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 officials block Microsoft’s access to program for employee green cards (WaPo)
“The Trump administration is suspending Microsoft’s access to a program that allows skilled foreign workers to apply for permanent residency in the United States, saying the company is under investigation for its hiring practices.
“In a social media post, Vice President JD Vance said Microsoft would be blocked from using a Labor Department program that allows employers to sponsor skilled workers on H-1B visas for permanent residency, also known as green cards.
“Vance framed the move as necessary to protect U.S. workers from unfair wage competition. “Our message to Microsoft is, you’re a great American company, but you’ve got to hire great American workers,” Vance said at a news conference announcing the penalties. “You cannot lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign indentured servants.”
Similar to the Spice Girls, VP Vance is saying Stop. However, the US is facing a shortage of middle-skilled credentialed workers. Nationwide, there is an annual shortage of nearly 712,000 certificates and associate’s degrees aligned with high-paying middle-skills occupations, projected to last until at least 2032.
H-1B visas actually create jobs? A fascinating study concluded that requests for H-1B certifications by US technology companies are associated with an increase in total employment by more than five times the size of the H-1B request. For every H-1B position requested, US technology companies in the S&P 500 increase their employment by 5 workers. For tech firms with fewer than 5,000 employees, each H-1B position requested was associated with an increase in employment of 7.5 workers.
Beware of a classic economic fallacy called the “Lump of Labor.” Scott Wolla both describes and debunks this in his recent study. The lump of labor fallacy is the assumption that there is a fixed amount of work to be done. If this were true, new jobs could not be generated, just redistributed. “Those who believe the fallacy have often felt threatened by new technology or the entrance of new people into the labor force. These fears are rooted in a mistaken zero-sum view of the economy, which holds that when someone gains in a transaction, someone else loses.” However, according to Wolla’s research, demand for labor isn’t fixed. Changes in one industry can be offset, or overshadowed, by growth in another.
Market disruptions aren’t unique, with the idol industry being upended in Acts 19. And in this new world, disruptions will continue with innovation creating jobs and automation taking away jobs. But take heart: 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 our skills to make products or offer services for the world’s good... with those from all across the world. (Gal. 1:17, Rom. 8:28, Heb. 10:24-25).
5. Gulf Coast evacuations underway as Hurricane Isaias strengthens over warm water (CNN)
“Record-shattering Isaias strengthened into a hurricane late Wednesday night, had intensified into a Category 2 storm with winds up to 105 mph as of Thursday night.
“Isaias is expected to strengthen further and briefly become a “major hurricane” early Friday before weakening some and making landfall late Friday night. Locations on the coast could see up to 7 feet of storm surge and up to 15 inches of rain, with short-lived tornadoes popping up with little notice. States of emergency have been issued in parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and mandatory evacuation orders have been issued in some areas. Some Florida airports are scheduled to close ahead of the storm. Amtrak services in parts of Louisiana and Alabama are also disrupted.”
The Atlantic's hurricane drought is over, and it is now the longest on record. Isaias is later than the first hurricane of any season on record, surpassing the 7 p.m. Oct. 7 mark set in 1905. But does this singular event point to a larger story?
A fascinating study sought to address how bad science has emerged from authoritative organizations. Researchers pointed to faults in reporting from agencies such as the UN (questionable metrics), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (lacked analysis to support claims), and Springer Nature (had to retract article due to unfounded assertions). Drawing on IPCC data, researchers found, among other things, the “data show no detected change in U.S. hurricane landfalls since 1900.” In this instance, they may occur later, but they aren’t any more powerful.
Beware of the miserable comforters. When Job endured great tragedy and loss, partially because of a natural disaster, his friends were called miserable comforters because of their attempts to explain his present predicament. Instead of comforting him, they attempted to shame him and explain his situation to him. In this moment, there may not be more hurricanes hitting the US, but they are still hitting the US and hurting our neighbors. Ann Voskamp put it well: "[God] gave us Jesus... If God didn’t withhold from us His very own Son, will God withhold anything we need? If trust must be earned, hasn’t God unequivocally earned our trust with the bark on the raw wounds, the thorns pressed into the brow, your name on the cracked lips? How will he not also graciously give us all things He deems best and right? He’s already given the incomprehensible.” (Job 16, Rom. 8)
4. USS Abraham Lincoln completes record-setting deployment (ABC News)
“To loud cheers of loved ones waiting eagerly and waving American flags, the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group returned to its Southern California homeport on Thursday after a record-setting 10-month deployment to the Persian Gulf. In all, the aircraft carrier spent 321 days on deployment, the second-longest since the end of the Cold War. During the over 300-day deployment, the Lincoln spent a record-setting 265 days on the mission without a port visit, the longest in Naval history.
