WorldWatch
Europe
Recent news gives Europeans more motivation to militarize. As the war in Ukraine continues, Russia has put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on a wanted list, Mediazone reported on February 13. It is the first time the Russian government has put a foreign head of government on such a list. United States President Donald Trump added to the pressure, recounting that when last in office he told European countries that he would encourage Russia to attack if they didn’t spend enough on their militaries. European powers increased military spending at that time, and they are already discussing the need to transform their militaries if Trump returns to power.
Germany sailed a frigate to the Red Sea on February 8 in response to Houthi attacks there, and it sent an additional 150 troops to Kosovo in response to increased tensions in the Balkans. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz joined his Danish counterpart to break ground on a new munitions factory on February 12 and said that Europe must “move from manufacturing to mass production of armaments.” And on January 22, a senior lawmaker told Deutsche Welle that the German government is considering allowing foreign citizens to serve in the military. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius raised the idea because the Bundeswehr is struggling to find enough troops amid increased threats from Russia. “We are already working toward the goal of having a European army in the long term. … [I]f you think in a European way, it can no longer matter what nationality a soldier has within this European framework,” Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmerman, chair of the Bundestag’s defense committee, said. Europe’s militarization is one of our most important forecasts; our Trends article ” Why the Trumpet Watches Europe’s Push Toward a Unified Military”* explains why.
German politics is becoming more extreme. Undercover reporters from rtl joined an Alternative für Deutschland and AfD youth “hike for heroes,” commemorating German victims of World War ii. One activist challenged a reporter, “Have you ever asked yourself why the Jews have been hated by all the nations who had anything to do with them for the past 4,000 years?” Another answered a question regarding migration, saying, “Yes, in my view there should be a certain readiness to commit violence. If I were the state, I would try to recruit volunteers who are willing to shoot even women and children.” Others argued for Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf to be taught in schools. This followed reports about far-right leaders from Germany (including AfD members) and Austria discussing plans to forcefully deport immigrants in Europe, including “unassimilated” citizens. The report of this meeting, held last November in Potsdam, shocked Germany and led to anti-AfD protests, but the party remains strong.
As extreme as the AfD may be, it’s clear Germany needs an alternative to status quo politics. Its economy shrank by 0.3 percent last year, making it the worst-performing economy in the eurozone. Employees at state-run institutions are engaging in massive strikes. German train drivers announced a six-day strike in January—their longest ever—estimated to cost over €1 billion (us$1.1 billion). The strike ended a few days early after they compromised with Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railway company. The cancellation of tax breaks for agriculture ignited farmer protests, with 5,000 tractors blocking the streets of Berlin, and thousands more in other cities.
Support for Germany’s government is in a free fall. The latest polls show that if elections were held today, the ruling coalition would win just over a quarter of the seats in Parliament. Germans will look to a strongman to get them out of this mess, as our booklet A Strong German Leader Is Imminent explains.
Middle East
Sweden became the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 32nd member state after Turkey’s legislature ratified its application to join on January 24 and Hungary’s did so on February 26. This made assent for Sweden’s membership unanimous among members of the security alliance. Due to its geography, Turkey balances relations with the Middle East, Europe and Russia. Approving Sweden’s nato membership while Russia is at war with nato-supported Ukraine tips that balance toward Europe. A prophecy in Psalm 83:1-8 states that Edom, ancestor of modern Turkey, and Assur, ancestor of modern Germany, will ally.
Also on January 24, United States Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski informed Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein that the U.S. intends to withdraw its remaining troops from Iraq. According to Reuters, the U.S. government has dropped its precondition that Iran-backed militias cease their attacks on American installations, even as those militias have increased their attacks, killing American troops.
After the U.S. concluded the first Gulf War in 1991, Gerald Flurry published “Is Iraq About to Fall to Iran?” in December 1994. He asked the same question in 2003, as the U.S. again invaded Iraq and this time toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. With American armies to Iran’s west in Iraq and to its east in Afghanistan, it looked unlikely for Iraq to fall to Iran. Over the past 30 years, Iraq could have remained under Hussein or another dictator, developed its oil industry to remain independent of Iran, and perhaps even weakened or toppled the Iranian regime, as it attempted to do throughout the 1980s. It could have seen U.S. forces remain for decades, as in Cuba, Europe, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea and elsewhere. But instead, by 2024, Iraq has fallen to Iran.
