Middle East

At least 40 developing nations from the Persian Gulf to Latin America recently approached United Nations officials signaling their interest in starting civil nuclear power programs. According to the Washington Post, this is a trend that nuclear proliferation experts say could provide the foundation for nuclear arsenals across the globe. “We are concerned that some countries are moving down the nuclear path in reaction to the Iranians,” a senior U.S. government official who tracks the spread of nuclear technology said. Ploughshares Fund President Joseph Cirincione, an expert on nuclear policy, said, “This is not primarily about nuclear energy. It’s a hedge against Iran.”

Iran, for its part, could be producing military-grade uranium by the end of this year and nuclear warheads one year from now, a senior Israeli defense official has said.

Even as Hezbollah takes the offensive in Lebanon, fortifying Iran’s position on Israel’s north, Hamas continues its rocket barrage on southern Israel. A 70-year-old grandmother was killed by a rocket on May 12 in Moshav Yesha; three days earlier another Israeli was killed; and on Wednesday, a rocket hit an Ashkelon mall, wounding dozens, including children. Notably, the Ashkelon attack was launched from what was a Jewish fishing village before it was evacuated and destroyed as part of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement from Gaza.

Pakistan’s new—increasingly appeasement-oriented—approach toward terrorists continues, with the government pulling troops from the tribal areas, conducting prisoner exchanges with the Taliban, and allowing sharia law in one of the border districts. “The negotiation process the new Pakistani civil-military government has embarked upon amounts to acquiescence to the jihadists,” Stratfor wrote May 14. “The process not only will embolden the militants and fail to create a secure environment within Pakistan; it could also create a major problem with the United States.” In the May Trumpet, Joel Hilliker wrote that the alliance between America and Pakistan was in serious jeopardy; evidence of this continues to stack up as Islamabad continues appeasing Islamist militancy.

Europe

Poland announced that it would join Eurocorp this week. From 2009, Poland will commit 3,000 soldiers to the 60,000-strong Eurocorp force. Eurocorp consists of five full members: France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg; Poland will become the sixth member next year. The force was set up as a Franco-German project in 1992 to support the European Union, nato and the United Nations. The trend: Europe’s military is on the rise; watch for a common EU army to develop. Whether that army will develop out of nato, the EU, Eurocorp, or some other organization remains to be seen.

On May 11, Serbia held national elections. Following Kosovo’s secession, the nation is divided over its future. So far, it is unclear who will assume power. The pro-Europe Democratic Party won the election with 39 percent of the vote. The nationalist, more pro-Russia parties could still run the country, however, if they can form a coalition. This election will determine whether Serbia aligns with Russia or Germany. Germany has been quietly conquering the Balkans, and it wants to control Serbia too. To understand Germany’s war in the Balkans, read our booklet The Rising Beast—Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans.

Russia rolled out the red carpet for German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier this week. In December, Steinmeier was the first foreign minister to meet with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev after his nomination for president. This week, he was the first foreign official to meet with President Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin since they officially took their respective new offices. Steinmeier’s close relationship with Russia’s leaders makes him one of their best friends in Europe. The European Union is currently trying to agree on a common position before negotiating an EU-Russia trade and cooperation agreement. Steinmeier wants Europe’s negotiations to take a softer stance toward Russia; other governments want talks to be conditional on Russia resolving conflicts in Georgia and Moldova. A pact between a Germany-led EU and a powerful Russia would allow them to temporarily lay aside their differences in order to more vigorously pursue other national interests. Steinmeier may well be the man to negotiate this pact. At least six times in the last 240 years, Germany has first made a pact with Russia to secure its eastern border before embarking on aggressive foreign policy elsewhere. As American power wanes, and as the threat of radical Islam rises, look for Germany and the rest of Europe to come to some sort of understanding with Russia so the Continent can aim its political firepower elsewhere.

Asia

On Friday, May 9, the lower house of the Japanese parliament approved a measure to allow “non-aggressive” military uses of the nation’s space programs. This measure, which is expected to be approved by the upper house as well, is directed at overturning an almost 40-year-old law limiting Japan’s use of outer space to civilian uses only. It would open up the way for the Japanese defense ministry to possess and develop spy satellites. This continues a lengthy trend of Japan moving away from its 1947 post-World War ii pacifist constitution. In 2004, it sent troops to Iraq; last year, it upgraded its defense agency to ministerial status. As Japan re-emerges as a military power, nations like the United States should be concerned as their ties with the Japanese weaken and as the Japanese develop stronger ties with the rest of Asia.

Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday the creation of a new executive body he says will inject new vigor into the Russian governmental machine. This new presidium will be composed of select members of the Russian cabinet who will meet once a week to discuss governmental policy. By having only these select members meet instead of the entire cabinet, Putin plans to streamline the decision-making process. This new executive body is composed completely of Putin loyalists, and four of the seven ministerial ranked officials in the body will report directly to Putin himself. All in all, this presidium is just another tool Putin will use to continue ruling Russia from his new office.

As rumors of the death toll in Myanmar from last week’s cyclone climb as high as 100,000, the foreign minister of Singapore said that Myanmar’s foreigner-averse government may accept foreign personnel from other Southeast Asian nations to help with the crisis but is unlikely to allow workers from non-asean nations to enter the country. It seems that Myanmar’s distrust of non-Asian nations is greater than its concern for its own people.

Africa, South America

Over 100 people were killed in a pipeline blast in Nigeria on Thursday that destroyed homes and schools. These sorts of fires have erupted in Nigeria before, typically when thieves drill holes in the pipelines to steal oil. The accident happened the same day Stratfor reported on the government’s intention to hold a summit in June for the region’s energy sector, hoping to stop militant actions against Nigerian pipelines.

Zimbabwe, still in the grips of a failed presidential election and supersonic inflation, has set a record with its latest economic solution: the half-billion-dollar bill, issued just 10 days after its record-setting quarter-billion-dollar bill. It’s value? Two U.S. dollars. At the current rate of inflation, it will be worth one U.S. dollar in about a week.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will visit Russia the end of May to finalize plans to purchase $2 billion worth of military contracts. Caracas also negotiated a contract to provide 10,000 barrels per day of oil to Portugal—one more alternative to the U.S. in President Chávez’s growing customer list.

Anglo-America

United States President George W. Bush has been in Israel this week, where he addressed the Knesset and predicted that Islamist radicals would be defeated within the next 60 years. The Washington Timesreported, “The tone of unequivocal U.S. support for Israel in Mr. Bush’s speech to the Israeli Knesset was noteworthy in that the president made no mention of ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.” However, the State Department has been pressuring Israel to give major concessions to a future Palestinian state. President Bush added that in six decades, “Israel will be celebrating its 120th anniversary as one of the world’s greatest democracies,” and, “The Palestinian people will have a homeland, a democratic state that is governed by law, respects human rights and rejects terror. … From Cairo to Riyadh to Baghdad and Beirut, people will live in free and independent societies.”

President Bush’s visit was marred by the largest rocket ever fired from the Gaza Strip exploding in an Ashkelon mall, injuring 16. As Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has forecasted, a peaceful and happy future reality will indeed blanket the Middle East even sooner than President Bush hopes, but in the way he and the world at large do not expect: the introduction of God’s government at the return of Jesus Christ.

One quarter of Americans say they are struggling to keep up with their mortgage or rent payments. A recent aarp survey shows that people are urgently borrowing money—from friends, family and charities—to cover everyday living expenses. One third said they had stopped saving money for retirement. Others said they had dipped into their retirement savings to pay for expenses. Forty percent in the poll said they have helped their children pay bills. Demographically, 45-to-54-year-olds contribute the most to the national economy—and if these earners are feeling the pinch, this spells bad news for the nation’s economic health.

In Britain, signs are emerging that the world’s first major food crisis since World War ii is spreading from the Third World to the First World. The food crisis poses as big a threat to world prosperity as the global credit crunch, warned Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday during a meeting in London with Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program. Sheeran said, “What we are seeing now is affecting more people on every continent, destroying even more livelihoods, and the nutrition losses will hurt children for a lifetime.” As the Observer noted on May 11,

For the past half-century, Britain has been lulled into the belief that a plentiful supply of food is here to stay. Supermarkets give us a season-defying availability of agricultural products, sourced from all over the planet, 365 days a year. We gorge ourselves on Peruvian asparagus, Israeli potatoes, Chilean apples and New Zealand lamb, blissfully unaware this might not go on forever.”