America Forces Europe to Choose

Good morning!

Europe “must now decide what it will be,” says geopolitical analyst George Friedman. Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy throws down a gauntlet: America is going to turn its attention to our own neighborhood—Europe will have to look after its own affairs. How will Europe respond?

[BRIEF]

Friedman’s comments are fascinating in light of the biblical prophecies the Trumpet and Herbert W. Armstrong’s Plain Truth before us have trumpeted for nine decades. Note (emphasis mine):

Europe, therefore, has two choices. It can remain as it is, a continent of small nations with long histories of animosity, or it can form a federation, under a single government with a single military, with the nations becoming to a great extent self-governing provinces. If they do not hang together, they will surely hang apart. … If it could somehow overcome its divisions, Europe, united and armed, would be an entity on par with China and the United States.

Prophecy is clear that a united and armed Europe will grow to become a superpower that matches and actually surpasses the United States. In fact, irony of ironies, this forthcoming empire that President Trump is badgering and urging on is prophesied to turn against the U.S. spectacularly—and be the agent of our downfall.

Netflix is gorging our kids on lgbtq propaganda: A recent report by Concerned Women for America contains shocking statistics about one of America’s most popular streaming platforms, Netflix:

• 41 percent of G-rated series and 41 percent of tv-Y7-rated series on Netflix contain content related to homosexuality and people who act like the opposite sex.
• Across all age categories considered appropriate for children, “33 percent contained lgbtq+ characters, themes, story lines or messaging.”
• Reboots of older television series like The Magic School Bus and The Fairly OddParents include new or rebranded lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and otherwise deviant characters.

The report noted that a new version of the 2000s children’s show Strawberry Shortcake introduces some characters who are “transberries.” The main character purchases a dress resembling the transgender pride flag for her “nonbinary friend.”

“Television producers are using their entertainment platforms to normalize lgbt values in the minds of very impressionable audiences, and it is becoming the rule, not the exception,” the report reads. It concludes that “lgbt activists are well aware that parents feel it is not a topic for their children to explore without parental guidance. Sneaking it into children’s programming is a blatant attempt to change the culture.”

During a 2022 controversy over sexually deviant content produced by the Walt Disney Corp., the Trumpet wrote, “Many people consider morality a side issue, nowhere as important as the economy or national security or education. They think that how sex is used, even how it is introduced to children, is a squabble worth perhaps a few minutes of attention on the news before moving on to other things. They are dead wrong.”

Letting children’s entertainment brainwash children about sex before they even enter puberty leads to “raising a generation of children who will actually not understand male, female, husband, wife, marriage or family. They will have no idea about the right use of sex, about virtue, chastity or commitment. They will have no sense of morality, responsibility, duty or purpose. They will have no idea how to relate to others or how to rightly live!”

This evil has grown even more prevalent and more compounded. You need to be aware of the presence, subtlety and effectiveness of deviant influences in seemingly innocent media. To understand the true origins of these messages and how to counteract them, read The Missing Dimension in Sex, by Herbert W. Armstrong.

Australia bans social media for youths: Children in Australia can no longer access social media, as the world’s first nationwide ban came into force today. Hundreds of thousands of accounts have been deactivated, and platforms that fail to take “reasonable steps” to exclude users under age 16 risk fines of up to $33 million per breach.

Social media has been catastrophic for an entire generation of young people.

• Around 95 percent of teens in the U.S. use social media. Frequent daily users have higher rates of persistent sadness, hopelessness, bullying and suicide risk. Children who are on it for more than three hours a day double their risk of mental health problems. The average teen spends 3.5 hours on social media.

Far too often, parents have failed to protect them, and now a government is stepping up.

Australian children are now banned from having accounts on these platforms, but they are still able to visit and browse them. Messaging apps like Discord and WhatsApp, however, aren’t affected.

• Lemon8, a social media site owned by the same Chinese company that created TikTok, immediately became the most downloaded app in Apple’s Australian App store because it was previously too small to be included in the ban.
• Yope—a Snapchat alternative—was number two, and Coverstar—a TikTok clone—was number three.
• Game platforms or games like Roblox have several options for in-game chat. Roblox, in particular, has been repeatedly exposed as very dangerous for children.

Beyond the law being insufficient and easily circumvented, there are other concerns.

Adults now must prove that they are over 16 to access some of the most commonly used news and discussion forums. They can do this by uploading copies of their passport or driver’s license, or by taking photos or videos, which are analyzed by artificial intelligence.

