Global News Podcast - Anger in Venezuela one month on from earthquakes

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

A month after two devastating earthquakes struck Venezuela, the search continues for people still missing in the worst-hit region of La Guaira. At least 5,000 people were killed, and families are demanding answers about why public housing blocks collapsed. Also: Donald Trump imposes new tariffs on foreign goods, accusing US trading partners of failing to enforce bans on forced labour. US lawmakers propose a new bill to shut down dangerous artificial intelligence systems after an AI model went rogue. Remarkable footage shows orcas smashing huge sunfish apart, with researchers saying the predators might be doing it for fun. Wildfires force tens of thousands from their homes across southern Europe. Sri Lanka battles its worst dengue fever outbreak in nearly a decade. And as Route 66 marks its centenary, we explore the enduring appeal of the classic American diners that regularly feature on the silver screen.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]: People work together as they search for their loved ones amid debris following the earthquakes in June in Caraballeda, La Guaira, Venezuela. Credit: REUTERS/Gaby Oraa

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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Pete Ross and in the early hours of Friday the 24th of July, these are our main stories. One month on from the catastrophic earthquakes in Venezuela, thousands of people remain missing. The US hits trading partners with new tariffs, claiming they failed to properly stop forced labour. American lawmakers push for an AI kill switch after Open AI goes rogue. Also in this podcast, Sri Lanka fights the worst outbreak of dengue fever in a decade and... That made me think, maybe it is just for fun. Scientists are left puzzled by footage of orcas ramming into sunfish.

We start with a grim milestone in Venezuela. It's been one month now since the double earthquakes. At least 5,000 people are known to have died, and the search continues for the missing. The government insists that it's done everything in its power to help, but families remain angry and have raised questions about the quality of public housing blocks which have collapsed. The prospect of reconstructing the country's devastated northern coastline is daunting. The World Bank estimates the cost of the quake damage to be around $20 billion. Our correspondent Will Grant has travelled back to the worst, affected region of La Guayra.

Families in Venezuela are still looking for their missing loved ones and still finding them. Delicately and with dignity, the body of an 11-year-old girl is removed from a collapsed public housing block. Her father finally able to grieve now that his desperate month-long search for her has come to an end. If anywhere could be considered ground zero of the twin earthquakes in Venezuela, it's here. housing complex in Carabayera. It is a strange and disturbing sight still. A month on a child's body has just been brought out and wrapped in plastic sheeting and taken to the morgue. Sitting on the rubble, a member of another search group, Magina Nandes, weeps quietly. Retrieving the bodies is

soul-destroying, he tells me through his face mask, for the rescue teams, the families, the friends, just soul-destroying. One man's soul is crushed more than most. The neighbours tell me of Victor Calderon, a fisherman who was at sea when the earthquake struck. He returned to dry land to find 26 members of his immediate family were gone, all in the same social housing block. The relatives include Victor's two sisters, their children and grandchildren,

as well as his stepfather and nine cousins. It's almost too much to fathom, I say. I haven't cried for them yet, he answers stoically. I'll do that after I find the ones that are missing. Victor's daughter and granddaughter survived, but their much-reduced family now lives in a tent on a golf course. In a slickly produced video, the acting president, Delci Rodriguez, gave 200 homes to affected...

families. The first step, but tens of thousands, remain homeless. Critics say the government's social housing was shoddly built and collapsed easily, killing thousands. The point I put to the public works minister, Juan Jose Ramirez. This wasn't one but two almost simultaneous earthquakes, both moving in different directions, he argues. All around us, you can see public and private buildings were brought down. The earthquake didn't discriminate between the two, he adds. In one of those private buildings, Ernan Hill, a security guard, was trapped in an underground car park for eight days before being pulled alive from the rubble,

a moment which briefly raised Venezuela's spirits. After the euphoria faded, though, other families were left searching the same building for their loved ones alone. Laura Barrios is still there, looking for her brother-in-law. A day earlier they found her sister-in-law and the children, aged 10 and 3. It was just the day of the child, but we had no children to celebrate, louder sobs. What more can we say that this rubble doesn't already tell us, she asks. Lost T-shirts and sets of cutlery, entire lives gone in just 39 seconds.

When the earthquake's struts. the stretch of beach at Playa Piedata was full of visitors for a public holiday. They watched in horror as their homes collapsed in front of them and ran towards their apartments to try to save relatives and pets trapped inside. It's just one of a thousand stories along this northern coastline in a month that Venezuelans still struggle to comprehend and which has forever scarred a nation ill-equipped to cope. Will Grant reporting from Venezuela.

