NPR News: 06-26-2026 4PM EDT
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What are the latest updates on the earthquake rescue efforts in Venezuela?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. Venezuela efforts are underway to rescue trapped earthquake victims. Venezuela's president says at least 920 people have been killed. Reporter Manuel Rueda has more.
Rescue teams from the United States, El Salvador and Spain arrived in Venezuela Friday morning, as crews race against the clock to pull survivors from collapsed buildings. Recovery efforts have been slow, with many residents complaining about the lack of equipment or specialized teams to get people out. In La Guayra, the city hit hardest by the quake. Dozens of buildings are rubble, including public housing projects, and the military has now been sent to the coastal city to support rescue efforts and prevent looting. La Guayra's airport was damaged by the earthquakes, so aid teams are flying into airports about a three-hour drive from this city. For NPR News, I'm Manuel Rueda in Bogota.
In Los Angeles, the federal trial of Jonathan Rinderknecht, accused of igniting last year's deadly Palisades fire, has ended in a mistrial. 12 people were killed, thousands of homes destroyed. Steve Futterman has the latest.
The judge asked the jury foreman and each of the jurors, is there anything the court can do that might help you reach a unanimous decision? And each of them said no. That's when the judge declared a mistrial. The jury foreman did disclose the division of the jury He told the court it was split 10 to 2 in favor of a not guilty verdict. So that's a victory of sorts for the defense, which had always claimed there was never enough evidence to convict Jonathan Rinderknecht of actually starting the fire. The government plans to retry the case on all three counts. For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman at the Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles.
The judge in the case now has set a new trial date for October 19th. The court ordered that Rinderknecht remain detained. On Capitol Hill, the House Oversight Committee wants significantly more than it got today in a closed-door meeting with billionaire investor and former Jeffrey Epstein associate Leon Black. NPR's Ava Berger has that story.
Lawmakers said Black walked out of the interview when pressed on his ties with Epstein. House Oversight Chair James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, told reporters that he's now issuing two subpoenas for Black. He says he wants copies of supposed non-disclosure agreements Black allegedly signed with survivors of Epstein's abuse. And he wants to depose Black under oath.
This is a result of refusing to answer specific questions about the NDAs and the terms.
Black has denied any allegations of wrongdoing. His lawyer says in a statement that Black, quote, never engaged in sex trafficking and, quote, never paid Epstein for access to women. Ava Berger, NPR News.
Wall Street approaching the close of the Dow off 46, the Nasdaq down 60 points. This is NPR News in Washington. The AAA is forecasting 72 million Americans plan to travel at least 50 miles from home for the Fourth of July holiday between tomorrow and Sunday, July 5th. The expectation is that about 61 million will travel by car during that period. AAA says today's average price for regular is $3.90 a gallon. The Trump administration says it's partnering with a Texas-based private company to preserve the DNA of endangered species. NPR's Nate Rock reports.
The company, Colossal Biosciences, is best known for its efforts to bring back extinct species like the woolly mammoth and the dire wolf. Efforts that have raised a lot of concerns in the broader wildlife conservation community. Under the new partnership, the company says it will aim to store DNA, tissue, or cell samples of the more than 2,300 plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act and that it will use them for research. Zoos, academic institutions, and federal agencies already biobank samples of imperiled species, which can be used to help their recovery. Some scientists are critical, though, of the government partnering with a for-profit company to help those efforts.
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