Today in 30 seconds
- Ethiopia and Eritrea cut diplomatic ties as the northern war widens. Addis Ababa closed its embassy in Asmara and ordered Eritrean diplomats out; Asmara reciprocated. Explosions were reported near Ethiopia's military headquarters.
- Washington is sending a third aircraft carrier toward Iran while Tehran floats a seven-day Hormuz roadmap Trump has already rejected. New Treasury sanctions hit Iran's rail and auto sectors.
- China's refiners halted most October fuel exports to rebuild diesel and gasoline stocks, tightening an already tight global product market as Brent holds near $102.
- Bond yields eased off Thursday's 24-year high. The 10-year traded near 5.24% after hitting about 5.34%. October Fed hike odds fell to roughly a quarter after patient Fed comments. September payrolls land today.
- Fox News polls show razor-thin Senate races in Texas and Iowa, with Democrats James Talarico and Josh Turek each up by about 2 points among likely voters, inside the margin of error.
- General conference is tomorrow and Sunday under President Dallin H. Oaks, the first October sessions of his presidency.
How to read this: Facts are reporting, linked to sources. Context is background. Analysis is my synthesis, and the closing piece is labeled opinion.
World
Horn of Africa: Ethiopia and Eritrea sever diplomatic ties
Facts On Thursday Ethiopia said it was closing its embassy in Asmara and ordered 10 Eritrean diplomats to leave within 48 hours, accusing them of activities that threatened national security. Eritrea replied by severing diplomatic relations, calling the expulsion "astounding" and warning of "negative corollaries." Explosions were heard overnight in Addis Ababa, including near military headquarters. Ethiopia also expelled an Egyptian diplomat; Cairo ordered an Ethiopian embassy official out on the same timeline (BBC). Federal forces and Tigrayan-led fighters are still fighting across Tigray, Afar and Amhara. A doctor in Alamata told the BBC at least 52 civilians were killed in three days of fighting there. The African Union urged Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt to show restraint. The UN warned that drones and air strikes are disrupting aid.
Context Last covered Oct. 1: the TPLF joined a seven-group alliance aiming to topple Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and pushed toward the Djibouti trade corridor. Abiy's 2018 rapprochement with Eritrea earned him a Nobel Peace Prize; the two were allies against the TPLF in 2020-22. Relations later soured over Ethiopia's Red Sea ambitions after it lost its coast when Eritrea became independent in 1993. An African Union mediator previously estimated about 600,000 deaths in the last Tigray war.
Analysis Cutting ties turns a proxy accusation into an open state-to-state rupture. Eritrea denies backing the rebels; Egypt denies meddling and remains locked with Ethiopia over the Nile dam. The Djibouti corridor still carries nearly all of Ethiopia's trade, so Afar fighting is not a side show. For a longer look at how African states are rebuilding revenue systems while households fall behind, see today's International In-Depth on Nigeria. Ask Grok for more context
China: refiners halt October fuel exports into a tight diesel market
Facts China's major refiners have suspended most refined-fuel exports for October as Beijing prioritizes domestic stocks. PetroChina cancelled several gasoline and jet cargoes; Zhejiang Petrochemical scheduled no exports during the National Day holiday. Beijing has not authorized October exports outside Hong Kong and Macau; shipments could resume after Oct. 7 if inventories and output allow. Kpler estimates commercial diesel and gasoil stocks about 20 million barrels below pre-war levels, and gasoline about 9 million barrels short of Beijing's preferred buffer. China had raised product exports in August to 6.01 million tonnes, up 12.7% year on year (OilPrice, citing Reuters and S&P Global).
Framing check Some coverage frames this as China "weaponizing" fuel. The nearer explanation in the reporting is domestic stock rebuild after summer export strength, Middle East disruptions and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries. The effect abroad is the same either way: less Asian diesel and jet for a market that already has little surplus. That matters to the White House diesel debate and to European product buyers. Ask Grok for more context
Europe: France's budget fails to calm its bond market
Facts On Thursday the French government outlined about 43 billion euros in cuts and savings for its budget. Investors were not reassured. French government bonds underperformed as money rotated into Treasuries and German Bunds; reporting put French 10-year yields above 5.9% at one point this week while Bunds eased near 3.47% (Dow Jones via Morningstar; FXStreet). Last covered Oct. 1: six net-payer governments, including Germany, want the next EU budget cut and refocused on defense.