President Trump's global trade war continues. Just as a temporary 10% tariff on foreign goods entering the United States expires, he's imposing new ones of between 10 to 12.5%. The Trump administration says it's bringing them in because it claims that, unlike the US, Washington's trading partners aren't upholding a ban on forced labour. International reaction has been swift. Norway said there was no basis for the decision

because it has clear rules of its own that were intended to prevent trading in goods which were made using forced labour. Australia and Brazil also called the new tariffs unjustified. Japan described them as regrettable. My colleague, Raal Tandon, heard more from Anna Swanson, who covers trade in international economics for the New York Times. This is a measure that will affect 60 economies, it's 59 countries plus the European Union.

And it does affect all. of the U.S.'s major trading partners. So these countries together represent more than 99% of U.S. imports. And essentially the takeaway is that this is the Trump administration's efforts to resurrect the tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court in February. So after that had happened, the administration had put in this kind of stopgap measure, a tariff of 10% globally. But that was set to expired. And so the administration has introduced this new, slate of tariffs basically to replace its global tariff system. And are we likely to see these tariffs challenged in the court? Under what authority, what sort of law is President Trump bringing in these

new tariffs? I do think they will be challenged. This is a legal provision known as Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. So we've all had to dust off our law books recently with the Trump administration's tariff policies. So this is something that allows the president to impose tariffs based on unfair trading practices from other countries. So what practices are, though? So for this investigation specifically, the administration is talking about laws that relate to forced labor. They claim that other countries have not imposed or enforced these laws, but that the United States has. And so therefore, this is unfair to U.S. businesses. I do definitely expect. this to be challenged in court. It is a provision that, you know, presidents have used before,

has survived legal challenges, but the way the president is using this is very sweeping and unprecedented. We've been on the verge of a sort of global trade war, then sort of cooled off again, and we're heading back in that direction? Yeah, I think it's been kind of slowly burning, right, as the administration tries to replace, you know, these tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down, but there's still a lot of tension between major trading partners, even where the United States has these deals that it has resolved. Troubles seem to keep popping up, for example, with the EU. And we also have a very contentious discussion right now in North America

over the North American trade deal. Anna Swanson from the New York Times. Next, an update on a story that's both fascinated and alarmed the tech world and beyond, the AI model that went rogue and hacked into an AI startup company, US lawmakers have now put forward a bipartisan bill that would give the government the ability to quickly shut down artificial intelligence tools that may threaten the public.

Our senior technology reporter Chris Valence told Charlotte Gallagher what this so-called kill switch bill is set up to do. Really, it aims to do what it says on the tin. It requires AI companies to make sure that their autonomous AI systems have a way that they can be shut down should there be a so-called loss of control scenario

that put human life or the economy at risk. And of course, this follows an incident in which an open AI system capable of acting autonomously, known as an AI agent in the jargon of AI, hacked into another tech company's platform, Hugging Faces tech platform, in an effort to complete, a test of its cyber capability, something that caused a lot of alarm.

US Representative Ted Liu, he's one of the backers of the legislation, said that this is urgent, common-sense legislation to address the problem of an advanced AI model that has gone rogue and escaped its guardrails. So you can see the intention here. That hack worried a lot of people, didn't it? Because this is relatively in the early days of AI. And the fact that an AI agent is already able to do that kind of hack, totally without any human intervention at all? There are some caveats to be said about that. I mean, firstly, this was a test. And as part of the test, Open AI had decided to turn off some of the usual safeguards. But even if you accept that, what it managed to do was, in the words of the hugging face boss, the victim of the AI agent,

if you like, mind blowing. I mean, you know, without. being told the specifics of what it had to do, it basically decided to cheat in a test and go and hack the answers, escape its test environment, connect to the internet, hack another business, in an effort to complete a task that it had been set. That's a huge degree of autonomy

and something that, yes, a lot of people are quite worried about. Chris Valence, scientists have released some extraordinary footage of orcas ramming into sunfish, one of the largest fish in the sea, smashing them into tiny pieces. In two videos filmed in 2025 off the coast of Mexico and captured by divers just metres away,

one orca holds a dead fish, while another swims full speed, plowing into it with such force it explodes. Now researchers believe there could be two reasons why they're doing this. One is that they're breaking their food apart to make it easier to share with their young. The other reason is a bit more gory, that the highly intelligent apex predators

are smashing up the dead sunfish just for the fun of it. Researcher Catherine Ayers from the non-profit organisation beneath the waves filmed one of the videos and told Tom Whipple about the encounter. So I noticed that there was already

like a laceration on the sunfish so I thought, oh they've already got what they wanted now what are they doing? And then I found out. Oh my god Oh my god Another orca swims kind of past me

