WorldWatch
Europe
A collaboration of businessmen and Ukrainian military officers decided to blow up parts of the Nord Stream pipeline in 2022, according to an August 14 Wall Street Journal report that is based on unnamed sources. The sources, who claimed to be Ukrainian officers, said it came down to a team of six people, mainly experienced deep-sea divers, with $300,000 and a rented yacht. If true, the revelations could be explosive within Germany. All the mainstream political parties at least on paper support Ukraine in its war with Russia. But a growing segment of the population opposes it, especially as high energy prices caused financial hardship to the people. If Ukraine is directly responsible for disrupting Nord Stream and causing those high prices, that dissenting segment could grow. That would mean more rejection of the mainstream parties and turning more to the far right or far left, further worsening Germany’s political divide. That divide has already made it very hard for Germany to have stable coalitions. Germans have a growing appetite for strongman leadership. Request your free copy of A Strong German Leader Is Imminent.
The attack on free speech in Europe continues. The European Commission announced on July 12 that it will prosecute X, formerly known as Twitter, for alleged violations to its Digital Services Act. The investigation opened in December 2023 over concerns about how X regulates its blue checks and ads. The social media platform’s owner, Elon Musk, interviewed Donald Trump, and the European Union responded with a letter to Musk from European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Thierry Breton threatening fines if any “harmful content” was aired in the interview. The attack from the EU on an American social media site hosting an interview in America with an American presidential candidate exposes the EU’s ambition to regulate speech around the world, something Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry warned about in his April article “The EU’s War on Free Speech.”
The eyes of the world were on France as Paris hosted the Olympic Games, and many were upset by what they saw. Drag queens—men dressed as women—played a major part in the opening celebrations. One scene appeared to be a depiction of the Last Supper, with a fat woman wearing a halo representing Jesus and transexuals representing the apostles. Some backed away from the Last Supper connection, saying it was meant to show Greek gods partying. It exposed the moral decay in France, but also widened its own culture wars between a conservative Catholic bloc and the left. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, put himself on the side of the left by praising the ceremony. The so-called far right in France are generally pro-Catholic; the backlash after this ceremony could push French politics in that direction. Christianity is routinely mocked, but in Europe, watch for the pendulum to swing back the other direction, forcefully.
Middle East
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, addressed the United States Congress for the fourth time on July 24, presenting his vision for the Middle East after the war between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza concludes.
“America and Israel today can forge a security alliance in the Middle East to counter the growing Iranian threat,” he said. “All countries that are in peace with Israel and all those countries who will make peace with Israel should be invited to join this alliance.” Netanyahu cited as an example the April 14 barrage of drones and missiles Iran launched against Israel, and the defense of Israel by Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other countries, led by the United States.
Forming a “Middle Eastern nato” would mean trusting these and other Arab nations with increased national security information. Bringing them into Gaza would mean trusting predominantly Muslim Arab troops to deradicalize one of the most radical Islamist populations on the planet. It would presume that the forces of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which have attacked Israel four times in its 76-year history, will not do so again.
Psalm 83 details several Middle Eastern countries forming an alliance for an evil purpose: “that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” (verse 4). The modern descendants of these peoples include some of those with whom Israel is seeking an alliance (see “Why the Trumpet Watches an Alliance Between Arab Nations and Europe”).
In the early morning of July 31, a bomb exploded at a guest house in Tehran, killing Ismail Haniyeh, the chairman of Hamas’s political bureau. Haniyeh was in Iran to attend the inauguration of its new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Though Israel did not claim responsibility for the assassination, it appears to be responsible.
Many analysts expected Haniyeh’s predecessor, Khaled Mashal, to succeed him, but Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, pushed for someone who has a much closer relationship with Hamas sponsor Iran. On August 6, Hamas’s Shura Council announced the new chairman: Sinwar himself.
Sinwar was already directing Hamas’s operations in Gaza, sometimes overruling Haniyeh, who lived in Qatar. The Jerusalem Post stated that Sinwar “reportedly sports messianic views, viewing himself and Hamas as messengers who would bring [about] Allah’s promise for the end of days … in which the entire world would become Muslim and all heretics would be killed—starting with the alleged ‘liberation of Palestine’” (August 7).
Sinwar’s selection demonstrates that the real power behind the perpetrators of October 7 is Iran’s mullahs, who hold similarly radical beliefs and who have now increased their hold on Hamas. Hamas is on the verge of defeat on the Gaza battlefield, but with Sinwar and other radicals consolidating their power rather than dissolving it, Hamas may emerge from the ashes more aggressive than ever.