Analysis Europe is trying to spend more on defense while markets punish large deficits. France sits in the middle of that contradiction: politically hard cuts, still-high yields, and an EU budget fight that pits net payers against recipients. Safe-haven flows into Bunds and Treasuries are the other side of the same coin. Ask Grok for more context
International In-Depth Reporting
Friday focus: Africa. Not today's war headlines. A look at Nigeria's 2026 tax rewrite, what local outlets say about it, and why higher revenue has not yet reached households.
Nigeria: rewriting the tax code, and fighting over who wrote it
Facts On Jan. 1, 2026, four statutes signed by President Bola Tinubu on June 26, 2025, took effect together: the Nigeria Tax Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act. They repealed and consolidated decades of overlapping laws, reconstituted the Federal Inland Revenue Service as the Nigeria Revenue Service, kept the standard VAT rate at 7.5%, expanded electronic invoicing, and brought non-resident digital suppliers into the VAT net (TM Africa; Punch). In late September, Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele opened a six-week review of implementation gaps (VAT thresholds, withholding tax, capital gains, multiple taxation) aimed at the Finance Bill 2027, citing 134 stakeholder submissions. He said (in English) the task is "not to rewrite the 2025 reforms, but to preserve their fundamental principles while learning from implementation" (Punch).
Context Before the laws took effect, Nigerian outlets reported a fight over whether the gazetted text matched what the National Assembly passed. Daily Trust documented lawmakers' claims of "material discrepancies," including weaker oversight and stronger executive collection powers (Daily Trust). New African (in French) summarized opposition charges that published thresholds and enforcement rules differed from the passed bills, and quoted Rep. Abdulsamad Dasuki saying (translated from French coverage of his remarks) "What was passed here is not what was published in the official gazette" (New African / Magazine de l'Afrique, in French). Afrimag (in French) reported Tinubu rejecting a freeze: the new laws would proceed as planned, with no "substantial anomaly" established (Afrimag, in French).
Two views Supporters cast the rewrite as a generational cleanup: fewer overlapping levies, one federal revenue service, digital invoices, and a wider net that does not need a higher VAT rate. Critics on the left and in the opposition say the process itself broke trust, that enforcement tools look coercive, and that a revenue drive after fuel-subsidy removal loads pain onto households before services improve. Both can be partly right. A cleaner statute book is overdue. A gazette fight that legislators themselves call a constitutional problem is not a footnote. Ask Grok for more context
Nigeria: the revenue state and the poverty ledger
Facts Macro numbers improved even as household numbers worsened. Nigeria's statistics office reported real GDP up 4.43% year on year in the second quarter of 2026. Gross external reserves crossed $54 billion on Sept. 3, 2026, an 18-year high. The World Bank's April 2026 Nigeria Development Update said federation revenues rose from 7.9% of GDP in 2024 to 8.5% in 2025, helped by stronger non-oil tax administration. The same period saw about 10 million more Nigerians fall into extreme poverty in 2025 by the Bank's count, lifting the share below $3 a day (2021 PPP) from 47.7% to 50.9%. National-line poverty rose to an estimated 63%. The central bank held its policy rate at 26.50% in July with food inflation still near 20% (TM Africa, citing NBS, IMF Article IV, World Bank NDU and CBN). Cadre Harmonise projections put 34.7 million people in 27 states plus the capital at risk of acute food insecurity in mid-2026.
