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 orders U.S. military to 'shoot and kill' Iranian boats mining Strait of Hormuz (NBC News)
“President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military to "shoot and kill" any Iranian boats laying mines in the strait, adding that the U.S. would intensify its efforts to clear mines that have helped choke off global shipping. The U.S. military says it has boarded another tanker involved in smuggling Iranian oil, as the intensifying maritime standoff between the two countries leaves the key Strait of Hormuz trade route effectively shut. Tehran attacked three commercial ships and seized two of them yesterday, saying the U.S. naval blockade is a “main obstacle” to new peace talks.
“The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will be extended by three weeks, Trump announced on Truth Social. Shortly before Trump's post, Hezbollah announced they had launched rockets at northern Israel that the Israel Defense Forces said they had intercepted. In addition, a third U.S. aircraft carrier and the warships escorting it arrived in waters near Iran on Thursday, officials said, significantly amplifying the military force at President Donald Trump’s disposal.”
Have you seen any slopaganda? A combination of "slop" (unwanted, low-quality, AI-generated content) and "propaganda" (information designed to manipulate beliefs and emotions for political ends), slopaganda refers to the mass dissemination of AI-generated text, images, or videos used to sway public opinion. Recently, Iran has been deploying these videos, depicting Pres. Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Satan, Benjamin Netanyahu, Pete Hegseth, and others as Lego figurines.
Enter context collapse. Slopaganda transcends traditional boundaries, unifying multiple audiences by drawing interest from those who may not regularly pay attention to, in this instance, geopolitical matters. Repeated exposures penetrate our usual mental defenses, causing some to question what they know to be true. Though we know that Iran has suffered great losses in this conflict, the outlandish videos can make misleading information or a particular association hard to shake.
Remember Rabshakeh. In 2 Kings 18, the Assyrian official deliberately spoke Hebrew to the crowd of Israelites on Jerusalem's wall, bypassing King Hezekiah's translators. He aimed to demoralize the people directly, urging them not to trust Hezekiah's promise of divine rescue and to surrender, threatening starvation. In this instance, Iranian leaders are spreading misleading information to achieve their ends. And while their claims aren’t true, they can be effective. As Henry Ward Beecher said: “Whatever is only almost true is quite false, and among the most dangerous of errors, because being so near truth, it is the more likely to lead astray.” (2 Kings 18-19)
5. U.S. Nears Loan to Rescue Spirit Airlines (NY Times)
“Spirit Airlines is in advanced discussions with the federal government over financing to help it restructure as it faces a cash crunch as early as next week, a lawyer for the carrier told a New York bankruptcy court hearing on Thursday. Details of the proposed financing offered by the Trump administration were shared with Spirit’s primary creditor groups, said Marshall Huebner, an outside lawyer for the bankrupt carrier.
“This is an absolutely TERRIBLE idea,” Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas posted on X, comparing it to the 2008 bank bailouts. “The TARP corporate bailouts were a huge mistake & the government doesn’t know a damn thing about running a failed budget airline (that the Biden admin killed).” Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas was a little less adamant, but still raised concerns. “If Spirit’s creditors or other potential investors don’t think they can run it profitably coming out of its second bankruptcy in under two years, I doubt the US Government can either,” Cotton said. “Not the best use of taxpayer dollars.” And Sen. Ted Budd of North Carolina said that Americans “shouldn’t be on the hook for another failing business as its competition thrives.”
The greatest fear isn’t failure but success, according to Milton Friedman. In 1979, when the government bailed out Chrysler, Friedman feared that successfully bailing out the car maker would lead some to draw the wrong conclusion: the notion that such actions would save jobs, creating a "moral hazard" where companies feel entitled to government assistance regardless of performance.
Are government leaders smarter than the decisions of millions of customers and investors? A government bailout is a type of fatal conceit, according to Friedrich Hayek. This refers to the idea that "man is able to shape the world around him according to his wishes." Hayek recognized that this complex world is full of known and unknown variables that have the propensity to remind us how “little we really know about what we imagine we can design.”
