Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Skivoni.
Venezuela efforts are underway to rescue trapped earthquake victims, Venezuela's president
“says at least 920 people have been killed, reported Manuel Rueida 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. Every efforts have been slow, with many residents complaining about the lack of equipment or specialized teams to get people out. In La Guida, the city hit hardest by the quake, dozens of buildings are rubble, including
public house and projects, and the military has now been sent to the coastal city to support rescue efforts and prevent looting. La Guida's airport was damaged by the earthquakes, so eight teams are flying into airports about a three-hour drive from this city. For NPR News on Manuel Rueida, in Bohuta.
In Los Angeles, the federal trial of Jonathan Render-Connecht, accused of igniting last year's deadly palacades fire, has ended in a mistrial.
“12 people were killed, thousands of homes destroyed, Steve Futterman has the latest.”
The judge asked the jury, "Forman, 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 ten to two 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 Render-Connecht 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 19, the court ordered that Render-Connecht remained 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, and PR's Ava Burger, has that story. Lawmaker said Black walked out of the interview when pressed on his ties with Epstein. The 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 refusing to answer specific questions about the NDAs and the terms. Black has denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
As lawyer says in a statement that Black quote, "never engaged in sex trafficking," and
quote, "never paid Epstein for access to women, Eva Burger, and PR news." Wall Street approaching the close of Dowaw 46th and NASDAQ down 60 points. This is NPR News in Washington. The Triple A is forecasting 72 million Americans plan to travel at least 50 miles from home for the 4th of July holiday between tomorrow and Sunday July 5th.
The expectation is that about 61 million will travel by car during that period, Triple A says today's average price for regular $3.90 a gallon. The Trump administration says it's partnering with the Texas-based private company to preserve the DNA of endangered species. NPR's Nate Roth reports.
The company, Colossal Biosciences, is best known for its efforts to bring back extinct species, like the woolly mammoth and the direwolf, 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 2300 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 imperial species, which can be used to help the recovery.
Some scientists are critical, though, of the government partnering with a 4-profit company
to help those efforts. Nate Roth and PR News. 44-year-old tennis superstar Serena Williams relatches her single career when the All-England Wimbledon tennis tournament begins next week, entering with a wildcard for the competition. Her first round will be played against 20-year-old Maya Joint of Australia, ranked World
number 53, Wimbledon Williams is a seven-time Wimbledon champion, I'm Luis Skivone, and PR News, Washington. This week on the NPR Politics podcast, we're digging into the massive wave of tech money flooding the midterms, with a growing appetite in DC to regulate AI. AI companies and AI interests really want to be involved in picking who is going to write
that kind of legislation. We break down a proxy battle over the future of AI regulation.
