In Other News
British and French air forces from Cyprus struck an Islamic State facility on January 3 near the Syrian ruins of Palmyra. The United Kingdom suspects this facility was “most likely to store weapons and explosives.” Psalm 83 predicts an alliance between various Middle Eastern countries and Europe. Verse 6 mentions “the Hagarenes,” an ancient name for the territory of Syria today. France getting more involved in Syria could be a stepping stone for the formation of this alliance.
Taiwanese officials view Donald Trump’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro as a notable deterrent to China’s planned seizure of the island, a senior official in Taiwanese defense told Bloomberg on Monday. Besides confirming President Trump’s willingness to use military force to further U.S. interests, the capture also demonstrated that American airpower can operate with apparent impunity against even advanced Chinese and Russian air defense systems. “The level of sophistication of U.S. equipment, compared with the weapons Venezuela obtained from Russia and China, was fully exposed in this operation,” Deputy Minister of Taiwan’s National Defense Hsu Szu-chien said of the capture. This measure may have bought Taiwan some time, but some fear it could inspire China to attempt its own decapitation maneuver in Taipei. In either case, the Trumpet maintains that Taiwan’s days of freedom are numbered due to America’s weak will in standing up to China.
Israel announced Friday the identities of two Palestinian staffers with the non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders who belonged to terrorist groups. Fadi al-Wadiya belonged to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, assisting in rocket technology. Nasser Hamdi Abdelatif al-Shalfouh was a Hamas sniper. On Thursday, the Israeli group ngo Monitor announced the identities of three other Doctors Without Borders employees who had terrorist affiliations. The revelations are shocking but not isolated. The Gaza crisis was in part created by humanitarian concern from the international community.
Tim Walz announced on Monday that he will not seek a third term as Minnesota’s governor. “I can’t give a political campaign my all,” he said, adding that it would distract him from spending time “defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity ….” This is a stark reversal from September, when he officially announced his run for reelection. But after Minnesotans found out they have been defrauded of perhaps $9 billion, much of which was sent to Somalia, approval rates for Walz dropped. Media outlets are reporting that U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is considering running in his stead.
Since January 3, 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses in southwest Berlin have been without power. Power has been gradually restored to some households. The outage was not caused by a technical malfunction, but by a deliberate attack by Germany’s own “Volcano Group.” In its letter, the group claimed that “power outages were not the target of the action, but rather the fossil energy industry.” Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the act terrorism. Many Germans believe fossil fuels cause climate change, but they are also frustrated by activist riots, road blockades and other disturbances. The rise of extremism in Germany is a dangerous warning sign for the world. A polarized society is susceptible to take-over by a strong-handed government. This is what led to the rise of Adolf Hitler. Bible prophecy reveals that history will repeat itself.
According to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Group, Iran executed at least 1,500 people in 2025. This is a 35-year record for executions. Since 2022, the year Iran’s Mahsa Amini protests began, Iran’s execution rate has risen dramatically every year. This regime is willing to kill its own people to stay in power—helping it fulfill Bible prophecy as the radical “king of the south.”
In Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural speech Thursday, the new Muslim socialist mayor of New York City stated he wasn’t scared of being “too radical” or audacious. “I was elected as a democratic socialist,” he said, “and I will govern as a democratic socialist.” During the speech, he also declared: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism”—in other words, communism. The Trumpet and its predecessor, the Plain Truth, have warned of Communist infiltration for decades. Repentance is the only fix for this problem.
San Francisco’s mayor signed a reparations law last week that awards $5 million to each black resident. One problem: The city is broke and dealing with a billion-dollar deficit. The mayor stated no tax dollars will be used for the reparations, but it is open to donations. This is yet another political stunt that exposes not only our society’s divisiveness, but also its fakery.
As anti-government protests spread in Iran, United States President Donald Trump announced on social media that if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime “kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.” It is confirmed that Iranian security forces have fired live ammunition into crowds. President Trump campaigned on ending America’s involvement in foreign wars, yet he has shown willingness to conduct limited foreign military operations, including his direct bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities in June. The U.S. is cursed with a lack of will to use its power, so the president’s threats will likely prove hollow and will not weaken Iran’s radical regime. In fact, the Bible prophesies Iran will grow more powerful and belligerent.
