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Breaking News: Twin Quakes Strike Venezuela Two powerful tremors hit the country early on 2026-06-25, causing massive structural collapse and leaving thousands feared dead. Emergency services are scrambling to locate survivors amid rubble. Scope of the Disaster Both shocks registered high magnitudes on regional seismographs. Major urban centers, including Caracas and Maracaibo, reported severe damage. Infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and power lines has been crippled. Human Toll and Immediate Figures Preliminary reports indicate thousands feared dead. Hundreds of hospitals are overwhelmed with injured patients. Displacement estimates are still being compiled as families flee unsafe zones. Regional and International Repercussions The UN has called for an emergency appeal to mobilize aid. The Red Cross and neighboring countries are preparing to dispatch rescue teams and supplies. Economic activity in affected regions has stalled, threatening broader national stability. Outlook for Recovery and Aid Aftershocks are expected, complicating rescue operations. Long‑term rebuilding will require billions in reconstruction funds, though exact amounts are not yet quantified. International coordination will be critical to address both immediate humanitarian needs and future resilience planning.

Devastating Earthquakes Strike Venezuela Back-to-back powerful earthquakes have struck Venezuela, collapsing buildings in the capital, Caracas, and leaving residents shaken. The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the first magnitude 7.1 earthquake had its epicentre west of the community of Moron, located along the country’s Caribbean coast, about 168 km (104 miles) west of Caracas. The quake had a depth of 22km (14 miles). Impact on Caracas and Surrounding Areas The earthquakes caused significant damage in Caracas, with multiple buildings collapsing. Residents are reported to be shaken but details of casualties and further damage are still emerging. Seismic Activity in the Region The USGS is monitoring the situation, and further updates on the earthquakes are expected. Venezuela is located in a seismically active region, and earthquakes are not uncommon.

Lead: Twin Quakes Devastate Caracas and Trigger Casualty FearsVenezuela experienced two powerful earthquakes within minutes, a 7.2 magnitude event near San Felipe followed almost immediately by a 7.5 magnitude shock near Yumare. The tremors leveled structures in the capital Caracas and raised alarms of mass casualties.Twin Magnitude‑7 Quakes Rattle Caracas and Surrounding RegionsAccording to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the first quake struck at 22:04 GMT on Wednesday, 284 km (176 mi) west of Caracas. The second, nearly simultaneous, hit 293 km (182 mi) west of the capital. Both events were felt across the nation, with debris falling at Simón Bolívar International Airport.First quake: 7.2 M, near San Felipe, 284 km west of Caracas.Second quake: 7.5 M, near Yumare, 293 km west of Caracas.Time of first event: 22:04 GMT (Wednesday).Casualty and Damage Projections Based on USGS EstimatesThe USGS warned that “high casualties and extensive damage are probable.” While official numbers are still pending, the magnitude of the shocks suggests:Potential for hundreds of injuries or fatalities in densely populated areas.Severe structural damage to residential and commercial buildings in Caracas.Disruption of airport operations and critical infrastructure.Potential Humanitarian Crisis and Infrastructure Strain in VenezuelaImmediate concerns include:Overwhelmed emergency services in the capital.Need for rapid medical assistance and shelter for displaced residents.Possible interruptions to electricity, water, and communications networks.International aid coordination, given Venezuela’s existing economic challenges.What Comes Next: Aftershocks, Relief Efforts, and Regional PreparednessExperts expect aftershocks of lower magnitude over the coming days, which could exacerbate damage. The government, aided by the USGS and regional partners, will likely mobilize search‑and‑rescue teams, while NGOs prepare to deliver food, water, and medical supplies. Monitoring of seismic activity will remain critical to guide evacuation and rebuilding strategies.

The Devastating Impact of Earthquakes on CaracasMultiple buildings have collapsed in Venezuela's capital Caracas following powerful earthquakes that struck the region. The disaster has raised serious concerns about infrastructure safety and emergency response capabilities in the crisis-stricken nation. Rescue operations are underway as authorities assess the full extent of the damage.Earthquake Damage in Venezuela's CapitalThe earthquakes, which occurred on June 25, 2026, have caused significant structural damage to buildings across Caracas. Reports indicate that several residential and commercial buildings have completely collapsed, trapping potentially hundreds of people. Emergency services are working tirelessly to rescue survivors, though the exact number of casualties remains unclear as of this reporting.Economic and Social ConsequencesThe collapse of buildings in Caracas comes at a particularly challenging time for Venezuela, which has been grappling with severe economic crisis and political instability. The earthquake damage is expected to exacerbate the country's already strained resources, with rebuilding efforts likely to face significant obstacles due to international sanctions and limited access to construction materials.Regional Infrastructure Vulnerabilities ExposedThe disaster highlights the vulnerabilities of Venezuela's aging infrastructure, which has suffered from years of underinvestment and maintenance issues. The earthquake has exposed how poorly constructed buildings and inadequate safety protocols have put citizens at increased risk. This tragedy may prompt a reevaluation of building codes and construction standards across the region.Future Outlook and Recovery ChallengesIn the coming weeks and months, Venezuela will face immense challenges in recovering from this natural disaster. The country will need international assistance to provide humanitarian aid and support rebuilding efforts. The disaster may also impact Venezuela's already fragile political situation, potentially leading to increased public pressure on the government to address both immediate relief needs and long-term infrastructure improvements.

