Week in Review: Pope Meets Abbas, America’s Vulnerable Military, Calling on Germany, and Much More

Week in Review: Pope Meets Abbas, America’s Vulnerable Military, Calling on Germany, and Much More

Thaer Ghanaim/PPO/Getty Images, Konstantin Zavrazhin/Getty Images, DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images, iStock.com/roibu

Week in Review: Pope Meets Abbas, America’s Vulnerable Military, Calling on Germany, and Much More

All you need to know about everything in the news this week

January 14, 2017

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Highlights:

Pope Francis’s meeting with Mahmoud Abbas

  • For the fifth time since assuming office, Pope Francis will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on January 14.
  • The meeting in Rome comes three weeks after the December 23 United Nations Security Council resolution, which declared Israeli settlements illegal.
  • It also comes one day before the Paris Peace Conference, which traditionally bashes the state of Israel.
  • In light of the Vatican’s track record on Israel and Jerusalem, the pope’s meeting with Abbas does not bode well for the future of the Jewish nation.

    • America’s military invincible?

  • Is the American military machine too big to fail?
  • Does outspending the combined budgets of the next seven biggest militaries around the globe guarantee American invincibility?
  • According to a report by The Week, the notion of “America’s invincible military” is just a myth.
  • According to the Bible, the United States may have near-invincible military power, but “the pride of [that] power” is broken.

    • A call for Germany

  • The favorite to win France’s next presidential election said he wants to “remobilize the European Union around strategic priorities: our collective security, defense, innovation and the retightening of the eurozone.”
  • François Fillon declared that the Berlin attack and Donald Trump’s election were a “game changer” after which Germany can no longer play the role of a pacifist.

    • Russia at a crossroads?

  • With United States President-elect Donald Trump having promised both to stand up against China and improve U.S. cooperation with Russia, Vladimir Putin stands at a crossroads.
  • Will the Russian president choose to repair Moscow’s ties with Washington, or will it continue its partnership with China?
  • Dr. Subhash Kapila discussed this dilemma in the Eurasia Review. The Trumpet staff discussed it in this week’s “Week in Review” program.

    • America is losing the cyberwar

  • According to an article by Matthew Schofield in The News and Observer, “officials have noted that the new cyberwar field is cheap to enter, relatively easy to work in, and doesn’t necessarily favor the massive advantages the United States has maintained in conventional security.”
  • In 1995, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry highlighted and expanded on Joseph de Courcy’s 1992 warning: “Computer dependence is the Western world’s Achilles’ heel, and within a few years, this weakness could be tested to the full.”
  • The alleged Russian hack of the Democratic National Convention is but the most recent demonstration that the U.S. is falling behind in one of the world’s most dangerous arenas.

    • Other news:

  • A Palestinian resident of Jerusalem killed four people and wounded 17 others on January 8, when he hit a group of unsuspecting Israeli soldiers with a large truck.
  • On January 10, news broke that Thailand is buying a sizable quantity of tanks VT-4 tanks from China. It’s a clear move away from U.S.-Thai relations.

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