外媒每日新闻 Colombia Quake & Hormuz Crisis Edition

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday threatened retaliation for Western seizures of its commercial vessels, describing them as "piracy." Speaking during a visit to the Varyag missile cruiser of the Pacific Fleet watching a naval exercise near Sakhalin Island, Putin said Western moves to detain vessels linked to Russia constituted a breach of international maritime law. "It's nothing but piracy and robbery," Putin said. "If this is done, we will be forced to respond in kind." He noted that Russia's response wouldn't necessarily come in the waters where Russian ships were seized, and could retaliate "in any area where we see it as necessary and appropriate." Pacific Fleet chief Adm. Viktor Liina told Putin the navy was ready to start inspections of commercial ships serving "unfriendly nations," noting that many ships operated by British, French and other European carriers fly flags of other nations. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said Russia had the right to attack any merchant vessel belonging to hostile nations in any waters. France and the U.K. have detained tankers suspected of being part of Russia's "shadow fleet" shipping oil in violation of sanctions.^[1]

Ukrainian anti-ship missiles and drones blitzed a major Russian naval base on the Black Sea coast in a "unique" nighttime operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday. The attack struck air defenses, piers and other port infrastructure in Novorossiysk — the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, to which Russia relocated most ships after Ukrainian strikes on Sevastopol earlier in the war. Krasnodar region Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said hundreds of Ukrainian drones attacked Novorossiysk, Anapa, Gelendzhik and the Temryuk region overnight. An 8-year-old child was among three people killed, and 24 others were wounded. The strikes damaged two of Novorossiysk's three grain terminals, with one halting operations. Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed more than 500 Ukrainian drones. Meanwhile, Russia fired 138 long-range drones overnight, destroying a shopping mall in Zaporizhzhia and killing two in the Kherson region. Zelenskyy cited intelligence reports that Putin was planning "an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year."^[2]

A specific threat to Air Force One by a shoulder-fired missile prompted a clandestine operation to sneak President Donald Trump out of Turkey on an alternate jet, according to a person familiar with the matter. The threat emerged on the final day of last month's NATO summit in Turkey and was serious enough that officials feared for Trump's life if he flew out on either the legacy Air Force One or the Qatar-donated jet. Officials including from the military and Secret Service devised a plan to move Trump to a smaller C-32A plane via a catering truck. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joined Trump on the smaller plane, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained on the larger Boeing 747 — most passengers unaware Trump was not aboard. A conservative Iranian cleric, Hamid Rasaei, had publicly called for Trump to be targeted while at the NATO summit. Trump downplayed the ruse on Tuesday: "I don't worry about anything, to be honest. Whatever it is, you know my attitude? Whatever." The U.S. has long warned that Iran may try to kill Trump in retaliation for the 2020 drone strike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani.^[3]

The International Energy Agency warned that the world is depleting its oil stockpiles at an unprecedented pace amid the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz. In its latest report, the IEA said oil inventories plunged by 2.2 million barrels a day last month, with global stocks falling below 7.9 billion barrels for the first time since April 2025. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell to a four-decade low of 298.7 million barrels, while combined commercial and SPR holdings stood at 722.2 million barrels on August 14 — down 101.9 million barrels, or 12.4 percent, from a year earlier. The U.S. EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook assessed that production shut-ins averaged 5.5 million barrels per day in July and assumed Hormuz flows would remain severely constrained through August. The United States drew down 22% of its reserves, Japan 29%, Saudi Arabia 16%, the UAE 15% and South Korea 12%. Meanwhile, Iran's strategic inventory rose 18.9% as its exports collapsed under the U.S. naval blockade — oil it can pump but cannot ship.^[5]

Brent crude fell 0.15% to $88.45 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate fell 0.74% to $81.79 on August 12, 2026, despite near-zero Hormuz traffic, indicating stored barrels were still replacing disrupted Gulf supply. The relative stability in prices, even as 90% of Hormuz transit was cut, suggests that emergency reserves and alternative supply routes are temporarily cushioning the shock. However, analysts warn that the buffer is finite — the U.S. oil buffer has plunged to just 41 days of coverage. The crisis is compressing national energy resilience at an accelerating rate, with geopolitical conflict, emergency releases and export obligations all draining reserves simultaneously. Traders are watching for any signs that the stored-barrel cushion is thinning, which could trigger a sharp price spike. Meanwhile, OPEC+ producers outside the Gulf are ramping up output, and the U.S. is pressing for faster domestic production approvals to fill the gap.^[6]

