Venezuela Earthquake Death Toll Climbs Past 1,400 as Rescue Window Narrows: UPDATE

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The death toll from the devastating twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 has climbed to more than 1,430, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters to hit the country in recent history.

According to Venezuelan officials, including National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, at least 1,430 people have been confirmed dead, while some reports place the number above 1,450 as recovery crews continue pulling victims from the rubble. More than 3,150 people have been injured.

The powerful earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, leveled neighborhoods across parts of Caracas and La Guaira, reducing apartment buildings, businesses, and public infrastructure to piles of concrete and twisted steel. Rescue teams continue searching collapsed structures despite persistent aftershocks that have complicated recovery efforts and endangered first responders.

Officials say the chances of finding additional survivors are fading with each passing day. While thousands of rescue workers remain on the ground, the operation has increasingly shifted from rescue to recovery.

Reports regarding the number of missing people remain uncertain. Some tracking systems have suggested that tens of thousands may still be unaccounted for, though authorities caution that those figures likely include duplicate reports and communications disruptions caused by the disaster. Government officials have indicated that the verified number of missing persons is significantly lower, though they have not released a definitive total.

The confirmed death toll has risen steadily since the immediate aftermath of the quakes, when early estimates counted only dozens of fatalities. As emergency crews gain access to previously unreachable areas, officials expect the number of confirmed deaths could continue to increase.

The disaster has left Venezuela facing an enormous humanitarian challenge, with thousands displaced from their homes and critical infrastructure severely damaged. Relief operations remain underway as emergency personnel race to assist survivors and provide aid to devastated communities.

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Venezuela Earthquake Death Toll Rises

While some predictions believe there will be up to 20,000 or more deaths from the two earthquakes that struck Venezuela last Wednesday, June 24th, around 6:04 p.m. local time, followed by another quake 39 seconds later, the most recent official toll rose to 920 deaths. 

The first quake registered 7.2 magnitude followed by a 7.5 earthquake, a significantly stronger one about 100 miles west of Caracas.

Caracas was devastated, flattened in parts and the government has estimated hundreds of people are still trapped and missing since the disaster.

The president of the national assembly, Jorge Rodriguez released the official death toll, but obviously, it's expected to rise as more information is revealed.

A website established to collect reports of missing individuals had registered more than 50,000 unaccounted-for people as of midday Friday. The United Nations’ chief aid official provided a similar estimate.

Foreign rescue teams and humanitarian aid began arriving in the country on Friday, while desperate Venezuelans and an increasing number of international volunteers worked urgently to locate survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings and debris.

Rodriguez reported that 871 international rescue workers were operating in Venezuela by Friday afternoon. Among the nations dispatching teams were Mexico, El Salvador, and Spain. The U.S. Geological Survey has forecasted a high likelihood of more than 10,000 fatalities, which would rank these earthquakes among the deadliest in Latin America over the past century.

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BREAKING: Massive earthquake kills dozens, injures over 200 in Philippines

Dozens of people were killed and more than two hundred injured on Monday after a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck the Philippines.

The tremor struck south of the island of Mindanao, shaking at least twenty-two million people with severe or moderate force. Officials confirmed at least thirty-two deaths, more than two hundred injuries, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of residents in what was described as the strongest earthquake to hit the country in nearly four decades.

The quake prompted tsunami warnings across the region, although American officials quickly stated that Hawaii faced no threat. Warnings were also issued for nearby areas including Taiwan, Japan, Guam, and Papua New Guinea.

"The national government is moving and we will not leave Mindanao behind," said Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. "I am in constant communication with our regional offices and local chief executives on the ground."

Mindanao is the second-largest island in the Philippines and is home to more than twenty-seven million people. Earthquakes are common in the region. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, at least thirty-five earthquakes measuring above magnitude 7 have struck the area since 1900. 

Marcos Jr. also announced that he had ordered "the suspensions of all classes in all levels across affected areas in Mindanao until further notice. The safety of our children comes first."He urged residents to take tsunami warnings seriously, telling them to "move to higher ground now. Do not wait. Your life is more important than anything left behind."

