“How Europe Learnt to Love the Bomb”—what a headline from the Telegraph this morning. Sure, it’s a reference to a movie title, but still, Europe loves nuclear bombs now?

The Telegraph has some exclusive details of the plan France is pushing:

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• France has signed agreements to cooperate on nuclear weapons with Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom.
• Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands and Sweden are also interested in joining.
• France would station nuclear cruise missiles and Rafale fighter jets to carry them in host countries.
• These countries could provide fighter escorts.
• France is upgrading these missiles to make them faster and harder to intercept.
• At the same time, it is developing new nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines.

Many Bible prophecies describe nuclear devastation in detail. Because of this, both the late Plain Truth founder Herbert W. Armstrong and Trumpet founder Gerald Flurry have focused on America’s nuclear bombs housed in Germany and elsewhere.

• Several European countries are so keen to acquire nuclear weapons that they’re making deals to get French bombs too, just in case America starts thinking this is not a good idea.

But right now, the U.S. and the world are cheering on European unification, rearmament and nuclear weapons independence.

“Germany’s New Military Strategy Deserves a Strong U.S. Endorsement,” by RealClearDefense, argues that the U.S. should “abandon its hegemonic ambitions in the region” and “encourage Germany to implement and build upon a strategy that will relieve Washington of Europe’s defense burden.”

Another Telegraph article this morning declares “Europe’s Only Future Is to Become a Single EU State.” It gives a history of various efforts to unite Europe:

In the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, some in “Christendom” promoted a common “war project” to contain the Ottoman Turks. …

In the early 19th century, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte spoke of a United States of Europe. His Continental System can be seen as an embryonic European economic union, his Grande Armée as a European collective security system, and his Code Napoleon as the ground rules for a pan-European system of public law and administration.

In the 20th century, Adolf Hitler tried to rally the Continent against the British Empire, the United States and the Soviet Union. After the Second World War, European integration emerged as a peace project to transcend the Franco-German antagonism by internationalizing the production of steel, a vital military commodity. It was also a war project which attempted to mobilize the democratic half of the Continent to deter the Soviet Union.

Europe today, the article argues, “resembles the old Holy Roman Empire.” Over the course of its history, that empire has sometimes been loose and disunited. The author argues that the EU needs something much more centralized:

This can only be done by transforming itself from a latter-day Holy Roman Empire into a full political union …. The creation of a single EU state with a common debt and common military vested in a common parliament to supplement the existing single market would provide the basis for a genuine great power project on the continent.

We’re assured that this new nuclear power will be “a powerful ally of a sovereign Britain.” Is that true? Is there any point in history where a powerful European power has not threatened Britain?

• As Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry warned in “France’s Deadly Ignorance About Germany,” “France under Macron is wholeheartedly supporting a European military with nuclear weapons. But little does France know to what end Germany plans to use this power!”

Indeed, the whole world will be shocked. Yet “How Europe Learnt to Love the Bomb” reflects headlines Herbert W. Armstrong wrote decades ago, based on Bible prophecy.

War in Our Time?

Amid ongoing peace negotiations, United States forces struck Iranian targets yesterday in what it called “self-defense” operations.

This included several strikes on missile sites in southern Iran, as well as two boats reportedly depositing mines in the Persian Gulf.

• The U.S. military claimed this was to “protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.”
• Iran condemned the strikes as a “gross violation” of the ceasefire.

This comes as media reported over the weekend an imminent breakthrough in peace talks between the two sides. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed today that negotiations may require “a few more days.”

Iran’s not the only one frazzled: The strikes come while the Muslim world is in the midst of Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, commanded by the Koran. The U.S. reportedly planned to strike earlier, but Saudi Arabia dissuaded it.

• The current strikes came on the Day of Arafah, the holiest day in the Hajj.
• Saudi Arabia apparently wasn’t consulted about the move.

Despite this snub of Saudi concerns, U.S. President Donald Trump announced Monday that he expects countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to recognize Israel and join the Abraham Accords in the war’s aftermath.

• On Saturday, while on a call with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Qatar and other Middle Eastern nations, President Trump mentioned this. In response, according to an informed source speaking with Axios, “there was silence on the line, and Trump joked and asked if they are still there.”

