Global News Podcast - Venezuela races to find earthquake survivors

Episode Date: June 28, 2026

The Venezuelan government says 1,430 people are now known to have died following Wednesday's twin earthquakes, and many thousands are still missing. More international search and rescue teams have arrived in the country to help with efforts to find survivors. A 72-hour window of opportunity that rescuers believe is the best chance of finding people alive is ending.Also: the United States has launched a wave of strikes on Iran, following a drone attack on a Panama-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has responded by attacking US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Heavy explosions and gunfire have rocked the Pakistani city of Karachi after militants rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the headquarters of a paramilitary unit. Ice in the Swiss Alps is melting at an unprecedented rate, as a record-breaking heatwave continues to grip Europe. Thousands take part in Hungary's LGBT Pride parade in Budapest, the first since Viktor Orbán was ousted as prime minister. Proud Vespa owners celebrate the Italian scooter's 80th birthday by riding around Rome. And how do tiny biting flies called midges help the world's billion dollar chocolate industry?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]: Rescue workers conduct a search-and-rescue operation in a building damaged by the earthquakes in Caracas, Venezuela, 27 June 2026.Credit: RONALD PENA R/EPA/Shutterstock

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More than 1,400 people are now confirmed dead following twin earthquakes in Venezuela. as public frustration at the government's response grows. The US military says it struck military sites in Iran in response to a drone attack on an oil tanker near the Strait of Hermuz. Tehran has retaliated with strikes on Kuwait and Bahrain. And tens of thousands take part in a pride march in Budapest, the first since the end of Victor Orban's government. Also in this podcast, as a record-breaking heat wave continues to grip Europe, Ice in the Swiss Alps is melting at an unprecedented rate. We're losing as much water from the Swiss glaciers to fill up one Olympic swimming pool every six seconds.

And thousands of scooters travel through the streets of Rome in a parade to celebrate 80 years since the invention of one of Italy's best-known exports, the Vespa. As Venezuela enters the fourth day since the two earthquakes that have devastated the country, a crucial window of opportunity to find survivors is closing. Humanitarian aid agencies say the first 72 hours after a disaster of this kind are key to rescuing people alive. More than 1,400 people are now known to have died, but the true figure is thought to be higher. Tens of thousands are still missing,

and first responders warn that with every hour that passes, survivability reduces. We are here in Chakao, Miranda State. working non-stop since last night, and have recovered the body of a woman with her dog in her arms. The dog came out alive, but the woman unfortunately died. They say there are people who are still alive, but it seems there's not enough machinery and equipment to clear all this rubble.

I ask, please to send people who are capable of helping us and that they don't stop searching, because we still hope our loved ones come out alive. The coastal state of Lagoira is one of the area's hardest hit, and there's been growing frustration at the pace of the government response there. Families and volunteers have spent days pulling survivors and bodies from the rubble as they wait for specialist equipment to arrive. The Venezuelan authorities were not prepared for a disaster of this scale,

as we heard from our senior international correspondent, Earl Geren, in the capital, Caracas. This country has been running on empty for years. Under the control of President Nicholas Maduro, the economy was basically run into the ground through mismanagement, through corruption. People have suffered years of hyperinflation. One young Venezuelan here has just said to me, a monthly salary would not buy you one packet of medication. So if this was a test for the Venezuelan state, it's a test it could only fail.

Where we are standing now, there is a big operation going on still, but this is to try to recover bodies, not to find the living. hope of that is gone at this particular place. Now, about seven bodies have been taken out so far today. We saw one of those being recovered about an hour ago. It was a very moving moment. The body was found. It was lifted gently from the rubble. It was covered very carefully and placed on a stretcher and carried away by rescue workers with as much dignity as they could provide in a situation like this. Or Ligeren. Also in Karakis is our reporter, Vindex, Vanessa Silva. Earlier, she visited a hospital in the capital. We saw people in the hospital looking for the loved ones as a missing people,

grabbing hope that they can be found alive. In the hospitals, you can see picture of people missing. You can see a list of names of the people injured that were taken to these places. I spoke with a man that were looking for a 14-year-old boy. and they say they create like a team, the family, going to different points to try to figure out if they found him. But when he was there, they received a call telling him that there is a huge possibility that they found the body, but the conditions of the body that they couldn't recognize at the moment. So they say, well, maybe it's him, but maybe we still have a chance to find him alive.

and other men were looking for a cousin of his wife. He says that he came from Miami the same day on the earthquake and they were driving to a hotel in La Waira State and these earthquakes happens and there were trapped there. But in this case, his relative was missing. And how are hospitals coping? Well, in this hospital that I visited, I spoke with a doctor there.

