WorldWatch
Europe
Germany continues to extend its relationship with the Jewish nation. On April 25 to 26, the State of Israel celebrated 75 years of independence. The occasion was marked with a flyover of German warplanes: Luftwaffe Eagle 2.0 fighters joined jets from Israel and other nations in flying over Jerusalem and the Knesset. Some German fighter jets were painted with both the Israeli and German flags. The flyover symbolizes a high level of cooperation between Germany and Israel. This cooperation was prophesied in Daniel 11:41, which forecasts that a European superstate will rise in the end time and “enter also into the glorious land.”
German interest in Israel is not the only factor drawing Europe into the Middle East. Italy declared a state of emergency on April 13 after more than 31,000 migrants had entered the country since the start of the year—compared to fewer than 8,000 over the same period last year. The migration crisis could grow much worse as war has broken out in Sudan.
Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been actively searching the region for energy exporters to replace Russia. Along with her foreign minister, defense minister, interior minister and other senior officials, Meloni has visited Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia and Tunisia. “While most of Europe remains focused on Ukraine, Italy seems ready to take on more responsibility for safeguarding the Mediterranean,” wrote RealClearWorld (February 17). Throughout the trip, “Meloni emphasized a Mediterranean destiny that Italy has too often neglected, a theme which runs through her foreign-policy speeches,” wrote Le Monde (January 24). Meloni appears to be helping to revive European power and the Holy Roman Empire. The books of Daniel and Revelation describe this empire. Revelation 17 states that this empire would come under the influence of a church, symbolized by a woman. Once the Roman Empire became the Holy Roman Empire, the Bible prophesied that it would rise and fall seven times. Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler built the sixth of these seven resurrections. They were defeated, and the empire disappeared into “the bottomless pit.” The world thought it was dead, but it is rising again.
Fear of Russia has been the other big driver of news in Europe. Global defense spending reached an all-time high of $2.2 trillion last year, according to a report published April 24 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. This constitutes a 3.7 percent year-on-year increase, another all-time record, as nations continued to spend on guns, bullets, bombs, personnel and military aid. Most European countries increased defense spending by 15 percent. In another sign of fear, the Latvian parliament voted on April 5 to reinstate mandatory military service for men. Watch for Europe as a whole to continue to rearm, and not only in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Middle East
This year, April 25 was Israel’s Memorial Day for honoring fallen soldiers. This was also the day that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, then chairman of the United Nations Security Council, scheduled a Security Council meeting to discuss Israel-Palestinian relations. Israel has been critical of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Lavrov appeared to be retaliating with open disrespect. Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan tried in vain to have the meeting rescheduled. On the day of the meeting, he walked out in protest. Lavrov, who has been guilty of making anti-Semitic comments in the past, got his way. Of the 14 other nations on the council, not one followed the Israelis out.
This is just the latest instance of anti-Semitism at the United Nations. During its 17-year history, the UN Human Rights Council has issued almost as many country-specific condemnations of Israel’s actions as all other nations combined. “Criticism of Israel is not inherently anti-Semitic—but such obsession is,” the Trumpet wrote in 2019. “There is no evidence to suggest that Israel is the most problematic country on the planet, demanding the overwhelming attention of the United Nations. The Jewish state is being singled out because it is Jewish. That is textbook anti-Semitism.”
Israel also faces threats from within. Leaked classified documents from the United States’ Department of Defense indicate that senior leaders of Mossad have been encouraging employees to join the protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, is commissioned to address foreign threats and abstain from political interference, and it reports directly to the prime minister. These leaders are undermining the authority of not only Netanyahu but the prime ministership itself. And they are giving the impression that one of the most effective intelligence agencies in the world is attempting regime change in its own capital. The source of this leak could indicate that spies from the United States, who have already overthrown an elected leader in their own country, could be involved.
The civil war in Yemen now appears to be ending. Since 2015, the Saudi Arabia-backed government there has been fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels. However the Saudis held preliminary peace talks with the Houthis in April. After failing to win the war and losing U.S. support, the Saudis appear eager to disengage from Yemen, even at the cost of legitimizing a certain amount of Houthi—and therefore Iranian—presence in the country. This gives Iran greater clout over the Bab el-Mandeb, the southern exit point of the Red Sea and a major trade choke point.
Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in Germany’s Secret Strategy to Destroy Iran: “The Houthi takeover in Yemen proves that Iran is implementing a bold strategy to control the vital sea-lane from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. … Now that Iran controls Yemen, it can virtually close or open the spigot on Middle East oil bound for Europe. And Europe is taking notice!” A prophecy in Daniel 11:40 predicts a clash between “the king of the north” (Europe) and “the king of the south” (Iran). Iran’s control of Yemen through its Houthi proxies could help bring about that conflict.
