📊 Colombia, Food Additives, and Meta Manifesto

Earthquake, regulatory loophole, and open-source declaration.

Aug 10, 2026

Greetings! Happy Lazy Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

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🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇨🇴 Colombia earthquake kills at least 47 people. A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia, collapsing buildings and trapping residents beneath debris. The epicenter was near San Jose del Palmar in Choco. The community sits about 400 kilometers west of Bogotá. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured the quake at a depth of 107 kilometers. At least 47 people were killed. Officials reported 18 deaths in Pereira and two in Manizales. Another 27 people died in Valle del Cauca, including at least 3 children. Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, sustained significant damage. Pereira, Quibdo, and Manizales were also hit hard. The Interior Ministry says more than 20 municipalities were affected. Rescue crews searched collapsed structures while authorities warned about aftershocks. Two aftershocks measured magnitudes 2.8 and 4.8. Colombia’s Geological Service called it the country’s strongest earthquake in a decade. Flights were suspended at airports in Manizales, Quibdo, and elsewhere. The shaking reached Bogotá and was felt in Ecuador and Panama, where damage was minimal. Hospitals evacuated patients in Cali as debris fell and residents poured into streets. The earthquake leaves western Colombia counting casualties while rescue teams continue searching fractured buildings.

🇷🇺 Ukrainian drone strike kills 13 deep inside Russia. Ukraine attacked the petroleum hub of Nizhnekamsk in Russia’s Tatarstan region. Local authorities say 13 people were killed and 78 were injured. The city lies about 1,200 kilometers east of the Ukrainian border. Ukraine’s military says it struck the Taneco oil refinery and started a fire. Russian officials did not specify the drones’ intended target. Nizhnekamsk, home to about 240K people, contains two refineries and a petrochemical plant. One drone struck a hostel and killed nine people there. Seven Uzbek nationals were among those killed. A child also died in the attack. Tatarstan declared a day of mourning. Ukraine has attacked Russian oil facilities with long-range drones almost daily in recent months. Those strikes have reduced refining capacity and contributed to fuel shortages. Drones also sparked a fire at an industrial facility in western Siberia’s Tyumen region. Ukraine says it damaged a petrochemical complex in Tobolsk. The facility produces rocket-fuel components, aviation fuel, drone materials, and high-octane gasoline. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the strikes are intended to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin toward peace talks. The attack shows how deeply Ukraine’s campaign can now reach into Russia’s energy economy.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

🍔 FDA moves to close a decades-old food additive loophole. Health officials are proposing stricter scrutiny of ingredients entering packaged and processed foods. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would require manufacturers to notify regulators before introducing new additives. Companies would also have to submit documentation supporting their safety conclusions. Regulators could investigate ingredients that raise potential risks. The proposal targets the longstanding “generally recognized as safe” system. Under current rules, companies can determine on their own that an ingredient is safe, and are not generally required to notify the FDA or submit supporting evidence. Consumer advocates have criticized that framework for allowing poorly vetted chemicals into food. An estimated 10K additives are permitted in the food supply. The FDA will accept public comments on the proposal for 120 days. Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas says mandatory notification would close an information gap. Advocates argue notification alone is insufficient without rigorous independent safety review. The agency separately completed its first federal definition of ultraprocessed food. That definition has been sent to the White House but has not yet been released. A formal definition could eventually support research, labeling, or additional restrictions. Health Secretary RFK Jr. has made additives and ultraprocessed foods central to his agenda. The proposal would not immediately change diets, but could change who must prove new ingredients belong in them.

🎖️ Democrats probe deportations involving military families. Congressional Democrats are investigating immigration enforcement against service members and their relatives. More than 50 active-duty troops’ spouses and parents have been detained by immigration authorities. More than 60 lawmakers signed a letter seeking answers from three federal departments. The inquiries went to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Defense Department, and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Lawmakers want to know whether immigration and military agencies are coordinating deportations. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Tammy Duckworth are leading the probe with House Democrats. They argue the detentions could damage military readiness, morale, and retention. Some troops have taken leave or delayed deployments after spouses were detained. DHS says military service alone does not automatically confer lawful immigration status on relatives. The Pentagon declined public comment and said it would respond to lawmakers directly. The VA did not immediately respond. Democrats are also asking why military recruiters continue promoting immigration protections to prospective service members. They want prior protections for military families restored. President Trump created a Military Spouse Commission on August 6th. The commission is chaired by Jennifer Rauchet, the wife of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Defense Department previously said it had not analyzed how family deportations affect readiness or morale. The investigation places immigration enforcement against the competing obligations of military service and family stability.

🗂️ MISC

🧠 Zuckerberg makes open AI a fight over power. Meta Platforms ($META) has released a new AI model while CEO Mark Zuckerberg argues that advanced systems should remain broadly accessible. Muse Glimmer carries a permissive open-source license. The lightweight model can run on a personal computer. Meta is also providing developer access to its more powerful Muse Spark 1.2 model. Zuckerberg paired the releases with a manifesto defending open development. He warned that concentrating superintelligence among a few companies, governments, or institutions could concentrate power with it. Meta instead wants advanced AI distributed widely enough for individuals to build and customize their own tools. The strategy distinguishes Meta from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, whose leading models remain more tightly controlled. Meta has championed open models even while struggling to match some rivals at the frontier. Zuckerberg also framed AI openness as an American competitiveness issue. He called for faster expansion of energy capacity and computing infrastructure to compete with China. His argument extends to distillation, in which smaller models learn from stronger models’ outputs. Policymakers have scrutinized the technique over concerns that Chinese companies could extract capabilities from American systems. Zuckerberg argues restrictive rules could also constrain domestic innovation. The dispute is increasingly about more than model performance. It is about whether the AI economy develops around guarded intelligence or one that developers can inspect, modify, and redistribute.

📉 Stocks hover near records as oil jumps 3.7%. American equities moved narrowly after the Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) set a record in the previous session. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% in midday trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 114 points, or 0.2%. The Nasdaq composite declined 0.5%. Markets are cooling after a rally powered by unusually strong corporate profits. S&P 500 earnings per share are tracking about 50% above last spring. That would be the strongest annual growth in five years. Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.B) rose 2.1% after beating profit expectations and disclosing new stock purchases under CEO Greg Abel. MarineMax ($HZO) surged 45.6% after agreeing to a roughly $1.5B cash sale to a Blackstone ($BX) portfolio company. Varex Imaging ($VREX) jumped 48.3% after Teledyne Technologies ($TDY) agreed to buy it for $18.90 per share. Intel ($INTC) fell 2.5% after saying it may sell $15B of stock. The chipmaker says proceeds could support investment tied to the AI spending boom. Energy markets supplied the sharper movement. Brent crude climbed 3.7% to $86.69 per barrel. Oil traded between $72 and $102 during July as Strait of Hormuz expectations repeatedly shifted. Renewed uncertainty about the waterway is again raising the price of moving crude out of the Middle East. Stocks remain near records, but oil is reminding investors that geopolitics can still rewrite the cost assumptions beneath them.