“Before the fire you could park a fifth wheel anywhere. Now they’ve made laws,” Munjar said. “The city, they got yuppie intentions.”

Anita Chabria, Jessica Garrison

Sun, August 20, 2023 at 1:00 PM GMT+3

Whipping winds, a sky blackened by smoke. Fear, urgency and then panic as gridlock stymied escape and flames closed in, making car windows too hot to touch.

The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude. The agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones.—Testimonies for the Church 9:11 (1909).
The time of trouble, which is to increase until the end, is very near at hand. We have no time to lose. The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecies of the eleventh of Daniel have almost reached their final fulfillment.—The Review and Herald, November 24, 1904. LDE 11.2 – LDE 12.1

Barbara Bowen knows what the survivors of the Lahaina fire experienced because the same nightmare happened to her in Paradise, Calif., during the Camp fire in 2018.

“I thought I was going to have to break my animals’ necks rather than see them burn,” she said recently, remembering her harrowing journey down a traffic-jammed street with fire on all sides. In her car, along with her cats and dogs, were two men she found running down the road: Trevor Colston and the developmentally disabled man he helped care for, Dan Stoffer.

The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. Isaiah:24:5-6

The journey to recovery for the people of Paradise: physical restoration

Five years after the Camp fire devastated Paradise in the deadliest wildfire in California history, Bowen, Colston and Stoffer have moved forward with their lives and the town is one of the fastest growing in the state, with construction on nearly every block. But the journey to recovery for the people of Paradise and the place itself has been hard and uneven. For those who left and those who stayed, the emotional trauma continues even as the physical restoration progresses.

“These kinds of fires, they erase your fingerprints on this world,”

“These kinds of fires, they erase your fingerprints on this world,” Bowen said. “The fire keeps taking and the aftermath goes on for years.”

The same difficult and inequitable future, many said, is likely for Lahaina, where the death toll continues to rise into the hundreds and talk of rebuilding has already begun. If Paradise offers lessons for Maui, they are a blend of hope and harsh reality: A new town will be different from the old one, just as the new lives of survivors will be different from what was.

Last week, the signs of recovery were everywhere in Paradise. Starbucks bustled, shoppers filled the Save Mart and school buses navigated their charges to and from the first days of classes. The town is home to about 9,200 people, said Mayor Greg Bolin, down from about 27,000 before the fire. New homes stretched for miles. About 500 were built last year alone, up from two or three a year before the fire, Bolin said.

But the thick canopy of Ponderosa pines and oaks that once made this place a shady mountain getaway — popular with urban defectors and retirees — are conspicuous in their absence. The sun beats down, unbroken by shade. As many as a million trees were burned or chopped down because they were dead or damaged. In their place are thousands of charred stumps sticking up like grave markers in empty lots and landscaped yards alike.

The privacy of the forest has disappeared:

Along with the cooling, the privacy of the forest has disappeared. Paradise is now all about views: sweeping over canyons, up mountain peaks and down to the valley below — and into neighbors’ backyards, to the chagrin of some.

At the same time anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law, not only divine, but human. The centralizing of wealth and power; the vast combinations for the enriching of the few at the expense of the many; the combinations of the poorer classes for the defense of their interests and claims; the spirit of unrest, of riot and bloodshed; the world-wide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the French Revolution—all are tending to involve the whole world in a struggle similar to that which convulsed France. Ed 228.2

The Book of Education by Ellen G White

“It’s absolutely spectacular,” said Bolin, who in addition to being mayor also owns a construction firm that has built both spec houses and rebuilds for residents.

Emma Miller, 33, who works as the operations associate at the Paradise Ridge Chamber of Commerce, said she is thrilled with the changes in Paradise.

In Search of a better future 🔮 : Let us Rebuild, Pope Francis

“The rebuild is amazing,” she said. “It’s cool to see houses being built, and people coming home, and new people moving in and taking pride in our community.”

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs:16:18

Miller, who grew up in Paradise, was living in Texas at the time of the fire — she and her husband had moved there six months prior for his job. Their old home, which they had sold to friends, burned to the ground, as did her parents’ home.

But the disaster in Paradise enabled her family to come home, she said. Her husband got a job working for a contractor. Her 5-year-old daughter will go the same elementary school he attended.

“I feel like the millennial generation is moving here,” she said. “You get more land for your money here. Having that white picket fence dream is possible in California. Definitely different from L.A. and S.F. and even Sacramento.”

That Paradise exists today is due largely to state and federal aid. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent millions of dollars and years cleaning up, and in 2019, the state worked to make Paradise and surrounding communities eligible for more than $500 million in federal funding to rebuild single-family homes in disaster areas.

In 2021, on the third anniversary of the fire, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced that it had removed tens of thousands of dead and dying trees and cleaned thousands of properties. In 2022, his office announced an additional $200 million in state block grant programs for recovery in Paradise.

On top of all that, Bolin said the city has netted, after expenses, about $220 million from a settlement with Pacific Gas & Electric, whose power lines ignited the fire, killing 85 people.

But for town councilman and former Mayor Steve “Woody” Culleton, it’s the regrowth of the “spirit of the community,” that makes him most proud of Paradise, and why he never considered leaving after the fire. He came to this town decades ago strung out on drugs and alcohol, he said. He had a history on the wrong side of the law and had burned nearly every personal relationship in his life.

