Watchman on the Wall

Narrator (Male): Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. Today, Josh Davis will share the latest headlines from the end times.

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Another anti-Israel Gaza flotilla is scheduled for March. Plus, countries worldwide are quickly moving toward digital government and IDs. Interestingly, the same source is funding many of these efforts. Josh Davis explores these headlines from the end times on today's Watchman on the Wall.

Josh Davis: Greetings, fellow Watchmen on the Wall, and welcome to another Headlines from the End Times, helping you connect the dots between what's happening in today's world and the Word of God.

We begin today by looking to Israel. There are plans for another Gaza flotilla. That's right, it's coming back in March, I think just in time for spring break and some of the college students to join in some of these protests and take a nice vacation while they're at it. These anti-Israel activists have announced that they plan to launch a new Gaza flotilla in March. This flotilla reportedly plans to include some 100 vessels, and it's going to sail from ports in Spain, Italy, and Tunisia.

Mandla Mandela, a South African parliamentarian and the grandson of Nelson Mandela, is participating in this flotilla, and he recently expressed hope that thousands of people from around the world would join this effort. He said, "This time around, we expect hundreds and thousands to sign up and to mobilize entry through Egypt, through Lebanon, through Jordan, and every other border that's feasible for us to get into occupied Palestine and to Gaza." Everything he just said is a mouthful of the anti-Israel propaganda that is being pushed forward in the world today.

He went on to say, "We want to mobilize the entire global community to join forces with us." They expect some 1,000 activists, medical doctors, engineers, and even what they call war crimes investigators. What's that all about? These are expected to join this upcoming flotilla. So the activists are urging the international community to prevent Israel from blocking their effort to reach Gaza, which is under an internationally legal blockade due to Hamas's illegal smuggling of weapons into this coastal enclave.

In October of 2025, Israel intercepted a large Gaza flotilla. Do you remember that? That move was criticized by several countries, including Spain, Belgium, and Turkey. In contrast, the Italian Prime Minister has blasted the anti-Israel activists, arguing that the flotilla brings no benefit to the Palestinian people. Israeli officials have dismissed this Gaza flotilla as an anti-Israel publicity stunt and stressed that these vessels contain very little aid for the residents of Gaza.

In fact, someone who's been on board some of those flotillas and caused quite a stir is the famous, or should we say infamous, Greta Thunberg. Back in December, she was arrested in London after she publicly supported the Palestine Action prisoners, which is a violent anti-Israel extremist group.

Here's a quote that comes from the UK: "The UK government assesses that Palestine Action commits and participates in acts of terrorism. In several attacks, Palestine Action has committed acts of serious damage to property with the aim of progressing its political cause and influencing the government." That's from the British Terrorism Act and a direct quote about this group, Palestine Action. Greta was supporting them and was arrested herself in London back in December. She was part of that previous Gaza flotilla.

You know what? I've noticed this: wherever you see Greta, you see the propaganda of the UN coming out loud and clear. Even when she was a teenager and had her famous speech in front of the UN about climate change, you can hear the propaganda coming from her voice. So it's come to me that everywhere that you see her, you can expect UN propaganda to be coming out. So this is an important thing that we need to keep our eyes on.

Now, I want to spend the bulk of our time today talking about digital identifications, and we're going to span the globe, literally touching just about every continent on planet Earth as we see the push for digital government and digital identification. Let me remind you how this connects the dots to Bible prophecy, because I think that we are building a global database of all the world's citizens. Countries will begin sharing this across borders so that they can see who the good guys are, who the bad guys are, who the wanted criminals are.

When they try to cross a border, their face is scanned, the biometric scan of their face, and it says, "Oh no, so-and-so is trying to enter in this country's borders. We cannot allow him to enter; he needs to be arrested." You can see the pieces of this puzzle coming together step by step by step. The world, and I mean the world, is moving in this direction.

What do we see from that? You know, it's not too far of a stretch to say that the Antichrist could really take hold of this kind of system in place to police the world during the tribulation time. We understand that that's the progression that we are making. Now, before I launch into these and we take journeys from country to country to country to show you how these things are progressing across the world, let me take just a second to remind you that Headlines from the End Times is a key component of what we do here at Southwest Radio Ministries.

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All right, thank you for the commercial break. Now, let's get into some of these Headlines from the End Times as we're going to take a quick trip around the world, seeing how governments are moving in the digital direction, especially in the realm of digital identification.

One little rabbit trail that I found as I was digging through some of these stories is that with about three different countries that will come towards the end of our time together today, there was one key similarity. It was the money that was funding these kinds of projects coming from a singular source. It's a head-scratcher, but it's something we want to bring to your attention as we go through this.