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated a 42 percent chance that the death toll would fall between ten and one hundred people, and a 32 percent chance that fatalities could range from one hundred to one thousand. The agency also estimated a 39 percent probability that economic losses would total between one hundred million dollars and one billion dollars. Officials said the earthquake was caused by thrust faulting, a process in which one section of the Earth's crust moves upward over another along a fault line.

One local resident told The New York Times that he rushed to higher ground with his young daughter after the earthquake struck.

"I was very scared, my knees were trembling," Julius Golez said. "We were crying; so many other people were also crying."

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No so bright Sunny Hostin wins this week's "The View" Dummy Award

"I was like, yo."

It's hard to imagine anyone of at least average intelligence conflating earthquakes, emerging cicadas and solar eclipses with climate change. They are not related other than the fact that they happen and we can observe these events. And regarding eclipses and cicadas, they are quite predictable, with earthquakes less so.

Then we have the women of "The View," America's most notable overachievers. Of these "geniuses" the winner of this week's Dummy Award is the execrable Sunny Hostin, a woman whose given name is an oxymoron as she is one of the least bright people in the public eye.

Hostin suggested that for some, and for herself, the fact that an earthquake, emerging cicadas and a solar eclipse all happening in the same year, proves that climate change is real. It's an idiotic opinion regarding unrelated phenomena, and while her co-hosts would normally go along with most idiotic positions, Hostin actually got some blowback from her comrades.

"All those things together would maybe lead one to believe that either climate change exists, or something is really going on," Hostin said Monday.

Something is really going on? What is she alluding to? Aliens? Trump?

A 4.8 magnitude earthquake was felt across New York and New Jersey on Friday and on Monday the highly anticipated and totally predicted solar eclipse occurred across the continental U.S. and Canada.

Hostin also recalled how her studio makeup artist "put on her coat" and "ran down the hallway" during the earthquake, saying "Jesus is coming" and "the rapture is here." This is mainly due to the idea that in order for one to work for the women of "The View," one has to be crazy.

What was unpredictable was that co-hosts Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg disagreed with her take on the effects of global warming on the moon and sun, and bugs that come around every 17 years.

"Except earthquakes are not at the mercy of climate change. It's underground. It can’t," Behar said, baffling Hostin with her brilliance.

"How about the warming of the planet?" she responded.

"No, it happens," Goldberg said. "And the eclipse, they've known about the eclipse coming because eclipses happen, and they actually can say when these things are going to happen."

The audience was now totally confused, not knowing who to believe.

Hostin pointed out how it was the first time in 100 years that two different cicada broods would emerge for their mating seasons at the same time, but Goldberg promptly shut her down, arguing it happens every 17 years.

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin also joked that Trump caused the quake, "I read online that the earthquake epicenter was actually at Bedminster in New Jersey … Fun fact. So, it originated with Trump."

The audience was now really, really confused because a fake conservative told them what they already believed.

Others have caught big blowback for similar stupid takes, including Green Party member and U.S. Senate candidate for New Jersey Christina Amira Khalil. Her tweet went viral after she posted a similar theory to social media claiming the earthquake that rocked New York and New Jersey on Friday was caused by climate change.

Whatever happened to, "I don't know what a woman is; I'm not a biologist?" when it comes to earth science and astrophysics?

"I experienced my first earthquake in NJ. We never get earthquakes," she said. "The climate crisis is real. The weirdest experience ever."

Khalil is not an earth scientist, but she's definitely a moron. 

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Syrian victims of Turkey earthquake shocked Israelis treating them were not what they were taught

Imagine waking up in the hospital after nearly being killed by an earthquake and finding that the people who are working to save your life are not the pigs and apes you were led to believe they are. That was the case for Syrian and Turkish victims being treated by the Israeli medical team in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey.

There are millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey; thousands of them live in UN refugee camps in and around the aforementioned city in the south.

