In Other News
Finance ministers from the European Union’s six largest economies want an EU-wide regulator to help unify their banking systems, according to a letter to the European Commission, seen by the Financial Times this week. This comes ahead of a meeting next week aimed at trying to make the EU more financially competitive. In effect, this means member countries may cede some control of their financial institutions to the German-led bloc.
Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new head, vowed revenge against the United States and Israel yesterday in a statement read on Iranian state television. Khamenei threatened to open new fronts of attack “where the enemy has little experience and is highly vulnerable.” He said, “Every citizen killed by the enemy is a case for vengeance in itself.” Khamenei is the son of Iran’s assassinated supreme leader. He is rumored to have been seriously injured in an air strike, but neither that fact nor proof of life has yet been established. Khamenei is even more radical than his father and was installed with the support of the radical Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Trumpet has identified Bible prophecy showing that Iran’s radical Islamist regime will remain in power, despite what many believe, and we expect the current war will further radicalize Iran.
Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party chose staunch Catholic Przemysław Czarnek to lead the party in next year’s parliamentary election. Czarnek is known for his far-right populist views and supports the European Union far less than the current prime minister, Donald Tusk. Bible prophecy states that Europe is about to shift strongly back into Catholicism under German dominance.
On Thursday, an armed man rammed his vehicle filled with explosives into the Temple Israel synagogue near Detroit, Michigan. One security guard was injured, but security staff, who had recently been trained to defend against attacks, engaged and killed the attacker. No injuries have been reported among the 140 children and teachers who were inside the synagogue’s childhood center. This is the fourth attack on a synagogue in North America since the Iran war began and highlights the unfortunate reality that anti-Semitism is on the rise around the world.
Gas prices have risen to $3.60 per gallon in the United States, and 48 percent of Americans responding to a Morning Consult poll posted on Wednesday by Axios say President Trump is most responsible. The actual cause of increasing prices is Iran’s deadly attacks on civilian cargo ships, but this adds more pressure on the Trump administration to end the unpopular war without fully removing or neutralizing Iran’s regime.
Israeli officials and other experts have verified that Iran is firing cluster munitions on Israel, which burst into numerous smaller warheads before impact. Cluster munitions are banned by more than 100 countries, although neither Iran nor Israel joined the ban. The strikes multiply the indiscriminate destruction on the ground, not only escalating the conflict but also highlighting an ominous trend.
Spain terminated the position of ambassador to Israel yesterday until further notice, six months after recalling its ambassador as a condemnation of the Israeli government. The Spanish Embassy in Israel will now be led by a charge d’affaires. In 2024, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez explained diplomatic actions against Israel by saying that his country “doesn’t have nuclear bombs, nor aircraft carriers or large oil reserves. We alone can’t stop the Israeli offensive,” implying that Spain would use such measures against Israel. Catholic Spain infamously converted, expelled or killed virtually all Spanish Jews, and Judaism was illegal in the country until 1968. The current boldness of this same nation against Israel reveals the surge in Jew-hatred rising around the world—and the falseness of those who say they don’t hate Jews, only the Israeli government. Leaders like Sánchez hold the government of the Jewish state to a standard no other country in the world is expected to meet. Read “Spain Hates Israel” for more information.
Germany overtook China as the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported on Monday. It is now responsible for 5.7 percent of global exports, almost 25 percent of which went to Ukraine and 17 percent of which went to other European nations. German weapons manufacturing, which has been central not only to the nation’s defense and economy but also to its foreign policy, is rapidly becoming an even more powerful tool in the impressive rise of the German war machine.
Germany’s largest automaker reported a 53.5 percent drop in operating profit, the company’s worst result in a decade, and will be forced to lay off 15,000 employees by 2030 due to tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump. Even after current budget cuts, closures of factories and layoffs of 35,000 employees, Volkswagen Group expects revenue to stagnate or grow by a mere 3 percent at most this year. These significant consequences for a major aspect of Germany’s industry, economy and pride are causing growing animosity toward the U.S.
