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. Trump declassifies documents to fuel claims of China’s interference in 2020 election (NY Times)
“President Trump made claims about the safety of American voting systems in a White House address on Thursday night, drawing selectively from documents his aides published online to falsely claim elections were “rigged” and “stolen.”
"Our purpose in disclosing this information is not to weaken confidence in elections, but to earn that confidence by confronting vulnerabilities and correcting them very, very quickly," Trump said. Mr. Trump, who has in recent months increasingly pressed his yearslong and unsubstantiated argument that the outcomes of U.S. elections have been tampered with, also laid out a purported effort by the Chinese government to undermine him in 2019. But the documents posted by the White House, although heavily redacted, were far more guarded in their conclusions.
“A U.S. intelligence assessment released in March 2021 said with “high confidence” that China considered but did not go through with an operation to sway the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. China did not view either a Trump or a Biden victory as “being advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling,” the report said. Instead, the report said, China chose to emphasize stability in its relationship with the U.S., most likely using traditional “influence tools” such as economic measures and lobbying.”
Watch out for the mules? A few years back, Dinesh D’Souza was instrumental in the movie 2,000 Mules, which promoted the idea that voter drop boxes were the scene of mass widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. “Mules” stuffed the boxes with ballots. However, late last year, D’Souza had to admit that the claims were flawed.
Is voter fraud a pervasive problem? The Heritage Foundation has been collecting cases of voter fraud over the last 20 years. In a report, they have found that fewer than 1,100 cases of voter fraud out of approximately 250 million mail-in votes over 20 years. After the 2020 election, the Trump campaign filed approximately 60 challenges in both federal and state courts, all of which were rejected. The Justice Department has concluded that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the election.
Voting is a foundational component of this great American experiment. Brave men and women greatly sacrificed so that we might have the chance to freely live and vote. We honor them by casting our votes to elect fellow citizens to lead this shared project to protect our inalienable rights. When the legitimacy of an election is questioned, the foundation of our country weakens. (Pro. 11:19, 14:34)
5. U.S. launches another night of strikes as battle continues over Strait of Hormuz (CBS News)
“The U.S. launched a sixth night of strikes in Iran on Thursday, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying President Trump was "not going to sit by and allow these acts of terrorism to take place in the strait without ensuring Iran pays consequences."
“Iran continues targeting U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf in retaliation for American strikes, with state media claiming attacks targeting U.S. military facilities in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain early Thursday. There were no immediate reports of weapons hitting American bases.
“Iran's military said Thursday it would target "all infrastructure in the region" if Mr. Trump follows through on his threats to attack Iranian civilian infrastructure, as the U.S. war with Iran continues intensifying.”
Both sides seem to see more reasons to keep fighting than to throw in the towel, according to Walter Russell Mead. “The core problem is that the conflict between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran is of the kind that Secretary of State William Seward once famously characterized as “irrepressible.” Iran wants to control the energy resources of the Persian Gulf, and there is no local coalition of states powerful enough to block it without American support. The U.S. has believed for 80 years that ensuring the free passage of Middle Eastern oil and gas to world markets is essential to America’s prosperity and security.”
War is almost always a succession of surprises, many unpleasant, Mead notes. “This is especially true when unconventional leaders engage in an irrepressible conflict. Diplomats and investors should be warned. Both Mr. Trump and the Iranian regime may be taking their cues from John Paul Jones’s response when asked if he was ready to surrender. “Sir,” he supposedly declared, “I have not yet begun to fight.”
Must the sword devour forever? Following the death of King Saul, a bitter struggle for royal succession broke out between Saul’s remaining family (led by his general, Abner) and the house of David (led by his general, Joab). In an attempt to settle the issue without full-scale war, both sides agreed to a limited contest at the Pool of Gibeon, sending 12 young men from each side to fight. Rather than resolving the issue, the contest triggered a fierce, wide-scale battle. In one moment, Abner asked: “Must the sword devour forever?” Neither faction was willing to capitulate, leading to what the Bible describes as a “long war between the house of Saul and the house of David.” In this instance, we know the sword is capable of devouring forever, but it doesn’t have to… (2 Sam. 2-3)
4. At least 2 dead in catastrophic flooding in Texas Hill Country (CNN)
“At least two people have died in flash flooding in Texas Hill Country as “large and deadly” flood waves surged down rivers and creeks, spurring more than 230 rescues. The Guadalupe River at Comfort, Texas, rose 25 feet in one hour as slow-moving storms dropped several inches of rain. About a year’s worth of rain has already fallen in southern Texas.
