Good morning,

America added 162,000 jobs last month—nearly triple what economists expected—while unemployment held steady at 4.1 percent. On its face, the Bureau of Labor Statistics August report was one of the strongest jobs reports of the year.

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• But buried inside it was this shockingly lopsided number: Of those 162,000 new jobs, all but 4,000—no less than 98 percent—went to women.

Two forces converged to skew the male-female disparity:

• Job growth clustered in industries that women now dominate: restaurants, public education, local government.
• Meanwhile, the information sector, which leans more male, shed 23,000 jobs, an intensification of an already negative trend. Some economists tie that contraction to companies using AI to justify cutting white-collar and tech payrolls.

As unusual as August was, it actually represented a trend decades in the making.

• In 1940, around 24 percent of American women worked outside the home; today it’s 57 percent.
• Over those decades, men’s labor force participation has steadily fallen: from more than 86 percent in 1950 to 67 percent today.
• Women filled the majority of all U.S. payroll jobs earlier this year. This has happened twice before, but it was the first time it wasn’t triggered by a recession.

Few blinked at the sex disparity in the August numbers. Fox News’s report didn’t even mention it. But imagine if 98 percent of new jobs went to men. Surely this would trigger profound soul-searching about rampant sex discrimination and the need to invent more jobs for women.

In an excellent analysis of this trend, Auguste Meyrat at the Federalist pointed to why this trend is bad for women as well as men. One paragraph:

Worse still, this reversal of norms has increasingly made men and women dislike one another, each blaming the other for their failings and becoming less attractive to the other. After all, why would any woman want to date and marry a passive man who makes less money than she does? And why would any man want to date and marry an entitled woman who doesn’t respect him?

Behold the effects of a collapse in traditional sex roles, which are actually biblical: men as providers, women as homemakers (1 Timothy 5:8; Titus 2:5). For generations now, women have migrated into the workforce, and men have quietly retreated from being breadwinners for households.

• A cascade of societal changes has followed: increased prosperity and materialism, declining civic engagement, dropping marriage rates, waning birth rates, children receiving less parental attention, children’s academic performance worsening, men retreating from certain careers as women take over, the feminization of several professions, growing male despair, a leftward political shift—among others.

That paragraph will anger many people, so entrenched is the notion, even among “conservatives,” that the working woman is an unequivocal good, beyond questioning. Even as society grapples with the problems it creates, people tend to view these as preferable to the supposedly repressive, barbaric strictures imposed on women by the traditional family.

• If we would only open our eyes, we would recognize that God, Creator of mankind, knew what He was doing in making us male and female, gifting us marriage and the power to reproduce ourselves, and outlining our complementary roles by which we work as a team rather than as competitors.

The curses we are suffering for discarding His design actually prove that His law remains active and that it is, as the Apostle Paul wrote, “holy, just and good.”

Leadership Crisis Torpedoes Merz’s America Trip

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was scheduled to bask in the adulation of his peers next week, receiving the Henry A. Kissinger Prize in New York and then addressing the United Nations General Assembly. Instead, he will be yelled at by activists in his own party after he was forced to cancel the trip to fight for his political survival.

• The Alternative für Deutschland beat Merz’s Christian Democratic Union in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6. The victory shook German politics and marked a major failure for Merz personally, who had promised to halve support for the AfD.
• Then on Monday, the AfD reached 30 percent support in a nationwide poll for the first time ever, soundly beating the cdu’s 20 percent support.
• This coming Sunday, the cdu could be wiped out in state elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In 2006, it was the largest party in the state, with 30 percent support; now it is polling around 7 percent. If fewer than 5 percent of voters cast a ballot for the cdu, the party will fail to reach the minimum threshold and will have zero seats in the state legislature.

It’s an unprecedented crisis for the CDU, and many want Merz out.

Merz also faces a threat from his coalition partners. The Social Democrats might reverse course on pension reform, the only significant reform the coalition has managed to agree on. This would be a second crisis within the cdu.

• But it’s hard to fire a chancellor under Germany’s constitution. The cdu could replace Merz as leader of the party, but that won’t automatically remove him as leader of the country. That can only happen if a majority in the legislature agrees on a replacement.

The Bible says a strongman will soon take power, and it tells us how. A key scripture is Daniel 11:21, which says the German people “shall not give” this coming leader “the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.”

• “This man doesn’t come to power the honorable way—by being voted into office,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in November 2002. “He takes it dishonorably! He will work behind the scenes and come to power by flatteries—not votes!”

Germany’s current political climate is full of opportunities for this to happen. He could come to power on the EU level or the German level. The discontent with Merz shows that a vacancy could open quickly.

• With the AfD setting new records for popularity, none of Germany’s mainstream leaders are looking forward to any election, local or national, so other political machinations could bring in a new leader. This leader could arrive quickly.

Our free booklet A Strong German Leader Is Imminent explains what the Bible says about this man.