In Paradise, he found acceptance and redemption, he said. Where once he was riding in the back of the town’s police cars in handcuffs, he wound up in the front seat with the chief of police, he joked.

Everything is Connected to Laudato Si

“This is where I was reinvented. Everything has come together for me here,” he said. “People care about each other.”

But not all Paradise residents feel the inclusive warmth of community.

Like many who fled during the Camp fire, Joshua Stokes, 40, has watched the images of Maui with a mixture of deep sympathy and reignited trauma.

“When I saw Maui, it just took me back,” he said, suddenly breaking into tears.

But when Stokes saw that the town of Paradise had placed a note on its Facebook page for the people of Lahaina, he was outraged.

we are in your town: town officials are harassing them, threatening them

“You did that for likes,” he said. “If you really cared, we would be taken care of, and we are in your town.”

Stokes said he and many other residents are living in trailers or campers on their own land while they wait for settlement money from PG&E to build. But town officials are harassing them, threatening them and, in some cases, making it impossible for them to stay, he said.

“They are forcing people to be homeless,” he said. “I don’t want to leave this town, but they are forcing people like me out.”

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. John:18:36

The issue, he and others said, is how long people should be allowed to camp on their own land in vehicles without building. Many residents, including dozens who have joined a Facebook page titled Fighting the Town of Paradise While Rebuilding, say the town leaders are insensitive to the fact that people cannot rebuild until they wait for the lawsuits over the fire to pay settlements.

“The mayor said, we don’t want this looking like a trailer park,” Stokes said. “But you know, until people get their money from PGE and can rebuild, that’s how it’s going to look.”

Walt Munjar lives in a trailer park off the main road through Paradise, not far from its City Hall. He had a stroke shortly before the fire, and a more serious one a few months ago, and now uses a walker.

Like Stokes, Munjar said he felt unwelcome in the town he grew up in.

“Now they’ve made laws,”

Climbing unsteadily down the rickety metal steps of his battered Coachmen Catalina, Munjar said he paid $600 a month to park the metal recreational vehicle on this gravel lot with no shade.

“Before the fire you could park a fifth wheel anywhere. Now they’ve made laws,” Munjar said. “The city, they got yuppie intentions.”

Munjar

Bolin said the accusations that town leaders are trying to drive out poor residents are “very hurtful because that’s not the case at all.”

Bolin said the town has done everything in its power to help lower-income residents, especially those still waiting for payouts from PG&E. Grant money is being used to build senior and low-income housing, and some apartments are already up.

He also believes the camping can’t be tolerated forever.

“This is not a town where we want to continue to have people live in trailers,” he said. “It’s just very tough. I’ve lost a lot of friends in this situation. You just have to keep doing what’s right for the majority of the town.”

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; Ephesians:4:14

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Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: Isaiah:8:7

By Ivana Kottasová, Zahid Mahmood and Sana Noor Haq, CNN

Updated 8:57 AM EDT, Mon August 21, 2023

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British nurse convicted of killing seven infants

04:10 – Source: CNNLondonCNN — 

A British nurse was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Monday for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the UK hospital where she worked.

And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. Exodus:1:15-16

she will never be released.

Lucy Letby, 33, was handed a whole life order by Manchester Crown Court in northern England, meaning she will never be released. Letby refused to appear in the dock, prompting calls for laws to be changed so that defendants must attend their sentencing hearings.

The defenders of the papacy declare that the church has been maligned, and the Protestant world are inclined to accept the statement. Many urge that it is unjust to judge the church of today by the abominations and absurdities that marked her reign during the centuries of ignorance and darkness. They excuse her horrible cruelty as the result of the barbarism of the times and plead that the influence of modern civilization has changed her sentiments.
Have these persons forgotten the claim of infallibility put forth for eight hundred years by this haughty power? So far from being relinquished, this claim was affirmed in the nineteenth century with greater positiveness than ever before. As Rome asserts that the “church never erred; nor will it, according to the Scriptures, ever err ” (John L. von Mosheim, Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, book 3, century II, part 2, chapter 2, section 9, note 17), how can she renounce the principles which governed her course in past ages?
The papal church will never relinquish her claim to infallibility. All that she has done in her persecution of those who reject her dogmas she holds to be right; and would she not repeat the same acts, should the opportunity be presented? Let the restraints now imposed by secular governments be removed and Rome be reinstated in her former power, and there would speedily be a revival of her tyranny and persecution. GC 563.2 – GC 564.2

The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan by Ellen G White

She was found guilty on Friday by a jury, in a case that horrified the country and made her Britain’s most prolific child serial killer of recent times.

Explaining why he decided Letby must spent the rest of her life in prison, Justice James Goss said: “This was a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children.”

The judge addressed Letby as if she was in court during the sentencing. He ordered his remarks and the victim impact statements read in court earlier in the day to be handed to the convicted serial killer.

you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing

“There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism. During the course of this trial you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing. You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors,” he said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday condemned Letby for failing to appear in court. “I think it’s cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims and hear first hand the impact that their crimes have had on them and their families and loved ones,” PA Media reported.

null

Enforcement of Sunday observance

“We are looking and have been at changing the law to make sure that that happens and that’s something that we’ll bring forward in due course.”

Letby attacked babies in her care by administering air into their blood and stomachs, overfeeding them with milk, physically assaulting them and poisoning them with insulin, the court heard on Friday.

