THE WATCHMEN’S REPORT
NEWS STORIES THAT CONNECT WITH BIBLICAL PROPHECY
BY Wayne J. Edwards, October 18, 2026

EUROPE IS FALLING
RIOTS SPREAD FROM FRANCE AND BELGIUM TO ALBANIA
BY TYLER BURDEN, OCTOBER 15, 2026

Social unrest in France, Belgium, and now Albania raises the risk of riot contagion across Europe. Young rioters’ involvement gives far-left groups opportunities to exploit grievances and channel them into broader anti-government mobilization. Local outlets are reporting that “thousands of students,” took to the streets of Albania’s capital for a second day of anti-government riots on Wednesday. They set fire to part of the education ministry and attacked other government buildings, yet this suggests the unrest has little to do with classroom sizes and more to do with a coordinated far-left anti-government movement sweeping across Europe.

Riot police deployed tear gas and water cannons to disperse unruly crowds. Kids dressed in all black, usually a sign of far-left involvement, also targeted the prime minister’s office, the finance and interior ministries, and nearby businesses.

“The people are very angry at the system. They need to change everything. With this corruption all around, the crime and everything else is happening. And the people now are angry. They need to change the system,” demonstrator Enida Bimi told Reuters.

We must ask ourselves, in a rational world: Is the solution to a failing education system to burn it down? Well, in the far-left mindset, certaintly.  Deputy Prime Minister Albana Koçiu called for restraint yesterday, saying Albania “does not need to burn to change.” Education Minister Mirela Kumbaro said the right to protest did not justify violence against public buildings and property. Albania’s state-run news agency said sixteen people were arrested “in connection with violent acts” during riots earlier this week. The social unrest is less about education and demonstrates how Europe has a terrible disease of far-left extremism that has infected the youth. High-level State Department officials and their European counterparts discussed this concern last summer.

Europe is embarrassing itself on the world stage yet again. It’s not just that the unrest is getting out of hand and spreading; its entire progressive utopia (welfare state) is cracking and now breaking as the end game nears. This warns all Americans that welfare states like France are headed for a fiscal crisis.

SPEAKING OF FAILED EDUCATION

PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAH
OBJECTED TO FORMER PRESIENT OBAMA’S PORTRAYAL
OF ISRAEL AS A COLONIAL POWER

Netanyahu fires back at Obama over ‘stolen land’ accusation: ‘We’re Jews in Judea’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired back at former President Barack Obama on Friday after Obama accused Israel of taking Palestinian land, declaring: “Our land is not stolen land. This is our homeland.” “We’re not the Dutch in Indonesia. We’re not the Belgians in the Congo. We’re Jews in Judea!”

The clash erupted after Obama told an audience in Northern Ireland that Israelis “took land off people and they were excessive,” arguing that Palestinians were justified in demanding their land back. Obama made the remarks Tuesday while receiving an honorary doctorate at Queen’s University Belfast. Netanyahu called his comments “regrettable” and rejected the suggestion that the Jewish state was a colonial enterprise.

Obama warns Israel has lost moral ground

During his Belfast appearance, Obama argued that Israel’s military and technological superiority could not provide a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He warned against an approach in which Israel relies on its strength to take whatever measures it considers necessary for its security without making concessions to Palestinians. Such a strategy might succeed in the short term, Obama said, but would come at a moral cost. “You have ceded moral ground if that is the position you take,” he warned. Obama accused Netanyahu’s government of embracing that approach and argued that Israel must recognize that millions of Palestinians will remain in the region. He specifically cited the presence of seven million Palestinians, saying they were “not going anywhere.”