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that he thinks there is no plan to bring the war in Iran to a “swift and convincing conclusion” and that Germany does not want the conflict to be endless. Merz’s rhetoric on the war has been noticeably diplomatic, but this statement reminds the U.S. and Israel that Germany has its own interests in the region. These include an uninterrupted flow of oil and gas.
Israeli officials fear the Trump administration’s idea of victory against Iran may be different from theirs, according to the Jerusalem Post. President Trump’s March 9 comment that the war is “very complete” raised concerns that the U.S. may end its strikes soon. In June, the U.S. followed Israeli preemptive strikes and bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities, then ended its operation and pressured Israel to conclude its operations, with President Trump hastening to characterize it as “the 12-day war.” Over the past 10 days, the U.S. and Israel have applied far greater force and weakened Iran significantly, but Iran’s blockage of international oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz appears to be motivating the president to declare victory and stop the attack. But a premature drawdown would leave Iran in a position to continually threaten the world—just as we forecast at the start of this war.
Pakistan’s navy announced Monday that it would escort its merchant marine vessels through the Strait of Hormuz “to ensure the uninterrupted flow of national energy supplies.” Pakistan heavily depends on energy imports from countries like Qatar, and Iran’s attempts to close the strait constitute a national security emergency. This is just one example of the wider consequences of threatening the strait and what some nations are willing to do to keep it open.
On Monday, state investigators began searching a secluded luxury ranch in Stanley, New Mexico, where the late child rapist and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein entertained many wealthy and powerful guests. The New Mexico attorney general’s office announced that the search was being done with the cooperation of the current ranch owners. Evidence may exist at the ranch relating to Epstein’s decades of trafficking children for sex.
Turkish opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu appeared in court for his first hearing yesterday. He faces more than 140 charges ranging from academic fraud to corruption to organized crime to treason and terrorism, carrying a maximum sentence of 2,430 years. İmamoğlu denies any wrongdoing and says President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is using the accusations to disqualify him so he can remain in power. It does fit a pattern of authoritarianism from Turkey’s leader, yet Turkey remains a member of nato. Surprisingly, an increasing number of people around the world find dictatorial leadership appealing, which the Bible warns is an ominous trend.
The first batch of 354 Croatian conscripts reported for duty for two months of military training on Monday. In the future, up to 4,000 Croatian men deemed fit for service between the ages of 19 and 29 may be conscripted annually. Rising nationalism in Croatia, including the resumption of conscription after its abolition in 2008, highlights that Europe is preparing for war.
Iraqi militias backed by Iran have launched dozens of small-scale drone and rocket attacks against American positions since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. U.S. officials have said the Iran war is spilling across the border and drawing forces back into the country even as the U.S. tries to vacate Iraq. Bible prophecy indicates that Iran will dominate Iraq as end-time events unfold, as Gerald Flurry has warned for decades. Renewed attacks in Iraq show this prophecy has already been fulfilled.
Two young men who threw two makeshift explosive devices into a crowd in New York City on March 7 have been charged with terrorism. Ibrahim Kayumi and Emir Balat, ages 19 and 18, of Turkish and of Afghan descent, grew up in upper-middle-class homes. They assembled and ignited devices containing high explosives and bolts meant to rip through people’s bodies. The bombs failed to explode as intended among people at a protest outside the mayor’s residence. The men praised Allah and said they were inspired by the Islamic State and wanted to kill more people than in the Boston Marathon bombing. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s statement began by focusing on the “white supremacist” protest organizer, conspicuously omitting the names of the would-be murderers and avoiding the word terrorism. Mainstream news headlines intentionally avoided the words “Islamic,” “terror” and “bomb.” The Islamist terrorist threat continues to exist within American society, yet politicians and news executives continue to obscure the truth. For more on how Islamic terror connects to the Bible, see “False Alarms, True Terror.”
