Thanks to the magic of the Internet, we’ve got a clarification. The author of the piece responded to my query on TA and said in part:
By "we understand" we mean "we draw the inference from the number and speed of current events" or "our reading of the direction of recent statements is". Very happy to replace "we understand" with "it is probable that".
So–it is a ratcheting up of rhetoric. The timing does make things look suspicious but there is no proof.