Rescue efforts continue after deadly Venezuela earthquakes

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1:03Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. Coming to you live from London, I'm James Kamara-Sami. And we begin today in Venezuela, where the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, has said we have faith and hope that we are going to rescue those still alive after Wednesday's twin earthquakes. Well, exactly how many people might still be alive is uncertain. But as each day goes by, the chances of pulling people from the rubble become smaller. The two powerful quakes, which struck the north of the country within 40 seconds of each other, are currently confirmed to have killed at least 920 people and to have injured 3 ,360.

1:41But it is a figure of 50 ,000 missing people in a landscape scarred by completely flattened buildings that is adding to the trauma of a population which has had plenty of challenges in recent years. The BBC's Will Grant is in the capital, Caracas, and his report begins in a part of the city he knows well.

2:04The Caracas neighbourhoods of Altamira and Los Palos Grandes are some of the most seismic in the city. Earthquakes, even small ones, are often felt there, and the two which struck Venezuela earlier this week were anything but small. It feels quite surreal being back here. I lived on this street and there is an utterly flattened building. I can see rescue workers sifting through the rubble all day. They have been using earth movement equipment to take out massive concrete slabs and allow these teams to get back in a little more safely. And now one of these trucks is about to drive out, carrying with it some of the rubble of these homes I used to live next to.

3:00Fortunately, my old building is still intact, as is its amiable, long-standing caretaker Pedro, who sat with the elderly neighbours as they recovered from the shock. All of them agreed this was the worst natural disaster they'd ever seen in Venezuela. on every corner in this neighbourhood. There are people who are sleeping out because they have nowhere else to stay. Their homes are now uninhabitable. It feels like a bit of a lottery. I mean, a lot of these homes were considered safe, and yet now, if they're not flattened like the one I'm looking at, they certainly can't be lived in again.

3:46Among those sleeping on a mattress under a tarpaulin was Giancarlos Roa. His wife and daughter were with him after their building was so badly cracked they may never be able to go back. He's worked for decades as a policeman and now at 50, he says, the tears rolling down his cheeks, he's not sure he even knows how to rebuild his family's life again.

4:11But despite his dire circumstances, Giancarlos knows he's still one of the lucky ones.

4:21Interim President Delcy Rodriguez told the nation that hundreds more had died, with thousands of people injured. We've also rescued dozens of people alive, and are grateful that they'll be able to embrace their families and loved ones once again, she said. Those success stories have included a toddler recently pulled from the ruins of a collapsed building. However, there's a staggering 50 ,000 people estimated to still be missing. We are still only in shock. I think we need more days. And we need to accept all the help we can get from abroad. It's been a really serious tragedy here. Caracas resident Zahida Castro is a musician who lived and studied in the UK for years.

5:02She says people increasingly see the government's response as inadequate. We're all pretty frustrated here because the government is not showing what they should be, a display of serious amount of help. And it's actually we, the Venezuelans, who are helping each other. We live here in a society that's grown up into helping each other. We don't depend on the government. That doesn't exist for us anymore. One of Mexico's search and rescue teams, called Los Topos, meaning the moles, stepped out of the airport in Venezuela to warm applause. International help is coming to this stricken nation, little by little.

5:45Whether it's rescue workers and sniffer dogs from the UK and the US, or medical teams from Cuba and Spain, they all have their work cut out. But time to find any more survivors buried beneath the rubble is fast running out. Will Grant reporting from Caracas. Well, as Will mentioned, the worst affected area is the coastal province of La Guayra, which is north of Caracas. And Carlo Camacho is a freelance journalist who lost his cousin there. And he described the scale of the devastation and the recovery efforts. There's looting widespread. Nobody's directing traffic. Some people are out to loot and burn because I saw they were burning stores down after looting them.

6:30But some people are genuinely there to help and there's no direction. The few people from the military that we saw were not intervening, were not doing anything besides a little bit of directing the traffic. They were not involved. Police or the military were not involved in the rescue efforts. And now La Guayra State, which is the hardest hit state, is now off limits to civilians. We talk to military personnel and only military and foreign aid workers. No organized response whatsoever. Civilians with bare hands, shovels, using the torches from their cell phones, whatever pickaxe you can find.

7:18You see people riding a motorcycle, but carrying shovels and pickaxes because there are no emergency vehicles. We didn't see, perhaps we saw one single ambulance from a private company all day. It's like a zombie movie. That's Carlo Camacho, a freelance journalist in La Guayra. Well, there have also been reports of government forces restricting doctors from entering that area. Dr. Franklin Rodriguez works in a hospital in the region. The government complicate our labor to help our people. I am going to La Guarida with a group of volunteers. They don't let us pass to the La Guarida state to make restrictions.