He says that in this case, they have supplies and they were not collapses. I can see also people coming with supplies, making donations to the hospital. We wanted to go inside the hospital and try to speak with people injured, maybe with small fractures, someone that keep our testimony. But still, the authorities in Venezuela are not allowing journalism to go inside hospitals, or at least in my case, it was not possible for me. Conditions of hospitals here are not the best ones after years of crisis, of course.

Do you think Venezuelans are, I think that the response from the authorities and the government has been adequate up to this point? Honestly, what I think is like nobody is prepared for a double earthquake, like the one that we have, and especially the areas that were hit. So it requires a lot of logistic process to deal with a situation like this one. and with the hours they just realized how complicated this is going to be. Vanessa Silva. The UN says it now has 39 international search and rescue teams in Venezuela, and more specialists are on the way.

Among them is Jay McNeil. He's been telling Caroline Wyatt about the equipment he and his team will be using on the ground. We bring a huge amount of technical search and rescue equipment, so tools that will help us to find people who are maybe trapped quite deep within a pile of rubble, and then we'll help us extricate them. We use seismic detectors, like a vibraphone, which are incredible pieces of equipment. You know, when you're trained to use them,

you know, how to use them well, you can hear the most minuscule of movement, you know, sometimes many metres down. We use thermal imaging cameras. We sometimes use drones to cover a large area. And we also use a huge amount of tools for actually then, you know, getting inside that damaged structure,

as deep as we need to go to then get out whoever we find trapped there. How dangerous a job is it for restaurants? rescuers like you, what are the risks you need to be careful of? It's a really difficult thing to think about for us, I guess. We all go into this work because we care about people. And, you know, I always think that if this was my family or someone I loved, I would want someone to be going to find them and going to get them. That kind of motivates us through the risk, I think.

So we train incredibly well. We're trained in the sort of spaces that we go into. We're trained to manage the risks in as much as you can. You know, if there's an after shock and you're inside a collapsed structure, it's inherently unstable. So there's always danger. We work incredibly closely as a team. We train month after month, year after year, so that we, you know, we know each other

and how to look after each other really well. But there's security risks often that we face in countries. There's risks from animals and diseases and climate. So it's no small undertaking, but ultimately I just keep thinking I would want someone to be going. And what are the chances of finding survivors after those first 72 hours? It's not uncommon, not by a long shot. So, you know, it really does happen quite a while back in Haiti. I think there was a rescue that was about two weeks after the initial quake.

So it really depends on the conditions, you know, in the country. It depends on things like temperature. It depends on where people are trapped in a structure and how much space they have to move in. Some people might have access to water through rain filtering in. That can keep people going or they might be trapped somewhere where they've got access to food. So I personally would want to make sure across all the teams that deploy, we had covered everything that was collapsed to make sure there was no one trapped. And what about coordination between the international teams going in?

I mean, do you get assigned by the local government, where you're going to go and operate? Yeah, largely it's coordinated by the UN in combination with the local government. Initially, the whole area that's been damaged will be mapped into sectors, and then different teams as they come in will be given a sector to go and clear, manage all the structures and make sure there's no one there. Jay McNeil. Now, to the Middle East, the US says its forces have struck, multiple targets in Iran at President Trump's direction.

In a post on truth social, Donald Trump warned that Iran would no longer exist if Washington decided to further escalate its action. The strikes were in response to a drone attack on an oil tanker near the Strait of Firmuz. In response, Iran's revolutionary guards have launched missile and drone strikes against Kuwait in Bahrain. It's the latest challenge to a fragile interim peace agreement that Iran and the US reached earlier this month. Mark Kincahn is a retired U.S. Marine Colonel, now senior advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He gave us his assessment of the situation. We're in this tit-for-tat dynamic where the Iranians struck a ship.

