WorldWatch
Europe
The Ukraine war continues to bring Europe and Russia into conflict:
- Dutch military intelligence reported on April 22 that Russian hackers attacked a Dutch public facility last year in the first known Russian cyberattack on the Netherlands.
- Satellite imagery aired by Swedish broadcaster SVT on May 10 showed increased Russian troop deployments to its border with Finland.
- Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, announced on May 11 that the Russian secret service was responsible for a fire that destroyed Warsaw’s largest shopping center last year.
- A Russian fighter jet violated Estonia’s airspace on May 13 as it provided cover for a sanctioned Russian oil tanker.
- Three pro-Russia Ukrainians were arrested in Germany on May 14 on suspicion of conspiring with Moscow to send packages containing explosives to Ukraine.
These are the latest demonstrations of Russian aggression and testing of NATO resolve.
“The fear you see in Europe because of events in Crimea is going to cause 10 leaders in Europe to unite in a sudden and dramatic way—and in precise accordance with the Bible’s description of that European empire!” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in 2014 (“The Crimean Crisis Is Reshaping Europe!”). That fear is prompting Europe to rapidly rearm and unify.
Elections in Portugal and Romania reflect a major change sweeping Europe. Politics as usual is stuck. Disgruntled voters are weary, sick of standard parties, souring even on democracy itself. They are experimenting with new solutions. On May 18, Portugal held its third election in three years and got another inconclusive result. The center-right Democratic Alliance won, led by Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, but once again he has no clear path to forming a majority coalition. The real surprise was the success of the fringe-right Chega party, founded just six years ago. Chega won 58 seats after initial counting—the same number as the mainstream Socialist party.
Romania avoided a similar paralysis only because it has a different election system. Also on May 18, it held round two of its elections with only the top two candidates running. It happens that neither candidate is from a mainstream political party. Back in November, a far-right candidate won, but Romania’s court system annulled the election and blocked the victor from running again. This time, another far-right leader, George Simion, made it to the final vote, but he was beaten by Nicosur Dan, a centrist with no party affiliation. Clearly, Romanians are fed up with their usual political parties. Most of Europe is struggling with this same trend.
The Bible prophesies that soon Europe will be governed not by elected leaders but by authoritarian “kings,” led by one overall strongman. That is where this political shift is leading. Read our Trends article “Why the Trumpet Watches the Rise of a German Strongman.”
Middle East
The Financial Times reported on April 17 that a Chinese corporation, Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., has been supplying the Houthis in Yemen with satellite imagery used to attack ships in the Red Sea. U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Tammy Bruce confirmed that the company “is directly supporting Iran-backed Houthi terrorist attacks on our interests.”
Since 2023, the Iran-backed Shiite Houthi militia has been attacking and threatening commercial and military ships in the southern Red Sea in solidarity with Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. In 2024, China and Russia reportedly made a deal: The Houthis would avoid targeting their ships in exchange for international diplomatic protection. Now it appears that China is actively facilitating the Houthi shooting spree.
Isaiah 23 prophesies of a “mart of nations” (verse 3), or a worldwide economic bloc, that will shut America, Britain and the State of Israel out of world trade. Verse 1 mentions “Chittim,” the ancestral people of modern China, as a major part of this bloc. China boldly helping terrorists attack U.S. cargo vessels and warships indicates that it knows the importance of maritime trade corridors and is willing to use them against America. Read Chapter 7 of Isaiah’s End-Time Vision.
On April 23, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood organization. Jordanian authorities had foiled a terror plot a week earlier and connected it to the group. The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic extremist group founded in Egypt in the 1920s. It is a designated terrorist organization by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
The Trumpet has consistently forecast that radical Islam would establish an empire across the Middle East. Daniel 11:40 describes this coming Islamist bloc as “the king of the south.” Gerald Flurry has forecast that Iran will lead this bloc. From verses 42-43, we expect Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia to fall into Iran’s camp. However, verse 41 describes an area that stays out of radical Islam’s orbit: The geographical descriptions correspond to modern Jordan. Jordan’s apparently successful crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood supports this prophecy. Request Jordan and God’s Church in Prophecy.
Israel’s government announced on May 4 that its forces will conquer the entirety of Gaza and take control for an unspecified duration. An Israeli official informed Israel Hayom that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to conclude the war by October. To this point, Israel has not publicly committed to any “day after” plan for Gaza. Whatever plan Israel implements will reverberate throughout the Middle East at large. To learn more, read “Gaza the Day After.”