Scientists warn that the Trump administration’s plan to dismantle the U.S. Ocean Observatories Initiative will severely degrade climate and weather forecasting, leaving the world effectively ‘flying blind’. Planned Dismantling of the Ocean Observatories Initiative The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation, is a network of seafloor sensors, underwater gliders and moored platforms that feeds real‑time data to researchers, policymakers and mariners worldwide. The system spans U.S. coastlines, the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean, supporting studies of marine heatwaves, harmful algal blooms, subduction‑zone earthquakes, ocean acidification and fisheries variability. Cost Savings vs Climate‑Related Economic Losses $368m – annual budget of the OOI slated for reduction. €92m ($107m) – EU’s new OceanEye initiative, with >50% earmarked for the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). 163% increase in error for annual ocean‑heating rate estimates if U.S. observations are lost. More than 400 climate‑related disasters (≥$1bn each) in the U.S. from 1980‑2024; $177bn in damages in 2024 alone. How Losing U.S. Ocean Data Degrades Weather and Climate Forecasts Research published in Nature Climate Change shows that removing U.S. observations would be worse than randomly losing 80% of global ocean data. The resulting degradation would affect: Accuracy of El Niño and tropical‑cyclone forecasts. Early‑warning systems that “save lives” for storms and heatwaves. Agricultural planning across the United States and South America, where farmers rely on El Niño outlooks. Economic sectors such as insurance, disaster response and fisheries management. Future of Global Ocean Monitoring Without U.S. Contributions While the U.S. program faces a “descope,” the European Union is accelerating its own monitoring through the OceanEye program. Experts like Sabrina Speich (ENS, Paris) and John P Abraham (University of St Thomas) stress that international cooperation is essential; without U.S. data, the global observing system loses its “eyes and ears.” The outlook hinges on whether alternative funding can fill the critical gaps left by the OOI’s reduction.

The Cult of Eternal Values Documentaries about cults all have the same task, at which they nearly all fail: explaining exactly how so many people fell under the spell of a man (it’s always a man) who was, to outside observers, so obviously a damaged charlatan. None of it makes sense; it wouldn’t count as a cult if it did. The Rise of Frederick von Mierers Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult does a messy job of telling the story of Frederick von Mierers, who spent the 1980s luring models into his spiritual enlightenment society, Eternal Values. Von Mierers’ life was all lies, chaos and mystery and it would be hard to set it out coherently, however diligently you tried. But this is like trying to keep up with an erratic bar-room raconteur who keeps glossing over the important bits so they can skip on to the next bit of gossip. Admittedly, each new piece of info is wildly juicy. The Early Years of Frederick von Mierers The early years of Frederick von Mierers are murky, but the key facts are that, as a 40ish former model, he was an elegant socialite, living in an apartment in midtown Manhattan and frequenting Studio 54, where the doormen would pull back the velvet rope to let him sashay past the crowds and walk straight in. He had inherited wealth and alien good looks, somewhere between Christopher Walken, Gary Numan and a svelte Dolph Lundgren. In 1978 he suffered an ear infection, and when his fever subsided he announced that his body had become the vessel for a being from the red giant star, Arcturus. The Power of Eternal Values With an extraterrestrial glint in his already piercing eyes, Von Mierers began presenting a public-access television show where he spread the word about the benefits of a healthy diet, the power of controlled emotions – the notion of romantic love was an instrument of “the most diabolical and the most evil forces in this world” – and the importance of recognising that material possessions were not a route to happiness, all these being wisdom direct from the cosmos. The Dark Side of Eternal Values Ordinary punters sent cheques to Eternal Values for astrological readings; members of the inner circle got to share Frederick’s apartment, where they would sometimes wake to find that he had applied a mint-scented face mask to them during the night. Less adorably, he fostered a culture in which anyone who stepped out of line was ruthlessly pilloried in recriminatory interventions known as “slamming sessions”. As well as fearing the loss of the gang’s favour, the Eternal Values foot soldiers anticipated a re-alignment of the Earth’s magnetic poles, foreseen by the Arcturians, which prompted the organisation to purchase a second base in the North Carolina mountains that would survive the earthquakes and tsunamis to come. The Motivation Behind the Cult What’s never a mystery with cults is the motivation of the leader: it’s always sex and/or money, and, for Von Mierers, it was both. Our main witness is a man named John Hoyt, who under the name Hoyt Richards was one of the highest-paid male models of the late 1980s and 90s, regularly appearing in shoots with Cindy Crawford and the like. After completing jobs in Milan, the Caribbean or Los Angeles, John would return to sleeping on the floor of the EV flat, handing all his spare money to Frederick in return for ethereally powerful “gemstones” that may in retrospect have been costume jewellery. Occasionally Frederick would invite to his room young men, whose spiritual insights were so penetrating that John would be asked to hand them $100 on their way out. The Legacy of Eternal Values In the last episode of Bring Me the Beauties, there are desperately moving scenes as the admirably frank Hoyt recalls his agony at realising, a few years after Von Mierers’ death from an Aids-related illness, that he had abandoned his family and friends for nothing. Hoyt now works as an exit counsellor, trying to make cult members understand that they’re in one. As this programme discovers, however, why people join cults is hard to understand.

