Middle East’s 2nd-largest economy deports nearly 15,000 people...

Middle East’s 2nd-largest economy deports nearly 15,000 people in one week as Ethiopians account for 58% of illegal border arrests

Olamilekan Okebiorun

03 September 2026 07:08 PM

Saudi Arabia has deported 14,905 people following a week-long nationwide crackdown on residency, labour and border violations, with Ethiopians accounting for the largest share of those caught trying to enter the kingdom illegally.

Saudi Arabian ruler Mohammed bin Salman at a US-Saudi investment event in Washington DC, in November 2025. In December, Paramount said a Saudi-controlled fund would pitch in $10 billion towards its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

Ethiopians constituted 58% of the 1,450 individuals caught trying to cross the border illegally, the largest share among nationalities.
Saudi Arabia deported 14,905 people after a week-long crackdown on residency, labour, and border violations.

Over 29,900 expatriates are currently undergoing enforcement procedures related to immigration and residency laws.
The government warned that those aiding illegal entry or stay could face severe penalties, including up to 15 years in prison and heavy fines.

The enforcement campaign, carried out between August 20 and August 26, led to the arrest of 14,434 people, according to the Ministry of Interior.

Of those detained, 6,976 were cited for residency violations, 4,110 for breaches of border security rules and 3,348 for labour violations, Gulf News reported.

Ethiopians account for 58% of border arrests

The figures are notable for Africa because Ethiopian nationals accounted for 58% of the 1,450 people arrested while attempting to cross into Saudi Arabia illegally. Yemenis made up 41%, while other nationalities accounted for the remaining 1%.

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Women’s Ordination: By Whose Authority? | Marko Kolic

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Women’s ordination—by whose authority can the church ordain women to gospel ministry? Marko Kolic examines the women’s ordination debate, General Conference votes, and biblical qualifications for church leadership, asking whether Scripture or human decisions have the final say.

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How Frederick Douglass Escaped Slavery

Douglass looked back on September 3, 1838 as the day when his “free life began,” but he encountered several close calls during his journey to freedom.

Bettmann / Getty Images

Christopher Klein

Published: September 03, 2013 Last Updated: May 27, 2025

Never had Frederick Douglass been so nervous. The butterflies in his stomach fluttered with every bounce of the carriage over Baltimore’s cobblestone streets as he approached the Baltimore and Ohio railroad station. The enslaved man, then known by his birth name of Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, was embarking on a perilous journey with New York—and freedom—his intended destinations.

After Douglass’ attempt to escape slavery two years prior was betrayed by a fellow enslaved person, he had been jailed, sent to Baltimore by his master and hired out to work in the city’s shipyards. Undeterred, Douglass vowed to try to escape again on September 3, 1838, although he knew the risk. “I felt assured that if I failed in this attempt, my case would be a hopeless one,” he wrote in his autobiography. “It would seal my fate as a slave forever.”

Douglass disguised himself as a free Black sailor, a creditable ruse given the nautical knowledge he gained from working on the waterfront. He also knew that the deference shown to sailors in a seafaring city such as Baltimore could work to his benefit. He donned a red shirt and sailor’s hat and loosely knotted a black cravat around his neck. Into his pocket, Douglass stuffed a sailor’s protection pass, which he could present in lieu of the “free papers” that railroad officials required Black passengers to carry as proof they were not enslaved. Douglass had borrowed the document from a free African American seaman, but he bore little resemblance to the physical description detailed on the piece of paper. Close examination by a railroad official or any authority would reveal the subterfuge and imperil both Douglass and his friend.

To avoid the scrutinizing eyes of the ticket agent inside the station, Douglass waited and jumped on the moving train at the last moment as it began to puff its way north. Many minutes passed before the conductor finally entered the segregated passenger car bearing the train’s African-American riders. Although Douglass remained calm on the outside, his heart pounded as the conductor carefully inspected the passengers’ free papers. “My whole future depended upon the decision of this conductor,” he wrote.

Illustrations depicting Frederick Douglass’s life from slavery to abolitionist.

Photo12/UIG/Getty Images

Mayor in Lusaka Zambia Wants to Copy Uganda's Cleaning Day on Sabbath

August 26, 2026 NewsHound



A new storm is brewing for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Zambia as the newly elected Lusaka Mayor has called for the introduction of a mandatory Saturday cleaning day, urging the church to follow Uganda's model despite the recent resolution that allowed Adventists there to observe the Sabbath on Saturdays.

