The Daily Briefing highlights the news of the day and research that reveals the spirit of the day.
The Daily Briefing is a newsletter sent straight to your inbox every morning that provides biblical insight on today's news.
Top News
6. Cars in flames as National Guard, police work to disperse protests (ABC News)
“Law enforcement officers in Los Angeles clashed for a third day on Sunday with crowds of people demonstrating against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. But even as tear gas wafted over pockets of downtown, the rest of the sprawling city kept to its usual sunlit rhythms. As night fell, California leaders urged protesters to be peaceful and Jim McDonnell, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, warned that clashes on the streets were “getting increasingly worse and more violent.” He blamed that on “people who do this all the time,” not people protesting immigration raids.
“During a Sunday evening news conference, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said 39 people had been arrested in total, 29 on Saturday and 10 on Sunday. McDonnell also addressed accusations that the police department was slow to respond to the unrest. Protests began Friday night after ICE arrested 44 people across Los Angeles on alleged immigration violations. ICE’s Acting Director Todd Lyons said that night, ”over 1,000 rioters surrounded and attacked a federal building.”
These protests are a form of neotoddlerism, according to GS Bhogal. “It’s an ideology for an age of instant gratification, activism for the attention-deficit generation.” He goes on: “Instead of trying to produce the best arguments, neotoddlers try to produce the most outrageous video clips, which typically involves vandalism, desecration, or some other kind of public meltdown. Thus, they outrage others by embracing their own outrage and lashing out at the world.”
These neotoddlers want attention more than change, a departure from the protests of the past. “The Civil Rights movement succeeded because it was guided by leaders who had clear, specific, and realistic goals, and were able to negotiate to achieve them. Since neotoddlers “organize” mostly on social media, they’re decentralized, and don’t have leaders that can guide them or negotiate for them. They are therefore ruled by their loftiest ideals, in service to their basest impulses, and they don’t have the means to create, only to disrupt.
The sheep are still bleating… In 1 Sam. 15, Saul disobeyed the directives given to him but justified his actions based on his thinking that he was doing something good. His disobedience was rooted in a misunderstanding of righteousness. When Samuel approached him about his transgressions, the bleating of sheep filled the air, a blaring reminder of Saul’s disobedience. Samuel responded with a truism: obedience is better than sacrifice. In this instance, frustration with the law doesn’t provide a permission structure to break the law. Instead of breaking the law, you can appeal to it in our democratic republic.
5. ABC News suspends journalist Terry Moran after post criticizing Stephen Miller (WaPo)
“ABC News on Sunday suspended senior national correspondent Terry Moran after he sharply criticized White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on the social media platform X, the latest flash point in the long-running clash between the Trump administration and the network. "Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater,” Moran wrote in the post, which was published early Sunday and later deleted. “You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”
“Moran’s post was shared widely on X by conservatives, including press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who wrote that it was “unhinged and unacceptable.” The White House had contacted the network about the post, she said. Vice President JD Vance also criticized Moran for what he described as an “absolutely vile smear” and said he should apologize to Miller.”
Are Moran’s comments the natural byproduct of a gamified world? Gamification refers to the application of game-design elements in non-game contexts, enhancing user engagement and the larger experience. Consider how saturated we are in games today: points programs via credit cards, loyalty reward offerings at restaurants, and even charitable giving initiatives. But in this instance, Moran felt compelled to participate in one of the most pervasive games today: social media.
Gamification is rooted in BF Skinner’s behaviorism. Skinner believed environment determines behavior, and a person could be controlled simply by controlling their environment. Drawing on experiments with pigeons, Skinner discovered 3 insights: immediate rewards are more effective than delayed, unpredictable rewards are superior than fixed, and conditioned rewards work better than primary. Relative to Moran, the reward of likes for his distaste of Miller was too enticing.
Moran played the game and appears to have lost. Writing on the dangers of social media, GS Bhogal noted: “On social media, fools feel clever by mocking bigger fools, and scoundrels feel virtuous by condemning bigger scoundrels. We feel good simply by portraying others as worse. In an age of anxiety and inaction, many seek self-esteem not in their own abilities, but in other's failures.”
Social media is risky because words are powerful. They both reveal the heart of a speaker and can melt a sinner's heart of stone. They were a liberating tool with Pharaoh, brought about healing with Jarius, and play a significant part in our salvation story. James compares the tongue to the rudder of a ship. And for Mr. Moran this moring, his ship has been docked. (James 3:5-6).
