Get all the important news from January 9-15 by downloading the Trumpet Weekly. Click here to receive it by e-mail every week.
Highlights:
The real State of the Union
United States President Barack Obama said that “all the talk of America’s economic decline” and “all the rhetoric you hear about our enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker” is “political hot air.”“The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth, period. … We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined. Our troops are the finest fighting force in the history of the world. No nation attacks us directly or our allies because they know that’s the path to ruin.”How do those statements reconcile with America’s lack of willpower, insurmountable national debt, and its weakened standing against Russia, China and, most recently, Iran?Japan in 2015
Last year—the year of the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War ii—was “a busy year for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Japan’s political establishment,” wrote the Diplomat.“The most significant development in 2015 was the passage of legislation to implement Japan’s right to collective self-defense and the upgraded U.S.-Japan Defense Guidelines.”What’s next for Japan in 2016? As we asked at theTrumpet.com, does Japan’s historic constitutional change mean its military secret will soon come out?‘Cologne Has Changed Everything’
On New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Germany, a mob of around 1,000 people gathered outside Cologne central train station and began molesting, robbing and even raping passersby.Most of the assailants were described as “North African” or “Arab-looking”—they were migrants to Europe.Cologne was the worst affected European city, but not the only one. Over 100 crimes have been reported for the same evening in Hamburg. Frankfurt, Helsinki, Zurich and Salzburg suffered a similar fate, albeit on a smaller scale.How will Europe respond to such an invasion of its privacy?Volker Bouffier, the vice president of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, noted, “Cologne has changed everything; people now are doubting.”The Islamic State settles in Libya
Air bombings in Syria and Iraq are forcing some Islamic State terrorists into a prime terrorist safe haven—the “chaotic, largely ungoverned” Libya.The Washington Free Beacon wrote on January 12: “Germany’s military is considering a training mission for the Libyan Army, according to the German newspaper Der Spiegel. Up to 200 troops of the Bundeswehr, as the German military is called, could be sent to Tunisia within the next few months to train Libyan soldiers and counter the spread of isis fighters.”Other news:
An Islamic State bomb attack in Istanbul, Turkey, killed 10 German tourists. German citizens have been advised to “avoid crowds in Istanbul and other big cities in Turkey.”The Royal Bank of Scotland warned that oil may plummet to $16 a barrel and major stock markets could fall by a fifth. The bank advised its clients to brace for a “cataclysmic year” and a global deflationary crisis.China’s economic expansion has transformed it from “an isolated and impoverished country to a major actor on the world stage,” noted Stratfor. “But growth has introduced vulnerabilities …. Protecting its interests abroad and supplementing economic influence with military influence … will require massive changes to the current system.”Get more details on these stories and more by subscribing to the Trumpet Weekly!
