Two powerful earthquakes devastate Venezuela; Israeli killing in Lebanon continues; Iván Cepeda concedes in Colombia

Drop Site Daily: June 25, 2026

U.S.-Iran technical talks set to resume next week, Pakistan says. Iran says no nuclear inspections until final deal reached. Iranian official challenges U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on path to regional peace. Rubio rejects fees in Strait of Hormuz. Gulf leaders meet to negotiate Strait of Hormuz. IRGC calls Hormuz shipping lane “unacceptable.” Oil prices fall to pre-Iran war levels as shipping rebounds. President Donald Trump says responsibility for Minab school attack may “never be determined.” Israel kills three, burns houses despite “ceasefire” in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will maintain southern Lebanon “security zone” as long as he is prime minister. Israel floods streets in Al-Maghazi camp with cement. Israeli forces kill two Palestinians during West Bank raids. Israel seizes 115 acres of Palestinian land to expand settlement bloc. Trump cancels housing bill signing, demands SAVE America Act pass first. White House requests $87.6 billion in supplemental funding. Second Iran War Powers resolution fails. Federal judge scraps most of Trump executive order on elections. Three ICC judges sue Trump administration over sanctions. At least 164 killed in pair of major earthquakes in Venezuela. Rubio says U.S. pressing for ceasefire in Sudan. Left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda concedes in Colombia. App workers in Mexico stage two-hour strike demanding fair pay and labor protections. North Korean soldier defects across heavily fortified border. Iraq threatens to leave OPEC as oil revenues collapse. Ukrainian drone strike knocks out power in Sevastopol.

From Drop Site:

• How Jeffrey Epstein’s Israeli Network Shaped Congo’s Deadly Mineral Trade

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A man carries a mattress past damaged residential buildings following an earthquake in Catia La Mar, Venezuela on June 25, 2026. Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP via Getty Images.

Iran and Ceasefire

• U.S.-Iran technical talks set to resume next week, Pakistan says: Technical talks between the United States and Iran will resume next week, most likely on Tuesday, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi reportedly said on Wednesday, according to AFP.

  • Pakistan and Qatar are mediating the talks under the Islamabad memorandum of understanding signed June 17. The first round of negotiations was held this week in Lucerne, Switzerland.

• Iran says no nuclear inspections until final deal reached: Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi rejected the UN nuclear watchdog’s claim that inspections of Iranian sites are imminent on Wednesday, saying on X that no meeting took place with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi during last week’s talks in Switzerland, and that there is no plan to grant access to facilities struck during the war or to Iran’s nuclear material until a final agreement and full sanctions relief.

  • Grossi had said hours earlier that inspections were “going to happen” within days, citing the deal’s text placing Iran’s nuclear material under IAEA supervision.

• Iranian official challenges Rubio on path to regional peace: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei hit back at U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who claimed there could be no end to regional hostilities “as long as Iranian proxies are launching missiles and drones from Iraq.” “No one will be fooled,” Baghaei wrote. “We can’t have a peaceful region so long as American militarism and interventionism persist, and their occupying proxy [Israel] continues, with absolute impunity, to inflict endless wars across the region and perpetrate genocide, terror, violence, and every [type of] atrocity.”

  • Baghaei added that Washington’s “contradictory statements” would only deepen Iranian distrust.

• Rubio rejects fees in Strait of Hormuz: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that Iran would not be permitted to impose tolls or transit fees on vessels using the Strait of Hormuz under any final agreement with Washington. Speaking during a regional tour in the United Arab Emirates and later at a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Bahrain, Rubio said, “There is zero support from Gulf countries for tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz,” adding, “It’s an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway.” He warned that allowing countries to charge for passage because a waterway borders their territory would create “total chaos,” adding that such a precedent would spread “throughout the world like a contagion.”

  • Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Monday that “Hormuz will never return” to its pre-war state, with Oman and Iran releasing a statement on Wednesday saying they will negotiate the future arrangements and costs of services associated with the strategic waterway.

• Gulf leaders meet to negotiate Hormuz: Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met Oman’s ruler in Muscat on Wednesday to launch a new negotiating track between Iran, Iraq, and Gulf Arab states over the Strait of Hormuz’s future management, a diplomat briefed on the talks told Reuters.