Analysis The hard part of Tinubu's program (subsidy removal, a freer naira, a unified tax code) mostly happened. The part that decides whether it was worth it is allocation: whether new non-oil revenue and domestic refining gains (Dangote's expansion shows up in the oil-refining accounts) fund transfers, health and schools, or disappear into debt service and the cost of government. At 8.5% of GDP, federation revenue is still thin by peer standards. Oyedele's September review is an admission that implementation, not just enactment, is the test. Framing check Western wires often reduce Nigeria to coups elsewhere or oil theft. Local business pages are arguing about VAT thresholds, refunds and multiple taxation: the boring machinery of a modern state. That argument is the story. Ask Grok for more context
United States
Midterms: Fox polls show photo finishes in Texas and Iowa
Facts A Fox News poll of Texas likely voters, conducted Sept. 24-28, finds Democrat James Talarico at 51% and Republican Ken Paxton at 49%, inside the +/-3-point margin of error. Among registered voters Talarico leads by 7 points. Paxton's net favorability is underwater (40% favorable, 58% unfavorable); Talarico's is +8. Cost of living is "extremely important" for 7 in 10 Texas voters; Trump's job rating there is 44% approve, 55% disapprove. In the governor's race, Republican Greg Abbott leads Democrat Gina Hinojosa 52-47 (Fox News). In Iowa, Fox finds Democrat Josh Turek at 49% and Republican Ashley Hinson at 47% among likely voters, also inside the margin; cost of living again leads the issue list, and Trump's disapproval is 57% (Fox via Times News Network). Last covered Oct. 1: Reuters reported Democrats competitive in 10 double-digit Trump states; Republicans still hold a 53-47 Senate majority and big ad-spending leads.
Framing check "Democrats leading in Texas" is true inside sampling error and newsworthy after decades of statewide drought. It is not a prediction. Fox's own Republican pollster, Daron Shaw, notes Democrats are highly motivated against Trump and asks whether average Republicans turn out for a controversial nominee when Trump is not on the ballot. Prices remain the shared issue; blame remains the split. Ask Grok for more context
Iran: a third carrier, fresh sanctions, and a rejected roadmap
Facts A U.S. official told Al Jazeera the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group left San Diego on Sunday bound for waters around Iran, followed by the Makin Island Marine Expeditionary Force with more than 2,000 Marines. By late November, the official said, three carriers and two amphibious groups would be in position, layered on about 50,000 U.S. personnel already in the region. The Treasury sanctioned Iranian rail and automotive conglomerates this week. Iran has floated a seven-day roadmap, via Qatar, to reopen Hormuz and resume nuclear talks in exchange for ending the U.S. blockade, sanctions relief and a wider regional ceasefire; Trump rejected it. UN Ambassador Mike Waltz told NBC the demand for frozen funds and sanctions relief was non-negotiable. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC Tehran was "fully prepared" to resume the war, then wrote that Iran came to New York "to forge peace." An AP-NORC poll finds nearly 70% of Americans saying the war has not been worth fighting (Al Jazeera; Anadolu briefing).
Analysis Last covered Oct. 1: mediators were drafting a sequencing deal and the last U.S. troops left Iraq. The new facts are force posture and a public Iranian roadmap that Washington dismissed. Trump keeps military options open past the midterms while polling on the war sours. Tehran keeps both threat and peace talk alive. Who moves first on Hormuz versus sanctions remains the whole negotiation. Ask Grok for more context
What's changing in finance
Yields ease from a 24-year high as payrolls and oil set the tone
Facts The 10-year Treasury yield traded near 5.239% on Friday morning after peaking around 5.344% on Thursday, its highest since 2002, according to LSEG data cited by Dow Jones. October Fed hike odds fell to about 26% after Fed Governor Philip Jefferson said officials may need more time; earlier in the week those odds had been above 70%. Markets still await September nonfarm payrolls (1230 GMT). French fiscal worries helped push investors into Treasuries and Bunds (Dow Jones via Morningstar). Brent has been holding near $102 as Middle East tension persists and China's product-export halt removes barrels from the diesel and jet market (OilPrice; ICRYPEX market briefing).
Context Last covered Oct. 1: the 10-year at 5.34%, mortgages near 7.6%, and a global long-end selloff that looked more like a deficit verdict than a single-country growth story. One soft day does not reverse that. It does show buyers appear when yields spike and when Europe looks shaky.
What's structural Three links still matter more than today's tick. Oil and bonds still trade together, so Iran and China product news are rate news. Term premium and deficits still explain why yields rose in Japan, Britain and Germany together. AI power demand is colliding with a transformer bottleneck (see Podcasts). Payrolls today will move the October-versus-December hike debate; they will not shrink the debt path. Ask Grok for more context
AI and tech
Tesla's Q3 count is due today; autonomy hiring is the subplot
Facts Tesla is scheduled to report third-quarter production and deliveries today. The company-compiled analyst consensus published earlier this week was 461,974 vehicles, down 7.1% from last year's record and 3.8% below the second quarter's 480,126. Model 3/Y account for most of that total. Cox Automotive has forecast U.S. Tesla sales down about 31% in the quarter after the federal EV tax credit expired; EU registrations were sharply higher year on year in August (Electric Vehicles; CBT News). On Brighter with Herbert, hosts discussed Tesla job posts for AI safety and vehicle operators abroad and treated them as robotaxi and supervised-FSD data work, not proof of commercial scale (Herbert, 10:38). Last covered Oct. 1: Starship Flight 14's first orbit and Starlink V3 deploy; Roadster reveal moved to Oct. 15.
