Current Events & Trends: May/June 2025

Europe not able to go it alone militarily—yet

As pointed out in our cover story, concerns over not being able to rely on American military defense cooperation has led European leaders to start pressing for their own military partnership independent of the United States. But this will be monumentally difficult for some time, due to where things stand and the massive expenditures involved.

The European Union’s rearmament plan unveiled in March said the build-up had to be mostly from within (“ReArm Europe: Two-Thirds of Arms Procurement Must Be EU-Made,” The European Conservative, March 19, 2025). But that seems very unlikely. As one report notes, incoming German leader “Friedrich Merz’s dream of European ‘independence’ from America will have to remain as such for quite some time, thanks to years of governments harming their own national defense capabilities” (Michael Curzon, “German Defense CEO Dampens Merz’s Hopes of U.S.-Independent Military,” The European Conservative, March 20).

A piece at The National Interest argues that Europe needs America to help it build up its capabilities before ever being able to stand on its own—and that such help would need to come now rather than later (Can Kasapoglu and Peter Rough, “European Strategic Autonomy Is an Illusion,” March 28).

A Financial Times op-ed was titled “Europe Must Trim Its Welfare State to Build a Warfare State” (Janah Ganesh, March 5). That’s a hard pivot. Is there a will for that?

Wall Street Journal editor Gerard Baker writes: “There’s another possibility, and it seems just as plausible: Europe’s much-vaunted transformation doesn’t happen after all. Set aside the deep-rooted demographic and structural economic problems that bedevil Europe and the lingering commitment to ruinous environmental and domestic social policies. It isn’t clear even now that Europeans are truly serious about pooling their efforts and bolstering their own defense against the perceived threat from the east.

“Italy and Spain last week objected to the European Union’s plan for more aid to Ukraine. European nations far from the front lines of Russia don’t see the threat in the same way that Germany or Poland does. France persuaded other EU countries to exclude British companies from competing for contracts in a new defense fund unless the U.K. gives Paris what it wants are—wait for this—fishing rights. For all its bold talk, Europe could easily remain economically hidebound, politically divided and militarily weak even as tensions with the U.S. rise dramatically” (“After a Long Decline, Europe Tries for a Comeback,” WSJ, March 24).

Yet as the Financial Times piece notes, real fear over surviving could push toward a militarized Europe. While things are clearly not at this level, it is possible that today’s divide could be a step toward such an eventual outcome. As our lead story explains, a remilitarized Europe will eventually arise. Again, request or download our free study guide The Final Superpower to learn more.

Atrocity: 70 Christians beheaded by jihadists in Congo church

The horrific massacre of 70 Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been disturbingly underreported in the media. Open Doors UK, a human rights group focused on persecution against Christians, and several other organizations have related details of what happened.

On Feb. 13, 2025, militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist group linked to ISIS, captured these innocent victims from the village of Mayba and brutally beheaded them inside a Protestant church in Kasanga, North Kivu. The bodies of the victims were discovered days later, leaving the community paralyzed with grief and fear. Many survivors were too terrified to bury their loved ones due to ongoing lack of security in the area. Local church leaders, overwhelmed with sorrow, have expressed despair, unsure of how to pray or cope with such overwhelming violence.

The DRC has been plagued by decades of violent conflict, with the ADF and other armed groups perpetuating terror. Despite this, international response to this specific massacre has been minimal. The tragedy highlights a grim pattern of Christian persecution in the region. It also reminds us that the end of this age will be characterized by increasing religious persecution.

We mourn over those who’ve suffered such monstrous evil. Let us all pray for God to bring comfort and healing—but above all that His Kingdom would come soon to eradicate the vile deceptions of Satan and to bring righteousness and peace to the world. Of course, many will continue to wonder why God would allow such evil to go on. To help make sense of it, we recommend our free study guide Why Does God Allow Suffering?

Update on red heifers in Israel: none suitable

We reported in our May-June 2024 issue about the delivery to Israel of five reddish-brown cows that were seen as eligible for the purification sacrifice of the red heifer mentioned in Numbers 19 to be able to resume the Israelite sacrificial system, a factor in end-time prophecy. It later came out that some of these were no longer fit sacrifices due to finding a few white hairs on them. Now it’s been reported that they’ve all grown white hairs. The head of the Temple Institute’s Red Heifer Project, Azariah Ariel, has stated “At this moment, we don’t have in our possession in Israel a red heifer that is verifiably kosher and suited for the ceremony . . . The question now is how to proceed” (Israel365 News, March 7, 2025). It’s noted that the animals are occasionally inspected to see if disqualifying hairs remain.

