In Other News
Russia’s military has pushed into the city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine and is now trying to surround the strategic city, the Institute for the Study of War reported Saturday. Kostyantynivka is viewed as a gateway to the rest of the Donbas since Russian forces could use footholds there to push toward the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the last real strongholds in the Donbas region. The infiltration shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains viciously determined to conquer Ukraine and may be approaching a breakthrough in that goal. Whatever the outcome of this conflict, Bible prophecy shows that he will eventually lead a vast Asian military that will wage far larger wars.
Christian Freuding, inspector of the German Army, stated its “top priority is to achieve full operational readiness for the Lithuania Brigade next year,” Germany’s Bild reported Friday. The Lithuanian brigade is Germany’s first permanent foreign-stationed brigade since World War ii. The Army’s “top priority” shows that Germany is focused on becoming the new defender of Europe, a role which Bible prophecy warns it will use against Europe’s old defender.
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces are preparing a major offensive on El Obeid, Sudan War Monitor reported yesterday. This is the same group whose October assault against El Fasher slaughtered so many civilians; some estimates place the death toll immediately following the attack at 70,000. Analysts fear El Obeid’s fall would end with a similar genocidal rampage. Stories like this often make people wonder how a loving God, if He exists, could allow such horrors. Chapter 4 of Mystery of the Ages, by Herbert W. Armstrong, reveals the Bible-based answer.
Abelardo de la Espriella, Colombia’s Trump-backed candidate, won yesterday’s run-off presidential election, defeating left-wing Iván Cepeda by a narrow margin. Espriella has campaigned on developing closer ties with the United States. However, Bible prophecy warns that Latin America will work much more closely with a united Europe than with the U.S. to economically besiege America.
The United States Treasury Department announced today a general license for Iran to produce and export its oil without sanctions. This measure, promised by last week’s memorandum of understanding, lasts for 60 days. The license doesn’t allow Iran to sell oil to North Korea or Cuba, but apparently it exempts China, one of Iran’s main backers. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent linked this to Iran’s commitments “to free and open transit in the Strait of Hormuz and to permit International Atomic Energy Agency (iaea) inspectors into their country.” The U.S. and Iran have yet to sign a lasting peace deal that commits Iran to specific obligations. Yet the U.S. apparently trusts Iran’s “goodwill” enough to give it concessions based on little more than its word.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced yesterday that Germany is ready to deploy two ships and 140 personnel to the Strait of Hormuz. He told reporters, “As we speak, our minesweeper Fulda and the supply ship Mosel are sailing through the Suez Canal toward the Red Sea.” Although the vessels do not yet have a mandate from the government, experts have serious concerns and wonder “whether the German Navy was operating in the strait at Iran’s invitation or whether the mullah regime would at least tolerate the warships,” Bild reported today. These concerns go beyond the life and safety of the military personnel. The mission could get Germany into a direct confrontation with Iran—which is prophesied to happen.
The United States will review its military position in Europe over the next six months, War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced yesterday at a meeting with nato defense ministers, to “ensure that nato is moving fast and irreversibly towards Europe stepping up to take primary responsibility.” Losing American firepower actually will not weaken Europe but rather motivate it to build a deceptive and deadly superpower.
Britain is now ready to oust its prime minister, Keir Starmer, after his key challenger, Andy Burnham, won the election necessary to challenge him. Burnham won 55 percent of the vote in Makerfield, returning him to Parliament after soundly defeating Nigel Farage’s Reform party. In the wake of the victory, 100 Labour M.P.s have called on Starmer to step down. As Britain prepares for its seventh prime minister in 10 years, it’s clear the nation has a substantial leadership crisis.
The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago opened yesterday after 10 years of construction and $850 million in spending and amid ongoing disputes by builders who say they haven’t been paid. Former presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton attended, along with several popular musicians. Obama used the occasion in part to praise people who resisted immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota. The center’s museum opens to the public today, “Juneteenth.”