4. Oregon middle school hosts 'Drag Day' encouraging students to cross-dress during Pride Week (Fox News)
“An Oregon middle school encouraged students to dress up as "drag queens" and their favorite "queer hero" this week in celebration of Pride Month, but one parent said families weren't notified ahead of time. At the Arts & Technology Academy in the Eugene School District 4J, students celebrated "Pride Spirit Week" with a different theme each day intended to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, according to a memo obtained by Fox News Digital.
“On Monday, students were encouraged to "wear as many colors as they could" for "Rainbow-Out" day. On Tuesday, they were told to wear all black "in remembrance of lost members of the LGBTQIA+ community." Wednesday was "Drag Day" where students were told to "dress like a drag queen/king/monarch or dress up as a different gender." Thursday was "Queer Hero Day" where students picked their favorite "queer hero," such as Freddie Mercury or Chappell Roan. The week's events concluded with "Pride Flag Friday," where students were told to "dress up as the pride flag of your choice."
Less pride, more learning? Oregon’s K-12 public schools are some of the worst in the country, according to a new report. Oregon school systems ranked 45th among all US states. The National Assessment for Educational Progress, often referred to as the nation’s report card, showed that Oregon’s fourth and eighth graders scored in the bottom half of all states in math and reading proficiency in tests last year.
While the number of LGBT people are increasing in the US, the number of companies planning to celebrate pride is decreasing. In 2012, 3.5 percent of American adults identified as LGBT. Today, that number is 9.3 percent. However, 39 percent of American companies say they plan to scale back pride month engagements this year.
Training up a child requires diligent work, a supportive community, and wise counsel (Pro. 22:6). However, as Paul Tripp notes, parenting requires giving attention to both their external surroundings and also their internal interworkings: “The foolishness inside your children is more dangerous to them than the temptation outside of them. Only God’s grace has the power to rescue fools.” The role of the parents isn’t solely to shield them but to shape them. There will come a day when children are inundated with pride. But that time shouldn’t coincide with math class.
Cultural News
3. AI risks 'broken' career ladder for college graduates, some experts say (ABC News)
“Artificial intelligence could upend entry-level work as recent college graduates enter the job market, eliminating many positions at the bottom of the white-collar career ladder or at least reshaping them, some experts told ABC News. Such forecasts follow yearslong advances in AI-fueled chatbots, and declarations from some company executives about the onset of AI automation.
“Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, which created an AI model called Claude, told Axios last week that technology could cut U.S. entry-level jobs by half within five years. When Business Insider laid off 21% of its staff last week, CEO Barbara Ping said the company would go "all in on AI" in an effort to "scale and operate more efficiently." Analysts who spoke to ABC News said AI could replace or reorient entry-level jobs in some white-collar fields targeted by college graduates, such as computer programming and law.”
Contrary to popular belief, AI makes workers more valuable, not less, according to the 2025 AI Jobs Barometer report. Data shows that the wages of workers with AI skills are on average 56 percent higher compared to workers without these skills in the same occupation, up from 25 percent last year. AI has the capacity to enrich automatable jobs by freeing up employees from tedious tasks to practice more complex skills and decision-making.
Certain jobs are eliminated, but they are more than offset by the jobs created. While AI seems to have replaced a significant number of entry-level computer programmers, those numbers were minuscule compared to the increases in software developers and other closely related fields. Consider radiologists at the Mayo Clinic. There has been a 55 percent jump since the introduction of AI. The doctors retain decision-making authority, but AI thrives at spotting specific abnormalities.
In this new world, innovation will create jobs, and automation will take jobs. After all, 2/3 of jobs in the US today did not exist in 1940. While the marketplace will change, one thing won’t change – God (Heb. 13:8). He has tasked us to use his skills to make products or offer services for the world’s good… including our local communities. So while AI will thankfully do more work in the future, we will have new work to do as well. (Gal. 1:17, Rom. 8:28, Heb. 10:24-25).
News You Can Use
2. Moses Livestreamed the Exodus?
Watch it here. “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him that this is what the LORD says: 'Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.”
1. Is a 66-year-old Italian man trapped in this kid's body?
Watch it here. “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Tim. 4:4-5)
