In Other News

Germany is considering purchasing Turkey’s long-range Yildirimhan ballistic missiles and Tayfun Block-4 hypersonic missiles, according to German news outlet Die Welt on May 11. This purchase would replace the American Tomahawk long-range missiles that will no longer be stationed in Germany. This would represent another major step toward Germany building Europe’s most powerful conventional military independent from the U.S., as prophesied in the Bible.

• President Donald Trump met with advisers late on Monday to receive briefings on potential further attacks on Iran and remarked that Iran has “two, three days, maybe Friday or Saturday, early next week” to make a deal.
• A nato diplomat told Bloomberg the alliance is contemplating a mission to force open the Strait of Hormuz in early July if Iran continues to block traffic there. A previously suggested Anglo-French mission would only form once the war had completely ended.

The European Union lifted sanctions on Syria’s defense and interior ministries, as well as three of its intelligence agencies, on Monday, just days after resuming formal trade ties with the formerly isolated nation. The European Council called the reopening of trade a “clear political signal of the EU’s commitment to reengage with Syria and support its economic recovery.” In August 2024, before the regime of Bashar Assad fell, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote: “Bible prophecy indicates that through Syria, Germany is about to get control of the Middle East.”

Germany plans to spend $12 billion through 2029 on civilian defense infrastructure, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Monday. Reuters said these funds could be used for hospitals, shelters, special vehicles and alert networks. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the same day, “We cannot talk about defense ‌capabilities and invest in them without also giving civil defense the support it needs.” This shows that the German government is orienting even the civilian mindset toward war.

The German military is implementing a more merit-based promotion system, suspending its practice of automatically promoting servicemen to the equivalent rank of staff sergeant after 16 years of service from July forward. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’s plan will include more aptitude tests and fewer promotions, which is unpopular in the military but is designed to create a more effective and deadly German fighting machine.

• President Donald Trump again threatened military action, then backed off: He claimed today that he had planned on attacking Iran tomorrow but changed his mind after lobbying from several Gulf Arab governments.
• Iran’s most recent proposal to formally end the state of war with the U.S. is for the U.S. to withdraw from the areas around Iran, pay for reparations, and force Israel to stand down in Lebanon. Last week, President Trump called a similar proposal “garbage.”
• European countries are negotiating with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian media reported. Bible prophecy states Europe will eventually sail its ships through Iranian territory—but not because of diplomacy.

The German Armed Forces will deploy a Patriot air and missile defense task force to Turkey, along with 150 German military personnel, from late June to September, the German Defense Ministry announced yesterday. The mission is framed as an effort to help share the defense obligations of nato and relieve a unit from the U.S. Germany, however, has its own ambitions in the region.

The U.S. Justice Department is preparing a federal indictment against Raúl Castro, Cuba’s former president. The charges are linked to the Feb. 24, 1996, downing of two civilian planes flown by the Miami group Brothers to the Rescue. Cuban fighter jets downed the planes, killing four Cuban-American pilots: Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales. Castro, now 94, was Cuba’s minister of the armed forces at the time. The planned indictment is part of increased pressure on Cuba’s government. Castro could not be extradited from Cuba, but the charges would carry symbolic weight.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, announced this morning that he is concerned about the speed and scale of an Ebola outbreak. Since the first known case developed around April 24 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, there have been 516 suspected cases, 35 confirmed cases and 131 deaths. Two of the confirmed cases are in neighboring Uganda. Some health workers have also caught the virus, raising fears it is spreading in hospitals. Jesus Christ prophesied in Matthew 24 that plagues would be among the dire signs that precede His Second Coming.

Yesterday, two teenage gunmen opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing a security guard and two other men outside the mosque. The suspects, Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, were later found dead in a car from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The mother of one teen called police two hours earlier to report her suicidal son had run away with three guns. All the children at the mosque’s day school were safe. The shooting happened at the largest mosque in San Diego County, just days before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. No motive has been confirmed, but authorities found anti-Islamic writings in the vehicle. Rising violence is reminiscent of a sobering prophecy in Ezekiel 7:23: “Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.”

