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Anti-ice forces have another martyr after Alex Pretti was killed by ice agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. State officials are actively encouraging citizens to resist federal law enforcement, fomenting massive street protests that presage a return to the nationwide violence of summer 2020.

The rule of law is being supplanted by the rule of the mob.

Civil war is coming, Bible prophecy warns.

The left’s narrative about these ice operations is a cartoonish fiction: essentially that ice agents are ill-trained, illegitimate law enforcement officers who are brazenly kidnapping peaceful Americans, fomenting violence, and shooting people at will.

Immediately after the Pretti incident, Gov. Tim Walz referred to ice agents as “thousands of violent, untrained officers.” He then literally told the press, “Quit referring to these people as law enforcement. … You ask us for peace, and we give it, and we get shot in the face on the streets coming out of a donut shop.” This is outrageously irresponsible.

Yet the reporting by mainstream media wasn’t substantially different. These people want to create martyrs and are pushing the idea that ice agents are, as one spokesman for the Democrats on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee called them, “untrained, undisciplined, overweight, low-IQ rent-a-cops,” essentially Trump’s brownshirts, instruments of his modern gestapo.

Former President Obama even stepped into the discussion, calling for people to protest while accusing the Trump administration of escalating the situation.

Serving in law enforcement is always dangerous. It is made substantially more so when being resisted by radical mobs, such as those Walz and others are encouraging. The increased tension puts officers on heightened alert and makes such tragedies inevitable.

It seems leftists believe they have a winning political weapon to use against President Trump. If they can stir up enough chaos, the optics will turn people against his immigration crackdown and simultaneously reinforce the Trump-is-Hitler narrative. If it costs a few lives, so be it.

Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara told Face the Nation yesterday that even if an investigation proves Pretti’s shooting was legally justified, “I don’t think that even matters at this point, because there just—there is so much outrage and concern around what is happening in the city.” The law matters not. Only the rage of the mob does.

This is an extraordinarily dangerous game these people are playing. Civil war is coming to America, Bible prophecy warns, on an unimaginable scale. This is a war that nobody will win—except the nation’s enemies who want to see it fall.

Germany and Italy Seek Closer Cooperation

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni signed an updated German-Italian Action Plan in Rome on January 23, as well as several agreements in fields ranging from technology to agriculture.

This is significant even beyond the connotations of Germany and Italy’s last alliance—during World War ii.

Germany is already Italy’s largest trade partner, but it wants an even closer relationship. On Thursday, Deutsche Welle stated, “Relations between Germany and Italy are better than they have been in a long time.” The next day, Germany’s n-TV.de said that Meloni wants even more: the same level of relationship with Germany as France.

• A notable sign of the strengthening relationship was German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Davos speech, in which he mentioned Meloni, rather than French President Emmanuel Macron, when talking about plans for Europe’s future.

The updated German-Italian Action Plan states that the two nations “remain fully committed to strengthening nato’s deterrence and defense and to promoting the EU’s defense readiness.” It also called for a “joint consultation mechanism between the respective defense and foreign ministers on an annual basis.”

• Furthermore, the leaders called for German and Italian initiatives to enable “the stability and prosperity of the African continent as an integral part of European and Mediterranean security.”

This is a concerning statement in light of fairly recent history. Prior to World War ii, Italy aggressively and murderously expanded its empire in Africa with the support of Germany. The two Axis nations went on to conquer much of Europe, leading to millions of deaths throughout the Continent.

Where will Germany and Italy’s “updated” partnership lead? According to Bible prophecy, history will repeat itself, but this time on an even more destructive scale.

The Trumpet and its predecessor, the Plain Truth under Herbert W. Armstrong, have long warned of a German-led, 10-nation European superpower—a resurrection of the old Holy Roman Empire—which will include Italy. “Isaiah 23:13 specifically prophesies of these two powers working together in the end time,” the Trumpet wrote in 2017. “They did so in World War ii. Italy will certainly be one of the 10 kings.”

Xi Jinping: China and India Are ‘Friends and Partners’

Chinese Secretary General Xi Jinping said Monday that China ‍and India are “good neighbors, friends and partners.” The remark, made to leaders of India on the nation’s 77th Republic Day, is the latest sign of dramatic reconciliation between the world’s two most populous countries.

Tensions: India and China have been rivals for decades, driven by territorial disputes along their poorly demarcated border and competing ambitions for influence across Asia.

• In June 2020, their border dispute erupted into violence, leaving 20 Indian and at least four Chinese soldiers dead. From that point, the relationship entered a period of severe strain.

Reconciliation: In October 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated a thaw by meeting with Xi in Russia and agreeing to grant China de facto control over certain disputed border areas.

• That turning-point meeting was followed in July 2025 by a delegation of Indian officials traveling to Beijing, the first such visit in five years. China’s foreign minister visited India the next month to officially resume various long-dormant China-India dialogues.
• In the months since, the two have resumed direct flights and have increased trade and investment flows.

Ties between China and India are of “great significance for maintaining and promoting world peace and prosperity,” Xi said, calling their relations “the dragon and the elephant dancing together.”

Biblical prophecy indicates that an alliance between India and China will emerge in the modern age under the leadership of Russia. On this basis, we expect China-India relations to continue improving over the long term. To learn more, read Russia and China in Prophecy.

IN OTHER NEWS

Most Germans see U.S. President Donald Trump as a threat, a survey of 1,000 people carried out over Friday and Saturday concluded. Bild reported that 61 percent said Donald Trump is a “threat to the country,” compared to only 24 percent who said he was an ally. Fifty-two percent wanted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to take a harder line with the U.S., while only 31 percent wanted closer cooperation. Friday’s Trumpet Daily looks at Merz’s speech in Davos last week and the fulfilled prophecy behind these shifting German attitudes.

Merz declines Board of Peace invitation: German Chancellor Merz announced that he would not be joining U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace in its current form. “We cannot accept its leadership structures in Germany for constitutional reasons,” Merz said at a press conference in Italy on Friday. He added, however, that Germany was willing to consider new forms of cooperation with the U.S. Germany joins France, Spain and the United Kingdom in rejecting President Trump’s board. Once again, the biblical truth “the way of peace they know not” is proving true.

Report: Iran’s regime killed 36,500 of its own people in two days: After “reviewing newly obtained classified documents, field reports and accounts from medical staff, witnesses and victims’ families,” Iran International claims the government killed over 36,500 protesters on January 8 and 9 during its intensive, ongoing crackdown. This included injured protesters, whom security forces tracked down to hospitals and murdered. Daniel 11:40 describes radical Islam, led by Iran, as the “king of the south.” The latest reports show just how brutal the Tehran regime is willing to be to hold onto that power.

Quebec removes British crown from coat of arms: The provincial government of Quebec has announced that it is removing the British crown from its coat of arms. On January 23, Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette and French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge said the province’s decision reaffirms the autonomy of the Quebec nation. “The vast majority of Quebecers have no attachment to the British monarchy and reject it,” Jolin-Barrette said in a news release. “By removing the British crown from our official coat of arms, we are ensuring that Quebec’s national institutions and symbols respect the Quebec population, that they are modernized, and above all, that they better reflect Quebec’s identity.”