And the orca that's holding the sunfish Let's go Like the timing is impeccable It lets go perfectly As the second orca hits The sunfish And the remains that the sunfish kind of explode

Into thousands of pieces and that's when you can hear me. Yeah, very excited to see that. It was a surprise because there's already been a few studies on orcas feeding on sunfish. And this was not part of that description. I'd just never seen that before. In your paper, you go through a few different explanations

for why this might be. One of the explanations is this is a means of breaking it up so they can all have a feed, particularly the young? Yeah, so I originally thought that because it was almost instantly, after that explosion, you can see a juvenile fly in and start eating those pieces almost immediately. So that gave me the impression

that the calf had almost been waiting for that to happen, but before I knew it, someone else had actually posted a video on social media of this happening again. And there was a calf present, but in his video, it's not the calf eating the smaller pieces. So that made me think, maybe it is just for fun. This is what I find fascinating. You don't normally hear scientists say this about animals.

When scientists talk about why animals do things, it's to escape predators, to eat, to have sex. It's not to have fun. Is there something about orcas that's a little bit different, that would make you say that that's a plausible explanation? We've seen it with thawkers before with other animals, like fling seals into the air. Like, what's the reason for that other than they can? Maybe the exploding the sunfish was almost like a pinata, like a game.

And the fact that it's coordinated and it's a lot of cooperation that goes on. So it's probably helping train the car, this is how we work as a team. Orcas are so intelligent that I think they need this like extra stimulation. Whereas, you know, animals that are not as intelligent are just thinking how to survive, how to eat, how to reproduce. Whereas orcas, they're looking for external factors to kind of entertain themselves. And I think that's what's happening.

They're just playing. Catherine Arrows speaking to Tom Whipple from the BBC's Inside Science Program. And for the video where you can see the orcas playing with the sunfish, if that's indeed what they're doing, head to the BBC News website. Still to come in this podcast. I've seen fights break out at diners. I've seen people sobbing uncontrollably. I've seen people celebrating at a diner.

That sense of the unexpected is very much a draw for filmmakers. Marking the centenary of Route 66, the highway that popularized, the American Diner. This is the Global News podcast. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes as wildfires sweep through Italy, Spain and France, as well as other parts of southern Europe, fueled by extreme heat and dry conditions.

A state of emergency has been declared in Spain's Madrid region, while the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has asked the European Union for additional help. In the French village of Contignac, some residents say the authorities are not doing doing enough to support them. I feel outraged. I don't know what to say. I'm appalled. I don't understand. There are two planes trying to put out this fire. You've got four or five different fire outbreaks. They're

completely overwhelmed. There are all the firefighters you could need, but they're on the ground. They can't do anything. It's unacceptable that the government is still hesitating over buying water bombers and not sending in the army. I mean, it's unacceptable. These are the most beautiful landscapes full of homes that are going up in flames. Three firefighters have died battling the fires. The total area of land burnt so far this year in EU countries is the second largest on record, according to satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System. Our Europe correspondent, Nick Beak, reports. The Spanish Civil Guard moved from house to house, delivering an evacuation order.

The flames have already reached this village outside of Madrid. Officers try to calm an elderly woman, a smoke descends on her home. In France, more than 20,000 people have been evacuated as fire spread there. Around Bordeaux, locals slept out in the open. Joe Kent is a BBC journalist on holiday with her family, staying at a campsite in the Cap Faray area. In the last 10 minutes the police have come round and they've told us that we've got 30 minutes to get out.

So now there's a bit of a scramble with everyone here just packing up their cars and making a dash for it. Temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius in parts of southern Europe are fueling the fires. In Italy, 6,000 members of the emergency services are now involved in the operation on the island of Sicily. This wildfire season is already one of the worst of the past 20 years in the EU for the area of land burned.