Netanyahu: Israel is not the obstacle to peace

Netanyahu rejected the suggestion that Israeli policies were the central barrier to resolving the conflict. Instead, he pointed to the refusal of Israel’s enemies to recognize Jewish sovereignty, regardless of where the country’s borders might be drawn. “The obstacle to peace is not Israel,” Netanyahu said, arguing that the fundamental problem is the rejection of the Jewish people’s right to a state of their own. He also linked Israel’s struggle for security to the broader confrontation between the United States and hostile regimes in the Middle East. Pointing to chants of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America,” Netanyahu said the hostility directed at the Jewish state is part of a wider campaign against the West. “We are the ‘Little Satan,’ you are the ‘Great Satan,’” he said, referring to the labels used by Iran’s leadership for Israel and the United States. Both countries, he argued, are defending a shared civilization against common enemies.

‘We will not gamble with our survival’ The prime minister concluded with a warning against diplomatic arrangements that fail to account for the threats Israel faces.

YOUR HOME IS WATCHING YOU
THE SMART HOME SSURVEILLANCE TRAPE
PNW STAFF, OCTOBER 15, 2026

For generations, Americans have viewed their homes as the one place where they could shut the door on the outside world. Private conversations remained private, family routines were nobody else’s business, and corporations had no window into everyday life. But that understanding of privacy is rapidly changing. And the remarkable part is that nobody has to force surveillance technology into our homes anymore. We’re buying it ourselves. Apple’s new AI-powered smart home hub offers the latest glimpse into a future where microphones, cameras, facial recognition, door locks, thermostats, and artificial intelligence work together to manage our households. The sales pitch is irresistible: greater convenience, better security, and a home that practically runs itself. But behind that convenience lies a troubling question: How much information about your private life are you willing to surrender, and who ultimately controls it?

Apple Wants To Be At The Center Of Your Home

Apple’s smart-home expansion represents something much bigger than another electronic gadget. Its new touchscreen hub is designed to coordinate household devices through an upgraded Siri assistant and Apple’s connected-home ecosystem.

Imagine walking into your kitchen and having your home recognize you, display your schedule, adjust the temperature, turn on the lights, and tell you who is standing at the front door. Now consider the information necessary to make that possible. Security cameras monitor entrances and potentially interior rooms. Smart locks register when doors open and close. Motion sensors detect activity. Thermostats learn household schedules. Voice assistants respond to spoken commands. Individually, each feature sounds useful. Together, they create the technological foundation for an extraordinarily detailed understanding of what happens inside a private residence. Apple emphasizes privacy protections, including encryption and processing certain information directly on devices. Those safeguards matter. An assistant waiting for a wake phrase is not necessarily recording every conversation. But the larger question remains: What happens when our homes become dependent on an expanding network of connected devices capable of collecting and interpreting information about our daily lives?

Your Home Is Becoming A Digital Profile

Most people understand that smartphones collect information about their location, internet activity, and purchasing habits. Far fewer recognize how much their homes can reveal. A smart lock could establish when family members leave for work, when children return from school, and how frequently visitors arrive. A video doorbell could record deliveries and guests. Motion sensors could reveal which rooms are occupied, while a connected thermostat might indicate whether anyone is home. None of these devices needs to record a private conversation to reveal intimate details about the people living there. Combine their information, and patterns emerge. When does the family wake up? When is the house empty? Who regularly visits? Have daily routines suddenly changed? Not every manufacturer collects or retains all this information. Some devices process data locally, while others rely on cloud services. But the potential for collecting detailed behavioral information is expanding rapidly. For decades, advertisers have constructed digital profiles based on browsing history, shopping behavior, and online interactions. Connected homes introduce another potential source of information: the physical routines of ordinary families. Your house is no longer simply where you live. Increasingly, it can become another source of behavioral data.

