Morning Briefing #127 — August 11, 2026

Morning Briefing #127 — August 11, 2026Your daily briefing connecting world events, technology, and education.No political slant. Just facts.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━📋 IN TODAY'S EPISODE━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🌍 WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE WORLD────────────────────────────────Powerful 7.4 Magnitude Earthquake Kills More Than 130 in Western ColombiaA magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia on Monday, with an epicenter near San Jose del Palmar in the Choco region. Colombian officials say more than 130 people have died, hundreds more were injured, and roughly 1,600 buildings were damaged or destroyed, including the pediatric wing of a hospital in Cali. It is the largest seismic event the country has recorded this century, and shaking was felt as far away as Panama and Ecuador. Colombia's president has declared a national emergency, and international aid groups are now mobilizing medical and relief supplies to the region.Trump Signs Executive Order Calling for Spacing Out Childhood VaccinesPresident Trump signed an executive order calling for the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to eventually be split into three separate shots, with childhood immunizations given at separate visits when possible. The order does not change existing FDA-approved vaccines, since standalone versions of the MMR components don't currently exist and would require new clinical trials. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was present for the signing, and medical groups have pushed back, warning the change could reduce vaccination rates at a time when measles cases are already running ahead of last year's total. The order is non-binding on states and is expected to face legal challenges.Turkey's Parliament Approves Pardon-Like Bill for Thousands of PKK MilitantsTurkey's parliament voted 468-88 to approve legislation granting a conditional pardon to thousands of Kurdish militants, contingent on verified disarmament by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK announced last year it was ending its decades-long armed campaign against the Turkish state and dissolving itself as part of a broader peace effort tied to a call from its imprisoned founder, Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK-linked ANF news outlet called the bill a "beginning" but said it has "serious shortcomings," pressing for Ocalan's release. If it holds, the measure would mark a major step toward ending a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people over four decades.---💻 THE TECH CONNECTION────────────────────────────────MIT Engineers Build an AI-Powered Physical Therapy Robot for Stroke PatientsMIT researchers have unveiled a dual-arm robotic system that uses generative AI, similar in principle to the diffusion models behind AI image generation, to learn from physical therapists and adaptively support stroke patients during rehabilitation. The system combines transformer-based models with real-time force feedback so it can safely adjust the level of assistance to each patient's ability in the moment. Stroke affects roughly 15 million people worldwide each year and leaves 5 million with long-term impairments, and researchers say the goal isn't to replace therapists but to extend their reach amid a growing shortage of physical therapists. It's an early but promising example of AI applied directly to patient care.Google DeepMind Reorganizes as Hassabis Steps Back and Jeff Dean Departs(continued in YouTube show notes)