WorldWatch
Europe
The European Union has had a small success and a major failure in North Africa.
A landmark deal with Kenya signed on June 19 establishes duty-free and quota-free trade between the EU and Kenya, Africa’s seventh-largest economy. Kenya refused to sign a regional trade deal in 2014, but this heals that disagreement and ties Kenya’s economy to Europe.
The serious setback came in Niger, where a coup on July 26 ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. Russia’s Wagner Group appears to be behind the coup, which shifts Niger from a broadly pro-EU government to a pro-Russian one. Other pro-European governments in the region, such as Mali and Burkina Faso have had coups in the last couple of years, leaving the EU struggling for allies and bases in an area that is often a hotbed of terrorism. But Europe can’t sit this out: Any unrest in this region translates quickly into mass migration and terrorist attacks in Europe. Watch for the Europeans to intensify their response in North Africa as part of the clash forecast in Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s free booklet The King of the South.
The EU also tried to boost its influence in Latin America as it hosted a summit with leaders from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (celac) in Brussels July 17 to 18. It was the first summit between the EU and CELAC since 2015. The EU announced €45 billion (us$49.4 billion)of investment in Latin America. It had hoped to sign a deal with mercosur, a trade bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Negotiations bogged down over details, but EU leaders still hope to sign it by the end of the year. Such a trade deal could pave the way for a new economic alliance that would shut the U.S. out of world trade, as Mr. Flurry explained in his article “America Is Being Besieged Economically.”
Middle East
Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenary Wagner Group attempted a coup in Russia June 23, and the turmoil in Russia may affect the Middle East. Wagner has been at the forefront of Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, and Prigozhin criticized the Russian government’s prosecution of the invasion and wanted a change in leadership. Prigozhin began to move troops toward Moscow, then called off the coup and Russian President Vladimir Putin proceeded to try and absorb the mercenaries into the military.
Wagner has been Putin’s tool to involve Russia in conflicts without implicating the Russian government. Thousands of Wagner mercenaries are propping up warlords and corrupt governments in Africa. In eastern Libya, an estimated 2,000 Wagner mercenaries are supporting warlord Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army, though most of the international community recognizes the government in western Libya as legitimate. Without Wagner’s help, Haftar might already have been defeated.
If Wagner were to leave Libya due to difficulty in Ukraine and trouble back home, a power vacuum could develop.
Daniel 11:40-43 prophesy the rise of a “king of the south” that will “push” against other nations and conquer parts of the Middle East and Africa for its empire. The Trumpet identifies this king of the south as Iran-led radical Islam. Verse 43 specifies that Libya will be allied with Iran. A Wagner exit from Libya could eventually lead to Iran and radical Islam entering in.
Meanwhile, the Middle East ignited when Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden, burned a Koran outside a Stockholm mosque June 28. The incident was obviously provocative to Muslims but nonviolent. Still, the Islamic world unleashed its wrath against Sweden, with Morocco recalling its ambassador to Sweden, and Pakistan calling a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which on July 12 resolved to publish a report on religious hatred. After Momika threatened to burn another Koran in Sweden, rioters in Iraq stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and set it on fire.
Iran responded with insidious threats. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Sweden to hand Momika to Islamic judicial authorities to give him “the severest punishment.” Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leader Hossein Salami threatened to strike Sweden. “We will not allow those who insult the Koran to have security,” he said. “If someone wants to play with our Koran and religion, we will play with all his world.” Salami threatened to punish the “politicians and stage managers” of the Koran burning and promised “the highest punishment” to men like Momika.
Daniel 11:40 specifies that Iran will provoke a “king of the north,” a united European power. This “push” will intensify until Europe counterattacks the radical Islamic bloc. Watch closely the building conflict between radical Islam and Europe.
On July 24, Israel’s Knesset passed the first bill in Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform program. For years, Israel’s Supreme Court has engaged in judicial activism and created new powers for itself to overrule the other branches of government. Since he regained the prime minister’s office late last year, Netanyahu has tried to fulfill campaign promises and limit the court’s power. He has been opposed at every step by opposition from a Knesset minority, by large street protests, by the United States and other foreign governments, by some members of his own government, and even by Israel’s spy agency, Mossad. In spite of this, Netanyahu has his first victory, and the activist Supreme Court can no longer veto appointments and executive decisions based on its own opinion of whether those measures are “reasonable.”