The mayor's proposal comes as a shock to church leaders, who are still watching the situation in Uganda unfold. In Uganda, Adventist members have been forced to start Sabbath School in their homes and only gather for main worship at 10:00 AM due to the government's National Cleaning Day being held on the last Saturday of every month.

In Uganda, the Seventh-day Adventist Church formally objected to the government's mandatory National Cleaning Days, citing that the programme, as communicated, interfered with the observance of the Seventh-day Sabbath. According to Scripture, the Sabbath is God's holy day, observed from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, and is a time for worship, fellowship, and rest from ordinary labour.

After negotiations, the Ugandan government granted an exemption, allowing Adventists to participate in the cleaning exercise on Sundays instead. President Yoweri Museveni directed that SDA faithful undertake their cleaning activities on the last Sunday of every month in recognition of their Sabbath observance.

The proposal from the Lusaka Mayor has raised concerns among Adventist leaders in Zambia, who fear a repeat of the Ugandan conflict. The Church is now waiting to see how the two unions in Zambia will respond to what is seen as a direct threat to religious liberty.

In Zambia, the Adventist Church is a significant presence, with over 1.3 million members in more than 3,200 congregations. The Church has actively engaged in community clean-up efforts in the past, including a major city-wide cleaning exercise in Lusaka in 2024, but such initiatives have always been conducted without compromising the sanctity of the Sabbath.

The Church's position is clear: while Adventists support initiatives that promote a clean and healthy environment, they remain committed to the sanctity of the Seventh-day Sabbath as ordained by God.

Commentary

Uganda introduced mandatory National Cleaning Days on the last Saturday of every month (from 8AM to 11AM) to address public health crises caused by poor sanitation and waste management. It has been observed that 75% of the country's disease burden (such as malaria, typhoid, and diarrhea) stems from poor hygiene, endemic litter, and poor sanitation.

Hakainde Hichilema, the president of Zambia is a baptized member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It will be interesting to see how he responds to this proposed cleaning mandate in Lusaka.

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“Those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Samuel 2:30).

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Mom Seeks Supreme Court OK to Take Daughter to Church Against Dad’s Wishes

PUBLISHED  SEP 02, 2026
By Jenni Fink  Senior Editor


A Maine mother's court battle over whether she can take her daughter to church might be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, setting up a potential clash between parental rights, religious liberty and the authority of family courts to restrict a child's religious activities during custody disputes.

Emily Bickford said a court order preventing her from bringing her daughter to church violates her constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. But Maine's highest court recently rejected those arguments, ruling that the restrictions were based on concerns about the child's well-being rather than hostility toward religion.

Following the ruling, Bickford's attorneys at Liberty Counsel announced plans to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, arguing that the decision represents a serious threat to religious freedom and parental rights.

Who Is Emily Bickford?

Bickford is engaged in a years-long custody dispute with her former partner, Matthew Bradeen, over decisions involving their teenage daughter. The conflict eventually expanded beyond ordinary parenting disagreements and into questions about religion, medical decisions and parental authority.

At the center of the case is Calvary Chapel in Westbrook, Maine, where Bickford worships. A Maine district court issued a custody order in December 2024 that prohibits Bickford from bringing her daughter to that church and grants Bradeen sole authority over the child's involvement with Calvary Chapel. The parents retain shared decision-making authority regarding other religious organizations.

Bickford maintains that the order unlawfully interferes with her ability to raise her daughter according to her Christian beliefs. Through Liberty Counsel, she has argued that she is a fit parent who has never been found abusive or neglectful and that government officials should not be permitted to decide whether a child can participate in a parent's religious practices.

The Holy Bible, King James version. | Francis Dean/Corbis via Getty Images


Her legal team, led by Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver, has framed the case as one involving fundamental constitutional protections. Following the Maine Supreme Judicial Court's ruling, Staver said the decision "rejects the First Amendment right of a fit parent to raise her child consistent with her Christian faith" and conflicts with existing Supreme Court precedent.

New ‘reading’ mandate comes into effect for 5.5million Americans – and it will force ible studies

Allan Glen , News Reporter
Published: 12:48, 2 Sep 2026

Inside Trump's America-themed nine-hour prayer rally as 1,000s flock to National Mall to hear president read from Bible

A NEW reading mandate is coming into effect for millions of Americans.

The rule will force teachers in one state to ensure all students in grades 1 to 12 read passages and stories in the Bible.

