June 17 - 30, 2018

1. Weekly World Watch Andy Walton’s June 17 - 30, 2018 “If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.” (Ezekiel 33:6, New International Version) PRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE To skip the introductory slides and go straight to this weeks developments click here.

2. What is a Weekly World Watch? The idea is simple. It is to look at current events and compare them to events spoken of in the Bible. . I hope to build up a picture of God’s hand working in the affairs of this world. God is bringing about a day when all nations will be gathered to Jerusalem to battle. At that time God will send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, back to this earth. Jesus will then establish God’s kingdom on earth. This kingdom will last for ever. This is our hope and the reason we watch. The following six themes will appear repeatedly in WWW: • Israel: The continuing conflict in the Middle East and focus on Jerusalem. • Europe: Its developing union, both political and religious. • Russia: Its return to anti-Western ways as Bible prophecy’s “king of the north.” • The UK and the US: Bible prophecy’s “king of the south.” • Moral standards in decline and violence on the increase. • Increasing natural disasters: including earthquake, famine etc WWW presentations in PowerPoint can be ordered as audio/visual CDs by clicking here. Move your mouse to place the cursor on the blue link and click.

3. BIBLE QUOTE What is in a Weekly World Watch? Each WWW looks at a few key developments that have happened during the past week. It is in no way meant to be exhaustive – just a look at those events I saw as significant from a Biblical point of view. Every WWW event slide has the following format. To reveal each block of text just left click your mouse or press the space bar. You control when it appears. News Photo This is straight from a news report that caught my eye because it looked significant from a Biblical perspective, usually that of prophecy. HEADLINE The source of the headline and the date are included. This is the reporter’s description of the event. It is always a direct quotation from the news report and reflects the understanding of the reporter and editors. EVENT This is my comment on why the event is interesting to a Bible student. The intention of the WWW is to offer brief Biblical perspectives without going into detail. If more detail is desired, please e-mail me: (andy@weeklyworldwatch.co.uk). Please note that these are personal thoughts and the aim is purely to stimulate Bible study. COMMENT This is normally one verse which backs up why the event that has occurred is interesting from a Biblical perspective. Please read in its context. Unless stated otherwise, all quotes are from the King James Version.(Book, chapter, and verse)

4. This Week’s Developments June 17 - 30, 2018 • Israel raises alert in north as fighting nears border • Russia bombs south Syria: Breaks ceasefire promise • Israel readies nuclear reactors for missile strike • New Russian weapons decades ahead of foreign rivals • EU leaders defend migration deal as doubts emerge • Prince William's historic Middle East tour To print any of the event slides that follow, click the picture on the upper right PRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE

5. The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.  The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.  The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, Israel raises alert in north as fighting nears border Haaretz, June 29, 2018 The Israel Defense Forces has raised its alert level in the Golan Heights in light of the recent escalation in the fighting in southern Syria between the Assad regime and rebel militias and the Syrian army’s increasing proximity to the Israeli border. Israel isn’t expecting a direct confrontation with the Syrian army, but it is preparing for possibility of spillover effects from the regime’s attack, with Russian and Iranian assistance, on the Daraa region, which is just sixty kilometers from the Israeli border. IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot flew to Washington on Thursday for a quick meeting with his American counterpart. On Sunday, the security cabinet will meet to discuss the home front’s preparedness for a war in the north. The Syrian media reported that tens of thousands of people have fled the Daraa region due to heavy airstrikes against the rebels by the Syrian and Russian air forces. Many residents have headed south to the Jordanian border, but Jordan isn’t letting them enter. EVENT The Syrian conflict moves ever closer to the border of Israel. This week nearly 200 people have been killed in a Syrian government offensive against Islamist fighters and rebels in the country's southwest, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee toward the closed borders with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, according to activists and monitoring groups. About 120,000 people have been displaced by the onslaught and many are heading towards Israel’s border. The same is happening on the border of Jordan. Both are providing aid to the displaced people but are refusing to allow Syrian refugees inside their countries. Isaiah 17 says that northern Israel (Ephraim) will suffer when Damascus ceases to exist. We can see that time coming soon… COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Isaiah 17:1-3)

