In Other News

Russian forces have built or expanded at least 10 military bases near the borders of Ukraine and Belarus, intending to deploy swarms of new jet-powered drones at Ukraine, the Telegraph reported Sunday. The strategy is meant to overwhelm and penetrate Ukraine’s air defenses by sending large numbers of drones simultaneously from several locations. The development is yet another sign of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unyielding ambition for conquest.

The German state of Hesse is investing an additional $11.5 million to boost its drone defenses, according to a survey by Germany’s Focus yesterday. It also stated Lower Saxony plans to spend $8.5 million on drone defense, while Baden-Württemberg leaders have expressed plans to spend an additional $2.9 million. This survey comes after an explosives carrying drone, linked to Russia by the German government, was found at Leipzig-Halle Airport on August 4.

Russia has learned to fight far more effectively in recent months, combining its advantages in manpower and industrial capacity with rapid technological adaptation, which is erasing Ukraine’s battlefield edge, former Google ceo Eric Schmidt wrote in a September 9 Washington Post op-ed. For years, the Ukrainians held their own against Russia’s much larger force mainly due to rapid adaptation and innovation. But now Russia is combining its mass with its own innovations, such as jet-powered Iranian-derived Shahed drones and a new satellite constellation. Ukraine’s former advantage is “rapidly diminishing,” Schmidt writes, and it will likely suffer serious defeats this winter unless Western support increases. This assessment is yet another sign that Vladimir Putin’s determination remains undiminished—and that, after more than four years of war, Russia may be close to completing its conquest.

Russian-Indian trade has more than quadrupled since 2021, making India one of Russia’s top trade partners, Interfax reported yesterday. Trade between the two Asian giants has soared since Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, reaching $58.6 billion last year. The two nations are also deepening cooperation on Russia’s Northern Sea Route and expanding joint development and production of military hardware. As India and Russia continue to strengthen cooperation, the groundwork is being laid for India to join a biblically prophesied, Russia-led Asian military alliance.

The International Atomic Energy Agency voted on Wednesday to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council. The UN’s nuclear watchdog claims Iran has declined to provide information about its enriched uranium stockpiles or to provide access to its nuclear facilities. The iaea last referred Iran to the Security Council in 2006, which led to international sanctions against the Islamist regime. That is unlikely to happen this time, but the fact that the agency that has tolerated Iranian nuclear activity for decades is finally reporting it to the Security Council demonstrates how dangerous its nuclear program remains, even after being attacked by the United States.

United States President Donald Trump acquiesced to the United Kingdom sanctioning Israel, Axios reported yesterday. According to “U.S. officials and Western diplomats,” British Prime Minister Andy Burnham informed President Trump that his government would sanction Israeli entities in the West Bank, and the president didn’t attempt to dissuade him. When asked about this, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “We share the goal of stability. We don’t want to see an uptick in violence or tensions in the West Bank in a tenuous time in the region.” Isaiah 9:21 prophesies that Manasseh and Ephraim—the American and British peoples today—would “together be against Judah,” or the State of Israel. This prophecy is being fulfilled today.

• The United States destroyed five Iranian oil tankers last night in retaliation for Iranian action. In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed it attacked 20 U.S. vessels near the Strait of Hormuz and launched ballistic missiles toward a U.S. base in Jordan.
• Saudi Arabia accused Yemen’s Houthi terror group of a mass bombing that it claims injured at least 73 civilians on Tuesday and damaged “energy sector facilities and installations.”

The Russian military’s total combat losses since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine have crossed the 1.5 million mark, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said today. This number of killed and wounded is roughly 100 times larger than the Soviet Union’s losses in Afghanistan during 10 years of war. Despite these staggering losses, biblical prophecy reveals that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is only beginning its march toward war.

Yesterday, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. will ban Canadian dairy products, most alcoholic beverages and motorcycles starting September 29. This comes after Canada imposed tariffs on $20 billion in American goods—a retaliation against tariffs the U.S. imposed on August 22 after trade talks collapsed. The White House also barred Canadian products from major U.S. government contracts until Canada grants “full and fair reciprocity.” Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will cut its dependence on U.S. trade and expand its business with Europe and other partners.

Japan is building a pair of vessels equipped with the Aegis Combat System; the Telegraph said today they are likely to be the most powerful warships on the planet. At 620-feet-long and displacing 14,000 to 16,000 tons, these super-destroyers, which some say will be classified as cruisers, will be substantially larger than the United States Navy’s Arleigh Burke Flight iii guided missile destroyer and have nearly twice the displacement of Britain’s Type-45 destroyers. The Japanese vessels will have 128 missile launch cells, armed with SM-3 Block iias and SM-6s, some of the world’s most advanced and lethal missiles. “That combination of exo-atmospheric defense, advanced air defense, maritime and deep strike in one hull is as good as it gets,” the Telegraph stated. These powerful warships are only the latest example of decades of military restraint in Japan giving way to rapid and advanced militarization.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced sanctions on Israel today, including a ban on imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israel and the United States have threatened repercussions on the United Kingdom because of this. These unprecedented sanctions show Miliband’s boss, Prime Minister Andy Burnham, has made punishing Israel a foreign-policy priority. Bible prophecy shows that Britain and Israel, along with the United States, are brother nations—and that this brotherhood will break.

