WorldWatch
Europe
Political violence is shaking Europe. Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, was shot on May 15 while greeting supporters. Despite what doctors called “extraordinarily serious” wounds, Fico pulled through. His would-be assassin was a 71-year-old poet and anti-political violence advocate. Matthias Ecke, a top candidate for Germany’s Social Democrats, was putting up campaign posters in Dresden on May 3 when he was punched and kicked by a group of men who appeared to be far-right extremists. Ecke suffered broken bones, became unresponsive and was hospitalized, according to Bild. The attack happened after a 28-year-old man was beaten while hanging up posters for the Green Party in the same area, police said. Supporters of the ultra-nationalist Alternative für Deutschland have also been attacked. But the violence that gained the most attention was caught on video in Mannheim, Germany. A radical Muslim stabbed Michael Stürzenberger, an anti-Islam activist at a rally, then fatally stabbed a policeman who ran to Stürzenberger’s defense. The attacker was born in Afghanistan but now lives in Germany.
Physical violence erupted from a small number of people on the far right against mainstream leaders, from the far left against right-wing leaders and from Islamists. Many are comparing the surge in violence to the 1920s and ’30s in Germany. It’s another symptom of the dangerous new era in European politics, and another reason Europeans will demand a strong leader.
Russia is also continuing to frighten Europe. On May 21, Russia unveiled a draft law that would unilaterally change its maritime borders in the Baltic Sea with Lithuania and Finland. The draft was later deleted, but it revealed that Russia’s aggressive territorial ambitions are not confined to Ukraine.
A few weeks after giving an impassioned appeal for European unity in Paris on April 25, France’s President Emmanuel Macron paid a state visit to Germany from May 26 to 28—the first such visit in 24 years. Speaking in both French and German, he received an enthusiastic reception. The highlight of his trip was a speech at Dresden, the city famously destroyed by allied bombing during World War II. Macron used the city as a symbol of German revival, reunification and European cooperation, but Dresden also has strong undertones of victimhood, resentment of the United States, and far-right fervor. During the visit, France signed important military agreements with Germany, most notably the joint development of long-range missiles.
Macron continues to empower Germany and emphasize independence from the U.S. “France will … be shocked to see what its betrayal of America and Britain has caused!” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry in his article “France’s Deadly Ignorance About Germany.”
Meanwhile, Germany announced on May 29 that its military will remain in Niger, even after France and the U.S. have been forced to withdraw. It took secret negotiations with the post-coup government to secure the concession, and Germany hopes to maintain a permanent base there. North Africa is critical for European energy supplies and the fight against radical Islam, so Germany is working hard to maintain a hold.
One of the German military’s top suppliers, Rheinmetall, announced a new sponsorship of the Borussia Dortmund soccer team, the first such sponsorship by a German defense company. Rheinmetall armed Germany during both world wars and is currently Europe’s fifth-largest weapons manufacturer. Its logo appearing alongside that of a team in Germany’s top soccer league reflects changing attitudes toward Germany’s militaristic past—and future.
Middle East
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian died on May 19 in a helicopter crash in western Iran. Raisi’s death triggered new presidential elections on June 28.
Elections, like the rest of Iran’s government, are controlled by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. No matter who becomes the next president—or who eventually becomes the next supreme leader—Bible prophecy shows that Iran will continue to intensify its policies of sponsoring terrorism and developing nuclear weapons. Read The King of the South, by Gerald Flurry.
The Wall Street Journal claimed on May 27 that the United States was pressuring Britain and France not to censure Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency for its clandestine nuclear program. The censure was later cosponsored by Germany and finally by the U.S. the morning before it passed on June 3. Although the censure has little power against Iran’s nuclear program, it shows a certain anxiety in Europe toward the Iranians, and a certain amount of support for them coming from the regime of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
The current radical Islamist regime in Iran considers the U.S. its greatest enemy, yet Obama eased diplomatic pressure against the regime, gave it billions of dollars in sanctions relief, created a path for it to develop nuclear technology, and it appears, continues to support it behind the scenes, including its nuclear activities. This makes no rational sense. But as Mr. Flurry’s book America Under Attack reveals, there is a deeper spiritual cause.
On May 28, Ireland, Spain and Norway announced that they formally recognize a Palestinian state. Slovenia followed suit on June 4. The move increases pressure on Israel to allow a ceasefire, to relaunch negotiations, and to allow Hamas to survive and continue to control Gaza. This comes barely eight months after Hamas terrorized, maimed, raped, abducted, murdered and desecrated more than 1,100 people in an enormous massacre on Oct. 7, 2023.
