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 agrees to suspend attacks for two weeks if Iran opens Strait of Hormuz (WaPo)
“Just 90 minutes before President Donald Trump’s 8 p.m. deadline to “wipe out a whole civilization” with massive strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure and bridges, he granted a two-week extension for diplomacy to continue. “Subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said Tuesday on social media, “I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.”
“Trump said his decision was in response to an appeal from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and military chief Gen. Asim Munir, whose government has been serving as mediator between the United States and Iran
“The president’s threat to wipe out “a whole civilization” in Iran has prompted growing calls from Democrats, over 70, to remove him through a constitutional mechanism that has never been used to end a presidency: The 25th Amendment. The post came just 12 hours before the president’s previously announced deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or risk the U.S. attacking bridges and power plants. Or, as the president put it in an expletive-laced Easter morning social media post, “Open the FXXX’ Strait, you crazy baXXXX, or you’ll be living in HXll.”
Pres. Trump is leaning in to the madman theory of foreign policy… Coined by Daniel Ellsberg in 1959, this refers to the idea that an unpredictable and irrational leader would have an advantage in international bargaining. It assumes that making seemingly unbelievable threats – such as eradicating an entire civilization – are more credible if they are coming from someone who is unpredictable.
Enter former US president Richard Nixon. Nixon reportedly claimed that he wanted his adversaries to think that he was so obsessed with communism that he could not be restrained. Mr. Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, believed they could compel "the other side" to back down during crises in the Middle East and Vietnam by "pushing so many chips into the pot" that Nixon would seem “crazy” enough to "go much further," according to declassified documents published in the National Security Archive.
One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off… In 1 Kings 20, King Ben-Hadad of Aram besieged Samaria and issued a series of bellicose threats to King Ahab. He first demanded Ahab’s silver, gold, wives, and children. When Ahab initially conceded, Ben-Hadad escalated, claiming his servants would search every house and take whatever they valued. Ahab famously responded: “One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off.” While the threat posed by Tehran is undeniable and should be countered, we should be wary of meeting their evil actions with morally reckless rhetoric.
5. Artemis II Astronauts Head Home After Historic Journey Around the Moon (NY Times)
“On the sixth day, 248,655 miles from Earth, four people ventured farther from home than any human being who has ever lived. Embraced by the moon’s gravitational pull, four astronauts accelerated Monday afternoon on a path to swing around the lunar far side, five days after launching on the Artemis II mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “Today, for all humanity, you’re pushing beyond that frontier,” said Jenni Gibbons, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut who was the main point of contact for the crew at mission control in Houston.
“The crew of the historic Artemis II mission memorialized the late wife of one of its astronauts by proposing to name a crater on the moon after her, an emotional moment that was captured on video. Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian astronaut on the mission, called down to mission control and said the crew wanted to "honor their mission by naming two craters on the moon.” One of the craters was dedicated to the wife of mission commander Reid Wiseman, Carroll Wiseman, who died of cancer in 2020 at 46. She “dedicated her life to helping others as a newborn intensive care unit registered nurse,” NASA wrote.”
Do you suffer from the blue marble effect? When the first photos of Earth were released by Apollo missions, they caused a global shift in consciousness. Now, high-definition 4K video from the ISS is available 24/7 on YouTube. Because the imagery is constant, the "shock" of the sublime is replaced by a baseline expectation of visual perfection. This is also known as the routinization of charisma.
Are Russians looking for God in outer space? In a classic CS Lewis essay from 1963, Lewis wrote how he heard that the Russians were unable to find God in outer space. “Looking for God—or Heaven—by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare’s plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters or Stratford as one of the places.”
For Lewis, his point was that if God does exist, He is “related to the universe more as an author is related to a play than as one object in the universe is related to another.. To some, God is discoverable everywhere; to others, nowhere. Those who do not find Him on earth are unlikely to find Him in space.” I don’t know if you are like the Russians, looking for God in space, but you can take heart that the God of the universe is watching over you from the heavens. (Ps. 19)
4. Kanye West blocked from entering U.K. after criticism over past antisemitic remarks (CBS News)
“The rapper formerly known as Kanye West was barred Tuesday from entering the U.K., where he was scheduled to headline the Wireless Festival in July, after a backlash over Ye's history of antisemitic remarks. Festival organizers canceled the three-day outdoor event as a result of the travel ban and said those who had bought tickets would get refunds.
“Ye had been granted an electronic travel authorization which has now been withdrawn on the grounds that his presence in the U.K. would not be "conducive to the public good," CBS News partner network BBC News said, citing the Home Office. Last year, Ye released a song called "Heil Hitler" and advertised a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website. The 48-year-old apologized in January with a letter, published as a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal. He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into "a four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life."
He rapped Through The Wire, but it looks like he won’t be able to cross another type of wire anytime soon… Similarly, last year, the State Department banned an English rap punk duo from performing in the US after they appeared to lead a crowd in chants supporting Gaza residents and wishing "death" upon Israeli forces. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau shared that foreigners “who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.”
Some don’t want to host him but many still want to see him. Last week, Ye (Mr. West) sold out 2 shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, earning $33 million, according to reports. His Friday show earned more than $18 million in ticket sales. Despite his past comments, his monthly audience on Spotify is still 72.4 million people, making him one of the 25 most popular acts in the world.
An unbridled tongue is the chariot of the devil, wherein he rides in triumph, according to Edward Reyner. In his commentary on Ecc. 10, the famous Puritan notes: “The course of an unruly tongue is to proceed from evil to worse, to begin with foolishness, and go on with bitterness, and to end in mischief and madness.”
Cultural News
3. The Great AI Deskilling has begun (BI)
“That moment captures a risk that a growing group of workplace researchers say companies and workers aren't paying enough attention to: that AI is quietly deskilling people. He's not alone. When Anthropic's Claude went down earlier this month, some developers said they struggled to continue their work. Tasks that had become routine with AI suddenly felt harder without it.
“John Nosta, founder of innovation and tech think tank Nosta Lab, calls this the "AI rebound effect" — when better performance masks declining ability. "The skill set actually falls below baseline," he said. The danger isn't only dependency — it's regression. Because AI systems deliver fast, polished answers, they can also distort how people judge their own abilities. "We have an overinflated sense of ability through AI," Nosta said.
“Junior roles have traditionally been training grounds to learn how to break down a messy problem, fix what's broken, and defend your thinking when someone challenges it. Without that experience, workers can appear competent without ever developing real expertise.”
Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto… This isn’t the first time technology has impacted the job market. There used to be a day when pin boys would manually return bowling balls and reset pins. Or consider switchboard operators, who were responsible for physically connecting calls by inserting phone plugs into jacks. And don’t get me started on the phone book…
Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle, according to Friedrich Hayek. “Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them…. Operations of thought, like cavalry charges, are strictly limited in number; they require fresh horses and must only be made at decisive moments.” In this instance, perhaps it is less deskilling and more reskilling, making room to learn new tasks.
I’m less concerned about forgetting how to do something and more concerned about remembering why I am doing the thing. In this new economy, innovation will create jobs and automation will take jobs. But one thing won’t change – God (Heb. 13:8). He has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3). He has the capacity to provide us opportunities that can train us for new work and orchestra connections for us to discover available work (Gal. 1:17, Rom. 8:28, Heb. 10:24-25). Instead of fearing for the future, we should continue to prepare for it.
News You Can Use
2. Woman asks strangers in NYC for good news
Watch it here. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news…” (Is. 52:7)
1. Pizza delivery driver goes extra mile, goes viral
Watch it here. “Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.” (Pro. 22:9)