The United States responded bombing at Iranian positions. The Iranians responded by striking another ship and possibly Bahrain. We've struck them again. The Iranians always respond. You're going to see another strike. not clear how we get out of this dynamic because the two sides disagree about the straight. There are two problems with the ceasefire, particularly regarding the strait, but also with nuclear weapons. That is, the United States saw this as a means to negotiations.

But the United States also announced its view of what had been agreed to. And Iran has said consistently with regard to the strait. That is not what they agreed to. United States said that there would be free flow of traffic. Iran said no, it has authority over the strait, and any ships going through the street would need its authorization. We're seeing that played out now with missiles rather than at the bargaining table. The United States might escalate in the strait. They might use naval forces to open it up. That would be a major combat operation. I think the United States could do it, but there would be casualties. It would involve all the forces in the region, but we're in an unstable position. Iran is not reasserting its rights.

They're claiming rights that they never had. Mark Kincahn. Europe continues to swelter under a prolonged and unprecedented heat wave. Germany has broken its all-time temperature record when 41.5 Celsius was recorded in the east of the country on Saturday. In France, hospitals have warned of a surge in emergency calls. Darren Bette from the BBC Western. Weather Centre has this report. The record-breaking heat in Western Europe is coming to an end this weekend, but large parts of the continent are still enduring some searing temperatures. In France, after records were broken earlier in the week,

there's been disruption to transport and power plants, while many schools have closed and public events cancelled. Some areas ban the sale of alcohol. It's a similar picture in Italy, where the Health Ministry has issued a red alert in 18 cities, including Rome and Venice. June temperature records have been broken in Switzerland and Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium, where temperatures were up to around 40 Celsius.

Authorities in Germany have been urging people to conserve water this weekend. The rail operator Deutsche Barn is reducing its services because the intense heat has caused rail tracks to swell. There's also a growing risk of wildfires. The area of high pressure or heat dome that has brought the extreme temperatures is moving east, allowing temperatures in the UK and Western Europe to fall with more comfortable days and nights ahead. Darren Bet there. Switzerland has seen the temperature record for June broken for three days in a row,

and the heat wave has been causing the country's glaciers to melt unusually quickly. As James Kumarasami, heard from Dr. Matthias Huss, head of glacier monitoring in Switzerland. According to our data, we're losing as much water from the Swiss glaciers to fill up one Olympic swimming pool every six seconds. And this now lasts for two weeks,

So as long as this heatwave is ongoing and day and night, every six seconds. That is a very vivid image. And you have a day in the year, don't you? A tipping point day, if you like. This glacial loss day is going to occur next Monday, most likely. It's the day when all snow reserve accumulated over the winter have been used up and we're entering the phase where we are losing old ice. So every day from next Monday onwards is really contributing.

to the unsustainable loss of ice. And this is, of course, varying because it's very early. It's even before the main part of the summer. So all the rest of the summer will contribute to unsustainable loss. How does this compare to recent years? There is a very clear trend to this day occurring earlier and earlier. We had one record in the year 22, which was shattering all previous records so far. Then this day was still three days earlier than this day.

year. However, in all other years, it's normally occurring in late July and August. It should actually not occur at all if the glacier would be healthy, but we've seen this day occurring always earlier and earlier. Is there any way to get the glacier healthy again? Well, it's snowfall on the one hand, but even more importantly is the temperatures during the summer. And the combination of dry winters and hot summers, this is the worst for the glaciers. So the biggest rivers in Europe, are sourcing in the Alps, so the Rhine, the Rhome, the Danube, and all of those are sourced by glacial meltwater and snow meltwaters. This is the impacts on the transport of goods over the rivers,

for the cooling of nuclear power plants, for irrigation. So this water that is coming from the mountains is needed for many aspects. Swiss glaciologist Dr. Matthias Huss. Vespa, the little Italian scooter that's played an outsized role in Western Hop culture is celebrating its 80th anniversary. In Rome, thousands of Vespot enthusiasts from all over the world took to the streets of Italy's capital to mark the milestone, as Alice Adderley reports. In 1946 after the Second World War had left Italy's roads in ruins,

