On Wednesday, Britain triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which gives it the right to withdraw from the European Union. On Sunday, mass demonstrations in 99 Russian cities resulted from a report published earlier in March by Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny that apparently exposes corruption in the Russian government.

Here are the five most important news stories this week, as well as relevant links to the full articles and videos here on theTrumpet.com.

Britain gives the EU formal Brexit notice

On March 29, Britain’s permanent representative to the European Union, Tim Barrow, hand-delivered a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk formally informing the EU that Britain was withdrawing from the Union.

The two-year-long withdrawal process will be a messy and expensive divorce proceeding; Brussels will likely make an example out of Britain to discourage other member nations from abandoning the Union.

Herbert W. Armstrong forecast back in 1956 that Britain’s relationship with Europe would end this way, well before it joined the Union on Jan. 1, 1973. He was right.

Is a ‘Slavic spring’ coming to Russia?

On Sunday, demonstrators from 99 Russian cities—from St. Petersburg on the western border to Vladivostok in the east—staged the largest outburst of antigovernment sentiment since 2012.

“Down with the Tsar!” they chanted. “Russia will be free!” “Putin the thief: Go away!”

The Trumpet’s forecast is bold and emphatic, as it has been since 2014, when Russia’s strongman encountered some political setbacks to his power: “Putin won’t just survive, he’ll thrive.”

Advanced Hamas rockets threaten Israeli homes

Hamas’s arsenal is fully restocked with new, highly explosive rockets—and the terrorist group is more potent than ever.

On March 28, Israel’s Army Radio reported that Hamas had acquired dozens of these weapons. The nationwide broadcaster stated that these rockets were “completely different than any weaponry we know from the direction of the [Gaza] Strip—as concerns the weight of the explosive carried in the head of the rocket.”

War will break out between Israel and Hamas again. When it does, these rockets could inflict immense damage on the Israeli inhabitants along Gaza’s periphery.

Mass shootings in America on the rise

The United States suffered its 101st mass shooting of the year early Sunday morning, when an argument among several men in a crowded nightclub in Cincinnati, Ohio, escalated into a shootout. One man was killed at the scene and at least 15 others were injured.

Much of the public discussion about these horrific mass shootings focuses on gun control. This, however, ignores the fact that America has been a nation of gun owners ever since the first colonists arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, over 400 years ago. In fact, American gun ownership has actually dropped to its lowest level in nearly 40 years.

The reason mass shootings have increased so dramatically is because the moral fiber of America is breaking down.

Mexicans who help build border wall are ‘traitors,’ says Mexican archdiocese

An editorial published March 27 in Desde la Fe, a weekly publication of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Mexico City, censured as traitors those Mexicans who would help build U.S.-Mexico border wall.

“Any company intent on investing in the wall of the Trump fanatic would be immoral, but above all, its shareholders and owners should be considered as traitors to the motherland,” it read.

The Vatican has a vested interest in encouraging illegal immigration into the U.S. from predominantly Catholic Mexico, because the number of American Catholics is declining.

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