Lt.-Col. Dr. Ofer Almog spoke with Tazpit Press Service via phone and described the reactions of some of the Syrians after learning they were being treated by Israelis.

“We have been treating Syrians, people who were injured in the earthquake and people who just needed care,” Dr. Almog told TPS. “We’re happy to, because we have the opportunity to help these unfortunates.”

The Turks lost their homes, but “the Syrians were refugees even before the earthquake,” Almog said. “We extend our hand to them.”

He went on to explain that “[I]n some cases, they were very emotional, very surprised that the Israelis weren’t who they were told we are. One person said that everything he was taught all of his life about Israel was a lie. This was the first time they were meeting Israelis, and we weren’t as bad as he thought.”

No pigs. No apes. No blood drinking people, just Jews who care about human life, regardless of who that life belongs to. 

Almog is an anesthesiologist and the senior officer of the medical team. He told TPS that he arrived in Kahramanmaraş last Monday as part of a team tasked with selecting a site for the Israeli Defense Forces' field hospital. But in the end, it was decided that the Israelis would work inside the Kahramanmaraş Necip Fazil City Hospital.

The field hospital — which has the distinction of being the only one to receive the World Health Organization’s highest score possible — has not been set up.

“It’s easier when you have the infrastructure,” Almog explained. “The city is very crowded and it was difficult to find an open space” large enough for the field hospital. Another reason for working in the hospital is that “most of the staff fled after the second earthquake. They only had an emergency department.”

Almog said that a plan is being considered for the Israelis to open small, specialized clinics near the refugee camps. “At the moment, there’s no need for a field hospital because all the regular hospitals are getting back to work,” as staff returns to work.

On Sunday, Israel’s United Hatzalah volunteer -emergency response organization ended its mission early, citing a “concrete and immediate threat” to the delegation working in the city of Gaziantep.

Asked about threats to the Israelis in Kahramanmaraş, Almog said, “I can speak for my team of 150 personnel. We’re not afraid. We’re working with local teams and local people, and we’ll work here as long as we are able to.”

He said that the team has security and intelligence, and “there is no need to change what we do.”

Almog doesn’t know how long the mission will continue. “The IDF Medical Corps will do whatever is needed to aid people in disaster zones,” he said.

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Israel sends rescue teams to Mexico after earthquake

An Israeli Defense Force (IDF) delegation of 50 soldiers from the Home Front Command headed for Mexico Wednesday to aid in the earthquake relief efforts.

The Palestinian Authority sent nobody.

The IDF personnel will assist in the evaluation of the damage and also help with the actual rescue of individuals trapped under the rubble. The IDF spokesperson said that a field hospital may be set up in the future but there is none as yet.

At least 250 people were known dead after the 7.1 Richter scale earthquake hit on Tuesday. The casualties include at least 21 children who were crushed to death beneath an elementary school that was flattened by the quake, but one child, a girl, has been found alive and was rescued Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office offered condolences Tuesday and responded to a request for aid from the Mexican government. "Netanyahu ordered that aid and a search and rescue operation be organized to leave to Mexico as soon as possible," his office said.

Dudi Mizrahi, head of the IDF's search and rescue unit is leading the delegation and will supervise the engineers on the team. "They will help surveying buildings," and decide which structures are safe to enter and which will need to be torn down, an army spokesperson said.

Israel is frequently among the first countries to provide aid and trained personnel to disaster zones hit by natural catastrophes. 

In 1999, Israel provided rescue and medical services to Turkey after an earthquake struck, and did the same for Haiti in 2010. Most recently, Israel provided help to Nepal in 2015 after they were struck by an earthquake.

The Palestinian Authority . . . not so much as a 'Get Well' card.

During Netanyahu's historic trip to Latin America last week, he met with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. The two leaders signed cooperation agreements in several fields including aviation, international development and space research.

Last year, the United Nations' World Health Organization reluctantly recognized Israel for having the world's best field hospital.


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