The World and Everything in It: September 8, 2025

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The bar exam is getting an overhaul to focus less on trivia and more on solving real-world problems.

GUNDERSON: We'd like lawyers to be able to be better equipped to handle client matters when they start in the profession.

NICK EICHER, HOST: First, Legal Docket, then the Monday Moneybeat: why the US remains the most investable market in the world. Economist David Bahnsen is standing by.

And the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

REY: We received this afternoon a message from the Japanese government…which specifies the unconditional surrender of Japan…

REICHARD: It’s Monday, September 8th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Now here’s Mark Mellinger with today’s news.

MARK MELLINGER, NEWS ANCHOR: Chicago prepares for federal crime crackdown » President Trump has announced Chicago is the next city to be getting federal troops… in an effort to crack down on crime.

TRUMP: You know how many people were killed in Chicago last weekend? Eight. You know how many people were killed in Chicago the week before? Seven. You know how many were wounded? 74 people were wounded. You think there’s worse than that?

But Democrats are protesting the move. Mayor Brandon Johnson says the city’s crime rate has been going down, and says Trump’s plans are “beneath the honor of our nation.’

Trump fanned the flames with a social media post this weekend in which he called the city ‘Chipocalypse’ and said Chicago is “about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.” Democratic Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth…

DUCKWORTH: The president of the United States essentially just declared war on a major city in his own nation. This is not normal. This is not acceptable behavior.

Duckworth on CBS’s Face the Nation. Trump pushed back.

TRUMP: We’re gonna clean up our cities. We’re gonna clean ‘em up so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war. That’s common sense.

Duckworth says she’s received no indications an influx of National Guard troops into Chicago is imminent. But Border Czar Tom Homan says Chicago and other sanctuary cities can expect to see immigration enforcement action in the coming week.

GOP, Dems debate slowdown in job numbers » New numbers showing a weakening U.S. labor market have the attention of top leaders in both major political parties.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat, tells NBC’s Meet the Press the president’s tariffs are the reason employers added only 20,000 jobs in August.

MOORE: These tariff policies are continuing to increase a lack of predictability and it’s continuing to make prices go up on the American consumer.

But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says stats showing more manufacturing jobs under the Biden administration than now… are misleading.

BESSENT: The jobs that are being created are going to either native born or legal Americans. Most of the jobs created under the Biden Administration went to illegal aliens.

The unemployment rate also increased slightly, from 4.2 percent in July to 4.3 percent in August.

More on this story with David Bahnsen on the Monday Moneybeat a little later in the program.

Israel moves forward w/Gaza offensive, Houthis strike Israeli airport » Israel is forging ahead with its takeover of Gaza City… aimed at totally removing the terrorist group Hamas from Gaza.

The Israeli military is toppling high rises and posting evacuation notices… amid fears from protestors that the new offensive could endanger the Hamas-held hostages who are still alive.

Meantime, the Trump Administration has offered a new proposal calling for the immediate release of all hostages… in exchange for freeing some Palestinian prisoners. It’s not clear whether that proposal has any chance of becoming reality.

All this comes as Israel intercepted three drones fired by Houthi rebels from Yemen over the weekend. But one drone did manage to get through… hitting an Israeli airport, shutting down operations, and wounding two people.

Largest Russian attack on Kyiv since start of Ukraine war » Russia hit Ukraine with the largest air attack of the war so far this weekend, killing four people and wounding close to four dozen… according to Ukraine’s government.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it’s time to ramp up economic pressure on Russia, saying he agrees with President Trump calling on European leaders to stop buying Russian oil… which helps fund the war.

ZELENSKYY: I’m very thankful to all the partners, but some of them continue [to] buy oil and Russian gas, and this is not fair.

Zelenskyy on ABC’s This Week.

He added he thinks President Trump gave Russian leader Vladimir Putin the video and images Putin wanted in last month’s bilateral summit.

Zelenskyy says he won’t meet Putin in Moscow for peace talks, saying he can’t go to the capital of a terrorist. Instead, he says Putin will have to come to Kyiv.

Ukrainian refugee killed on U.S. public transit » Public transit officials in Charlotte, North Carolina have released horrifying surveillance footage showing the unprovoked murder of a Ukrainian refugee who survived the war… but not public transit here in the U.S.

Here’s the story according to WSOC-TV. Iryna Zarutska was 23. Police say the video from the attack, which happened just over two weeks ago, shows Decarlos Brown stabbing her as she sat wearing headphones on a Charlotte public transit train. She’d had no other interaction with Brown… who has a criminal history and mental health issues, and now faces first-degree murder charges.

