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The Tragic Himalayan Flash Flood—Why?

By Joel Hilliker • August 27, 2026

The Tragic Himalayan Flash Flood—Why?

An aerial view shows houses deluged in sludge after flash floods at Devighat, Bidur Municipality in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on August 27.
Prabin RANABHAT / AFP via Getty Images

The Tragic Himalayan Flash Flood—Why?

By Joel Hilliker • August 27, 2026

Good morning,

During Noah’s Flood, nobody had a Huawei smartphone. But it seems nearly everyone in the Himalayan valleys did and managed to film the nightmarish flash flood that suddenly overwhelmed them with the violence of the Deluge. Their shocking videos of frail humans desperately fleeing an angry wall of water brought to my mind the biblical disaster.

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Why would God allow such horror? Don’t we have to ask this question in the face of such tragedy?

It seems so arbitrary. On Wednesday, people in Tibet’s Gyirong County and Nepal’s Rasuwa District were starting their labors on a clear, rainless morning. Unknown to them, high in the mountains, the lower tongue of a glacier broke free, as they do.

  • It dropped nearly 4,000 feet as an avalanche of ice and rock, slammed into the Lhende River, and dammed a narrow gorge with debris. Water rapidly accumulated behind that loose pile of ice, boulders and sediment, forming a haphazard lake.
  • Pressure increased until it burst through the barrier, sending tens of millions of tons of water, mud and stone crashing through Gyirong Port and down into the unsuspecting people below.

Is it better to be swept away—or to have to live in the aftermath? To have your life forever changed: family and friends stolen, homes and businesses and bridges erased, your world buried under feet of sludge that smells like death?

The glacier bore no malevolence, no ill will toward our race—yet it mindlessly unleashed horror unspeakable, tragedy unimaginable if it weren’t so thoroughly documented.

  • And unlike the Flood, this was not divine judgment against an especially sinful slice of humanity. It was apparently natural processes simply unfolding, reminding us of the astonishing and terrifying power latent in the elements.

This morning I reread “Why Does God Allow Suffering?”, Chapter 2 of our booklet Why ‘Natural’ Disasters? It is important reading. It thoroughly addresses this most challenging question—not with platitudes but with clear biblical proof. It explains the reasons these events occur and the lessons God means for us to take from them.

  • It shows why at times He withholds His protection, why some die and not others. It clarifies how such events can possibly harmonize with the overall plan of a God who claims to embody love (1 John 4:8). It gives sure hope, both for casualties and survivors of calamity.

These are crucial matters to contemplate on such occasions—and too easy to ignore. Suffering in our world is ubiquitous. Our minds simply cannot process even a sliver of what our interconnected world can incessantly serve up on our smartphones. Because of the frequency and ease with which we come across the facts, images and sounds of disaster, we easily grow callous.

But we must beware apathy.

The reality, made clear both by honest observation and through biblical prophecy, is that suffering such as the villagers of Nepal and Tibet are experiencing at this very moment will not remain confined to distant corners.

  • Unforgiving forces are in motion, beyond our awareness, building strength soon to be unleashed on unsuspecting mankind. You will be caught in “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation” (Daniel 12:1).
  • Like the Flood, this will be an expression of divine judgment against a sinful race.

Contemplating catastrophe like this flash flood should motivate us to examine our assumptions about God—and about whether we actually qualify to claim His promises of protection from the worst of the Tribulation to come.

Gaza’s Fake Famine

For nearly two years, the world was told a single story about Gaza: Israel was starving children. “Genocide!” the headlines screamed. World leaders demanded action.

On Aug. 22, 2025, the United Nations officially declared famine conditions in parts of Gaza and warned that more than half a million Palestinians faced catastrophic starvation and death.

Then, quietly, the story changed.

A unicef-led nutrition survey, the most comprehensive to be performed since the war began in 2023, was released this summer, to comparatively minimal fanfare. The results:

  • Acute malnutrition (wasting) among children under age 5 measured just 0.2 to 0.8 percent, lower than Egypt, Iran and Jordan, and on par with Germany.
  • Chronic malnutrition (stunting) affected roughly 1 in 8 children, less than half the region’s typical rate, according to the survey.
  • A researcher who has tracked malnutrition in famine zones from the Horn of Africa said she had never before seen obesity emerging in a population that had been declared famine-stricken just a year earlier.