2 Kings 14:26-28 prophesy a resurgence to take place in the end-time nations of Israel, including the United States and the Jewish state in the Middle East. Much has to happen before this resurgence is fully realized. But Netanyahu’s Knesset victory indicate the embattled prime minister’s circumstances will soon change for the better.
Asia
The giants of Asia are continuing to rally behind Russia’s efforts to militarily conquer Ukraine.
China has quietly sold Russia more than $100 million worth of drones this year, Politico Europe reported on July 24, citing customs records. The drones aid Russian troops in guiding artillery fire, creating maps and even dropping grenades. Some models have thermal optical sights for targeting Ukrainians at night.
Chinese companies have also sold Russia some $225 million worth of a type of ceramics used in body armor, an increase of nearly 70 percent over last year. In the same timeframe, China’s exports of these ceramics to Ukraine fell 61 percent, to just $5 million. They have also provided 100,000 combat helmets and 100,000 bulletproof vests, as well as significant quantities of light armored vehicles. Politico said this customs data exposes the Chinese “delivering enough nonlethal, but militarily useful, equipment to Russia to have a material impact” on the war.
“What is very clear is that China, for all its claims that it is a neutral actor, is in fact supporting Russia’s positions in this war,” wrote Helena Legarda, an expert in Chinese defense and foreign policy at the Mercator Institute for China Studies.
Meanwhile, on July 23, India’s Engineering Export Promotion Council reported that India has exported $337 million worth of machinery and other engineered products to Russia, four times more than a year earlier.
A central component of the Western response to Russia’s war has been an economic pressure campaign designed to slow and possibly stop Russia’s war machine. But Chinese and Indian exports are helping to keep it running.
Meanwhile, China and India have also both greatly increased their purchases of Russian energy, throwing an invaluable economic lifeline to Moscow.
The support that China and India continue to provide Russia has caught some unawares, particularly since it jeopardizes trade with the West that Chinese and Indian economies rely on. But the Trumpet has warned for decades that cooperation between these nations will increase, to the detriment of world peace.
In “Asia Still Stands With Putin,” Gerald Flurry wrote: “Western nations see the war as a clear example of Putin’s deadly despotism. But what about the East? Two of the largest, most populous, most powerful nations in the world [China and India] are supporting Putin! This is a stunning fulfillment of a biblical prophecy! … When nuclear-armed powers show such solidarity in wartime, what does this mean for the world? I tell you, it is woe to the world!”
Anglo-America
As Americans prepared to celebrate the anniversary of their independence on July 4, a new Gallup survey indicated that only 39 percent of Americans are “extremely proud” to be American, 1 percentage above last year’s record low. That number was 65 to 70 percent in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. This drastic decline is mainly due to the Democratic Party’s adoption of radical leftism: The share of Republicans who are extremely proud to be American has fallen from 80 percent to 60 percent over the past 20 years. The share of Democrats has fallen from 65 percent to 29 percent.
This decline in patriotism springs primarily from disdain for America’s founding values, but there are also legitimate reasons to be ashamed of modern America. On July 2, Secret Service agents discovered cocaine in the West Wing of the White House. The agency looked into the matter but closed the investigation only 12 days later without naming a suspect. Government agents claim there is no way to know who left the illegal substance in what is presumably one of the most secure buildings in the world. They also claimed not to know who left marijuana there twice in 2022. Rep. Lauren Boebert on June 13 said she believes the agency prematurely closed all three drug investigations without a suspect “because everything in this administration is about covering up for the Biden crime family.”
Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama posted a letter on July 17 defending sexually explicit books in children’s school libraries. “Today, some of the books that shaped my life—and the lives of so many others—are being challenged by people who disagree with certain ideas or perspectives,” Obama wrote in response to Republican efforts to get rid of these books. “And librarians are on the front lines, fighting every day to make the widest possible range of viewpoints, opinions and ideas available to everyone.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed legislation removing 175 books from schools across Florida, and. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has taken similar measures. But it is important to Obama that children read such books as All the Things We Do in the Dark, Gender Queer, Lawn Boy, This Book Is Gay and Two Boys Kissing.
A Bible passage in Daniel 8:11-12 reveals that an end-time leader would cast truth to the ground. This prophecy is being fulfilled on the national level in America today by Barack Obama, the most biblically hostile president in American history. Obama is officially out of office, but is working in public and mostly in the shadows to destroy America’s founding virtues, abolish its constitutional form of government, and fundamentally transform its Judeo-Christian moral structure.