Artificial Intelligence Changes Everything

Traditional smart-home technology was relatively simple. You issued a command, and a device responded. Turn on the lights. Lock the door. Adjust the thermostat. Artificial intelligence introduces something far more sophisticated. Instead of merely following instructions, AI systems can identify patterns, combine information from different sources, and predict what people are likely to do next. A sufficiently integrated system might learn when homeowners leave, which visitors arrive regularly, or when household activity changes. It could distinguish between family members, recognize unusual behavior, and automatically adjust connected devices. Some capabilities already exist in limited forms. Others remain emerging possibilities rather than features of any particular Apple product. But the direction is clear: smart homes are evolving from devices that obey instructions into systems that interpret human behavior. A camera recording may reveal little by itself. A smart lock’s activity log might seem harmless. A thermostat’s history appears unimportant. But when AI connects information from all three, it may draw conclusions that none could establish independently. That is the difference between collecting data and creating intelligence from data. The technology doesn’t necessarily need to hear every word you say to develop an intimate understanding of how you live.

What Happens When Someone Else Wants The Information?

Technology companies frequently assure consumers that their privacy is protected. Apple, in particular, has made privacy a central part of its identity. Encryption, local processing, and strong security controls can genuinely reduce privacy risks. But connected systems are not automatically immune from outside access. First, there is cybersecurity. Internet-connected cameras, locks, and household devices can become targets for hackers. Compromised passwords and software vulnerabilities have already exposed sensitive information in the broader smart-home industry. Second, there is corporate access. Depending on the product, certain information may be stored on company servers, processed by outside providers, or retained for troubleshooting. Consumers rarely understand exactly what is collected, where it goes, or how long it remains available. Third, there is government access. Technology companies operate under laws that can require them to produce information in response to valid warrants, subpoenas, and court orders. Encryption may prevent access to certain records, but information companies possess and can access may also become available through legal demands. Consider how dramatically this changes the privacy equation. A generation ago, determining who entered a home, when its occupants left, or what happened inside might have required physical surveillance and considerable investigative resources. Today, depending on the devices installed and records retained, portions of that information may already exist in digital form. Surveillance has become potentially cheaper, more scalable, and less visible.

The Surveillance We Invited Inside

Smart-home technology offers genuine benefits. Cameras can deter crime, connected sensors can detect emergencies, and automated systems can make life easier. But convenience should never eliminate basic questions about privacy and control. Can homeowners determine what information is collected? Can they delete their records? Do they know whether their data stays inside their home or travels to distant servers? The smart-home industry is selling Americans a future where every device anticipates their needs. What receives far less attention is the extraordinary amount of personal information that future could generate.

For generations, Americans feared outsiders placing listening devices and cameras inside their homes. Now we install the technology ourselves, connect it to the internet, and celebrate when it becomes intelligent enough to learn our habits.

The greatest threat to household privacy may not be surveillance imposed upon us.
It may be the surveillance we willingly invite inside, one convenient device at a time.

IS ACADEMIA TURNING YOUNG CHILDREN TOWARDS SHARIA LAW?

DAN HART, October 17, 2026

A stunning new poll has revealed that American young people are expressing positive views toward Sharia law at higher rates than ever as the midterm elections approach in three weeks. Experts say much of the support can be attributed to the lack of balanced formation being provided by American universities and fear of being labeled racist, leading to young people being ill-informed about the oppression inherent in Islamic legal code. Earlier this month, Rasmussen Reports published the results of a survey that found a full 43% of voters aged 18-24 saying they have positive views of Sharia law. Strikingly, the poll also found that 27% of voters under 30 said they would support a community adopting Sharia law.

Sharia law is an Islamic code of law based on the Islamic scriptures of the Quran and hadith and is practiced in predominantly Muslim countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia where there is a notable lack of human rights. Sharia law calls for extremely severe punishments for crimes, including amputation for theft, public flogging, and the death penalty for adultery and sodomy. It also includes apostasy and blasphemy laws that stipulate the death penalty for renouncing Islam or speaking out against the religion, as well as unequal inheritance laws where men receive higher inheritance shares than women. Women are also required to wear veils and be accompanied by male guardians in public places.

