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 announces plans to renovate D.C. golf course amid legal battle (NBC News)
“President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Sunday that the administration has developed a plan to redevelop the East Potomac Golf Links course in Washington, D.C., which has been at the center of a legal battle over his renovation plans. Trump said that the Interior Department worked with golf course architect Tom Fazio to develop “a plan to build a World Class Championship Golf Course on the site of the current East Potomac Golf Links, located in Washington, D.C.”
“During a hearing in July, a Justice Department lawyer said that no decision had been reached on the fate of the course. After it was revealed that the Interior Department cleared hundreds of trees last weekend, Judge Reyes excoriated the Justice Department for failing to keep her apprised during a fiery hearing on Monday. She accused the government of “double speak” for representing in court that the work was planned maintenance, despite Mr. Trump’s public vision to transform the course.”
Billy Joel might take you Just The Way You Are but Pres. Trump won’t (hence the renovation)... But with all due respect, aren’t there other issues he should be focusing on? According to John Dickerson in his book The Hardest Job in the World, the president is set up for failure now due to the ever-increasing demands of the job. Essentially, the Legislative Branch has relinquished its power, and the Executive Branch has assumed a greater amount of responsibility. For example, in 1940, the federal government employed 443,000. Today, that number is more than 2 million. Roughly 400 people work inside the White House, and 2,000 more work in the Executive Office of the President.
Be like Eisenhower… When asked about daily life at the White House, then Pres. Eisenhower said: “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent, and the unimportant. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” For Eisenhower, he organized his tasks into a 4-box square with an x-axis labeled, “Urgent” and “Not Urgent,” and the y-axis labeled, “Important” and “Not Important.” Urgent and important tasks had looming deadlines and significant consequences. Urgent and not important tasks required attention, but did not have dire deadlines. Not urgent and important tasks had unclear deadlines that contributed to long-term success. And finally, non-urgent and non-important tasks were simply distractions.
Instead of time management, consider attention management, according to Adam Grant. Like Jesus with Jarius and Paul with a young Timothy, Grant argues that though time usage is important, we should “prioritize the people and projects that matter, and it won’t matter how long anything takes.” Oswald Chambers put it well: “The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone.” (Lk. 10, 8, 2 Tim. 4)
5. Ukraine targets Russia with more than 1,000 drones, striking oil terminal in St. Petersburg (ABC News)
“Ukraine overnight launched a massive aerial attack, sending hundreds of drones toward targets in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and striking a major oil terminal again despite pressure from President Donald Trump to end such attacks. Drones struck a major oil terminal in St. Petersburg as well as a large data center, with videos posted online appearing to show fires burning. Video also appears to show a drone striking a huge bridge in the city.
“Russia's Ministry of Defense said it had shot down some 1,015 drones near Moscow and several other western regions, making the attack one of the largest of the war. The attack also appeared to be the biggest St. Petersburg has witnessed… President Trump said Sunday he is "in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine," despite the two countries continuing to trade strikes, including one of Kyiv's largest aerial attacks of the war... Putin has proposed a summit with President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will not be invited, according to the Wall Street Journal."
Welcome to hyperwar. Coined by the US Naval Institute, this novel concept fuses artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, sensors, and software to compress the OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act) down to breakneck machine speeds. Instead of big armies moving at human pacing, modern combat pairs real-time data feeds with rapid strike loops, giving the deadly edge to whoever can process information and execute faster than their adversary.
While Moscow uses meat assaults (waves of Russian soldiers coming to defensive positions), Ukraine leans on a tech-heavy paradigm that has totally rewired the front lines. Unmanned systems are now driving up to 80 percent of personnel casualties, while robotic ground vehicles and autonomous drones handle everything from logistics to target recognition.
