Thank you for reading the Morning Brief. Today, we cover some disturbing vitriol against the Jewish state of Israel from Spain and other nations, and our feature story is about the world’s condemnation of Israel after its attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar.

But first we look at what we learned over the weekend about Charlie Kirk’s assassin.

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Portrait of a killer: A disturbing picture is emerging of Tyler Robinson, the young man who killed Charlie Kirk. And since he is alive and in custody, more is sure to come. It shows how a potent brew of toxic influences can radicalize a boy from a conservative family and transform him into a murderer.

• Robinson spent thousands of hours in isolation, absorbed in video games, especially first-person shooters and multiplayer games.
• He was immersed in message boards, Discord chats and Reddit subcultures that drew him to anti-fascist and leftist ideology.
• The online forums Robinson frequented appear to have introduced him to sexually deviant subcultures, memes and discussions.
• He was in a romantic relationship with his transgender roommate, a young man “transitioning” to a woman. It appears his parents didn’t even know he was homosexual.

Robinson wrote messages on his bullets, including lyrics from an anti-fascist Italian song and a sexually explicit meme reference. Young people today are swimming in these kinds of influences.

• Around 85 percent of teens play video games; over 40 percent play daily.
• Teens average 2 hours every weekday gaming.
• One in six plays more than 6 hours a day. And they are probably more locked in than a lot of us are at our jobs.
• The culture within multiplayer gaming, created and amplified by isolated youths whose real-world relationships and connection to reality can be tenuous, often marinates in extremely dark themes.

It gives the devil fertile ground to sow perverse, hateful, radical, violent ideas within young people who lack the maturity and moral grounding to resist them.

It appears Tyler Robinson descended into this world after leaving his parents’ home. But many young people are absorbing these influences while living at home. Parents aren’t truly supervising, let alone guiding and educating, their children, providing the protection and moral instruction that is so crucial in this sick society. Truly, “a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” (Proverbs 29:15).

If you would like a thorough, Bible-based education in how to bring up your children to protect them from falling prey to these evil influences, study our free book Child Rearing With Vision.

If Spain could drop a nuclear weapon on Israel, it would: That is what Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez implied last week about Spain’s new arms embargo on Israel.

• His exact words were, “Spain, as you know, doesn’t have nuclear bombs, nor aircraft carriers or large oil reserves. We alone can’t stop the Israeli offensive.”

The leader of a country with such a dubious history with the Jews as Spain saying something like this would have made front page news a few years ago. Today, the world shrugs and moves on. This was one of several stories showing Israel’s pariah status in the world.

• On a September 8 World Cup qualifying match between Israel and Italy, Italian fans turned their backs on the Israeli national anthem.
• Spain’s Sestao Chess Club, which started a tournament on Friday, told seven Israeli competitors they weren’t allowed to compete under their national flag; the players subsequently withdrew their entries. The chess club said it was their “goal” to stop Israelis from taking part.
• The British government confirmed over the weekend that it will bar all Israelis from entering the Royal College of Defense Studies.

Plenty of countries are committing genuinely heinous acts—and not to defend itself from terrorists as Israel is. There is no international boycott against China for its genocide against Uyghurs. There is no boycott against Sudan for the genocidal atrocities that have been happening there for years.

This fixation against Israel isn’t rational. There are spiritual causes behind it. Our article “The Nazi Anti-Semitic Spirit Is Back From the Dead” goes into more detail.

IN OTHER NEWS

Germans again voted far-right yesterday: Local elections in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, resulted in the Alternative für Deutschland party receiving 14.5 percent of the vote, up from 5.1 percent in 2020. The conservative CDU won 33.3 percent, losing 1 percentage point, while the Greens dropped 6.5 points to 13.5 percent. While we have seen such drastic shifts in eastern Germany, we are now starting to see them in the west. North Rhine-Westphalia’s State Premier Hendrik Wüst admitted that, though his party won a plurality, “This result must give us pause for thought; it means we cannot rest easy.” Something troubling is boiling in Germany.

Over 100,000 people took to London’s streets on Saturday, waving Union Jacks and the flags of the nations that make up the United Kingdom. Trevor Phillips, writing in the Times, summarized their cause as: “stop immigration, defend free speech, revive Christianity.” Government and media portrayed it as a violent, far-right event, yet only 25 people were arrested (compared to more than 500 during the hedonistic Notting Hill Carnival three weeks before). “This was not an angry, activist crowd,” wrote Phillips. They were simply celebrating cultural hallmarks that, until recently, were mainstream British. Charlie Kirk’s assassination has resonated in Britain. Could we soon see some kind of revival in the UK?

Russia and Belarus began “Zapad” joint military exercises on Friday, after Russian drones launched from Belarus violated Poland’s air space last week. Poland responded by shutting its borders with the two countries and deploying 40,000 soldiers. So far this year, about 20,000 Poles have signed up for voluntary military training. About 40,000 are expected to complete the training by the end of the year, a similar number to last year, and up from only 16,000 in 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Since that invasion, Poland has more than doubled its military budget. Fear of Russia is prompting Europe to militarize in exactly the way Mr. Flurry has forecast for decades.

Some U.S. lawmakers want to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism: An estimated 11,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted by Russian forces this year, raising the estimated total since the war began 3½ years ago to 35,000. The Geneva Conventions designates abduction as a war crime, and because of this, on Thursday U.S. lawmakers introduced a new bill to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Putin faces pressure from the European Commission as well. Only 1,300 Ukrainian children are thought to have escaped.

Marco Rubio visited the City of David: The United States secretary of state toured the archaeological park in the ruins of Old Testament-era Jerusalem along with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee yesterday, before his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today. Read about this archaeological project, and the Trumpet’s connection to it, here and here.

Most British young people are crazy, a YouGov study published today indicated. Out of 1,545 people ages 16 to 25 who were surveyed:

• 64 percent said they had experienced or were experiencing mental health issues.
• 72 percent of woman fell into this category, compared to 56 percent of men.
• 32 percent said they were likely to need mental health support in the next 12 months.

Part of this reflects the medicalization of the ups and downs of regular life. But the fragility of this generation also shows the sickness in society. Our article “Build a Tougher Teen” shows how to fix it.