I’ve written the morning brief in quite a few unique locations over the years, but a leisurely cruise down the Rhine is one of the most thought-provoking.

Optimism for the future seems built into the foundation of Germany’s capital, Berlin. The city is modern, without the ancient buildings that form the core of most European capitals. The Berlin Wall, once a brutal scar through the heart of the city, is now a convenient green space for people to walk their dogs.

The Rhine Valley sends the opposite message: Things were better in the past. The river was once the vital artery of German industry, back when that industry was the envy of the world. Many of Germany’s wealthiest cities stand on its banks.

But here in a more rural part of the valley, the riverbank is dotted with faux medieval castles. They were real castles hundreds of years ago, collecting tolls from ships using the Rhine. Most were destroyed or decayed, then rebuilt in the 19th or 20th centuries as more picturesque and peaceful versions of their former selves.

Recapturing past glory is a major desire for modern Germans. A new DeutschlandTrend poll published by German public broadcaster ard found that 84 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with the government’s performance, the highest percentage since Chancellor Friedrich Merz was elected last year. Merz’s personal approval rating has fallen 8 more points since the last poll, down to 21 percent.

Voters are worried about the economy and the war in Iran. Although Merz didn’t start the war, 70 percent of respondents don’t trust the government to take the necessary steps to deal with the situation. Meanwhile, a majority of those who support Merz’s party, the Christian Democratic Union, don’t trust the government to fix the social security system.

What is the solution to a series of unpopular governments? Watch for Germany to look back to its glory days and to use modern techniques to resurrect the structures of the past, just like the castles down the Rhine. Building a romanticized version of your past is a natural response for any nation, but I don’t know anywhere else it is taken so literally as in the Rhine Valley.

Perhaps it is connected to the way Germany worked to rebuild the Roman Empire along modern lines. It will soon resolve its political crises by rebuilding the Holy Roman Empire again. Just like the Rhine castles, it can look pretty and romantic on the outside, but within is a history of war, conquest and torture.

Request your free copy of The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy to see the full picture of that history and how the Bible prophesies its resurrection.

Trump Orders Election Integrity List

President Donald Trump signed an “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections” executive order on Tuesday designed to reduce voter fraud in federal elections.

• The order instructs federal departments to create lists of verified United States citizens.
• The lists are to be provided to states, which are responsible for conducting elections, to update eligible voter rolls.
• The United States Post Office, a federal agency, is required to deliver mail-in ballots only to recipients on the states’ lists and to use unique tracking codes and secure envelopes.

Challenges ahead: This order is likely to face legal challenges. Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution says, “The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives [which elect presidents], shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations ….”

The executive order is designed to influence states to stop allowing illegal voting. Although it does not directly violate this constitutional provision, the very fact that it comes from the federal executive branch rather than the states or the legislative branch opens it up to possible legal injunction.

President Trump took this bold action likely because the states are refusing to meaningfully reduce illegal voting and because he fears Congress would either reject voting reform or take months to act, likely after the November 3 midterm elections.

SAVE America: The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act is currently before Congress; it passed the House of Representatives and stalled in the Senate. It would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register in federal elections, is supported by about 65 to 85 percent of poll respondents, and will likely be defeated by 47 Democrat senators.

Realize this: The one and only way that U.S. citizens directly control the federal government is by voting for representatives. They don’t vote directly on federal laws, policies or verdicts. This means that if citizens’ votes are not reflected in ballot totals, they are being represented by people they did not vote for, meaning the United States is a republic in name only.

• Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s free book America Under Attack lists the vast swaths of proof showing how fraudulent the 2020 election was.

America has become a nation so morally sick that it can’t even agree on having honest elections. To learn where Bible prophecy says this trend will lead, read “Why the Trumpet Watches Moral Decline in Britain and America.”

Struggle For Greenland Continues

The Trump administration continues to negotiate with Denmark for increased military access to Greenland, the New York Times reported yesterday, based on comments from Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, who leads North American Aerospace Defense Command.

