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In pictures: Venezuela earthquakes death toll surpasses 1,700

Rescuers race to find survivors in Venezuela's quake-hit areas as families cling to hope amid widespread devastation.

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DR Congo says 1,307 Ebola cases confirmed, including 377 deaths

Outbreak spreads to a fourth province, Haut-Uele, bordering South Sudan and the CAR, according to a media report.

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BBC at Venezuela baseball stadium sheltering earthquake survivors

The BBC's Will Grant reports from a Catia la Mar, a coastal city in northern Venezuela, where survivors are sheltering.

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Mum of newborn rescued from Venezuela rubble says baby motivated her to stay alive

The "miracle" rescue of 18-day-old baby Juan David is a symbol of hope in Venezuela after the devastating earthquakes.

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Three firefighters die battling huge wildfires on Colorado-Utah border

A number of blazes have been raging across Utah and Colorado, leading both governors to declare states of emergency.

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DR Congo bans mass gatherings in the capital to prevent spread of Ebola

Opposition politicians accuse the government of using the outbreak to halt a planned protest.

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Angry Venezuelans accuse government of negligence and apathy

People in areas devastated by twin earthquakes say they need more support from the government.

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Fears for people deported from US to Venezuela hours before earthquakes hit

Search for deportees from US continues in the rubble of the hotel they were taken to in Venezuela's La Guaira city.

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Families hold out hope for survivors five days after Venezuela earthquakes

Search and rescue operations continue in Caracas, Venezuela nearly five days after the devastating double earthquakes.

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Over 100 Venezuelans deported from the US hours before the earthquakes are missing

More than 100 people just deported from the United States were being held in a hotel when earthquakes struck Venezuela, setting off a scramble to find survivors and bodies buried in the rubble, according to survivors. A deportation flight from Miami arrived in Caracas hours before Wednesday’s earthquakes. On board were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, according to ICE Flight Monitor, an initiative of Human Rights First, which tracks deportation flights. Lisbeth Portillo,...

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Chinese Venezuelans turn community networks into lifeline after earthquakes

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Lutao Cen was swimming off Margarita Island, where he has lived for four decades, when twin earthquakes measuring above magnitude 7 struck northern Venezuela within two minutes. Only after returning to shore did he learn what had happened. Messages flooded his WeChat feed. Friends in Caracas, Valencia and Maracay described buildings collapsing and streets filled with dust. Then came the news he had feared most. A close friend in La Guaira, chairman of the local Chinese association, had been...

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Venezuela earthquake victims shelter at golf course

Hundreds of Venezuelans are sheltering at a golf course in La Guaira after last week's deadly earthquakes.

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South Africa's anti-migrant deadline looms

In tonight's edition, worry builds amongst African migrants in South Africa ahead of the June 30th deadline set by protesters demanding undocumented foreigners leave. Also, at least three are killed in Ghana as floods paralyze the capital. And Cape Verde offers greener pastures for LGBTQ+ people on the continent.

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Deadly heatwave grips Italy and Balkans as wildfire fears grow

Older people remain most at risk as the heatwave drives up excess deaths across Europe.

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Venezuela earthquakes: old footage and AI fakes exploit disaster online

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As rescue efforts continue in Venezuela after the twin earthquakes struck, social media has been flooded with misleading videos falsely claiming to show the devastation. Viral clips have been recycled from disasters in other countries, old footage from Venezuela presented as current, and AI-generated videos posing as real. Together, these tactics are driving widespread misinformation about the disaster, as the death toll climbs.

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Desperate search for earthquake survivors continues outside Caracas

The BBC's Will Grant reports on the efforts to dig out survivors in the port city of Catia la Mer.

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What aftermath for Venezuela? Earthquake relief hampered by political crisis

Kudos to Venezuela's first responders and all the brave citizens still pulling survivors from under the rubble of the 774 buildings that collapsed in last Wednesday’s double earthquakes. Is the sudden pancaking of so many structures - structures built during the boom years of high oil prices, a tipping point for an under-sanctions nation dogged by decades of eroding services and infrastructure? The interim president of a regime in survival mode was copiously booed Saturday in Caracas as many accuse the successor of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro of putting the security apparatus before disaster relief.

