can deal with the questions of “what” and “how,” sometimes even with “where” and “when,” but never with “why”! The “why” questions have to do with motives and purposes, even when dealing with natural phenomena. (“Why does the earth rotate on its axis?” “Why do we have mosquitoes?”) Even though we can partially explain such things by secondary causes, we finally encounter a first cause, and then the “why?” can be answered only by God. The wise thing to do is simply believe that He has good reasons for everything, whether we can discern them now or not. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). God the Creator “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11), and it is our high privilege simply to trust Him, not to question Him. On the other hand, He often asks us: “Why?” “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” Jesus asked His disciples when they thought they were in great peril (Matthew 8:26). “If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?” (John 8:46), He would say to those who question His Word. To those who doubt His deity, the apostle Paul, speaking in His name, asks, “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8). As the popular chorus goes, “God specializes in things thought impossible!” Our God is omniscient and knows what’s best; He is omnipotent, so He can do it. He is all-loving and will surely do what’s best for those who trust Him. HMM

Of the 9,000 Blockbuster stores that existed in the early 1990s, only one remains. The last Blockbuster on Earth is located in Bend, Oregon, USA. James

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage beats a slate of fringe candidates in election boycotted by major parties CLACTON-ON-SEA, England (AP) — Nigel Farage regained his seat in Parliament on Friday, beating a field of fringe candidates led by trash-can-wearing comic Count Binface in a special election boycotted by mainstream parties that called it a farce. https://apnews.com/article/britain-politics-farage-binface-clacton-election-reform-uk-16f5c7deff9de672c1c9b1950513b52f?

🏜️ Parting shot: Into the maze Photo: Bill Pearson Reader Bill Pearson of Philadelphia captured this view along White Rim Road in Canyonlands National Park in Utah last year. It's his favorite for its surreal landscape and maze of canyons.

A Different Standard View in browser In January, the Trump administration attempted to fundamentally change the way the United States handles childhood immunizations. Following a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC updated its vaccine schedule to recommend that some shots no longer be given to all children. A federal court undid the effort in March. In an executive order in May, Donald Trump called on states to adopt the narrower schedule anyway. On Monday, Trump issued a new executive order on the same subject, focused on lowering the number of vaccines that the government recommends for all children. As I wrote earlier this week, this White House has a habit of doubling down when it doesn’t get its way. But only states have the power to put these proposals into practice—and many state policy makers, concerned that the White House is contradicting existing research, aren’t keen to follow its guidance. According to the new executive order, preventive shots for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, dengue, and other diseases should be recommended for “high-risk” groups only. The order also calls to split up vaccinations for measles, mumps, and rubella—the two-dose MMR shot that has been a standard recommendation for U.S. children for decades—into three separate stages, and directs the attorney general to pursue legal action against states that don’t respect “parental authority, religious freedom, disability accommodations, and equal protection under the law.” (The order says it will align U.S. policy with the best practices of other countries, such as Denmark, but the experts I spoke with highlighted that what works in one country won’t necessarily work in another.) The mandate may not have any legal authority to compel states to change their guidelines in the near term, although the invocation of the attorney general suggests that litigation may be on the horizon. And the single-disease vaccines that the executive order encourages aren’t yet available in the U.S. But this week’s order risks creating even more uncertainty about vaccines than already exists. “If you set out to write a policy that confuses people, it would look a lot like this one,” Jake Scott, an infectious-disease specialist at Stanford, told me. Between the policy priorities of the Trump administration and the guidance of public-health experts, Americans have been stuck in a state of vaccine whiplash. When the American Academy of Pediatrics broke with the government earlier this year over its proposed vaccine schedule, the chair of the organization’s committee on infectious diseases told reporters that the recommendations are a “strong departure from the medical evidence and no longer offer the optimal way to prevent illness in children.” Some state lawmakers have been fighting over how best to adapt to the CDC’s changing guidelines; Kansas’s GOP-dominated legislature tried to bring the state’s vaccine rules into alignment with the CDC’s, only for its Democratic governor to veto the effort in April. And many other states have publicly said that they will reject the guidelines. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has questioned vaccines’ safety in the past, has been driving the discussions of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, as my colleagues Tom Bartlett and Katherine J. Wu reported. And although the secretary has moved away from explicit anti-vax rhetoric in recent months (following a reported White House push for health officials to stick to messages with broad public support), vaccine skepticism clearly lingers within the administration. During the press conference for Monday’s executive order, Trump suggested that the MMR vaccine could be “quite lethal.” There is no evidence for this. Measles, though, can kill: Last year, the U.S. saw its first deaths from measles in a decade. Rethinking MMR at this moment poses extreme logistical challenges. Even if pharmaceutical companies opted to invest the time and money to introduce these shots to the American market, splitting up the doses would create new problems for caregivers. “We are essentially tripling the operational labor required of the parent or guardian (who must now schedule three separate appointments for their child),” Maimuna Majumder, a Harvard epidemiologist, told me in an email, which is “all but guaranteed to result in missed vaccines.” In the meantime, the executive order risks misinforming Americans who are already unsure of how they feel about vaccination. The Kaiser Family Foundation released a study in June suggesting that about a third of American adults fall into a “mixed middle group” of vaccine skepticism—they believe some myths and reject others. My colleague Nick Florko, who covers public health, told me that these are the people most likely to be swayed by the administration’s latest push: “Those are the folks that might see this and think, Okay, maybe my belief that I want to delay this vaccine is well founded because the federal guidance now says that we should do that.” Under the White House’s rubric, the Americans who most need clear guidance are those who stand to lose. Related: Kennedy’s handpicked vaccine committee is a mess. (From 2025) The U.S.’s most concerning anti-vaccine policy

