President Donald Trump is boosting America’s military spending. But he is reducing America’s commitments abroad, drawing down troops and encouraging other nations to take responsibility for their own defense.

Receive a free news briefing in your inbox each weekday—the Trumpet Brief.

Our feature story this morning, by Jeremiah Jacques, concerns America considering withdrawing thousands of troops stationed in South Korea. Such a reduction would be welcome news for China, which is expanding its influence and boosting its military throughout the region.

And after Pakistan’s conflict with India last week, many people are asking:

Is China’s military overtaking America’s? Pakistan was using Chinese-made equipment—the JC-10 aircraft and PL-15 missile were used for the first time in active combat—and it performed very well. Geopolitical Futures wrote:

“The incident demonstrated that after years of research and billions of dollars in investment, China is becoming increasingly competitive in aviation and avionics. These developments are now reshaping perceptions of China’s military as it projects power across the Pacific.”

• China’s navy is now the world’s largest, with 400 warships.
• Its air force has 2,000 fighter jets, compared to America’s 1,700.
• It built 100 new nuclear weapons in 2023, bringing its nuclear arsenal to 600 warheads.

These numbers don’t reflect differences in quality. In general, America breaks new ground, which China copies. This gives America more advanced systems, but China can catch up at a fraction of the cost.

China also aims to negate America’s expensive systems with cheaper countermeasures. For example, they have invested in “carrier killing missiles” designed to take out America’s unrivaled fleet of aircraft carriers. The performance of Chinese hardware in the brief Pakistan-India war shows China can produce high-quality equipment.

“China is intimidating the nations of Southeast Asia into submission to its will,” warned Mr. Flurry in 2016. “It is forcing these countries to do what it wants. Everything is headed in the direction of war.” This article, “China Is Steering the World Toward War,” shows how China increasingly has the will and ability to confront America.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is criticizing Israel over its military operation in Gaza. Yesterday he said it is causing “suffering to the civilian population” in a way that “can no longer be justified by the fight against Hamas terrorism.” He added: “The Israeli government must not do anything that even its best friends are no longer prepared to accept.”

This is unusually strong criticism from Germany. As Merz noted, Germany must be “more reserved than any other country in the world” in speaking out against Israel. But he said the alleged international humanitarian law violations demand criticism. The German government says Gaza and the West Bank belong to the Palestinians and thus must be part of a future Palestinian state. Israel’s current actions jeopardize this goal.

Germany is Israel’s largest weapons provider after the U.S. But while Germany claims to be one of Israel’s “best friends,” its proposed solution is a deadly trap. If Israel is not permitted to eliminate Hamas from the Gaza Strip, then accepting a two-state solution means having a terrorist state as a permanent neighbor.

“Today the Arabs live in roughly one half of Jerusalem. They just don’t control it—yet,” Gerald Flurry wrote. But, he continued, “God gave all Jerusalem to the Jews, and because of their sins He is going to give their country over to the enemy.” Virtually the whole world is pushing Israel into accepting this outcome. But instead of turning to God in repentance, Israel tries to solve this grievous problem on its own—or even worse, with the help of its historic enemy.

The King of Canada, Charles III, is set to open Parliament in a historic speech today. This is only the third time Britain’s monarch has personally opened Canadian Parliament. The first two were by Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1957 and 1977.

The King is visiting Canada at the request of the new prime minister, Mark Carney. The visit is being framed as establishing Canada’s sovereignty in the face of Donald Trump’s desire to make Canada part of the U.S. Charles’s presence is meant to show that “Canada is not for sale.” Thus, the Liberal government is pulling out all the stops of pageantry. Carney said in a statement:

“The royal visit is a reminder of the bond between Canada and the crown—one forged over generations, shaped by shared histories, and grounded in common values.”

It is all disingenuous. The Liberals and governor general have spent years attacking, insulting and erasing the history, reputation and constitutional authority of the throne. In reality, this visit exposes the agenda the Liberal government has had to undermine that throne.

Canada is a nation in crisis, and the history of that throne actually points Canadians to the answers to their afflictions. Abraham Blondeau has an excellent article in the next Trumpet issue, to post this week, exposing the true agenda of the Carney administration with the British throne. Watch for it.

Turns out, what we thought we knew about fakery was fake: Francesca Gino is a prominent behavioral scientist, well known for her work on ethics and research on why people lie and cheat. Trouble is, she was lying and cheating.

Back in 2021, researchers identified fraudulent data in several of Gino’s studies spanning over a decade. After an 18-month investigation confirmed the findings, Harvard placed her on unpaid leave in June 2023. She filed a $25 million lawsuit, asserting that it was a smear campaign. A federal judge dismissed her claims, and this week, Harvard stripped her of her title. Gino maintains her innocence.

Gino’s work appeared in several scientific journals; it is the type of work that gets cited and quoted in newspapers and on talk shows. She gave a well-received TED Talk four years ago and wrote an acclaimed book. But she was peddling error.

An Atlantic article from last November about Gino discussed the larger issue in the “science” of business psychology—the extent of the field’s manipulated data, missing chains of custody, self-interest for journals to ignore manipulation, and other academic fraud. Science presents itself as unimpeachable fact—but sadly, such fakery is far too common. Just peruse Retraction Watch, a website dedicated to tracking retractions of scientific papers and related issues in scholarly publishing, exposing cases of scientific misconduct, errors, plagiarism and other issues. As Ronald Reagan said, we know so much that isn’t so.

IN OTHER NEWS

Putin—no to Vatican peace talks: President Trump has been pushing for Vladimir Putin to take part in peace talks; he and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have suggested holding them at the Vatican. Russia says it is not interested. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there are “no plans” for when or where the next Ukraine-Russia summit will take place and called the Vatican plan “unrealistic.” Putin shows no genuine intention of making peace. However, as Trumpet’s Josué Michels wrote recently, the Vatican taking attention as a prospective peacemaker is a trend we are watching for.

Nearly half of young Europeans would prefer life without the Internet, a survey by the British Standards Institution shows. Half support a social media curfew that would restrict certain apps and websites after 10 p.m. A Harris Poll from a few months ago showed many young people wish TikTok, Instagram or X had never been invented. Deutsche Welle reported on a Dutch start-up responding to concerns among young people about the negative impacts of online platforms by organizing offline meetups to encourage real-world connections. More power to them!

That was cheap: After being elected in 2013, Pope Francis famously refused to stay in the traditional Apostolic Palace. Instead, he chose the ostensibly humbler St. Martha’s House, which had been used as a guesthouse. Italian paper Il Tempo reported yesterday just how “humble” Francis’s accommodation was: “Santa Marta is too expensive. Pope Leo returns to the Apostolic Palace.” Francis’s residence at the house expanded to fit a kitchen, reception room, private chapel and rooms for staff—occupying the entire second floor. The expansions, maintenance, staff and other expenses ended up costing over $225,000 a month at the end of Francis’s pontificate.