In Other News
A drone strike killed a French soldier and injured six others in Iraq Thursday night. Though the perpetrator of the attack is unknown, pro-Iran group Ashab al-Kahf said early on Friday: “We announce from this night that all French interests in Iraq and the region will be under fire from our attacks.” French President Emmanuel Macron called the attack “unacceptable” and said, “The war in Iran cannot justify such attacks.” Though Macron insisted France will maintain a defensive approach to the war in the Middle East, Bible prophecy says a time is coming when Europe will strike back against Iran’s aggression on a far greater scale.
United States Central Command struck more than 90 Iranian military targets on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf on March 13, but notably spared oil and energy infrastructure there, likely out of concern for rising global oil prices. Iran exports about 90 percent of its oil from facilities on this one island. President Trump said that if Iran continues to threaten oil and other shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, the military would strike the oil infrastructure as well—but this, like Iran’s targeting of shipping, would spike energy prices around the world.
President Donald Trump has said nato nations may help the U.S. protect ships from Iranian terror in the Strait of Hormuz, but he is not getting his hopes up. “If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response,” he said, “I think it will be very bad for the future of nato.” Britain and Germany have balked at direct involvement in the war, but the president is trying to get help from other nations. Daniel 11:40 speaks of Europe as the end-time “king of the north” launching a “whirlwind” attack against the end-time “king of the south,” led by Iran. As Iran threatens the Europeans’ energy supplies, watch for Europe to make further strategic deployments encircling Iran.
Thousands of Iranians celebrated their nation’s regime in an anti-Israel rally in the capital city on Friday. The celebration was part of Quds Day, a government-sponsored event held on the last Friday of the Islamist Ramadan observance. Stories like this, among other factors, indicate that the regime’s rule is far from over, as forecast by Bible prophecy and explained by Gerald Flurry in The King of the South.
On Sunday, France’s far-right Rassemblement National and the leftist socialist party, France Unbowed, performed well in mayoral and city council elections and will remain significant contenders to win in the second round on March 22. That’s despite Marine Le Pen of the Rassemblement National being banned from public office for five years and accusations of anti-Semitism being raised against Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France Unbowed. The center-right Horizons party also performed well. All parties participate in the first round of elections, making it an important bellwether for the 2027 presidential election. They indicate France, like most of the rest of Europe, is in for still more political gridlock. Bible prophecy shows that democracy is on its deathbed in Europe and will soon be replaced by autocratic rule.
Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (bka) celebrated its 75th anniversary on Saturday. Deutsche Welle reviewed its history, writing that it was “dominated for decades by men with Nazi pasts.” The bka’s website states: “Until the late 1960s, the agency was shaped primarily by leaders who had been socialized under National Socialism.” DW wrote, “Whether it was the judiciary, the military or spy agencies the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the Federal Intelligence Service (bnd)—all of the arms of the government in the early years of the new Federal Republic were riddled with former Nazis.” The Nazi infiltration of postwar Germany is by now well documented, but the article, like most people, moves on without asking what this means for modern Germany. Herbert W. Armstrong forecast that this would happen. These men infiltrated Germany with the aim of keeping the Nazi spirit alive and reviving German power. Read more in “The Nazi Underground” in He Was Right.
On Friday, Merz visited Norway’s Andoya Spaceport, from which German startup Isar Aerospace plans to launch a rocket later this month. While there, the chancellor met with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who stated cooperation between the nations will “help Europe to achieve its goal of being at the forefront of the space industry.” Andoya Spaceport, as one of the few European sites that can facilitate rocket launches, will help Germany achieve its military goals in space.
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.
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.
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.