• To keep the burden of verification to a minimum, apps will try to determine a person’s age by studying their behavior, but with millions of people each interacting online thousands of times, this demands a lot of surveillance, even censorship. In the UK, for example, news about migrant crime is often hidden on social media and is only shown if someone proves their age. Most people don’t bother.

Australia is also leading the world in the creation of a digital ID system. It embraced some of the world’s most draconian restrictions on free speech and everyday life during covid. No wonder many Australians suspect their government isn’t acting in good faith—and is using a good cause to set up the infrastructure necessary to spy on and police what all its citizens do and say online.

“Read a book and stop scrolling” is good advice from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. However, the time may soon come when digital surveillance infrastructure will prevent people from reading the truth. The Bible describes a time when the land cannot bear the words of warning coming from the Bible (Amos 7:10); this leads to a famine of God’s word (Amos 8:11). Our article “The Global War on Free Speech” shows how nations around the world are cracking down on what you can say online.

IN OTHER NEWS

Russia gains while peace talks fail: Russia is taking Ukrainian territory at the fastest rate since 2022 while European leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in London this week. They discussed responses to the American peace proposal, aiming to avoid appeasing the Kremlin. Last month, Russia captured nearly 200 square miles, which was double October’s gains, signaling that Putin has no plans to stop his offensive. Europe’s opposition to U.S. peace proposals is designed not only to counter Putin but to use the threat from Russia to build a new superpower.

Vatican moves to draw closer to China: The Vatican announced on Friday that Pope Leo xiv has appointed Francis Li Jianlin as the bishop of the Prefecture of Xinxiang in Henan Province, China. It specified that the appointment was made “in accordance with the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China” after the resignation of Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu. This is an admission that the old bishop was opposed to communism and the totalitarian Chinese regime, but his replacement is Chinese Communist Party-approved. Leo’s compromise with the regime and blending religion with politics continues the legacy of not only his predecessor, Pope Francis, but also his institution. You can learn more about this in Gerald Flurry’s book The True History of God’s True Church.

Poland and Ukraine are sharing military assets: Poland’s defense minister announced today that the nation is sending its last Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine. It plans to replace the MiG-29 jets with F-16s from the U.S. and FA-50s from South Korea. “Officially, it is referred to as a donation—but negotiations are also underway for the purchase of Ukrainian missile and drone technology,” the Defense Post reported. “The government in Warsaw wants to acquire new military technology and develop it jointly with Kyiv.” Ukraine has more than three years of wartime experience and advancements in military technology, and Poland is working on rapidly expanding its own world-class military.

Beware the “superflu”! In case you’ve forgotten what the covid lockdown was like, the United Kingdom is here to remind you. Anticipating the worst flu season on record, the British government is calling for people to wear masks in public and even indoors. Some school systems have closed in “lockdown.” The government’s reaction to covid-19 was a serious self-inflicted disaster, from the economy to children’s social development to general health. Some want to go back to that, which is reminiscent of the prophecy about our societies in Isaiah 1:5: “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.”

Nearly half of Scottish school kids are “special,” the latest government data shows. Forty-three percent of Scottish kids had “additional support needs,” the most common being “social, emotional and behavioral difficulties.” Why so high? A generation of parents has failed its children. Modern parenthood is catastrophic, with no strong teaching on raising stable, sociable, self-disciplined children and little to no protection from horrific online influences. The other side of this story is a government that encourages disability. Parents of a child diagnosed with adhd, for example, can be paid by the state to stay as the “designated carer” of their own child. Perhaps the most financially beneficial thing many Scottish parents can do is to find a disability for them to claim and thereby receive a higher post-tax income than most workers. These kinds of perverse laws have led Britain’s economy and society to become a sick joke.

Trending: the Christian Sabbath: Today, broadcast and online news personalities and viewers are discussing whether Christians should keep the seventh-day Sabbath, after Stop in the Name of God, the last book written by conservative Charlie Kirk, was published yesterday. Kirk, who was assassinated for his political and religious views on September 10, was the most-searched name in news this year. He was an active and outspoken advocate for American tradition, fiscal responsibility, limited government, immigration control, proper education, the unborn, Israel, biblical family, sexual purity, Christianity and other important causes. Yet he repeatedly emphasized that perhaps his favorite issue to talk about was the Sabbath. Now millions of people are watching videos of him; his wife, Erika; his large youth organization, Turning Point USA; Fox News; the New York Times; X users and many more discussing the Sabbath. To understand whether this is more than a trend and whether the Bible commands Sabbath observance, read your Bible alongside a free copy of Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath? by Herbert W. Armstrong.