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The death toll from twin earthquakes that hit Venezuela Wednesday night is expected to reach into the thousands as rescuers continue to search for bodies trapped in the rubble. Hospitals are rapidly reaching a breaking point, and thousands of survivors have been left homeless. Reporter Andreína Chávez’s building was one of the countless residences in Venezuela’s capital Caracas and its surrounding region that were damaged by the massive quakes. Chávez was on the street when the earthquakes struck, and says she “saw at least three buildings partially collapse right in front of [her].” As Venezuelans band together to find survivors, the country is calling for international support and resources to step up critical rescue and recovery efforts. “We weren’t prepared for a disaster of this magnitude,” says Chávez. “Venezuela is a country that has been under U.S. sanctions … as well as a country that has an infrastructure that is very deteriorated. We have public services that are very deteriorated, and all of that has been something that has really added to this tragedy.”

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports Israeli airstrikes killed two people and wounded a third in southern Lebanon, while Israeli soldiers bulldozed and burned homes in the town of Markaba. The continued attacks came despite the U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal, which requires Israeli forces to end their occupation of southern Lebanon, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said their forces would maintain an indefinite presence in southern Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Lebanese and Israeli diplomats agreed to extend negotiations in Washington, D.C., for a fourth day; Hezbollah is not a party to the talks.

New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board has voted to freeze rents for the next two years for nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. The historic decision fulfills one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s key campaign promises, just six months into his term. The 7-1 vote Thursday took place at El Museo del Barrio, a museum in the neighborhood of East Harlem, where hundreds of tenants packed an auditorium, breaking into chants of joy, and many taking to the streets to celebrate after the vote. This is Chantella Mitchell, chair of the New York City Rent Guidelines Board.Chantella Mitchell: “I believe a 0% adjustment for one- and two-year leases is fair and responsible approach this year. It’s one that reflects the depth of affordability challenges facing tenants, while recognizing the real pressures that owners continue to face.”

Also on Thursday, the Supreme Court struck down a Hawaii law requiring people to get permission to carry guns onto private property. And justices ruled 7 to 2 to restrict thousands of lawsuits claiming Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto, had a duty to warn consumers about potential cancer risks from its popular weed killer Roundup. We’ll have more on the Supreme Court’s rulings later in the broadcast.

In Syracuse, New York, two Homeland Security officers entered a voting site during Tuesday’s primary elections to request that a poll worker delete her Instagram account — over her call for the ICE agent who shot Renee Good in Minneapolis to face charges. Paigelynne Gonyea says the trouble began during her shift as an elections inspector at Syracuse’s Central Library, when she received this voicemail from a man identifying himself as Dave Brody, special agent with Homeland Security.Dave Brody: “We were just calling you in reference to a post that we believe you made on Instagram where you doxxed an ICE agent back in January. We just wanted to talk to you about it. You’re not in any type of trouble.”Gonyea believes the agent was referring to her January 8 Instagram post naming Jonathan Ross as the ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good. It featured a still photo from a publicly available video of Ross taken moments after the shooting, and cited a Minneapolis Star Tribune report identifying him. The post concluded with the caption, “I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted!” Gonyea returned the missed call and agreed to meet agents inside the polling site, rather than face them outside alone. Two officers then arrived and handed her a form letter, warning, ”YOU MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW” and that “it is unlawful to threaten to assault, kidnap, and/or murder a federal official.” Gonyea has since refused to delete her Instagram post or shut down her account, and has set up a GoFundMe page to pay for potential legal expenses.Paigelynne Gonyea: “The experience is intimidating, and I believe it’s important that election workers are able to do their jobs without feeling pressured or afraid. It’s also important for the protection of freedom of speech and civil liberties. And I want to note that the lack of professionalism with the form that was given to me was very concerning. If it hadn’t been confirmed that they were ICE agents, I would have believed it was a scam.”

A federal judge in Massachusetts has blocked President Trump’s executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to create so-called confirmed citizen lists of eligible voters. The ruling by District Judge Indira Talwani also halts Trump’s directive to the U.S. Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters on federally approved lists. Thursday’s ruling was the latest in a series of setbacks to Trump’s voter suppression efforts ahead of November’s midterm elections. It came one day after U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner was grilled by Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Here, he was questioned by Michigan Senator Gary Peters.Sen. Gary Peters: “So, yes or no: If a state refuses to turn their absentee voter list over to the federal government, will the Postal Service still mail their ballots under this proposal rule?”Postmaster General David Steiner: “Under our proposed regulation, no. We would tell the state that we need the manifest in order to — you know, look, what we’re asking for” —Sen. Gary Peters: “I mean, that — that’s the answer: You’d tell them no. So, the proposed rule basically coerces states to conform to these new requirements and hand over their absentee voter rolls or face the consequences of not being able to vote by mail.”

Thousands of Haitians and Syrians living in the United States are newly at risk of deportation after the Supreme Court ruled to allow the Trump administration to strip them of “temporary protected status,” or TPS. The program, designed for foreign citizens of countries the U.S. government believes are too unstable or dangerous to be returned to, often due to natural disasters or war, has been a major target of attack by the Trump administration and its anti-immigrant agenda. “We are looking at the catastrophic deficit in the workforce in the United States if we allow this deportation machine and cruelty to take effect,” our guest, Haitian Bridge Alliance’s Guerline Jozef, says. “This is just part of the Trump administration’s efforts to feed the detention and deportation machine and essentially halt immigration,” adds Lupe Aguirre of the International Refugee Assistance Project. “It’s about maintaining their campaign promises to root out people that they see as undesirable.”

The Supreme Court has sided with the Trump administration in a major blow to the rights of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. The court ruled 6 to 3 along partisan lines to sanction so-called metering at the southern border, which allows immigration officers at ports of entry to block asylum seekers from setting foot on U.S. soil. “In a time of increasing conflict and climate catastrophe, this will result in many more deaths,” warns Erika Pinheiro of Al Otro Lado, the lead plaintiff in the case. When the turnback policy was first introduced, recounts Melissa Crow of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, who served as co-counsel for the plaintiffs’ case, many asylum seekers became “so desperate that they ended up trying to enter between ports of entry, either by swimming across the Rio Grande or by traversing the desert under harrowing conditions, and many, many of them didn’t make it to the other side.”

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to deport more than 500 unaccompanied immigrant children, bypassing longstanding legal protections for migrant children who are in the U.S. without their parents. The children have been in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement for at least six months and don’t have family relatives or guardians who could sponsor them in the country. ORR, which is overseen by Health and Human Services, has aided the Trump administration in identifying children who could become targets for deportation. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden condemned the move in a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., writing, “This is a severe institutional failure that places hundreds of vulnerable children in immediate jeopardy, effectively erasing them from the protection of U.S. oversight and thrusting them back into danger. To weaponize the very agency charged with their protection is an unacceptable escalation of executive overreach that undermines our nation’s commitment to due process.”

Amy Goodman will appear in-person following two screenings of Steal This Story, Please!, the new documentary about her life, her development as a journalist, and 30 years of Democracy Now! She will be joined at the post-screening Q&As by both of the film’s Oscar-nominated directors, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. friday, June 26, 7pm The Q&A will be moderated by Daniel Denvir author, organizer, and host of “The Dig” Podcast. Saturday, June 27, 3:20 pm Amy, Tia and Carl will again join the Q&A, which will be moderated by Eric Halvarson, reporter, The Providence Eye. Avon Cinema is hosting additional screenings, without Q&As, at 4:10 pm on Sunday, June 28, Tuesday, June 30, Wednesday, July 1 and Thursday, July 2.