God denounces Babylon “because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”…
God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh, sanctifying this day, and setting it apart from all others as holy to Himself, to be observed by His people throughout their generations. But the man of sin, exalting himself above God, sitting in the temple of God, and showing himself to be God, thought to change times and laws. This power, thinking to prove that it was not only equal to God, but above God, changed the rest day, placing the first day of the week where the seventh should be. And the Protestant world has taken this child of the papacy to be regarded as sacred. In the Word of God this is called her fornication Revelation 14:8.—The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 7:979 (1900). LDE 123.1 – LDE 123.2

Ellen G White

she was able to escape detection for so long.

The allegations against Letby and her subsequent conviction triggered a government inquiry amid questions over how she was able to escape detection for so long.

And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. Acts:8:11

She secretly assaulted 13 babies on the neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester hospital between 2015 and 2016, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement on Friday.

Prosecutors argued that Letby’s intention was to kill the babies while duping her colleagues into believing there was a natural cause of death.

It emerged during the trial that police had found a series of handwritten notes by Letby, including one that read: “I am evil I did this.”Cheshire Constabulary/Getty Images

A large class, even of those who look upon Romanism with no favor, apprehend little danger from her power and influence. Many urge that the intellectual and moral darkness prevailing during the Middle Ages favored the spread of her dogmas, superstitions, and oppression, and that the greater intelligence of modern times, the general diffusion of knowledge, and the increasing liberality in matters of religion forbid a revival of intolerance and tyranny. The very thought that such a state of things will exist in this enlightened age is ridiculed. It is true that great light, intellectual, moral, and religious, is shining upon this generation. In the open pages of God’s Holy Word, light from heaven has been shed upon the world. But it should be remembered that the greater the light bestowed, the greater the darkness of those who pervert and reject it. GC 571.4 – GC 572.1

The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan by Ellen G White

Letby wrote note, saying, ‘I am evil I did this’

Chapter 77—In Pilate’s Judgment Hall

The parents of the babies that Letby murdered were given a chance to tell the court about the impact of her horrific acts before Friday’s sentencing. Many have spoken about their lives being forever changed, PA reported.

Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Matthew:27:25, The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. Job:24:14 

The parents of several of the babies that survived Letby’s assaults said their children now require around-the-clock care.

As with the sentencing, Letby was not in the courtroom when the victim impact statements were read.

murdering his twin brother.

Throughout the trial, the court heard harrowing testimony from parents, including in one case where Letby had tried to kill a baby boy after murdering his twin brother.

Jesus pointed His hearers back to the marriage institution as ordained at creation…. Then marriage and the Sabbath had their origin, twin institutions for the glory of God in the benefit of humanity. Then, as the Creator joined the hands of the holy pair in wedlock, … He enunciated the law of marriage for all the children of Adam to the close of time. That which the Eternal Father Himself had pronounced good was the law of highest blessing and development for man. Like every other one of God’s good gifts entrusted to the keeping of humanity, marriage has been perverted by sin; but it is the purpose of the gospel to restore its purity and beauty.14
FLB 253.4

The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan by Ellen G White

The mother of Child E and Child F said she “completely” trusted Letby’s advice, while giving evidence to the court.

However, she said she “knew there was something wrong” when her baby, Child E, started screaming in the intensive care unit one night.

You have no remorse.

“There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism. During the course of this trial you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing. You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors,” he said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday condemned Letby for failing to appear in court. “I think it’s cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims and hear first hand the impact that their crimes have had on them and their families and loved ones,” PA Media reported.





The parents of several of the babies that survived Letby’s assaults said their children now require around-the-clock care.

As with the sentencing, Letby was not in the courtroom when the victim impact statements were read.

Throughout the trial, the court heard harrowing testimony from parents, including in one case where Letby had tried to kill a baby boy after murdering his twin brother.

The mother of Child E and Child F said she “completely” trusted Letby’s advice, while giving evidence to the court.

baby, Child E, started screaming in the intensive care unit one night.

For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Psalm:30:5

However, she said she “knew there was something wrong” when her baby, Child E, started screaming in the intensive care unit one night.

As the Jews had departed from God, faith had grown dim, and hope had well-nigh ceased to illuminate the future. The words of the prophets were uncomprehended. To the masses of the people, death was a dread mystery; beyond was uncertainty and gloom. It was not alone the wailing of the mothers of Bethlehem, but the cry from the great heart of humanity, that was borne to the prophet across the centuries,—the voice heard in Ramah, “lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.” Matthew 2:18. In “the region and shadow of death,” men sat unsolaced. With longing eyes they looked for the coming of the Deliverer, when the darkness should be dispelled, and the mystery of the future should be made plain.
Outside of the Jewish nation there were men who foretold the appearance of a divine instructor. These men were seeking for truth, and to them the Spirit of Inspiration was imparted. One after another, like stars in the darkened heavens, such teachers had arisen. Their words of prophecy had kindled hope in the hearts of thousands of the Gentile world. DA 32.4 – DA 33.1

The Desire of Ages by Ellen G White

It emerged that before Letby murdered Child E, he started bleeding when she tried to assault him. That baby’s twin brother, Child F, later survived an attempt by Letby to kill him by insulin poisoning. And it was revealed that police had found a series of handwritten notes by Letby.