The price of Brent crude climbed to over $100 a barrel over the weekend, in its biggest one-day jump since 2020, and up roughly 40 percent from before the war. Prices stabilized a little this morning after reports that the G-7 and the International Energy Agency would discuss the joint release of emergency reserves. Even if the Strait of Hormuz opened tomorrow, which is unlikely, it would take weeks for markets to return to normal. “10 days of Strait of Hormuz disruption = at least 60 days of pain to the energy flow in Asia,” wrote June Goh, a senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities. “And I am being optimistic here.” Increasing the cost of energy production and transport affects the cost of producing many other things, which can quickly increase general inflation. The price of oil rising faster than expected will add powerful pressure to wind down the war without truly removing Iran’s radical Islamist regime.
According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute published today, European countries more than tripled their arms imports from 2021 to 2025 compared to 2016 to 2020. Europe now accounts for 33 percent of global arms imports. “The sharp increase in arms flows to European states pushed global arms transfers up almost 10 percent,” said Mathew George, director of the sipri Arms Transfers Program. While European countries are investing heavily in their own arms industries, the data shows that they remain dependent on purchasing U.S. weapons platforms, such as combat aircraft and long-range air defense systems. Germany is leading Europe’s arming spree, which, as prophecy reveals, is a precursor to war.
The Greens came from behind to narrowly win the Baden-Württemberg election on Sunday, catapulting Cem Özdemir to the premiership and sending shock waves through German politics. It was supposed to be an easy win for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats, but their 29.7 percent of the vote was eclipsed by the Greens’ 30.2 percent. The Alternative für Deutschland won 18.8 percent, and the Social Democrats won 5.5 percent. Özdemir will become Germany’s first state premier with a migrant background: His parents migrated to Germany from Turkey as guest workers in the 1960s. As mainstream parties lose ground in Germany, the political landscape becomes increasingly fragmented. Watch for Germans to react by supporting a strong, centralized leader.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Cyprus today, as a growing armada of EU ships arrives to protect the islands from Hezbollah’s missiles. “This trip is intended to demonstrate France’s solidarity with Cyprus, a member state of the European Union, with which we have a strategic partnership,” the president’s office said ahead of the trip. The EU is using the Iran war to take greater control over this strategic island.
Amid Israel and America’s bombardment of Iran, several major Western cities have seen anti-Semitic attacks. Four men were arrested in Britain on Friday over suspicion of spying for Iran on Jewish targets in the London area. That night, unidentified gunmen targeted two synagogues in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. On Monday, an explosion occurred at a synagogue in Liège, Belgium. No injuries have been reported, but the spike in Jew hatred, including in countries not directly involved in the war, is part of a worrying global trend.
Donald Trump is the first recent president to wage war without first obtaining public support, the New York Times said on Friday, citing polls in which 27 to 41 percent of Americans supported aggressive strikes against Iran. Approval numbers historically tend to decrease as wars continue. President Trump has stated he will not be dissuaded due to poll numbers, an indication that he is wielding kingly powers.
On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed the heads of a dozen Latin American states to his Trump National Doral Miami golf resort in Florida for the inaugural summit of “Shield of the Americas,” announcing a new Americas Counter Cartel Coalition for combating drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere. This comes after the State Department began designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations a year ago, and with U.S. Southern Command announcing recently that it will train and mobilize the militaries of partner nations to help dismantle them.
On Friday the European Commission condemned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for calling on Hungarian President Viktor Orbán to talk with him in “their own language,” which Orbán viewed as threatening. Olaf Gill, a European Commission spokesman, said the remark was unacceptable, saying “there must not be threats against EU member states.”
Italy, Spain and the Netherlands announced yesterday that they would send naval assets to Cyprus to protect against Iranian strikes. Greece and France have already sent ships, including France’s aircraft carrier, to the area. These deployments signal that EU nations will reinforce each other, potentially with deadly force, without the need for nato and the U.S.
