Starmer Out—What Next for the UK?

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer finally announced his resignation this morning. He will all but certainly be replaced by Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

Starmer’s exit has been expected since Labour’s disastrous local election results in early May. But Britain’s leadership has been on hold while Burnham stood for election for Parliament. After winning a by-election in Makerfield last Thursday, he is now in a position to challenge the prime minister for his job.

[BRIEF]

What now for Britain’s leadership?

• Starmer has triggered a leadership challenge within the Labour Party. Burnham is the front-runner, but other Labour M.P.s can challenge him.
• Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting was Burnham’s main rival. Today, he abandoned his leadership bid and backed Burnham.
• If Burnham runs unopposed, he could be officially appointed prime minister on or around July 17.

Burnham would become the UK’s seventh prime minister in 10 years, a churn never before seen for Britain’s head of government.

Will there be a fresh election? This is one of the most important questions. The prime minister is the leader of the party with the most seats in Parliament. The Labour Party can change leaders, and therefore prime ministers, without needing fresh elections.

• However, Burnham is significantly further to the left than Starmer and would like to steer the country in a more socialist direction. The policies he would like to enact are much further left than those in Labour’s manifesto at the last election. He would have a stronger mandate to push those policies through if he stood for election.

Burnham has not yet ruled it out. He could take advantage of a bounce in popularity during his “honeymoon” period. But the Reform party still holds a commanding lead in the polls.

• So if there were an election, it could move Britain even further left—or it could bring in Prime Minister Nigel Farage. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has wondered whether such a shift to the right might happen in the UK.

Part of the reason for the high turnover in the prime ministership is debt. “[T]he borrower is servant to the lender,” warns Proverbs 22:7. Prime ministers aren’t really in charge. They have to do whatever financial markets believe will enable them to repay the debt in the future.

• The rapid turnover is a symptom of a cursed nation: cursed with financial problems, cursed with social problems, cursed with poor leadership. Voters switch from left to right, swap out leaders, and still they can’t fix the problems.

God says He is actively removing strong leaders. Instead, “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them” (Isaiah 3:4).

Britain’s leadership crisis is right out of the pages of your Bible. And it’s not even close to over.

Trump Is Actually Protecting Hezbollah

Pakistan and Qatar, mediators between Iran and the United States, announced today a “deconfliction cell” for the conflict in Lebanon. The cell, a collaboration between all five countries, is supposed to ensure deescalation of the conflict in Lebanon.

• A “deconfliction cell” in diplomatic parlance is a formal communication channel between two indirect parties in a war on opposing sides to avoid accidental strikes.

The elephant in the room is that Israel, supposedly the U.S.’s main ally in the Middle East, is not invited to participate, even though it is the main victim of and belligerent against Hezbollah.

• This, coupled with U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent lambasting of Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah, suggests he may be using the cell to protect Hezbollah from Israel.
• A “deconfliction cell” in diplomatic parlance is a formal communication channel between two indirect parties in a war on opposing sides to avoid accidental strikes.
• Why was Israel left out? President Trump has stressed in recent days he isn’t pleased with Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah. He said last Tuesday that Israel’s war “just goes on forever” and “it throws a negative light” on the negotiations with Iran.
• It appears the cell’s purpose is to act as an international forum to pressure Israel to stand down against Hezbollah. At the very least, seeing the U.S. create a body like this, which includes Iran but leaves out Israel, is a dramatic statement from Washington to Jerusalem: We’re not siding with you.

Meanwhile, on the war front: This comes even as Iran has become more belligerent against the U.S. and has contravened agreed-upon terms:

• Iran claimed Friday it had shut the Strait of Hormuz to merchant traffic. The U.S. and Iran agreed today on a communication line to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
• Media reports suggest the U.S. intelligence community is skeptical of Iran’s seriousness in reaching a nuclear deal, the main discussion of current negotiations.
• Iran claims that it would negotiate better terms with the U.S. if Israel stopped attacking its proxy terrorist group in Lebanon, Hezbollah.

Based on Bible prophecy, we wrote last month: “Israel and the U.S. entered this war as close allies. They could exit it divided.” This division is happening now.

