In Other News
President Trump proposed to hike the Pentagon’s budget from $901 billion in 2025 to $1.5 trillion for 2027 yesterday. “This will allow us to build the ‘Dream Military’ that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us safe and secure, regardless of foe,” Trump posted on Truth Social. He added that he feels comfortable boosting spending on the military because of increased revenue brought in through tariffs. Yet the Penn Wharton Budget Model projects only $566 billion in conventional tariff revenue for 2027. A $600 billion increase in military spending would increase the federal government’s budget deficit, which currently represents about 6 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.
A Oreshnik missile struck western Ukraine this morning, only the second time the powerful weapon has been used in four years of warfare. The strike was part of a night of air attacks that killed several and knocked out power to the capital Kyiv and other areas. The Oreshnik is categorized as an intermediate-range ballistic missile and flies at up to 10 times the speed of sound. This one carried conventional explosives, but it is also designed to carry nuclear warheads. “It is absurd that Russia attempts to justify this strike with the fake ‘Putin residence attack’ that never happened,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha posted on X. “Putin uses an irbm near EU and nato border in response to his own hallucinations—this is truly a global threat. And it demands global responses.” As Russian aggression intensifies, watch for Europe to increasingly unify and militarize.
Iranians are heading toward a third week of unrest, as tens of thousands or perhaps millions continue to protest the regime, resulting in massive shows of open defiance, arson, violent clashes, thousands of arrests and dozens of deaths. Demonstrations have taken place in all 31 of the nation’s provinces, with protest sizes expanding in Kurdish-majority areas. The regime has blocked the Internet across the country and taken the rare move to deploy troops from its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. These protests could be a turning point in Iran’s political system, but the Bible prophesies that Iran will remain radically Islamic and forcefully belligerent.
The Lebanese military announced yesterday that the terrorist group Hezbollah has been completely disarmed in southern Lebanon and that the military now has operational control throughout the region, except for places controlled by the Israel Defense Forces. In a statement, Israel expressed concerns that “Hezbollah is rearming faster than it is being disarmed,” but called the Lebanese government’s actions “encouraging.” Hezbollah, backed by Iran, dominated Lebanon for decades, but Bible prophecy foretold its collapse. Expect Iran’s grip on Lebanon to continue to loosen—and for another power to seize even more power in Lebanon and to display even more aggression.
Reports have emerged this week that the long-standing leader of Saxony-Anhalt will resign. Reiner Haseloff, a member of the Christian Democratic Union, has led the German state since 2011. If the coalition agrees on Monday, his proposed successor, Sven Schulz, could succeed him as state premier. State legislators were slow to support Schulz, but that has changed due to fear of the far-right AfD party, which is now polling at nearly 40 percent in Saxony-Anhalt. Many fear the AfD could win the September election. Germany’s intractable state and federal political chaos is contributing to the emergence of a strong German leader.
Pope Leo spoke out against the persecution of Christians during his annual meeting of ambassadors to the Vatican. Christian persecution is affecting 380 million people, he said. “I would especially call to mind the many victims of violence, including religiously motivated violence in Bangladesh, in the Sahel region and in Nigeria, as well as those of the serious terrorist attack last June on the parish of Saint Elias in Damascus,” he said. “Nor do I forget the victims of jihadist violence in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.” He also expanded his warning beyond violent persecution: “At the same time, we must not forget a subtle form of religious discrimination against Christians, which is spreading even in countries where they are in the majority, such as in Europe or the Americas.” Watch for the Vatican to push Europe to become more Catholic and even more outspoken and belligerent as global religious conflicts intensify.
Australia is experiencing a brutal heat wave, with some southern cities recording temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Meteorologists say conditions are the worst in six years, when bushfires destroyed wide swaths of southeastern Australia in what became known as the Black Summer. Several fires are burning now, and three people are missing. Such temperatures are common in northern Australia, but relatively infrequent in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. For the significance of environmental disasters, read Why ‘Natural’ Disasters?
Reports have emerged that White House officials are currently discussing offering lump sum payments to Greenlanders to convince them to secede from Denmark and join the United States. According to four anonymous sources speaking to Reuters, White House aides have discussed figures ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 for each of the territory’s 57,000 people. Denmark, which technically controls the semiautonomous and strategically important landmass, has repeatedly told Donald Trump that Greenland is not for sale, but the Greenlandic people are working to organize an independence referendum for 2029. For more information on this trend, read “Buying Greenland Is Not as Crazy as It Sounds.”