“The longest total deployment was set earlier this year when the carrier USS Gerald R. Ford returned from a 326-day deployment to Europe, the Caribbean and the Middle East. The Lincoln crew includes nearly 60 fathers, who were meeting for the first time babies born during the deployment.”
These brave soldiers have endured so much, and made so much better. A fascinating study looked at the 87 countries that have hosted more than 1,000 American troops during 1950-2000. Researchers found that troop deployments correlate with economic growth. Countries with high US troop presence during 1950-2000 had GDP per capita levels in 2000 that were nearly double the world average.
Feeling pity for snakes… Legendary war reporter Ernie Pyle, in his book Here is Your War, wrote about how a snake awakened in him both compassion for the world because of the cruelty he witnessed in war. “Yesterday a sand snake crawled by just outside my tent door, and for the first time in my life I looked upon a snake not with a creeping phobia but with a sudden and surprising feeling of compassion… It may be that the war has changed me, along with the rest… When you've lived with the unnatural mass cruelty that mankind is capable of inflicting upon itself, you find yourself dispossessed of the faculty for blaming one poor man for the triviality of his faults. I don't see how any survivor of war can ever be cruel to anything, ever again.”
Pres. Reagan observed that the willingness of some to “give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery.” These brave individuals gave up so much so that we could experience so much more. Their selflessness serves as a reminder of the One who gave his life so that we might live (1 Pet. 2:24).
Cultural News
3. College students competing in "America's Startup" contest use AI to start businesses from their dorms (CBS News)
“The entrepreneurs behind these tech-forward startups have one thing in common: They started the companies from their college dorm rooms to participate in "America's Startup," a government-backed collegiate innovation competition that's part of America250, the congressional commission behind the U.S.'s 250th anniversary celebration.
“America250 chair and the 43rd Treasurer of the U.S., Rosie Rios, who leads America's Startup, told CBS News she expects a wave of innovation led by Generation Z entrepreneurs, who will be the first AI-native cohort of workers to enter the job market upon graduation.
"They really hit the ground running and are not intimidated by it," Rios said. She also thinks AI will help broaden the skills and experience of new entrants to the job market, much as the internet did for millennials. "It's no longer what they learned at home or in a classroom — it's what they see and have access to," said Rios, adding that AI helps eliminate some of the hurdles to launching companies.”
Working 9 to 5? More than that if you're an entrepreneur, Dolly Parton. Americans filed 5.7 million applications last year to start new businesses, according to the Census Bureau, the most in the two decades the government has kept track. Contrary to popular belief, it appears AI is creating jobs more than eradicating them. A recent paper out of the University of British Columbia found that generative AI was “spurring entrepreneurial activity” in the US. A recent report indicated that nearly 60 percent of founders who started businesses last year said they used AI, and half said the technology made it cheaper and faster.
The seeds of entrepreneurship populate American soil… A fascinating study analyzed roughly 150,000 individuals in 37 different countries. They identified 2 reasons they chose this entrepreneurial path. Opportunity entrepreneurs started a business because they planned to create a profitable one. Remedial entrepreneurs started a business because they lost their jobs or otherwise had no better option. The study found that more than 9 percent of Americans are opportunity entrepreneurs, which ranked first among the high-income nations. They concluded there was a strong relationship between entrepreneurship and regulation -- the less of the latter creates more room for the former.
In his phenomenal book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, Michael Novak rightly notes that “creation is full of secrets waiting to be discovered, riddles which human intelligence is expected by the Creator to unlock.” As Christians, we have the opportunity to unlock God’s riddles to provide for our families by providing services to our neighbors. (Ex. 31, Col. 3:23, Gen. 2:15)
News You Can Use
2. How a small Outer Banks community saved a young couple's wedding day from a storm
Watch it here. “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt. 22:39)
1. Every Millennial's CD Collection
Watch it here. “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing…” (Is. 43:18)