Let's start in South America in the country of Brazil. Brazil is preparing to introduce mandatory biometric boarding for their ports and airports. That's right, the Brazilian government is making headway on its plan to introduce a biometric boarding system that will ultimately become mandatory for all airports and maritime ports nationwide. It was back at the end of January that the Ministry of Ports and Airports there in Brazil kicked off a public consultation on the draft national biometric identification policy.

They're trying to introduce standardized procedures for biometric boarding. Again, friends, I think that the dots can connect here, that countries around the world will soon realize we need an international standard for these things and we need to all have some baseline for quality assurance. You can hear it coming; you can see this train coming down the tracks, can't you?

The country of Brazil is also launching the first test for its facial recognition-based boarding system at the largest maritime port passenger terminal in Latin America. Now, countries continue to jockey for position as this push for digital government expands. One of those countries, and the countries in Europe themselves, are trying to outdo one another in who's going to reach digital government the fastest.

There's some that have been at the leaderboard position for quite some time; there's others who are trying to take strides in this direction, including the country of Portugal. Portugal has become the first European Union nation to introduce a version of the European Business Wallet for companies.

Now, a government release says that this wallet centralizes in a single digital channel all of a company's official documents in a secure and updated way. Safety, security, ease of access—these are always the way these things are marketed. But notice what's happening here: any company in Portugal will have its paperwork in this one centralized digital channel, and everything is in this one spot.

It's intended as what they call a simplification instrument, cutting administrative barriers to the European Union-wide expansion that discourages innovation and investment. So it's expected to be particularly relevant for firms providing services rather than physical goods and companies looking to expand activity in the European Union's public sector.

So this business wallet aims to house all of a company's documents in a single, secure, and compliant platform. I found that interesting that that adjective, "compliant," was added into the report. Everybody get on board. This is the one hub. If you want to do business here, this is where you need to be. This is the app that you have to get if you want to do it, and it's hosted on Portugal's official government app. So if you want to do business, you've got to get on board.

Now, again, let me slow down and just say that these things are not the mark of the beast. These things are not showing that that system is here right now. But it's showing the mindset and how that is progressing in today's world, that people are beginning to think this is just the way that business is done. This is what we have to do if we want our business to continue. We have to get on board with this new system.

This is the way the world is moving, and technology is speeding up that move. It's enabling these things to happen at a much quicker pace, to where people may not even think about it. They may just think about the ease and the opportunity that is there for them, and they may not stop and think about what direction this could be headed.

They're rolling this out in Portugal and saying they're going to add features to it over the coming months, and they have a target of this summer, allowing companies to access all the files required to sell public authorities across Europe and open bank accounts. So this launch is part of Portugal's larger state reform, which includes a push to digitize and compete in the evolving European and global marketplaces.

Now, let's move from Europe over to Asia and the country of Sri Lanka. They are developing a digital ID and they look to launch it in the third quarter of this year. That's right, the Sri Lanka Unique Digital Identity—that's what it's called—the Sri Lanka Unique Digital Identity Project. It's funded by a 10.4 billion Sri Lanka rupee grant from the government of India. I found that a little bit interesting. It aims to modernize the country's digital infrastructure and will be launched by the third quarter of this year, 2026.

The Sri Lankan officials state that this is part of a broader move to revolutionize access to public services. The project utilizes India's Modular Open Source Identity Platform, which will include biometric data. This is the kind of biometric data that they're looking to record, they're looking to capture, and make it part of Sri Lanka's official government digital ID. This is the kind of biometric data they're wanting to gather: facial recognition, fingerprint scans, and iris scans of people's eyes for a unique identity verification.

Now, they're also rolling out what they call an e-Locker mobile app for digital service delivery, while being managed by local Sri Lankan service providers after initial setup by a firm in India. So this e-Locker will be a place where all this can be stored safely, just like you would have a locker back in school where you safely and securely stored your books and gym clothes and things like that. Well, you're going to have this digital locker where all these things are kept safely and securely: facial recognition, fingerprint scans, and iris scans.

Again, it all has to do with the face and the hand. What does Revelation 13 talk about? It talks about the forehead and the right hand, that mark of the beast system. Again, let me repeat: this is not the mark of the beast, but look at how the world is being conditioned once more to think this is the way that things work. This is what is considered the safest and most secure way of identifying myself, of keeping my identity secure: the facial recognition, the iris scan of your eye, and the fingerprint scan of your hand.

They say that the iris scan is perhaps the most secure kind of scan because fingerprints can change over time due to illnesses or due to hard work or whatever it may be. But the scan of the iris would remain pretty much constant throughout one's life, and that's why they like to target that particular thing. It's just so interesting to see how this connects the dots with Bible prophecy: the forehead and the right hand.