On February 9 Politico reported new details on the German government’s investigation of Varengold Bank in Hamburg. Varengold is now known to be a front company for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to launder money for its terrorist proxies. Anonymous intelligence sources told Politico this includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.
Daniel 11:40 prophesies that a “king of the south” (radical Islam, led by Iran) will “push” against a “king of the north” (German-led Europe). The Trumpet forecasts such provocations to increase until Germany counterattacks. Read about this in our booklet The King of the South.
Asia
As Russia’s war on Ukraine entered its third year, the nation appears to be strengthening its position on some notable metrics. Bloomberg reported on January 31 that Russian forces deploy three times as much firepower as Ukrainian forces, and that Ukraine’s artillery shell shortage was “critical.” Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said his artillery could fire a maximum of 2,000 shells per day. Martin Herem, commander of the Estonian Defense Forces, warned that Russia is expected to produce “many times more” artillery shells this year than estimated by the West, and this will be further expanded by a large supply from North Korea.
The Financial Times reported in early February that Russia’s economy grew faster last year than those of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, the world’s advanced economies. The International Monetary Fund projects that this will occur again this year. Russia’s current purchasing power parity is the third-best in the world. The trend shows that Western sanctions designed to constrict the Russian economy as punishment for its war on Ukraine have failed. “They predicted decline, failure, collapse; that we would stand back, give up, or fall apart,” Russian President Vladimir Putin remarked. “They won’t succeed. Our economy is growing, unlike theirs.”
Russia had another win on February 1 when its officials met with Chinese officials in Beijing and agreed to coordinate military use of artificial intelligence, an emerging technology that aims to create humanlike intelligence in machines. Major powers such as the United States, China and Europe are investing heavily in exploring its possibilities, many of which pertain to military use. A Chinese statement said the Russian and Chinese officials discussed cooperating more closely on AI-related technologies that could soon define geopolitical conflicts such as “outer space security, biosecurity and artificial intelligence” (see “The Unknown Future of Artificial Intelligence”).
After over a year of ridicule of Russia and speculation that Putin would be ousted or Russia would lose, the scales seem to be tipping in Russia and Putin’s favor. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has forecast since 2013 that Putin would survive all opposition and go on to fight far larger wars in the future. To understand the Bible prophecies upon which Mr. Flurry based this bold forecast, order your free copy of The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia.’
Anglo-America
On February 8, a United States Department of Justice special counsel reported that it had “uncovered evidence that President [Joe] Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.” These included marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and notebooks with Biden’s handwritten notes “implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods.” But the report concluded that Biden should not be criminally charged in part because he “would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Last summer, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided former President Donald Trump’s home and the Department of Justice indicted him for possession of classified documents. This despite the fact that, as president, he had the right to declassify documents and those documents were located at a residence with Secret Service protection. Biden took documents as a senator—when it was illegal for him to possess, remove or disclose them—and kept them in unsecured locations.
These classified materials controversies demonstrate an unlawful and politically motivated bias in the very department that exists to uphold the rule of law in America. They also demonstrate what Isaiah 10:6 prophesies about the end-time descendants of Israel in America: It has become a “hypocritical nation.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Wyden released documents on January 25 showing that another federal agency has been buying the Internet browsing information of everyday Americans from data brokers. National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone subsequently admitted to this warrantless acquisition of data. This violates Federal Trade Commission standards and the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures without probable cause.
Just three years after decriminalizing possession of all drugs, the ongoing fentanyl crisis has grown so severe in Portland, Oregon, that the local and state governments there have declared a 90-day state of emergency. On January 30, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek made an emergency declaration. Opioid overdose deaths in Oregon have increased from 280 in 2019 to 956 in 2022, and counting.
According to an Aug. 21 to Sept. 15, 2023, survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, Generation Z adults are four times more likely than Generation X and seven times more likely than Baby Boomers or the Silent Generation to identify with some form of sexual deviancy. Activists have alleged for years that people are born homosexual or heterosexual. This survey shows that sexual deviancy is not genetic but rather the result of influences—influences that are becoming increasingly powerful in American society.