A Russian drone hit the headquarters of Ukraine’s intelligence service, the sbu, in Kyiv on Friday, injuring at least 12 people. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised to retaliate.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated yesterday at the Eastern Economic Forum that he is “appalled” to hear German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s plans to build the Continent’s leading military and likened the program to Germany’s previous rearmament under the Nazi regime.

N-TV reported yesterday that German-American company Auterion and Ukrainian company Airlogix have begun making 5,000 AI-guided combat drones for Ukraine in Munich, Germany, to help fulfill a $350 million order from the German government to supply Ukraine.

• The status of Iran’s nuclear material and centrifuges is still unclear, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported to member states on Tuesday. Iran hasn’t allowed iaea inspections on its nuclear sites since the United States’s Operation Midnight Hammer in June of last year.
• The United States “D-Day” financial sanctions announced on August 24 have yet to meaningfully disrupt Iran’s shadow banking system, Iran International reported yesterday. The London-based news network found that only 2 of the 15 international banks it highlighted in its report that Iran uses to circumvent U.S. sanctions are targeted by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Russia is pummeling Ukraine with a new generation of jet-propelled drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday. The new models are variants of Iranian Shahed drones but can travel almost twice as far and fly at much greater speeds than the original piston-powered models. Russia launches dozens at a time from different positions around Ukraine in an effort to overwhelm the nation’s air defenses. “Jet-propelled drones now account for more than half of the unmanned aerial vehicles Russia is launching to ‘wear down’ Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. The development demonstrates that even after 4½ years of full-scale war, Russia has not exhausted its ability to adapt and escalate.

• The U.S. struck about 100 targets in Iran yesterday, including commercial tankers and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sites. This was retaliation for Iran striking two commercial tankers the night of August 31 and September 1. A U.S. official told Axios that this is part of President Donald Trump’s new “tanker for tanker” policy.
• Iran launched attacks at U.S. targets in Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait yesterday. Bahrain alone saw about two dozen drones barrage it: The U.S. reported that most were intercepted.
• Americans traveling in the Middle East should beware the “potential for unforeseen escalation,” the U.S. Embassy to Israel warned yesterday. It stated: “Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world.”

Yesterday, jurors in Lindsay Clancy’s trial went home without a decision after four days of deliberating. They told the judge they were stuck. Clancy admits she strangled her three children in 2023. She claims that she should not be held criminally responsible because she had postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder, which made her lose touch with reality. The Bible says the penalty for murder is death (Genesis 9:6; Exodus 21:12). Yet not only is the jury failing to convict a murderer of the monstrous triple-strangling of her own children, but hundreds of women are demanding her acquittal, arguing that homicidal postpartum psychosis could happen to anyone. That is a sign of a society “without natural affection” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Japan is preparing to steer more of its record defense spending toward drones, missiles and ammunition stockpiles as it seeks to strengthen and modernize its firepower, the nation’s Defense Ministry said yesterday. Japan’s military spending has climbed steadily over the past several years and now surpasses $55 billion annually, a remarkable shift for a nation that spent decades restrained by postwar pacifist policies. The nation is now on the fast track toward once again becoming a major Asia-Pacific military power.

Homemade rockets detonated at the Jänschwalde lignite-fired power plant substation in Brandenburg earlier today. Several overhead lines have been damaged. The perpetrators are currently unknown. Earlier this month, a drone carrying an explosive device was discovered at a German airport, and evidence from that attempted attack implicates Russian spies, the German government announced today. Russian hybrid warfare is spurring Europeans to become more militaristic.

• The United States hit Iranian rocket launchers stationed at the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, the first U.S. strikes against Iran since July. Iran retaliated today by striking American military assets in Jordan.
• U.S. President Donald Trump posted a fictional portrayal of a missile attack on island oil infrastructure, captioning it, “Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!” The post appears to be merely another threat from the president, but it has Internet users asking about a current or imminent attack on the key Iranian facility.

Flash floods that tore through the Nepal-Tibet border region last week have killed at least 919 people, with more than 4,700 still missing, according to updated figures from officials in Nepal and China. Of the missing, more than 590 are foreigners, including 85 Americans, and authorities expect the death toll to keep rising. For the Bible’s answers about why a loving God allows such tragedies to occur, read Why ‘Natural’ Disasters?

Global wheat prices hit a three-year high on Thursday, with Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures contracts reaching $7.60 for ¾ of a bushel due to renewed conflict between Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea, disrupting the global wheat trade. Before 2022, both countries were among the world’s biggest wheat exporters.

The Chinese Communist Party deployed a record number of coast guard vessels and other ships around Taiwan in July, Taiwanese officials disclosed to the afp on Wednesday. A total of 244 Chinese ships were detected around the island during the month, the highest number ever recorded. The surge underscores China’s intensifying pressure on Taiwan and its expanding ability to encircle the island with maritime forces.

The United States categorized Palestine Action as a “global terror group” on August 26. Members of the group, like members of al Qaeda and Hamas, are now banned by the State Department from entering the U.S. or engaging in financial activity with America. The far-left group, based in the United Kingdom, infamously vandalized military sites there and was designated as a terror group by the UK government last year.

Chinese hackers have broken into the networks of the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department, nasa, the Senate and other vital government agencies, American authorities said yesterday. The Trumpet has long warned that American dependence on computer systems makes it vulnerable to cyberattack. To understand, read “China Hacks America—and ‘None Goes to Battle.’”