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Aftershock hits Caracas as rescue efforts enter critical hours in Venezuela

Residents of Caracas woke ‌up on Monday to an aftershock that rocked their ⁠houses, while rescue teams continued their fourth day of round-the-clock work in the areas affected by last week's powerful ‌earthquakes in Venezuela. France 24's Noris Soto has the latest from the Venezuelan capital.

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Aftershock hits Caracas during critical hours for Venezuela rescue efforts

Tens of thousands remain missing after the devastating twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela last week

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Hong Kong cocaine haul hits 361kg in days after police raid another yacht

Hong Kong police have seized a second cache of suspected cocaine worth about HK$90 million (US$11.4 million) from a pleasure boat in Aberdeen, days after uncovering HK$180 million of the drug in another yacht at the site. Officers from the narcotics bureau on Sunday raided the six‑metre (20-foot) yacht moored near boats targeted in last week’s operation and found about 120kg of cocaine bricks on board. Together with the previous seizure of 241kg of cocaine in a yacht in Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter...

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Earthquake jolts southwest China

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 struck Yibin in China’s southwest province of Sichuan shortly on Monday.

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Fire and floods hit Ghana’s capital as residents are left stranded

A massive fire engulfed a rubber factory in Ghana’s capital, Accra, as severe flooding swamped parts of the city.

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Nearly 1.8 million people in Venezuela need humanitarian aid after earthquake — UN

According to the organization's representative in the Bolivarian Republic, Manuel Rodriguez Pumarol, hospitals in the country are "working at capacity, thousands of children do not have reliable access to clean water"

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China says desert moss suited to Mars as it tests hi-tech tools for space and astronauts

China has hopes for a desert moss that it says could colonise Mars following a revival experiment inside a mini space laboratory that showed it was remarkably resilient, state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday. The plant, a highly drought-resistant species called Syntrichia caninervis, was revived after it was subjected to a series of extreme space conditions – including microgravity, intense radiation and severe dehydration – according to the report. Chinese scientists had previously established...

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'Pre-existing vulnerabilities: Venezuela already experiencing economic turmoil, displacement crisis'

Genie Godula is pleased to welcome Elinor Raikes. Vice President and Head of Program Delivery at the International Rescue Committee. According to Raikes, earthquakes expose and amplify the vulnerabilities that already exist beneath the surface of a society. She suggests that the devastation unfolding in Venezuela is not solely the consequence of seismic forces, but the collision of a major natural disaster exacerbated by economic collapse, displacement, weakened public services, and shrinking humanitarian funding. Rakes warns the earthquake is not a short-term emergency but rather the beginning of a prolonged humanitarian crisis. She emphasises the logistical obstacles confronting aid agencies, the importance of coordination between international and local organisations, and the reality that recovery will be measured in months rather than weeks.

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Twenty-eight US-affiliated biolabs set up in Ukraine under Yanukovich — politician

Viktor Medvedchuk stressed that the Ukrainian government at that time attempted to examine the issue of a cholera outbreak and studied it for three years

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Over 770 buildings damaged or destroyed by earthquake in Venezuela

National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez added that 189 buildings had completely collapsed

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Venezuela earthquake rescues: Five heart-warming moments

Amid the death and destruction, a few fleeting moments have brought rare relief to Venezuelans.

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Rescue window closing in Venezuela as quake death toll mounts

Emergency teams with rescue dogs were searching Sunday for any remaining survivors of powerful twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela, where the death toll has surpassed 1,450 and the critical 72-hour window for rescuing trapped victims following a natural disaster has now passed.

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Venezuela: Mother and baby among earthquake survivors as rescue time runs out

Over 1,400 people have died following twin #earthquakes in #Venezuela on June 24. #Rescue teams are still looking for survivors, although hope is fading. The 72-hour window after natural #disasters is the key moment to find the living, according to experts.