In Other News
French Chief of Defense Staff Fabien Mandon claimed on Thursday the French-German Main Ground Combat System, a project intended to produce a next-generation tank for European forces, had ended due to Germany’s withdrawal. The German Defense Ministry denied the claim on Friday, stating it remains “committed to equal partnership” in the project and is “focusing on future technologies for armored combat.” Bible prophecies describe the rising European superpower as “iron mixed with miry clay,” acknowledging such divisions among its nations—but they also warn that it will briefly overcome those divisions by force and “break in pieces” other nations, including the United States, Britain, Israel and the other nations descended from the ancient Israelites.
Russia trained Chinese military personnel in the use of a new generation of jet-powered drones during joint military exercises this month, the Telegraph reported Friday. The exercises emphasized coordinating drone swarms to relay targeting data to ground forces to strike with attack drones and robotic vehicles. Alessandro Arduino of the Royal United Services Institute said, “China is gaining access to a kind of capital, a virtual capital that Russia is accumulating: wartime expertise. Russia is looking to trade this wartime expertise with its partners, and this includes drones, remote warfare, trench assaults, underground warfare and so on.” Russia and China’s military coordination is building an alliance that biblical prophecy says will have a profound global impact.
Pope Leo xiv stated on Sunday that he will undergo surgery next week to excise a “very early stage” nodule on his lung. It’s unknown if the nodule is cancerous, but such growths are generally harmless. The Trumpet forecasts that, whether through health issues or other causes, Leo likely will not remain in office much longer. In July 2025, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote that he does “not expect him to remain pope for long,” based on biblical prophecies suggesting the end-time pope will be much more aggressive.
A 45-year-old man in Erie, Pennsylvania, shot and killed seven relatives and one family friend at a home on Friday before killing himself. Victims included a 22-month-old girl, a 5-year-old boy and a woman eight months pregnant. Police found two women, ages 51 and 37, dead outside and more adults inside. The police chief said it was the worst scene he had ever seen. This was America’s 429th mass shooting this year, according to Mass Shooting Tracker, which counts any gun violence where four or more people are shot.
“Across America, food stamp fraud is happening everywhere,” conservative influencer Nick Shirley claimed on X on October 7. “It has become a billion-dollar fraudulent industry as taxpayers fund the $100 billion program.” His video exposes how food stamps are sold for cash that homeless drug addicts use to buy more drugs.
China’s increasing investment and presence in the Arctic are helping entrench the Russian military in the region, the American Security Project wrote yesterday. Chinese shipping company NewNew Shipping plans to move 1 million tons of cargo through Arctic waters next year and make substantial investments in the Russian ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, which will increase the capabilities of Russia’s Northern Fleet, including its nuclear-armed submarines. Russia already maintains the Arctic’s largest military presence and most extensive infrastructure, and Chinese investment will further strengthen its position in this increasingly strategic region.
Yesterday, Italy’s Chamber of Deputies approved a law granting election winners bonus seats in parliament. The move will reduce political instability by providing the prime minister with more power. Opponents compare it to a 1923 law that helped Mussolini cement personal power over the Italian government. The Bible prophesies that Europe is about to become extremely authoritarian, with its “kings” lending their power to one overall dictator. Legislation such as this helps prepare Italy for one of those kings.
German lawmakers approved the purchase of four MEKO A-200 naval frigates yesterday for an estimated $6.3 billion. This comes in addition to the four approved in July.
On Tuesday, France test-launched its new M51.3 intercontinental missile from its nuclear submarine Le Vigilant. According to French President Emmanuel Macron, the test demonstrated “the credibility” of France’s deterrence. He added that “to be free, you have to be feared. And to be feared, you have to be powerful.”
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham visited Berlin today for his first face-to-face meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, where the two will launch a UK-Germany joint security partnership. The pact is meant to counter sabotage, cyberattacks and other hybrid threats through closer information-sharing and coordinated monitoring, deterrence and disruption. Biblical prophecy warns against trusting Germany.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder visited a Globus supermarket in Moscow yesterday. Schröder joined the supervisory board of Hyperglobus, the Russian spin-off of Germany’s Globus Holdings, on September 30. Media reports speculate he was there to meet Putin. While Germany and Russia appear to be at odds on the surface, extensive collaboration is taking place behind the scenes—and there is an alarming reason for it.
Nearly 2 in 3 Gen Z daters have turned to psychics, tarot, manifestation or paid love spells in the search for romance, according to a national survey commissioned by DatingNews. Cherry Data Signals surveyed 1,013 U.S. adults online in August. Sixty-four percent of Gen Z respondents said they had tried at least one spiritual or psychic practice to improve their love life. Nineteen percent had paid for a spell or ritual on platforms such as Etsy or TikTok. Gen Z led in manifestation or scripting (29 percent), seeing a psychic (25 percent) and visiting a tarot reader (17 percent). Millennials, at 51 percent overall, were most likely to use astrology charts.
A naked statue of Donald Trump went on display in the European Parliament building in Strasbourg yesterday. Titled “The Orange Plague,” the “artwork” shows an oversized Donald Trump sitting on the shoulders of a much smaller man. The Danish artist, Jens Galschiot, says it portrays the president’s interference in global warming issues. The three-day display is officially sponsored by an individual member of the European Parliament and was allowed by the body’s authorities. It is another clear demonstration of Europe’s contempt for America and its president, detailed in “Without NATO, Europe Will Erupt.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw the “Center 2026” military drills in the Ural Mountains on Friday, which involved troops from Russia, Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan and Tajikistan. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov said the combined maneuvers simulated “liberating the occupied territory” of a Central Asian nation and “creating a security zone in the neighboring territory.” The training highlights growing military cooperation between Russia, China and a wider group of Asian nations—a developing alliance that biblical prophecy says will soon shake the world.