• Control of the geographically strategic island is necessary for North American defense.
• The United States operated at least 13 bases on Greenland during the Cold War.
• It currently operates one base in Greenland: Pituffik Space Base.
• Negotiations are underway for U.S. access to three more defense areas for airfields, ports and other operations.

Greenland has become a major point of contention between the U.S. and Denmark, specifically, and Europe generally.

• Although the U.S. and Denmark have had a defense agreement in place since 1951, President Trump believes this is insufficient, that Denmark and other European and nato nations cannot be relied on, and that the U.S. needs increased access (at a minimum) and preferably full sovereignty over the island.

President Trump’s insistence on annexing Greenland—along with his repeated statements that European nato allies are not paying their part and cannot be relied on—resulted in an international crisis that climaxed in January.

• In 2025, the U.S. said it wanted to expand its military coverage of Greenland beyond Pituffik.
• Denmark and Greenland resisted the expansion.
• President Trump renewed his criticism of nato partners, threatened tariffs on European countries, and said the U.S. could annex Greenland, perhaps by force.
• Denmark, France, Germany and Sweden briefly sent a small group of troops to the island as a symbolic deterrence against an American takeover. They reportedly also prepared a contingency for destroying infrastructure to complicate any possible U.S. invasion.
• Some European leaders threatened to cut America entirely out of trade with the European market.

The struggle over Greenland shows that the two sides of nato do not trust each other.

The Trumpet and its predecessor, the Plain Truth, have warned of this for decades:

The United States established the Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe, especially Germany, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was launched, binding Europe and North America into a military alliance. Biblical prophecy shows that this union was destined, from the beginning, to end in ruin. The fraying of the trans-Atlantic relationship we see today is the advancement of this inevitable ruin.

IN OTHER NEWS

Bondi out as attorney general: Yesterday, President Donald Trump announced that Attorney General Pam Bondi is leaving the Department of Justice for the private sector and named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as acting attorney general. Trump described Bondi as a “loyal friend.” Blanche previously served as Trump’s personal defense attorney in several criminal cases and has been a vocal critic of federal district “rogue activist judges” who have issued injunctions blocking administration policies, describing it as a legal “war.”

The Strait of Hormuz is open—to Russia: Russian ships continue to transit the Strait of Hormuz, Russian foreign-policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said yesterday. Typically, around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows through Hormuz, but Iran has responded to attacks by the United States and Israel by attacking civilian shipping in the strait, virtually closing it. But Russia is on a short list of countries (including China, India, Iraq and Pakistan) whose vessels Iran has not attacked. Unlike China, India and Pakistan, Russia does not rely on the energy supplies passing through Hormuz. But Russia’s working with Iran to influence energy flows can complicate U.S. strategy, apply pressure on energy-importing nations, and drive global oil prices still higher, increasing its own energy revenues.

ICC investigating its own prosecutor: International Criminal Court member states voted Wednesday to instigate disciplinary proceedings against Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Khan was placed on leave in May amid sexual misconduct allegations. Before the allegations became public, Khan had announced arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes. The baseless warrants were originally seen by many as a landmark decision, but scandals in the court have marred its credibility, another example of the international legal system’s failure to meet its lofty purpose.

Zweibrücken case reminds the world about ongoing German Nazism: New details emerged yesterday regarding the Zweibrücken scandal, in which German soldiers were accused in December of pro-Nazi sentiment, far-right extremism, sexual misconduct and narcotics violations. According to German broadcaster ard, the Bundeswehr assumed the investigative and disciplinary process for 59 defendants; 16 cases have been dismissed with five more in the process, 18 have resulted in disciplinary actions, and 19 were referred to the public prosecutor’s office. A report on the scandal is also in progress. Cases like the Zweibrücken scandal reveal that the same spirit that guided the 1930s Nazi regime is still alive in parts of the German military.