Like Halloween costumes, success on the battlefield takes many forms. With loud noises and dogged perseverance, the Israelites achieved victory at Jericho. Joshua deployed a feigned retreat to achieve victory at Ai. And facing a Midianite army that "lay along the valley like locusts for multitude," Gideon and his men secured victory through an ambush at night. In this moment, this may be a new strategy in war, but newness on the battlefield is anything but. (Josh. 6, 7, Judges 7)
4. Katie Zacharia out as White House press secretary (WaPo)
“The new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, is out of her role just five days into the job, according to a person familiar with the situation, after President Donald Trump said publicly that she should think about leaving. Her departure marked a rare and speedy retreat from a presidential appointment that acknowledged a rough start to one of the highest-profile roles in the White House.
“Zacharia’s brief tenure was even shorter than that of former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, whose 10-day stint in the administration in 2017 became a byword for the staffing chaos of Trump’s first term. Scaramucci was fired after giving an expletive-filled interview to the New Yorker in which he discussed fellow White House staff in vulgar terms. “Records are made to be broken. But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain,” Scaramucci wrote Friday.”
Tuesday isn’t the only thing that is Gone, Lynyrd Skynyrd. But interestingly enough, only 19 percent of new hires are considered fully successful. By the 18-month point, 46 percent are deemed failures.
An insightful study out of Harvard Business Review identified 4 steps to consider when a new hire isn’t working out: reevaluate the onboarding experience (make sure the new hire is receiving the support they need); seek advice (consult trusted mentor who can provide feedback on your handling of the experience); talk with manager (manage up so that they can both give advice and also not be surprised in the future); and consider your gut (would you rehire the person knowing what you know today?).
Jonah was an effective prophet but a poor judge, Saul was a handsome man but a bad priest, and King Uzziah was a great leader but wasn’t the best with incense. In this instance, Ms. Zacharia may have been on the right bus, but in the wrong seat on it. Or as Adam Grant noted: "It’s nice to have the right skills on the bus, but it’s critical to keep the wrong values off the bus." (1 Sam. 13, 2 Chron. 26, Jon. 3)
Cultural News
3. The Sunday Scaries Are Real—and They’re Getting Worse (WSJ)
“The “Sunday scaries” have become such a fixture of Americans’ weekends that Merriam-Webster added the term to its online dictionary last month. Its definition: a feeling of anxiety or sadness one may feel when the weekend is almost over, either because the work/school week is about to begin, there is no more time for fun or relaxing weekend activities, or both.
“That pre-Monday dread isn’t a new phenomenon, but there’s reason to believe it’s intensifying as workloads mount and job security ebbs. More than half of U.S. workers say they experience the Sunday scaries, according to an October survey of 2,100 people by job platform FlexJobs. Having a list of unfinished tasks hanging over them was the most commonly cited cause. The share of Sundays that employees devoted to work messaging and chats was about 12% last year, compared with 6.6% in 2023, according to data compiled for The Wall Street Journal by workforce analytics firm ActivTrak.”
Unlike Stevie Wonder, I am worried about a thing… or two. According to the APA Annual Mental Health Poll, 48 percent of US adults report feeling more anxious than they did the previous year. Another survey found that the Sunday scaries’ average time of arrival is 3:58 p.m.
Don’t let your mind tell incomplete divine stories… In his book A Small Book for the Anxious Heart, Ed Welch notes: “There are good reasons to worry. The dilemma is that worries tell you to take matters into your own hands, but that message needs to be altered to say ‘what a perfect opportunity to trust the God who is strong, loving, and faithful… You do not yet have tomorrow’s grace so your imagination will tell an incomplete story of the future. If you are going to venture out into the future, continue far enough out so that the story ends with you welcomed into heaven for an eternity of no more sorrow, tears, and fears.”
Worry fuels panic like gas powers a car. But Hudson Taylor was right: “I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize the Lord is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest positions He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult, His grace is sufficient.” (Pro. 12:25, Phil. 4:6-7, 1 Pet. 5:7)
News You Can Use
2. Franklin school principal, students enjoy viral fame of 'worm' video
Watch it here. “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Cor. 9:22)
1. Wife secretly makes metalworking husband famous
Watch it here. “Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.” (Pro. 31:23)