Remember Babel… In Genesis 11, we read about the people of Shinar who sought to build a tower that "reaches to the heavens" to "make a name for themselves." The conceit? They believed that through technology (brick and mortar) and ingenuity, they could reach the divine. However, they soon learned that human unity without divine alignment is easily dismantled. Whether building towers of brick or bailouts for budget airlines, the fatal conceit remains the same.
4. Trump officials reclassify medical marijuana as lower-risk drug (WaPo)
“The Trump administration on Thursday announced that it was loosening restrictions on marijuana to boost medical research, days after President Donald Trump appeared to express frustration with the pace of easing federal restrictions on illegal drugs.
“The Justice Department said that it was immediately reclassifying marijuana products that had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as lower-risk drugs and establishing a new registration process for state medical marijuana licenses. Acting attorney general Todd Blanche also said that the administration would hold a new hearing to “fully” reschedule marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act.
“These actions will enable more targeted, rigorous research into marijuana’s safety and efficacy, expanding patients’ access to treatments and empowering doctors to make better-informed healthcare decisions,” Blanche wrote on social media.”
Let Me Get To The Point, more Americans, like Tom Petty, are Rolling Another Joint. Daily use of cannabis is now more common than daily alcohol use. And like the effects of the product itself, the potency has gotten higher. Smoking pot in the 1970s and ‘80s meant you were using a product with roughly 4 percent potency. Today, that number is around 30-40 percent.
Slow your roll? A recent NY Times article noted how “from Washington State to West Virginia, psychiatrists treat rising numbers of people whose use of the drug has brought on delusions, paranoia and other symptoms of psychosis.” Researchers on cannabis recently concluded that there is no level of cannabis use that is safe, and if use occurs, it’s vital to refrain until after puberty.
In On Christian Doctrine, Augustine makes a distinction between using and enjoying. Using (uti) is a means to an end, whereas enjoying (frui) is an end. Augustine argues that we should only enjoy God (resting in him for his own sake) and use created things as a means to be reminded of God’s goodness and grace. When we misorder things, as some argue is the case with recreational marijuana usage, we end up missing the God who has lavished us with his love. So while the Trump administration may loosen the restrictions on the drug, it may keep some from enjoying the God whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. (Mt. 11)
Cultural News
3. U.S. soldier accused of pocketing $400,000 through bets on Maduro’s capture (WaPo)
“Federal authorities on Thursday charged a Special Forces soldier involved in the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro with using inside information about the raid to win roughly $400,000 through bets placed on online prediction markets. Prosecutors accused Gannon Ken Van Dyke, an active duty U.S. Army soldier involved in the planning and execution of the U.S. operation, of using his access to classified information to place a series of wagers on Maduro’s future and whether U.S. forces would enter Venezuela through Polymarket, one of a number of sites offering users the opportunity to place bets on real world events.
“Hours after U.S. forces descended on a compound in Caracas on Jan. 3 to capture the Venezuelan leader and his wife, Van Dyke anonymously earned a hefty payday, authorities said. Van Dyke, 38, faces charges including commodities fraud, wire fraud, theft and using confidential government information for personal gain. It was not immediately clear from public court dockets whether he had retained an attorney.”
His big win turned into an even greater loss… and he isn’t alone. Earlier this year, McKay Coppins penned an article for The Atlantic on gambling that has since gone viral. Coppins lost nearly $10,000 gifted from his employer as an experiment to cover gambling in America and the pitfalls of the growing betting industry.
“As a society, we are making an enormously risky bet: that we can reap the rewards of a runaway gambling industry without paying any price; that the litany of social ills long associated with this vice—addiction and impoverishment, isolation and abuse, cheating and chasing and corrosive idleness—can, this time, be kept in check; that, unlike every civilization that came before us, we can beat the house.”
With gambling, winning is losing... In the Scriptures, we read that the root of all kinds of evil is the love of money. When you win in gambling, many of our neighbors and friends are likely to lose. They are further tempted to either win more than they can imagine or try to dig themselves out of an ever-sinking hole. The writer of Proverbs was right: “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.” (Pro. 30:8, 1 Tim. 6:10)
News You Can Use
2. If Star Wars had a Southern Accent
Watch it here. “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” (Col. 4:6)
1. Atlanta "Library Dads" build community by helping kids fall in love with reading
Watch it here. “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce…” (Pro. 3:9)