Nazi_Germany Jezebel Golden Cup: Fishing Chemical treatment to be deployed against invasive fish in Colorado River

http://adventistangelswatchmanradio.com/2023/08/21/nazi_germany-jezebel-golden-cup-fishing-chemical-treatment-to-be-deployed-against-invasive-fish-in-colorado-river/

“I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them,” she wrote in one memo, adding in another, “I am a horrible evil person” and in capital letters, “I am evil I did this.”

In 2018 and 2019, Letby was arrested twice by police in connection with their investigation, PA said. She was arrested again in November 2020.

Authorities found the notes Letby had written, as well as handover notes she had taken from the hospital during searches of her address.


During the sentencing, the judge said Letby has kept the hospital documents “as morbid records of the events surrounding the collapses” of the babies.

Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.
Isaiah:60:4

The UK government issued an independent inquiry into the murders on Friday, including how regulators and Britain’s National Health Service dealt with the concerns raised by consultants.

Doctors at the hospital noticed a spike in the number of babies who were dying or unexpectedly collapsing in the neonatal unit, the court in Manchester heard.

A Return to the Nineteenth-Century Style Regulation : Why Biden is hedging on a climate emergency declaration

http://adventistangelswatchmanradio.com/2023/08/12/a-return-to-the-nineteenth-century-style-regulation-why-biden-is-hedging-on-a-climate-emergency-declaration/

But the hospital’s management initially dismissed concerns raised by clinicians over the increased mortality rate of patients under Letby’s care, PA reported.

Lawyers for the victims’ families have said the inquiry was “not good enough” as it does not have powers to summon witnesses.

In 2016, Letby won a grievance complaint that she had filed against her employers after learning of their initial allegations.

She was scheduled to return to the neonatal department in March 2017, but her return did not take place. The hospital trust contacted the police, who opened an investigation.

CNN’s Peter Wilkinson, Niamh Kennedy and Sarah Dean contributed reporting.

Yahoo News

Sharon Adarlo

Tue, August 15, 2023 at 9:57 PM GMT+3

Jet Set

Picture this: somebody has attacked an isolated indigenous village in rural Peru and tried to kidnap a 15-year-old girl. Locals claim it was aliens, as in little green men. But government officials investigating the strange incident say it’s actually… drum roll… illegal miners on jetpacks.

At the command of Jesus the evil spirits departed from their victims, leaving them calmly sitting at the Saviour’s feet, subdued, intelligent, and gentle. But the demons were permitted to sweep a herd of swine into the sea; and to the dwellers of Gadara the loss of these outweighed the blessings which Christ had bestowed, and the divine Healer was entreated to depart. This was the result which Satan designed to secure. By casting the blame of their loss upon Jesus, he aroused the selfish fears of the people and prevented them from listening to His words. Satan is constantly accusing Christians as the cause of loss, misfortune, and suffering, instead of allowing the reproach to fall where it belongs—upon himself and his agents. GC 514.3

The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan by Ellen G White

It sounds like a game of Mad Libs gone awry, but this is an actual saga that’s been unfolding since July in the Amazon in Northern Peru, according to Spanish-language news outfit RPP Noticias. 

‘Pope’ s Sabbath in Burning Bush’ Maui amplifying wildfires, Dry-land Fierce winds : At least 6 dead as residents scramble to evacuate lockdown

‘Pope’ s Sabbath in Burning Bush’ Maui amplifying wildfires, Dry-land Fierce winds : At least 6 dead as residents scramble to evacuate lockdown

Members of the Ikitu, an indigenous tribe, claim they’ve been beset by strange, levitating figures that are more than six feet in height and appear to easily deflect their weapons.

We are frightened by what is happening in the community,”

“These gentlemen are aliens,” local leader Jairo Reátegui Ávila told the outlet. “They seem armored like the Green Goblin from Spider-Man. I have shot him twice and he does not fall, but rises and disappears. We are frightened by what is happening in the community,”

After the locals called for police protection, law enforcement investigators descended on the isolated area and concluded in Early August that it was in fact illegal miners using “high-tech equipment” — jet packs, which they say were intended to intimidate the locals — according to a followup report from RPP Noticias.

Really Though

The reality is that jetpacks are wildly loud, expensive, and impractical — oh, and they’re incredible fuel hogs as well. We’ve never heard of them being used in legal mining operations, nevermind an illegal one.

In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death. Job:24:16-17

 

And yet eyewitnesses insist they saw something. The jetpack story becomes more plausible when you read the eyewitness accounts of a teacher who saw the “aliens” try to kidnap a teenager on July 29.

Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. 1 Samuel:22:9

“They would be using state-of-the-art technology, such as the thrusters that allow people to fly,” local teacher Cristian Caleb Pacaya told RPP Noticias. “In this case too, according to Google, they are called ‘jetpacks’ (jetpacks). We have investigated that these gentlemen would be using this suit to reach those places.”

It is true that the area attracts miners intent on extracting gold and other resources illegally, often resulting in terrible environmental damage and even violence. Is it theoretically possible they’re using jetpacks? Sure. But it seems unlikely.

No matter the explanation, though, these incidents in the jungle — sounds like 1987’s “Predator,” right? — are sure to fuel even more speculation during a year when alien conspiracy theories have made the mainstream.

