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 warns U.N. he might ‘annihilate’ Iran as war overshadows diplomacy (WaPo)
“Frustrated by a war with Iran that has lasted long past his initial promises, President Donald Trump told world leaders on Tuesday that he would “annihilate” the entire country if its leaders do not make a deal. It was a stark warning in the green-marbled hall of the United Nations, where discussions more often tend toward advancing peace than the elimination of an entire nation. The president also expressed concern for the Iranian anti-government protesters who were killed by Tehran’s security forces earlier this year.
“He repeated the claim that a peace deal would be likely after the midterm elections in November, and said later that his top envoys sat for talks with Iranian officials on Tuesday for three hours, their first known face-to-face meetings in months.”
Missiles are to the Iran war what weapons of mass destruction were to the Iraq war, though the error was inverted, according to Michael Rubin. Writing at AEI, Rubin highlights how then Pres. Bush "exaggerated the weapons of mass destruction threat based on the intelligence, and the US again appears to be blindsided by the number of missiles the Islamic Republic possessed and their range."
Recent launches indicate that US intelligence estimates about missile range were off by as much as 50 percent. In addition, while Iran has lost a significant contingent of their arsenal, the US intelligence community appears to have undercounted Iranian missiles by more than 1,000. “While there is much to blame Trump for… it is time for a Congressional investigation into the failures of the Iran war, with the goal not of assigning blame but of ensuring undercounts do not persist.”
We’ve always underestimated AI—just ask the Israelites. After defeating Jericho, Joshua sent spies to inspect the city of Ai. The spies reported that Ai was small and recommended sending only a few thousand men rather than the full army. "Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there." They underestimated, and as a result, they were on the receiving end of an undesirable result… at least the first time. In this instance, we need to get a better eye on Iran, but only God can see the full picture. (Josh. 7)
5. Trump officials cut 760,000 enrollees from ACA, claiming fraud (WaPo)
“Vice President JD Vance and administration officials on Tuesday announced that they are removing about 760,000 enrollees from Affordable Care Act coverage, saying that they were fraudulently enrolled in the government health program. Speaking at a White House press briefing, Vance said that officials would perform “additional verification” on about 419,000 people that they suspected to be fraudulently enrolled, too.
“Officials said that the moves would collectively save $2.2 billion in federal spending. The White House anti-fraud task force, which is led by Vance, is working with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the crackdown. “This is what the fraud task force is all about,” Vance said, flanked by CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz and other senior officials."
Before He Cheats? Too late, Carrie Underwood. The US federal government loses an estimated $233 billion to $521 billion annually to fraud, according to GAO estimates. These losses, representing roughly 7 percent of federal spending, are distinct from "improper payments," which totaled over $2.7 trillion in errors since 2003, with significant fraud occurring in pandemic-relief programs.
There are 2 key structural weaknesses that make our system particularly vulnerable to fraud and financial mismanagement, according to a Cato study: financing mismatch and administrative complexity. Relative to mismatch, states handle the applications and distribute benefits, but federal taxpayers cover nearly all the costs. Because states don't foot the bill for mismanaged funds, they have little financial incentive to enforce eligibility, invest in fraud prevention, or control wasteful spending. And then there is aministrative complexity. The system relies on outdated verification methods, self-reported data from applicants, and underused fraud-prevention programs.
In the Scriptures, we read that the root of all kinds of evil is the love of money. From Pro. 11 to Lev. 19, we learn about God’s distaste for dishonest scales, rigging weights to cheat customers in trade. When you commit fraud, you may gain in the moment, but it's at the expense of your neighbors near and far.
4. Georgia school district defends pulling 'sexually explicit' book depicting child rape amid 'censorship' claims (Fox News)
“A Georgia school district has removed Toni Morrison’s "The Bluest Eye" from its public school libraries, citing graphic depictions of child rape and incest in the award-winning novel. The book joins over 30 other titles removed by Cobb County, Georgia’s second-largest school district, since 2023 as part of an effort to remove sexually explicit material from K-12 media centers.
“District leaders say the move is intended to protect students and give parents more control over what their kids are exposed to, while free-speech advocates argue the removal amounts to censorship and limits students’ access to literature. "We're no more banning the book than we are banning rated-R movies. It's just that we are removing those with sexually explicit content and allowing our parents to make those decisions for their families," Cobb County Superintendent Chris Ragsdale told Fox News Digital.”
The Dixie Chicks are Ready to Run but it doesn’t appear many Americans are ready to read… The share of Americans who read for fun every day peaked at 28 percent in 2004. By 2023, that number fell to just 16 percent. We are undergoing the Great Simplification, according to James Marriott.
In his insightful new book, The New Dark Ages, Marriott writes how the “post-literate future resembles the pre-literate past: mystical, tribal, and autocratic.” The “introduction of smartphones into human culture is analogous to the introduction of an invasive species into a fragile ecosystem. Almost everything else withers away and dies." These digital temptresses represent "the greatest theft of knowledge from ordinary people in history." Marriott asserts that “there is a kind of truth about life which is only accessible through prose fiction with its capacity to show us the inside of other minds … It is the reason that no actor on earth can show with his or her face what Jane Austen can show us about the human heart in half a paragraph.”
Life is too short to read bad books, or trashy books in this instance, but it’s also too short not to read. Some stories shake your core, and other stories steady your heart. Reading takes time out of your day, but it has the potential to enrich your future days. (2 Tim. 3:16-17, Ps. 119:105, Heb. 4:12, Rom. 15:4, Josh. 1)
Cultural News
3. More Money Than They Ever Imagined—and No Clue How to Spend It (WSJ)
“People working for AI companies are so busy and unfocused on traditional markers of wealth, many have yet to fully embrace the fruits of that labor… Base salaries for more senior software engineers at AI companies are routinely above $300,000 and equity packages can put annual earnings into the eight-figure range, according to an analysis of Levels.fyi, a salary platform.
“But it’s the liquidity events that have swelled purchasing power. In October, over 600 current and former employees at OpenAI were able to sell their shares for a total of $6.6 billion. Around 75 of them brought home $30 million each. “The irony of tech wealth is this desire for less technology.”
Some have no clue how to spend their money but do you know how to spend your life? In his book Die with Zero, Bill Perkins writes how life energy is “all the hours that you're alive to do things—and whenever you work, you spend some of that finite life energy. So any amount of money you've earned through your work represents that amount of life energy you spent earning that money.” For Perkins, he believes you “retire on your memories. When you're too frail to do much of anything else, you can still look back on the life you've lived and experience immense pride, joy, and the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia."
Is your life divided into time buckets? Perkins highlights how this simple tool can you help you discover what you want your life to look like in broad strokes. He writes: “Draw a timeline of your life from now to the grave, then divide it into intervals of five or ten years. Each of those intervals—say, from age 30 to 40, or from 70 to 75—is a time bucket, which is just a random grouping of years. Then think about what key experiences—activities or events—you definitely want to have during your lifetime."
So many of these tech workers now have more money than they imagined. And while that can be a good thing, it is more a stewardship thing. To whom much is given, much is required. Some will give attention to making that money grow, but as Perkins notes, it is more about making your life grow. (Lk. 12)
News You Can Use
2. His Instrument Stopped Working During the National Anthem, so He Started Singing...
Watch it here. “Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob!” (Ps. 81:1)
1. “The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”
Watch it here. “And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well…” (1 Sam. 16:23)