the aviation company Piaggio spotted an opportunity. It began making the small, relatively cheap, agile scooters. Upon seeing the prototype, the company's, owner Enrico Paggio said it looks like a wasp. The name Vesper, Italian for wasp, captures the vehicle's shape, a wider, bulky rear connected to the front by a narrow step-through waist and the quick zippy agility of the insect. The design quickly caught on and by the 1950s they were given the kind of cultural cachet that money can't buy, with Audrey Hepburn riding one in the film Roman Holiday.

The film ensured the Vespers' worldwide popularity. In the 1960s in Britain, it became part of a stylish working-class subculture with enthusiasts known as mods, decorating their machines with multiple mirrors and lights, and driving them in packs to the seaside. This was immortalised in the 1979 film Quadrophenia. Robin Quatermainne was part of a late 70s revival. of this movement and is honorary president of the Vespa Club of Great Britain. He's in Rome taking part in the four-day party for the Vespa and explains some of the places he's visited on his

scooter over the last 40 years. My first European adventure was more or less four years going Barcelona and I've been doing it ever since, you know, visiting countries like Croatia, Italy, Central Park, all those sort of places and this event has grown over the years but it's The rest of the world is now joining in. They come from the Far East, you know, Malaya, Indonesia, as well as South America. So, you know, the Vespa lives on. Modern Vespas are much more refined than their 1940s ancestors, but the basic design remains the same,

taking the concept of getting from A to B and giving it charm. Alice Adderley. Still to come in this podcast. I said, excuse me, Mr. Brooks. I hear that you are making the producers into a musical. And I go, listen, that movie had a tremendous effect on me. It made me sort of who I am. An appreciation of Mel Brooks as the comedy legend turns 100.

The biggest men's football world cup in history is here. 48 teams and a record 104 games being played across the United States, Canada and Mexico. And the More Than the Score podcast is bringing you more than just the latest results, stats and fixtures. We're taking a closer look at the new teams competing, the Cups standout stars and the fans who are shaping the tournament. More than the score from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. How did a boycott Jimmy become a billionaire from posting videos? On Good Bad Billionaire, we're going to find out how the world's most popular YouTuber, Mr. Beast, made his fortune.

He's buried himself in a coffin for days. Counted to 100,000 on camera. And even recreated Squid Games, all in an attempt to go viral on the internet. But it all started when he gave a homeless man $10,000. So is he a philanthropist reshaping capitalism? Or is he just the king of the attention economy? Find out on Good Bad Billionaire. BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is the Global News podcast. It's been described as one of the most brazen attacks on Pakistan's commercial capital, Karachi. Insurgents, armed with guns and explosives, tried to storm a key security forces compound in the centre of the city late on Saturday. Three soldiers and at least three of the militants are said to have been killed. This man witnessed what happened. We were sitting at home.

having tea when we heard a loud explosion. The blast was so powerful our wooden staircase almost shifted from its place. I immediately went to look for my son, who's usually outside playing with other children. When I reached the gate, I saw that the situation was very serious. There was intense gunfire coming from the Rangers' headquarters, and I was frightened by the sound of the shooting. After finding my son, I quickly brought him back home. Later, watching from a safe distance, we heard two or three more explosions from inside the area. Our global affairs reporter Amparasan Etirajan is following developments. What we understand is the attack by suspected Islamist militants began

with an explosive-laden vehicle being rammed into the front gate of the provincial headquarters of the paramilitary force called the Pakistani Rangers. And that triggered a gunfight between security forces and the militants. and then soon after that, officials rushed in more reinforcements to surround this area. Eyewitness account said there was a loud explosion that was followed by heavy exchange of fire in Karachi City. It was late in the evening. It went on for a couple of hours, but a major attack like this has come up as a wake-up call for the Pakistani authorities. You describe it as a wake-up call, but how unusual is this kind of attack?