President Trump said in his 2025 inaugural address that he wanted his “proudest legacy” to be “that of a peacemaker and unifier.” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in the April 2025 issue, “Peace is a noble goal, but if it is pursued the wrong way, that effort ends up achieving the opposite!”

Hostile actors like the Iranian regime shouldn’t be negotiated with. That America felt compelled to attack Iran when peace is supposedly days away demonstrates this. Simultaneously snubbing an ally’s request and making a big demand on it strains diplomacy. As much as President Trump wants to be a peacemaker, his efforts are achieving the opposite.

Pope Leo Calls for Church-Tech Ethics Partnership

Yesterday, Pope Leo xiv issued the first major theological text of his papacy: Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity).

• The 43,000-word encyclical warns about the growing power of artificial intelligence and its potential effects of eroding human judgment, deepening income inequality, destabilizing democracy, expediting war, and simulating care without relationship.
• He urged governments, corporations and individuals to slow the rate of innovation and take time to ensure that AI remains subject to ethical oversight.

Pope Leo presented the encyclical alongside Christopher Olah, cofounder of Anthropic, a massive U.S. artificial intelligence company.

• Olah said AI development must be guided by someone outside big tech and that he is eager for a church-tech partnership.

Anthropic’s “constitution” for its popular and powerful AI agent, Claude, lists as “external commenters” three Catholic thinkers: Secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education Paul Tighe; priest Brendan McGuire, a former Silicon Valley executive; and Director of Technology Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Brian Patrick Green.

Olah said Catholic guidance is needed to “ensure the gains of AI are shared globally,” since its development is “concentrated in a handful of wealthy nations.” Ironically, the Vatican may end up being the first “wealthy nation” to make sure that it controls AI.

On May 10, 2025, in a meeting with the College of Cardinals, the newly elected pope said he chose the name Leo xiv because of Pope Leo xiii, who wrote the famous encyclical Rerum Novarum (Of New Things) in 1891 to deal with problems from the Industrial Revolution.

• Now, Pope Leo xiv has published Magnificent Humanity exactly 135 years later. He says the church must use its social teaching to face “another industrial revolution” caused by AI, and it must defend human dignity, justice and labor in this new technological age.

Of New Things advocated a so-called third way between the free market and socialism. In practice, however, it was just an updated version of the old medieval feudal system, with a politically empowered Roman Catholic Church guiding society.

• The Vatican cannot stop AI, so it is working with companies like Anthropic to shape and control it. The pope wants to once again increase the power of the Catholic Church over peoples, governments and nations, a recurring historical trend that is specifically prophesied in the Bible.

For more information on the Vatican’s efforts to control the economy, read “The Pope’s New World Order.”

IN OTHER NEWS

Turkish court dissolves opposition leadership: Turkish riot police invaded the headquarters of the Republican People’s Party to subdue supporters of Özgür Özel. Özel led the party until last Thursday when a Turkish court ruled that his election had irregularities, and he was, therefore, illegitimate. Such a direct intervention by the courts, which are heavily influenced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is unprecedented, but this is the natural extension of Erdoğan’s heavy-handed regime.

Germany was funding Hamas: The Jerusalem Post reported on May 25 that a confidential audit by the German government shows that it funded Islamic Relief Germany, a front organization for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. The government apparently has known that the group was connected to these terrorist groups since 2014, but only ceased funding in 2019. Germany presents itself as one of Israel’s closest partners. Revelations like this suggest it isn’t the friend of Israel that it pretends to be.

Protests rock Belgrade: Approximately 200,000 protesters are in Belgrade demanding an end to the rule of President Aleksandar Vučić, who has been in power since 2017. This is a massive escalation of protests that started in 2024, and some estimate this to be the largest in Serbia since the fall of President Slobodan Milošević in 2000. The Balkans are a crossroads of the world where Germany and Russia have fought for influence for decades. The current protests could factor into the maneuvers of one or both.

EU expands trade deal with Mexico: On Friday, the European Union and Mexico signed a free-trade agreement covering nearly all goods, expanding a 2000 trade pact that cut tariffs on industrial goods. The new agreement could boost Mexican exports to the EU by roughly 50 percent by 2030. European Council President Antonio Costa hailed the agreement as “a true geopolitical statement.” The signing of this trade deal comes as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is under negotiation and shows Mexico’s desire and ability to pivot from the U.S. in favor of Europe.