Asia
China’s general secretary, Xi Jinping, visited Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow May 7-10 to memorialize the 80th anniversary of victory in World War II. The military parade was the largest Putin has staged since the start of his full-scale war on Ukraine in 2022, and included more than 10,000 troops, tanks, drones and even nuclear weapons. Amid the elaborate ceremonies, the two leaders signed a series of bilateral military and economic agreements. During Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Xi has doubled down on his commitment to a “no limits” partnership with Putin.
Under these two strongmen, the Russo-Chinese relationship continues to strengthen through frequent joint military exercises, increased Chinese imports of Russian energy, diplomatic support and Chinese weapons and dual-use technologies directly aiding Russia’s war effort. To explore where this “no limits” partnership is heading, read Russia and China in Prophecy.
India launched missile strikes on nine sites in Pakistan and disputed areas on May 7. It was a response to an April 22 attack in which terrorists who are allegedly Pakistani murdered 27 civilians, mainly Hindus, in Kashmir. Pakistan’s government denied involvement in the terrorism and retaliated against the strikes. Heavy artillery fire was exchanged across the India-Pakistan border for several days, and Pakistan claimed it downed a number of Indian warplanes and at least one drone. A ceasefire was announced on May 10, but both sides accused the other of violations in the following days. The world continues watching with unease over the prospect of conflict reigniting between these two nuclear-armed archrivals.
China now boasts a new arsenal of guided hypersonic missiles that could “take out 10 aircraft carriers in the first 20 minutes” in a conflict with America, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on May 3. The missile in question is the YJ-21, specifically designed to target aircraft carriers, the flagships of U.S. military power. The YJ-21 flies faster than five times the speed of sound, bypasses sophisticated defenses, and strikes targets up to 620 miles away. “If we get into a war with China, we should expect to lose some carriers,” said U.S. Navy Capt. Thomas Shugart (Ret.). The YJ-21 is only the latest sign of China’s rapidly improving military advancements. It also has cutting-edge ballistic and cruise missiles, fifth-generation stealth fighter jets, nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, a range of anti-satellite weapons, the world’s largest navy by ship count and a quickly growing arsenal of hundreds of nuclear weapons.
Prophecy shows that China will use its growing firepower in disturbing ways. Gerald Flurry wrote in the August 2020 Trumpet, “The Chinese Communist Party … is bent on asserting more and more control not just over the people of China, but over the territory and people in the nation’s periphery” (“Where Is the China-America Clash Leading?”).
Anglo-America
Federal and state judges across the United States continue to delay and thwart executive orders signed by United States President Donald Trump, issuing more than 148 rulings against his administration. On April 24, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Bill Clinton appointee, blocked Trump’s executive order for proof-of-citizenship when voting. The same day, U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty blocked the Trump administration from ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs in K-12 schools. On May 6, district judges Alvin Hellerstein and Charlotte Sweeney blocked the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport criminals.
These injunctions empower liberals to steal elections, sexually indoctrinate children, and flood the nation with illegal immigrants. The Prophet Micah foretold that unjust courts would become a nation-destroying problem (Micah 3:1), and America is currently suffering such a corrupt system of justice.
Since the court system continues to block the deportation of illegal immigrants, President Trump signed an executive order on May 9 offering financial incentives for illegals to self-deport. This program, dubbed “Project Homecoming,” offers an “exit bonus” of $1,000 for migrants who agree to leave the U.S. willingly. This program may convince many illegal immigrants to self-deport, but the fact that the U.S. is pleading with illegal immigrants to leave shows how weak the rule of law has become.
In April, the Trump administration froze more than $2 billion in grants to Harvard University after the school refused to implement the administration’s measures to combat anti-Semitism on campus. A deep hatred of Western civilization has been animating a new brand of anti-Semitism on university campuses for decades, but overt Jew hatred has become particularly prevalent at Harvard since the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, and the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The Trump administration is trying to combat this anti-Semitism by freezing federal funding. But in the meantime, his foreign policy has weakened the State of Israel. Isaiah 9:21 prophesies that in the end time, Ephraim and Manasseh (Britain and America) will be against Judah (the Jews).
On May 1, in a speech commemorating the National Day of Prayer in the White House Rose Garden, President Trump spoke about religion, saying, “We’re bringing it back quickly and strongly—because for America to be a great nation, we must always be ‘one nation under God.’” During the ceremony, he signed an executive order establishing a Religious Liberty Commission of church clergy, legal experts and Trump allies to identify any “threat to domestic religious liberty.” This order follows his creation of a White House Faith Office in February for the purpose of upholding religious liberty and preventing legal discrimination.
The Bible prophesies that an end-time type of the Israelite King Jeroboam II would be supported by “the king’s chapel,” meaning a religious movement (Amos 7:13). Read “How Genuine Is America’s Religious Resurgence?”