Analysis If deliveries land near consensus, the car business is still shrinking year over year while the stock prices autonomy and robots. Hiring remote and local operators is how every robotaxi firm actually runs; it is also a reminder that "unsupervised" is still a claim ahead of the data. The number to watch today is not only the headline delivery print but how Tesla describes Next Generation Vehicle timing and FSD progress in the same release. Ask Grok for more context
Power: transformers, nuclear IPOs, and the AI load
Facts On Zeihan on Geopolitics, Peter Zeihan argued the U.S. needs roughly a 50% grid expansion for data centers and re-industrialization, that large power transformers now carry three-to-five-year backlogs, and that distribution transformers are over a year out, with most U.S. imports coming from Mexico, Germany, Japan and China (Zeihan, 0:37, 3:52). On ARK's podcast, X-energy founder Kam Ghaffarian said the company raised just over $1.1 billion in what he called the largest nuclear IPO of the year and is targeting about 5 gigawatts of advanced nuclear capacity, pitching reactors as a data-center power answer (ARK Invest, 1:35, 24:37). Those are the speakers' claims, not independent audits of delivery schedules.
Two views One camp says AI's power wall is a temporary siting and permitting problem. The other, which Zeihan voices in hard form, says physical gear lead times make the next few years the constraint that software optimism cannot wish away. Nuclear startups sell the bridge. History says plants slip; data-center interconnection queues say waiting for gas turbines alone is also a bet. Ask Grok for more context
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Conference weekend under President Oaks
Facts The 196th Semiannual General Conference is Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 3-4, with sessions at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. MDT each day from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Streams run on ChurchofJesusChrist.org, Gospel Library (80 languages for the live broadcast) and the General Conference YouTube channel. It is President Dallin H. Oaks's first October conference as Church president. The Church Newsroom's conference hub collects session summaries and announcements as they post (Newsroom; event page). Last covered Oct. 1: Temple Square's renovation is complete ahead of the 2027 Salt Lake Temple events; Sunday quorum and class meetings shifted to weekly 25-minute format on Sept. 6; missionary numbers topped 90,000.
Context The trademark suit against John Dehlin's Mormon Stories podcast remains in the motion-to-dismiss stage; no material court action posted overnight that changes yesterday's summary.
Analysis For members, the news is the pulpit, not the docket. Oaks has already put succession and temple work at the center of his early presidency; October talks will show which themes he wants the Church living with for the next six months. Ask Grok for more context
Highland and Utah
Childcare subsidies tighten as Colorado River rules expire
Facts New Utah Department of Workforce Services rules that took effect Thursday lower income limits for childcare subsidies after two years of reduced federal funding. New applicants must be at or below 50% of state median income (about $51,400 a year for a family of three); families already receiving aid may continue up to 65% (about $66,840). The state estimates 934 families with 1,573 children will be affected as cases hit annual review. One West Jordan mother told the Salt Lake Tribune her monthly cost for two children would jump from about $180 to $2,800 without the subsidy (Salt Lake Tribune).
Water Multi-state Colorado River operating agreements expired at midnight Oct. 1. The Trump administration is managing the system under interim federal rules while states keep negotiating. Utah's Colorado River commissioner, Gene Shawcroft, told Fox 13 that users should not notice immediate river changes, but warned that another dry year could force "draconian" moves after large Flaming Gorge releases to support Lake Powell. Nevada is already suing over the federal plan; Lower Basin states still have not finished how they will share shortages (Fox 13). Last covered Oct. 1: legislative auditors' court-accountability reports; no major new Highland City action posted overnight.