• President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday, posting on Truth Social that the “clock is ticking” and Iran had “better get moving, fast [to make a deal], or there won’t be anything left of them.” He has made statements like this repeatedly throughout the ceasefire’s duration without following through.
• A drone struck a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, starting a fire. There were no reports of any released radiation. The U.A.E. blames Iran, though the drone could have come from one of Iran’s proxies in Iraq or Yemen.

Russia tested its new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin deemed it “the most powerful missile in the world,” saying it has a far longer range than its Western counterparts and can “penetrate all existing and future antimissile defense systems.” Putin’s comments are likely hyperbolic, but the Sarmat is known to have global reach and the capability to carry 11 tons of payload, including countermeasures and multiple hypersonic and nuclear warheads. Sarmat is a powerful symbol of Russia’s push to once again become a military superpower, as prophesied.

Finance ministers of the six largest European Union economies (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain) are scheduled to meet in Berlin on May 28 to announce an agreement for expediting cross-border flows of capital. For over a decade, the EU has failed to implement its Capital Markets Union concept for unifying Europe’s financial markets, creating a rival to Wall Street’s financial markets and debt financing, and providing European capital for European start-ups and scale-ups.

“The world has become a more ​unpredictable place, and I think it is ​absolutely clear that Europe needs to increase its defense profile,” Mercedes-Benz ceo Ola Kallenius told the Wall Street Journal on Friday. “Should we ​be able to play a positive role in ​that, we would be willing to do so.” Since 2021, Daimler Truck has been an independent company that manufactures Unimogs, Zetros and other specialized vehicles used by several militaries. As Germany arms for war, weapons platforms are proving more lucrative than cars, and German manufacturers are retooling accordingly.

“I am a great admirer of America,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday at a gathering of German Catholics in the southwestern city of Würzburg, adding, “but right now my admiration is not increasing.” He added that, given the worsening social climate in America, he would no longer recommend moving to the U.S. for work or study. Merz’s statement was met with loud applause. While few Germans are currently satisfied with Merz’s work, which is increasingly met with boos at events, his anti-American rhetoric finds resonance. This opposition to the U.S. will help unify Germany and accelerate its development as a rival superpower.

Senior U.S. official Massad Boulos publicly referred to the Sudanese Armed Forces as “the existing government” of Sudan on Tuesday. These forces are in civil war with the Rapid Support Forces. When the U.S. tried to make peace in Sudan near the end of last year, many accused Washington of siding with the rsf. But Boulos’s “significant rhetorical shift,” as Sudan War Monitor phrased it, may mark a change in U.S. allegiance. Boulos said, “We do not recognize, and will never recognize, any parallel government.” But the saf is closely tied to Iran, so this policy increases the legitimacy of both the saf and Iran in Sudan. The Bible prophesies that Iran’s influence in this region will continue to grow.

Yesterday, the White House announced that China will buy at least $17 billion worth of American farm products every year from 2026 to 2028. This deal came from last week’s meetings between President Donald Trump and Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping. The $17 billion does not include earlier soybean purchases from October 2025. U.S. farm exports to China dropped sharply last year after tariff battles, falling 65.7 percent to just $8.4 billion. Both countries agreed to create new trade boards to solve problems and lower tariffs. This is a big win for U.S. farmers and a political success for President Trump. However, the U.S.-China trade war is far from over.

On Wednesday, Slovenia handed over to Croatia the remains of 500 fascist Croatian fighters killed in a forced march at the end of World War ii. Croatia’s minister of veterans’ affairs, Tomo Medved, referred to the fascist fighters as “victims.” This reburial is one sign that Croatia might not be fully ashamed of its dark World War ii past, in which it worked closely with Nazi Germany, ran extermination camps, and conducted forced conversions, mass arrests, massacres, death marches and mass executions.