Zarutska had fled Ukraine's war with her family and, according to her obituary, dreamed of becoming a veterinary assistant in America. Charlotte officials released the footage while asking the media not to share it out of respect for her grieving family.

Charlotte’s mayor called the attack heartbreaking and said the city is doing … her words … “all we can to protect our residents.”

New York students return to school under cell phone ban » Public school students in New York just returned to the classroom… and this year, back to school meant something totally different: no cell phones.

A statewide cell phone ban applying to all public and charter schools is now in effect. Governor Kathy Hochul explains the rationale.

HOCHUL: You walk into a hallway with a school that allows cell phones, the halls are silent. Kids aren’t speaking to each other. They’re not making friendships. They’re not creating human connections that you’re supposed to do when you’re a child.

Each school decides how to collect and store students’ phones… using lockers, cubbies, or secure bags.

I’m Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: a special report about changes to the bar exam on Legal Docket. Plus, more on last week’s jobs report with David Bahnsen.

This is The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Monday morning September eighth and a brand new work week for The World and Everything in It. Good morning! I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Today on Legal Docket: the bar exam of the future.

It may not affect you directly, but if you hire a lawyer, it will certainly affect you indirectly—because the bar exam does shape who gets to be a lawyer, and how prepared that lawyer is to help you.

EICHER: For more than 30 years, most states have used the same test, the UBE: that is, Uniform Bar Exam.

Next summer that starts to change. A new version called the NextGen UBE rolls out in six states and four US territories. By 2028 it’s expected to replace the old exam nationwide.

REICHARD: The goal is less rote memorization and more practical lawyering.

WORLD legal correspondent Jeff Palomino talked to several people “in the know,” including a law grad from my very own alma mater.

KATIE GUNDERSEN: So, I take the bar exam the 29th of July and the 30th. Let me actually make sure that's true. Okay, yeah, yeah, okay, that's when I'm taking it. I know it's the last week of July.

JEFF PALOMINO: You can understand why Katie Gunderson is a little nervous. The new St. Louis University School of Law grad is halfway through a ten-week prep course for the Missouri Bar Exam. It’s not an easy process.

GUNDERSEN: It's a really daunting feeling. It's this idea where I've spent three years of my life working towards this goal, and now I have to actually show what I've learned… and prove that I can be a competent attorney…

It's exciting, because it's, I'm so close to the finish line, but it's, it's scary… I have to just kind of trust that I've learned and that my bar prep program will get me to the end.

Even as she studies, Gundersen wonders: How much of the bar exam is relevant to what she’ll do as a new lawyer?

GUNDERSEN: I think a lot of what the bar exam tests you on is these very specific situations or this very specific, …rule that maybe hasn't been used in 50 years, but it could come up, it probably won't come up, and it hasn't come up, but you need to know it, and you need to be prepared for it. I don't think it's going to be something that is applicable to once I'm actually practicing…

She’s not alone. Amit Schlesinger oversees the bar review prep course at Kaplan, an exam prep company. He says the current bar exam is designed with a particular focus and strategy.

SCHLESINGER: There's a lot to study and a lot to memorize. The traditional UBE, is heavily focused on memorization, right? There's 15 subjects. There's a lot of content to cover, and the way to pass the exam is to memorize a lot of law.

But lawyering isn’t just about recall of memorized law and concepts.

So what would a bar exam look like that puts legal knowledge together with legal skills?

That’s where the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam comes in. It’s the most dramatic overhaul to the test in decades.

JUDY GUNDERSEN: My name is Judy Gundersen. I'm the president and CEO of the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

The National Conference of Bar examiners helps states admit lawyers. Judy Gundersen, no relation to our aspiring lawyer Katie Gundersen, has been CEO for the last eight years.

The National Conference does many things, but they’re best known for developing the bar exam. The current exam - the U-B-E - is used by 41 jurisdictions, and last year, 48,500 people took it. So, let’s start with a basic question, “What is the bar exam?”

JUDY GUNDERSEN: Like every profession that we're aware of, in order to get a license, people have to pass a licensing exam. Sometimes it's called a board. Physicians do this, nurses do this, dentists do it, CPAs do it. Lawyers do it, too. And our licensing exam is called the bar exam.

The bar exam is given twice a year. Most take it in July. Seventy to 80 percent of candidates pass it the first time they take it.

The test is given over two days, testing knowledge on 15 legal subjects. The first morning is essays with performance tests in the afternoon. Day two is the multiple choice day. Schlessinger from Kaplan explains what that part’s like.

SCHLESINGER: That exam is a 200 question multiple choice exam, three hours for 100 questions in the morning, break for lunch, and then three hours again for 100 questions in the afternoon. That comes down to 1.8 minutes per question.