Analysis Childcare and the Colorado River look like different beats. Both are about who absorbs a federal pullback: parents when Child Care and Development Fund dollars shrink, and Upper Basin users when hydrology plus expired agreements leave Washington writing interim rules. Neither story is solved in a news cycle. Ask Grok for more context
From your podcasts
17 new long-form transcripts across the watched channels (3-day window, per-channel caps). These are the speakers' claims. Timestamps link to the moment.
The grid cannot will itself into existence
- Peter Zeihan: data centers imply about a 50% U.S. grid expansion, but large power transformers have three-to-five-year backlogs and distribution units more than a year, with import reliance on Mexico, Germany, Japan and China (0:37, 3:52). Separate from his diesel-export comments covered yesterday.
- X-energy's Kam Ghaffarian on ARK: describes a $1.1 billion nuclear IPO and a 5-gigawatt deployment target aimed partly at hyperscale power demand (1:35, 24:37). Treat as the founder's pitch. Ask Grok for more context
Autonomy and the AI labor story
- Brighter with Herbert: Tesla AI-safety and vehicle-operator job posts abroad are read as robotaxi and supervised-FSD preparation, including remote operators who know local roads (10:38).
- Farzad: argues America is "blessed and cursed" by the AI boom: talent magnetism on one side, abrupt job disruption when software can do the work "10,000 times better" on the other (0:01, 4:17). Ask Grok for more context
Also in the feed
- Bill O'Reilly with Peter Navarro on trade and industrial policy (full Oct. 1 show). Megyn Kelly interviews counsel in the Cornell case (Oct. 1). followHIM already posted next week's Isaiah 50-57 lesson with Dr. Ezra Gwilliam (Oct. 5-11 lesson); this week's Isaiah 40-49 segment remains the one mined for Come Follow Me. Ask Grok for more context
Opinion
Diesel Is a Foreign Policy
The White House has spent weeks arguing with itself about a possible U.S. diesel export ban while prices stay high from the Iran war. Overnight, the more important diesel news came from Beijing and the Gulf, not from a Cabinet meeting. China's refiners halted most October product exports to rebuild domestic stocks. Washington is sending a third carrier toward Iran. Brent holds near $100. That combination will do more to U.S. pump prices and European heating-oil fears than another week of trial balloons about the Jones Act.
Start with the strongest case for a ban, because voters feel it. Diesel is up sharply since the war began, trucking and farm costs flow into grocery tickets, and a country that refines a lot of diesel looks, on a napkin, like it should "keep it home." Peter Zeihan's counter, which this brief noted yesterday, is still the right industrial one: glut the Gulf Coast, force run cuts, and you can end up with less diesel, not more, unless you fix pipelines and coastal shipping rules.
China's move shows why napkin math fails. Beijing exported hard in August, then slammed the door when its own diesel inventory sat roughly 20 million barrels light. That is national-security logic applied to molecules. The U.S. debate still treats diesel as a domestic fairness issue. It is also a claim on a global product pool that just got smaller.
The Iran half of the story is the same mistake in reverse. A third carrier and fresh rail-and-auto sanctions are real pressure. They are not a substitute for a sequencing deal on Hormuz. Nearly 70% of Americans, in AP-NORC polling cited today, say the war has not been worth it. Trump wants options after the midterms. Tehran wants sanctions relief before it reopens the strait. Every week that argument lasts, diesel markets assume risk that no export ban can cancel.
France's bond scare and a 10-year yield still near 5.2% after a 24-year spike are the quiet soundtrack. Energy shocks that linger become fiscal shocks. Europe wants to rearm while its largest bond markets punish deficits. America wants cheaper diesel while it runs a war and a deficit. Something in that list has to give.
Utahns will feel this through freight, farm diesel and winter heating competition for product, not through a press conference in Beijing. When Gardner economists already warn that most renters cannot buy, an energy shock that feeds into goods prices is not abstract. Midterm candidates talking only about grocery bills without talking about Hormuz and Asian product exports are describing the symptom and skipping the pipe.
