In Other News
Last night, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a “total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into, and out of, Venezuela.” Due to the nation’s support of terrorism and the drug trade, he said, “the Venezuelan regime has been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization.” Based on Bible prophecy, the Trumpet projects where this attempt at regime change could lead.
Yesterday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said a “clear signal” from the German government caused the EU to shelve plans to ban the internal combustion engine by 2035. German and European vehicle manufacturers are not ready to transition to electric vehicles, and Chinese electric cars threaten to destroy the entire business model. The European Commission is instead calling for a 90 percent reduction in emissions compared to 2021. “More openness to technology and more flexibility are the right steps to take in order to better align climate targets, market realities, businesses and jobs,” Merz said. This is another clear signal that Germany rules the EU.
Germany and other EU countries want to make it easier to deport migrants to countries where they have never lived and to outsource asylum procedures to non-EU countries. Today, the conservative European People’s Party (epp) in the European Parliament voted in favor of the proposal put forward by the European Commission. The leader of the Greens in the European Parliament, Erik Marquardt, accused the epp of working with “right-wing extremists, climate deniers and Putin lobbyists” to pass the vote. Radical-leftist policies are finally prompting a European conservative backlash—but how far to the opposite extreme will they go?
Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was convicted yesterday of publishing seditious material and “colluding with foreign forces,” and now faces possible life in prison. His only real “crime” was criticizing the Chinese Communist Party (ccp) and its unlawful repression of Hong Kong. Thus, the verdict confirms that the ccp now rules Hong Kong as fully and repressively as the mainland. When Britain handed Hong Kong over to Chinese rule in 1997, the ccp pledged not to interfere with its economic, political and judicial autonomy for at least 50 years. But in the early 2000s, the regime began a creeping oppression that culminated in the 2020 passage of a national security law permitting the ccp to prosecute any Hong Konger seen as insufficiently submissive to the Party. The conviction rate in ccp courts is higher than 99.9 percent. Lai’s conviction exemplifies China’s use of politicized law to crush dissent and signals that the world is sliding into a darker, more authoritarian era.
The Chinese Coast Guard blasted water cannons at Filipino fishermen in Philippine waters on Friday, injuring several and destroying two boats. The belligerence occurred near Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea, which lies well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. China ignores international law and claims almost the entire South China Sea, including this Philippine region. China’s Communist regime is using repeated threats and violence in a dangerous attempt to assert full control over this key maritime region. “China is intimidating the nations of Southeast Asia into submission to its will,” Gerald Flurry wrote in 2016. “It is forcing these countries to do what it wants. Everything is headed in the direction of war.”
Yesterday the leaders of Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Finland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the European Union published a statement of Europe’s position on a possible resolution to the war in Ukraine. The provisions include a European-led “multinational force Ukraine,” supported by the U.S., that “will assist in the regeneration of Ukraine’s forces, in securing Ukraine’s skies, and in supporting safer seas, including through operating inside Ukraine.” Russia is unlikely to agree to such a force, so the statement seems intended as a show of solidarity. It will prolong negotiations and the war. Before the statement was published, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Rossiya 1, “The Europeans are playing their own game. It still looks like they want the war to continue.” Germany has an interest in continuing the war, which it could have prevented early on. As Mr. Flurry wrote in 2023: “I believe Germany has already given Ukraine to Russia in a secret deal.”
The Czech Republic is expected to move its embassy to Jerusalem next year, according to an anonymous official, Jewish News Syndicate reported today. New Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka stated at a Hanukkah event in Prague, “I personally am very much looking forward … to be present when one of the symbols of solidarity becomes the fact that the Czech Republic finally moves its embassy to Jerusalem. It should have been there a long time ago.” Israelis and Czechs had close relations even during the days of Czechoslovakia, but the new Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš, may not stay friendly. See what to watch for in this relationship in “Introducing Europe’s Eastern Strongmen.”
Israel assassinated top Hamas commander Raed Saad in Gaza over the weekend, and Axios reports that U.S. President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he was jeopardizing the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. One U.S. official told Axios: “The White House message to Netanyahu was: ‘If you want to ruin your reputation and show that you don’t abide by agreements, be our guest, but we won’t allow you to ruin President Trump’s reputation after he brokered the deal in Gaza.’” The two leaders portray a public image of unity, but divisions behind the scenes are growing and may soon lead to a break, and to Israel looking for a new ally.