8:13We need you to talk to everybody to help us, to help our people. Well, Claudia Mareza is with Project HOPE. It's an international global health and humanitarian aid agency, and she is helping rescue efforts on the ground. It is really devastating what we're seeing right now on the ground in Venezuela. We're talking about thousands of people that are still missing, are still under their buildings they used to live in. We're talking about more than thousands of people injured because of the earthquakes of June 24th. We're talking about hundreds of people trying to get medical attention at the healthcare facilities and the healthcare facilities don't have enough medical supplies, enough human resources to provide the support to the people in need in Venezuela at the time.

9:16Well, for the latest on the rescue efforts, we can speak now to Lois Pace, Regional Director for the Americas for the International Federation of the Red Cross, who joins us now from Panama. Welcome to NewsHour. Can you bring us up to date? What are you hearing about the main challenges your colleagues are facing? Thank you, James. Yes, we're hearing some of the same things. Honestly, I was just on the phone with our team, another team of ours that arrived yesterday. And it is hard because things are slower going than we would like. They remain access issues mainly because of so much destruction.

9:52But the good news is that we have Red Cross volunteers that are a part of these communities like La Guayra, like Gran Caracas, who were already there. So they don't need to gain entry. They were already there putting on their uniforms and helping as they could. We've set up a command center in La Guayana in particular. I know we're setting up a field hospital as well. There was a cargo plane that arrived with some of those medical supplies, personal hygiene kits, beds, blankets, and the like. And so I think what we're hearing from people is that they are understandably anxious for that help to arrive sooner rather than later.

10:28And we are doing the best that we can, I know, through Red Cross to ensure they have that. Yes, I guess what is crucial I guess in these sort of circumstances is coordination and some of the restrictions I guess can be explained by not wanting just to have lots and lots of well-meaning people turning up and not being coordinated how is that going? That's absolutely right you know we have not faced access issues and I think it's because we have such a long-standing relationship with the government of Venezuela as I said we have a permanent team there through the Venezuelan Red Cross that's been there and been in existence for 131 years, right?

11:05So they're well embedded in these communities. It's my understanding, as you mentioned, that the government is trying to at least have some process and order to that process to ensure that these humanitarian volunteers and workers can do their jobs because it is so hard to gain access. I think I heard someone mentioning limitations around ambulances. And even we have had to convert to motorcycles and other forms of transportation because the streets are quite crowded with people, again, understandably, wanting to access these areas. But given time is very much running out for any survivors that might still be under the rubble, we need to reach them as quickly and as easily as possible.

11:46And one very specific impact of earthquakes is that there are more earthquakes, there are aftershocks and they can continue for some time. What kind of precautions are your colleagues having to take? What concerns are there about those? Yeah, we're quite concerned yesterday. I think they had the highest level tremor that they've experienced since the original two quakes. So we remain concerned about those aftershocks. I think, you know, we do just what we tell everyone else to do, which is know what to do and where to go when this happens, take cover, ensure you're not around these tall buildings, especially buildings that might still be standing but are very damaged.

12:26We're quite concerned that we'll see and have more buildings collapse, frankly, and that'll make these recovery efforts even harder, unfortunately. These buildings were already high-rises, many of these residences, and if more of the cement falls, then I think we'll have an even harder time really removing that and rebuilding. We have seen images of people being rescued from the rubble. Some quite incredible images of these completely collapsed buildings, yet people have survived. What are you hearing? Are people still being rescued, I mean, away from the cameras? Yeah, I think so. I mean, there's one, goodness, there's one story that we heard from our team yesterday.

13:08We, like I said, have a team on the ground and I have a team of about, you know, a fairly small team that supports the Venezuelan Red Cross. But we have someone in our IT department whose entire family went missing under the rubble of a building. And he was personally part of the rescue team that pulled them out. And so he saved his family with his bare hands. And I don't think anyone captured that because I think we were all trying to help him. But it's something that will sit with us and live in our memories. there's other stories of um venezuelans singing to survivors that remain trapped right um and you know just trying to encourage them as they stand under the rubble and then yes well we we have to wrap it up there but best of luck with all your efforts lois pace regional director for the americas for the red cross and coming up later on in the program has a nil nil draw ever meant so much unbridled joy in the african nation of cape verd as they become the smallest country to reach the knockout stages of the World Cup.

14:11As a Cape Verdean, I can see the whole trajectory of a nation is not only this generation victory. It's a generation that comes before 1975, which is our independence. This is heaven on earth. Headlines at this hour, an oil tank has come under attack in the Strait of Hormuz as Iran and the US carry out retaliatory strikes, despite a deal signed a week ago. We'll have more on that later on in the programme. And as we've heard, Venezuela has restricted access to La Guayra, the epicentre of the twin earthquakes, to prioritise rescue efforts.