And that’s been the model since the late ‘90s. But seven years ago, the National Conference of Bar Examiners began to rethink things. They started by doing listening sessions with different legal professionals.

JUDY GUNDERSEN: And what came out of those listening sessions was more skills testing. We'd like lawyers to be able to be better equipped to handle client matters when they start in the profession.

In other words, the test, as currently designed, covered too many topics and not enough practical skills. A multi-year study followed. They asked over 15,000 newly licensed lawyers and supervisors of newly licensed lawyers some simple questions.

GUNDERSEN: What do newly licensed lawyers in the field do? What is important that they get right? How often do they do these tasks for this content? What do they need to know? What can they look up?

The result is a new, fully digital exam focused on just eight core subjects: civil procedure, contracts, business associations, constitutional law, criminal law, torts, and —starting in 2028— family law.

The new exam also tests seven foundational lawyer skills. Things like spotting legal issues, client counseling, and legal research.

Finally, the new exam shrinks to three, three-hour sessions as opposed to four, and each segment combines all three question types from the legacy UBE.

GUNDERSEN: In every one of those three hour segments, you have 40 standalone multiple choice questions, and you can start with those, or you can end with those.

There's a new kind of question that has not appeared on the bar exam before, and it's called an integrated question set.

There are two of those integrated question sets …And then there's one performance task.

Those new “integrated question sets” are designed to simulate a “day in the life” of a new lawyer. A client walks into your office, tells you about a dispute with her neighbor. The question may include additional materials like emails or witness statements and will go through several prompts.

At Kaplan, Schlesinger says the new exam means a re-do of their exam prep course: 

SCHLESINGER: The new course has been designed really from the ground up, and focuses heavily on mastery of new foundational lawyering skills… So we're taking a learning first approach. Students begin their studies with all the learning of the content, the substantive law… up front in the course, and then they'll be getting a lot more practice rich exercises on the tail end.

Even with all the changes, he applauds what the NextGen UBE is trying to do.

SCHLESINGER: What the intention of the National Conference is, it's very noble one, is to be more practice ready, and practice as in practicing law ready, which should create an environment in the United States of new attorneys that are more capable on day one than they currently are on day one to practice law, which ultimately is to help people, help them get out of trouble, help them succeed in something, help them buy something.

Back to Katie Gundersen. The new grad did sit for the Missouri bar exam back in July. She knows next year her state will offer the NextGen U-B-E. She doesn’t really think about that, though.

Instead, she just waits for that email with her results. That should come any day. What will her reaction be if she passes?

GUNDERSEN: Oh, I think it will be a paralyzing joy…. six seconds of shock and then 45 minutes of screaming and calling… God willing, I will get that email.

The bar exam may be changing, but the feeling of passing? It won’t!

And that’s this week’s Legal Docket.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: The Monday Moneybeat.

NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s time now to talk business, markets and the economy with financial analyst and advisor David Bahnsen. David heads up the wealth management firm the Bahnsen Group, and he is here now. Good morning to you.

DAVID BAHNSEN: Good morning, Nick, good to be with you.

EICHER: Let’s begin with the August jobs report. The economy added just 22,000 jobs last month—and revisions to prior months tell us things were even weaker than we thought. June’s number was revised down into negative territory—now showing a loss of 13,000 jobs. July was revised up slightly, but altogether, we’ve had just over 100,000 net new jobs added in the past four months … really weak. And most of the gains we did see coming from healthcare and social assistance. But manufacturing jobs are down, construction is stalling, and the unemployment rate is holding at 4.3 percent. So David, how do you read the trend?

BAHNSEN: Well, what we see right now is a really clear trend where there are not a lot of firings going on. There are not a lot of people being laid off. There’s more than there has been, but that number is still reasonably low.

However, there’s not a lot of hirings—so you have low firings and low hirings. That is obviously not an environment for job growth, and it often is an environment that precedes negative job creation. We haven’t gotten there yet, but it’s certainly not trending in a good direction.

EICHER: Well, media reports citing fed funds futures show markets have fully priced in a 25-basis-point rate cut in September—a quarter point—so that’s almost certain to happen.

But there’s now talk not just of this month, but three straight cuts by year-end.

So David, is this change in expectations really a reflection of deeper economic weakness? How do you read it?

BAHNSEN: Well, you read it for what it is. There’s a 100% chance that there’s at least a quarter-point rate cut coming next week.

Now, what has changed is that there’s now actually an 11% chance, which isn’t very high, but it’s higher than zero, that there will be a half-a-point rate cut at the September meeting. So it’s, in all likelihood, a quarter point. There’s a small chance it’s a half point.