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia on August 10, killing at least 265 people and injuring over 1,677, with 496 still missing as of August 12. The Colombian Geological Survey stated this is the strongest earthquake recorded in the country since the 21st century. The epicenter was near San José del Palmar in Chocó Department, but tremors were felt for 2-3 minutes in the capital Bogotá, over 200 km away, and reports of vibrations came from Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. The quake directly hit Colombia's "Coffee Triangle" — the UNESCO World Heritage region comprising Manizales, Pereira, and Armenia — which ranks third globally in coffee exports. At least 40 people died in Pereira alone, and part of the ceiling collapsed at Matecaña International Airport. The Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Manizales, Colombia's tallest cathedral at 119 meters, saw part of its side spire collapse. President De La Espriella declared a national state of emergency and three days of mourning, announcing an economic emergency to respond to the disaster. Over 1,500 homes collapsed. The U.S., EU and neighboring countries mobilized aid.^[7]

The ongoing Ebola outbreak in Congo is on track to surpass the deadliest one in history, which killed over 11,000 people from 2014 to 2016, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday. The outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus which has no approved vaccines or treatments, has killed over 2,000 people out of more than 4,300 cases. It was declared on May 15, but sequencing showed it began months earlier in February. "The outbreak had a big head start, still way ahead of us, and we're playing catch-up," Tedros said. The outbreak has expanded to 54 health zones across six provinces, with most new cases and deaths in communities beyond the reach of health workers in a region of poor infrastructure and ongoing conflict. Two vaccines developed specifically for the Bundibugyo virus are now being tested in people for the first time. A study published in Nature Medicine on Monday confirmed the outbreak began when the virus jumped from an infected animal to a person. WHO expects the peak in six months under a moderate scenario, or up to 12 months in the worst case.^[8]

Typhoon Dolphin — the strongest typhoon to hit China this year — made landfall in Zhejiang province on Sunday and has since weakened, but its remnants are drawing tropical moisture deep inland, threatening to unleash extreme rainfall across northern China. Heavy rain associated with Dolphin continued to affect large parts of China on Tuesday, prompting higher flood-control responses, train suspensions and flood warnings in Beijing and neighboring Tianjin. Four outlying districts of Beijing activated Level I emergency flood responses, with the city bracing for more than a third of its average annual rainfall in 24 hours. Over a million residents were evacuated from their homes across several provinces. Dolphin, the 13th typhoon of the year, traveled more than 6,000 km before making two landfalls in Zhejiang. The storm's circulation continued to move northwestward, unlike many tropical cyclones that rapidly dissipate after landfall, prolonging the flood threat. Authorities also warned of secondary disasters including landslides in Henan, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.^[9]

Severe weather across the Midwest spawned tornadoes and catastrophic flash flooding on Tuesday, with authorities in Ohio and western Pennsylvania reporting numerous water rescues. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency in Perry and Muskingum counties after flooding left one person dead and affected communities including Roseville, Crooksville and New Lexington. The Muskingum River at Beverly reached 9.02 meters (29.6 feet) by early Tuesday. DeWine sent 40 Ohio Army National Guard members to assist in two counties east of Columbus. Floodwaters barged into Kaitlyn Rodgers' home in Crooksville, reaching knee deep and stranding her family of six. Over 10 inches of rain fell in some locations from August 11 through 12. The National Weather Service warned that because soils across Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia were completely saturated, any renewed heavy rain would immediately turn into runoff, creating a threat for "considerable to locally catastrophic flooding." Rain rates of up to 3 inches per hour were reported, with training bands dumping 3 to 6 inches or more.^[10]

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the Gemini app has surpassed 1 billion monthly active users, making it the company's fastest-growing product ever and its 14th to reach the milestone. The figure covers the standalone app and web interface. Usage data shows 63% of users interact via voice, one in five Gemini Live sessions involve live camera or screen sharing, and the system generates more than 150 million images daily. iOS accounts for over 100 million active users. The milestone arrives weeks after OpenAI reported ChatGPT crossing the same threshold. Gemini has been deeply integrated across Google services, powering features in Search, Gmail, and Android while expanding agentic capabilities. The rapid user scale underscores Gemini's competitive position in the consumer AI race and validates Google's heavy investment in multimodal and voice-first experiences. Nearly every layer of the AI stack moved at once on August 12, with half a trillion dollars in new infrastructure financing taking shape across the industry.^[11]

