A Race Against Rubble, a Pivot on Iran and a Vaccine Order Under Fire

Colombia Digs Through the Wreckage

The week's deadliest story unfolded in western Colombia, where a 7.4-magnitude earthquake -- the country's largest in a decade -- killed at least 265 people and left hundreds missing. The quake collapsed buildings in Cali and Pereira and displaced tens of thousands of residents, straining emergency resources across the region.

The toll climbed steadily as the week went on, rising from an initial count of 111 as crews reached more damaged areas. In Cali, search teams and volunteers passed rubble down long human chains, working through aftershocks to reach survivors trapped beneath collapsed structures.

By week's end, the rescue operation had entered its final phase. Teams were racing against the 72-hour window, the period when trapped survivors are most likely to be found alive. The disaster also presents Colombia's new president with his first major crisis.

Washington Recalibrates on Iran

The Strait of Hormuz crisis entered its sixth month, and this week brought a notable change in Washington's posture. President Donald Trump signaled a pivot from military action to mounting economic pressure on Iran. U.S. stockpiles of key weapons have dwindled, and stop-start talks with Tehran have stalled again, according to NPR.

The diplomatic turn did not stop the violence. A Houthi attack killed six mariners, the first Red Sea fatalities in more than a year. U.S. forces struck a container ship, and Iran hardened its stance over the strait, which has been choked for shipping for more than five months. Pressure on Washington to find an exit strategy keeps growing.

The standoff also reached into presidential security. Trump confirmed he secretly switched planes after a NATO summit in Turkey in July, citing a possible threat. He reportedly exited Air Force One via a catering truck and flew home aboard a smaller military jet while the presidential plane continued its route as a decoy, with journalists and staff aboard unaware he had left. The maneuver responded to an alleged Iranian assassination threat, according to reports. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer is demanding a full account of the operation, and lawmakers want details on how the threat was assessed and why a covert extraction was necessary.

Escalation Abroad, Friction at Home

The war between Ukraine and Russia intensified in the air on both sides. Ukrainian drone strikes killed at least 12 people and injured 39 in Nizhnekamsk, a Russian city home to a major oil refinery, its mayor said -- among the deadliest attacks on Russian soil since the war began. Moscow officials separately said 600 drones targeted the capital region overnight, and NATO scrambled jets again. Russia answered with fresh aerial attacks across Ukraine that killed five people, with President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Moscow of targeting civilian infrastructure. The Senate also passed new sanctions legislation as Ukraine's long-range strikes reached deep inside Russia.

At home, Trump signed an executive order spacing childhood vaccines into separate medical visits, splitting the combined measles-mumps-rubella shot into three separate vaccines and recommending vaccines for 11 diseases, down from the 18 currently endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The American Academy of Pediatrics called the MMR recommendation dangerous and warned that U.S. measles cases have hit a 35-year high. The criticism crossed party lines: Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician, said Trump does not have the expertise to make these changes, a rare Republican rebuke of the administration's health policy.

Washington saw other consequential votes. The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general 50-49 in an overnight vote after a fight that exposed bipartisan concerns about installing a personal ally of the president atop the Justice Department. Tuesday's primaries in six states spotlighted the Democrats' left-center battle ahead of the midterms, with moderate David Crowley narrowly beating democratic socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin's governor primary while progressive Peggy Flanagan won Minnesota's Senate nomination. A Syrian court, meanwhile, sentenced ousted leader Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia, convicting him of killings, torture and arbitrary arrest during the 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead.

Markets absorbed mixed signals. The July jobs report showed an unexpected loss of 23,000 jobs even as unemployment fell, prompting traders to scale back bets on Fed rate rises. Nvidia proposed using its GPUs as long-term collateral to unlock $500 billion in Wall Street financing for data centers, and Berkshire Hathaway's latest 13F showed Greg Abel making Alphabet a top-three holding at $37.9 billion alongside larger stakes in Delta and U.S. housing. In technology, OpenAI halted work on its in-development Astra model after it crossed the company's critical cybersecurity threshold, and a New Mexico court fined Meta $567 million, bringing its total penalties in a child safety case to $942 million, the largest such ruling against a social media company.

Records Set, and the Week Ahead

It was a week of superlatives elsewhere. Josh Kushner and Bob Iger agreed to buy the Los Angeles Lakers for $12.5 billion, a record price for any sports franchise, according to ESPN. Spider-Man: Brand New Day crossed $700 million at the U.S. box office in 13 days, the fastest any film has reached that mark, per Deadline. Kayla McBride hit a WNBA-record 10 three-pointers in a 43-point night that helped the Lynx clinch a playoff berth. Basketball also lost Don Nelson at 86; the inventor of Nellie Ball won five championships as a Celtics player, claimed three Coach of the Year awards and finished as the second-winningest regular-season coach in NBA history. And Wednesday's total solar eclipse darkened skies over Greenland, Iceland and Spain, while parts of the U.S. saw a partial eclipse the same day the Perseid meteor shower peaked.

Looking ahead: The Federal Reserve releases minutes from its July policy meeting, giving markets a fresh read on the rate debate heading into the fall. The Little League World Series opens in Williamsport, Pa., the BMW Championship tees off as the next leg of the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs, and the NFL's next full week of preseason games kicks off as roster battles intensify ahead of final cuts.