The polling results come as several high-profile Muslim political candidates such as Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed (D) are gaining increasing exposure. While El-Sayed’s campaign has said that he “opposes any effort by any religious community to write their faith laws into the laws of our country,” the candidate has also decried efforts to ban Sharia law in the U.S. such as Oklahoma’s 2010 referendum, saying in 2022 that such efforts are tantamount to “white supremacy.” Experts like author, columnist, and podcaster Larry Taunton say that Sharia law is incompatible with the constitutional freedoms inherent in America’s legal system.

“We need to recognize that it doesn’t deserve the respectability and protection as a religion,” he contended during “Washington Watch” Monday.

“That’s because Sharia does not accept … freedom of religion, assembly, press, petition, speech — none of what is in the Bill of Rights. They do not accept our view of women. They do not accept our views regarding freedom. They do not accept the foundational principles of this particular country.”

Nonetheless, Taunton went on to observe that sympathy for Sharia law is gaining traction among young people due to ideological doctrines on perceived racism that are being propagated in higher education. “A friend from the University of Oregon texted me a copy of a book that a professor is requiring of his students that deals with immigration and basically says that Americans who oppose open borders are ‘xenophobic,’ that they are racist,” he related. “Now, of course, we know this is sheer nonsense, but we’re talking about students and classes who are being barraged with this kind of thing, who are being taught to feel rather than think.”

Taunton further detailed an experience at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. “Some years ago, … I was speaking to students there who are on the ministerial track, specifically apologetics. And what I discovered was that their professor, who was himself woke … was not preparing future ministers of the gospel. He was preparing social justice warriors and was radicalizing his students. Now this is happening in evangelical institutions. Imagine what is happening in our state institutions. Imagine what’s happening in places like the Ivy League. … Students begin to … lick their finger to feel which way the social and political winds are going.”

As for how the trend can be reversed, Taunton emphasized that student engagement with the real world is key. “If … young people actually engage with the real world … that’s the kind of thing that can often change a mind is when you think that the country you live in is racist and horrible, and then you travel outside of it and you begin to see the world, and you see how many people are trying to get into this country. You recognize, ‘Maybe I had it better than I thought I did.'” Taunton also underscored the importance of personal engagement with young people in order to drill down on the weakness of the ideological positions being foisted on them. “They’re not being taught to think,” he noted. “When I engage with students in universities or elsewhere, when you really start scratching at the surface, what you discover is that they’re taught to feel, they’re taught to shut you down. They’re not taught to really think about these things. And when you’re able to actually engage with them gently and push on their worldview just a little bit, you begin to see that it crumbles.” In addition, Taunton described how Islam and leftism “are being packaged together. We all hear of the so-called Red-Green Alliance, and that is a very real thing. And both of them are coming together in their universities, in their books, in the culture as a whole, in media, in entertainment. … I don’t think students know enough about Islam or for that matter, about leftism to actually think through these things.”

“They want to change our country because they keep being told how evil and racist it is, and the last thing these days anybody wants to be called is … racist,” Taunton added. “What’s kind of fun is to point out again, in conversation, ‘You do realize that Islam isn’t a race. It’s an ideology. … Do you recognize that?’ And you begin to see them kind of panic at the realization that they’re being sold a bill of goods that’s false.”

===========================================================

AMERICA STILL BELIEVES IN THE SUPERNATURAL
JUST NOT NECESSARILY THE BIBLE
PNW STAFF, October 17, 2026

America may be growing more secular, but it has hardly stopped believing in the supernatural. Millions of Americans still believe in God, heaven, hell, angels, demons, spiritual attacks and divine intervention. They believe there is something beyond the physical world, something that science cannot fully explain and human eyes cannot see. Yet when it comes to the supernatural events at the very heart of Christianity, that confidence begins to crumble. According to new research from the American Bible Society’s 2026 State of the Bible report, fewer than half of Americans now believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.

