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.

Pentagon: China Is ‘Building a More Capable People’s Liberation Army’

China is advancing its capability to strike United States targets and the island of Taiwan, according to the Pentagon’s latest annual report to Congress about “the current and probable future course” of the Chinese military, released August 16.

China has “continued to advance an ambitious agenda of military modernization and organizational reforms,” the report said. The current reforms are actually “the most comprehensive restructuring of forces in its history to fundamentally change the way Chinese forces fight.”

This is the trajectory prophesied in the Bible for China. Our article “Why the Trumpet Watches the Rise of China As a Superpower” explains this trend in detail.

Russian Satellite May Have Potential to ‘Bring the World’s Economy to Its Knees’

Russia has a new satellite which is “small,” “nimble” and “has the potential to bring the world’s economy to its knees,” News Corps Australia said on August 16. Its behavior is “abnormal” and “inconsistent with anything seen before,” the United States State Department’s Yleem Poblete told a United Nations conference on August 14.

Russia’s new anti-satellite technology is setting the stage for a global war prophesied in the biblical books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Matthew and Revelation.

America’s Merchant Marine Fleet Is Almost Gone

The United States is experiencing a “decline in the numbers of qualified merchant mariners, the workforce required to deliver U.S. Forces to war,” Air Force Gen. Darren McDew told a Senate panel earlier this year. “If the fleet continues to lose ships, a lengthy, mass deployment on the scale of Desert Shield/Desert Storm could eventually require U.S. forces to rely on foreign-flagged ships for sustainment.”

Experts are warning that America’s weakness in commercial shipping is the nation’s Achilles’ heel.

Racially Motivated Crimes Increase in Italy

In the two months since its new government formed, Italy has experienced a dramatic increase in racially motivated crimes, France 24 reported earlier this month. According to Ludmila Acone, a historian and researcher at Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris, racist attacks have become “part of everyday life.”

These racially motivated attacks are directly related to Europe’s illegal immigration crisis.

“Europe’s greatest need right now is leadership,” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry. “Europe’s refugee crisis is bringing this question to the forefront, a question Herbert W. Armstrong first asked more than 80 years ago: Who will be the strongman of Europe? Europe clearly needs a leader with vision, a leader able to confront these epic problems.”

Bible prophecy says such a leader will soon be on the scene!

The Iran-Syria Relationship Is Fracturing

United States National Security Adviser John Bolton said on August 19 that, based on recent discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s and Iran’s interests in Syria were not the same anymore. He also said that the Russians were open to looking at ways to push Iranian forces out of Syria.

“I think [the Russians] frenetic diplomatic activity in Europe indicates that they’d like to find somebody else, for example, to bear the cost of reconstructing Syria, which they may or may not succeed in doing.”

This development lines up perfectly with what Bible prophecy indicates: Iran will no longer be the dominant influence in Syria; it will eventually be pushed out or leave. And a German-led Europe will replace Iran in dominating Syria.

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