A woman crouches amid the rubble in Caracas, Venezuela on Wednesday after the earthquakes. Photograph: Ronald Pena R/EPAView image in fullscreenA woman crouches amid the rubble in Caracas, Venezuela on Wednesday after the earthquakes. Photograph: Ronald Pena R/EPAFirst Thing: Powerful earthquakes rock Venezuela as death toll reaches 164Buildings collapse after double quakes of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude. Plus, the apartment renters facing a tide of fees
Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, has declared a state of emergency after the country was struck by two powerful earthquakes that collapsed dozens of buildings, killing at least 164 people and injuring 971 more, with experts predicting the death toll could rise still further.
The quakes – among the largest in Venezuela’s history – occurred in quick succession and were felt in many parts of the country. The worst destruction appeared to have taken place in and around the capital, Caracas, where videos on social media showed panic as passengers raced through the corridors of nearby Simón Bolívar international airport seeking cover from falling debris.
What do we know? The US Geological Survey (USGS) said Venezuela had been hit by two quakes: a magnitude 7.5 “mainshock” and a 7.2 “foreshock” 39 seconds earlier. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” the USGS said.
How does the damage look on the ground? Rodríguez, who confirmed the death toll, said the airport had been closed after sustaining “severe damage” and added that the metro and train systems had been halted. A Guardian reporter saw at least three buildings that had collapsed in Altamira, an upmarket area of Caracas that is home to many foreign embassies, after the quakes hit shortly after 6pm on Wednesday.
This is a developing story. Follow our live blog here.
View image in fullscreenRenters at apartment buildings operated by Greystar complain they are deluged by ‘unfair’ and ‘inflated’ fees – which the company denies. Composite: Rita Liu/The Guardian/Getty/GreystarTenants at apartment complexes operated by Greystar, the largest owner and manager of apartments in the US, do not only pay rent. They pay a mass of fees that most other renters have never heard of.
These add-ons include “boiler management fees”, “variable refrigerant flow fees”, “solar rebill” fees, even “lifestyle fees”. Tenants and lawsuits in multiple states call many of these fees inflated, illegal, predatory or overwhelming.
The Guardian counted at least 125 different named fees in leases, court documents and rental listings for apartments managed by Greystar. See the full investigation here.
This is what the company said: In a statement, Greystar told the Guardian it disagreed with the allegations in the court actions and was “actively defending” the cases. In various court filings, the company has called tenants’ legal complaints factually deficient, implausible and “futile”.
In other housing news: Donald Trump abruptly cancelled his plan to sign a bipartisan bill aimed at lowering the cost of housing on Wednesday, holding the bill – which passed both the House and Senate – hostage until Congress passes the Save America Act, which would impose new identification requirements on voters and curtail mail-in voting.
View image in fullscreenIsraeli troops in Nablus, Palestine on Tuesday. Photograph: Nasser Ishtayeh/Sopa/ShutterstockDozens of Israelis from the security, political and cultural elite have threatened legal action against their government over support for Jewish terrorism and an “ideology of ethnic cleansing” in the occupied West Bank, according to a leaked letter seen by the Guardian.
The letter demands immediate action to “eradicate Jewish terrorism”, cataloguing years of attacks including murder, sexual assault, theft, arson and desecration of dead people, by civilian and military perpetrators who act with “almost complete impunity”.
Since 2020, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 1,100 Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, at least a quarter of them children, UN data shows. No one has been charged over any of these deaths.
Who signed the letter? Two former prime ministers, former heads of all Israeli security services, former judges, a Nobel laureate and the country’s most revered living novelist were among the signatories to a “final warning” over violence against Palestinians. The letter also drew parallels with historical attacks on Jewish communities in Europe. It said recent condemnations of violence by political and military leaders were not credible without action.
View image in fullscreenPhotos of the zines entered as evidence to convict protesters of terrorism charges. Composite: Department of Justice via Kera Campaigners have sounded the alarm after leftist zines were used to convict anti-ICE protesters of terrorism charges, with the pamphlets helping to sentence protesters outside a Texas ICE facility to decades in prison.
Oil prices have fallen below levels last seen before the Iran war started in late February, as more oil tankers exited the strait of Hormuz.
France confirmed its first case related to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a doctor who had returned from the area. French authorities said the risk to the European public was very low.
View image in fullscreenAn area of stars in the galactic bulge. Photograph: ESA/Euclid Consortium/Nasa, CFHT. Image processing by J-C Cuillandre and E Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay)Astronomers used the European Space Agency’s Euclid telescope to capture more than 60m stars at the heart of Earth’s galaxy, in the largest and most detailed image yet. “This data fires the starting pistol in a new age of exoplanet discovery,” one astrophysicist said.
View image in fullscreen Photograph: Tracy Allison/the Guardian“Can clothing rentals truly solve the dreaded realization that you have nothing to wear?” asks the Guardian’s Filter US team. They spent weeks testing different clothing rental services to rank the best companies, and found one with a “nightmare” returns process.
View image in fullscreenFolarin Balogun, foreground, and Chris Richards, above, celebrate a goal against Paraguay at Los Angeles Stadium on 12 June. Photograph: John Dorton/USSFFor years, USMNT sought a single soccer identity. Instead, at this year’s World Cup, its best team appears to be emerging from a patchwork of backgrounds, cultures and development paths, Leander Schaerlaeckens writes. “The men’s soccer team that represents this nation is defiantly diverse, in every way, and all the better for it,” he writes.
View image in fullscreenA fruit vendor pushes her cart on the Brooklyn Bridge during a heatwave last summer. Photograph: Olga Fedorova/APThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this month confirmed the formation of El Niño in the tropical Pacific. “In the face of this evolving threat, the Trump administration has sought to cripple our forecasting capabilities,” Terry Garcia, Noaa’s former deputy administrator, writes. “But turning off the alarm does not put out the fire.”
Sand cat seen in Libya – loopIn 2017, the photographer Mohammed Almuntasir uploaded a video to YouTube of a small cat digging in the Libyan sand. Almuntasir’s video was the first material evidence that the sand cat existed in the country. Now there is increasing evidence that south-western Libya may represent a stronghold for the species.
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