A United States Customs and Border Protection agent wounded a detained motorist and a passenger in Portland, Oregon, yesterday, after the motorist reportedly tried to strike him with the vehicle. The Department of Homeland Security identified the female passenger as a Venezuelan who was in the U.S. illegally and connected to a Tren de Aragua prostitution ring. This comes after Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen who was part of an anti-federal “ice Watch” group, was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent while in her vehicle in the middle of an enforcement action. Thousands of protesters have demonstrated in Minneapolis, New York City, Phoenix and Portland, with some burning American flags and some chanting, “Save a life, kill an ice.” The Bible prophesies rioting, looting and civil war-like conditions in cities if Americans continue to rebel against God (Isaiah 1:7; Ezekiel 5:12). These incidents are warning signs of much greater internal conflicts to come.
Negotiations between the European Union and the trade bloc mercosur continue, and recent tweaks by the European Commission have enabled part of the deal to pass. By offering more funding for farmers in the 2028–2034 budget period and temporarily suspending tariffs on fertilizers, Italy gave its support, giving the EU enough votes to pass this aspect of the trade agreement. However, France is still opposed, and other aspects require unanimous consent from all member states. In the same week that President Trump made a strong move to counter anti-U.S. foreign influence in Venezuela and enforce the Monroe Doctrine, the Europeans have quietly taken important steps to bring Latin America into their trade empire. For more information on the significance of this deal, read “America Is Being Besieged Economically,” by Gerald Flurry.
Thousands of people attended a neofascist rally in Rome yesterday. The annual event, organized by admirers of 20th-century Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, commemorates the shooting of three neofascists by left-wing terrorists on Jan. 7, 1978. Hundreds at yesterday’s rally made Mussolini’s fascist salute, their right arms outstretched and hands open. The salute was perhaps the most iconic aspect of Mussolini’s movement to restore the Roman Empire. In the years leading up to and during World War II, Herbert W. Armstrong repeatedly warned that this restoration was prophesied in Revelation 17. Mussolini and Adolf Hitler represented the sixth resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire, and a seventh is prophesied to arise in our time. The current veneration of Mussolini in Italy, seen even among Italian leaders, shows that the fascist spirit is still alive.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending U.S. support for 66 organizations, including the United Nations’ population agency and the UN treaty that establishes international climate negotiations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The Trump administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms and general prosperity.” This marks a resurgence in American sovereignty, but unless Americans repent toward God, this show of strength will likely contribute to America’s isolation and downfall. To understand why, read The United States and Britain in Prophecy.
Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping hosted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Beijing on Monday, just one week after Chinese Communist Party forces conducted military drills around Taiwan. South Korea and Taiwan are U.S. allies, but Myung said he is aiming for a “new phase” in South Korea’s relationship with China and is seeking “feasible alternatives together for peace on the Korean Peninsula.” This is a significant open door to China and a mild rebuke of the U.S. Xi said he wants to “increase exchanges and maintain frequent communication” and for the two countries to “further align their development strategies … and achieve more cooperation results in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence.” Cooperation between Asian powers is prophesied in the Bible and explained in Russia and China in Prophecy, which states: “Watch for coming agreements between Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and others to harness the maverick North Korea and muscle the U.S. out of Oriental diplomacy in Korea and Taiwan.”
Africa’s first heavy-haul desert railway was completed on December 30, part of China’s global Belt and Road Initiative, Business Insider Africa reported, the “largest single infrastructure built by a Chinese firm in Algeria.” Some 360 miles of rail will now enable the transportation of an estimated 22 million tons of iron ore per year. China is buying economic power in developing countries like Algeria, part of an intensifying economic cold war that will soon turn deadly.
High school students spend 70 minutes on their phones during school, according to a study published by JAMA on Monday that analyzed 640 student phones from September 2022 to May 2024. Most of those 70 minutes were lost to social media and video games, despite nearly all schools claiming to have rules against such smartphone usage. Students with “problematic behavior” spent an average of 80 minutes on their phones during school. This is yet another study showing the negative fruits of smartphones, which the Trumpet has warned against for years.
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.”
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.
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.