More on aliens: Harvard Professor Says Godlike Aliens May Be Creating Universes in Labs

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BEHIND THE SCENES

The difference between proclaiming an official climate emergency “in practice” and in actuality is more than just rhetorical hair-splitting

President Joe Biden

Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images

RAFI SCHWARTZ

AUGUST 12, 2023

The Challenge of Pope Francis: A Return to the Nineteenth-Century Style Regulation

While men are sleeping, Satan is actively arranging matters so that the Lord’s people may not have mercy or justice. The Sunday movement is now making its way in darkness. The leaders are concealing the true issue, and many who unite in the movement do not themselves see whither the undercurrent is tending. Its professions are mild and apparently Christian, but when it shall speak it will reveal the spirit of the dragon. It is our duty to do all in our power to avert the threatened danger. 5T 452.1

Testimonies For The Church Vol5 by Ellen G White

The scenery: epic. The subject: apocalyptic. Perched at the edge of the Grand Canyon’s Yaki Point lookout in Arizona for a rare one-on-one interview with the Weather Channel, President Biden bemoaned the “existential threat” to humanity posed by climate change, highlighting the “significant progress” his administration has made in addressing the challenge, even as he acknowledged the United States’ role in leading the world‘s carbon emissions for a time.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, students of prophecy in the United States have presented this testimony to the world. In the events now taking place is seen a rapid advance toward the fulfillment of the prediction. With Protestant teachers there is the same claim of divine authority for Sundaykeeping, and the same lack of Scriptural evidence, as with the papal leaders who fabricated miracles to supply the place of a command from God. The assertion that God’s judgments are visited upon men for their violation of the Sunday-sabbath, will be repeated; already it is beginning to be urged. And a movement to enforce Sunday observance is fast gaining ground. GC 579.1

The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan by Ellen G White

“We’ve conserved more land, we’ve rejoined the Paris Climate Accords, we’ve passed the $368 billion climate control facility,” Biden bragged when asked by the Weather Channel’s Stephanie Abrams if he was prepared to officially declare a national climate emergency. “We’re moving.” Pressed by Abrams on whether that meant he had, in fact, made the official declaration, Biden insisted that  “practically speaking, yes.”

The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words: “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17. GC 592.3

The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan by Ellen G White

However, the gulf between “practically” and “actually” is in many ways as wide as the canyon upon which Biden’s assertion took place. While Biden’s list of environmental actions is significant in its own right, an official climate emergency declaration would unlock a suite of federal funds and executive actions to bolster the government’s climate change agenda.

The Babylonish Language of The Chaldeas : “using the language of a climate emergency : 💉🌎 European Sunday Alliance Movement

“Young people across the country know that ‘practically speaking’ President Biden has not declared a climate emergency,” Varshini Prakash, executive director of the environmental activist Sunrise Movement group, said in a statement. Although the president might be “using the language of a climate emergency,” Prakash continued, “the Administration is not using their power to enforce the life saving actions an actual emergency declaration would offer.” Urging the president to declare an “actual climate emergency,” the People vs. Fossil Fuels environmental coalition agreed, writing that in this case “the thought does not count.” 

“An ambitious approach to climate change”

Speaking with CNN’s Victor Blackwell this week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre worked to clarify the president’s ambiguous assertion, claiming Biden had been referring to the Defense Production Act, which was “something he did very early on.” But while Biden did invoke the Defense Production Act last summer in order to “achieve lasting American energy independence that reduces demand for fossil fuels and bolsters our clean energy economy,” he did so after the urging of Republicans and conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Crucially, the action also came amidst tense negotiations over congressional climate action and spending, in which Manchin was a key figure before ultimately walking away from the process. At the time, Biden faced intense pressure and reportedly considered declaring an official Climate Emergency, but eventually demurred after the Inflation Reduction Act, replete with a host of environmentally focused sections, passed later that year. As CNN noted, the DPA is “unrelated” to the sort of National Emergency Declaration climate activists have pushed for, which would allow the president to “restrict the export of crude oil and end offshore drilling, among other authorities.”

“There is a narrative, there is a story to tell,” Blackwell allowed, after Jean-Pierre’s assertion that the Biden administration has taken a “really ambitious approach” to climate change. Jean-Pierre’s colleague, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández tried to thread a similar needle, telling Politico’s E&E News that Biden has been “crystal clear” in treating climate change as “an emergency — the existential threat of our time — since day one.“

“Complications” 

The “hullabaloo” over whether “practically” is enough to make up for not “officially” declaring a National Climate Emergency is a “reminder of the wider White House approach,” Axios said, pointing to the administration’s selectivity with oil and gas leasing, even as it pushes for more near-term production and the “geo-strategic benefits to U.S. resources” that come from weaning the nation off Russian oil. Biden has also claimed that the courts have been “limiting his ability to restrict development” even further. When the president backed away from making an emergency declaration last year, the New York Times noted that the operating principle behind the decision was that the country was already in “the grips of the disastrous impact of climate change” and that rather than seeking to cut emissions, the White House would instead work to “lessen” climate change’s “impact on households and communities.”