Following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit with U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, optimism was in the air. Zelenskyy agreed to give in on several points of a peace deal; Trump agreed to visit Ukraine to petition parliament to part with some territories; even Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared on board after a phone call with Trump before the meeting. The war’s end is “closer than ever,” President Trump announced. But then Ukraine launched 91 drones at Putin’s residence in Novgorod in an assassination attempt. As a result, Russia said it needed to be “more rigid” in negotiations, and the hopes for peace were dashed. On Wednesday, however, the cia confirmed what Russia-watchers had suspected from the start: The drone attack never occurred. Ukraine vehemently denied carrying it out, and Russia could not produce a shred of evidence proving it (unless you count comically bad AI fabrications). Clearly this was yet another instance of Putin feigning engagement with peace efforts while manufacturing a pretext to reject them and keep killing. To understand why the efforts continue to fail, read “The Roadblock to Peace.”
German military planners view recent Russian cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns as the start of war, a confidential government document seen by Politico says. The 24-page Operational Plan for Germany covers Germany’s plan to defend its land against Russia and logistic plans for moving allied forces. It lists five escalation phases “ranging from early threat detection and deterrence to national defense, nato collective defense and post-conflict recovery,” Politico reports. Germany sees itself in the first phase of escalation now. According to Bible prophecy, Berlin will eventually fight Russia, but not before destroying its English-speaking allies.
As United States forces remain in position to strike the regime of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, the Wall Street Journal and others are recognizing that the conflict actually involves China. In December, the U.S. Navy enacted a quarantine of sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers, but China called the action a blockade that violates international law. In an article posted yesterday, the Journal pointed out that “Beijing recently sent a provocative message when state media showed a war game simulation in the Western Hemisphere.” Why is China intervening in a seemingly unrelated struggle 10,000 miles away? In the last eight years, 24 South American nations have joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and many of them conduct more trade with China than with any other nation. China has invested tens of billions to replace American influence, and its intervention in the Western Hemisphere is prophesied to culminate in a siege of America.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he is withdrawing the National Guard from Chicago, L.A. and Portland. This comes after the Supreme Court declined to overrule lower court injunctions against the deployments and “despite the fact that crime has been greatly reduced by having these great patriots in those cities,” the president wrote. His social media post said it’s only a question of time before crime spikes again and he redeploys the National Guard. Despite this legal setback, expect the president’s sway over the Supreme Court to grow.
Since 2015, the number of Britons and Welsh who admitted to using ketamine in the past month increased 252 percent, the Guardian reported Tuesday, the largest increase in the usage of any drug during that time, and a burden on hospitals. Ketamine, created to relieve pain and sedate, is increasingly being used recreationally. Alison Downey, a consultant urologist in South Yorkshire, said, “We’re already stretched really thin as it is, and it’s been a massive increase that we’re just not equipped for.” The rise of recreational drug use will have devastating consequences.
Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping pledged during his annual New Year’s Eve speech in Beijing to bring Taiwan under control of the Chinese Communist Party. The speech came just as China concluded its “Justice Mission 2025” military drills at locations around Taiwan, with its forces operating closer to the island than in any previous exercises. It also follows a Pentagon report published last month saying China will attain the military capacity to capture Taiwan by the end of 2027. Xi’s speech made clear that he feels emboldened by the gains of his ally Russian President Vladimir Putin against Ukraine and by the decision of the United States not to halt Putin’s imperialism. “The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable,” he said. The Trumpet maintains that due to America’s weak will, the Chinese Communist Party will make good on its pledge to seize Taiwan.
The Israeli government reported that 3,300 Jews fled France for Israel in 2025, a 45 percent increase over 2024. Another 3,500 left the United States for Israel. Why? One major reason is the sharp rise in anti-Semitism in these countries and around the world. France recorded 646 anti-Semitic incidents in the first six months of 2025 alone, according to the French Ministry of the Interior. To understand why anti-Semitism is increasing, read “We Need to Talk About Anti-Semitism.”
Zohran Mamdani became the first mayor of New York City to be sworn in on the Koran at a landmark inauguration ceremony, which took place shortly after midnight on January 1. Mamdani actually used two copies of the Islamic holy book for the ceremony, one belonging to his grandfather and another centuries-old copy on loan from the New York Public Library. This represents a major shift in American culture. The U.S. Muslim population has more than doubled in the last 20 years as the younger generation gives up on Christianity and turns not only to atheism and agnosticism, but even to Islam and other religions and spirituality.