  • The discussions, separate from the U.S.-Iran negotiations, carry out a provision of the memorandum of understanding calling for Iran to coordinate with Oman, Iraq, and other Gulf states on navigation and maritime services, with Pakistan as proposed mediator.

  • Gulf states are expected to push for no transit fees, while Iran is likely to propose environmental, navigation, and security charges, with toll-free passage under the U.S. deal set to last only 60 days.

  • Separate reconciliation talks are reportedly planned to take place in Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported, aimed at mending ties between Iran and the Gulf States.

• IRGC calls Hormuz shipping lane “unacceptable”: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned in a statement on Wednesday that a newly announced shipping lane is “unacceptable” and “completely dangerous.” Oman and the UN-affiliated International Maritime Organization had announced a southern temporary shipping corridor to allow hundreds of ships and roughly 11,000 stranded seafarers to transit the Strait of Hormuz the previous day.

  • In its statement, the IRGC argued that safe passage is only possible via routes approved by Iran, and insisted that all vessels must coordinate with its navy via international maritime Channel 16 when transiting the strait. “Navigation outside these routes is extremely dangerous and prohibited, and we warn all vessels to strictly refrain from any transit outside the designated routes,” it said.

• Oil prices fall to pre-Iran war levels as shipping rebounds: Brent crude fell to $72.24 a barrel on Thursday, returning to pre-Iran war levels and marking a decline of more than 20% this month, The Guardian reported, as vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz doubled over the previous 24 hours to its highest level since late February, according to CNN and MarineTraffic data.

• Trump says responsibility for Minab school attack may “never be determined”: Trump said he had not seen the report into the Minab school attack—which killed at least 165, mostly children—when asked about the matter in the Oval Office on Wednesday, telling a reporter he had to “wait for it to be complete,” and casting doubt on the possibility of determining the responsibility of any party. “I don’t know that they’re ever going to solve that problem. I don’t know that they’re ever going to say it was one of our missiles.”

  • He called the attack “horrible,” though he indicated it was unlikely the U.S. was at fault because “missiles were flying all over the place.”

  • Nearly every investigation of the attack has found the United States culpable, including preliminary investigations from the U.S. military itself.

• Iran’s lead negotiator calls MOU “America’s declaration of defeat”: Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s lead negotiator and Speaker of Parliament, said at a conference in Baku, Azerbaijan on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding to end the war represents “America’s declaration of defeat.” “The Islamabad understanding was not the result of pressure and coercion, but rather the result of the resistance and authority of the brave Iranian nation,” Ghalibaf said.

  • In the same speech, Ghalibaf also noted that the eventual withdrawal of foreign military forces from the region—where the U.S. maintains multiple bases—was a “strategic goal” for Iran.

Lebanon

• Killed and wounded: Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 19 more people died over the past 24 hours from wounds sustained in previous Israeli attacks, bringing the death toll since hostilities resumed on March 2 to 4,211 killed and 12,173 wounded.

• Israel kills three, burns houses despite “ceasefire”: Three people were killed and one injured after an Israeli drone struck a vehicle traveling on the road between Zawtar and Mefdoun in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. Israeli forces also burned several homes in the southern Lebanese town of Ain Arab on Thursday after forcibly displacing the residents the previous day, despite residents having only returned after roads to the village were reopened. Separately, Israeli soldiers released a Syrian shepherd who had been abducted during an Israeli ground incursion near Al-Mari two days earlier.

• Netanyahu says Israel will maintain southern Lebanon “security zone” as long as he is prime minister: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday Israel will not withdraw from the “security zone” it occupies in southern Lebanon as long as he remains in office, according to Haaretz, and described overcoming fear as Israel’s “greatest achievement” of the war while pledging to address Hezbollah’s explosive drones.

  • He also said Israel now controls nearly 70 percent of the Gaza Strip and is “suffocating Hamas,” recalling earlier pressure he faced not to advance into Rafah in the south of Gaza after the October 7 attacks.