6. And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.  Russia bombs south Syria: Breaks ceasefire promise India Express, June 24, 2018 Russia bombed rebel-held parts of southern Syria for the first time since brokering a ceasefire there nearly a year ago, a monitor group has said, as allied regime troops prepare a ground assault. The Observatory said the warplanes used Saturday -- based on type, location, munitions and flight patterns -- had come from the Russian-operated Hmeimim base in coastal Syria. The Britain-based monitor said at least 25 Russian strikes hit the rebel zones but did not have any casualty figures. Southern Syria is a strategic prize for local and global players involved in the country's convoluted seven-year war. After securing the capital Damascus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appears keen to recapture the southern provinces of Daraa and Sweida, still mostly held by rebels. He has escalated the bombardments, deployed military reinforcements and dropped flyers, recently. EVENT Once more Russia is helping Syria remove rebels - this time in south west Syria. A ceasefire that the US and Russia agreed last year therefore is over and the conflict moves into a new phase. Trump has told the rebels (the US once supported) that they cannot look to the US for military support. So the door is open for Russia and Syria to bombard the cities in the south. And according to Debka it is a real onslaught… 342 air strikes on Thursday night, June 28, against rebel-held towns near the Israeli and Jordanian borders – of which 299 were conducted by the Russian air force and 43 by Syrian pilots. Russia’s attacks are also ever closer to Israel. At this time Russia is just about working with Israel- the time will come when Russia will invade Israel…. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Ezekiel 39:2-3)

7. Israel readies nuclear reactors for missile strike Newsweek, June 28, 2018 Israel says it has had to beef up protection for two of its nuclear reactors, as they are missile targets for Iran and Hezbollah. The Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) said that the Dimona and Nahal Sorek reactors are the preferred targets for any attack by Iran or Hezbollah. Although it said it was unlikely to endanger Israelis, such an attack would be a huge propaganda coup for Tehran or Hezbollah, Haaretz reported. Field simulations and exercises have been carried out recently where facilities were evacuated. There were also drills dealing with the aftermath of an attack, such as how to stop radioactive material from spreading, the paper added. Research last year published in the Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, found that a Scud missile landing within 115 feet of the reactor could damage its protective dome and cause a leak of radioactive gas, as well as disrupt its cooling systems. Last year, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his group would target Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor, which he described as “antiquated” and said “doesn’t require major force to hit.” EVENT Israel's military believe that Hezbollah has between 100,000 and 120,000 short- and medium-range missiles and rockets, as well as several hundred long-range missiles. There is no doubt that at some point these weapons will be used against Israel. Clearly Israel believes there is a possibility of this happening and even a conflict causing damage to a nuclear reactor. In Zechariah 12 we read of the nearby peoples (of which Hezbollah are one group) – who are intoxicated by Jerusalem. These people gather against Israel. However we read in Zechariah 12 that the rulers of Israel “devour all the people round about” i.e. nearby. Hezbollah and Hamas will be removed. COMMENT In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.  BIBLE QUOTE (Zechariah 12:6)

8. New Russian weapons decades ahead of foreign rivals Associated Press, June 28, 2018 EVENT Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted about his country's prospective nuclear weapons Thursday, saying they are years and even decades ahead of foreign designs. Speaking before the graduates of Russian military academies, Putin said the new weapons represent a quantum leap in the nation's military capability.” A number of our weapons systems are years, and, perhaps, decades ahead of foreign analogues," Putin told young military officers who gathered in an ornate Kremlin hall. "Modern weapons contribute to a multifold increase in the Russian military potential.” The tough statement comes as Putin is preparing for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump set for July 16 in Helsinki, Finland. Russia-U.S. relations have plunged to post-Cold War lows over the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria, the allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and differences over nuclear arms control issues. "We have achieved a real breakthrough thanks to the colossal efforts by science and design bureaus and industries, a real feat by workers, engineers and scientists," Putin said. COMMENT Putin boasted about 2 new nuclear missiles. The Avangard has an intercontinental range and can fly in the atmosphere at a speed 20 times the speed of sound. The Russian leader said that the weapon can change both its course and its altitude en route to a target, making it "absolutely invulnerable to any air or missile defence means.” The other is the Sarmat which carries 10 nuclear warheads. Putin said in March that Sarmat weighs 200 metric tons (220 tons) and has a higher range that can strike targets anywhere in the world. The world condemns chemical weapons but a world leader can boast about weapons so very much worse. Russia prepares for war. BIBLE QUOTE Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:  Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.  (Joel 3:9-10)