While Biden’s measures have been, in the words of Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president for government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters, “clearly necessary,” they also belie a fundamental reality for this administration: Republican opposition to more sweeping actions such as a full emergency declaration. Earlier this summer, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) introduced a bill to bar the White House from declaring a National Climate Emergency at all. Dubbed the “Real Emergencies Act,” the bill would “prevent Biden from using three primary statutory authorities available (the National Emergencies Act, the Stafford Act, and section 319 of the Public Health Service Act) to declare a national emergency solely on the basis of climate change,” Pfluger said in a press release, insisting nevertheless that “actual national emergencies or major disasters (hurricanes, flooding, etc.) may still be declared.” Notably, Pfluger heads the San Antonio based Gentry Creek Energy LLC, described in his 2021 financial disclosure report as an “energy company engaged in pipelines and infrastructure.”

The debate over declaring a National Climate Emergency presents challenges not only to the president in terms of immediate governance, but also to his campaign, while he gears up for his 2024 reelection run. In that arena, Biden must sell “skeptical Americans on the benefits of his already-enacted climate agenda while balancing the concerns of those who don’t feel like he’s done enough,” CNN said, citing a recent Washington Post/University of Maryland poll that shows nearly 60 percent of the country disapproving of his climate record.  

Political juggling aside, the administration’s effort to have it both ways on a climate emergency has only managed to anger some activists who worry the White House is simply not up to the challenges associated with global climate change. “Biden has, in fact, failed to declare a climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act, failed to harness his executive powers, and failed to take lifesaving action to end fossil fuels,” Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, told The Hill. “Practically speaking, Biden has devastated communities and wildlife by backing disastrous carbon bombs from Alaska to Appalachia.”

“But,” Siegel added, “the president can still become the leader we need by declaring a climate emergency for real.”

By working upon the jealousy of the kings and the ruling classes, Rome had influenced them to keep the people in bondage, well knowing that the state would thus be weakened, and purposing by this means to fasten both rulers and people in her thrall. With farsighted policy she perceived that in order to enslave men effectually, the shackles must be bound upon their souls; that the surest way to prevent them from escaping their bondage was to render them incapable of freedom. A thousandfold more terrible than the physical suffering which resulted from her policy, was the moral degradation. Deprived of the Bible, and abandoned to the teachings of bigotry and selfishness, the people were shrouded in ignorance and superstition, and sunken in vice, so that they were wholly unfitted for self-government. GC 281.1

11th August 2023

Last Updated on 11th August 2023

Romaan Basit, AARC

Markus Winkler | Unsplash

Throughout history, major world crises have often sparked economic chaos. Take the Treaty of Versailles – it marked the end of a world war, yet lit the fuse for financial turmoil. Germany, drowning in post-war debt and war reparations, plummeted into hyperinflation. Slowly but surely, public trust crumbled in the shattered economy.

The court was given up to luxury and profligacy. There was little confidence existing between the people and the rulers. Suspicion fastened upon all the measures of the government as designing and selfish. For more than half a century before the time of the Revolution the throne was occupied by Louis XV, who, even in those evil times, was distinguished as an indolent, frivolous, and sensual monarch. With a depraved and cruel aristocracy and an impoverished and ignorant lower class, the state financially embarrassed and the people exasperated, it needed no prophet’s eye to foresee a terrible impending outbreak. To the warnings of his counselors the king was accustomed to reply: “Try to make things go on as long as I am likely to live; after my death it may be as it will.” It was in vain that the necessity of reform was urged. He saw the evils, but had neither the courage nor the power to meet them. The doom awaiting France was but too truly pictured in his indolent and selfish answer, “After me, the deluge!”

By working upon the jealousy of the kings and the ruling classes, Rome had influenced them to keep the people in bondage, well knowing that the state would thus be weakened, and purposing by this means to fasten both rulers and people in her thrall.

With farsighted policy she perceived that in order to enslave men effectually, the shackles must be bound upon their souls; that the surest way to prevent them from escaping their bondage was to render them incapable of freedom. A thousandfold more terrible than the physical suffering which resulted from her policy, was the moral degradation. Deprived of the Bible, and abandoned to the teachings of bigotry and selfishness, the people were shrouded in ignorance and superstition, and sunken in vice, so that they were wholly unfitted for self-government.

But the outworking of all this was widely different from what Rome had purposed. Instead of holding the masses in a blind submission to her dogmas, her work resulted in making them infidels and revolutionists. Romanism they despised as priestcraft. They beheld the clergy as a party to their oppression. The only god they knew was the god of Rome; her teaching was their only religion. They regarded her greed and cruelty as the legitimate fruit of the Bible, and they would have none of it.

Rome had misrepresented the character of God and perverted His requirements, and now men rejected both the Bible and its Author. She had required a blind faith in her dogmas, under the pretended sanction of the Scriptures. In the reaction, Voltaire and his associates cast aside God’s word altogether and spread everywhere the poison of infidelity. Rome had ground down the people under her iron heel; and now the masses, degraded and brutalized, in their recoil from her tyranny, cast off all restraint. Enraged at the glittering cheat to which they had so long paid homage, they rejected truth and falsehood together; and mistaking license for liberty, the slaves of vice exulted in their imagined freedom. GC 280.1 – GC 281.3

The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan by Ellen G White

The conflict between Iraq and US-led coalitions triggered similar repercussions, namely the Gulf War Recession. Soaring oil prices, with crude oil per barrel doubling in cost, once again gave rise to inflation, sending tremors through the global economy and unsettling financial markets.