But now, if you go out to the December futures, what you’re seeing is that there is now a 65% chance of 75 basis points—three rate cuts—by the end of the year. But it’s actually another 8% that there’s a whole 1%, so basically there’s 73% chance that we’re getting between three rate cuts and as high as four, although the four is certainly an outlier.

My point being that the entire narrative has changed.

It’s interesting, to be honest, that the administration might celebrate this, because obviously the President has wanted rate cuts and asked for them for some time. And the President, as I’ve been saying all year, is most certainly going to get his rate cuts. But that they’re getting them for the reasons that they’re getting them is not really going to be a positive, which is that I think the Fed is very concerned at this point that the job picture is deteriorating.

So economic weakness as a reason to cut rates is not exactly what you want—versus cutting rates because you had gotten overly tight, and you’re trying to avoid credit conditions and financial markets tightening up.

You notice every time there’s talk of rate cuts, markets have rallied. Yet, on Friday, markets sold off.

Why did markets sell off when the certainty of rate cuts increased?

Well, first of all, I think markets were already quite confident rate cuts were coming, Nick. But beyond that, the reason now matters. The reason being a weaker economy that could potentially get entrenched—that’s a concern.

We’re not falling into recession off of this, but there’s no question that we are beginning to see some cracks in the armor.

EICHER: But despite that ,you wrote in this week’s Dividend Café that America remains “incredibly investable”—largely for this reason: because we’ve built an economic framework that rewards risk.

I was really interested in the contrast you drew between the United States and Europe: specifically that over the past fifty years, the U.S. has created more than 250 companies worth $10 billion or more. Europe? Just 14. So let’s put it all together: What makes the U.S. such fertile ground for investment? And where do you see the most serious drift from what built that edge?

BAHNSEN: Look, the United States was basically formed as a country under free market principles, out of a DNA that I believe was also intersected with a national character of pioneering, spirit of entrepreneurialism.

There was essentially, from the get-go, a DNA that was pro-growth, and there was a rule of law and respect for private property and implementation of various market principles that were laissez-faire, that believed in the dignity of the individual, that drove economic growth and did so profoundly.

You know, now the whole world has grown in the last 250 years. There has been an industrial revolution and a digital revolution that created a higher standard of living for the whole world.

But the United States grew more than that. And when you look at our investment markets, there’s just no question that we’ve attracted capital, and that that capital has generated big returns. And it’s done so specifically because of the things I’m talking about.

Where freedom has reigned, there has been better economic and investment returns all over the world. The United States has been the gold standard for that.

Where there has not been any freedom—totalitarian societies—there has not been attractive returns.

Then what you see is an awful lot of fuzzy middle. A place like Europe is a great example, because it is not totalitarian. It is a democratic society. They have elections that are free elections. But they have a heavy intervention into their markets, into their economy—a heavy desire to mute the effect of risk.

That deadens entrepreneurial activity. It deadens the investment opportunity and the return on capital that can be generated.

This is a historical fact that has played out. It is something that Americans ought to have a lot of gratitude for. But I also believe it’s something Americans need to be cautious of.

Are we trying to muddle in the economy in a way that could undermine what has been our biggest strength?

Well, we’ve obviously done that a great deal already. I think it has hampered growth. It’s kept us in a bad neighborhood. But we’ve still been the best house in that bad neighborhood.

I’m not sure right now that there’s a whole lot we can do about the neighborhood. But I do believe there’s something we can do about our house—making sure that we at least maintain a level of freedom, a level of entrepreneurial celebration, a level of economic aspiration that is at least the best in the world, even if it isn’t going to be the best we’re capable of.

EICHER: All right, David I should mention that we are now one week away from our event in Houston, The WORLD Stage. Really looking forward to that. We are nearly full, so please don’t put it off. Head over to wng.org/theworldstage and reserve your spot right now. There’s no charge, but space is limited. We’re meeting in downtown Houston September 15th, next Monday night. Meet David and the WORLD team. David will be speaking on themes from his book Full Time: Work and the Meaning of Life. He and I will sit down for an interview after that, we’ll take audience questions, and then hang out for pictures and signed copies of David’s book. It’s going to be a great evening.

Details and sign ups at wng.org/theworldstage, the link’s in the transcript.

David Bahnsen, founder, managing partner and Chief Investment Officer at The Bahnsen Group. He writes regularly for WORLD Opinions, and at dividend-cafe.com. David, thanks. See you next week, literally, in Houston.

