It’s believed more than 100 Venezuelans who were deported from the US to Caracas hours before the earthquakes have died.
House GOP leadership is sending members home early for the weeklong July 4 recess, after a GOP blockade shut down the floor for the second week in a row. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) canceled scheduled votes over his inability to pass procedural rule votes to allow legislation to come to the floor, as a coalition […]
Iran and Oman have agreed to move forward with a plan to collect fees from ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, according to multiple reports.
New Jersey Republican Tom Kean Jr, told fellow lawmakers that depression was the reason he had been away since March.
The New Jersey Republican was missing for months with no explanation for his constituents. He explained in a House floor speech that after his diagnosis, there was no timeline for recovery.
Tom Kean Jr, a New Jersey Republican who has not cast a vote since March 5, has been spotted back on Capitol Hill.
A crowd of reporters gathered outside the Capitol Hill office of Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) Tuesday morning, but the long-missing congressman has not yet shown.Kean last voted in the House on March 5. He has missed more than 140 votes since then.He has said only that he is dealing with a "personal medical issue." His office said he would return on Tuesday and finally explain his absence."No sign yet!" Charlie Cotton, a reporter, wrote on X just after 9:30 a.m., posting a photo of reporters and a camera crew camped outside Kean's office door."No sight of him yet," Mychael Schnell, a Capitol Hill reporter, wrote minutes later, noting Kean was "expected to address his absence today."A week ago, a New York Times reporter found Kean at his New Jersey home. He was dressed in a suit and tie."I'll talk to you next week," Kean said, and went inside.A person familiar with his plans told CNN that Kean intends to deliver a floor speech addressing his health. His spokesperson said he would be "fully transparent."He is also scheduled to attend a fundraiser on Tuesday evening.Kean represents one of the most competitive House districts in the country. He is running for a third term against Democrat Rebecca Bennett.House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said he knows what is wrong with Kean but is keeping it private at Kean's request. "I do know what his health issue is, but he's asked me not to disclose that," Johnson said.As of Tuesday morning, Kean's office had not said when, or whether, he would appear.
Tens of thousands of people still haven’t been found after a pair of devastating earthquakes in Venezuela last week—including some Venezuelans who had just been deported from the United States as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push and were being held in a hotel when the temblors hit, The Associated Press revealed Monday.There were 146 Venezuelans, including 19 women and seven children, on a deportation flight that arrived just hours before the 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes, the AP reported, citing a Human Rights First initiative that has tracked thousands of such flights under Trump. They were brought to Hotel Santuario La Llanada in La Guaira, which collapsed because of the quakes.“Lisbeth Portillo, 58, said she escaped the rubble from the hotel with about 20 other deportees who walked the streets looking for help. They saw people running, some naked and others barefoot as they emerged from the rubble of the building,” according to the outlet.Another deportee who survived, 24-year-old Jenny Rodriguez, told Telemundo: “I was trapped under the rubble. A colleague who had been on the same flight came by; I managed to free my hand from the debris, grabbed him by the trousers, and begged for help... Thanks to God—and to him—I was able to get out of there.”Oswadeliz Núñez Ramírez is still “frantically searching for her son,” 28-year-old Daniel Alejandro Núñez Ramírez, who was also on the deportation flight and at the hotel, the Miami Herald reported Monday. A member of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service who called himself “Jonathan” told her that he had pulled her son from the rubble, but, “skeptical of the official account, his mother has searched every hospital, clinic, and sector of La Guaira and Caracas without success.”While US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to the AP’s request for comment, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, told the Herald: “This flight safely reached Venezuela, and all illegal aliens on board were returned home. When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them.”Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said Monday that the earthquake has left at least 1,719 dead, 5,034 injured, and 15,866 displaced from their homes.UN News noted Monday that the ongoing search and rescue effort involves more than 2,000 workers from over two dozen countries, plus over 160 dogs, and Gianluca Rampolla, the United Nations resident coordinator in Venezuela, “reported that the UN and Venezuelan authorities had agreed to procure 10,000 body bags in anticipation of the death toll rising further.”Rampolla said that “together with the search and rescue operations, we are focusing, together with the government, on providing emergency healthcare, shelter, food assistance, water and sanitation, and logistical support to ensure not only the storage but also the distribution of all the supplies arriving in the country, as well as protection.”As of Monday evening, more than 44,000 people remained missing, according to a reunion website for families. As NBC News detailed Monday:Even as the chances of finding survivors diminished with every passing hour, Venezuelans continued using shovels, ropes, and their bare hands as they dug through mountains of collapsed concrete.They were joined by a growing number of international rescue teams, who pulled multiple survivors from the wreckage, offering desperate families a rare glimmer of hope.Among the rescues, teams from the United States, France, and Venezuela pulled a man and his son from the ruins Sunday morning after they had spent four days trapped beneath the rubble.Organizations including US-based peace group CodePink and the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington, DC-based think tank, have called on the US and allied countries to lift all sanctions against Venezuela in the wake of the earthquakes.Trump earlier this year directed an illegal invasion of Venezuela, during which US forces killed scores of people and abducted President Nicolás Maduro, then seized control of the South American country’s nationalized oil industry.
Rescue efforts in Venezuela continue as thousands of people remain missing — trapped under the rubble of flattened homes and buildings nearly a week after two back-to-back earthquakes devastated the capital, Caracas, and the nearby city of La Guaira. Rescue teams are desperately searching for survivors, with Venezuelan health officials saying Monday that over 1,700 people are confirmed dead. The toll is expected to rise dramatically as the window for finding survivors closes. In the face of the wreckage, “we’re seeing also a lot of solidarity from the Venezuelan people” who are sharing space and resources with those displaced by the quakes, says Beatriz Ochoa, Latin America head of advocacy for the Norwegian Refugee Council. Looking ahead, “We will need to transition to more medium- and longer-term solutions, so that people can have affordable housing and a more dignified place to sleep and to be able to rebuild their lives,” says Ochoa, calling for more international support.