The Meteor Event Over New EnglandA meteor over Massachusetts during the weekend ultimately prompted reports of booms and sightings across New England into Canada. The American Meteor Society reported that the meteor was about 3ft (1 meter) wide as it entered the atmosphere around the New Hampshire border with Massachusetts, north of Boston.Scientific Confirmation of Natural PhenomenonOfficials with the US space agency NASA confirmed that the meteor was natural material, not a satellite or space debris – and that it entered the atmosphere at 2.06pm on Saturday. Robert Lunsford, the American Meteor Society program monitor, said the group received dozens of reports from Delaware to Montreal with people either hearing a double boom, feeling the ground shake or seeing the fireball.Speed and Impact AnalysisA NASA spokesperson, Allard Beutel, said the meteor was travelling at about 75,000mph (120,700 km/h) and probably fragmented about 40 miles (60km) above the ground. The agency estimated that the energy released when the meteor broke up was equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, accounting for the booms that shook buildings across Massachusetts into Rhode Island.Regional Impact and Eyewitness AccountsThe double boom reportedly shook buildings across Massachusetts into Rhode Island. A dashboard camera in New York captured the meteor streaking across the sky there. People in a handful of states posted on social media about feeling the buildings they were in shaking. Several videos on the X platform captured what sounded like two quick booms, with no fire, smoke or other visual causes.Distinguishing from EarthquakesSeveral people filed reports with the US Geological Survey, registering the shaking they felt with the National Earthquake Information Center. The agency opened an event page based on the number of "Did you feel it?" reports it received on its website. However, there was no event registered on the agency's seismographs – meaning the shaking was not due to an earthquake.Meteor Behavior and Scientific ExplanationMeteors travel faster than the speed of sound, creating pressure waves as they burn and break apart in the atmosphere. That can produce a loud sonic boom that those on the ground can hear. Lunsford said it was unlikely the meteor struck the ground, noting that most meteors burn up before they hit the ground, and if this one didn't, it would have landed in the ocean.

The Meteorite Impact: A Cataclysmic Event What would it have been like to have lived through the meteorite impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 66m years ago? Writing in the Conversation, Michael Benton, of the University of Bristol, and Monica Grady, of the Open University, describe in vivid detail how it might have felt. The Initial Blast and Its Immediate Effects The first sign that something was amiss would have been a new star visible for about a week before the event. Upon its arrival, all living creatures near the impact site would have seen the bright fireball, heard its crackling noise and experienced a sonic boom before being swiftly incinerated. The Global Devastation Five minutes later, 100-metre-high mega tsunamis rolled across the Gulf of Mexico and, combined with the overheating, earthquakes, hurricanes and fires, wiped out everything within a 1,200-mile (2,000km) radius. The Long-Term Consequences Dinosaurs roaming forests on the other side of the world were still oblivious, but not for long. Within an hour, dust had circled the planet and skies had darkened. Within a day, global temperatures were dropping, and by the end of the week the world was 5C cooler. A ferocious winter lasted for more than a decade, eliminating about 75% of all species. A Warning for the Future Our ancestors were some of the lucky survivors but, sadly, Benton and Grady suggest our penchant for burning carbon is setting the scene for a similar scale of planetary catastrophe.

The Coaching DeparturePhil Neville is no longer in charge of the Portland Timbers after they announced they had "mutually parted ways" with their head coach. Neville's final match in charge of the Timbers was a 3-1 defeat to the San Jose Earthquakes that left the team 13th in the MLS Western Conference, well short of a playoff place.The Performance TimelineThe club made the playoffs in Neville's first two seasons in charge – in 2024 and 2025 – losing in the opening round and the first round respectively. On Monday, Neville admitted he had not taken the team as far as he would have liked.The Leadership Perspective"In my nearly two decades of owning and operating the Portland Timbers, there are very few people I have enjoyed working with more than Phil Neville," said Timbers owner Merritt Paulson. "Phil has outstanding leadership qualities and a boundless sense of positivity even in the face of adversity."Neville's Farewell Statement"I'd like to thank Merritt Paulson, Ned Grabavoy, and the entire Portland family for their unwavering support in giving me the job and standing behind me," Neville said after his departure was announced. "To my staff, thank you for your incredible loyalty and hard work. And to the most incredible bunch of players: thank you for the effort, the good times, the good results, the bad results, and all the laughs we shared together."Coaching Career ContextPortland was Neville's second head coaching job in MLS. He was in charge of Inter Miami from 2021 to 2023, leaving shortly before the arrival of Lionel Messi helped change the club into title contenders. He was also in charge of the England women's team, leading them to the semi-finals of the 2019 World Cup.