Arab parties in Israel may have tried to steal Tuesday’s election. Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg instructed Shin Bet chief David Zini to investigate serious allegations of foreign election funding and election bribery, stating:

Serious suspicions have been brought before me of unlawful influence on the elections through foreign funding from outside parties working against the Israeli interest.

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Israeli Arabs turned out to vote in record numbers according to official statistics. Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party says they have evidence showing people from Turkey and Qatar transferred funds to pay for Arab votes. Netanyahu posted to X:

The Ra’amgate affair is an earthquake. They stole the elections in Israel! … This is an attack on democracy whose purpose is to lead to a foreign takeover of the Knesset, the Islamization of Israel and the overthrow of right-wing rule in order to lead to retreat and defeat of the IDF in all arenas—and primarily Iran.

This comes days after accusations of an election steal in Brazil. A Supreme Court judge ordered polling stations where voting hadn’t finished to stay open for two extra hours.

• The judge had been the criminal defense lawyer for the family of incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva since 2013 and helped in his election campaign. It’s hard to see him as an impartial justice, just doing what is fair.
• Then Brazil’s Supreme Court moved immediately to seize the passport of Lula’s main rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, in a move seen as illegitimate worldwide. Bolsonaro won the first round of voting by 2.2 million votes, then officially lost the second by 4.4 million, practically a statistical impossibility.

Election stealing is also on the minds of many Americans on the brink of important midterm elections.

• In August, investigative journalist James O’Keefe demonstrated how easy it was for a registered voter to vouch for unregistered voters, enabling them to vote in their stead. Now a liberal judge is trying to have him convicted of unlawful voting and identity theft. It’s important to note that O’Keefe made no statements and cast no votes.
• Meanwhile, the New York Times reveals that Democrats in Alaska looked for people named “Dan Sullivan” who were willing to stand for election. Why? To trick the many people trying to vote for incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Every time there’s an election, we now have a debate on whether it was stolen.

We are sending our newest Trumpet issue to press today. This issue focuses on the global leadership crisis and the authoritarian age it is about to introduce. Democracy in Europe and Latin America is about to be replaced by an age of strongmen.

Widespread election fraud is bringing democracy itself into question. If votes are routinely rigged or manipulated, what is the point in having them?

• America is supposed to be the great beacon of representative democracy. The only way its citizens control their government is through elections. But if these can be manipulated, locally and all the way up to the presidency, then what’s the point?

How much has America’s failure to stand up for its own principles contributed to this coming strongman age? If election integrity doesn’t matter in the U.S., it should be no surprise when strongmen simply abolish the pretense of democracy abroad.

Nearly Half of U.S. Teens Are Gambling

A new Rutgers survey of 1,677 Americans from last year shows that many gamblers are younger than most people expect.

• 52.5 percent of those ages 13 to 27 said they gambled.
• 42.7 percent of those ages 13 to 17 said they gambled—despite it being illegal at that age.

Among everyone who gambled, nearly 40 percent showed warning signs of what is called “problem gambling,” and 10.3 percent were high-risk, meaning their gambling looked like addiction according to psychiatrists’ standards. About 11 percent of the teen gamblers fell into that high-risk group. Boys and girls had similar rates of gambling addiction.

• Family habits made a big difference. Among high-risk teens, 75.5 percent had a family member who gambled, 61.2 percent had gambled with a family member, and 66.3 percent thought someone in their home had a gambling problem.
• Black and Hispanic teens, and those from lower-income homes, also showed higher rates of serious problems.

“Anyone can have a casino in their pocket,” lead researcher Lia Nower said, calling the survey results a wake-up call. Experts recommend teaching kids about the risks starting in middle school, tighter rules on new gambling-style products and more national support for prevention and treatment.

The strongest protection teens and adults need for safeguarding their minds from vices like gambling comes from understanding and submitting to the guidance of the Holy Bible.

• Proverbs 13:11 says, “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.”
• Easy money through gambling often vanishes as quickly as it comes, leaving young people with debt, anxiety and regret instead of real progress. Steady work is what builds lasting wealth.

To learn about the origin of gambling and why this seemingly harmless habit is so destructive, read “No Gambling Allowed.”

China: Japan Could Build Thousands of Nuclear Weapons

Japan has stockpiled some 44.4 tons of plutonium, enough to make thousands of nuclear warheads, Chinese Arms Control and Disarmament Association Secretary General Dai Huaicheng warned yesterday.

• 9.9 tons of allocated plutonium are stored in Japan, and 34.5 tons are stored overseas. Six thousand or more nuclear bombs could be built with these quantities.

Fuel or weapons? Japanese authorities say the plutonium stockpiles are intended for use in the nation’s nuclear reactors. But as calls grow among Japanese policymakers for the nation to develop nuclear weapons, Dai, like many in China, remains unconvinced.

“Japan just has the technology and facilities for the processing and further allocation of weapons-grade plutonium, which makes the border between civil and military use extremely blurry.”
—Dai Huaicheng

A screwdriver’s turn away: Analysts have noted for decades that since Japan possesses a highly developed civilian nuclear industry and a pantheon of world-class physicists and engineers, it could develop nuclear armaments in a matter of months.

• The Japanese need only “five minutes and a screwdriver and they have got a nuclear capability,” security consultant Alex Neill told Asia Times in 2022.

Nuclear weapons would add a profoundly ominous dimension to a military already undergoing a historic expansion. In recent years, Japan has sharply increased defense spending and dramatically expanded its combat capabilities, including by introducing long-range strike weapons to its arsenal.

Japan’s increasingly militaristic posture may appear reassuring to Americans, given its alliance with the United States and both nations’ interest in countering China. But Bible prophecy warns that Japan will change its allegiance to Russia and China—against the U.S.

To understand what Japan’s mushrooming military might and its prophesied change in allegiance mean for the future, read “Japan’s Coming Betrayal of America.”

IN OTHER NEWS

High-speed rail crash in Spain puts pressure on Sánchez: Sixty-eight people died and 107 were injured after a high-speed rail crash near Toledo, Spain, yesterday. Just nine months earlier, another rail disaster killed 46 people and injured more than 150 in Andalusia. The disaster has cast a shadow over Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s management of public infrastructure and could impact the snap election scheduled for November 29.