“We’re trusting that what they’re doing isn’t malicious, but we can’t really tell.” That’s not a great sentence to hear from someone in charge of making sure Chinese engineers don’t sabotage U.S. defense. In our main story today, Jeremiah Jacques examines a new scandal where Microsoft has brought Chinese software engineers into the heart of Defense Department systems for decades.

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

Also, just as I finished this, I saw that Germany and Britain have signed a new foreign policy and defense treaty—including a mutual defense clause. In the works for weeks, it is a major step toward the prophesied trend of Britain relying on Germany for help—and being betrayed. We will dig into the text and bring you more details later.

The EU has unveiled a massive €2 trillion spending plan—and Germany is not happy. It’s not just the level of spending that bothers Germany. The EU also wants to introduce a tax on European companies with an annual turnover of over €100 million (us$115 million). This would be a major expansion of the EU’s tax and spending policies and a major step toward becoming a superstate.

An EU with its own source of income is an EU less dependent on its richest economy: Germany. I’m sure the EU will gain this power at some point, but Germany wants to make sure it has other well-established ways of controlling Brussels before it gives up the purse strings.

The proposed budget for 2028 to 2034 is €800 billion larger than the €1.2 trillion it spent over the previous budget period. The European Commission called it “the most ambitious EU budget ever: more strategic, flexible and transparent.”

“A comprehensive increase in the EU budget is not acceptable at a time when all member states are making considerable efforts to consolidate their national budgets,” a German government spokesman said. “We will therefore be unable to accept the Commission’s proposal.”

Yesterday, I described the way France is fighting over a controversial budget. Now the EU itself will be doing the same thing.

Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen faced a no-confidence vote. She won it, but Parliament Vice President Katarina Barley reportedly said this would be the “absolute last chance” for her. Now she has provoked a new controversy.

“While the EU is an aspiring superpower, many do not see von der Leyen as a leader who can represent the whole bloc on the global stage,” wrote Josué Michels last week. “Bible prophecy reveals that a core European bloc will emerge from the current union and rise to global dominance under a strong leader. Von der Leyen’s weakness will help usher in this rise one way or another.”

Additionally this budget process shows the flaws in Europe’s lengthy, collegiate system of government, with months of negotiation to get anything done. Watch for a new leader to head a more autocratic Europe.

Did Israel just blow up the Catholic Church’s only church in Gaza? Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, claims four people were wounded with two whose “lives are in serious danger.” Pizzaballa believes the idf may have done it deliberately: “What we know for sure is that a tank, the idf says by mistake, but we are not sure about this, they hit the church directly.” The idf announced an investigation, saying, “The idf makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian structures, including religious sites, and regrets any damage caused to them.”

That Israel would deliberately fire on a Catholic Church is quite an explosive accusation. Yet Pizzaballa is no stranger to attacks on Benjamin Netanyahu. In April 2023, he condemned Netanyahu’s “far-right government” of being complicit in attacking Christians in the Holy Land. He told the Associated Press: “The frequency of these attacks, the aggressions, has become something new.” He claimed the Israeli government “feel they are protected … that the cultural and political atmosphere now can justify, or tolerate, actions against Christians.”

Pizzaballa is a man to watch as the Catholic Church gets more involved in the Middle East. The Catholic Church is not a neutral third party when it comes to the Holy Land. They desperately want to control Jerusalem and the sites Israel controls. To learn more about this man, read our article “Pizzaballa and the Vatican’s Fight for Jerusalem.”

President Trump is fed up with people talking about Jeffery Epstein. He called the “Jeffrey Epstein hoax” a new Democrat scam. He said “PAST supporters” and “weaklings” who are still talking about this have not “learned their lesson, and probably never will.”

Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former National Security Advisor and key supporter, responded with a respectful disagreement.

“An element that is of great importance surrounding this Epstein affair is the fact this man was a known pedophile, had a list of clients who represented the upper crust of society, and likely did untoward things to CHILDREN on his island, in his homes in NYC and New Mexico (and maybe elsewhere). He was convicted of it,” he wrote. “Regardless of what class of society abuses and commits crimes against CHILDREN, it is NEVER acceptable. This is where this argument went off the rails. It is NOT about Epstein or the left. It is about committing crimes against CHILDREN.”

He also wrote: “Read Lincoln’s Lyceum speech of 1838. He knew, as you know (and as we all can see with our very eyes), our nation will not die from a foreign foe, NEVER, if we die, it will be by our own suicide.” Lincoln’s address focused on the importance of upholding law for the survival of the nation.

I don’t have any special insight into the Epstein files, but General Flynn makes a good point. This is about whether America can uphold the rule of law and whether it can protect the most vulnerable, even if they are preyed upon by the most powerful. If it cannot, these are nation-destroying problems.

“Remember God’s warning in Revelation 18:4-5: ‘… Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities,’” wrote Trumpet executive editor Stephen Flurry in an article on Epstein last year. “Recognize the sins that are bringing God’s wrath on our nations—and keep yourself and your family completely free of them so you can be protected from the calamity to come!”

IN OTHER NEWS

Sixteen-year-olds will be allowed to vote in the next British election, according to plans unveiled today. Young people—and especially their teachers—tend to swing left, so this seems to be a blatant attempt by the Labour government to get more support next election. However, support for Reform among this age group is also strong, so the move could backfire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces another threat to his government after Shas, a Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party, announced it would remove its ministers from the government. It will, however, remain in the coalition. After Shas’s Ashkenazi counterpart United Torah Judaism fully left the coalition earlier this week over a spat on military conscription, many wondered if Shas would follow suit. If Shas fully left, Netanyahu would have been left with a minority government, and the opposition could call early elections. It looks like now this won’t happen. But it’s still another political headache for Netanyahu in the middle of a war.

Belgium is the latest EU country to bring back border checks to try to crack down on illegal immigration. “Inland entry checks” will be conducted on main roads, stations and rest areas. Passport-free travel has been one of the most visible accomplishments of the European Union. Its quick disappearance is now a visible symptom of its sickness. That sickness will lead to radical change—with a slimmed down, more autocratic EU rising soon.