Below are this week's Articles of Interest as compiled by Mr. Van Baker. This collection of articles is cultivated by Mr. Baker with the goal of highlighting some of the trends, upheavals, and things to watch for in our society. These articles are not necessarily the express views of the United Church of God, Mr. Baker, or me as the pastor, but they are informative of what is occurring in our nation and culture. In accordance with Christ's warning to correctly discern the times (Matthew 16:1-4), it is wise to be aware of what is going on around us.

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Why are there suddenly so many devastating earthquakes? Major earthquakes have caused devastation around the world this summer.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/why-suddenly-many-devastating-earthquakes-132849985.html

Islamic Leaders See Ballot Box as Path to Paradise – The call to prayer is sounding across America. From Hamtramck, Michigan, to Paterson, New Jersey, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, rooftop amplifiers remind growing numbers of Muslim faithful five times a day of their duties with the Arabic message that “Allah is the Greatest! There is no god but Allah!” The so-called “adhan” is just one sign of how Islam is transforming pockets of the nation. As more Muslims participate in the country’s political life, running for office, influencing, and in some cases, even controlling local governments, they are putting their own stamps on their communities: renaming city streets after Arab homelands and mandating Islamic holidays and halal-only lunches in public schools, while even changing noise ordinances to the consternation of many non-Muslim neighbors.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2026/08/18/a_call_to_power_islamic_leaders_see_ballot_box_as_path_to_paradise_1200926.html?mc_cid=610285473a&mc_eid=0622ebfa37

If You Think the U.S. National Debt Is $40 Trillion, You're Off by $130 Trillion – Here's the problem: That $40 trillion figure is $136 trillion short! The actual total national debt is more than $176 trillion. At that level, each and every federal taxpayer is liable for $1.1 million in outstanding debt. How could every media outlet across the ideological spectrum get it so wrong? Because the Treasury Department's official figure for the national debt does NOT include future promised-but-unfunded Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement benefits, according to Truth in Accounting (TIA), the Chicago-based financial analysis non-profit.
https://pjmedia.com/marktapscott/2026/08/22/if-you-think-the-us-national-debt-is-40-trillion-youre-off-by-130-trillion-n4956420

Europe in Free Fall – Economically, Europe is in ghastly shape. For nearly five decades, the European Union’s economic growth and productivity rates have lagged behind those of the United States. European Union countries have established welfare states that have steadily expanded since 1980 and stifle economic growth. The European Union has also proliferated stifling regulations that place a heavy encumbrance on businesses. Restrictions on gas and electricity production, combined with a drive for a rapid and extremely costly transition to “renewable energy”, have resulted in natural gas prices in Europe that are now three to five times higher than in the US, and electricity prices that are 2 to 4 times higher than in the US. To survive, many European companies have relocated production outside Europe. International investment is turning away from Europe. Nine of the world’s top ten tech companies are American; the tenth is Taiwanese.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22801/europe-in-free-fall

The Burnt Beams of Jerusalem – Of all Jewish observances, the commemoration of the ninth day of the month of Av is the saddest— and one that reflects the passage of sadness through time. On this day, Tisha B’Av, Jews mourn not only the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in 70 C.E., but also the even more ancient destruction by Babylon in 586 B.C.E. It was therefore all the more striking that this year, mere days before Tisha B’Av, Israelis unearthed a remnant of that earlier event. That the wood survived the events of 586 B.C.E. is interesting. What is more interesting is that the beams are still there: that Jews who returned from Babylon 40 years later to rebuild the city left them there deliberately.
https://www.commentary.org/articles/meir-soloveichik/israel-burnt-beams-mikveh-october-7-jewish-history/

Where is the Ark of the Covenant today? The Ark of the Covenant remains one of the oldest open questions in Jewish tradition, and one with real stakes: Jewish sources tie the Ark’s return directly to the Third Temple and to the return of prophecy itself. In a recent class, Talmudic scholar and Torah educator Efraim Palvanov worked through the question methodically, moving from the original construction of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) through a largely unknown history of multiple ancient Jewish temples, a reexamination of what the cherubim actually were, and evidence that the Ark itself may have functioned as something closer to a piece of advanced, otherworldly technology than a decorated wooden box.
https://israel365news.com/420591/where-is-the-ark-of-the-covenant-today-a-torah-scholar-weighs-in-on-the-leading-theories/

Sanhedrin rules: shofar will sound on Rosh Hashanah, even though it falls on Shabbat – For nearly two thousand years, in every synagogue in the world, the shofar has fallen silent whenever Rosh Hashanah lands on Shabbat.
https://israel365news.com/420645/sanhedrin-rules-shofar-will-sound-on-shabbat-when-rosh-hashanah-falls-this-year/

[NJ] Gov. Mikie Sherrill Signs Sweeping New Abortion Law That Could Criminalize Prayer Outside Clinics – New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed a major piece of legislation into law on Thursday [8/20] that significantly broadens protections for both abortion providers and patients. The new measure, which explicitly intertwines reproductive rights with gender-affirming care, creates strict new criminal penalties for those who intentionally interfere with individuals seeking or providing these medical services. While supporters celebrate the law as a vital shield against out-of-state legal threats and harassment, pro-life organizations are fiercely condemning the legislation, warning that its broad language could inadvertently criminalize peaceful protests and constitutionally protected free speech, and prayer outside of clinics.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/gov-mikie-sherrill-signs-sweeping-121600551.html

A ‘nonbeliever’ in Congress argues new view of religion is gaining ground on the Hill – A book out this week by Rep. Jared Huffman argues that secularism is gaining ground in the U.S. When Rep. Jared Huffman came out publicly in 2017 as a “nonbeliever,” he was only the second member of Congress in modern times to do so — even though a quarter of U.S. residents identified as nonreligious. Things have changed since for the secular "cause" on Capitol Hill. The Freethought Caucus, which Huffman launched in 2018 to promote church-state separation, has grown to 37 members — more House lawmakers than the uber-conservative Freedom Caucus (32) or the Congressional Prayer Caucus (34), according to the platform LegiStorm. And the percent of lawmakers who choose not to give a religious affiliation or say the unspecific “other” has more than doubled in the past decade, from 16 to 40.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2026/08/19/this-secular-congressman-is-urging-democrats-fight-christian-nationalism/

These Babies Grew Up With Strict Sugar Limits- Decades Later, The Results Are Dramatic – “Compared with the babies who didn’t experience sugar rationing, the babies who were sugar-rationed for their first 1,000 days were 69 percent less likely to develop liver cancer in their adult lives. They also saw reduced incidence of prostate cancer (52 percent lower), lung cancer (41 percent lower), rectal cancer (40 percent lower), and breast cancer (36 percent lower). The sugar-rationed babies also tended to show longer telomeres – the caps at the ends of chromosomes that protect our genetic material, which are linked to longevity.”
https://www.sciencealert.com/these-babies-grew-up-with-strict-sugar-limits-decades-later-the-results-are-dramatic