German warship in Libyan waters
The German frigate Hamburg departed from its port in Wilhelmshaven on August 4 for its new mission as part of the European Union Naval Force Mediterranean Operation Irini. The frigate will enforce a UN weapons embargo, monitor the illegal export of petroleum, and support Libya’s Coast Guard and Navy.
On January 16 this year, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas visited Benghazi. On January 19, government officials in Berlin discussed the situation in Libya. On May 7, the German government mandated the participation of forces including 300 soldiers to enforce the arms trafficking embargo.
Libya is on the verge of becoming a second Syria. Germany wants to prevent its devolution into another war-torn nation at Europe’s doorstep. A prophecy in Daniel 11 shows that Libya will fall under Iranian control. Europe’s interest in the nation foreshadows serious friction with Iran that will ultimately erupt in war.
Read “Mediterranean Battle Escalating Into World War III!” by Gerald Flurry.
U.S. withdraws troops from Germany
The United States announced on July 29 the details of its withdrawal of 12,000 troops from Germany. The redeployment of a third of its personnel from the country marks a dramatic deterioration in the U.S.-Germany relationship. A cavalry regiment will return to the U.S., and 5,600 troops will move elsewhere in Europe: a fighter jet squadron will move to Italy, European command will move to Belgium, and Africa command is searching for a new home base.
“For more than 50 years, the U.S. armed forces have protected and guarded Germany and the entire nato area,” Bild.de wrote, noting that American troops helped with natural disasters and operated in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the war on terror.
U.S. President Donald Trump has been unsuccessful in his urging of Germany to meet the NATO minimum level of spending on its defense budget. He has also been unsuccessful in pressuring Germany to pull out of its deal to connect to Russia with Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline of strategic importance that threatens the security of all other European nations. The president withdrew the troops to emphasize the seriousness of the situation. Doing so will likely motivate it to become a stronger military power.
Bible prophecy shows that tragically, German military power will end up posing a terrible threat to the United States. To learn more request our free booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.
World’s favorite nation
According to a global leadership poll conducted by Gallup, the nation viewed as the best world leader is Germany.
“The median global approval rating for U.S. leadership across 135 countries and areas edged up to 33 percent in 2019. This rating is slightly higher than the previous low under Trump,” Gallup noted in “U.S. Leadership Remains Unpopular Worldwide.” Germany’s rating is 44 percent. China’s is 32 percent and Russia’s is 30 percent.
While anti-Americanism has surged, Germany has grown more popular due to its absence from major military conflicts, its progressive environmentalist reforms, and its handling of the coronavirus, refugee crisis and financial crises. More people and nations want Germany to mediate peace negotiations and assume a greater role in international relations. But this desire to empower Germany overlooks major dangers—and recent history.
To learn more, read “We’re All Falling in Love With Germany.”
Hungary joins Germany’s reviving military empire
Hungary took delivery of German-made Leopard tanks in July. The major order of military technology between the two EU nations, signed in 2018, is part of Hungary’s strategy to “extensively convert its armed forces to the technology of the Bundeswehr” (n-tv.de, July 17; Trumpet translation throughout).
Hungarian Defense Minister Tibor Benkö referred to the tank delivery as “an extremely important event” and told his visiting counterpart from Germany, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, that Hungary wants to buy the majority of its new military equipment from German manufacturers.
To understand why German and European military development is extremely important, read “Why the Trumpet Watches Europe’s Push Toward a Unified Military.”
The next Jewish revolt?
Every week since mid-July, demonstrators have marched in the streets of Jerusalem to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Some are protesting his plan to annex parts of the West Bank, and others are demanding his removal from office due to indictments against him for fraud, bribery and break of trust. They call him “Crime Minister.”
Meanwhile, Israel is experiencing a second wave of coronavirus, which Netanyahu’s government has reacted to by restricting operation of businesses and freedom of movement.
The July and August protests have been some of the most violent since the State of Israel was founded in 1948. In some ways, they have been reminiscent of the rioting and desecration of history and monuments that have taken place in the U.S. and—for some reason—the United Kingdom.
Such similarities of movements in “the U.S., Britain and Israel requires a search for the common denominators or shared histories that distinguish them from other established Western democracies,” wrote Israeli commentator Chemi Shalev in Haaretz on August 11. And yet, that true shared history is largely unknown. As Herbert W. Armstrong describes in his book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, these three nations are actually family, descendants from a single ancient patriarch. Now they are linked by the common threat of domestic radical leftists. They are also facing a common future, prophesied in the Bible.
Read “Race Riots Were Prophesied!” by Gerald Flurry.
Iran pressures Iraq to push out remaining U.S. troops
During his first international tour, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi met with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on July 21. Khamenei pressured him to push the United States out of Iraq.
Khamenei accused the “corrupt” U.S. of spreading destruction, sowing division and blocking Iran-Iraq cooperation.
Kadhimi also met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and the two leaders pledged to increase annual trade between Iraq and Iran from $12 billion to $20 billion.
Kadhimi, a former intelligence chief and activist, came to power in May this year after protests forced out his predecessor. His centrist government is attempting to balance Iraq’s relationship with Iran against that with the U.S. as Tehran and Washington grow increasingly antagonistic toward one another.
In August, Kadhimi traveled to the U.S. to meet with President Donald Trump. The two leaders continued the strategic dialogue that began in June and resulted in a withdrawal of some U.S. troops from Iraq.