The concern is that we're barely halfway through the summer. Nick Beak Sri Lanka is currently fighting its worst dengue fever outbreak in nearly a decade and has deployed military drones to scan for stagnant pools of water on rooftops to find and stamp out mosquito breeding sites. The viral fever is so. spread to humans through mosquitoes and is common in tropical climate. In severe cases, it can lead to internal bleeding or even death.

Here's a message we got from someone there who's had it twice. My name is Krishna and I'm from Sri Lanka and I first got dengue in 2015 and let me tell you it is not fun. It is not fun at all. I got Corona for about 36 hours and Corona can honestly hold my beer because dengue is way worse. I mean, 2015 when we got it, the hospitals could not cope with it because there were so many patients. And then this time around, it's just as bad. And honestly, we need a vaccination for dengue because dengue is incredibly bad. And the thing is, the second time I got it, I didn't even know I had it.

And I was so sick. And I was shivering and my body aches, my lower back aches. Like, you can't eat, you can't drink, you can't function, you can't do anything. And it's really, really, really bad. Health experts say it would be hard to develop a fully working vaccine. given the virus exists in four distinct strains. The BBC Sampad de Sanyaki is in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, and told us about the latest situation.

Sri Lanka is currently facing severe nationwide dengue outbreak, with more than 79,000 cases reported to date. The number of deaths reported so far is 57. More than 23,000 patients have been reported this month alone. major hospitals in areas including Kalambu, Gampa and Mataa are overflowing with the dengue patients. Authorities have taken many measures to combat dengue situation. Sri Lanka Air Force recently deployed military drones to scan for stagnant pools of water on rooftops and other market-of-beding sites in Kalambu area.

According to the Sri Lanka's National Dengi Control Unit, the recent cyclone Githwa is directly responsible for the major spike in dengue infections. The storm scattered the debris across the island, creating millions of hidden water collecting cavities that serve as a perfect breeding ground for the mosquitoes. Recent monsoon rains, particularly in Colombo and Gampa, have left behind massive and managed pools of water. It is precisely such factors that have contributed

the increase of spread of dengue. They have taken some measures to destroying mosquito breeding sites. That is one of the major primary measures taken by the authorities. Volunteer cleanup programs have been organized in almost every area throughout the country. Sampa de Saniaki in Colombo. Route 66, the epic American highway that stretches nearly 4,000 kilometers from Chicago to California, is currently celebrating its centenary. And the anniversary has renewed.

new interest in the classic American diners, which at one time dotted the route. These diners aren't just beloved by nostalgia buffs. They're also favoured by filmmakers and shooting locations, as Tom Brooke reports. Movie history is litter with numerous great scenes shot in diners, from the opening moments of pulp fiction to John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John appearing in the musical film, Greece. I don't know where all my money goes. Top director Mary Harron shot some striking scenes in a dining. and her picture, The Notorious Betty Page.

I love shooting at a diner. They're just iconic, you know, classic American places to me. Of the many movies that have used a diner as a location, for Mary Harron, there's one scene in the film directed by the late David Lynch that really stands out. My favorite diner scene is Malhalla Hallin Drive. You're in both dreams. And you're scared.

It's two people at a booth. And one of them is telling the other one about dream he had, a very disturbing dream. And the camera is, it's a sort of moving camera, flown in camera behind them. And it's so, there's something so unnerving about that camera work. And you know, without it being stated, there's something very bad is going to happen, which indeed it does later on in the alleyway outside of a diner. I can see him through the wall. I can see his face. Filmmakers like diners because they can be full of surprises. I've seen fights break out. at diners. I've seen people sobbing uncontrollably

after a breakup at a diner. I've seen people celebrating at a diner. That sense of the unexpected is very much a draw for filmmakers because anything could happen in this space. Some of the best scenes in diners are when the unexpected happens, whether it be Meg Ryan in a memorable moment in when Harry met Sally. I'll have what she's having. Or Jack Nicholson's grammatic altercation.

with a waitress in the picture five easy pieces. You see that sign, sir? Yes, you all have to leave. I'm not taking any more of your smartness and sarcasm. You see this sign? But the heyday of the American diner is over. There used to be thousands of classic diners in cities like New York, but they're a dwindling phenomenon.

By one estimate, they're just 200 left in the city. So diners may be declining, but for many filmmakers, it seems, these American eating establishments are still very much a desired location through which they can tell their stories. Tombrook. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast at BBC.co.uk.

You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Nicola. Broff and the producers were Stephanie Zacherson and Chantal Hartel. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Pete Ross. Until next time, goodbye.