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Four weeks in with no resolution in sight, the Iran war is broadly unpopular in America. Most Americans disapprove, concerned about costs, escalation and gas prices.

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But there is one group that fears President Trump will wrap it up prematurely: Iranians.

• “I won’t cheer if the war ends now,” one Tehran resident told the Atlantic’s Arash Azizi. “You want to leave us alone with Mojtaba?”—referring to Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader.

Stop a moment and think on that heartbreaking statement.

Life was bad under Ali Khamenei—repressive, punitive, impoverished. When America and Israel attacked and assassinated him, many people saw hope, “a possible escape from economic ruin and social repression,” Azizi writes.

Now they realize America has already abandoned the goal of full regime change. This means the war’s end will leave behind an even crueler regime.

• “When Khamenei died, I was happy, but only for a moment—like you get a hit from a drug,” one young woman told Azizi. “It didn’t even last a day. After that I’ve only felt one thing: fear, fear, fear.” “I am amazed at how strong the regime has been,” she said. “Even though I want the war to stop, I know they’ll be really brutal once it does.”

Sadly, these fears are justified. The course of the war is vindicating the warning of biblical prophecy: Iran’s radical Islamist regime will survive. Iranians and the world need to brace themselves.

These cries from Iran are easy to ignore. But God hears them. He is not indifferent. And He has promised to bring justice in His time. Psalm 103:6 prophesies, “The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.” Dozens of prophecies promise that tyrants will be deposed and people freed. “But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible [the tyrant, the oppressor] shall be delivered …” (Isaiah 49:25).

This vision will ultimately be realized across the Earth.

I hope you will read “Real Hope for Iran’s Oppressed,” my article in the new issue of the Philadelphia Trumpet. (Request your free subscription here.) It details some of the injustices Iranians have suffered since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which promised freedom, justice and independence but delivered the opposite. It explains what a scourge the Iranian regime has been on its people and on the world. It describes how the regime was engineered to survive shocks and the material and spiritual reasons this present war will fail to dislodge it. But it also shows how the regime will fall and how God will deliver today’s fearful Iranians ultimate justice.

Flynn Settles—but Who Pays?

On March 25, the Department of Justice quietly settled a lawsuit brought by Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (Ret.), Trump’s first national security adviser, for $1.25 million. It was far short of the $50 million he had sued for, alleging malicious prosecution.

• General Flynn was investigated early in Trump’s term under questionable fbi tactics, then pressured into a 2017 guilty plea partly by threats against his son. As misconduct concerns grew, the doj dropped the case in 2020 and Trump pardoned him, but only after 10 years of legal and financial damage.

The doj described the settlement as “an important step in redressing a historic injustice.” Flynn was less positive:

Nothing can fully compensate for the hell that my family and I have endured over these many years—the relentless attacks, the destruction of reputations, the financial ruin.

Ten years. That is what this cost him. And the men responsible? James Comey, Peter Strzok, Andrew Weissmann and the architects of the whole operation—none have faced criminal prosecution.

• Robert Mueller, the man whose team threatened Flynn’s family to extract a guilty plea, died last week, receiving wall-to-wall tributes from the media and glowing statements from two former presidents.

The doj says what was done to General Flynn was a “weaponization of the federal government” and vows it must never happen again. But vows without verdicts mean nothing. America cannot heal from this until the lawbreakers receive the legal reckoning they deserve.

• A settlement paid by taxpayers to the man who was wronged is not accountability. It is a bill sent to the wrong address.

Isaiah 59:14 describes America today: “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.”

God’s judgment, however, is not subject to a change of administration. The architects of this injustice will answer for it—not to a Florida federal court but to the God who warns, in Isaiah 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ….” That woe is coming. Unlike General Flynn’s settlement, it will be paid in full.

Force Multiplying: European NATO Is Buying Weapons, Fast

European nations are increasing their military spending, a measure long advocated by their nato ally, the United States. However, this is part of a strategy not to reduce the burden on Americans but to break away from them.

• An annual nato report released yesterday showed that all members have finally met the 2014 goal of spending 2 percent of their gdp on defense.
• Defense spending of European nato members and Canada rose 19 percent in 2024, then 19.6 percent in 2025. European nato countries and Canada raised their military budgets by 106 percent between 2014 and 2025.
• Germany, the second-biggest defense spender in the alliance, is projected to spend 2.4 percent of its gdp on defense, double the percentage it spent in 2014. Three nato members spent 3.5 percent of their gdp on defense.

More to come: In the nato report, Secretary General Mark Rutte called on members to show a “clear and credible path” to spending 5 percent of gdp on defense by 2035, which would equate to $1 trillion for nato members that are part of the European Union.

• The report also indicated the alliance’s decreasing reliance on the U.S., with U.S. spending dropping from 64 percent of nato’s budget in 2024 to 59 percent last year. While this may be what the Trump administration wants, cheering on Europe’s militarization is a dangerous move.

Bible prophecy warns that Europe’s rapid militarization will enable nothing less than a unified European superpower and the destruction of the U.S. superpower. Our Trends article “Why the Trumpet Watches Europe’s Push Toward a Unified Military” states:

Until now Europe has generally followed on with U.S. policy. It has had little choice: America has been its primary source of protection. But a Europe with a united military is a Europe that is both independent of the U.S. and capable of threatening world peace.