Poland, Lithuania and France are conducting military exercises from June 16 to 26 involving about 10,000 personnel. The drills will focus on defending Poland’s Suwałki Gap, a 40-mile-wide area bordering Lithuania and separating Russia’s heavily militarized Kaliningrad exclave from its close ally, Belarus. In the event of a conflict between Russia and nato, the narrow strip will likely become a key battleground.
Finnish lawmakers voted yesterday to remove a ban that denied allies the ability to station nuclear weapons on Finnish soil. “The weapons would only be allowed into Finnish territory to defend the country or to enable nato’s defense operations and cooperation,” Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen said. This comes as France has signed agreements to defend other nato allies with its nuclear arsenal.
Russia and Iran expect to fully connect their banking payment networks within two months, Iran’s central bank chief announced during a visit to Moscow on Tuesday. The move is part of a broader effort to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar and shield their economies from Western sanctions. While it won’t dethrone the dollar on its own, the integration represents yet another crack in the foundations of the dollar-centric global financial system that has underpinned American power for decades.
A new report into Muslim rape gangs published by British M.P. Rupert Lowe has shone a spotlight on one of Britain’s most disgusting crime waves. The report highlights a genuine problem that politicians refuse to address, though flaws in its research will make it easier for them to ignore. The report states that 250,000 young white girls were attacked by these gangs but offers limited evidence to support such a shockingly high figure. Footnotes often point to smaller blogs and lead to a fruitless search for original sources. But this is actually a symptom of the same problem: Government departments and major news organizations have more resources for a more comprehensive report, yet have refused for years to compile one. Britain’s embrace of mass migration and multiculturalism has caused tremendous destruction that authorities refuse to look at.
France’s General Directorate for Internal Security will replace its reliance on American tech company Palantir with French company ChapsVision, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said yesterday, to reduce “strategic dependencies in the digital sphere” and reliance on the “goodwill of certain partners.” The process will take years, but this is another confirmation that the 85-year alliance between Europe and the U.S. is dying.
The Admiral Grigorovich, a Russian Navy frigate, fired warning shots toward a British yacht in the English Channel on Tuesday. The incident occurred outside of British territorial waters, and no damage was reported, but it reminds Britain and Europe that Russian aggression remains an imminent threat.
Major League Baseball warned several San Francisco Giants players yesterday about writing Bible verses on their uniform caps during the team’s game on June 12, marketed as “Pride Night.” Players wore special caps incorporating the rainbow lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer-plus flag into the team logo. Pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker added references to Genesis 9:12-16 on their hats, which records the origin of the rainbow and God’s promise to never again flood the Earth. MLB said writing of any kind breaks uniform rules and implied that future violations could lead to fines. People openly sinning against God are using their power to stamp out even minor attempts to honor Him.
Yesterday, Montenegro reached agreements on health, consumer protection and the right of EU citizens to work anywhere in the bloc, meaning that the Balkan nation has closed 16 out of 33 chapters of accession negotiations. If it joins the EU by 2028, as intended, this will further consolidate Germany’s control of the Balkans.
Yesterday, a two-thirds majority in Hungary’s new parliament passed a constitutional amendment that limits prime ministers to eight years in office. When officially signed into law, it will prevent Viktor Orbán, who has already served as prime minister for 20 years, from running again. But current Prime Minister Peter Magyar may be setting up his own autocratic rule.
Winston Churchill deliberately starved millions of Indians, according to a video exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The script claims that Oliver Cromwell “starved people, en masse, a little like the willful starvation of the Indian population by Winston Churchill.” It also accuses Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately starving Gazans. “The accusation that [the famine] was deliberately visited upon Bengalis by Churchill is foul and vile,” wrote historian Andrew Roberts. “It is also historically ludicrous.” Over 50 peers, including Churchill’s grandson Lord Soames, signed Lord Roberts’s letter, which was sent to the gallery’s board on Monday. For more on why Churchill’s reputation so often comes under attack, see our main story today.