📺 Dems cry foul 😡 House Democrats are crying foul over a new Republican ad campaign touting swing-district GOP lawmakers' pre-recess support for a bill banning members of Congress and their families from buying individual stocks. Why it matters: Democrats groaned that last month's vote on the Stop Insider Trading Act amounted to a big Republican setup. Now they're fuming that the trap has been sprung. 💰 Issue advocacy group Choose Freedom Inc. has put a whopping $9 million into running the spots across nearly 20 congressional districts, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. "Corrupt congressmen treat the House floor like a trading floor. Thankfully, Congressman Rob Bresnahan voted to stop it," one of the ads says. Catch up quick: Democrats complained that the bill the House passed in July applies only to the legislative branch and has carveouts for holding and selling pre-owned stocks as well as for buying pooled investment vehicles such as mutual funds and ETFs. House Democrats also fumed at the inclusion of an unrelated provision in the bill requiring photo ID to vote in federal elections — and in the end, only 13 of them voted for it. 💬 What they're saying: "To call this a stock trading ban is disgraceful," Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Administration Committee, told us in an interview. "I don't know how anybody would sign off on this," he said of the ad campaign. "This is why people in America hate politics. This is really as reprehensible as I've seen." Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said Democrats "will pass a bill that bans owning stock and include the administration" within "the first 100 hours" of a Democratic House majority. 🔥 "This was such an obvious setup, and we just fell right for it," said one House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to contradict their party leadership's messaging on the vote. Between the lines: Some Democrats bitterly noted the irony behind the group praising Bresnahan (R-Pa.) specifically on stock trading, pointing to the considerable public scrutiny he has faced on the topic. "For Rob Bresnahan in particular, who is the poster child for a member who is making countless trades, it is despicable. It's reckless. He should be ashamed of himself," Morelle said. Bresnahan has denied having any personal involvement in his trades, and his portfolio's activity has reportedly slowed in recent months. The other side: "Calling someone else 'shameless' is a masterclass in projection after Morelle refused to vote for the bill," the Bresnahan campaign said in a statement to us. "Perhaps next time he can put his name on common-sense legislation that would benefit the American people instead of crying that someone else actually did something to solve the problem." — Andrew Solender