BAHNSEN: Thanks so much, good to be with you.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, September 8th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Last week marked the 80th anniversary of V-J Day. Victory Over Japan  coming three months after Victory in Europe, V-E Day.

V-J Day was the official end of World War II, and WORLD’s Paul Butler takes us back through the radio broadcasts that carried the news.

PAUL BUTLER: 80 years ago, Americans were glued to their wireless sets:

ROBERT TROUT/CBS: The Japanese have accepted our terms fully. That is the word we have just received from the White House in Washington. And I didn't expect to hear a celebration here in our newsroom in New York, but you can hear one going on behind me…

American broadcaster Robert Trout, as heard coast to coast on August 14th, 1945, along the Columbia Broadcasting System:

TROUT/CBS: This, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of the Second World War…the United Nations on land, on sea, on air, to the four corners of the earth and the seven seas are united and are victorious...

The United States had officially entered World War II when it declared war against Japan on December 8th, 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Over the next four years, the U.S. lost more than 100,000 men in the Pacific Theater. One in five of those fatalities occurred in just two battles, the fights for Iwo Jima and Okinawa, both in early 1945.

The Empire of Japan and its allies were formidable. But after the European theater ended, the noose around Japan began to tighten. Even so, fierce resistance continued.

Then on August 6th, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, killing more than 100,000 people. Two days later, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. Then, on August 9th, the United States dropped its second atomic bomb, this time over Nagasaki, killing as many as 70,000. Japan knew victory was impossible. It accepted Allied surrender terms on August 14th, 1945.

U.S. President Harry S. Truman addressed the nation from the White House.

PRESIDENT HARRY S. TRUMAN: [I] received this afternoon, a message from the Japanese government in reply to the message forwarded to that government by the Secretary of State on August 11. I deem this reply a full acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, which specifies the unconditional surrender of Japan. In the reply, there is no qualification.

In the words of newsman Robert Trout, victory was official but not formal. The Allies announced they would not declare Victory over Japan Day until the signing ceremony, still more than two weeks away.

The formality didn’t keep Americans from celebrating in the streets, CBS newsman Larry Lesueur reporting from New York City:

LAURENCE LESUEUR: New York has been liberated. They're going simply wild down here at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The cars are speeding past and a mad dash. Just hear those horns? People are hanging onto them two deep, really, just clinging to the sides of the cars. There are trucks from all over New York loaded down with vans and youngsters just hear them blowing those horns. This is the greatest celebration I've ever seen, greater than the liberation of Paris, I think. The churches are filling up too. Sophisticated New York isn’t as blase as they say.

In Honolulu, marching bands and ticker tape filled the streets. Cities and small towns across the nation joined in with fireworks, confetti, and impromptu parades. Just a few minutes into its national broadcast, CBS waved the flag, and thousands of Americans turned up their radios as loud as they could go:

ROBERT TROUT/CBS: This is Columbia's news headquarters in New York. Our last great enemy is defeated. The Second World War is at an end. Ladies and gentlemen, our national anthem. [NATIONAL ANTHEM]

Americans weren’t the only ones celebrating. British Prime Minister Clement Attlee addressed the subjects of the United Kingdom, though in a more somber tone:

CLEMENT ATTLEE: Japan has today surrendered. The last of our enemies is laid low…At this time, we should pay a tribute to the men from this country, from the dominions, from India and the colonies, to our fleets, armies and air forces that have fought so well in the arduous campaign against Japan…Peace has once again come to the world. Let us thank God for this great deliverance and His mercies…long live the king!

King George VI took to the radio the next day:

KING GEORGE VI: Three months have passed since I asked you to join with me in an act of thanksgiving for the defeat of Germany…No one could then tell how long or how heavy would prove the struggle that still awaited us. Japan has surrendered. So let us join in thanking Almighty God that war has ended throughout the world.

Returning to August 14th back in the U.S. for all the celebrations on August 14th, Robert Trout ended his broadcast in a similar way:

ROBERT TROUT/CBS: And so it's well, in all the celebration tonight, in all the gaiety which America has a right to, in all the heartfelt gratitude and thanks, which is pouring out of a very grateful 130 million people…as we go into our churches to give thanks to our God for what has happened on this night.

A little over two weeks later delegations of the Allied and Japanese armies met aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Japanese representatives signed the official documents of surrender, followed by signers from the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands and New Zealand. At the conclusion of the ceremony, President Truman declared September 2nd to be the official Victory over Japan—or VJ Day.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: a report from this year’s National Conservatism Conference in Washington. And, dimming light pollution, a movement to let the stars shine by turning down the artificial lights that drown them out. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is Biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Jesus said: “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” —John 5:30

Go now in grace and peace.

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