In Other News
Yesterday, Cuban officials reported an island-wide blackout as the country’s severe energy and economic crisis worsened. Cuba’s aging power grid has deteriorated markedly in recent years, resulting in frequent outages well before the U.S. restricted Venezuelan oil deliveries through sanctions, enforcement actions and the executive order in late January that authorizes tariffs on goods from other nations that supply oil to Cuba. In exchange for easing or lifting sanctions, the U.S. is demanding the release of political prisoners and concrete steps toward political and economic reform. President Donald Trump has stated that he wants to conclude U.S. military operations related to Iran before devoting full attention to Cuba, but many believe that Cuba’s current dictator, Miguel Díaz-Canel, will lose power before 2026 is out.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi have reopened a direct communications channel, Axios reported on Monday, citing a U.S. official and a source familiar with the matter. If true, it is the first known communication between the two since the war began. Some, especially in Israel, fear that the Trump administration is willing to fight only until Iran is willing to talk on U.S. terms. Yet as long as Iran remains capable of fighting, it remains a threat to Israel and the world.
Israel has spent approximately $7 billion on its military during the first two weeks of the current war with Iran; this figure does not include economic disruptions, lost productivity or damaged infrastructure from Iran’s counterattacks. Israel has a powerful military but lacks a large manufacturing base and relies heavily on weapons and supplies imports. For the past several decades, Israel’s main sponsor has been the United States, but a growing number of Americans are demanding that their politicians not only wind down the current war but stop sponsoring Israel altogether. Bible prophecy indicates Israel will be looking for a new sponsor soon—to its own detriment.
“Latin America is not just anyone’s backyard,” German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stated during his first visit to Panama on Monday. His comment was clearly directed at the United States, following President Donald Trump’s reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine and capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in January. Steinmeier is also visiting Guatemala and Mexico this week to promote economic partnerships—and, ultimately, to turn Latin America into Germany’s backyard.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that President Trump’s war against Iran is losing him the support of young Americans. More young voters cast a presidential ballot for Donald Trump in 2024 than any other Republican candidate in 20 years. But a Washington Post-abc-Ipsos poll of 2,589 adults last month said 70 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds disapproved of the way Trump “is handling his job as president.” This could prove disastrous in the upcoming midterm elections. Only 51 percent of 2024 Trump voters in this age group said they are certain to vote this fall, compared to 77 percent of those who voted for Democrat Kamala Harris. An interactive Washington Post poll of about 1,000 people released a week ago found young voters are the most likely to disapprove of Operation Epic Fury.
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.
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.
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.