Coming into effect in 2030, the mandate is part of a new reading list for public schools in Texas.

Teachers will have to follow the list, which has been approved by the State Board of Education.

This is the first time in the state’s history such a mandate has been enforced in the state.

According to reports, Texas is also the first state in the US to mandate the reading of direct religious texts.

The reading list contains nearly 200 mandatory readings for grades 1 through 12.

These range from classics such as Hickory Dickory Dock to Treasure Island and Hamlet.

Of these, 14 readings are Biblical stories or passages, amounting to one Biblical text for every 13 readings.

The list does not include any religious texts of faiths other than Christianity and Judaism.

In a blog post for the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, David R Brockman said the mandate designates “a single religious text, sacred to only two religions, Christianity and Judaism, as essential for student learning.”

He added: “The list’s Bible-only content could impair public schools’ ability to serve its religiously diverse population and potentially relegates non-Christian and non-religious Texans to the status of outsiders in their own public schools.”

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Saudi Arabia and the 9-11 Attacks - 8/31/2026

 

Chris Pinto · SAUDI ARABIA & THE 9-11 ATTACKS - 08.31.2026

NOISE OF THUNDER RADIO - 8.31.2026

Today's Show: SAUDI ARABIA & THE 9-11 ATTACKS
Chris discusses newly released information about the role of Saudi Arabia in the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center back in 2001. The FBI has affirmed that certain video shows a Saudi Arabian spy recording information in the U.S. several years before the attack -- during the Clinton administration. We discuss the details of how Bill Clinton graduated from Georgetown University along with Prince Turki Faisal, who was the head of Saudi Arabian intelligence during the time the attack was planned. We review audio clips of the long time friendship between Clinton and Faisal. Meanwhile, in 2014, Zacarias Moussaoui (known as the "20th hijacker") claimed that Prince Turki Faisal and his wife were the "real masterminds of 9/11."

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Hollywood casted Media Fake News Presentation. A Foundation Mendacity.

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US urges NATO allies to prepare in case Russia attacks

In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker said allies need to be ready, in case Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to attack.

Francesca Chambers and Miles J. Herszenhorn USA TODAY

Updated Sept. 2, 2026, 8:49 a.m. ET

BRUSSELS – Russian President Vladimir Putin may not be planning an imminent assault on NATO nations, but the United States says its military allies need to train and invest like he is, so they’re ready to fend off a sudden attack.

After leaked U.S. intelligence reportedly revealed that Russia could launch a limited assault, such as a land incursion or cyberattack, on a member country within the next few years, America’s allies have been on high alert.

The warning contradicted assessments that Putin would not attempt to draw NATO into a fight while he’s battling Ukraine – and came amid concerns about a U.S. weapons shortage, as the Trump administration wages war on Iran.

In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY at the military alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker declined to comment directly on the leaked intelligence, while stressing a need for allies to be vigilant in their defense spending and weapons production.

“You can't predict what Vladimir Putin's going to do or any adversary. All you can do is be prepared for it and deter and make it not worth their time to make that move,” Whitaker said. “And I think we are preparing every single day to prevent that from happening, and if it does happen, to be ready for it.

“We should know that our adversary invaded Ukraine, and so we should all be pretty clear-eyed,” Whitaker added.

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The Next Chapter

Volume 45 Issue Nine September 2026

Last Trumpet Ministries ∙ PO Box 806 ∙ Beaver Dam, WI 53916

Phone: 920-887-2626 Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org

“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” I Cor. 14:8

The Next Chapter

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”

John 5:39

In ancient times, copying written text was a lengthy and expensive process. Individuals known as scribes would perform this painstaking work, often to preserve important writings such as Scripture. Over time, technology improved dramatically, enabling text to be copied far more quickly and efficiently. Around 1440, German inventor Johannes Gutenberg developed a working concept of his movable-type printing press, which would eventually allow written text to be mass-produced at a speed never before seen. In the mid-1450s, Gutenberg printed his famous 42-line Bible in Latin, the first book printed on a movable-type press in the West. (1) Before Gutenberg’s press was invented, it would take a scribe about three years to copy a Bible. In 1454, Gutenberg produced nearly 180 copies of the sacred book. By the year 1500, there were nearly twenty million books in Western Europe, many of which were Bibles. (2)

Before the printing press was invented, it was mostly the skilled and elite members of society, such as the wealthy, scholars, and the clergy, who had access to written texts. The poor and working classes were often illiterate. Gutenberg’s press made books more accessible and affordable. Thus, those who had little opportunity to read before finally had access to materials that could help them acquire one of the most important skills a person could ever learn: the ability to read and write. Once you have these skills, they open the door to a vast body of knowledge. Today, we have unprecedented access to far more information than was available to any previous generation. Much of this information is at our fingertips twenty-four hours a day through the internet and accessible on devices we carry in our pockets. Increasingly, however, the written word has fallen out of favor. In this issue, we will examine modern trends that give us a glimpse at the next chapter of human history. It is waiting to be written but might never be read.