Only 49% believe the virgin birth is at least probably true. Just 53% believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, while only 44% believe God miraculously parted the Red Sea for the Israelites. At the same time, approximately 62% of American adults — an estimated 171 million people — believe in the supernatural. The contradiction is remarkable. America has not rejected the possibility of miracles. Increasingly, however, Americans appear uncertain about the particular miracles recorded in Scripture. And that raises a much larger question: What happens to a nation that remains spiritually curious but becomes increasingly disconnected from biblical truth?

A Nation That Wants The Supernatural Without Biblical Authority

For years, the prevailing narrative has been that modern Americans are becoming too educated, sophisticated or scientifically minded to believe in supernatural events. But these findings suggest something more complicated.

Many Americans remain convinced that reality extends beyond what can be measured in a laboratory. They believe spiritual forces exist, that life continues beyond death and that unseen powers may influence the physical world.

The issue is not necessarily an unwillingness to believe in the supernatural. It is an unwillingness, or at least a growing hesitation, to accept the Bible as the authoritative explanation of that supernatural reality. This distinction is enormous.

Christianity does not simply teach that mysterious spiritual forces exist. It teaches that the universe was created by a personal God, that humanity has fallen into sin, that Jesus Christ entered human history through a miraculous conception, and that He physically rose from the dead after dying for the sins of the world. Remove those events, and Christianity is no longer the faith proclaimed by the apostles. The virgin birth is not an optional Christmas embellishment. The resurrection is not merely a metaphor for hope or renewal. These are foundational claims about who Jesus Christ is and what He accomplished. The Apostle Paul made the stakes unmistakable in 1 Corinthians 15:14: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” Christianity stands or falls on the truth of what God has revealed, not simply on whether its moral teachings make people feel better.

The Surprising Divide Between Cultural And Practicing Christians

There is, however, an encouraging and important finding buried within the survey. Among practicing Christians, belief in biblical miracles remains extraordinarily strong. An overwhelming 97% affirm the virgin birth, 99% believe in the resurrection of Jesus, and 92% believe God parted the Red Sea. Those figures challenge the idea that committed Christians are broadly abandoning the supernatural foundations of their faith. Instead, the research highlights a significant divide between the wider American population and those who actively practice Christianity. For generations, identifying as Christian has been part of American cultural life. Many people grew up attending church, celebrating Christmas and Easter, and considering Christianity part of their family heritage. But identifying with Christianity culturally is not necessarily the same as understanding or embracing its doctrines. Someone may admire Jesus as a moral teacher while rejecting His miracles. Another may believe in God but question whether Scripture accurately records His actions. Still another may embrace Christian values while treating biblical teachings as suggestions rather than divine revelation.

The danger emerges when this selective approach enters the Church itself. When biblical teachings are accepted or rejected according to cultural popularity, personal comfort or contemporary expectations, Scripture ceases to function as the authority over belief. Instead, individual preference becomes the authority over Scripture. And once that principle is established, there is little reason for the process to stop with the virgin birth.

Spiritual Warfare Is Real To Many Christians — But Where Is The Bible?

Another striking section of the American Bible Society report examines personal experiences with the supernatural.

Among practicing Christians, 58% reported experiencing a spiritual attack, 69% reported experiencing divine healing, and 90% reported receiving an answer to prayer. These are self-reported experiences, but they demonstrate how deeply belief in God’s activity and the spiritual realm remains embedded in the lives of practicing Christians. Yet the responses to spiritual attacks reveal a potentially troubling weakness. Among respondents who reported experiencing spiritual attacks, 74% identified prayer as helpful, 36% selected declaring the authority of Jesus Christ, and 24% selected listening to praise and worship music. Only 15% selected meditating on or quoting Scripture. That does not mean the others never read their Bibles. But it does raise an important question about the place of God’s Word in the way believers confront spiritual challenges. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He responded repeatedly with Scripture. “It is written,” He declared. Three times Satan tempted Him, and three times Jesus answered with the written Word of God. The lesson could hardly be clearer. Prayer is essential. Worship is important. But believers are not called to confront spiritual deception through feelings, experiences or declarations disconnected from biblical truth. Ephesians 6 describes the Word of God as “the sword of the Spirit,” part of the spiritual armor Christians are commanded to put on.