Britain’s Reform party welcomed backing from one of the world’s most prolific pornographic actresses after she proclaimed her support for the party in the Spectator. Tia Billinger obtained global notoriety under her stage name with her shocking sexual stunts, but Danny Kruger, one of Reform’s few members of Parliament, said the party wants “all the support we can get” and that they would not be “judgmental” about supporters. The awful reality is that Britain’s family breakdown is at the root of many of its national problems. A party that makes these kinds of alliances will never be able to give Britain the reform it needs.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Berlin today to negotiate a possible peace agreement. While it appears unlikely that Russian President Vladimir Putin will agree to a cessation of hostilities, Bild reports that the German government is working on a 10-point plan for intensive military cooperation with Ukraine, so this meeting may benefit both Ukrainian and German armed forces. Whatever the imminent future of the war in Ukraine, prophecy reveals German militarization will continue.
Russia poses an “aggressive, expansionist, and revisionist” threat to the world far beyond Ukraine, the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service will warn today. Blaise Metreweli’s statement, released ahead of her first speech to the public, warns, “The front line is everywhere.” It also states, “The export of chaos is a feature not a bug in the Russian approach to international engagement, and we should be ready for this to continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus.” Though more are waking up to the undeniable danger, Britain and the West will not force Putin to change. Biblical prophecy shows that his violent push against the current global order will only intensify in the years ahead.
That is what the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran head Mohammed Eslami told the media today. “There must be a protocol in place for inspections of nuclear sites that have been attacked before permission can be given,” he said of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. “The agency, which neither condemned the attacks nor has any guidelines for such situations, has no right to claim inspections.” This comes as recent reports suggest Iran’s uranium stockpiles in those sites have survived. Even though U.S. President Donald Trump declared Iran’s nuclear program “completely and totally obliterated,” it seems Iran’s nuclear program lives on.
Over the weekend, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley provided Just the News with fbi e-mails showing that Department of Justice leadership repeatedly obstructed investigators probing Hillary Clinton’s pay-to-play corruption scheme. While Clinton was secretary of state under Barack Obama, her nonprofit Clinton Foundation solicited hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign and U.S. interests that had business with the State Department. The fbi started investigating the conflict of interest, but Obama’s deputy attorney general, Sally Yates, said to “shut it down.” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s book America Under Attack, originally published in 2013, warned in detail that Obama, Clinton and others were engaged not only in corruption and false accusations against Donald Trump but also in the systematic destruction of the American republic.
“We are Russia’s next target,” nato secretary general Mark Rutte said in a speech in Berlin yesterday, “and we are already in harm’s way. Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents and great-grandparents endured.” His speech emphasized the level of Europeans’ fear of Russia. When Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, Gerald Flurry wrote, “The fear you see in Europe because of events in Crimea is going to cause 10 leaders in Europe to unite in a sudden and dramatic way—and in precise accordance with the Bible’s description of that European empire!”
Ukraine struck two Russian ships in the Caspian Sea, it announced today. The Composer Rachmaninoff and Askar-Sarydzha were both under American sanctions for transporting military equipment between Russia and Iran. Russia is stuck in Ukraine, Iran is licking its wounds from an American-Israeli attack earlier this year, and both dangerous regimes are subject to international sanctions—yet they are still cooperating and still pushing.
The Chinese Communist Party led the inaugural meeting of its new United Nations group, Friends of Global Governance, on Tuesday, “responding to the needs of the people” and offering its “wisdom to uphold international fairness,” said Ambassador Fu Cong. The party’s Foreign Ministry said the group “aims to build a more just and equitable global governance system” and make a “new contribution to world peace and development.” It also said that the other member nations of the group, which include Cuba, Iran, North Korea and about 40 other nations, “commended China’s leading role in global governance.” The world’s most oppressive and belligerent nations forming such a group further highlights the UN’s tragically farcical failure to establish peace.
China released its most recent Latin America policy on Wednesday, listing areas of collaboration including civilization, development and solidarity. It highlights more than 40 areas of cooperation with a focus on trade. The policy, China’s third since 2008, underscores the nation’s growing interest and power in a region close to the United States and connects to Bible prophecies that foreign powers will economically besiege America.
Washington State has sustained heavy rainfall as an “atmospheric river” phenomenon has formed over the North American Pacific Northwest. “The flooding levels we’re looking at are potentially historic in nature, so we just want to emphasize how serious the situation is,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said yesterday as his administration ordered tens of thousands of residents to evacuate. Disasters like this are not random or senseless. God reveals that they happen for a purpose.