Today, we witness situations similar to the above case studies. Covid-19 is still not over (with a new variant on the rise), but the recession it caused is dubbed ‘The Great Lockdown’. Meanwhile, with the Russia-Ukraine war knowing no end, we are left to bear the burden of rising fuel, food, and utility prices – the cost of living biting hard.

As we emerged from the shadows of quarantines and lockdowns, the resurgence of travel meant a greater demand for fuel. The Far East conflict, however, has constrained oil and gas supplies from Russia. The demand is greater than the supply, which is causing the trajectory of prices to creep up slowly, with inflation being a natural outcome.

Ah, the cherished champion of capitalism! What wondrous solution does this revered economic model bring forth to such a problem? Well, to tackle inflation, let’s inflate interest rates. What a fix!

The idea is that when interest rates are high, borrowing money becomes more expensive, which curbs the consumer’s purchasing power. With reduced spending, demand is set to drop, effectively taming inflation and providing a temporary and symptomatic solution. Just in the past month, the interest rate has climbed from 5% to 5.25% – the highest it’s been for 15 years.

This has a direct impact on the general public: repayments for credit cards, bank loans, car finance, etc. are set to increase. About a third of households with mortgages (as per the UK government’s English Housing Survey) will experience a spike in their monthly payments. To put it into perspective, the rise from 5% to 5.25% means those on a typical tracker mortgage would pay about £24 more a month, and those on standard variable rate (SVR) mortgages would face a £15 jump.

So, we observe interest being used as a societal deterrent with evident negative effects – precisely affirming Islam’s stance against it. This view is shared by not only Islam but also ancient philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Cato, and Plutarch, as well as major world religions including Judaism and Christianity.

Hence, capitalism’s flaunted solution appears less promising. While it offers fleeting relief, it often leads to recurrent economic crises, always underlying even the times of apparent remission. It is akin to applying a temporary remedy to a broken bone when a more lasting and effective solution is needed.

The Economic System of Islam was a lecture delivered in 1945 by Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad^ra, the second Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. In this, he distinctly highlighted Islam as the sole solution to the shortcomings of Capitalism and Communism. Allowing the free market to flourish under state control is what allows Islam to suggest a fine and pragmatic balance between both.

Repeatedly raising interest rates has proven ineffective in addressing the West’s growing economic challenges. It’s now crucial for the world to heed Islam’s longstanding solution. This was emphasised by Wolfgang Schaeuble during a G20 meeting, where major economies gather to shape our global future:

“Islamic finance is growing in importance for the global economy. It is therefore important that international financial institutions consider questions related to integrating Islamic finance into global finance.”

The solution to the world’s economic crises most definitely does not lie in raising interest rates. Nor does it lie in the Communist shackles of state control. Both have been tried and tested; a middle way is required and is available, yet neglected.

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When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without. And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face. They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened. In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
Hosea:7:1-5

It is selfishness also that prompts the feeling, on the part of workers, that their judgment must be the most reliable and their methods of labor the best or that it is their privilege in any way to bind the conscience of another. Such was the spirit of the Jewish leaders in Christ’s day. In their self-exaltation the priests and rabbis brought in such rigid rules and so many forms and ceremonies as to divert the minds of the people from God and leave Him no chance to work for them. Thus His mercy and love were lost sight of. My brethren, do not follow in the same path. Let the minds of the people be directed to God. Leave Him a chance to work for those who love Him. Do not impose upon the people rules and regulations, which, if followed, would leave them as destitute of the Spirit of God as were the hills of Gilboa of dew or rain. 5T 727.2

Some of these ministers make a mistake in the preparation of their discourses. They arrange every minutia with such exactness that they give the Lord no room to lead and impress their minds. Every point is fixed, stereotyped as it were, and they cannot depart from the plan marked out. This course, if continued, will cause them to become narrow-minded, circumscribed in their views, and will soon leave them as destitute of life and energy as are the hills of Gilboa of dew and rain. They must throw the soul open and let the Holy Spirit take possession to impress the mind. When everything is laid out beforehand, and they feel that they cannot vary from these set discourses, the effect is little better than that produced by reading a sermon. 5T 251.2

There are many flippant talkers of Bible truth, whose souls are as barren of the Spirit of God as were the hills of Gilboa of dew and rain. But what we need is men who are thoroughly converted themselves and can teach others how to give their hearts to God. The power of godliness has almost ceased to be in our churches. And why is this? The Lord is still waiting to be gracious; He has not closed the windows of heaven. We have separated ourselves from Him. We need to fix the eye of faith upon the cross and believe that Jesus is our strength, our salvation. 5T 166.3

And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts. Isaiah:19:4

“I was trapped,” he said. “We had to run to the harbor.”

I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
Psalm:119:32

ABC News

Fierce winds and drought conditions are causing major wildfires on Maui.

ByMark Osborne  andMeredith Deliso

Last Updated: August 9, 2023, 7:30 PM ET

32:23

Hawaii officials give updates on wildfires

The lieutenant governor said Maui “is n…Read More

ABCNews.com

Dangerous wildfires are spreading rapidly across Maui due to very dry conditions stemming from a drought combined with powerful trade winds being squeezed across Hawaii. The Big Island of Hawaii has also been affected by wildfires, officials said.

Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. Psalm:48:7, They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; Psalm:107:23 

Everything in the world is in agitation. The signs of the times are ominous. Coming events cast their shadows before. The Spirit of God is withdrawing from the earth, and calamity follows calamity by sea and by land. There are tempests, earthquakes, fires, floods, murders of every grade. Who can read the future? Where is security? There is assurance in nothing that is human or earthly. Rapidly are men ranging themselves under the banner they have chosen. Restlessly are they waiting and watching the movements of their leaders. There are those who are waiting and watching and working for our Lord’s appearing. Another class are falling into line under the generalship of the first great apostate. Few believe with heart and soul that we have a hell to shun and a heaven to win. DA 636.1

The Desire of Ages by Ellen G White

Another Lockdown

There have been six deaths so far, according to the mayor of Maui, and Gov. Josh Green said much of Lahaina has been “destroyed.” A state of emergency has been declared for the whole island, while all nonessential travel to the vacation destination is being discouraged, officials said.

The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. Isaiah:13:4-9

The winds are being caused by a strong high pressure system to the north and a strong low pressure system — Hurricane Dora — well to the south.

While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce  tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. "The earth mourneth and fadeth away," "the haughty people ... do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." Isaiah 24:4, 5. 
And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God's commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday sabbath; that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced; and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity. Thus the accusation urged of old against the servant of God will be repeated and upon grounds equally well established: "And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." 1 Kings 18:17, 18. As the wrath of the people shall be excited by false charges, they will pursue a course toward God's ambassadors very similar to that which apostate Israel pursued toward Elijah. GC 589.3 - GC 590.1

Latest headlines:

• At least 6 deaths reported in Maui, mayor says
• Hawaii governor: ‘Some loss of life is expected’

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.

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Aug 09, 7:30 PM EDT

Helicopter pilot on Maui devastation

When helicopter pilot Richard Olsten flew above Lahaina, Maui, on Wednesday, he said he was not prepared for what he saw.

Let your faith be substantiated by the Word of God. Grasp firmly the living testimony of truth. Have faith in Christ as a personal Saviour. He has been and ever will be our Rock of Ages.—Evangelism, 362 (1905).
Christians should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise, and this preparation they should make by diligently studying the Word of God and striving to conform their lives to its precepts.—Prophets and Kings, 626 (c. 1914).
None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict.—The Great Controversy, 593, 594 (1911).
Only those who have been diligent students of the Scriptures and who have received the love of the truth will be shielded from the powerful delusion that takes the world captive.—The Great Controversy, 625 (1911).
Our people need to understand the oracles of God; they need to have a systematic knowledge of the principles of revealed truth, which will fit them for what is coming upon the earth and prevent them from being carried about by every wind of doctrine.—Testimonies for the Church 5:273 (1885). LDE 66.1 – LDE 66.5

“It was heartbreaking,” Olsten told ABC News Live. “There’s hundreds of homes burned down to the ground. The entire area of Front Street, the whole historic area, is gone, burned to the ground.”

“We were just speechless with one another as we viewed this horrible destruction of the town,” Olsten said.

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Aug 09, 7:27 PM EDT

Latest from airlines: cancellations after Lockdowns

So far on Wednesday, there have been 17 cancellations and 46 delays at Kahului Airport (OGG) in Maui, according to FlightAware.

Delta Air Lines said it anticipates operating a full schedule out of Maui on Wednesday, adding two more flights to help accommodate customers from flights canceled the day before.

American Airlines said it canceled all flights to Kahului Airport on Wednesday but expects to operate the majority of flights out of the airport “to ensure customers evacuating OGG are able to do so.”

it’s monitoring the wildfire and winds in Hawaii, but operations remain normal.

The Federal Aviation Administration said earlier it’s monitoring the wildfire and winds in Hawaii, but operations remain normal. A spokesperson said that, if necessary, the agency will take steps to manage the flow of traffic safely into areas that experience reduced visibility from wildfire smoke.

-ABC News’ Amanda Maile

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Aug 09, 6:47 PM EDT

‘I was trapped’: Maui fire survivors speak out

For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. Ecclesiastes:9:12

A Maui resident recounted escaping from his burning home in an interview with ABC News’ Gio Benitez on Wednesday.

“We started smelling the smoke, and that’s when we knew we had trouble,” Steve Scott said. “It came, and it came quick.”

The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God. The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude. The agencies of evil are combining their forces, and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones.—Testimonies for the Church 9:11. ChS 52.2

Testimonies For The Church Vol8 by Ellen G White

Scott said he tried to fight the fire with a hose before managing to flee.

“I was trapped,” he said. “We had to run to the harbor.”

And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Habakkuk:2:2-3 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Matthew:24:15-16

Scott said the loss is “horrible,” especially along Front Street in downtown Lahaina, just as the tourist-driven area started to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Healing Relationship with God, with ourselves, with others (common good) and with the world (nature worship) by “Sun☀ day” Worship as Amazon Fires Burn Pope Convenes Meeting in The Burning Bush

“I don’t know if we can recover from this,” he said.

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Aug 09, 6:43 PM EDT

Biden on wildfire response

President Joe Biden and the first lady said they are sending condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones in the Maui wildfires.

In a statement Wednesday evening, Biden said he has ordered “all available Federal assets on the Islands to help with response” and is urging “all residents to continue to follow evacuation orders, listen to the instructions of first responders and officials, and stay alert.”

-ABC News’ Justin Gomez