In Other News
“Washington did not consult us. We would have advised against it,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the Bundestag yesterday, regarding the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. Concerning U.S. President Donald Trump’s request to help block Iran from striking civilian container ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Merz reiterated that Germany won’t help as long as the war is ongoing, but he added: “If the conditions are right, we will not close ourselves off to a discussion about free navigation once the war has ended …. We will intervene where we have national competence and see room for action.” The end of the war may happen sooner than later: President Trump posted to social media yesterday, “I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian terror state, and let the countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Strait?’ That would get some of our non-responsive ‘allies’ in gear, and fast!!!” Bible prophecy reveals that Germany will confront Iran in the future when the U.S. will no longer project power in the Middle East.
Sixty-five percent of Central and Eastern Europe is under the control of an “electoral autocracy,” according to the University of Gothenburg V-Dem Institute’s 2026 Democracy Report, released on Tuesday. Analysts consider 11 countries to be transitioning to autocracy, up three from the previous year and including European Union members Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia. By the institute’s metrics, only 29 percent of the region’s population lives under a true democracy. The rise of authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe reflects a desire for strong leadership that will soon affect Germany as well.
Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, Cuba’s deputy prime minister, announced Monday that Cubans living abroad will soon be allowed to own businesses and invest in Cuba’s private sector. Fraga said the Cuban government is “open to maintaining a fluid commercial relationship with U.S. companies” and with “Cubans living in the United States and their descendants.” This comes amid an ongoing economic blockade from the U.S. and negotiations that could significantly alter Cuba’s Communist regime. The U.S. appears to be in a strong position regarding Cuba, but Bible prophecy indicates the foreign power that will ultimately dominate the strategic island nation will be Europe.
A preliminary report from Statistics Canada indicates that Canada’s total population shrank last year by 103,504 people (0.2 percent), the first decline since record keeping began during World War II. Statistics Canada cites a decrease in the country’s number of temporary workers. Some analysts suspect that Prime Minister Mark Carney is tightening immigration to defang his Conservative rivals by adopting one of their signature policies. Regardless, this demonstrates that, without immigration, Canada is aging, part of a global trend toward a “baby-free world.”
Germany’s new Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernization announced plans yesterday to double data center capacity and quadruple artificial intelligence capacity by 2030. The plan includes expedited regulatory reviews, land allocation for new data centers, tax reductions and incentives for investment from foreign countries. It is intended to make Germany the AI leader in Europe and a stronger competitor in AI against the U.S. and China. But Germany’s tech ambitions also have a dark side.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s Workers’ Party of Korea won 99.93 percent of the vote in his nation’s latest elections, the Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The vote for North Korea’s 15th Supreme People’s Assembly saw a turnout of 99.99 percent, according to the report, with a minute fraction unable to cast a ballot due to being abroad. The political theater of the so-called election underscores the fact that the ruthless Kim regime remains firmly in control of an erratic nuclear-armed state.
“Three Gulf sources” told Reuters that the Gulf Arab states, which include Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, want the United States to “not stop short by leaving the Islamic Republic still able to threaten the Gulf’s oil lifeline and the economies that depend on it.” If confirmed, this would be a massive policy change for countries that, until recently, wanted the U.S. to preserve the status quo in the Persian Gulf. The question is, will the Arabs unite against Iran?
Explosions at a hospital, post office and market areas in Maiduguri, Nigeria, killed 23 and injured over 100 civilians on Monday. No group has yet claimed responsibility, but a Nigerian military spokesman alleged that the detonations were caused by suicide bombers from the terrorist group Boko Haram. Why do such massacres occur if a loving God really exists? To learn the Bible-based answer, read “Mystery of Civilization” in Mystery of the Ages, by Herbert W. Armstrong.
Yesterday, President Donald Trump commented on Cuba’s dire economic situation amid widespread blackouts and crises. “Cuba right now is in very bad shape,” he said. “And we’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon.” According to four people familiar with ongoing negotiations, the U.S. has signaled that Cuban dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel must resign to enable meaningful discussions, particularly on economic reforms. This would remove a key figurehead of the long-ruling Communist government while leaving the broader one-party system—and the influential Castro family members who remain the country’s top power brokers—largely intact.
A New York Times investigation published yesterday reveals a massive flow of American firearms into Mexico, with authorities estimating that up to 500,000 guns are smuggled in annually that originated from U.S. gun shops, shows and online businesses. These weapons arm the Sinaloa Cartel and other powerful organized crime groups, intensifying violence in Mexico and further fueling the drug crisis affecting the U.S. Mexican officials trace roughly 80 percent of the firearms they seize from criminals back to the U.S. This sobering exposé reminds the world that the only way to fully defeat the cartels is for Americans to stop demanding the illicit drugs they supply.
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.
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.
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.