Lebanon confirmed Wednesday it sent a letter to the United Nations late last month accusing Iran of violating diplomatic protocol, meddling in Lebanon’s internal affairs, and dragging it into a war against Israel. Following the government’s attempt to forcibly disarm Hezbollah and even public overtures for a peace treaty with Israel, this unprecedented step is the clearest sign yet that the Lebanese government, increasingly free from domination by Iran-sponsored Hezbollah, wants a clear break from the Iranians. The Bible reveals who its next major ally will be.

The U.S. canceled a nato deployment of troops to Poland yesterday. An armored brigade of 4,000 personnel will no longer rotate into the nation, and advanced personnel in the nation will withdraw. This comes on the heels of the U.S. announcing the withdrawal of 5,000 of its 35,000 troops in Germany. President Trump believes withholding U.S. military resources from European nato allies functions as punishment and pressure against Europe, but Bible prophecy warns that this notion is dead wrong.

A man who operated a covert Chinese intelligence outpost from an office building in Manhattan’s Chinatown was convicted Wednesday of operating as a foreign agent. Lu Jianwang was also found guilty of obstructing evidence after he deleted text messages that prosecutors said contained directives from his Chinese Communist Party regime handlers in Beijing to suppress, threaten and pressure pro-democracy Chinese activists in America. U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said, “A police station operating in New York City at the direction of the Chinese government has been exposed, its sinister purpose disrupted, and its founder held accountable for blatantly disregarding the law and our country’s sovereignty.” This case is the latest evidence showing that U.S. leaders desperately need to “Wake Up to the Threat From China.”

Germany traded $165 billion with Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the first quarter of this year, 16 percent more than the $142 billion it traded with the United States and China combined over the same period, Handelsblatt reported yesterday. Germany is building up its trade relations with Eastern Europe, reducing its reliance on the U.S. and China while empowering its ambitions to build a third global superpower.

Austria scrambled fighter jets on May 10 and 11 to confirm that the U.S. military aircraft approaching and entering its airspace matched the type its government had approved. The details of the verification are unclear, and Austria will address the issue through diplomatic channels, Defense News reported. Austria has closed its airspace to any U.S. aircraft involved in the Iran war; ensuring compliance was likely the reason for the interceptions. This highlights growing distrust and disagreement between America and its European “allies,” which was prophesied in the Bible.

Israel’s Government Press Office announced yesterday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “secretly visited the United Arab Emirates, where he met with U.A.E. President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.” The report claimed the “visit has led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the U.A.E.” This follows reporting that Israel lent the U.A.E. some of its most sensitive defense technology during the war. Israel is increasingly relying on the U.A.E. for security, but Bible prophecy warns that trusting other nations over the God of Israel is a fatal trap.

Kevin Warsh was sworn in yesterday as the 17th chair of the Federal Reserve. The Senate confirmed the 56-year-old former Fed official, chosen by President Donald Trump, in a mostly party-line vote. Warsh takes charge amid the Iran war, high gas prices and rising inflation. President Trump has pushed hard for the Fed to lower interest rates, largely to increase borrowing, investment, hiring and consumption. To make this possible, Warsh plans to sell some of the bonds the Fed owns. This could help lower mortgage rates and other long-term rates and open the door to cutting the main short-term interest rate. However, as long as the U.S. government keeps running trillion-dollar deficits, it will be nearly impossible to keep both interest rates and inflation low at the same time.

Inflation surged to its highest level in nearly three years in April, up 0.6 percent from March and 3.8 percent year-over-year, according to government data. The sharp rise was driven largely by gasoline prices, which jumped 5.4 percent in a single month and 28.4 percent over last year, with the national average now $4.50 per gallon. The ongoing war with Iran has disrupted key oil shipping routes, pushing energy costs higher. This pressure is also raising prices for food, rent and other everyday essentials, adding strain to governments, businesses and household budgets nationwide. Stock markets reacted negatively, with the Dow dropping about 0.5 percent as investors worry that high inflation may delay interest rate cuts.