GOP polling surprise President Trump's top political hands had some surprising advice for Senate Republicans last week: Talk more about health care. Why it matters: Trump and the MAGA base are fixated on the voter-ID and proof-of-citizenship SAVE Act. But Republican message testing from Trump's own pollster suggests candidates are better off focusing elsewhere. 🚗 Driving the news: Top Trumpworld campaign officials, including James Blair, pollster Tony Fabrizio and Senate Leadership Fund executive director Alex Latcham, briefed senators and aides Aug. 5 on the midterms. ❗️ They presented polling on the party's strongest potential campaign messages, according to slides we viewed. One of the strongest: going after health insurance companies. Republicans had a 46-point advantage when calling for greater transparency around insurers' profits, claim denials and wait times for patient care while hitting Democrats for "lining insurers' pockets." Banning congressional stock trading and cracking down on fraud also emerged as potentially powerful issues, with 44- and 38-point advantages for Republicans, respectively. 🤔 The intrigue: Messaging on the SAVE Act had far less upside, giving Republicans just a 14-point advantage over Democratic messaging on the issue, according to the results shared in the meeting. "Voters prefer a Republican who supports the SAVE America Act by double digits over a Democrat who opposes it. We have a litany of policies that deliver for Americans and will put us over the top in November," a source familiar with the presentation said. Between the lines: Health care has long been a weakness for Republicans. The decision to let enhanced Obamacare tax credits expire last year was broadly unpopular. 🥊 Now, Republicans see an opening to go on offense by making insurance companies the enemy. 🎧 What we're hearing: Blair said to expect MAGA Inc. and Republican National Committee money to start flowing into midterm races soon, though he did not specify when or where, according to two sources familiar with what was said. National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) echoed the message. "Good news coming our way is what they basically indicated," he told us in a brief interview after the meeting. 😫 Anxiety has grown in GOP campaign circles over when, where and whether Trump will unleash the more than $400 million sitting in MAGA Inc. to boost Republicans in the midterms. "I control it," Trump told Punchbowl News when asked about the super PAC. "I could spend it on pretty much anything I want." But he added, "I'm going to help Republicans." 👀 What to watch: The RNC coming online in the midterms would be a major boost. The committee has $128 million in cash on hand. By comparison, the Democratic National Committee has $16 million, plus $18 million in debt. ⚖️ A recent Supreme Court ruling also allows the RNC to spend unlimited amounts in coordination with candidates, meaning the money can stretch further through lower TV ad rates unavailable to super PACs such as MAGA Inc. — Stef W. Kight

Britain records its hottest day of the year as summer heat grips parts of Europe, in photos Britain is enduring another summer heat wave after recording its hottest day of the year Thursday. People also have been seeking relief elsewhere in Europe as another spell of intense summer heat grips the region. Read More.

Magnetic 'Goody King' toys recalled over ingestion hazard after two children receive surgery About 213,500 “Goody King” magnetic building toys were recalled in the U.S. on Thursday, due to an ingestion hazard posed that has resulted in at least two children receiving surgeries. Read More.

Huge explosion at ammunition factory in Rome causes fright but no injuries An explosion sparked by a fire at an ammunition factory sent up a towering plume of smoke Thursday in the town of Colleferro near Rome but no injuries were reported, local officials said. Read More.

Fireworks light skies over Pakistan’s capital as crowds celebrate Independence Day Fireworks burst over Pakistan’s capital at midnight as jubilant crowds poured into streets across the country to mark the 79th anniversary of independence, waving national flags and chanting “Long Live Pakistan.” Read More.

Congo’s fastest-growing Ebola outbreak reaches a sixth province Congo’s Ebola outbreak has spread to a sixth province after a death was recorded in the previously unaffected Bas-Uele province, the head of Africa's CDC said Thursday. Read More.

Luigi Mangione expected to plead guilty in federal case in UnitedHealthcare killing, AP source says NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione is expected to plead guilty as early as Friday in the federal case accusing him of stalking and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, according to a person familiar with the matter. https://apnews.com/article/luigi-mangione-plea-unitedhealthcare-ceo-4fa5e27b6baef00f8465e78243a2d58e?

📸 Pic to go: Eclipse from space Animation: CIRA/NOAA A NOAA weather satellite had one of the best seats in (or above) the house for yesterday's total solar eclipse. Above, you can see the Moon's shadow fall across the Earth from the Arctic Ocean down to Western Europe. More eclipse photos.

💰 A Powerball ticket sold at a western Illinois gas station was the sole winner of last night's $1 billion jackpot. Go deeper.

⚓️ The Pentagon is sending the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the Middle East to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Abraham Lincoln has been at sea for a record 200 days, and lawmakers and others have raised concerns about conditions aboard the ship. Gift link.

🥇 Gold goes bananas Data: Financial Modeling Prep. Chart: Emily Peck/Axios Gold prices rose to their highest level in more than two months yesterday, hitting $4,465 an ounce, Axios' Emily Peck reports. The last time gold rose 13% or more in a month was September 1999 — more than a quarter-century ago. 🖼️ The big picture: Gold's ascent signals that investors are expecting less inflation. When the Iran war started, they generally believed inflation would heat up, and interest rates would rise. 📈 Yes, but: Last month's Fed meeting reassured many investors that interest rates weren't about to rise — and gold started climbing. Yesterday's relatively benign inflation report offered even more assurance. Go deeper.

