How to surge your popularity in Britain? Embrace the radical left and radical Islam at the same time. The Green Party did that and just won a by-election for a seat in Parliament, shocking the nation. It erased a commanding Labour Party lead, largely by openly embracing the kind of sectarian politics common in the Third World.

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Gorton and Denton, in Manchester, has a large population of Muslims, and the Green Party aggressively pursued their votes. Party activists said they believe that Zionism is a “racist ideology” and that the State of Israel should be replaced by a single Palestinian state. Green election material included a video in Urdu—the language of Pakistan—showing Labour Party members meeting Benjamin Netanyahu and Narendra Modi. The implication was that Pakistanis should reject Labour for meeting with the enemies of Pakistan.

Again, this was a strategy—a successful strategy—for winning in Manchester.

“It’s a scandal,” wrote the Telegraph’s Allister Heath. “Extreme tribalism of the sort promoted by the Greens is incompatible with a democratic culture that requires a strong sense of commonality, a belief in a peoplehood that transcends differences of ideology, race, religion or class.

“We are Balkanizing our country, moving beyond citizenship as our primary political identifier, and instead relating to one another as members of antagonistic tribes whose territories happen to overlap,” warned M.P. Daniel Hannan.

But it worked. The Green Party won 40.7 percent of the vote. Reform UK, a party that is less than eight years old, won 28.7 percent. The traditional mainstream governing parties, Labour and the Conservatives, were pushed into third and fourth place.

“This election was a victory for sectarian voting and cheating,” wrote Reform leader Nigel Farage. Reports of “family voting,” where husbands and fathers accompany wives and daughters into the booth to ensure they vote the “right way,” are common. It’s illegal but was often tolerated when Labour was the party of choice for Britain’s Muslims.

Melanie Phillips wrote this morning:

Britain is now facing a red/black/green alliance—the left, the Muslims and the revolutionary, West-hating, Zionophobic Greens—versus Reform and the Conservatives, who are trying to destroy each other and thus risk wiping out in the process the defense of Britain and the West. It’s what might reasonably be thought a cultural and political emergency—otherwise known as chickens coming home to roost with a bang.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces immediate pressure to swing to the left to try to win these voters back.

“Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knows it not,” God says of modern Britain (Hosea 7:8). This election is a powerful demonstration of this.

European Commission to Provisionally Apply MERCOSUR Deal

One of “the most consequential trade agreements of the first half of this century” is going into effect, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced today. Despite large-scale protests by farmers; despite opposition from the European Union’s second-largest economy, France; despite members of European Parliament demanding judicial review; and despite the fact that courts have not yet judged it to be legal, the EU-mercosur trade deal will be provisionally implemented before summer.

Germany is getting its way, which is to unite a trade bloc that can exclude and ultimately starve America.

• mercosur is the Latin American trade bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. It represents almost 300 million people and has a combined gross domestic product of $2 trillion to $3 trillion.
• After 25 years of negotiation, the agreement was finally signed on January 17, largely in response to combative and erratic trade policies by the U.S.
• A slim majority in the European Parliament declined to ratify the agreement and attempted to delay its implementation by sending it to the European Court of Justice.

Von der Leyen has moved to implement it anyway, basically daring the court to strike it down. Citing Argentina’s and Uruguay’s ratification of the deal yesterday, and the likelihood that Brazil and Paraguay will ratify it soon, she said:

[I]t shows the trust and eagerness of our partners to take our relationship forward and to get this landmark agreement to work. The mercosur Agreement creates a market of 720 million people. It opens countless opportunities. It cuts billions in tariffs.

France is furious: French President Emmanuel Macron called the Commission’s decision “a bad surprise. … It is a great responsibility toward the farmers who have expressed their concerns,” and “it is also a great responsibility toward European citizens and their representatives, who have not been duly respected.”

Germany is happy: “This will allow us to reap the benefits of free trade and international partnership until the European Parliament has the final say on ratification,” said German M.E.P. Manfred Weber.

Dividing Europe: Full implementation still has its hurdles, but Germany is determined to push through no matter the opposition. It is frightening to consider why.

The deal “gives Europe a strategic first-mover advantage in a world of sharp competition and short horizons,” von der Leyen said. More and more, leaders in Europe are hinting at or outright stating the truth: The world is descending into trade war.