A population the UN itself declared to be in famine is now, by the UN’s own data, one of the better-nourished in the region.

Where were the headlines this time? Search for coverage of this report across the major outlets that spent a year broadcasting “genocide” and “deliberate starvation,” and you will find almost nothing.

Israel is once again the victim of lies. The mainstream media is not interested in truth—just in agenda.

VW’s Military Manufacturing Ambition

Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, has “a secret rescue plan” to keep its factory in Emden, Germany, open by shifting production from civilian vehicles to military trucks and drones, Bild reported Tuesday based on information from corporate circles.

  • This news comes after ceo Oliver Blume announced to employees this week that the company might close some of its factories and cut 50,000 jobs more than the 50,000 it has said it will cut by 2030.
  • On Sunday, Blume called the company’s state “more than critical.”

This plan to build military vehicles is a warning sign that Germany is equipping itself to repeat its violent past.

Volkswagen is struggling due to competition from China and tariffs from the Trump administration.

  • Car sales in this year’s first quarter were 4 percent lower than in the same quarter last year, down by roughly 80,000 cars.

Volkswagen has been considering this pivot for some time:

  • In March, the $43 billion firm was reportedly in talks to build components for Israel’s Iron Dome missile system at its Osnabrück factory.
  • Blume said earlier this year that if VW switches to military production, it will “focus on military transport,” which is most closely related to Volkswagen’s “core competence.”

Such a pivot would make sense financially. Military manufacturing is one of the few booming sectors in Germany, due to the government’s drastic increase in military spending to become war-ready by 2029.

However, there’s a deeper, darker reason to pivot to military hardware: It would also make sense historically.

  • Volkswagen was founded by the German Labor Front, part of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler. After producing roughly 150 civilian cars, the firm rapidly converted its “core competence” to military production of not only tens of thousands of vehicles but also armaments, including the V1 flying bomb.
  • This war machinery was produced using forced labor so Germany could fulfill its imperialistic ambitions.
  • It is one of several major German industrial companies, such as Rheinmetall, that switched to military production before World War ii.

German industrialists, including Volkswagen leaders, met in 1944, when it became clear Germany would lose the war, to plan the Reich’s revival generations later. Volkswagen’s potential move away from civilian production is a sign those plans to revive the Reich are advancing.

IN OTHER NEWS

The United States categorized Palestine Action as a “global terror group” on August 26. Members of the group, like members of al Qaeda and Hamas, are now banned by the State Department from entering the U.S. or engaging in financial activity with America. The far-left group, based in the United Kingdom, infamously vandalized military sites there and was designated as a terror group by the UK government last year.

Chinese hackers breach key U.S. government agencies: Chinese hackers have broken into the networks of the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department, nasa, the Senate and other vital government agencies, American authorities said yesterday, using software known as QScan and QTRouter. The Trumpet has long warned that American dependence on computer systems makes it vulnerable to cyberattack. To understand, read “China Hacks America—and ‘None Goes to Battle.’”

Meta pays, somewhat, for its sins: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reached a settlement to pay 47 states, the District of Columbia and three United States territories up to $17.1 billion over 10 years in penalties for misrepresenting potential harm of its services to minors. This sum will be split into various government programs. Meta reported more than $60 billion in revenue last year. This settlement alone won’t bankrupt Meta. “But,” Trumpet managing editor Joel Hilliker wrote in March after a similar case against Meta, “we all need to pay attention to the truth this court victory exposes. These companies hurt people … No one, not even the plaintiff, can rely on a court verdict for protection, rescue or restoration. This is on us.”

Why ‘Natural’ Disasters?
Catastrophic nature-related phenomena are forcing their way into the headlines with troubling frequency. Are earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, super-storms, floods, droughts and wildfires actually increasing? If so, is it merely coincidence—or is there a cause? Both religion and science struggle to answer. But there is an answer—and it gives profound and even inspiring meaning to these seemingly random disasters! You need to understand!
He Was Right
Remembering five decades of accurate forecasting by Herbert W. Armstrong

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