A prophecy in Zechariah 14:1-2 states that shortly before the Second Coming of Christ, half of Jerusalem will fall. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry in his booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy states that this means Islamists in the West Bank will take over Jerusalem. Palestinian factions there right now are too weak and disorganized to attempt something like this. But Sinwar or a radical like him may bring this much closer to reality.
Asia
Two of China’s Coast Guard vessels rammed a pair of ships from the Philippines on August 19 in a location well within Philippine waters. The Chinese punctured a 3-foot-wide hole in one Philippine ship and an almost 5-foot-wide hole in the other. “We can fairly say that this is the biggest structural damage we have incurred as a result of the dangerous maneuvers carried out by the Chinese Coast Guard,” said a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman. China claims a Philippine vessel was at fault, but video footage shows this belligerence at Sabina Shoal, as on previous similar occasions, was a result of Chinese aggression.
Leaders of the Chinese Communist Party use ancient maps to make sweeping claims over almost all of the vast South China Sea. But The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in 2016 that these claims violate international law and encroach on the lawfully held territory of several other countries, including the Philippines.
The Bible prophesies of the Chinese aggression we see today and reveals that China will soon take on an even more dominant and belligerent role, as Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explains in “China Is Steering the World Toward War.”
Ukraine’s forces began a broadscale invasion of Russia’s Kursk region starting on August 6, marking the first time Russia has been invaded by a foreign army since World War ii. As the Ukrainians pushed deeper, seizing control of hundreds of square miles, including one of Russia’s most important gas-metering stations, officials in Moscow declared a federal-level emergency for both Kursk and the neighboring Belgorod region.
Russia’s war has not achieved the easy victory that President Vladimir Putin expected, and this invasion is a humiliation for him. But it is not the end of Russia’s war. Putin remains fiercely determined to conquer Ukraine, and the surprise invasion of Russian territory could even prompt him to intensify Russian aggression. Bible prophecy provides insight into Putin’s belligerence and determination, as explained in Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s booklet The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia.’
Increasing cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic poses a security concern to the U.S. and its allies, according to a Pentagon report published on July 22. Russia has been reopening numerous Soviet-era military sites in the region, the report notes, as China seeks to leverage the “changing dynamics in the Arctic to pursue greater influence and access, take advantage of Arctic resources, and play a larger role in regional governance.” The two nations are also rerouting shipments away from the Suez Canal and to the Northern Sea Route, which runs along Russia’s Arctic coast from the Kara Sea to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
The Bible prophesies of an Asian alliance that will use its control over maritime choke points and shipping lanes, likely including Arctic routes, to economically besiege America. Read our July 2019 article “The Battle for the Arctic.”
Anglo-America
The United States economy is built on a foundation of sand. The Dow Jones Industrial Index plunged more than 1,033 points on August 5 amid fears that the U.S. was entering economic recession. It has rebounded since then, but the root causes behind the crisis still remain. The downturn began after the U.S. government released a report showing that the U.S. economy had created only 114,000 new jobs in July. This means the economy is slowing down, but the Federal Reserve was unable to fuel the economy by immediately slashing interest rates because it would cause inflation rates to rise. Since the U.S. government is $35 trillion in debt and on track to run a $1.9 trillion deficit this year, the era of easy money is coming to a close. Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”
One consequence of America’s debt is reduced defense capacity. On August 11, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding is at its worst state in 25 years. The U.S. has fewer warships than China, and the gap is growing. China has about 370 ships and is expected to have 435 by 2030, while the U.S. is projected to have only 300. This means America may not be able to defend the oceanic lanes and choke points that it relies on for half of its imports. God promised to bless end-time Israel (primarily the U.S. and Britain) with these sea gates, but America’s rebellion against God’s law is causing it to lose them (Genesis 22:17).
On the moral front, 25 babies were killed by Planned Parenthood at the Democratic National Convention from August 19-22. Yet sadly, it is not just Democrats defying God’s laws concerning the sanctity of human life and human sexuality. Republicans have also abandoned their decades-long push for a federal abortion ban and a federal ban on same-sex “marriage.” The 2024 Republican Party Platform adopted at the Republican National Convention held from July 15-18 opposes only late-term abortions.
The new Republican Platform pledges to keep men out of women’s sports, ban taxpayer funding for sex-change surgeries, and stop taxpayer-funded schools from promoting gender transitions. But unlike the 2020 platform, there is no endorsement of “traditional marriage,” no call to overturn Supreme Court decisions making same-sex “marriage” a legal right, and no mention of same-sex “marriage” period. Republicans have surrendered this fight.
Jude 7 is a strong warning against homosexual “marriage.” It says nations that live like Sodom and Gomorrah will suffer “the vengeance of eternal fire.” Radical leftists in America are actively promoting sexual sins and coming after anyone who speaks against them while conservatives weakly compromise with their agenda. To learn more, request Redefining Family.