A conservative answer should be uncomfortable and concrete: clear the permitting and transformer bottlenecks that actually grow fuel and power supply, quit pretending an export ban is a strategy, and treat Hormuz reopening as price policy as much as foreign policy. The left's best reply is that targeted price relief and diplomacy are cheaper than another year of war premium. Fair. What does not work is talking as if the diesel problem stops at the waterline. Ask Grok for more context
Being Well Informed
The Doom Loop: Why the World Economic Order Is Spiraling into Disorder, by Eswar Prasad
What it covers Cornell economist Eswar Prasad, author of The Future of Money, argues that the forces long trusted to stabilize the world economy (globalization, the IMF and WTO, the rise of middle powers) are now feeding instability instead. Basic Books published the hardcover on Feb. 3, 2026 (Brookings book page / Basic Books). Prasad says globalization deepened inequality and political backlash, that Bretton Woods institutions failed to adapt, and that countries such as India, Brazil and Indonesia are being pushed to pick sides as the U.S. and China compete. The book frames a "destructive feedback loop" among economics, domestic politics and geopolitics and says old toolkits will not suffice.
- Institutions lagged the shocks. Prasad's survey, as described by Brookings and reviewers, ties financial crises, populist politics and great-power rivalry into one loop rather than treating them as separate headlines.
- Middle powers are not automatic stabilizers. The hopeful multipolar story collides with alliance pressure.
- Trade and finance fragment together. Integration's unwind is political as much as economic.
Worth knowing The Financial Times called Prasad "engaging and clear" and "an excellent survey" of major international issues, a positive but not uncritical reception noted on the Brookings page. Former officials including Fiona Hill, Raghuram Rajan, Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers and Janet Yellen blurbed the book; treat blurbs as endorsements, not evidence. Read it beside today's bond and diesel stories: Prasad is arguing the disorder is structural, not a bad month. Ask Grok for more context
By the Numbers
After years of decline, the Christian share of U.S. adults leveled off
Facts Ask a random American adult their religion. In Pew Research Center's 2007 Religious Landscape Study, 78% said Christian. In 2014 it was 71%. In the 2023-24 study (36,908 adults), it was 62%: about 40% Protestant, 19% Catholic and 3% other Christian. That is a 16-point drop since 2007, but from 2019 to 2024 Pew's wider polling found the share only between 60% and 64%. Religious "nones" rose from 16% to 23% to 29% across the three landscape studies, then also showed signs of plateauing (Pew Research Center).
U.S. adults who identify as Christian
Percent of U.S. adults in each Religious Landscape Study. Axis starts at zero.
How it changed The long decline was broad across sex, race, education and region, and steeper among liberals (62% Christian in 2007, 37% now) than conservatives (89% to 82%). Monthly service attendance has sat in the low 30s since 2020 (33% in the new study). Daily prayer has held between 44% and 46% since 2021. Ages 18-24: 46% Christian; ages 74 and older: 80%.
What it does and does not show "Leveling off" is not a revival; it means the slide paused in recent annual measures. Generational replacement still points down unless younger cohorts grow more religious with age, which Pew says these studies have not shown. These figures are identity, not membership rolls; 83% still affirm God or a universal spirit. Pew judges the identity trend comparable across its phone and later online/paper modes. Ask Grok for more context
Come Follow Me
This week (September 28 to October 4): “Comfort Ye My People” (Isaiah 40-49)
The Lord will never forget me.
“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” Isaiah 49:15
“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” Isaiah 49:16
Isaiah's promise that the Lord will not forget His people is the same assurance President Nelson taught through the image of the palms of Christ's hands, which Elder Rasband recalls on Palm Sunday.
“President Russell M. Nelson has admonished us to make Palm Sunday “truly holy by remembering, not just the palms that were waved to honor the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, but by remembering the palms of His hands.” Then President Nelson referred to Isaiah, who spoke of the Savior’s promising, “I will never forget you,” with these words: “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.””
“The Lord knows firsthand that mortality is hard. His wounds remind us that He “descended below … all” that He might succor us when we suffer and be our example to “hold on thy way,” His way, that “God shall be with [us] forever and ever.””
Elder Ronald A. Rasband, “Hosanna to the Most High God”, April 2023 general conference · Watch this passage (at 3:30)
From a Come Follow Me podcast: Dr. S. Michael Wilcox reads Isaiah 49:15-16 as God's answer when Zion feels forsaken: a mother might forget, but the Lord will not, having graven His people on the palms of His hands. (followHIM, with Dr. S. Michael Wilcox with hosts Hank Smith and John Bytheway, at 1:43:50)
Talk it over: Discuss this with Grok