Anthropic published plans to embed invisible watermarks in text, code, and file outputs from Claude, putting the EU AI Act's transparency rules into practice globally across its user base. Text and code generated by new Claude models will carry a hidden watermark that carries through when copied and pasted outside the platform. Files will get the same cryptographic watermarking. The move positions Anthropic ahead of regulatory requirements and sets a transparency standard for competitors. Separately, an unreleased Claude research model dramatically advanced the Riemann hypothesis, pushing the proportion of Riemann zeta function zeros satisfying the conjecture from 41.6% — a bound achieved by human mathematicians over decades — to 67.2%, though the conjecture itself remains unproven. The result demonstrates AI's emerging role in frontier mathematical research. Anthropic is also courting investors ahead of a potential blockbuster IPO this fall, with reports suggesting a target valuation of at least $2 trillion, as the company addresses questions about Chinese competition and AI infrastructure spending.^[12]

Reuters, citing The Information, reported that Nvidia is developing the Nemotron 4 model family, with the largest version expected to have at least one trillion parameters — roughly double Nemotron 3 Ultra's 550 billion — and could arrive as early as late fall. Final training is unfinished and no release date has been set. Nvidia confirmed it is investing in Nemotron but did not confirm the reported specifications. The company also released Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and earlier Nemotron 3 family open models. The move signals Nvidia's strategic push beyond chip manufacturing into the AI model layer itself, leveraging its hardware dominance to build a software ecosystem. In parallel, Nvidia executed a nonexclusive technology licensing agreement with AI startup Poolside reportedly worth $6 billion, alongside a planned $1 billion equity investment at a $12 billion valuation, and the transfer of more than 100 Poolside engineers. The structure secures access to Poolside's technology and talent while keeping the open-weight strategy as a counter to China's AI advances.^[13]

The hashtag #ColombiaEarthquake trended worldwide on Tuesday and Wednesday as the magnitude 7.4 earthquake — the strongest in Colombia since the 21st century — devastated the country's Coffee Triangle region, killing over 265 people with nearly 500 still missing. Images of collapsed buildings in Pereira and the damaged Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Manizales went viral, with the cathedral's collapsed spire becoming a symbol of the disaster. Aerial footage showing entire blocks reduced to rubble in the hardest-hit areas drew millions of views. Users shared clips of the tremor lasting 2-3 minutes in Bogotá, over 200 km from the epicenter. The hashtag #PrayForColombia also trended as international aid announcements came from the U.S., EU, and neighboring countries. A viral thread by a Colombian seismologist explained why this quake was so destructive despite occurring in a seismically active zone — the shallow depth and proximity to populated coffee-growing regions amplified the impact. Another widely shared post showed the earthquake's timing: just six weeks after a 7.5-magnitude quake killed over 6,000 in neighboring Venezuela, raising debate about tectonic connections along the Pacific Ring of Fire.^[14]

The hashtag #AirForceOne trended across X/Twitter on Tuesday and Wednesday as CNN revealed that a specific shoulder-fired missile threat prompted an elaborate decoy operation to sneak President Trump out of Turkey on an alternate jet during last month's NATO summit. The catering-truck ruse — in which Trump was moved from Air Force One to a smaller C-32A via a catering truck container — drew comparisons to spy thrillers. A viral video analysis by CNN showing the truck positioning and the two planes' movements garnered millions of views. The revelation that Defense Secretary Hegseth joined Trump on the smaller plane while Secretary of State Rubio remained on the larger jet prompted fierce debate about the chain of command during a security crisis. Users noted that most passengers on Air Force One were unaware the president was not aboard. Trump's nonchalant response — "I don't worry about anything, to be honest" — drew both mockery and admiration. An Iranian cleric's public call to target Trump at the summit added a chilling dimension. The hashtag #TrumpDecoy also trended, with some users drawing parallels to the 2014 movie "Air Force One." Others raised serious questions about how specifically the Iranians knew Trump's arrangements, suggesting a possible intelligence breach.^[15]

The hashtag #Ebola trended worldwide on Wednesday after WHO Director-General Tedros warned that Congo's fast-growing outbreak was on track to eclipse the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola epidemic that killed over 11,000 people. The Bundibugyo virus strain — which has no approved vaccine or treatment — has killed over 2,000 out of 4,300+ cases across 54 health zones in six provinces. A haunting AP photograph of health workers in protective gear burying Ebola victim Jacques Lobo Dhena in Bunia went viral, becoming the defining image of the crisis. Users expressed outrage that the outbreak had been growing since February but was only declared in May. The Nature Medicine study confirming the virus jumped from an animal to a human was widely shared. A thread by a Doctors Without Borders volunteer describing conditions on the ground — unpaid health workers, communities wary of outsiders, and medical centers going on strike — drew intense reactions. The testing of two new vaccines specifically for the Bundibugyo strain offered a glimmer of hope, but users noted that even in the best-case scenario, the peak was six months away. Comparisons to COVID-19's early days were frequent, with many noting that the world again seemed to be responding too slowly to a crisis in Africa.^[16]