Yesterday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that his government will ban children under 16 from social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube. The ban, expected to be approved by Parliament and start early next year, will also limit live-streaming and talking to strangers on games and other sites. Starmer said the move protects children’s safety. Social media has exposed millions of young users to addiction, anxiety, cyberbullying, depression, disrupted sleep, explicit content, low self-esteem and predators. Many are noting that relying on bureaucratic policy to govern social media use, rather than parents, necessitates granting the government even greater surveillance powers over all citizens under—and over—age 16.
Ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary in July, a Pew Research Center survey published on May 15 shows that 59 percent of Americans believe the best years of the United States are in the past. Only 40 percent think the best years are ahead. When 3,560 U.S. adults were asked about life 50 years from now, 44 percent felt pessimistic, while 28 percent felt optimistic. Majorities of black, Hispanic and white adults, as well as lower- and middle-income people, say the best days are gone, and Democrats are more likely than Republicans to hold this view. Bible prophecy shows this is correct in the short term, but that America’s long-term prognosis is bright.
Australia is expected to see a shortfall of close to 300,000 commercial beehives for the peak pollination season in August, as the parasite varroa mite wipes out bees, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported June 4. Industry experts are warning of crop failures and a potential food crisis as the bee-killing parasite wipes out at least 60 percent of hives and the costs to combat the mite force half of Australia’s beekeepers to quit. Honeybees contribute $10 billion in value to Australian agriculture, with pollination affecting two thirds of food production. This is just one of the many biblical curses for disobedience that Australia is currently experiencing.
Russia fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv this morning, killing five people, injuring 35 others and damaging structures that include the Dormition Cathedral. Founded in 1073, the unesco World Heritage site is among the most revered sites for Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Christians, but now it is smoldering. Many of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s supporters portray him as one of the last defenders of Christendom, but since his full-scale invasion began in February 2022, his forces have damaged or destroyed more than 700 religious sites, many of them Orthodox churches, across Ukraine. To understand more about his true character, read “Is Putin the Last Defender of Family Values?”
Bulgaria’s new government endorsed the country’s “March of the Family” on Saturday. The conservative rally in support of traditional family values countered the annual homosexual pride parade in the capital city, Sofia. “At a time of moral disorientation, social fragmentation and profound demographic crisis, safeguarding the traditional family is not simply a matter of personal choice; it is a cornerstone of our natural security, identity and future,” Member of Parliament Slavi Vassilev said. A trend the Trumpet follows is the English-speaking world, prophetically the nations of Israel, retreating from biblical morality. In this case, a Gentile nation is pushing stronger against this decline than many Israelites. God condemns Israel in Ezekiel 5:6 for rejecting His “statutes more than the countries that are round about her ….”
The Washington Post reported June 12 that Qatar was trying to talk with the United States secretly on behalf of Iran to end the war in its opening weeks. Citing “Middle Eastern security officials and Western officials briefed on the intelligence,” the Washington Post claims Qatar offered to lobby U.S. President Donald Trump to call the war off early if Iran refrained from attacking its Ras Laffan natural gas complex. Iran attacked the complex anyway, but this is another example of how a country the U.S. sees as an important ally actually supports terrorism.
Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, won Peru’s presidential election on June 8, beating leftist candidate Roberto Sánchez by only a few hundred votes out of nearly 20 million. Fujimori leads the right-wing Popular Force party. Her platform is socially conservative with strong anti-crime policies, pro-family emphasis, protection of life from conception, and opposition to certain progressive social changes. Her father, who ruled from 1990 to 2000, was an authoritarian populist who ruled with dictatorial powers after a 1992 autogolpe, “coup from the top.” Fujimori’s win continues a shift toward traditionalist Catholic leaders in Latin America. The late Herbert W. Armstrong forecast that the alliance between Europe and Latin America would grow strong, cemented by the Spanish language and the Catholic religion.