A Church that believes in spiritual warfare but neglects Scripture risks becoming spiritually enthusiastic while remaining biblically vulnerable.

The Church’s Challenge Is Bigger Than Declining Church Attendance

The American Bible Society’s findings point toward a challenge that cannot be solved simply by increasing attendance, improving worship experiences or making Christianity more culturally appealing. The deeper issue is whether Americans understand what Christianity actually teaches and why those teachings matter. A generation can grow up familiar with the name of Jesus while knowing little about His identity. People can celebrate Christmas without believing in the virgin birth, observe Easter without affirming the resurrection, and speak of heaven without understanding the biblical message of salvation. Religious familiarity is not the same as biblical faith. Yet the findings also reveal an extraordinary opportunity. If 171 million American adults believe in the supernatural, then the spiritual questions that Christianity addresses have hardly disappeared. People are still asking whether God exists, whether evil has a supernatural dimension, whether prayers are answered and what happens after death.

The Church does not need to manufacture spiritual curiosity. Much of that curiosity already exists. What it must do is direct those questions toward the truth of Scripture rather than allowing them to be answered exclusively by popular culture, personal experiences, mystical speculation or whatever spiritual ideas happen to be fashionable. That requires pastors willing to teach difficult doctrines, parents willing to explain biblical truth to their children, and Christians prepared to give thoughtful answers for what they believe. It also requires recognizing that making Christianity more acceptable by removing its supernatural claims ultimately removes the very message the Church exists to proclaim.

The virgin birth, the resurrection, divine judgment and the authority of Scripture are not embarrassing relics of a less enlightened age. They are essential elements of the biblical account of God’s work in human history. America has not lost its appetite for the supernatural. What it is increasingly uncertain about is whether the Bible can be trusted to explain it.

And perhaps that is the greatest challenge — and one of the greatest opportunities — facing the American Church today.

============================================================

“Our churches feel no different, digitally speaking, than our public schools, universities, retail stores, restaurants, and places of entertainment,” wrote Brad East in 2024. “They’re awash with screens, smart devices, QR codes, videos, canned music, links, social media—all of it. The tsunami of information continuously assaulting our eyes, minds, and hearts is just as powerful, just as loud, just as overwhelming within our spaces of worship as without. It shouldn’t be. Church should and could be different. What would a screen-free church look like? How would you even get people on board? The first thing to know is that this is not only possible but already happening, probably in your own town or city. ‘High church’ liturgical traditions like the Eastern Orthodox often have sanctuaries devoid of screens and other evidence of digital technology. At most, the priest has a microphone for the hard of hearing or if it is a large sanctuary.” How does your church use screens?

Would you be on board with screen-free church?

HOBBY LOBBY FOUNDER:
“WE LOST BUSINESS WHEN WE STOPPED SELLING HALLOWEEN — BUT IT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO”

Hobby Lobby founder David Green says his Christian convictions have sometimes required making business decisions that cost his company money. One example, Green says, was the decision to stop selling Halloween merchandise. “When we stopped selling Halloween, we did less business. I can name seven or eight different things that cost us, but it was the right thing to do.” For Green, running a successful company isn’t simply about maximizing profits. He believes his faith in God should influence the decisions he makes—even when following those convictions means walking away from potential revenue.

That philosophy raises an important question for Christians in business:
What happens when your faith and your profits point in different directions?
It’s easy to say God comes first when obedience costs nothing.
The real test often comes when maintaining your convictions could mean losing customers, opportunities or money.
Green’s position is clear:
financial success should never become more important than remaining faithful to what you believe honors God.