Even though we have been seeing several attacks in northwest Pakistan in Khyber-Pakhtonkwa province, allegedly by the TTP, the Tehreqa Taliban militants, and also the Baloch ethnic rebels in Balochistan province. Hundreds of soldiers have been killed in the past few years. Attacks on big cities have come down in recent years because of various military operation. The last time the incident happened in Karachi was in October 2024. and in that attack, two Chinese nationals were killed. But again, Karachi is a mega metropolis with millions of people. So this has come as a surprise for the authorities because the city has been relatively calm,

apart from the regional local level violence. So the fact that the government will be investigating how the suspected militants have managed to get through because it's also one of the well-defended, protected cities to come into near the region. regional headquarters of the paramilitary unit. So it may be of concern to the authorities because it is now moving into the city. And Barasaneiti Raja. Victor Orban's policy on LGBT rights was widely considered to be the European Union's most restrictive. Last year, Hungary's then Prime Minister banned Budapest's Pride March, but thousands of people still came out. This year, following Orban's fall from power, pride supporters in the capital braved high temperatures to march through the capital. sense of change. People are much more optimistic right now. Like, probably it's because of the

political change, but everyone is just so much more uplifted at the moment. So Orban is out of power. So actually, what we can feel personally, that the government is more or less behind us, so we feel much more support than the last 16 years. Although the new Prime Minister, Peter Mauljo, authorized this year's March, the order for the order for the order for a lot of Urban government's pride laws remain on the statute book. Dr. Aaron Demeter from Amnesty International Hungary joined Saturday's March. I think probably for most, this is the first time in 16 years, where people are feeling that they are here for something and not against Orbán

and his unlawful and arbitrary decisions and policy. So I think a lot of people see this year's Budapest pride as something which is more about the celebration, rather than the protest. This year, the police decided to acknowledge the protest, which means that there is not going to be any fine or no procedures against the organizers or the participants. But I have to say that unfortunately, the law is still very much in place,

so the legal context hasn't changed. That's something that the new government will have to rectify as soon as possible. I think they have different priorities at this moment, but I'm relatively hopeful that they will do it soon. At least they said that the pride can go on and no one has to clear any kind of hypertension. Dr Aaron Demeter, the world's chocolate industry earns annual revenues

of more than $140 billion, but in recent years, production has fallen because of poor harvests of cacao or cocoa beans. But that could change because of new scientific research, which has discovered how the plants are pollinated, Apparently, midges, those tiny biting flies similar to mosquitoes, are absolutely essential to the process. Julian Warwicker heard more from the study's lead author,

Eliza van de Sand, a PhD student at Virje University in Brussels. Cacao tree is a tropical tree that grows in warm and humid regions around the equator between the tropics. Originally it comes from rainforests from Central and South America, but today actually most of the cocoa is grown in western, in Central Africa. We make chocolate from the seeds from these large fruit that are called cocoa pots. And those seeds, in turn, we call the beans, cocoa beans. And why do these midges matter so much? If you look at cacao trees, these biting midges are the agents that do

this movement of pollen from one flower to the other flower. So you don't have or any other pollinator, the flower won't get fertilized, so you won't get the seeds, you won't get the food, and ultimately you don't get chocolate. That's why they're crucial to the production. of cocoa. And in discovering that, what was the process? Because I gather it's quite difficult to see inside the plant where the actual pollination process is happening. Indeed, these measures are incredibly small. They're about one millimeter in size because the cacao flower itself is also quite small. It's little flower that's about as large as your fingernail. So obviously the insect that goes in there needs to be small enough. So what we do is actually we walk around.

early in the morning when these insects are active in the cacao farms. And we just observe which insects are found on the flowers. And we don't just check which insects were present on the flower. We also wrote down what they were exactly doing. When they're just visiting the reproductive parts of the flowers, where pollination is actually happening, or were they just resting on the petals or walking across it? Then we collected them of the flower

and immediately put them under a microscope to examine their bodies for the attachment of pollen. Cacao production is an incredibly complex system. climate change could affect those different parts, the humidity, the rainfall that's naturally present in the system. But one thing we're particularly interested in right now is the microclimate within the cacao farms. So shade trees, for example, can create a locally cooler and more humid little microclimates, which may benefit both the cacao tree and the pollinators. And likely, this microclimate will be more important for the pollinators than the regional larger climate that will in turn help you keep your production stable.