The End Of Reading

On July 8, 2026, The Atlantic published an essay which declares in its headline, “The End of Reading Is Here.” The piece reveals some startling statistics about American literacy in this modern age. A survey conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts found that fewer than half of all adults in the United States read a book in 2022. An American Time Use Survey, which analyzed 236,000 responses, found that only 16 percent of Americans reported reading anything for pleasure on a given day - down from 28 percent in 2004. Fewer than 10 percent of Americans still read a newspaper, and 40 percent of people who get their news online prefer to watch or listen to it rather than read it. (3)

The piece also explains that young people are especially struggling with reading comprehension. A test conducted in 2024 found that just 35 percent of high school seniors were proficient at “analyzing complex fictional themes and evaluating the effectiveness of an author’s argument.” (4) In other words, even when they can read the words in a written work, they may struggle to understand what those words mean.

Reading comprehension struggles extend even to the most prestigious universities. Margaret Rennix, who is the assistant director for humanities and social sciences support at Harvard University, reported that one student struggled to comprehend the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange and had to turn to the AI chatbot ChatGPT to help decipher it. Meanwhile, course evaluations at Harvard revealed a number of complaints from students upset that their assignments required them to read entire literary works. “By asking them to read, professors are arbitrarily withholding information from students by forcing them to get it through a more difficult medium,” Rennix said as she explained the students’ mentality. (5)

A survey conducted in 2025 found that English teachers in public schools assigned between zero and four books a year to their students. A growing number of schools no longer assign entire books at all, preferring rather to use short excerpts of written works. One principal at an elementary school in Corona, California, reported that many school administrators are instructing teachers not to assign entire books as reading assignments. (6)

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For over 100 years, travelers have checked into US motel rooms and found the Gideon Bible

The Gideon Bible has become a symbol of America's roadside culture and Protestant tradition

Luis Andres Henao

Wednesday 26 August 2026 17:08 BST



“Rocky Raccoon checked into his room, only to find Gideon’s Bible.”

Paul McCartney explained those famous lines in the song by The Beatles, saying these Bibles “were in every hotel in America.” He’d never seen something like that in England.

For more than a century, countless have found it in the bedside drawers of American hotel and motel rooms. It has become a symbol of America’s roadside culture and Protestant tradition. It’s mentioned in lyrics, films, Broadway shows.

“The Gideon Bible is a peculiarly and amazingly American object,” says Lori Anne Ferrell, author of “The Bible and the People.”

It began with Gideons International, an organization of evangelical business and professional men founded in 1899.

One of its members, working on a railroad expansion project, gets off the train in the town of Superior in western Montana, and checks into a hotel. He asks the owner if he can place a Bible at the front desk. She responds with a more ambitious proposal: Place a Bible in each of the hotel rooms.

The group says that it has distributed more than 2.5 billion Bibles worldwide since that day in 1908. It was the year that Ford Motor Co. began manufacturing the Model T, the first low-priced car that introduced motoring to the masses.

The Curious Creature from Davos

 

The ‘new era’ of Latino socialists in New York: ‘If the Democratic Party wants to lead, it must create a solution to the immigration problem’

Several of these politicians have joined the call to abolish ICE and to demand immigration reform that protects undocumented people in the US

Claire Valdéz, Diana Moreno and Darializa Ávila Chevalier.GETTY / EL PAÍS

CARLA GLORIA COLOMÉ
New York - AUG 31, 2026 - 07:41 EDT

On the cover of issue number 304 of The Indypendent, a “free and progressive” paper printed on gray stock that New Yorkers pick up in libraries, laundromats, conference rooms and subway stations, Claire Valdez and Darializa Ávila Chevalier appeared back to back, both with broad smiles, in those June days when Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed them in the state Democratic primaries. When they finally became the nominees for the November congressional elections, Valdez and Chevalier grabbed the issue of The Indypendent, recreated their poses from the cover in person—victorious and amazed that the future had been sketched out for them in advance. One striking detail: both were Latina, the former of Mexican roots; the latter a daughter of Dominican parents. Both alternated Spanish and English on the campaign trail, self-identify as socialists, and worry about the things that concern people like themselves these days: that immigration enforcement might take a neighbor, or that paychecks won’t stretch to the end of the month.

