A Dutch doctor murdered a 2-year old child at the end of last year. A medical committee finished its investigation last week, concluding that he did a good job and “acted with care.”

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This was the first state-sanctioned murder of a young child under the 2024 Netherlands euthanasia law that allows the killing of children ages 1 to 12.

• The child was born prematurely after only 26 weeks and suffered from severe brain damage, cerebral palsy and epileptic seizures.

It was clearly a tragic situation—but murder is never the answer.

Usually the language is softened to “euthanasia” or “assisted suicide.” In this case, it’s clear the child was unable to deliberately and knowingly kill himself, so the usual euphemisms are self-evidently false. Instead, one doctor talked about the “procedure to end the life.”

It’s even more disturbing to see this “procedure” being applauded by all levels of Dutch health care. The Netherlands government has set up the lza-lp&k committee to evaluate such decisions. In Dutch, the name stands for “Late-Term Abortion and Termination of Life in Newborns and Children”—a horrifically Orwellian name. People on this committee investigated the killing of the little boy and agreed with it.

“It is good that the committee reached such a well-considered judgment,” a professor of pediatric palliative care at a Dutch university told rtl News. “Many physicians and parents will benefit from this in the future.”

He’s right that this isn’t just about one horrific murder of a 2-year-old boy. It’s also about the future—and many children will not benefit. We truly live in a sick and evil world. A doctor can murder a disabled child and not only remain free of serious—or even minor—consequences but also be applauded for it.

These aren’t pleasant stories to read or write about. But this is our world—a world in need of a Savior. We need saving from generations of broken health laws and resulting ill health that cause even the innocent to suffer. We need saving from a flexible, sliding standard of immorality that has experts cheering what surely they themselves would have deplored just a few years ago.

That salvation is coming. Jesus Christ is preparing to return and enforce His law, which will prevent all such appalling evils that man calls good. He will bring healing for all sickness and diseases.

We must see the ugly, sin-sick world for what it is, but take hope in the God of love who will destroy sin and evil. Read about the future God outlines in your Bible along with your free copy of Herbert W. Armstrong’s booklet The Wonderful World Tomorrow—What It Will Be Like.

Fed Defies Trump With Rate Raise

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25 percent to between 3.75 and 4 percent yesterday, the first increase since 2023.

• The Federal Open Market Committee unanimously agreed on the decision.
• 10 of the committee’s 12 members anticipate another increase this year.
• The move is designed to lower inflation from 3.4 percent to 2 percent.

Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh attributed the decision to the U.S. economy strengthening since the July Fed meeting, while factoring in high inflation and geopolitical tension.

President Trump disagreed with the decision.

• He posted on social media yesterday that “interest rates in the United States should be 1 percent or less,” and “Lower the interest rates for the United States of America, and fast!”
• On September 4, he threatened that if rates don’t drop, he would cut trade with all nations the U.S. has a trade deficit with, which includes many major allies.

The markets didn’t like the decision either.

• The S&P 500 closed 0.4 percent lower.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 1.2 percent.

The U.S. national debt has surpassed $40 trillion. Raising rates will make that debt more expensive. However, if rates aren’t raised, inflation, which is high partly because of the Iran war, will continue to rise. At the same time, markets are gambling trillions of dollars on speculative technologies that benefit from lower rates. The government has no solution.

This financial crisis is a curse because of America’s disobedience to God’s laws (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28). America’s financial difficulties will persist until the nation suffers a financial meltdown.

Royal Family: Scandal in the Spotlight

“Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.” The former Prince Charles reportedly said this to Charles Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, after she died in a tragic car crash in 1997. Spencer is serializing his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, in the Daily Mail starting today.

• Last night, Buckingham Palace responded with an unusually blunt statement against Spencer, claiming “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory.”
• The Mail, as the nation’s second-most widely circulated national paper, will amplify Spencer’s message with one of the United Kingdom’s loudest gossip megaphones.

The accusations come at an already sensitive time for the royal family. On August 26, Prince Harry and Meghan, duchess of Sussex, moved back to the UK after a six-year stay in Meghan’s native California.

• The couple left Britain in 2020 and quit their royal duties, blaming the royal family for failing to accommodate them.
• The King has confirmed the couple will not resume royal duties. They will live in a private dwelling.

The royal family was once the binding force that united the UK and the British Commonwealth behind a common purpose. It was the one legacy of the British Empire that was largely above disrepute. These latest events add to a compounding, multifaceted scandal of the royal family’s character, seen perhaps most clearly in the arrest of Prince Andrew.

Many supporters of the monarchy are upset by the royal family’s fall. But as Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in Chapter 4 of his free book The New Throne of David, this family’s decline corresponds to a transition and elevation of its heritage that should inspire people.

IN OTHER NEWS

European-Canadian Union? Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney became the first foreign head of government to address the European Parliament today. In his speech, Carney seconded European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s call for Canada to become an “associate member” of the European Union, a designation that does not currently exist. Carney didn’t mention his trade dispute with United States President Donald Trump directly but made references to “economic integration … being used as a weapon and tariffs as a means of leverage.” This is the latest move in Carney’s pivot away from the U.S. and toward Europe—a pivot with a dangerous ulterior motive.

India ignores U.S. tariff threats, buys Russian oil: After the United States House of Representatives passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 yesterday, authorizing unprecedented tariffs on nations that buy Russian oil and gas, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said, “India remains firmly committed to ensuring energy security for its 1.4 billion people.” U.S. lawmakers hope the measure will cut into Russia’s energy revenues and pressure it to end its war on Ukraine. But the apparent refusal of India—Russia’s second-largest energy buyer—to abandon Russian fossil fuels casts doubt on the strategy’s effectiveness. Even if India reduced its purchases of Russian energy for a time, that would not alter the larger geopolitical trend: India continues to draw closer to Vladimir Putin’s Russia.