The U.S. is much more powerful than Iran, but its leadership and its people lack the resolve to wield much of that power. The Bible specifically prophesied this deterioration in “the pride of your power” in our generation, as well as Iran’s aggressive foreign policy and successful formation of a radical Islamic power bloc.
Request a free copy of The King of the South, by Gerald Flurry.
Iran launches ballistic missiles from underground
Iran launched a series of ballistic missiles from a camouflaged underground silo on July 29. The tests were part of massive Iranian war games in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. troops stationed at the Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi and the Al-Udeid Air Base, headquarters of U.S. Central Command, went into high alert and took cover during the launch.
Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace division, said this was the first time Iran achieved such a launch.
This year’s games were monitored by Iran’s new military satellite, Noor, which the Revolutionary Guards—a U.S.-designated terrorist entity—put into orbit on April 22. The technology that put the satellite into orbit is the same technology needed to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Although U.S. 5th Fleet could easily destroy the Iranian Navy, Iran could strike at America and the world in the Strait of Hormuz, blocking commercial shipping, including a quarter of the world’s oil shipping, and causing prices of transport, insurance and oil to soar around the world.
For almost three decades, the Trumpet has identified Iran, the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism, as the head of radical Islam and the power that will lead “the king of the south” radical Islamic bloc prophesied in Daniel 11. Even as other major issues consume the world’s attention, continue to watch Iran.
Will Russia and China rule space?
The chief of Russia’s space corporation told Komsomolskaya Pravda on July 13 that Russia is interested in partnering not with the United States but with China to build a scientific base on the moon.
Dmitry Rogozin said Russia and China have already taken “the first steps towards each other precisely by defining the contours and significance of the lunar scientific base.” He added that though he was not opposed to American involvement with the project, Russia and China were clearly the lead players. So whether he admits it or not, this “lunar scientific base” is part of a new space race: Russia and China against America.
Meanwhile, U.S. Space Command said on July 23 that Russia tested an anti-satellite weapon in orbit the week before. It stated that Russia’s Kosmos 2543 satellite released an object “in proximity to another Russian satellite, which is similar to on-orbit activity conducted by Russia in 2017, and inconsistent with the system’s stated mission as an inspector satellite.” Space Command called the test “consistent with the Kremlin’s published military doctrine to employ weapons that hold U.S. and allied space assets at risk.”
During the Cold War, the late theologian Herbert W. Armstrong wrote a booklet titled Who Will Rule Space? in which he explained that America was making a huge mistake in its approach to the space race. “We are looking exclusively to material science to rescue us from the threat of communism,” he wrote. “We are in a frenzy over methods of training future scientists who can develop even greater weapons of destruction and death! … And this very thing—looking to the physical, material, science—is our colossal error!”
America is making the same error today. Developing new and better space-based weapons may temporarily deter conflict with nations such as Russia and China, but when that conflict inevitably comes, it will be all the more devastating. America—and mankind—does not need a scientific solution but a spiritual one.
Japan protests America, courts Russia
The people of Japan are again protesting the presence of American troops on the island of Okinawa.
In July, a significant coronavirus outbreak among the 26,000 U.S. soldiers and affiliated personnel stationed in Okinawa has the Japanese shaken. “It is extremely regrettable,” Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said on July 11, “that the infections are rapidly spreading among U.S. personnel when we Okinawans are doing our utmost to contain the infections.”
America’s military presence in Japan dates to the end of World War II, when the U.S. occupied the defeated nation and wrote a clause into its new Constitution banning war as a means for Japan to settle international disputes. The U.S. and Japan also signed the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, codifying Japan’s dependence on America for its defense and stipulating that the U.S. would protect Japan by stationing American troops in the country.
Around half of the 50,000 American military personnel currently stationed in Japan are in Okinawa. But the troops have been a perennial source of tensions between the two nations, with the Japanese decrying crime, noise, pollution and aircraft accidents caused by them. The covid-19 outbreak is only the latest issue to outrage the local populations.
The increasing anti-American sentiments are playing a role in the weakening of the U.S.-Japan security alliance that has helped to stabilize Asia for more than 70 years.
Meanwhile, on July 10 Russia presented Japan with the framework of a peace treaty to finally conclude their lingering World War II disputes, although it omits the contentious issue of the Kuril Islands, a territory both nations claim. But the announcement highlights Russia’s attempts to improve its relationship with Japan, a trend that Bible prophecy shows will culminate in the end of the U.S.-Japan alliance and the formation of an Asian superpower.
Order your free copy of The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia,’ by Gerald Flurry.
Might makes China right
On July 27, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte blocked America from increased access to military bases in his nation.
“I have nothing against America,” Duterte said during his annual State of the Union address, but China “has the arms” and is “in possession of the property. … So it is simple as that.” He added: “If war breaks out” then “atomic arsenals” would cause “the extinction of the Filipino race.”
Whether Duterte genuinely fears nuclear war or is only appeasing China, the remarks are consistent with an aim that has been evident throughout his presidency: move the Philippines away from Washington and toward Beijing. The Trumpet takes a keen interest in this aim because it is furthering three prophetically significant trends: the deterioration of U.S. power, the coalescing of “the kings of the east” Asian alliance, and the rise of China.
Order your free copy of Russia and China in Prophecy.