14:57You're listening to the BBC World Service. This is NewsHour, coming to you live from London with James Kamarasamy. After several days when temperature records have been broken in Western Europe, people across the continent are now wondering how prepared their countries are for a world in which tropical temperatures are no longer the exception. In Germany, which on Friday experienced its highest ever temperature of 41.3 degrees Celsius, there are concerns that the capital, Berlin, has done less to adapt itself to heatwaves than other major European cities. Eva-Maria Braungart is staying in that city today to write about the heatwave for the German newspaper Berlin Zeitung.

15:35I caught up with her at around midday German time. It's hit 36 degrees, so we're already at the hottest it's been in the past week. And it's expected that we're hitting 40 or even 41 today in Berlin, which would be the hottest temperature ever recorded in Berlin. we already broke the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in Germany as a whole yesterday so yeah that's the situation at the moment well how are people coping I feel like in Berlin you kind of have two options the first option is to just not leave your house close the blinds close the curtains and just wait it out really and hope for the best or which is what my strategy for weekends like this mostly is leave town as soon as possible at around 9am and just return back to the city when the sun's gone down.

16:29I mean, we are quite lucky that we have a lot of lakes and rivers and parks that are easily accessible via public transport. So I feel like that's what a lot of Berliners are doing. A lot of them are also going to the public swimming pools, although a lot of them are already at capacity right now. And what if you can't either stay in or get out of town or go to a public swimming pool? What help is there for people in Berlin who want to cool down? Quite little. There are museums and libraries opening their lobbies for people so they can cool down because they obviously have air conditioning. However, from the government side, there really isn't that much yet.

17:11Our local Berlin government put a heat action plan down in November, which is considering it's 2026 now, a bit late. But right now, not that much action has been taken. I feel like so far, the local government has just relied on the fact that Berlin is quite lucky with a lot of parks and lakes. Comparisons are being made to Paris, which has, what, 1 ,400 different cooling off points, more drinking fountains. And the argument has been made that actually France had this awful heat wave in 2003, I remember it, and lots of people died. And that focused not just mines, but policymakers to do something about it.

17:54And in the German capital, that simply hasn't been the case. Is that fair? That is quite fair. Most of the measures in the Berlin heat action plan are quite long term, which is planting more trees and de-sealing some of the floors so the heat isn't saved by all of the concrete. But of course, those are things that take years and years and years, whereas the short-term measures like water fountains, I think we had 248 last year and now it's 250. We have one cooling down point and yeah, it's just not really doing that much at the moment. It is heavily criticised. Eva Maria Braungart of the Berliner Zeitung.

18:37The American comedian Mel Brooks, known for the producers Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs, Robin Hood, Men in Tights and many more, turns 100 on Sunday. His influence on US comedy can hardly be understated. A recent HBO documentary on his life had, amongst others, Jerry Seinfeld, Ben Stiller and Conan O 'Brien citing him as an influence. While Richard Kind is an actor and comedian, you You might know from Curb Your Enthusiasm and Inside Out, he starred in many stage versions of Brooks' work, including a recent London production of The Producers. And he's been talking about the Mel Brooks he knows and admires to my colleague Amal Rajan.

19:13First time I ever met him was at Cipriani's restaurant in New York, and he was there eating with his son. I was with friends, and he was leaving, and I ran outside, and I said, excuse me, Mr Brooks. And he said, yeah. And I go, listen, I hear that you are making the producers into a musical. And he goes, yeah. And I go, listen, that movie had a tremendous effect on me. It made me sort of who I am. So don't screw it up. And I didn't use the word screw. And he laughed and he said, don't worry, it's going to be great. And then I met him later and I met him at a few places later. He certainly had an effect on me and all my life.

19:57But why did the producers from 1967, why did it have such a profound effect? Wow, that's a why did it? It's because there was a sense of danger to the humor. And I enjoy danger in humor. I think that it makes humor even funnier. You laugh out of nervousness. You go, oh, my God, how did your head go there? You know, where do your thoughts come from? and why can't I think like that? Spring time for Hitler and Germany. Deutschland is happy and gay.

20:39I think it takes an elevated intellect to make jokes like that and know that they're that funny. He's a really smart, smart man, but everybody knows him sort of as a clownish funny man, but he's so brilliant. No, he's extraordinarily smart, but he's in the end being funny is just being funny, isn't it? I mean, his comedy is just very funny. You watch it and it's very hard not to laugh. There's a lot of, there's a lot of, I don't agree with you. I think that I think a lot of people don't get them, especially today. Mel Brooks. Oh yeah. My kids, I've tried showing them blazing saddles. They won't have.