9. EU leaders defend migration deal as doubts emerge Guardian, June 29, 2018 EVENT European Union leaders have defended a migration deal struck during talks in Brussels as doubts emerged about whether they would fulfil their promises to build secure centres for processing asylum claims of people rescued at sea. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said Europe had made “a step in the right direction” on migration as she prepared to return to Germany to meet her coalition partners ahead of Sunday’s deadline to find a solution to stop flows of asylum seekers arriving from southern Europe. Shortly before daybreak on Friday, EU leaders ended 10 hours of fraught talks on migration with a vague accord to set up “controlled centres” in Europe to assess asylum claims of people rescued in the Mediterranean. The centrepiece of the deal is an unspecified promise for more EU countries to open “control centres” on a voluntary basis to process asylum claims. But Austria, France, Germany and Italy made clear they had no immediate plans to open secure centres on their soil. Migration is a major issue for the EU. The crisis in Syria especially has brought hundreds of thousands of refugees into Europe. Even though numbers have dropped it is still about 10,000 people a month. The trouble is that the EU project is about not having independent nation states but one bloc that people can move about freely. It is essentially trying to undo what God did by giving different languages at the time of Babel. It was this act that created nations. The EU wants to do away with nations and mix everything up. Trouble is they are still individual nations and they want to stop refugees entering their nation. People (refugees in this case) are weakening the EU. COMMENT This mixture of iron and clay also shows that these kingdoms will try to strengthen themselves by forming alliances with each other through intermarriage. But they will not hold together, just as iron and clay do not mix..  Clay = people Iron = strength of rulership derived from Roman Empire. The clay (people) are weakening the EU through referendum and refugees! BIBLE QUOTE (Daniel 2:43 NLT)

10. Prince William's historic Middle East tour CNN, June 24, 2018 EVENT Prince William arrived in Jordan on Sunday on the first stop of a five-day Middle East tour that will make him the first British royal to pay an official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. The Duke of Cambridge was greeted by Crown Prince Hussein, the son of Jordan's King Abdullah II, at the airport in Jordan's capital, Amman. The Jordanian prince then drove William to a technology-focused event for young people linked to the Crown Prince Foundation. Kensington Palace tweeted that Prince William was "looking forward to building a real and enduring relationship with the people of the region.” After a Tuesday morning visit to Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Prince William will hold meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin. On Wednesday, he will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, in the West Bank. COMMENT When you stop and think of the ties between Britain and Israel in days gone by it seems incredible that this is the first British royal ever to pay an official visit to Israel. It was Britain who in 1917 in the Balfour Declaration said they supported a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. It was Britain that controlled Palestine during the British Mandate. In fact it lasted until Israel was created in 1948. But why has it taken so long? The other amazing fact it is that the Queen has visited over 100 countries during her reign but never once to Israel. But why not? It is probably down to the huge sensitivities around Israel and the Palestinians. But it may also be because Queen Elizabeth is a latter day Queen of Sheba – who will very possibly travel to Israel when Christ returns and lay her crown at his feet. CLICK HERE to watch a video on this. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.  Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.  BIBLE QUOTE (Psalm 72:10-11)

11. Weekly World Watch YouTube Videos

12. Weekly World Watch The end of this week’s WWW will be e-mailed to you each week. If you think others may find the WWW helpful please direct them to the website www.weeklyworldwatch.co.uk They can register on the site PLEASE NOTE: The Weekly World Watch is written and sent by myself – it is my take on events and I accept that on occasions I will miss significant events and also misinterpret them as well. However I will endeavour to be faithful to the scriptures and hope that it will be of benefit to both of us. To watch again please click the green arrow To watch again, click here.