We're moving to another country. We go from Asia to the Middle East, to the country of Lebanon, just north of the nation of Israel. Lebanon has obtained World Bank funding to boost delivery of its digital public services. According to reports, the Lebanese government has secured $150 million from the World Bank to implement the Lebanon Digital Acceleration Program, an initiative that aims to strengthen the delivery of digital public services for the country's citizens.

Now, this is one of two projects that the country is getting financing from the World Bank to implement. Project activities in the areas of social protection, economic empowerment, and digital transformation. There was a recent World Bank release that announced this funding, saying that both of these projects—in total $350 million that the World Bank is giving to the Lebanese government—that's going to help the government meet what they call "the basic needs of the poor and vulnerable during this economic and financial recovery, improve the delivery of high-impact public services through digital transformation of the public sector."

Isn't that nice of the bank to just give out $350 million to help the poor and vulnerable? Well, I wish they would do that for me, but anyway, the idea according to the World Bank is to help the country better deal with recovery from the crises it has faced, which have deepened poverty and weakened the government's capacity to effectively deliver public services to citizens.

Now, that's a rabbit trail that we could go down and explore what has led to what Lebanon is experiencing. What about Hezbollah and their presence there in Lebanon and in Syria and some of the things going on there? Well, I don't have time to get into that can of worms today, but as explained by the bank, this Lebanon digital acceleration project will make it easier for citizens to access government services and find economic opportunities more easily and securely.

Again, notice how it's marketed, just as it was in other countries around the world, thousands of miles away. They're saying the exact same thing: it's safer, it's more secure, it's easier, it's faster. This is the marketing that's being used all around the world. This project is also meant to support the building and strengthening of data and cybersecurity infrastructure, strengthening the foundations for a more trusted digital transformation, putting in place the essential platforms needed for an effective digital government ecosystem.

It's understood as part of this project, a fully digital ID system will come along. Isn't that the way it works, dear friends? There it is. Could this be why the World Bank is willing to give $350 million to help Lebanon build this database and to implement a fully digital ID system?

I'm going to connect some more dots here, so hang with me. We're moving on to Africa, and we see that the Democratic Republic of Congo plans to launch its digital government platform within the first quarter of this year as part of its digital public services implementation ambitions. That's right, they're wanting to have a fully functional digital government platform in the next few weeks, the first quarter of 2026.

This platform is part of a key aspect outlined in the country's digital and infrastructure plans, which the government started drafting last year, and they intend to make this operational very soon. So this blueprint, which covers the period of 2026 through 2030, seeks to make this Central African nation a regional digital transformation leader and boost digital economy growth in that area of Central Africa.

According to available details of the plan, the country's digital government ecosystem is underpinned by a national digital ID system, and that is already being implemented there in DRC. It was in June of last year that the DRC Pass digital ID was launched, with a plan to integrate with several government and private sectors in the medium and long term. A digital ID, a digital economy, a digital financial system, and access to all of these digital tools as they are quickly moving in this direction.

The plan is projected to contribute $4.1 billion to the DRC's GDP by 2030, but it costs $10 billion to implement. They're losing $6 billion on this project. And the government says that it's willing to commit $1.5 billion of that needed $10 billion to the cause. Where are they going to come up with the money?

The remaining funding is expected to come from international and private sector partners and the World Bank—there's that name again—the World Bank involved in this as well, and the French, the French Development Agency interested in giving some money for this project. Again, we see the World Bank involved in this digitization project too. Now, does the World Bank give billions of dollars just out of the goodness of its heart and never expecting a single thing in return? Are they running a charity over there? Certainly not.

There are always conditions. The World Bank is not a charity organization. The World Bank was established in 1944. Technically, it's part of the United Nations system, although it operates as a cooperative of these 189 member countries who are its shareholders. What a globalist name, too: the World Bank.

But you see them in various corners of the world pumping in millions, if not billions of dollars, to bring these nations online with digital identification systems, with digital government networks, even in the Caribbean islands. Saint Martin has published a tender for its government digitization program that involves a digital identity. Wouldn't you know it, the World Bank is participating in helping fund this project that's owned by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is right up there near the top of the list of the countries who are pushing for digital government innovations. The World Bank has previously participated in restoring Saint Martin's Princess Juliana International Airport, which introduced new biometric-based traveler processing technology as part of those renovations.

So why are digital governments and biometric data always a part of the World Bank's solutions as they're funding these projects in all corners of the world? Could it have anything to do with the UN's push for Agenda 2030 and the dreams of global citizenship? That's something to ponder, something to keep an eye on as Watchman on the Wall.

But do not forget, dear friends, that God is the one who is on the throne and it's prayer that changes things. Thank you so much for joining me today. We look forward to doing this again next time.

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