Asia
China is closer than ever to becoming a nuclear superpower and closer than ever to Russia. Bloomberg reported on February 28 that China is importing tons of Russian uranium to process in two new fast-neutron nuclear breeder reactors on Changbiao Island.
These two advanced reactors are designed to convert uranium into weapons-grade plutonium. Chinese authorities claim the reactors are for electricity generation for civilian purposes. However, if China uses them for military warheads, the two could churn out enough material for 80 to 100 nuclear warheads per year, rapidly expanding China’s nuclear arsenal to a size that rivals that of Russia and the United States.
Russia currently possesses an estimated 5,900 nuclear bombs, while the U.S. has an estimated 5,300. China has around 400 but with the new reactors could hit 1,000 by the decade’s end. Intelligence suggests the Chinese desire an arsenal of 1,500 nuclear bombs, making it the world’s third nuclear superpower.
“By the 2030s the United States will, for the first time in its history, face two major nuclear powers as strategic competitors and potential adversaries,” stated the Department of Defense’s newest Nuclear Posture Review. “This will create new stresses on stability and new challenges for deterrence, assurance, arms control, and risk reduction.”
Building up China’s nuclear arsenal aligns seamlessly with a new foreign-policy document adopted by Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 31. The Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation stresses that Russia will strive to eliminate American dominance in world affairs, largely by working with China and India bilaterally and in various multinational organizations.
The document follows a year of China and India giving Russia steady economic and political backing, even as much of the Western world aimed to isolate Russia over its war on Ukraine. Russian exports of crude oil are back above prewar levels, since India and China are each buying about 1.5 million barrels per day. Before the war, European countries bought about 66 percent of Russia’s crude oil. Now China and India buy about 90 percent of its oil exports.
Meanwhile, Putin hosted Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping in Moscow from March 20 to 23, the first time the two have met in person since Russia expanded its conflict against Ukraine into a full-scale war. It also marked Xi’s first visit to any nation since he secured his third term as the supreme leader of China, revealing his prioritization of China’s partnership with Russia. For Russia, Xi’s ongoing support is a major diplomatic lifeline and counters the attempts of Western nations to isolate and weaken Putin.
Bible prophecy makes clear that Russia and China are building a super-powerful Asian alliance and will grow more belligerent in pushing against the West. To understand the specific prophecies involved, request your free copy of Russia and China in Prophecy.
Anglo-America
The United States government crossed an ominous line on March 30 when America’s justice system made its first indictment, arrest and felony charge against a former (and the rightful) president, Donald Trump. The New York County district attorney, notorious for refusing to prosecute many repeat criminals in his jurisdiction, created a historically inventive and unprecedented prosecution, operating beyond his jurisdiction in order to charge Trump with falsifying business records. It amounts to one charge and does not state outright what felony Trump allegedly committed.
“Think what you want about former President Trump and the reasons he’s being indicted,” tweeted the president of El Salvador, which has had a notoriously corrupt past in which prosecution was used as a political weapon. “But just imagine if this happened in any other country, where a government arrested the main opposition candidate. The United States’ ability to use ‘democracy’ as foreign policy is gone.”
Even many Democrats admit that the charge against Trump is incredibly weak and that the indictment is a national embarrassment. Yet the radicals continue to wage leftist lawfare, and not only in this case.
On April 18, Fox Corporation executives abruptly surrendered to Dominion Voting Systems and agreed to pay $787.5 million to avoid a court case. Dominion had claimed that it had been willfully defamed when Fox broadcast about a dozen interviews in the wake of the fraudulent 2020 presidential election in which guests claimed that some of the irregularities came from Dominion machines subtracting votes from Donald Trump and adding votes for Joe Biden. Preliminary litigation revealed internal e-mails showing that Dominion executives knew their machines were “riddled with bugs” and had been hacked before. But rather than use this opportunity to make a fairly easy legal argument and to reveal further newsworthy information about Dominion, Fox executives chose to pay enormous amounts of money for the right to walk away and leave Dominion in operation, and greatly enriched.
A prophecy in Micah says that the justice system in the nations that descended from ancient Israel would “hate the good, and love the evil,” and that it would figuratively “eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron” (Micah 3:1-3). This prophecy is being fulfilled as a conservative president is being charged with crimes he did not commit and a company that appears to be manipulating votes faces only a half-hearted attempt to expose its crimes, and gets paid hundreds of millions.
