A British-born Islamist of Libyan descent detonated a suicide bomb in the main exit at one of Europe’s biggest concert venues on May 22. He killed 22 people including an 8-year-old. On the opposite end of the Eurasian landmass, in the Korean Peninsula, North Korea reportedly dispatched attack drones to South Korea on May 23, further escalating tensions between the two Koreas and within the Orient.

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.

Manchester attack: ‘Keep Calm and Carry on’ is not working

On May 22, British-born, Islamic State-affiliated Salman Abedi detonated a suicide bomb at a pop concert in Manchester, England, killing 22 people and injuring at least 59 others. It was Britain’s worst terrorist attack since July 2005.

If the past is any guide, the Manchester attack will be headline news for a few days before it slips quietly from memory as Britain returns to life as normal and maintains its deadly “keep calm and carry on” mentality.

President Trump’s meeting with Pope Francis

U.S. President Donald Trump met with Pope Francis in a 29-minute private audience in the Vatican on May 24.

According to the official Vatican statement, the two leaders discussed their joint commitment to life and freedom of worship. They also made particular reference to the situation of persecuted Christian communities in the Middle East.

While the Trump administration and the Vatican may cooperate on issues related to abortion and religious freedom in the short term, their long-term interests do not align. In fact, President Trump and Pope Francis have, in many ways, emerged as leaders of rival power blocs.

Finalizing the European Union military headquarters

After years of arguing and hesitation, European Union leaders finally agreed to establish a military headquarters on May 18.

According to Geoffrey Van Orden, a Conservative member of European Parliament and a former British Army brigadier, the new military headquarters is “inevitably part of a wider ambition to really create a separate defense capability, an EU army in short.”

That’s what the Europeans want, and that’s what Herbert W. Armstrong forecast ever since he began publishing the Plain Truth in 1934.

South Korea fires shots at suspected North Korean drone

South Korea’s military fired some 90 machine-gun rounds on May 23 at an airborne “unidentified object” from North Korea that had been sent toward the South.

The incident came just a day after news broke that a high-level North Korean defector said the North’s military has hundreds of attack drones capable of delivering chemical and biological weapons to South Korea’s capital city within one hour.

North Korea’s increasing belligerence and the steady advancements in its missile and nuclear programs are propagating uncertainty and tension throughout the Orient and contributing to a weapons buildup in several Asian nations.

Is Iran now ready for reform?

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s reelection on May 19 was supposedly a “devastating blow to Iran’s conservatives” and a “huge victory for reformists,” according to the mainstream media.

The reality, though, is that Rouhani has neither the power to change Iran nor the desire to reform the Islamic Republic, as abundant evidence reveals.

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