WorldWatch
Europe
Germany’s political turmoil is reflected in the number of new parties and protest movements formed recently. The former co-leader of Germany’s far-left Die Linke party, Sahra Wagenknecht, launched the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance—Reason and Fairness party in Berlin on January 8. It promises a far-left economic program coupled with an anti-migrant platform and opposition to support for Ukraine. German right-wing conservative group Werteunion (Values Union) said on January 20 that it too will found a new political party. The group appointed Hans-Georg Maassen to lead what it called a “conservative-liberal” party. Maassen was the former domestic intelligence director fired for protecting neo-Nazi rioters in 2018. The group, whose membership is approaching 6,000, hopes to launch the party as early as February, in time for state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in September.
Meanwhile, a nationwide strike in Germany brought rail travel to a near standstill on January 10, and it was extended and repeated several times afterward. On January 8, German farmers kicked off a protest that repeatedly shut down roads and town centers, protesting the coalition government’s plan to reduce diesel subsidies and tax breaks. The fragmentation of German politics and the repeated protests show that Germans are fed up with their current system and their political parties. Many desire increasingly radical solutions to their problems. The result will be a massive change in German politics, as our free booklet A Strong German Leader Is Imminent shows.
Europeans are also increasingly fearful of Russia. A major conflict between nato and Russia is imminent, according to a secret German military document quoted by Bild on January 14. “Alliance Defense 2025” speculates that Russia could use cyberattacks and “other forms of hybrid warfare” against East European nato states. Russia could foment unrest on its borders with Poland and Lithuania as a precursor for invasion. nato announced that it will hold its largest-ever military exercise in May, with 90,000 troops.
Russian elections have recently given President Vladimir Putin even more dictatorial powers. This strikes intense fear in Europe. Europeans still remember how violent Russia was in World War ii, and they are acting on those fears. Europe’s response to Russia’s aggression is a prophetic trend we have watched for years. Read “Bible Prophecy Comes Alive in Ukraine” to learn more.
Middle East
On January 1, Israel’s Supreme Court struck down legislation that tried to curb the court’s power. The justices voted 8-7 on the legislature’s “reasonableness” law, aimed at ending the court’s ability to negate laws and appointments based solely upon a majority of justices considering them “unreasonable.” By a one-vote majority, the justices decided that such a reversion of power back to the people’s representatives in the Knesset is unreasonable. The judgment came as the nation still suffers from the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and its ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza. Resuming this constitutional struggle threatens to reopen political divisions that produced months of protest by tens of thousands of Israelis last summer. Read more in “Israel’s Rogue Supreme Court.”
Also on January 1, Ethiopia announced it would recognize Somalia’s breakaway region Somaliland as an independent country. In exchange, Ethiopia will receive a 12-mile stretch of Somaliland coastline on the Gulf of Aden for a naval base. Aside from Taiwan, no other country recognizes Somaliland. Somalia sees both the recognition and naval base plans as violations of its sovereignty. “Not an inch of Somalia can or will be signed away by anybody,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud posted on social media January 2. “Somalia belongs to the Somali people. This is final.”
Ethiopia just came out of a devastating civil war that may have killed up to 600,000 people. The Somaliland announcement destabilizes an already volatile region. The Red Sea is already suffering unrest from the Yemeni side. Further chaos in the Horn of Africa may make both sides of this critical trade choke point a hazard zone.
Daniel 11:40-43 show that Ethiopia will be allied with “the king of the south,” an end-time power bloc the Trumpet identifies as being led by Iran. Ethiopia is a majority Christian country and would seemingly have little incentive to support Iran’s Islamist empire. But this could change if chaos grips the Horn of Africa. The Somaliland controversy may lead to such chaos. Learn more in Libya and Ethiopia in Prophecy.
The United States and United Kingdom struck at the Houthi movement in Yemen on the night of January 11-12 with missile and air strikes on more than 60 targets in 16 locations, including Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. The strikes came in response to Houthi drone and missile attacks and harassment of maritime traffic in the Red Sea. The Houthis retaliated by naming all American- and British-affiliated entities in the region “legitimate targets,” firing an anti-ship missile at the uss Laboon that was shot down by U.S. warplanes. The Houthis also fired on and struck a large U.S.-owned cargo ship.
Shiite Houthi militants control large swaths of Yemen. As U.S. Central Command noted in its statement on the January 12 strikes, they rely on “their destabilizing Iranian sponsors.” This disruption of maritime traffic is another facet of Iran’s war with Israel. “Helping the Houthis gain such a strong foothold overlooking this strategic area gives Iran a weapon it can use against the world!” Gerald Flurry wrote in “The Battle for the Red Sea.” “Iran is pushing. Its foreign policy is aggressive and provocative. This is exactly what Bible prophecy says we should expect from Iran.”
