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

Is France Leading Europe Into Syria?

On April 7, 2017, the United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Eastern Mediterranean and destroyed a largely vacant airfield from where Syrian President Bashar Assad’s planes had taken off just a few days earlier to conduct a sarin gas attack on rebels and civilians alike.

America’s missile attacks apparently were not enough to deter Assad: On April 7, 2018, he initiated yet another horrific chemical weapons attack in the rebel-controlled enclave of Douma City on the outskirts of eastern Damascus, killing more than 70 of his own people and injuring over 500 more.

America responded with yet another missile attack on the Syrian regime. This time though, it was joined by Britain and France. French participation in particular might herald a new era of European intervention in Syria.

Beware the Russian in Your Router

On April 16, the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United Kingdom National Cyber Security Center issued a collective warning of Russian hackers’ worldwide cyberintrusion into Western homes and computer systems controlling electrical infrastructure, water utilities, nuclear plants, factories and air travel.

They have infiltrated these systems thoroughly enough to be able to shut them down. But they haven’t. The message they probably want to send is, “If there is a war between us and you, you’d better be ready to fight us in the dark.”

Will China’s Next Military Base Be in Vanuatu?

Recent media reports suggest that China is planning to establish its second foreign military base in Vanuatu, a South Pacific island, located northeast of Australia. Fairfax Media reported on “preliminary discussions” between China and Vanuatu about “building a permanent military presence in the South Pacific in a globally significant move that could see the rising superpower sail warships on Australia’s doorstep.”

Whether or not these reports about China’s military ambitions in Vanuatu are true, they are not groundless or merely paranoia. That’s because China is an aggressive superpower in the making. And as the Sydney Morning Herald wrote, Australia “needs to get very serious, very quickly, to counter this move by a master strategist.”

Chinese Banks Are Laundering North Korean Cash

Revelations emerged on April 12 that two major Chinese banks are providing a key financial lifeline to the nuclear-armed rogue North Korean regime of tyrant Kim Jong-un.

Chinese support of the North Korean government remains firmly in place and vital to the regime’s survival.

The Rise of France’s Zombie Catholics

French President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech to the Bishop’s Conference of France on April 9 in which he told the bishops that “the link between church and state has been damaged, that the time has come for us, both you and me, to mend it. … A president of the French republic who takes no interest in the church and its Catholics would be failing in his duty.”

Given that secularism and a strict separation between church and state have been at the core of French government since 1905, Macron’s statement implies that France needs to rethink this century-old relationship—or rather, lack of a relationship—with Catholicism. The Bible prophesies of such a reconsideration.

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