Put it on his tab Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Suzanne Plunkett - Pool via Getty Images The East Wing is gone, a new helipad is spreading across the South Lawn, and scaffolding wraps around the White House's front columns. But the price tag for President Trump's renovations is far less obvious, Axios' Avery Lotz reports. The muddled mix of funding streams includes private donors, taxpayers and, Trump has said, the president himself. 🤑 One tally finds that the president's construction projects — including his new East Wing ballroom, upgrades to Lafayette Square and more — could cost at least $927 million, The Washington Post reports (gift link). Senate Democrats are urging the Government Accountability Office to audit the ballroom project's scope and cost. The lawmakers cited a lack of transparency and "limited congressional oversight, meaningful public input, and adherence to established federal processes." (Read the letter.) 🏗️ White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement that Trump "continues to implement long-overdue and necessary renovations," calling him the "Builder-in-Chief." Ingle said the East Wing project is "inextricably tied" to security concerns, and pointed to an alleged plot to attack this summer's UFC fight on White House grounds. Keep reading.

Kennedy Center votes to restore Trump’s name and close for 2 years, challenging a judge’s order WASHINGTON (AP) — The battle over the Kennedy Center’s future escalated Thursday as President Donald Trump’s allies on the board took new steps to commemorate him with physical changes to the iconic performing arts institution that could defy a federal court order. https://apnews.com/article/trump-kennedy-center-closure-renovations-591cc891a1c0ececf3602ed121ce4840? ps:How vain is this man??

“Total Whitewash”: New Pentagon Report Claims U.S. Killed No Civilians in Boat Strikes The War Department delivered its unreleased annual report on civilian casualties to members of Congress on Tuesday, two government officials told The Intercept — one of whom called the report “a fucking joke.” The report found that U.S. attacks likely killed or wounded hundreds of civilians. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/11/war-department-civilian-casualties-boat-strikes-yemen/? The Intercept Sues Trump for Selling Premium Access to Truth Social Announcements The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued President Donald Trump and his staff Wednesday, challenging a Trump-owned media company’s plan to monetize the president’s social media posts. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/12/trump-media-truthsocial-premium-first-amendment/? Francesca Hong’s Loss in Wisconsin Is a Win for AI Data Centers — for Now Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong’s narrow defeat in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday night wasn’t just a stinging blow to the left — it marks a political loss for a nonpartisan anti-data center movement that has been picking up significant steam across the country. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/12/francesca-hong-wisconsin-governor-data-centers/? No, AOC: “Woke” Wasn’t “Crazy” the Way You Say It Was Democrats have a lot to be embarrassed about when it comes to their actions during 2020. Like when Democratic members of Congress, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and then-Sen. Kamala Harris, clad in kente cloth stoles, took a knee on Capitol Hill after introducing the 2020 Justice in Policing Act. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/11/alexandria-ocasio-cortex-woke-one-crazy/? The Pentagon’s Obsession With China Puts Hawai‘i at Risk The Pentagon is reportedly overhauling its nuclear strategy, focusing on shorter-range tactical nukes rather than longer-range, higher-yield missiles, for possible regional wars with China and Russia. The man drafting this madness masquerading as a plan is policy chief and China hawk, Elbridge Colby. (You may remember him as the Pentagon official who wasn’t sure the U.S. was at war with Iran more than a month into the conflict.) https://theintercept.com/2026/08/10/china-war-hawaii-military-cost-nuclear/?