Asia
On January 1, Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping stated that the conquest of Taiwan was “inevitable.” On January 13, Taiwanese voters elected a new president that places the nation on a “collision course with China,” according to strategist David Roche.
Communist China claims the island nation of Taiwan as its own and has vowed for decades to assert its control, by force if necessary. It has worked to influence Taiwanese elections, including in the lead up to the January vote, with both enticements and intimidations. The ruling Chinese Communist Party applied economic pressure, violated Taiwan’s airspace with more than 30 spy balloons and over 100 aircraft, filled Taiwanese social media with pro-China propaganda, and paid for extravagant trips to China for certain Taiwanese politicians.
Yet the voters of Taiwan elected Lai Ching-te, a member of Taiwan’s most anti-China party with a long history of advocating for independence. Roche said the election results show that “Taiwan is now a mature, sovereign, democratic state, and that is not something China will accept.”
The Chinese likely feel their only option now is to use military force to conquer Taiwan. “How could anyone fail to see that Taiwan is destined to become a part of mainland China?” Gerald Flurry wrote back in 1998. “[I]t is going to happen for one reason: because of a pitifully weak-willed America. Does freedom really mean so little to us?” (“Taiwan Betrayal”).
Two days after Taiwan’s vote, North Korea Supreme Leader Kim Jung-un announced a major U-turn in his nation’s relations with South Korea, saying, “We have formulated a new stand on the north-south relations” and “dismantled all the organizations we established as solidarity bodies for peaceful reunification.” He said he aims to alter North Korea’s constitution to designate South Korea as his “invariable, principal enemy.”
The milestone speech came days after Kim’s forces fired some 200 artillery shells into the waters near South Korea, prompting the South to reciprocate with artillery fire. The North then conducted an unprecedented three days of live-fire artillery drills.
The Diplomat said this sudden about-face means “the Korean Peninsula has now devolved from a state of armistice to one where conflict looms at any moment.” And the stakes could scarcely be higher since South Korea is a U.S. ally that hosts 28,500 American troops, and since North Korea is a nuclear power and is thought to have been given increased help from Russia in recent months with missiles designed to deliver nuclear warheads to targets. In his booklet Nuclear Armageddon Is ‘At the Door,’ Gerald Flurry discusses the North Korean leadership and writes: “[M]admen could be ready to attack America with nuclear weapons! It is childish folly to think anybody but Christ could stop this nuclear madness.”
Meanwhile, Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine continues to rage with no end in sight. On January 10, United Nations Under Secretary General Rosemary DiCarlo said, “Nearly two years after the major escalation of war in Ukraine, there is no letup in the death, destruction, forced displacement and human suffering.” To understand where Asia’s rising tensions are leading, read Russia and China in Prophecy.
Anglo-America
The United States border crisis is now so dire that even Democratic Party mayors are crying out for help. Since Joe Biden became president three years ago, 6.8 million illegal aliens and counting have been encountered at the southern border, equal to more than the entire population of Nicaragua. Only about 57 percent of these aliens are from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador. The rest are from 160 other countries around the world—including China, Cuba, India, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Many of the immigrants pouring into America are known terrorists and drug cartel members.
Joe Biden’s popularity ratings have hit a record low. A Monmouth University Poll published on Dec. 18, 2023, gives Biden especially poor marks on inflation and immigration as even Democrats turn against him.
Deuteronomy 28:52 and other prophecies forecast an unsecured border as one of the curses end-time Israel experiences for disobeying God’s laws. Herbert W. Armstrong explained in The United States and Britain in Prophecy that these verses apply primarily to the U.S. and Britain. The reference to Israel’s “high and fenced walls” coming down is about America’s open borders.
Mass shootings are also increasing in the United States. In the first two weeks of 2024, 25 people were killed and 57 were wounded in incidents where a person shot four or more people. Mass Shooting Tracker, a crowd-sourced website, records that in the past decade, the frequency of mass shootings in the United States has more than doubled from 339 per year to 748 per year.
Many American citizens are stockpiling and even using ammunition, yet the U.S. military is running out of it. Over the past two years, the U.S. has transferred billions of dollars’ worth of munitions to Ukraine. Two years later, America’s stockpiles are dangerously low, and it lacks the production capability to restock in a timely manner.
The Bible prophesies that in the last days, the descendants of ancient Israel will experience a dearth of capable civil and military leadership and that leaders will exhibit childish reasoning (Isaiah 3:1-4). We see this prophecy being fulfilled every day.