August Hanning, the head of Germany’s bnd foreign intelligence agency from 1998 to 2005, was arrested today on suspicion of espionage and treason, along with his chief of staff Manfred D., who remained at the agency decades after Hanning. According to prosecutors, Manfred D. supplied Hanning with some 2,000 documents beginning around 2010, many of which contained classified information, that he planned to sell and use to “draft an analysis for an office of a foreign intelligence service.” Prosecutors say he was also “in close contact” with a foreign intelligence representative “to whom he passed on political information.”
Amid air-raid sirens, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited Kyiv yesterday with Economics Minister Katherina Reiche and 10 business leaders. During the visit, he announced a $1.5 billion aid package to fund drone production, long-range strike capabilities and energy infrastructure. German and Ukrainian defense companies also signed 15 cooperation agreements valued at $7.4 billion, and Merz called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war. Merz stated that Ukraine could “continue to count on” Germany’s help. Despite this seemingly strong support for Ukraine, Germany is not really its friend. Instead, it has made secret agreements with Russia against Ukraine.
Yesterday, right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro secured 47 percent of the vote in Brazil’s presidential election, two points above incumbent left-wing Luiz Inácio da Silva. However, since neither received more than 50 percent, they will head to a runoff election on October 25. Although a potential Bolsonaro victory may suggest Brazil will pursue stronger ties with the United States, considering he has been vocally pro-Trump, Bible prophecy warns South America will instead ally with Europe.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced today that early elections will be held on November 29. This announcement follows protests regarding housing affordability and opposition parties blocking two emergency decrees in parliament. Herbert W. Armstrong speculated that Spain would become part of a prophesied resurrected Holy Roman Empire. To achieve this, Spain will likely need a new leader who more strongly embraces Europe’s Catholic roots—and militarization.
Up to 10,000 personnel belonging to the uss Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and a Marine expeditionary unit are currently moving to the Middle East theater and are expected to arrive by late November. This comes as U.S. President Donald Trump struggles to bring Iran to the negotiating table to sign a permanent end to the war and amid rumors that he may resume heavy strikes after midterm elections on November 3.
The EU and Canada will announce a “sweeping new partnership pact,” Politico wrote yesterday. Politico, quoting from the draft, claims the new agreement will help “build a deeper and more integrated relationship,” mainly through critical mineral projects and stockpiling resources. The European Union may seem like a natural partner for Canada to align with amid fraying ties with the United States, but Bible prophecy warns that Canada’s pivot to Europe is a trap.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Monday increasing the size of the Russian Armed Forces to 2,441,630 personnel, including more than 1.5 million active-duty troops. This decree, the fourth one signed this year, brings 15,500 additional personnel into Russia’s armed forces. These repeated increases point to a Russian war machine that is growing larger and more powerful as Putin seeks to dominate more and more nations, in line with the role foretold for this ruler.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna stated on Tuesday that Russia ordered the August 15 arson attack against military technology company Milrem Robotics’ building in Estonia’s capital city. Tsahkna called the attack “an act of sabotage” and said that his country and its allies “retain the full right to respond to this kind of hostile, irresponsible and dangerous activity.”
U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue said President Donald Trump asked Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping during Xi’s recent three-day visit to the United States whether China wanted to buy American weapons. Perdue made the remark on Fox News Sunday while defending Trump’s record of arms sales to Taiwan and describing the president as always in deal-making mode. Such a sale would violate existing U.S. law, which has maintained an arms embargo on China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
China is rapidly building up its nuclear weapons program, with major construction underway at sites across the country, according to a September 23 Telegraph analysis of satellite imagery. The new projects include underground test sites, ventilation stacks, massive chemical storage tanks, industrial heat exchangers, support towns for workers and a 2,000-foot-long shock tube for testing how nuclear weapons components withstand powerful blasts. Under General Secretary Xi Jinping, China’s stockpile of nuclear weapons has more than doubled to an estimated 620 nuclear warheads as of January. The arsenal is projected to more than double again by 2035, reaching 1,500 warheads. The rapid buildup shows that Xi is not simply expanding the arsenal but methodically laying the industrial and scientific foundations for a full-spectrum, nuclear war-fighting force.
A hacking group calling itself ShinyHunters claims it breached fbi-related systems and stole data on all fbi employees and applicants, including names, home addresses, phone numbers and details about spouses. 404 Media reported seeing a sample of about 5,000 records on alleged agents matching that description. The leak could have serious national security and safety implications if criminals or foreign intelligence services use it to identify, track or intimidate agents and their families.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party won a record supermajority in strictly controlled parliamentary elections held September 18–20, Reuters reported yesterday. The parliamentary vote marks the first since Putin launched Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022: It gives Putin’s party more than three quarters of the seats in the nation’s lower house. With all meaningful opposition excluded, international election monitors banned. and armed soldiers supervising many voting stations, a pro-Putin result was never in doubt. Nevertheless, polls indicate that most Russians continue to support Putin and the war on Ukraine, even if the election numbers exaggerate the depth of that support. Analysts say he can now present the vote as a strong mandate to escalate the conflict if he chooses.
