Colombia Earthquake, Vaccine Schedule, & Fat Marmot Week

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Adam Rogers
August 11, 2026

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A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, killing more than 100 people and causing widespread damage across several cities. The epicenter was near San José del Palmar in the Chocó region, but strong shaking was felt by roughly 10.5 million people and as far away as Bogotá, coastal Colombia, and neighboring Ecuador.
Buildings collapsed across several cities, with people trapped beneath debris in Cali and search teams combing through rubble elsewhere. Part of Manizales' historic cathedral collapsed, homes and other structures were destroyed, and flights were suspended at multiple regional airports while authorities assessed damage.
The quake was Colombia's strongest recorded in the past decade and was followed by a magnitude 5.0 aftershock less than an hour later. The same coffee-growing region was devastated by a 1999 earthquake that killed more than 1,200 people.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to reduce the number of vaccines universally recommended for U.S. children, from protection against 18 diseases to 11. Vaccines for Covid-19, flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and bacterial meningitis would instead generally be recommended based on individual risk or discussions between parents and doctors.
The order also calls for vaccines to be spread across separate medical visits and directs health officials to explore separating the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three individual shots. No individual MMR vaccines are currently FDA-approved or available in the U.S., and the CDC says there is no evidence that separating the vaccines provides a health benefit.
The changes are not yet in effect. Similar revisions announced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were blocked in court, and legal experts say Trump's executive order is also likely to face legal challenges.

Dogs' brains can distinguish between different types of unhappy human facial expressions, according to new research examining how pets process emotions. Scientists found dogs could differentiate fearful faces from angry or sad faces based solely on differences in brain activity.
Researchers trained pet dogs to lie awake and unrestrained inside MRI scanners while viewing unfamiliar human faces displaying happiness, sadness, fear, anger or neutral expressions. Happy faces produced increased activity in brain regions associated with visual, social and reward processing, while patterns across the brain differed depending on the negative expression being viewed.
The dogs could distinguish fear from both anger and sadness but not anger from sadness, suggesting some human emotions may look more similar to them. The study was small and consisted mostly of border collies, so researchers say larger and more diverse studies are needed to confirm the findings.

Will Scharf, a former Trump personal lawyer who argued his presidential immunity case, will become White House counsel Sept. 1, replacing David Warrington. (More)

The Lower 48 recorded its hottest month ever in July, averaging 76.89°F and surpassing a record set during the Dust Bowl in 1936, according to NOAA. (More)

The FDA proposed ending a policy that allows food companies to introduce ingredients deemed safe without prior notification, instead requiring manufacturers to submit their safety findings to regulators. (More)

A Ukrainian drone attack killed 13 people and wounded 75 in Nizhnekamsk, a major Russian oil hub roughly 750 miles east of the Ukrainian border. (More)

Heavy rain from Typhoon Dolphin flooded streets across Shanghai and eastern China on Monday, while the city’s two airports canceled 943 flights due to the storm. (More)

Italian police arrested a businessman with ties to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for allegedly ordering a 2025 bomb attack targeting prominent investigative journalist Sigfrido Ranucci. (More)

US stock markets closed lower on Monday (S&P -0.06%, Nasdaq -0.32%, Dow -0.11%). Tech stock decline drove the markets downward. (More)

Intel announced a $15 billion stock offering to help fund capital spending as demand for AI computing surges, sending the chipmaker’s shares down 4% Monday. (More)

Archer Aviation is acquiring three Boeing subsidiaries focused on air taxis, drones and air traffic systems in exchange for giving Boeing a nearly 20% ownership stake. (More)

UEFA, Concacaf and the AFC accused FIFA president Gianni Infantino of deception and a “fundamental breach of trust,” with the confederations reportedly discussing organizing competitions independently. (More)

Former President Barack Obama will host a new podcast exploring books that shaped his worldview and society, with the six-episode “A Great Book” premiering Sept. 24. (More)

Duane “Keffe D” Davis began trial Monday for Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing, bringing one of hip-hop’s most notorious unsolved murders before a jury nearly 30 years later. (More)

Scientists discovered a new mountain horned dragon in Thailand and named it after Syrax from “House of the Dragon,” citing its yellow coloring, small size, and large clutches. (More)

Researchers permanently cleared an HIV-like virus from newborn primates using three therapies shortly after birth, potentially paving the way for clinical trials in infants with HIV. (More)

Meta will open source its most powerful AI model, Muse Spark 1.2, while launching smaller models that run on laptops as it challenges OpenAI and Anthropic. (More)

Watch 99,000 ducks get dumped into the Chicago River.

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