Previously: August 11’s roundup covered the Colombia earthquake’s first 130+ death toll, Ukraine’s strike on the Orsk refinery, Trump’s reparations demand on Iran, and Anthropic’s Theseus data-center venture.
Disaster — Colombia’s Earthquake Toll Passes 180, Nearly 4,000 Still Unaccounted For
The death toll from Monday’s magnitude 7.4 earthquake in western Colombia has climbed to at least 181, with 2,595 people injured, Colombian authorities said Tuesday. The official missing count stands at 195, but civilian-run tracking databases put the number closer to 4,000 — a gap that reflects how badly communications and roads remain disrupted across the hardest-hit Chocó region. Aid agencies are racing the 48–72 hour window considered critical for finding survivors alive in the rubble.
The quake has become an early test for President Abelardo de la Espriella’s newly formed government. International aid is arriving fast: the US has pledged over $15 million, Mexico has sent search-and-health teams, and El Salvador has committed two planes carrying 100 tons of supplies. A UN coordinator noted that Colombia’s existing on-the-ground infrastructure from the 2016 peace accord — built to reach conflict-affected areas like Chocó — is accelerating relief delivery even as poverty and residual armed-conflict risk complicate the response.
Sources: NPR — Earthquake response strains Colombia’s new government and rescuers · NBC News — More than 160 people killed in Colombia’s strongest earthquake in years · CNN — Death toll rises to 132 following 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia · Time — What to Know About the Earthquake in Colombia
Ukraine — Drones, Sea Drones and Neptune Missiles Hit Russia’s Last Black Sea Fleet Stronghold
Ukraine’s Defense Forces struck Novorossiysk overnight — Russia’s main Black Sea naval base and one of its largest oil and grain export hubs — using Palianytsia drone missiles, Neptune missiles and maritime unmanned systems, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday. Fires broke out at the port’s oil and fleet facilities, and two of Russia’s largest grain-handling terminals halted operations after the strikes, according to Reuters industry sources. Novorossiysk Mayor Andrei Kravchenko said the overnight attack killed a child, damaged four enterprises and more than two dozen residential buildings; Al Jazeera separately reported four people killed in the broader overnight exchange of strikes.
Zelensky called it a “unique operation” against what he described as the last main outpost of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet — notable given the port sits more than 350km from the front line, underscoring how far Kyiv’s long-range strike campaign now reaches into Russia’s war-financing infrastructure. It follows the Orsk refinery strike covered in yesterday’s roundup, extending a week-long pattern of hits on the oil and export revenue that keeps Russia’s invasion funded.
Sources: Euromaidan Press — Sea drones, jet drones, and Neptune missiles hit one Russian port in a single night · AP via NBC News — Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says a nighttime blitz damages Russia’s Black Sea naval stronghold · Al Jazeera — Four killed in overnight attacks in southern Russia, Ukraine · The Moscow Times — Drones Kill One, Reportedly Halt Work at Novorossiysk Grain Terminal · Kyiv Independent — Novorossiysk port on fire again as Ukrainian strike campaign on Russian oil export infrastructure continues
Middle East — US Navy Fires on a 12th Ship for Breaching Its Iran Blockade as MoU Deadline Nears
US Central Command said a Navy helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles at the Panama-flagged cargo vessel Vela Nova on Tuesday, targeting its engine room and disabling its steering after CENTCOM said the crew ignored repeated warnings while trying to sail toward an Iranian port through the Gulf of Oman. It’s the 12th vessel the US has attacked since announcing its blockade of Iranian ports in April, and the third since the blockade was reimposed on July 14. Iran, meanwhile, has focused its diplomacy on talks with Oman over alternative shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz rather than direct engagement with Washington.
The strike comes as the 60-day US-Iran memorandum of understanding is set to expire Sunday. Trump maintains the situation is “going fine” and that US forces hold “total control” of Hormuz, while Pakistan’s interior minister traveled to Tehran to push mediation and prevent further escalation — a continuation of the reparations standoff detailed in yesterday’s roundup. A senior Iranian source told Reuters this week there are no talks underway to extend the ceasefire, calling it something Tehran sees “nothing to extend.”
Sources: Al Jazeera — US military fires on cargo vessel it said sought to break Iran blockade · France 24 — Middle East live: US military strikes ship violating its blockade of Iranian ports · CNN — Live updates: US-Iran war news; Trump insists US controls Strait of Hormuz · CBS News — U.S. and Iran close to a “peace arrangement or a deal,” Pakistan says
AI & Tech — Nvidia Recruits Wall Street for $500B in AI Financing, Anthropic Adds 3.5 More Gigawatts of Google TPUs
Nvidia signed non-binding MOUs with six of the world’s largest investment firms — Apollo Global, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR — to build dedicated financing platforms aiming to source more than $500 billion in third-party capital for AI infrastructure. CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC he approached only those six firms and none turned him down; the pitch reframes GPU clusters as long-term, revenue-generating assets akin to real estate rather than fast-depreciating tech gear, letting Nvidia’s customers build data centers without draining their own cash reserves.
Separately, Anthropic signed an expanded deal with Google and Broadcom for 3.5 additional gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity coming online starting in 2027, on top of the 1 gigawatt already arriving this year — a 4.5x expansion of its compute base within 18 months. The move follows Anthropic’s run-rate revenue surpassing 9 billion at the end of 2025, and comes right after the Theseus data-center joint venture covered in yesterday’s roundup. The bulk of the new TPU capacity will be sited in the US.
Sources: Bloomberg — Nvidia Taps Wall Street for 500 billion in financing as CEO Jensen Huang tells CNBC his chips are ‘investable asset’ · Axios — Nvidia, Wall Street partner on $500B AI financing · Anthropic — Anthropic expands partnership with Google and Broadcom for multiple gigawatts of next-generation compute · Data Center Knowledge — Anthropic Secures Multi-Gigawatt TPU Deal With Google, Broadcom
Science — A Total Solar Eclipse Sweeps Greenland, Iceland and Spain Today
A total solar eclipse crosses the Northern Hemisphere today, August 12, with the Moon’s shadow first touching the Arctic Circle over northern Russia before tracking across eastern Greenland, western Iceland, and the northern half of Spain and northeastern Portugal — the only significant land areas within the roughly 294km-wide path of totality, where totality lasts up to 2 minutes 18 seconds. A partial eclipse will be visible far more broadly, across Europe, North Africa, much of North America and parts of Asia. Researchers are stationed in Spain and Iceland to study the solar corona during totality, coinciding with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower and a pre-dawn alignment of all six other planets — a rare astronomical convergence in a single 24-hour span.
Separately in cosmology, a University of Portsmouth-led study published this week proposes that some black holes observed today could be “cosmic fossils” older than the Big Bang itself, having survived a hypothesized “bounce” in which an earlier, contracting universe reversed into today’s expansion rather than collapsing to a singularity. The team’s calculations suggest compact objects larger than roughly 90 meters could have passed through that transition intact, offering a possible new angle on the origins of dark matter and the earliest galaxies.
Sources: Space.com — The total solar eclipse on Aug. 12 will reveal something nobody has ever seen before · Wikipedia — Solar eclipse of August 12, 2026 · Fox Weather — Aug. 12 to feature a 6-planet parade, solar eclipse, meteor shower and new moon · ScienceDaily — Black holes older than the Big Bang could explain dark matter · University of Portsmouth — Cosmic fossils: Ancient black holes from before the Big Bang may still shape the Universe