Remember the Turkic-speaking Uyghur people of Xinjiang in northwestern China? The Chinese Communist Party has been imprisoning them in concentration camps by the millions and subjecting them to brutality and indoctrination. In 2021, the first Trump administration sounded the alarm, equating the massive and ongoing crackdown to genocide. A host of nations sanctioned goods that China produced using the Uyghurs’ forced labor, while human rights activists and media outlets frequently spotlighted their suffering and pushed for change. But today, the Chinese government’s genocide of the Uyghurs is seldom discussed. An analysis by gzero found that only 0.03 percent of current English-language news articles discuss the Uyghurs, down from 0.19 percent at the time of the genocide designation. Analysts say this is due to the second Trump administration deemphasizing human rights, China reshaping international perceptions, and the world’s “atrocity attention” shifting toward more familiar crises such as Ukraine and Gaza. But the fading attention doesn’t mean the suffering has faded. The Trumpet continues to warn that the horrors underway in Xinjiang today are only the start of a dark era the world is descending into.
On Wednesday, German drone manufacturer Helsing signed a cooperation agreement in Berlin with Norwegian defense contractor Kongsberg. According to Spiegel, its aim is to develop space-based military reconnaissance—and independence from the U.S. Helsing will contribute artificial intelligence software, and Kongsberg will provide satellite technology. The collaboration will also include German defense contractor Hensoldt and German aerospace start-up Isar Aerospace. The companies aim to establish a satellite constellation by 2029, and Helsing plans to offer its space services to the German Armed Forces. Germany’s quest for military independence in space portends grave danger.
A report released Wednesday by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service warns against “the United States’ growing interest in Greenland,” which the U.S. claims is vital for its national security. Greenland is an autonomous territory of the kingdom of Denmark, and U.S. President Donald Trump has publicly called for acquiring it. The U.S. “uses economic power, including threats of high tariffs, to enforce its will and no longer rules out the use of military force, even against allies,” the report states. The Bible says the growing tension in the alliance between the U.S. and Europe will ultimately lead to open conflict.
That was a headline from the Atlantic December 8. “No public-health authorities deny that covid shots can have some ill effects,” the article reads. “Adverse reactions are possible with all medical interventions. The mrna-based vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, in particular, are known to cause myocarditis—inflammation of the heart—on rare occasions, especially in teenage boys and young men.” This fact was buried, ridiculed and attacked at a time when the truth could have saved lives. Throughout the covid-19 outbreak and government lockdowns, the Trumpet was among the few voices to sound this alarm. Now, even mainstream publications are admitting that the cure could kill.
Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that the federal government’s current deployment of the California National Guard is illegal. In June, President Trump invoked a provision in federal law allowing the federal government to control members of the National Guard without the governor’s approval in emergency circumstances. Breyer ruled the protests did not constitute an emergency because they did not impede federal authority. The ruling is stayed for possible appeal and further legal battles testing the authority of the president and the severity of divisions within the U.S. government.
Russia is taking Ukrainian territory at the fastest rate since 2022 while European leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in London this week. They discussed responses to the American peace proposal, aiming to avoid appeasing the Kremlin. Last month, Russia captured nearly 200 square miles, which was double October’s gains, signaling that Putin has no plans to stop his offensive. Europe’s opposition to U.S. peace proposals is designed not only to counter Putin but to use the threat from Russia to build a new superpower.
The Vatican announced on Friday that Pope Leo xiv has appointed Francis Li Jianlin as the bishop of the Prefecture of Xinxiang in Henan Province, China. It specified that the appointment was made “in accordance with the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China” after the resignation of Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu. This is an admission that the old bishop was opposed to communism and the totalitarian Chinese regime, but his replacement is Chinese Communist Party-approved. Leo’s compromise with the regime and blending religion with politics continues the legacy of not only his predecessor, Pope Francis, but also his institution. You can learn more about this in Gerald Flurry’s book The True History of God’s True Church.
Poland’s defense minister announced today that the nation is sending its last Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine. It plans to replace the MiG-29 jets with F-16s from the U.S. and FA-50s from South Korea. “Officially, it is referred to as a donation—but negotiations are also underway for the purchase of Ukrainian missile and drone technology,” the Defense Post reported. “The government in Warsaw wants to acquire new military technology and develop it jointly with Kyiv.” Ukraine has more than three years of wartime experience and advancements in military technology, and Poland is working on rapidly expanding its own world-class military.