21:20Give him a portion, you'll be surprised you're doing the French mistake. Voila! All right, cut! That's so interesting because that would suggest that he's a man that was perhaps better understood in a different historic moment. Do you think there's something about that? I think that's true. I think that's very true. Really? Why do you think that is? Because he grew up in a certain time and we were allowed to do things and say things that we're not allowed to do and say now. What do you, Richard, what do you owe Mel Brooks? What do I owe Mel Brooks? He owes me. I've done his plays. He owes me more money.

21:57I don't know him anything. Final thought, Richard. Have you been in touch with Mel Brooks very recently? Have you a sense of how he'll be celebrating his centenary? Yes. I have been in touch with him because I just closed about a month or two ago on the West End doing The Producers and had a great time. He had wanted me to come to London and open the show when it made the transfer. And I couldn't because I had children and I didn't want to leave them. So then he encouraged me to do this. And he goes, you're a bundle of talent. You'll be great. So I did it. I was happy to do it. He called me. He said, and he gave me his blessing.

22:33I made it into his autobiography. And he goes, Richard Kahn is the most talented, loud man. You know, he gets a kick out of me. But I adore him. He's just great. How is he going to spend his birthday? I hear it's going to be very intimate and very small and just with family. And I don't think he wants to share his birthday with the world. You got to remember a lot of, I mean, Mel is very much Mel. You know, the ego, the humor, the brashness. But this is sacramental wine. It's only used to bless things.

23:09Wait a minute. There's things here. There's trees. There's rocks. There's birds. Yes, squirrels. Come on. We'll bless them all until we get for snicking. Join me. But when you take a look at his marriage and his relationship with his kids and his grandkids, which I've been lucky enough to witness, how he is off stage is quite beautiful. The actor Richard Kine speaking to my colleague Amal Rajan about Mel Brooks, who turns 100 on Sunday. You're listening to the BBC World Service and this is NewsHour, coming to you live from London with James Kamarasamy.

24:12Google. No unwelcome surprises. Plus, ditch that where's my money feeling. Most transfers arrive in under 20 seconds. Join millions saving billions on hidden fees. Be smart. Get wise. Download the Wise app today. T's and C's apply. Decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day. But what policy changes should investors be watching? Washington Wise is an original podcast from Charles Schwab that unpacks the stories making news in Washington right now and how they may affect your finances and portfolio. Listen at schwab.com slash Washington Wise. That's schwab.com slash Washington Wise.

25:00Welcome back to NewsHour. This year's Carnegie Award for the best writing for children and young adults here in the UK has gone to Beth O 'Brien for her debut novel Wolf Siren. It's a reworking of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale and Beth has been telling my colleague Julian Warwicker why she was inspired by that story. I was considering this story for the first time wondering why it is that Little Red Riding Hood doesn't recognise that her grandmother has been replaced by a wolf when she arrives to deliver her goodies and I am severely visually impaired. And although I've never made that exact mistake, I often describe the way I see as a mixture of context and guesswork and colour and movement.

25:44And I thought, well, my grandmother being replaced by a wolf would not be in my top 10 guesses. So it stemmed from there. And considering how interesting it could be to rework this story, but tell it from the perspective of somebody who is visually impaired. Yeah, that's where it began. And the judges loved it. I've got their comments in front of me. And then what about developing the character, the personality of that main individual? What was going through your mind then? The first scene I wrote ended up in the prologue. And it was a scene between the grandmother, Red's grandmother, my main character is called Red, and it's the moment she is given the red coat.

26:22And it emerged quite naturally from there that Red was somebody who defied the expectations and rules of her village, which is quite a strict and controlling place and it's always good to have a main character who who is a bit rebellious in that way it makes for a much more interesting plot a lot of my vision and stuff is in there but she is 100 a braver version of me for sure and i suppose it's it grew it grew from there her the setting of a controlling village and um in my version uh her grandmother goes missing in the woods and and red never gives up the hope of finding out what happened to her even though everybody else has so she sort of has her own stubborn streak which my family would agree i also have to be fair.

27:00When you win awards sort of paragraphs are written about you and I've got one in front of me here that talks about your passion about the representation of disability in literature and that's come through in the conversation we're having but I read as well that you're currently studying for a PhD researching that misrepresentation as you see it of disability in contemporary fairy tale retellings. Where do you hope that takes you and where do you hope that takes the art form? Thank you. Yeah, so I've actually finished that PhD now and I passed on everything, which is very exciting. I think a lot of our traditional stories from around the world, and I've read hundreds of them by this point, feature far more disabled characters in maybe one short story that we often get in novel-length works of contemporary fiction.