Shortly after the primaries, the Instagram page DSA Latinos Socialistas invited everyone to a conversation where they would sell Venezuelan empanadas and, at the same time, raise funds to help Venezuelans who survived the earthquakes. Four panelists were scheduled for the talk: Ecuadorian Diana Moreno, who had filled Mamdani’s vacated seat as state assembly member for Queens’s 36th District; Illapa Sairitupac, the son of indigenous Peruvian immigrants whom Mamdani also backed and who won the Democratic primary for Assembly District 65; Claire Valdez, running for the 7th Congressional District seat; and Darializa Ávila Chevalier, the candidate for the 13th. A poster in large letters read: “Latina socialist politics in New York: a new era.” They were coining the idea that times had changed.

They were all fresh faces, people in their thirties; none yet had the look or cadence of a conventional politician. They came from roles as community organizers, artists, PhD students, political science graduates and social workers. Politics had not yet left its mark on them, they had not promised anything they hadn’t delivered, and so people went out to vote for them to get rid of the old establishment players. They were part of—and also a product of—the aura Mamdani left in an election that revived the American left, and therefore shared what, as a generation and as members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), others also defended: rejecting any money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), condemning the genocide in Gaza, and pushing for more affordable cities.

But one thing set Latino politicians apart from their colleagues: when they talked about abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, they did not see the idea only as a necessary political stance but as the possibility of ending an agency that detains and deports migrants; migrants were, and are, their own families, friends or neighbors. “At parties or at the dinner table we talked about how much it costs to change immigration status, whether the neighbor was having trouble with immigration authorities. That’s how politics was talked about in my house,” Chevalier told EL PAÍS, recalling the days when she was still a girl born in Miami.

When these candidates talk about labor rights, they do so after having been employed and paid very little themselves: “I’ve had to work since I was 14,” Valdez says; she grew up in Lubbock, in northwest Texas. “I worked in fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. Once, at a Taco Bell, I messed up an order and my manager put those tacos in front of my face and said: you just wasted seven dollars of our product. He threw them in the trash in a very dramatic way to make me feel bad. I was paid $7.25 an hour, so those three tacos were worth an hour of my life.”

These new Latino politicians come from families that invested time and money so their children could study; they later moved, came to New York, and are now holding or seeking federal or state office. It’s not that they were the first Latinos in local or national politics: by then there were already names like Tiffany Cabán, Alexa Avilés, Marcela Mitaynes, Jessica González-Rojas, Kristen González, and the prominent figure Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but more were joining at a moment they described as very particular.

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Inhaler Overuse Linked to Heart Risks

(Adobe Stock) j


Friday, 28 August 2026 10:17 AM EDT


For people with asthma or COPD, reaching for a rescue inhaler too often may be a warning sign — not just for their lungs, but for their heart.

It's estimated nearly 1 in 5 asthma patients and 1 in 3 COPD patients overuse these products.

Researchers analyzed real-world health data from more than 280,000 asthma and COPD patients in Belgium.

They found frequent use of short-acting reliever inhalers, also called bronchodilators, was associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death, including heart failure, heart attack and ischemic stroke.

Compared with no use, the increased risk of death ranged from 12% to 73% depending on the type of inhaler and whether patients had asthma or COPD.

Using three or more reliever inhalers a year was also associated with a higher risk of death compared with using two or fewer.

Researchers say these inhalers briefly relax airway muscles, but can also cause faster, irregular heart rates. And relying on them too heavily may be a sign that the underlying asthma or COPD isn't well controlled.

"Overuse of short-acting bronchodilators is an alarm signal which indicates uncontrolled airway inflammation and requires a medical review of treatment," said lead author Lies Lahousse from Ghent University in Belgium.

Researchers say overuse should prompt patients to have their lungs checked and healthcare providers to review patients’ treatment, inhaler technique and adherence.

The study was published in the journal ERJ Open Research.


© HealthDay

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Reminders of Our Heavenly Home | Our High Calling - September 1