EU Facing Off Against an ‘Openly Hostile World’

The European Union must become independent to withstand an “openly hostile world,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said today in her State of the Union speech at the European Parliament. She discussed Russia’s war against Ukraine and, while not directly mentioning the U.S., said the conflict has “frayed relationships.”

Hostilities are growing around the world, and long-standing partnerships between nations are breaking. But the Bible reveals that the most hostile power of all will rise out of Europe.

“A territorial war ‌of aggression is ‌raging ​on our continent; others have erupted nearby,” von der Leyen said. “A ​fight for industrial capacities is shaping global ​competition. And ​a battle of ​narratives is seeking ‌to weaken confidence in ​Europe.”

These challenges demand European unity and independence. Von der Leyen:

• Called for an end to “many dangerous dependencies” such as reliance on Chinese critical raw materials
• Outlined how to build up reserves through global partnerships
• Called for the establishment of an alert mechanism, independent of nato, for security crises that fall below the threshold of an armed attack
• Welcomed Canada’s desire to become an associate member (article, below)

Iron and clay: Referencing British author Charles Dickens (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”), she said:

The state of our union is the strongest it has ever been. The state of our union can also feel as precarious as it has ever been.

Daniel 2:40-41 prophesy that this will remain Europe’s principal problem. The current union will condense into a smaller, stronger union of 10 nations or groups of nations, yet:

And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

The EU today is mostly known for division and fragility. However, within this mixture is an iron strength. As crises forge this union, its ironlike strength will soon shock the world. “The Image of Daniel 2” reveals why this prophecy applies to Europe today and how it will respond to what it regards as an “openly hostile world.”

Carney Seeks ‘Unique’ Alliance With EU

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in his speech at the first Canada Investment Summit yesterday that Canada would seek “a unique security and economic alliance” with the European Union.

• Carney’s comment follows Saturday’s report by the Wall Street Journal claiming that Canada wants to become an “associate member” of the EU.
• Carney became the first non-EU leader to attend the bloc’s State of the Union address on Wednesday, and he will address the European Parliament on Thursday.

Hosea prophesies Canada will turn to Germany, which dominates the EU. It also prophesies about the fatal consequences.

Carney believes the new world order will be built out of Europe. That’s one reason he is crossing the Atlantic, rather than the border, to establish Canada’s loyalties.

• At the summit, he championed Canada as a “safe harbor” and base that is “perfectly situated to build in the new global economic order.”

The current economic order is American-led and has been for a lifetime—during which America and Canada have been each other’s largest trading partners and close military allies. But Carney wants a new order.

“Sovereignty and openness are now in tension,” he said in his speech. “Economic integration is being weaponized,” and “tariffs are used as leverage.”

Carney is not the only Commonwealth leader turning away from the U.S. to Europe and Germany. Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell stated on Tuesday that his country is “on the same page” as Canada, pivoting away from the U.S. to the EU.

In Hosea 7, God says Ephraim, the Israelite ancestor tribe of Australia and Canada, is a “silly dove.” They are walking the path that will lead to their destruction. Soon, along with the U.S. and Britain, they will be betrayed and attacked by the descendants of the Assyrians: Germany.

IN OTHER NEWS

Russia’s grip on Georgia tightens with opposition party ban: Leaders of the pro-Russia Georgian Dream party said yesterday they would add the For Georgia party as a defendant in its lawsuit that seeks to constitutionally ban five political groups. Georgian Dream leaders say these parties reject Georgia’s constitutional order and engage in “destructive actions” in the nation’s parliament. But notably, the targeted parties favor closer integration with Europe, while Georgian Dream has pursued a staunchly pro-Russia foreign policy. Georgian Dream’s increasingly pro-Russia and increasingly repressive measures demonstrate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s progress in pulling this former Soviet country back into Russia’s orbit.

The United States hosted top Israeli and Arab officials in Germany last week, Axios reported yesterday. In a clandestine meeting, Commander of U.S. Central Command Adm. Brad Cooper hosted the chiefs of staff of Israel, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. One Axios source said Israel discussed with Saudi Arabia how it could support the Saudi campaign against Yemen’s Houthis. This kind of cooperation between Israeli and Arab countries, including several that don’t formally recognize Israel, is noteworthy. That it happened on German soil may be even more noteworthy. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry warned in 2021 that Israel’s trust in Arab nations and Germany will lead it into a trap.

More deathware, made-in-U.S.A. and made-in-Germany: German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a letter of intent yesterday to further cooperation between their military manufacturers. Their aim, according to Bild, is to produce more weapons at greater speed “with secure supply chains.”

Bond investors call Bessent’s bluff: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dared investors to bet against him after the government bought back billions of long-term bonds. On Monday, they did. They sold long-term bonds instead of buying them, which drove prices down and yields up. The 10-year Treasury yield jumped past 5 percent, its highest level since 2007. Bessent’s plan was meant to lower borrowing costs. It backfired. One third of publicly held debt comes due within a year, and another third within five years. If the 10-year yield stays this high, annual interest payments on the national debt could reach $1.2 trillion ($3,700 per person) next year.