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.

Brexit: Yesterday’s Potentialities, Today’s Realities

Brexit is exposing the United Kingdom’s many infirmities, as the Trumpet wrote in 2016.

Britain now has five months to negotiate its release from the European Union—very little time considering the state of British politics in general and Prime Minister Theresa May’s government in particular. A constitutional crisis likely is brewing in Britain and the United Kingdom could literally split apart soon.

Putin’s Strategy to ‘Divide Europe Is Backfiring’

“It is now possible that west Europeans will feel a new closeness to those Poles and Balts who have long warned about Russia’s encroachments,” wrote Guardian columnist Natalie Nougayrède on October 9, adding that “Vladimir Putin’s plan to divide Europe is backfiring.”

Nougayrède made the case that the Russian president’s increasing provocations against European nations, such as cyberattacks and efforts to deepen political divides, are helping “bridge some gaps between European sensitivities” and that this is a catalyst for European unification. Her analysis is remarkably similar to Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s forecast from 2004, just after Vladimir Putin had manipulated an election to ensure his continued power. Mr. Flurry warned that such acts of Russian behavior would frighten Europe into uniting—and fulfill Bible prophecy.

Japanese Armor Storms Beach for First Time Since World War II

Roughly 150 Japanese marines in amphibious vehicles stormed a Philippine beach on October 13 as part of the Kamandag military exercises. This marked the first time since World War ii that Japanese fighting vehicles have deployed on foreign soil.

Japan’s push for military development is motivated by its concerns about Chinese expansion in the South China Sea.

Read “Japanese Armor Storms Beach for First Time Since World War II” and “Why the Trumpet Watches Japan’s March Toward Militarism” to understand the true significance of these developments.

Ukraine on Verge of Orthodox Jihad

In a religious and geopolitical earthquake, the Russian Orthodox Church severed ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on October 15.

Half of the world’s 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians are members of the Russian Orthodox Church.

This severing of relations could be the beginning of the biggest religious conflict in the Orthodox world since the split with Catholicism in a.d. 1054. And it will worsen the antagonism that has produced a five-year war over eastern Ukraine that has no end in sight.

North-Rhine Westphalia Government Saves Catholic Priest Training

The German state of North-Rhine Westphalia signed an agreement with the Vatican on October 9 to avert the secularization of one of its leading universities.

After the Diocese of Essen shifted its priest training program from Bochum University to the seminary of Münster, Bochum’s theology program was close to becoming extinct. But then North-Rhine Westphalian State Premier Armin Laschet, a man who is seen as a possible successor to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, intervened by providing needed financial support.

Armin Laschet, like other emerging leaders in Europe, is working diligently to bring Catholicism back into education and politics. To learn more about where this trend is leading, read “The Holy Roman Empire Goes Public—Big Time!”, by Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry.

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