“While water levels have receded in some areas, officials urge residents to remain vigilant as more rain looms ahead, including a possible downpour overnight into Friday. In Kerrville, officials said accurate warnings in time saved lives in the community still reeling from last year’s deadly July Fourth floods...More than 2,000 state emergency responders have been deployed, and more than 1,400 vehicles, including rescue boats and Black Hawk helicopters."
The same stuff you put in a glass is the same stuff that can take down a house. A mere 6 inches of fast-moving flood water can knock you off your feet, and 12 inches can carry away a car. In his book The Johnstown Flood, David McCullough chronicles the Great Flood of 1889, which devastated a small town in Pennsylvania. “Most of the people in Johnstown never saw the water coming; they only heard it; and those who lived to tell about it would for years after try to describe the sound of the thing as it rushed on them.”
The number of floods may be going down, but our willingness to risk goes up in floods. Why? Normalcy bias and hasty generalization fallacy. 2 of the most common causes of fatalities during floods result from recreational activities in water and attempts to drive across flooded areas. In this instance, normalcy bias describes how when we see others doing an activity, we assume it’s safe when it isn’t. And relative to the hasty generalization fallacy, we draw conclusions quickly, like at a flooded intersection, without fully taking into account the safety issues.
Religion restores hope in the aftermath of a natural disaster, according to research. It serves as the link between hopeless to hopeful. In fact, there are even studies that suggest that people become more religious after natural disasters. The people of God, resting in the promises of God and acting on the commands of God relative to our neighbors in need, function as an ark of comfort and relief. (Mk. 12:30-31)
Cultural News
3. Your 40s Used to Be Middle Age. Not Anymore. (WSJ)
“Three decades later, the standard playbook has changed entirely. A woman’s 40s are now considered a dynamic and changeable era, as many of the so-called traditional milestones—homeownership, career, children—have been pushed later for personal, societal and economic reasons.
“The data backs this up. In 2025, the median age of a first-time home buyer reached 40, according to the National Association of Realtors. Recent CDC data analyzing the years 1990 to 2023 found that births to women 40 and over increased a whopping 193%. In 2021, the 40-plus demographic accounted for over 600,000 graduate students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics; that’s nearly 20% of the total graduate students in America. Within that cohort, some 66% were women.
“It helps that we’re living longer than ever. In 2024, the CDC reported that the life expectancy for American women is 81.4 years, and a woman in her mid-40s today has a much greater chance of living into her late 80s or early 90s than previous generations. That’s an extra decade—or two!—of a healthy, active life… There’s not as much pressure to have it all figured out by 40 if you know you’ve got another 40 good years to go. And while I won’t go so far as to use a trite phrase like, 40s are the new 30s, well…You catch my drift. In recent years, adulthood appears to have stretched, creating many more possibilities.”
Forever Young? You can sing that again, Rod Stewart. In his book What To Make of a Life, Jim Collins highlights research on how you can construct – and/or reconstruct – a rich life through the cliff moments and transitions we all will face repeatedly in our lives. The key is finding your one big thing (your personal hedgehog). “To be in hedgehog mode means you've committed to organize your life and channel a huge chunk of your energy toward the pursuit of this One Big Thing."
There are 3 elements regarding finding your personal hedgehog: discover and deploy encodings, flip the arrow of money, and focus the inner fire. An encoding is what you are uniquely suited to do, more than mere strengths. “Discovering encodings requires trial and error, experimentation, missteps, happy accidents, and disappointment." Then there is flipping the arrow of money. "Every person in our study made this flip at some point in their lives, from seeing money principally as the output of their efforts ('I work to make money') to seeing money as an input to fuel their efforts ('I need money to do what I'm encoded for')." Finally there is focusing the inner fire. "Imagine being so compulsively engaged that you wish there were more hours in the day, and more days in a life, so that you could do even more of it."
Hezekiah yearned to extend his days and Paul was hard-pressed between a long life and a quick death (2 Kings 20, Phil. 1). We aren’t guaranteed a long life but we can have a full life if we follow him. As Collins concludes: "Not all time in life is equal... I've come to see that for individual lives it is more about feeling intrinsically compelled than about being fanatically disciplined." (Ps. 90:12, James 4:14, Jn. 10:10)
News You Can Use
2. How a subway ride sparked an inspiring friendship
Watch it here. “Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.” (Pro. 27:9)
1. What can a vintage refrigerator tell us about capitalism? Quite a lot, actually!
Watch it here. “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.” (Mk. 2:21)