Meloni and Trump Exchange Verbal Blows

The relationship between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and U.S. President Donald Trump was once seen as a glimmer of hope amid worsening U.S.-Europe relations. She was the only European leader to attend Trump’s inauguration. Now, however, the two leaders are publicly arguing over an alleged photo op.

This childish dispute is a symptom of deeper, far more consequential hostilities.

• Meloni “begged me to take a photo with her” during the G-7 Summit last week, Trump told Italian broadcaster La7 tv on Friday. Feeling sorry for her, he claimed. he granted her request.
• The story is “completely made up,” Meloni responded in a video the same day, speaking in Italian. She added:

I do not know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his allies—it is certainly not the first time this has happened. I can only say it is regrettable that he does not show the same determination against the enemies of the West and the United States—against leaderships with whom he actually proves to be much more accommodating.

The dispute continued over the weekend:

• “She wants to be friends again in order to get her ‘numbers up.’ No thanks!” Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday morning.
• “[T]hese constant, unprovoked attacks are senseless,” Meloni wrote on Instagram just minutes later. “As for my popularity, being your friend certainly has not helped, nor does it depend on my relationship with you.”

Relations between the two worsened in April after Meloni sided with the pope in a dispute with Trump over the Iran war.

We could easily dismiss the exchange as just another day in an increasingly perplexing news cycle, but Bible prophecy reveals the gravity of U.S.-Europe relations. The embarrassing dialogue between our world leaders will soon turn into a life-or-death reality that will affect every American household. Verbal attacks will soon escalate into economic and military warfare.

IN OTHER NEWS

German Army’s top priority: Lithuanian base: Christian Freuding, inspector of the German Army, stated its “top priority is to achieve full operational readiness for the Lithuania Brigade next year,” Germany’s Bild reported Friday. The Lithuanian brigade is Germany’s first permanent foreign-stationed brigade since World War ii. The Army’s “top priority” shows that Germany is focused on becoming the new defender of Europe, a role which Bible prophecy warns it will use against Europe’s old defender.

Russia infiltrates city vital to seizing Ukraine’s Donbas: Russia’s military has pushed into the city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine and is now trying to surround the strategic city, the Institute for the Study of War reported Saturday. Kostyantynivka is viewed as a gateway to the rest of the Donbas since Russian forces could use footholds there to push toward the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the last real strongholds in the Donbas region. The infiltration shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains viciously determined to conquer Ukraine and may be approaching a breakthrough in that goal. Whatever the outcome of this conflict, Bible prophecy shows that he will eventually lead a vast Asian military that will wage far larger wars.

Another massacre coming? Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces are preparing a major offensive on El Obeid, Sudan War Monitor reported yesterday. This is the same group whose October assault against El Fasher slaughtered so many civilians; some estimates place the death toll immediately following the attack at 70,000. Analysts fear El Obeid’s fall would end with a similar genocidal rampage. Stories like this often make people wonder how a loving God, if He exists, could allow such horrors. Chapter 4 of Mystery of the Ages, by Herbert W. Armstrong, reveals the Bible-based answer.

Trump-endorsed candidate wins Colombian presidency: Abelardo de la Espriella, Colombia’s Trump-backed candidate, won yesterday’s run-off presidential election, defeating left-wing Iván Cepeda by a narrow margin. Espriella has campaigned on developing closer ties with the United States. However, Bible prophecy warns that Latin America will work much more closely with a united Europe than with the U.S. to economically besiege America.

U.S. authorizes Iranian oil exports: The United States Treasury Department announced today a general license for Iran to produce and export its oil without sanctions. This measure, promised by last week’s memorandum of understanding, lasts for 60 days. The license doesn’t allow Iran to sell oil to North Korea or Cuba, but apparently it exempts China, one of Iran’s main backers. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent linked this to Iran’s commitments “to free and open transit in the Strait of Hormuz and to permit International Atomic Energy Agency (iaea) inspectors into their country.” The U.S. and Iran have yet to sign a lasting peace deal that commits Iran to specific obligations. Yet the U.S. apparently trusts Iran’s “goodwill” enough to give it concessions based on little more than its word.