On Tuesday, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that President Trump has the legal authority to ban Medicaid payments to abortion organizations. July’s “Big Beautiful Bill” banned Medicaid payments beyond $800,000 for these organizations and affected 22 states, plus Washington, D.C. Planned Parenthood claims these cuts have caused 20 of their facilities to close. A lower court had blocked the Trump administration, but the First Circuit Court decision is one of several key court decisions, particularly in the Supreme Court, that will empower President Trump. To learn about the judiciary’s role in supporting the president, read Chapter 10 of America Under Attack.
The United States federal government is moving toward holding the Minnesota government accountable for allegedly funding radical Islamic terrorism in Somalia with taxpayer dollars. Yesterday, James Comer, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, announced the group will hold “Part 1” of a hearing concerning the fraud next week. This announcement came a day after Jim O’Neill, deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced a pause on federal taxpayer funding to Minnesota. Though these actions are unlikely to properly bring the perpetrators to justice, this story does illustrate the fulfillment of a prophesied trend. The Bible foretold President Trump’s return and said he would lead an American resurgence, during which many of the nation’s evils would be exposed and stopped.
In 2024, $5.8 billion in taxpayer funds went to “questionable” rental assistance recipients, the New York Post reported Wednesday. The article, citing a December 18 report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, stated that 30,000 “deceased tenants” and “thousands” of potential noncitizens received payments in the last year of Joe Biden’s term. Though funds were sent to dead recipients in all 50 states, California, New York and Washington, D.C. received a “large concentration” of suspicious funds. An estimated 82 percent of these recipients received more money than allowed. The department plans to further investigate the scale of the fraud and perhaps pause funding or make criminal referrals. This is yet another example of the evils being exposed during the prophesied American resurgence.
What media is calling “Iran’s largest protests in three years” exploded this week amid soaring inflation and other economic woes. Merchants, students and others are shouting, “Death to Khamenei,” and “Death to the dictator,” aiming their grievances at the highest levels of Iran’s regime. Iran’s short-term political future appears shaky, but just as it did throughout the Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran and its proxies earlier this year, the Trumpet emphasizes that Iran itself and radical Islam overall will increase in power, not decrease. This is due to a prophecy in Daniel 11: Iran is “the king of the south.”
Did Ukraine try to assassinate Vladimir Putin? Or is Putin lying to derail the peace talks? Russia’s foreign ministry said on Monday that 91 Ukrainian long-range drones had been shot down over Putin’s residence. Russia has produced no proof, however. “Analysts and independent Russian outlets have argued that the claim remained highly dubious, given the lack of any footage, local reports of air defense activity or debris from the incident,” noted the Telegraph. “Earlier reports by Russia’s defense minister conflicted with Mr Lavrov’s statements.” It looks like Putin has no intention of making peace, and is instead looking for a way of ending the talks while blaming Ukraine for their failure.
The head of the Swiss armed forces, Thomas Suessli, said in an interview published Saturday that Switzerland cannot “defend against threats from a distance or even a full-scale attack on our country.” He said that “in a real emergency, only a third of all soldiers would be fully equipped.” Switzerland has moderately increased military spending, but only at a pace that will make it fully functional around 2050. Suessli said that is far too slow and that Switzerland’s neutral status won’t necessarily protect it should war come. “Neutrality only has value if it can be defended with weapons,” he argued. Suessli is particularly fearful of the Russian threat. The Bible prophesies that Europe will continue militarizing, and that its first target will not be Russia.
Latvia just finished a 174-mile fence along its Russian border. Lithuania is beginning its border fortifications, including preparing key bridges close to its borders with Russia and Belarus for demolition. This digging in is another concrete proof of how fearful Europeans are becoming. 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!” Watch for the imminent fulfillment of this key Bible prophecy.
According to a new definition, 75 percent of Americans are obese. Researchers from Harvard, Yale and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center claim the older body mass index definition under-measured obesity rates by putting them at just 40 percent. The proposed new criteria expands to include measurements of fat tissue and the waist. This multi-measure approach gives a wider picture of how serious America’s obesity crisis is. Its causes: inactivity, poor food quality and rejection of God’s agricultural laws.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency published images on December 25 of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting what they claim is the nation’s first nuclear-powered submarine. “We regard the super-powerful offensive capability as the best shield for national security in developing the armed forces,” Kim was quoted as saying. If the claims are accurate, North Korea now poses a much more dangerous strategic threat. Only China, France, India, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom are known to currently operate these advanced vessels. Nuclear-powered submarines can sustain higher speeds for longer periods than diesel-electric models, are far quieter, can stay submerged for months, and can launch nuclear missiles from hidden locations—perhaps the most important capability for nuclear deterrence, counterstrikes and surprise attacks.
