In Other News
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng used his speech at the World Economic Forum yesterday to call on the nations of the world to boost trade with China. “We encourage businesses from around the world to seize the opportunities presented by our expanding domestic demand, provide more and better products and services, and further explore China’s consumer market,” said He, adding that “China will open its door still wider to the world.” The statement comes during a time of increasing tensions between the United States and many of its trade partners in Europe over American threats to seize Greenland—tensions China is eager to exploit. In an indirect criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump, He said, “The unilateral acts and trade deals of certain countries clearly violate the fundamental principles and rules of the [World Trade Organization] and severely impact the global economic and trade order.” They threaten to send the world back into “the law of the jungle, where the strong bully the weak,” he added. Biblical prophecy shows that a China-led economic alliance will soon emerge to systematically shut the U.S. out of global trade.
The European Parliament slowed down the approval process for the recently signed EU-mercosur trade deal today by voting, 334 to 324, to refer it to the Court of Justice of the European Union to assess whether it is compatible with EU treaties. The court could take over a year to rule—a significant delay for the massive and controversial treaty. However, the European Commission can put the deal into force provisionally without waiting for the court to rule. The deal continues to face significant opposition within Europe, but elites and powerful nations are determined to push it through. Bible prophecy shows that such a trade alliance will lead to a comprehensive and sophisticated economic siege against the United States. Decades ago, the Plain Truth under Herbert W. Armstrong identified these prophecies as pointing to “two gigantic trade blocs, Europe and Latin America ….” Continue to watch the approval process for the EU-mercosur deal. It may encounter yet more resistance, but Germany is committed to putting it into effect.
Italy will not join President Trump’s Board of Peace, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported today. Italy’s constitution states that it will join international organizations only “on equal terms with other states,” and American dominance of the board fails that test. Of all the major European powers, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is on the best terms with Donald Trump, so if her nation declines to join the board, who in Europe will? This is yet another sign that Europe has turned against America.
Timothy Broglio, the Catholic archbishop of the United States armed forces, said during a bbc interview posted on Sunday that if the U.S. orders servicemen to invade Greenland, it would be difficult for them to disobey such orders, but “strictly speaking, he or she would be—within the realm of their own conscience—it would be morally acceptable to disobey that order. But that’s perhaps putting that individual in an untenable situation, and that’s my concern.” Matters of faith are sensitive subjects, but Broglio’s comments can be interpreted as license to reject orders from the current administration. More importantly, this is symptomatic of a deeper division between the Vatican and the Anglo-American tradition. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s article “Should the King Pray With the Pope?” explains.
Media released excerpts on Sunday from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s upcoming memoir, Where We Keep the Light. In 2024, Shapiro was a top contender for presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential pick. In his book, he claims that one of Harris’s staff members vetting him for the vice presidency asked him if he had ever “been a double agent for Israel” and if he had “ever communicated with an undercover agent of Israel.” Shapiro, who is Jewish, was also asked if he would walk back his criticism of university rioters who supported Hamas. Harris ended up choosing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate instead. Shapiro’s experience further indicates one can’t be a pro-Israel Jew in the modern Democratic Party.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced yesterday that she will dissolve parliament on Friday, clearing the way for a snap election on February 8 that will likely convert her strong public approval into gains for her Liberal Democratic Party. Takaichi’s government has sustained popularity ratings of around 70 percent ever since she became Japan’s first female prime minister in October. If her election bid is successful, the LDP’s single-party majority that was lost under her predecessor will be restored. With a reclaimed majority, Takaichi would have the leverage needed to hasten Japan’s already-brisk remilitarization. “I am putting my future as prime minister on the line,” she told reporters. “I want the people to decide directly whether they can entrust the management of the country to me.”
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev resigned today, highlighting the nation’s political deadlock. The legislature, which is constitutionally scheduled for one election every four years, is now heading for its fifth snap election in less than four years. Radev’s announcement fuels speculation that he will run in the coming election, perhaps by forming a new political party. “A battle for the future of the fatherland lies ahead,” Radev said. “We are ready; we can and we will succeed.” Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 and adopted the euro on January 1 of this year. The country is located on the Balkan Peninsula, an area of great strategic importance to Germany. While Bulgaria’s political future remains uncertain, watch Germany’s efforts to intervene in its politics and expand its geopolitical control in this crucial strategic area.
At the end of 2025, 184,200 military personnel were serving in the active ranks of the German Armed Forces, an increase of about 3,000 soldiers. The Defense Ministry reported this week that the number of volunteer military service members also rose last year to 12,200, up from 10,300 in 2024. Germany plans to increase its active-duty force to 260,000 by the mid-2030s; however, current recruitment numbers are far too small to achieve this goal. As demands on the military increase, the government is considering more aggressive recruitment measures. Bible prophecy reveals that these will dramatically transform Germany.