The stakes are enormous, as Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in the cover story of the March issue:

With so much happening in the world, most Americans are paying little attention to this trade agreement. But I guarantee they won’t be able to ignore it indefinitely. This deal will impact the whole world! It is going to affect your life dramatically.

The seeds are being sown for a trade war and an economic siege that will help destroy America. This trade deal is that important!

This year the stage is being set for the fulfillment of the most dramatic and earthshaking prophecies in the Bible! To learn how, read “Germany Unites the World Against America.”

U.S.-Iranian Negotiators, Troops Face Off

The United States and Iran held a round of nuclear negotiations yesterday in Switzerland as the world held its breath for a last chance of de-escalation before possible U.S. military strikes against Iran. U.S. officials speaking to the media described the talks as “positive,” with another round scheduled next week in Austria, but they have not divulged details. However, U.S. decisions suggest the talks didn’t go as well as intended—and that President Trump is planning to attack Iran:

• U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told embassy staff today that if anyone wanted to leave for fear of their own safety, they should do so immediately.
• The U.S. sent F-22 Raptors and other warplanes to Israel, the first time American combat aircraft have deployed to Israel for potential wartime activity.
• “People familiar with ongoing discussions” told Politico that President Trump’s advisers prefer Israel to strike Iran first, rationalizing that if Iran retaliated by attacking Israel, American citizens would better stomach a war with Iran. “There’s thinking in and around the administration that the politics are a lot better if the Israelis go first and alone and the Iranians retaliate against us, and give us more reason to take action,” one person said.
• This follows other signs from the State and War departments that an attack may be imminent. Earlier this week, the State Department ordered “non-emergency” staff in Lebanon to leave as soon as possible. The U.S. military, meanwhile, has reportedly evacuated personnel from Qatar and Bahrain.

The situation is volatile and could change at any moment. But whatever happens in the short term, the Trumpet still stands by the prediction that Iran will remain controlled by a radical Islamist regime that leads not only the nation but the entire bloc of radical Islamic groups and nations in the Middle East.

A prophecy in Daniel 11:40-41, dated to the “time of the end,” shows a power bloc called “the king of the south” igniting a global cataclysm over control of the Holy Land. Since the 1990s, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has consistently pointed to Iran and radical Islam fulfilling this prophecy. Whatever happens in Iran, keep watching for the details of this prophecy, and Mr. Flurry’s identification of who it involves, to be fulfilled.

IN OTHER NEWS

World Economic Forum head resigns over Epstein ties: Yesterday, Børge Brende, the president and ceo of the World Economic Forum, resigned after admitting that he had three business dinners between 2018 and 2019 with the late Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of having sex with a child in 2008. In a separate statement, the cochairs of the forum, which hosts many of the world’s most powerful people at its annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, said that its independent review into Brende’s ties with Epstein had concluded. For more information on the potential prophetic significance of the World Economic Forum, read “World Economic Forum: Fascism Revives.”

Prince Andrew was a ‘useful idiot’ for Russia: Yesterday, the Daily Mail published a report stating that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was unwittingly cultivated by Russian spymasters who exploited his long-standing jealousy of his brother, who is now King Charles iii, and his friendship with the late Jeffrey Epstein, who was a child rapist. Citing a top-secret U.S. intelligence report, the Mail claims that Russian spies exploited Andrew’s view that he would make a better king than his older brother, together with his motivation for “financial, sexual and personal reward.” Official British investigations into whether Andrew passed on classified information to Epstein are ongoing.

Spain to enforce Gibraltar border: On Thursday, the United Kingdom and the government of Gibraltar published a draft treaty that will allow Spanish border guards to prevent British citizens from entering Gibraltar. The deal implements no routine passport checks at the Spain-Gibraltar land border, but it does implement such checks on those arriving by air. This means people flying into Gibraltar from the UK will face dual border controls: one check from Gibraltar officials and another by the Spanish on behalf of the European Union. Gibraltar is one of the few remaining maritime passages still controlled by the British. A prophecy in Deuteronomy 28:52 reveals that the American and British people will lose their vital sea gates as punishment for rebelling against God and His law.