Ecologist Eliza Van Dissanda. And last, here's a question. What would you consider to be the funniest movie of all time? The American Film Institute has come up with a fresh answer to that. The 1974 comedy classic, Blazing Saddles. The organisation made that pronouncement at a key moment, just ahead of the 100th birthday of the man who directed and co-wrote the satirical Western screenplay, Mel Brooks. He's also known for films such as the producers and young Frank.

Richard Kind, the actor and comedian from Curb Your Enthusiasm and Inside Out, also starred in numerous stage productions of Mel Brooks's work, most recently a London production of the producers. He's been speaking to Amel Rajin about his long friendship with the comedy legend. First time I ever met him was a Chippriani's restaurant in New York, and he was leaving, and I ran outside, and I said, excuse me, Mr. Brooks. And he said, yeah, and I go, listen, I hear that you are making the producers into a musical. And he goes, yeah. And I go, listen, that movie had a tremendous effect on me.

It made me sort of who I am. So don't screw it up. And I didn't use the word screw. And he laughed and he said, don't worry, it's going to be great. He certainly had an effect on me and all my life. He's a really smart, smart man. but everybody knows him sort of as a clownish funny man, but he's so brilliant.

In the end, being funny is just being funny, isn't it? I mean, his comedy is just very funny. You watch it, and it's very hard not to laugh. I don't agree with you. I think a lot of people don't get them, especially today. My kids, I've tried showing them blazing saddles. They won't have it.

Throw out your hands, take out your push, head on your hips, give them a portion. You'll be surprised you're doing the Frenchless thing. Ola! All right, cut! That's so interesting because that would suggest that he's a man that was perhaps better understood in a different historic moment. Do you think there's something about? I think that's true.

I think that's very true because he grew up in a certain time. And we were allowed to do things and say things that we're not allowed to do and say now. It's very interesting what you say about the element of danger in his comedy. Of course, the element of danger in not just his life, but in the life of his ancestors. Does Jewish comedy exist? And is it useful for understanding? the extraordinary success of Mel Brooks's extraordinary career. I guess it does.

You got to remember, and I heard something about Jerry Lewis the other day. He was, he like probably Mel Brooks is the son of immigrants. And language was, well, I guess if they've been through a lot, then the diving board gets a little higher and they're not as scared. And therefore, they can go to the edge. And I think that's what he did. He went to the edge a lot. Also, now I will tell you this, there is a rhythm, and it's something I have, a rhythm, a New York rhythm or what could be called the Catskill or even Jewish rhythm.

And I think he has that. There's a musicality to a Jewish New York delivery. Step one, we find the worst play in the world, a shoe of fireflop. Step two, I raise a million bucks. A lot of little old ladies in the world. Step three, you go back to work on the books, phony lists of Bacchus, one for the government, one for us. You can do it, Bloom, you're a wizard. Step four, we open on Broadway.

And before you can stay, step five, we close on Broadway. Final thought, Richard, have you been in touch with Mel Brooks very recently? Have you a sense of how he'll be celebrating his centenary? How is he going to spend his birthday? I hear it's going to be very intimate and very small and just with family. And I don't think he wants to share his birthday with the world. Actor and friend of Mel Brooks, Richard Kind. And that's all from us for now.

If you want to get in touch, you can email us at global podcast at BBC.co. And don't forget our sister podcast, The Global Story, which goes in-depth and beyond the headlines on one big story. This edition of the Global News podcast was mixed by Zabi Hula Karush, and the producers were Stephanie Zackerson and Nikki Varico. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Pete Ross. Until next time, goodbye.

The biggest men's football world cup in history is here. 48 teams and a record 104 games being played across the United States, Canada and Mexico. And the More Than the Score podcast is bringing you more than just the latest results, stats and fixtures. We're taking a closer look at the new teams competing, the Cups standout stars and the fans who are shaping the tournament. More than the score from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Thank you.