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A magnitude 7.1 earthquake shakes Japan as a tsunami advisory hits the coast. Zelenskyy and Netanyahu bring competing asks to Trump's White House, and Johnson & Johnson offers $5.5 billion to settle talc lawsuits.
The ground shook in Japan, allies converged on the White House with competing agendas, and a decades-old lawsuit moved toward closure. Charles King walks through the day's news with a steady biblical lens.
Stories Covered
• Magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes Kyushu, Japan; tsunami advisory issued
• Netanyahu and Zelenskyy meet Trump at the White House amid tensions and weapons requests
• Johnson & Johnson offers up to $5.5 billion to settle 76,000 talc baby powder lawsuits
• Acting AG Todd Blanche faces uncertain Senate Judiciary vote as GOP holdouts remain
• Over 300,000 evacuated as wildfires rage across Spain and France
• Christianity Today explores Christopher Nolan's search for meaning in blockbuster cinema
Scripture References
• Hebrews 12:27
• Psalm 33:16
• Proverbs 11:1
• Romans 13
• Ecclesiastes
• Hebrews 12:28
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Understand the news. Keep your peace. Follow Christ. The Gospel Briefing is a five-minute weekday Christian news decision brief hosted by Charles King. Each episode brings three consequential stories into the light of Scripture, helping you enter the day informed and steady - without panic, outrage, or partisan noise. Go deeper with Bible Copilot.
The ground moved under Japan today.
A magnitude seven point one earthquake. A tsunami advisory on the coast. And here in Washington, two wartime leaders walking into the same White House on the same afternoon.
This is The Gospel Briefing. I'm Charles King. One question for today: what does steady faith look like when the ground moves and the powerful meet behind closed doors? Understand the news. Keep your peace. Follow Christ.
We start in southern Japan.
A seven point one quake hit Kyushu island just before four thirty local time. The epicenter sat in Kumamoto Prefecture, about six miles down, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. NHK says the shaking lasted roughly a minute.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory for the Ariake and Yatsushiro Sea coasts. Broadcast images showed what appeared to be smoke or fire near the impact zone. At least one shop wall in Kumamoto City collapsed. Kumamoto Airport suspended flights. Several thousand homes lost power.
One important note. Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority says no abnormalities have been recorded at nearby facilities in Ikata, Genkai, and Satsumasendai City. Officials are telling residents to stay off the shore and watch for landslides.
Here's the read. The ground under our feet is less stable than we treat it. Hebrews 12:27 says God shakes the earth so the things that cannot be shaken may remain. That is not a call to welcome the tremor. It is a reminder that only one kingdom outlasts it. If you want to sit with that passage after the show, Bible Copilot can guide you through it. Three questions each day are free.
If this helps you face the news with clarity instead of anxiety, follow The Gospel Briefing now.
To the White House.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are both meeting with President Trump today. Both will also attend Senator Lindsey Graham's funeral service. Graham died suddenly earlier this month.
Netanyahu is here to talk security. Tensions with Trump have risen sharply. The president recently called the Israeli leader, quote, "crazy," and said, quote, "Without me, there would be no Israel." Israeli officials were not consulted on the U.S. memorandum with Iran that produced a sixty-day ceasefire and reopened the Strait of Hormuz.
Zelenskyy is coming for weapons. Specifically, Patriot missile interceptors. Ukraine is running low. So, reportedly, is the Pentagon.
Two allies. One president. Competing asks. And a Middle East war that just crossed five months.
Psalm 33:16 says the king is not saved by his great army, and a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. Read that verse, then read today's West Wing schedule. Whatever gets decided in that room, the security of nations does not finally rest there.
Now to a settlement decades in the making.
Johnson and Johnson has offered up to five point five billion dollars to resolve tens of thousands of U.S. lawsuits alleging its talc-based baby powder caused ovarian cancer. The proposal covers about seventy-six thousand cases. The company will pay up to three billion next year, with no additional payments due before 2028.
J and J still denies the allegations. Its vice president of litigation, Erik Haas, called the claims, quote, "meritless," but said settling lets the company, quote, "put this matter behind it." The lawsuits go back to 2009. In 2022, the company pulled talc-based baby powder from the global market.
Here's why it matters now. Corporations settle. Families bury loved ones. Both are true at once, and that is not a clean ending.
Proverbs 11:1 says a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. God cares about honest scales. About products doing what they claim. Every check written today is an admission that something was out of balance for a long time.
Three quick briefs.
In Washington, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche faces a Senate Judiciary Committee vote Thursday. Republican Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are still holding out over the so-called Anti-Weaponization Fund tied to the president's IRS settlement. Romans 13 calls governing authorities to be a terror to bad conduct, not to their own critics. Written commitments matter.
In Europe, more than three hundred thousand people have evacuated as wildfires burn across Spain and France. Officials call it one of the largest evacuations on the continent since World War Two. Pray for firefighters. Pray for the displaced.
And Christianity Today has a thoughtful piece on filmmaker Christopher Nolan and what the writer calls his dark night of the soul, the search for meaning inside blockbuster cinema. Ecclesiastes told us the human heart asks these questions no matter how big the budget gets.
This episode is presented by Bible Copilot.
Open Bible Copilot and study today's Verse of the Day first. That's Hebrews 12:28. Bible Copilot walks you through what the passage says, what it means, what it teaches about God, and how to apply it today. Three questions each day are free.
Start at mybiblecopilot dot com slash gospel. That's mybiblecopilot dot com slash gospel, or search Bible Copilot in the App Store.
Here is the verse. Hebrews 12:28.
"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe."
The ground shook in Japan today. Alliances shifted in Washington. A company is paying billions to close a chapter it cannot rewrite. But the kingdom you were brought into cannot be shaken. Not by tectonic plates. Not by presidents. Not by settlements or subpoenas.
Thanks for listening to The Gospel Briefing. If today's episode helped you, share it with one person who needs steady news and a steady hope. The earth may move. The King does not.
I'll see you tomorrow.