Will U.S. Bishops Take the Lead Over Evangelicals on Immigration?

At their first-ever joint conference, American bishops and evangelicals sought to foster Christian unity and address common concerns among their followers amid ongoing immigration enforcement.

• The Evangelical-Catholic Dialogue on Immigration on March 24 in Washington, D.C., brought an unlikely gathering of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Association of Evangelicals.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has repeatedly opposed what it calls “indiscriminate mass deportation” of illegal immigrants. The National Association of Evangelicals has taken a more measured approach, stressing both the rule of law and biblical calls to care for the vulnerable.

• The Catholic conference represents as much as 10 times the membership as that of the evangelical association. Some say this dialogue group will effectively strengthen the U.S. Catholic bishops’ positions on immigration.

In 2016, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego characterized mass deportations as an injustice that would stain the nation’s honor.

• More specifically, and perhaps most importantly, he estimated that enforcing the law could remove more than 10 percent of U.S. Catholic parishioners.

Immigration plays a significant role in Catholic demographics. Pew Research finds that immigrants make up 29 percent of U.S. Catholic adults. Hispanic Catholics constitute 36 percent of all Catholic adults and are disproportionately immigrants or children of immigrants.

• Without continued high levels of immigration, the Catholic share of the U.S. population and overall Catholic influence would likely decline more sharply.

The larger context: The fact that the National Association of Evangelicals is engaging in formal dialogue with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reflects broader changes in American Christianity, including declining Protestant opposition to Catholicism and increasing ecumenical cooperation across traditional lines.

The Bible describes a great false church called “Mystery, Babylon the Great” in Revelation 17 and the “daughter of Babylon” and the “lady of kingdoms” in Isaiah 47. These and other prophecies describe it as exercising religious and political power across the centuries and specify that its power will surge once again in our generation and influence a European superpower of 10 nations.

“All organized religion, except Roman Catholic, will be eliminated from Western Europe, Britain and America …,” wrote Herbert W. Armstrong in the October 1961 Plain Truth. “Opposition of Protestant bodies in America and Europe and Britain to Roman Catholicism is melting away.”

If churches in particular and conservatives in general start weakening their calls for mass deportations, it could trace back to “dialogues” like these. Continue to watch the role of religion in America and Europe, and how the Protestants weaken and Catholics strengthen.

IN OTHER NEWS

Nuclear war is a ‘real and immediate’ threat: There are 9,745 operational nuclear weapons worldwide, an increase of 141 from last year, a March 26 report from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons reveals. The power of those warheads is estimated to equate to 135,000 Hiroshima bombs. The report warned, “As of early 2026, the risk of the use of nuclear weapons remains real and immediate.” Based on prophecies spoken by Jesus Christ and the biblical prophets, the world is heading into a nuclear conflict that will result in near-total annihilation.

EU legislators getting tougher on migrants: Yesterday the European Parliament approved a law allowing the deportation of rejected asylum seekers to facilities outside the European Union. The law also allows permanent bans and up to two years of detention, and it will likely limit the power of appeals to pause deportation. Once finalized, pending further negotiations, this EU Return Directive will strengthen the EU’s shift against immigration and toward authoritarianism.

Australia signs military deal with future enemy: Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles and German counterpart Boris Pistorius signed a memorandum of understanding in Canberra, Australia, yesterday for a global early-warning system for space. “In space, China and Russia are our immediate neighbors. They have expanded their offensive capabilities in space. They can jam, blind or destroy satellites,” Pistorius said. “We need to know what’s happening up there. That’s the only way we can protect our own systems.” On his trip, Pistorius visited the defense contractor eos, which is in early production of its Apollo laser system that can shoot down up to 30 drones per minute and is developing an Atlas high-power laser for blinding or destroying satellites. The two countries also agreed to reduce restrictions on exchanges of military personnel. While Australia sees Germany as a partner against Russia and China, Bible prophecy warns that Germany will betray Australia and the other English-speaking nations.

U.S. Catholic dioceses expect Easter surge in converts: Catholic churches are experiencing major spikes in attendance, the New York Times reported yesterday. For instance, this Easter, the archdiocese of Detroit expects to add 1,428 new members, a 20-year high; the archdiocese of Washington, D.C., expects to add 1,755 members, a 16-year high; the Galveston-Houston archdiocese expects a 15-year high, and Des Moines’s diocese attendance has already increased 51 percent. Expect Catholicism to become increasingly popular, as is prophesied in your Bible.

Taiwan betrayal coming? Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping believes U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambivalence toward Taiwan “opens a historic opportunity for China,” the Wall Street Journal wrote Wednesday. The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled the island republic, yet it considers it a rogue territory that must be brought under Communist control, by force if necessary. Taiwan has stayed independent for decades thanks to American military equipment, political support and a strong implication of protection in the event of invasion. But President Trump sees Taiwan “more transactionally” than his predecessors in the White House, the Journal wrote, making his commitment to the island “uncertain.” The strongest evidence of this came after a February 4 phone call between Xi and Trump when the latter paused a $13 billion arms sale to Taiwan, apparently to safeguard a trade truce with China. The two are set to meet in Beijing in May. For decades, the Trumpet has warned that America’s lack of resolve will be the main factor enabling the Chinese Communist Party to seize Taiwan.