What happened
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake has killed at least 132 people and injured 570 in western Colombia, with collapsed buildings trapping survivors across several cities. The tremor struck near San José del Palmar at 7.34am local time yesterday (1.34pm BST) and was felt as far away as Venezuela.

Who said what
Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella has declared a state of emergency and cancelled his schedule to oversee the response to the crisis. “We aren’t going to leave people alone. They are in our hearts and we are going to tend to people with our full determination,” he said.

This was “Colombia’s largest earthquake in years”, said José Carlos Cueto on the BBC. The powerful quake “rattled much of the country” and “set off a desperate search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings in several major cities”, said Julie Turkewitz and Genevieve Glatsky in The New York Times.

What next?
Emergency crews are continuing to search for survivors, with teams being sent from Bogotá and Medellín. Six airports have temporarily closed for safety inspections, while Britain has advised against all but essential travel to affected areas. Officials are also warning of possible aftershocks.

What happened
A syndicate including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is finalising a deal to buy a minority stake in Liverpool FC, according to reports first shared by Sky News. The consortium is led by British-Indian businessman Amit Bhatia and also features Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

Who said what
“Talks are ongoing, but it is looking positive,” said a source.

The deal “would install a trio of the world’s wealthiest individuals as co-owners of the Reds” and take the club’s value to £4.5 billion, according to Sky News. The involvement of Bezos, the world’s third-richest man, “underlines the extent to which sport is now viewed by wealthy investors as an asset class in its own right”.

While Premier League financial rules cap club spending at 85% of football-related revenue, the investment of three ultra-rich backers could drive more “off-pitch” income in the form of “new commercial tie-ups”, as well as “infrastructure and tech opportunities”, said The Times.

What next?
An announcement confirming a deal could come “as soon as this week”, added Sky News.

Microplastics could be responsible for a lot of heartache. The tiny pieces of plastic have been found in high amounts in patients who suffered heart attacks, leading experts to question their effect on cardiovascular health. Plastic likely has a more significant impact on health than we currently know and should be taken into account in analysing environmental risk management.

Microplastics were “detected significantly more frequently” in patients who suffered heart attacks, said a study published in the European Heart Journal. Among those who had heart attacks, “micro and nanoplastics were detected in 84% of patients, compared with 40% of patients with chronic ischemic heart disease and 32% of patients with normal coronary arteries”, said a press release about the study.

The study also found that “people who smoked were six times more likely to have detectable micro and nanoplastics in the blood supplying their hearts than non-smokers”, Dr David C. Gaze, a senior lecturer in chemical pathology at the University of Westminster, said on The Conversation. The same pattern for smoking held for those who were exposed to bad air quality.

The apparent connection between microplastics, smoking and air pollution “underscores the urgent need to shift from isolated risk factor management towards comprehensive environmental health strategies”, said the study. Such strategies may include the “integration of air quality monitoring, anti-smoking interventions, plastic pollution reduction and exposomic assessment into cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines”.