Trump’s Shocking Sex Trafficking Failure Exposed The president is accused of hampering investigations by prioritizing his years-long obsession. Sex-trafficking prosecutions have plummeted during President Donald Trump’s second term, despite his administration vowing to make them a top priority, according to a report. Damning analysis from Reuters found that the Justice Department only charged 73 people with federal sex-trafficking offenses through June this year, a drop of about 22 percent compared with the first half of the past three years. Court records also show Trump’s DOJ has charged 1,230 people with child pornography violations through June, a fall of 3 percent compared with the last three years. It charged 318 people with violating the Mann Act, which targets those transporting people for prostitution, a fall of 18 percent from the average. Multiple former prosecutors and other sources attributed the shocking numbers to Trump’s prioritization of issues such as immigration and mass deportations during his second term. This includes shifting huge amounts of time and resources from the Department of Homeland Security and reassigning agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a branch of ICE that usually investigates human trafficking or drug smuggling, to try to uncover the president’s disputed claims of voter fraud. The problem has been exacerbated by the departure of dozens of veterans with experience prosecuting sex-trafficking cases from the DOJ. In some cases, the staffing issues at some U.S. attorney’s offices are reportedly so severe that those remaining are struggling to find prosecutors to pursue their sex-trafficking cases. “You can’t say something is a priority and then not provide the resources to make that happen,” Jacqueline Kelley, a former federal prosecutor in New York who led the sex-crimes prosecution of rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, told Reuters. One veteran federal agent specifically blamed Trump’s prioritization of mass deportations for the lack of sex-trafficking prosecutions. Another federal agent said reassigning HSI agents to investigate Trump’s voter-fraud obsession has caused some cases to fall apart. “The administration is throwing sand in the gears in 10,000 different ways,” said Martina Vandenberg, president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center. The data arrived as Todd Blanche, Trump’s pick to lead the DOJ as attorney general, who only just scraped through his confirmation vote, was widely condemned for his botched handling of the files linked to late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Last year, Blanche also met with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell when he was deputy attorney general, as the Trump administration desperately tried to control the fallout over its backpedaling on its promise to release all files related to the Epstein case. Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein to traffic and sexually abuse children, was moved to a minimum-security prison after meeting with Blanche. “Human trafficking, including both labor and sex trafficking, remains a Department priority given the gravity of the harm it causes to victims,” Blanche said during a July hearing. The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Department of Justice for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-shocking-sex-trafficking-failure-exposed/?

GOP Senators Call BS on Vance After Secret Meeting Republicans left a closed-door briefing with the vice president unconvinced the U.S. has what it needs to keep fighting Trump’s war with Iran. Senate Republicans have called out JD Vance’s reassurances about U.S. missile supplies after a closed-door briefing about Donald Trump’s war with Iran. The White House wants $70 billion to cover the costs of a conflict that has now entered its sixth month despite Trump initially saying it would last for “a few weeks.” Senators have yet to move it. The vice president, 42, met Republicans in the Capitol’s Mansfield Room last week, where The Hill reports he dismissed talk of a munitions crunch as “misdirection.” One senator in the room told the outlet that Vance left no space for doubt. “He was very bold that there was a misdirection and unfortunate misdirection that emboldens the enemy,” they told the outlet. “It emboldens the enemy if they think we’re out of ammunition.” The U.S. might not be out of ammunition, but certain stockpiles are getting dangerously close to empty. Officials warned last week that the Pentagon has used up “virtually all” of its long-range missiles. The depleted stockpiles, those sources told Reuters, could affect “the military’s readiness for future conflicts” and leave the U.S. open to attack from Russia or China. Those officials withheld their names for fear of reprisal from the administration. GOP senators appear to have left their closed-door sitdown with Vance less than convinced of what the vice president had to say. “There’s a mixed message here,” one lawmaker told The Hill. Trump, 80, has repeatedly dismissed concerns about the toll his war is taking on munitions and other military resources. He posted on Truth Social earlier this month that the U.S. has “massive amounts of ‘munitions’, especially of certain types,” without adding which types he meant. He said that “large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed.” Senators also say that the president has no exit strategy for a war he has variously claimed would last just a few “weeks,” might stretch on “forever,” and was already “over.” Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, 71, told The Hill on Thursday: “I don’t think anybody is satisfied with where things stand with Iran.” The Daily Beast has contacted Vance’s office for comment on this story. https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-senators-call-bs-on-vice-president-jd-vances-mixed-messages-on-iran-at-secret-meeting/?

As some people may not be fully aware of how leaders are chosen in Adventism, I will further inform. The above group of people was selected by a small group of people. All have agreed tp serve if elected. They will be voted on by the entire delegates;. Yes. The delegates can make changes. I suggest that they have at least a 95 % chance of being elected.

This is a ridiculous claim, that a committee like this existed yet, there is no official record of it and nobody knows who was on the committee. The original poster, DAR, hasn't said where he got his information. Knowing the source of the information might add some credibility to it. An EGW endorsement doesn't add much credibility to the truthfulness of the books credited to Smith. She endorsed the Augsburg Confession, which contains curses on the Anabaptists and promotes theological error. She also endorsed the "1888 Message" which was full of nonsense.

Wholesale price inflation slows last month as gas, food costs fall WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale inflation dropped last month as gas prices reversed some of their Iran war spike and other costs also cooled, a sign that consumer inflation could grind lower in the months ahead. https://apnews.com/article/pipeline-inflation-prices-inflation-tariffs-f9bf278f4550a956b1f350722817371d?