A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on 10 August, killing at least 224 people and injuring over a thousand more across the country’s Pacific and coffee-growing regions.
The tremor, centred in San José del Palmar, a community of around 4,800 people in the Chocó region, triggered 47 aftershocks, including one measuring 4.8 in magnitude shortly afterwards.
Major cities, including Cali, Pereira and Manizales, suffered widespread destruction, with multi-storey concrete buildings collapsing and trapping numerous residents under heavy rubble. The earthquake was also felt in the capital, Bogotá, which is 400 kilometres (250 miles) away.
“Everyone was screaming... I saw dust coming out of the neighbouring buildings, and bricks were falling off the walls,” said Angélica Ávila, who had been staying in a hotel in Manizales, a city of 475,000 people, in an interview with BBC World.
Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, seems to have been hit the hardest.
“The preliminary tally in Cali reports 239 people trapped, 949 injured, and 95 dead,” declared Alejandro Eder, mayor of Cali, adding that 86 people have been rescued. “Saving lives remains our priority.”
“Our building has basically been left in ruins, and the building next to ours? Completely collapsed,” Álvaro López, a Cali resident, told AP.
Just days after taking office, President Abelardo de la Espriella officially declared a national disaster and reported that 1,136 homes had been destroyed and 8,357 damaged.
First responders and civilian volunteers are currently sifting through debris by hand amid power grid failures and severed essential transport and communications lines.
The massive earthquake in Colombia comes just six weeks after two consecutive 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes hit Venezuela on 24 June, leaving more than 6,000 people dead.
Cartel boss Daniel Kinahan extradited to Ireland: The alleged Irish drug kingpin Daniel Kinahan landed at Dublin’s Baldonnel Aerodrome on 9 August, having been extradited from the United Arab Emirates to face criminal charges. Handed over by Dubai under a bilateral treaty, the 49-year-old head of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG) was brought straight to the Special Criminal Court and charged with directing a syndicate whose wealth is estimated to exceed €1,5 billion ($1,73 billion). “We know I won’t be getting bail,” Kinahan told the judges during the brief hearing, shares The Journal. Law enforcement agencies estimate his organization controls roughly 30% of Europe’s cocaine supply. Kinahan is remanded to Portlaoise maximum-security prison ahead of his October hearing.
Israeli settlers torch Palestinian homes in occupied West Bank: On 6 August, around 40 armed settlers raided the hamlet of Khirbet a-Tuba in the South Hebron Hills, setting multiple homes on fire and leaving six residents injured, including four children aged 5, 6, 8 and 10. This is the second time the hamlet has been attacked by Israeli colonists. “The first time they burned the well, and this time they destroyed these rooms,” said Ibrahim Zei, a resident of Khirbet al-Tuba, in an interview with AFP (via Dawn). “Last night they terrified us. I wasn’t even awake. They woke the children, then came straight to the rooms.” In a statement, the IDF declared that they “strongly condemn such incidents”, as violence by Israeli settlers towards Palestinians in the West Bank has surged in recent months. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there have been 3,033 settler attacks in the West Bank between 1 January 2025 and 30 June 2026.
North Koreans are back in the Russian invasion of Ukraine: Up to 50,000 North Korean soldiers are set to be deployed in Russia, up from previous estimates of 30,000, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during an interview on the Yedyni Novyny (a joint information telethon on TV) on 8 August. Zelenskyy also confirmed Ukrainian forces recovered North Korean missiles inside Ukraine, warning that “it is absolutely clear” that Pyongyang “will increase its experience in modern warfare” and calling on South Korea for military support. North Korea has supplied Russia with millions of artillery and mortar rounds, ballistic missiles, long-range artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, according to Ukrainian and independent assessments. North Korea’s leader Kim Jung Un is “winning the lottery” from arms sales to Russia, having gained $22 billion in foreign revenue since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to an analysis by Bloomberg.
Puerto Rico begins rotating water rationing programme: On 8 August, the Puerto Rican government implemented a 48-hour water rationing programme expected to continue until the end of August. Puerto Rico’s main water reservoir, the Carraízo reservoir, is being depleted by a severe drought, while 12 more reservoirs have also seen drops in their water levels. The capital San Juan recorded its driest July in over 120 years. The drought affects 89% of the Caribbean island’s inhabitants, shows data from Drought Monitor. “You get paralyzed because you cannot begin laundry because what happens if you are washing your clothes and that water ends,” a San Juan resident explains to NPR. “Why do I have to be buying water from the supermarket when I’m supposed to be drinking water from the faucet?” the resident asked. More than 65% of Puerto Rico’s clean water is lost through leaky pipes before it ever reaches people’s homes, a government report found in 2023.
Beijing braces for deluge as Typhoon Dolphin approaches: China’s capital is bracing for severe torrential downpours from Typhoon Dolphin, with forecasters warning that the city could receive accumulated precipitation of 150 millimetres in 24 hours, the “equivalent to more than one-third of the city’s annual rainfall,” precises state-run outlet Global Times. The powerful storm previously battered Japan before making landfall on China’s eastern coast, hitting Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture on 8 August with maximum sustained winds of 162 kph and gusts reaching 216 kph. The typhoon dumped 313 millimetres of rain on Shanghai, its heaviest 24-hour deluge in 150 years, forcing over one million people to evacuate nationwide, according to The Guardian. The hashtag “Shanghai turns into the sea” began trending on Chinese social media, with users sharing videos of flooded streets, shops and underground areas.
Record Asian heatwave kills dozens and devastates wildlife: “Some temperature records belong in history books. Others mark the beginning of a new reality”, writes the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Thz ferocious heatwave that swept across East Asia has triggered 1,800 heat-related emergency patients and killed at least 19 people in South Korea, where President Lee Jae-myung has declared a national disaster. Temperatures in North Korea approached 40°C (104°F), according to state media, while the Hong Kong Observatory recorded a historic 36.9°C (98.4°F), “the highest temperature recorded since records began in 1884”, reports Hong Kong Free Press. The extreme heat is also taking a devastating toll on wildlife. Three female lions aged 3, 11 and 15 have died of suspected heatstroke at Tokyo’s Tama Zoological Park following “several weeks of record-breaking temperatures across Japan”, explains The Japan Times.Wildfires surge across North America: On 8 August, British Columbia declared a provincial state of emergency as 105 wildfires burned across western Canada. After the Bald Range wildfire “quickly grew in size overnight”, more than 20,000 people were forced to flee, CBC reports. The fire has already burned 13,600 hectares (33,600 acres). In the United States, two pilots were killed when their helicopter crashed while fighting the 49,300-hectare (122,000 acres) Widemouth 2 Fire in Utah’s Fishlake National Forest. In Washington State, three wildfires near Spokane have burned over 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres), burning to the ground entire neighborhoods, destroying 920 structures and displacing 65,000 residents. A man has been arrested for arson in connection with the fires.
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Since International Cat Day was on 8 August, my cat has stepped up to take on the role of guest contributor to this week’s newsletter. Judging by his expression, he’s very serious about it!
Originally established in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the day is now overseen by International Cat Care, who continue to promote the health, protection and wellbeing of cats everywhere.
Remember to be kind to animals, and to always share pictures of your pets around you.
Thank you for reading,
Take care.
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