Psalm 83 mentions the “Philistines”—modern Palestinians—allying themselves with Assur, an ancient name for Germany. The Trumpet expects Europe to become more involved in the Israel-Palestinian war. Ireland, Spain, Norway and Slovenia recognizing Palestine as a state points to this.
Asia
Russia is increasingly unleashing its belligerence upon the world. The Russian military was behind a successful cyberattack on a water facility in Muleshoe, Texas, as shown by evidence that emerged on April 17. The attack occurred in January and sent tens of thousands of gallons of water flowing into the streets. At the same time, two other towns in northeastern Texas also recorded harmful cyberactivity against their networks. It all traced back to a unit of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency known as Sandworm. Analysts view these and other similar assaults as preparations for far more devastating cyberattacks in the future.
Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has warned for years about the danger of America’s dependence on computer systems, particularly in the military realm. As he wrote in “America’s Achilles’ Heel,” the United States “could lose the next war before we even begin.”
On May 19, Russian forces struck a civilian community in Kharkiv, Ukraine, killing four civilians and injuring six. They then waited while members of the community including paramedics, firemen, policemen and emergency repairmen rushed to the scene to try to help—then struck again, injuring two more, including a paramedic. Russia has increasingly used this ruthless “double tap” tactic in its war against Ukraine.
At least 2,200 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been tortured in captivity, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andrii Kostin said on June 5. Russians are holding the prisoners in inhumane conditions and beating them, he said, and video evidence corroborates the claims. More than 500 Ukrainian prisoners reported that physical violence was used against them, including electric shock. The evidence also shows that Russians commonly use sexual violence against Ukrainian captives, male and female alike. According to Kostin, Russian military personnel force prisoners to expose their bodies, mutilate their genitals, rape them, and apply electric shocks to their genitals.
As Mr. Flurry wrote in our May-June 2023 issue, “The Russia-Ukraine War is giving the world a vivid picture of the scale of evil Putin is willing to commit. … Putin is an evil, ruthless, vindictive agent with Soviet-style methods of psychological warfare, assassination and war. He has disgusting and devastating policies that are sick to the core and even satanic!”
Anglo-America
The United States government is breaking its own laws to exacerbate the worst border crisis in American history. Since Joe Biden took office, nearly 8 million illegal aliens have been encountered crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. This doesn’t even count how many have crossed the border and avoided an encounter. The U.S. House of Representatives stated in its articles of impeachment against Biden’s secretary of Homeland Security that much of this immigration was made possible because of a “willful and systematic refusal to comply with the law.”
On May 9, Biden said on the Spanish radio show Chiquibaby that current immigration into the U.S. is “a little bit like back in the 1840s and the great exodus of Ireland. … It’s even a bigger influx now in terms of Hispanic voters—Hispanic citizens—who want to become citizens.” This slip-up indicates how Biden really views these millions of illegal aliens. Some analysts think that demographic shifts caused by unlawful immigration, not to mention lax voting laws, could turn Texas into a permanently Democrat-voting state and therefore the U.S. into a permanently Democrat-voting electorate as early as this year’s presidential election.
As Biden’s regime makes it easier for both illegal immigrants and drugs to cross the border, it is making it easier for Americans to access those drugs. On May 16, Biden announced that the federal government would reclassify marijuana from its most restricted Schedule I category of illegal drugs to the moderately restricted Schedule III category alongside substances like ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone. This could lessen the federal tax that businesses pay on the drug, making it more affordable for the average American to purchase.
Meanwhile the dismantling of the Boy Scouts of America continues. The group began accepting openly homosexual boys in 2013, homosexual troop leaders in 2015, transgender scouts in 2017, female Cub Scouts in 2018 and female Boy Scouts in 2019, then changed the name from Boy Scouts to Scouts BSA. In May, it announced that the name of the organization would change on Feb. 8, 2025, ceasing to be the Boy Scouts of America after exactly 115 years and becoming instead Scouting America. This is one of the clearest examples of America’s ongoing dismantling of boyhood, manhood and masculinity.
The push to normalize sexual perversions is also spreading into religion. On May 1, at a general conference meeting in North Carolina, the United Methodist Church lifted a 40-year ban on homosexual clergy with a vote of 682 to 51. Delegates also voted to allow clergy and churches to hold same-sex weddings, joining numerous other churches that have broken the laws of marriage defined in the Bible.
