Teachers and students have blockaded thousands of schools, complaining of dilapidated and understaffed schools. A common slogan ringing out is, “The ‌state has killed national education.”

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• Protests began last month in Paris before spreading nationwide.

• Today’s are the largest so far, with the High School Students Union saying that at least half of French high schools are closed or blockaded.

• At least 700 police and 200 students have been injured.

• One student lost his hands after picking up a stun grenade launched by riot police.

So far, so normal: Protests are common in France, and participating in them is just part of growing up. But as Eurointelligence wrote this morning: “This year, though, it has a different quality; something more unpredictable is in the air.” They explain some of the wider anger:

This is no longer about cafeteria menus or timetables. The students say they are fed up and that the education system is not working for them. Venting anger may be what remains for those students who experienced the lockdowns in their younger years and have to deal with social media bans at school and compete with AI in their future job market.

France is heading for presidential elections next year. The far left under Jean-Luc Mélenchon is encouraging the protests, while the right wants more law, order and police powers.

Behind it all is a broken budget:

• The nation borrows more than 5 percent of its economy per year, well above the EU’s legal maximum of 3 percent.

• Its public debt is 120 percent of the economy.

• No one has a plan to stop the spending: France has gone through five governments since 2024. Government after government has been forced to resign after failing to deal with the debt crisis.

• France now has to pay more interest to borrow money than Greece or Italy.

More protests are coming: The “yellow vests” protests that paralyzed parts of the nation in 2018 are scheduled to return on October 17, demonstrating against high fuel prices. With no spare cash, it will be hard for the government to address any of these demands.

France is facing a generational political crisis. The fringe far-right National Rally could provide France’s first far-right government.

Political chaos in Germany will pave the way for a strong German leader. But France is the EU’s second-most populous country and second-largest economy. A crisis here will help accelerate the rise of a strong German leader who will control the entire EU, as Bible prophecy warns. It will also ensure that France cannot take advantage of German turmoil to seize the reins of the EU for itself. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explains this in his article “Europe Is About to Be Hijacked.”

Europeans are facing great crises, including economic instability, illegal immigration and terrorism, and rising geopolitical threats from Asia. All history shows that, in times of crisis, people are less concerned about liberty and democracy: They need strong leadership. That will come from Germany, which dominates and even domineers Europe today. It is the powerhouse. In the end, 10 kings will give their military might to one man to form a superpower that will shock the world!

France’s instability is helping to push Europe toward this prophesied outcome.

Germany Flexes Its Economic Muscle Toward China

To save its economy, Germany is toughening its stance on trade relations with China, but the proposed policies could also be weaponized against others.

In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday, Germany and France called for tools to restrict Chinese access to the European Union market, to diversify European supply chains, and to prepare for possible retaliation against China. A policy paper on global economic imbalances accompanied the letter.

• Next week, France and Germany will urge EU leaders at the European Council summit to act on the proposed policy.

A powerful weapon: According to the letter, the European Commission should receive far-reaching powers to exclude economic rivals such as China from the EU single market. “All of this would have been unthinkable just three years ago,” Handelsblatt wrote.

• Action is needed. The EU’s trade deficit with China reached an estimated €1 billion per day in 2025.

Ending EU slowness: The letter states: “We need a comprehensive framework to complement our toolbox with new legal instruments—in a lean and non-bureaucratic way.”

When Germany moves, Europe moves. And this time, it’s a big step. Handelsblatt praised German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for the drastic measures:

Under his leadership, the federal government ushered in nothing less than an economic turning point on Monday. The coalition is realigning its policy toward China and putting an end to years of naivety toward Beijing, which has been costing German industry 15,000 manufacturing jobs every month. This historic shift in policy toward China has received surprisingly little recognition. Yet its significance cannot be overstated.

The EU must overcome its economic downturn to become the superpower it is prophesied to be in Revelation 17 and 18. While reducing its trade deficit with China will likely play a key role in this, Isaiah 23 reveals that these two powers will economically besiege the United States. Thus, the economic weaponry Germany is currently pushing for will eventually be aimed at another target.

Germany to Build Major North Sea Naval Base

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius signed a letter of intent yesterday with Lower Saxony Premier Olaf Lies to build what he called a “major naval base” in Emden, Germany.

• This will be Germany’s fifth naval base and will cost several billion dollars.

• It is intended to support the Navy’s Wilhelmshaven port and should be operational in the early 2030s.

• Its facilities will consist of 7 frigate berths, 10 minehunter berths and 10 tugboat berths.

Bible prophecy and history warn that Germany will use an increasingly powerful navy not just to deter Russia but to attack its own current allies.

Pistorius said in Emden that the Navy is the smallest it’s been since the Bundeswehr was founded and that it must and will grow to boost Germany and nato’s deterrence abilities.

Pistorius also said Germany “can quickly reach the North Atlantic and the North Sea” from Emden.

Why would Germany want increased access to the North Atlantic and North Sea?

Partly to protect against potential Russian threats in the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap. The region would also be important in a potential attack on the United Kingdom and North America.

Germany’s naval ambitions have historically never been entirely defensive in nature.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill warned in 1912, two years before World War i, that Germany’s desire for a strong navy was a sign of its expansionist ambitions. This is still true today.

IN OTHER NEWS

Former German spy chief arrested for espionage: August Hanning, the head of Germany’s bnd foreign intelligence agency from 1998 to 2005, was arrested today on suspicion of espionage and treason, along with his chief of staff Manfred D., who remained at the agency decades after Hanning. According to prosecutors, Manfred D. supplied Hanning with some 2,000 documents beginning around 2010, many of which contained classified information, that he planned to sell and use to “draft an analysis for an office of a foreign intelligence service.” Prosecutors say he was also “in close contact” with a foreign intelligence representative “to whom he passed on political information.”