This would seem to be a setback for resumption of the sacrificial system. But it may be that we don’t have the full story, as there could be a desire to hide the status of any red heifers since there are extremists who might attempt to destroy any viable candidates. If the new reports are factual, that is no indication of prophecy being stopped or delayed. God will bring about what He has foretold regardless—and He says that sacrifices will be cut off shortly before Christ’s return, meaning they must resume prior to that. For more on what Scripture says will happen in Jerusalem and the wider region in the years ahead of us, request or download our free study guide The Middle East in Bible Prophecy.

Massive devastation and loss of life in Myanmar earthquake

The southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, still called Burma by the U.S. government, was already suffering war and turmoil before the calamitous 7.7-magnitude earthquake of March 28, officially named “the Big Mandalay Earthquake.” By April 7, the death toll had surpassed 3,600 and was still climbing, with many still missing (AP, April 7, 2025). It’s awful to see the devastation, great loss of life and aftermath for the survivors, with so many needing basic necessities.

A temporary ceasefire was called but attacks continued. Speaking of local residents in the city of Mandalay, a UN humanitarian chief stated that almost 20 million people were already in need in this community, adding: “So it’s a compounding crisis. It’s earthquake, on top of conflict, on top of huge existing need” (“Myanmar Fighting Continues Despite Post-Earthquake Ceasefires,” BBC News, April 7).

The sad reality is that, as we approach the end of this age, we will see an increase in suffering and death from both earthquakes and wars. Jesus Christ specifically referred to these calamities as “the beginning of birth pains” (Matthew 24:6-8, New International Version)—using the metaphor of labor contractions, which come with increasing frequency and severity.

But why does God allow such widespread suffering? He is certainly not powerless to intervene. And rest assured, He does intervene—and ultimately He will intervene for the whole world, but the timing is according to His perfect wisdom and plan. There’s no need for despair in the face of such tragedy. For God will restore what has been lost—and that includes people’s lives. To better understand, be sure to download or request a copy of our free study guide Why Does God Allow Suffering?

Uncovering the fact that the Holocaust was widespread across Europe

Eighty years on from the end of World War II in Europe, it’s a fitting time to pause and reflect on the horror of what the Jewish people endured under the Nazi regime. Earlier this year was the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the infamous Nazi concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz. But the Nazis did not perpetrate such evil in isolation. A recent book by the director of the University of London’s Holocaust Research Institute sheds light on the terrible atrocity.

A Daily Mail article explains, conventional histories of the Holocaust typically focus “on the ‘industrialised’ killing in death camps such as Auschwitz, the so-called ‘final solution,’ with trainloads arriving and being almost instantaneously dispatched to the gas chambers and the crematoria. But this was only part of the story, argues leading Holocaust specialist Professor Dan Stone . . .

“The fact that we need to get our heads around—and which many countries still find uncomfortable and refuse to recognize—is that the Holocaust was not solely a German project, but a pan-European crime with tens of thousands of active perpetrators all over the continent” (“Holocaust Europe Wants to Cover Up,” Jan. 27, 2023).

Stone further writes: “Although the persecution of the Jews that led to the Holocaust was a German project—a point which cannot be overemphasized—it chimed with the programs of many European fascist and authoritarian regimes. Without the willing participation of so many collaborators across Europe, the Germans would have found it much harder to kill so many Jews.”

Based on recent research, he says that “rather than a tale of German occupation, deportation and murder in death camps, the Holocaust should really be seen as a series of interlocking local genocides. The Holocaust was certainly driven, and largely perpetrated by Germans, but actual participation went much further. Countries such as France, Norway, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania persecuted, expelled and killed Jews. And they did so, not under duress from Berlin, but because to do so fitted with their own long-held anti-Semitic views and nationalist aspiration.

“How else, Stone asks, can you explain how the Nazis were able to deport Jews across Europe and beyond, from Norway to Crete, Alderney to the Caucasus, the Baltic states to North Africa? Collaboration and complicity were everywhere . . .

“The lesson he wants us to press home from the Holocaust, is not just about intolerance or hatred or the dangers of bullying, which, he fears, is what conventional Holocaust education and commemoration teaches. It is that deep and irrational passions can move human beings to collude in terrible things. And nothing in the end can stop people from supporting these dark forces in times of crisis.”

Though awful to contemplate, that horrifying period was a forerunner of a worse time of trial and suffering yet to come—on not just the Jewish people again, but on the other nations of modern Israel as well. A successor to Hitler’s Reich, a final revival of the Roman Empire, will come to rule over Europe and bring destruction and enslavement on the Israelite peoples. It’s vital to understand their identity. Read our free study guide The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy for more understanding of what’s coming. And take heed now of your vital need to be devoted to God.