The German Air Force is considering acquiring the Rostock-Laage airport for its Tactical Air Force Wing 73 “Steinhoff” air base. Over the last year, Germany has repurposed much civilian industry for military production. This is part of a bigger trend, as Mr. Flurry explained in “Germany is Arming for World War III.”
On Sunday, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo declared a state of siege because of gang-related violence. On Saturday, inmates held 46 prison guards hostage, likely to secure better accommodations for the imprisoned leaders of the Barrio 18 gang. The guards were freed using force, but then seven police officers were murdered throughout the nation’s capital. The state of siege, similar to martial law, gives the government increased powers to abridge certain rights temporarily. Guatemala is the latest South American country to crack down on gangs. Last week, Costa Rica built a new prison for gang members, and the government of El Salvador has taken drastic actions to try to combat the power of the gangs and cartels. But the only solution to out-of-control violent crime is to address the root causes.
Iran is engulfed in protests that could finally overturn the Iranian Revolution. President Trump’s Board of Peace promises to rewrite the rules for the entire Middle East. And Britain’s Royal Navy is nowhere to be seen. The minesweeper hms Middleton, Britain’s only vessel in the region, is now set to return home. Former First Sea Lord Adm. Lord Alan West warned that Britain’s absence from the Persian Gulf “is a terrible error.” It is the latest in a series of humiliations for the Royal Navy. Britain’s poor decision-making, lack of will and the curses hitting the nation are leaving it vulnerable.
This comes despite warnings from the Trump administration and others about the obvious problems with China building its largest diplomatic complex in Europe, including extensive underground construction, directly above and near fiber-optic cables that carry much of London’s sensitive financial information. White House sources said the administration is “deeply concerned” about the plans. This morning, President Trump also condemned Britain’s decision to hand the Diego Garcia military base to China’s ally, Mauritius, as “an act of great stupidity” and an “act of total weakness.” Britain, like Canada, is drawing dangerously close to China, even at the expense of its relationship with the U.S. and the obvious dangers to its own security. It is high time the West woke up to the threat from China.
Israel began demolishing the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (unrwa) in Jerusalem. Israel banned the organization’s activities within Israel in 2024 due to its well-documented complicity in helping Hamas attack Israel and evicted all employees of its Jerusalem headquarters earlier this month. Yet the world still frames unrwa’s work in the Holy Land as kind-hearted humanitarianism facing an evil Israeli occupation. Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s commissioner general, called this “an unprecedented attack against a United Nations agency and its premises.” This bluster surrounding the demolition is the latest example of the UN’s thorough hypocrisy.
Radio Free Europe headlined Wednesday that “Maduro Is Gone From Venezuela, but Russia May Not Be.” The publication details how Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime spent two decades cultivating personal relationships with a whole cast of Venezuela’s military, political and energy leaders and establishing commercial ties with a range of business moguls. Even with Nicolás Maduro removed, “these links are unlikely to disappear overnight,” the article states. The conclusion is reinforced by the fact that the United States’ capture of Maduro on January 3 did not bring about regime change but left Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, in power. She has long maintained warm relations with the Kremlin and, in 2024, was awarded Russia’s prestigious “Order of Friendship” by Putin himself. Though the U.S. operation was a blow to Russian power in Venezuela, deep Russian roots remain. The Kremlin will seize any opportunity to deepen those and to continue projecting power into the Western Hemisphere, about 1,700 miles from the U.S. mainland. To understand how foreign influence in Latin America will be weaponized against the U.S., read “Preparing to Storm America’s Castle.”
On Friday, Italy’s government introduced its “Italian Arctic Policy” document, highlighting the region’s economic and strategic importance. “Italy is convinced that the Arctic must always be a priority of the EU and NATO, and that the Atlantic alliance must seize the opportunity to develop a coordinated presence in the region,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated Friday, going on to say that her Mediterranean nation considers the polar territory “a central and strategic region for Italy ….” The new document contains 50 pages labeling the U.S. push to acquire Greenland a threat. Europe’s increasingly assertive interest in the Arctic is a direct geopolitical push against the United States, and Bible prophecy warns that it will not be the only one.
Syria and the nation’s main Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, announced a ceasefire yesterday. The previous day, Syrian forces announced that they had captured communities in Syrian Kurdistan and Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo. These conquests came in spite of pressure from the United States on Syrian forces to stand down. The ceasefire’s provisions allow the Syrian government to take control of Syrian Kurdistan. This is the same Syrian government that is still being empowered by U.S. President Donald Trump. As Trumpet executive editor Stephen Flurry wrote in November, sponsoring Syria is leading to a “prophesied betrayal.”
Amid growing anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom, a personal attorney to President Trump revealed on Sunday that the U.S. State Department is considering offering asylum to British Jews. In an interview with the Telegraph, Robert Garson pointed to a terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue in October and to widespread Jew-hatred emerging in Britain after Hamas massacred 1,200 men, women and children on Oct. 7, 2023. “When I look at what is going on with Jews in Britain, and when I look at the changing demographics, I don’t believe—and I have discussed this with people in the Trump administration—that there is a future for Jews in the United Kingdom,” Garson said. “For me, that is particularly sad.”
Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to five years in prison today on charges that included the use of government forces to block his own arrest following his failed attempt to impose martial law in 2024. Yoon’s declaration of martial law to supposedly thwart “anti-state forces” within the government stunned the nation and plunged it into its worst political crisis in decades. Hours later, the parliament voted 190-0 to reverse it on the grounds that Yoon was only trying to protect himself from impeachment. He blocked the enforcement of a court-issued arrest warrant with hundreds of presidential security officers, and he attempted to do the same when a second warrant was issued, but was finally arrested by police. Today’s conviction marks the start of an unprecedented reckoning in South Korean history, with Yoon still facing other charges, including insurrection and a possible death sentence. While democracy is better than other human systems of government, South Korea’s crisis underscores the fact that even this system is fundamentally inadequate for justly governing mankind. To understand the only government that truly works, read “Democracy Is Dying.”
Chinese universities have pushed Harvard down to the world’s No. 3 spot, according to Leiden University’s 2025 rankings. Furthermore, eight of the world’s top 10 universities are now Chinese. The reason for this evaluation is that Chinese universities are producing more research than their American counterparts. According to Rafael Reif, a former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the number of papers from China dwarfs what the U.S. produces. The decline of America’s educational institutions is a symptom of the country’s overall decline in the wake of China’s rise, a trend the Trumpet has warned about for decades.
Several stories are out that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the United States to delay or halt any attacks on Iran. The reports say the reason was that Israel is unprepared to handle an Iranian counterattack on its homeland. While Netanyahu may have asked the U.S. to reconsider strikes, it’s unlikely the reason was unpreparedness: Israel has spent the past six months since Iran’s most recent ballistic missile attacks bracing itself for another round. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that President Trump didn’t attack because several inside his cabinet said a single strike couldn’t guarantee regime change. All could be smoke and mirrors, especially since Israel’s Mossad director arrived in the U.S. this morning, reportedly to discuss potential action on Iran. We watch and wait.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is moving from the South China Sea toward the Arabian Sea as tensions between the U.S. and Iran rise. The Pentagon announced yesterday that the aircraft carrier and its strike group, which includes fighter jets, guided missile destroyers, support vessels and at least one attack submarine, would steam westward after advisers informed President Trump that the U.S. military needs more troops and equipment in the Middle East to launch any large-scale strike while still protecting U.S. forces in the region from retaliation.
Last year’s laureate for the Nobel Peace Prize, María Corina Machado, visited the White House yesterday, where she gifted U.S. President Donald Trump her prize. Machado, the leader of the opposition to Venezuela’s regime, told the media it was “a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.” Trump called the medal “a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.” The Norwegian Nobel Committee considers the prize nontransferable, but Machado probably hopes the gesture will result in her receiving a position in Venezuela’s new government structure now that President Trump has arrested former dictator Nicolás Maduro. Trump has claimed he should win the prize for all of his peace deals over the past year, but as the Trumpet has explained, his peacemaking has a fatal flaw.
Health Minister Josie Osborne announced Wednesday that the Canadian province will let a program that decriminalized hard drug use expire at the end of the month. “The pilot hasn’t delivered the results that we hoped for,” she said. The province operated the first government-supervised injection site in the world and allowed possession and use of up to 2.5 grams of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and mdma. The expiration of this “pioneering” program shows that letting people have drugs is not the way to win the war on drugs.
Russia’s alliance with North Korea has transformed the latter into East Asia’s most “combat-ready” force, Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, told reporters on Monday. North Korea has given significant support to Russia’s war effort against Ukraine, including transfers of munitions and deployments of troops. The arrangement gives North Korea the benefit of battlefield experience as well as Russian weapons technology and training. The alliance has dramatically strengthened North Korea’s military power and reached a “no limits” level, Brunson said. The Bible prophesies of a colossal multinational Asian force, led by Russia, that will include China and several smaller Asian countries such as North Korea. That is why the Trumpet continues to monitor the strengthening military relationship between Russia and North Korea.
The British government has revoked Dutch journalist Eva Vlaadingerbroek’s electronic travel authorization, effectively banning her from the United Kingdom. She has criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for his attacks on free speech and tolerance of migrant rape gangs. In issuing the ban, the government told her, “Your presence in the UK is not considered to be conducive to the public good.” The contrast is stark: The governing Labour Party will allow in almost unlimited numbers of anti-British and anti-Semitic foreign migrants to stay indefinitely, but it will not allow a visit from a journalist critical of such policies.
Robert Jenrick was abruptly sacked today, accused of plotting to defect to Nigel Farage’s Reform party. Jenrick is not a minor figure: He narrowly missed becoming leader of the Conservative Party in 2024. Jenrick had dinner with Farage last month and was apparently negotiating the best exit he could. He’s the most senior of a string of Conservatives defecting. Reform’s rise may provide a temporary resurgence for Britain at some point, but the chaos and drama point to wider political dysfunction in the UK.