  • Israeli military sources on Thursday denied reports that Israeli forces had withdrawn from part of the self-declared “buffer zone” in southern Lebanon, contradicting comments by a U.S. State Department official who told Reuters that Israel had pulled back from part of the area as a “significant demonstration of good faith” toward the Lebanese government. A senior Lebanese security official also said authorities were unaware of any Israeli pullback.

  • This comes amid the fifth round of U.S.-mediated Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington, with a senior Lebanese security official telling Reuters that military officials will discuss withdrawal and that any concrete plan would emerge only after the talks conclude on Thursday.

Palestine

• Killed and wounded: Over the last 24 hours, two Palestinians were killed and 15 were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 has risen to 73,043 killed, with 173,417 injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

  • Since October 11, the first full day of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 1,031 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 3,309, while 785 bodies have been recovered from under the rubble.

• Israel floods streets in Al-Maghazi camp with cement: Residents of eastern Al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza told Drop Site’s Mohamed Ahmed that Israeli forces pumped a thick cement-like substance into their neighborhood after tanks advanced near Hosni Al-Masadar Mosque on Sunday, leaving streets buried under hardened concrete and trapping families inside their homes.

  • Speaking to journalist Mohamed Ahmed, a resident told Mohamed that people in the area could no longer reach work, evacuate, or transport wheelchair users to medical appointments. “We escaped the siege of gunfire, only to be under the siege of cement,” he said.

  • Another resident said children and elderly residents had fallen trying to cross the cement-covered roads. He warned the material had seeped into homes and could clog drainage systems. “This is the first time in the history of the Gaza Strip that we are drowning in cement,” he said.

• Israeli forces kill two Palestinians during West Bank raids: Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men during raids in the occupied West Bank between Wednesday and Thursday morning, Mohammad Zayed from Jenin and Mustafa Al-Khatib from Salfit, according to WAFA. Israeli forces surrounded a house in the town of Al-Yamun, west of Jenin, before fatally shooting Zayed and withholding his body, while Al-Khatib was shot dead during a raid on his home in Salfit, with soldiers leaving his body inside the house. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society condemned the killing of the two men, and said the killings reflect “Israel’s systematic policy of extrajudicial executions,” which it says has escalated since the start of the war on Gaza, and renewed calls for the international community and the United Nations to hold Israeli leaders accountable for unlawful killings.

• Israel seizes 115 acres of Palestinian land to expand settlement bloc: Israeli authorities seized 464.4 dunams (114.8 acres) of Palestinian land in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, by declaring it “state land,” according to WAFA. The Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said the declaration covers the entire area of the Givat Harel settlement outpost, established in 1998 and designated by the Israeli government in December 2025 as a standalone settlement. The land seizure links the settlements of Shilo and Ma’ale Levona along Route 60, creating a continuous settlement corridor that consolidates Israeli control over a wider stretch of Palestinian land in the area.

• GSF members return from Libyan detention: Ten members of the Global Sumud Flotilla Land Convoy delegation arrived at Tunis-Carthage International Airport on Tuesday after being detained for 30 days in eastern Libya.

  • The activists from nine countries were arrested on May 24 near Sirte while trying to reach Gaza via Egypt’s Rafah crossing. They attempted to bring humanitarian aid, including ambulances, medical supplies and equipment, and construction materials, into the Strip before their detention in Eastern Libya.

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• Trump cancels housing bill signing, demands SAVE America Act pass first: President Donald Trump cancelled Wednesday’s planned signing of a bipartisan housing bill, posting on Truth Social that the ceremony was “hereby cancelled” until Congress passes the SAVE America Act, an unrelated bill that would require voters to prove U.S. citizenship.

  • House Speaker Mike Johnson said Trump still plans to sign the housing measure within his 10-day constitutional window, and the bill—which passed 358-32 in the House and 85-5 in the Senate—would become law without his signature if that window lapses.

  • Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Republicans still lack the votes to pass the SAVE America Act or eliminate the filibuster blocking it.

• White House requests $87.6 billion in supplemental funding: The White House asked Congress on Wednesday for $87.6 billion in supplemental funding, including $67 billion for the War Department, $1.4 billion for Ebola response, and $11.1 billion in farm assistance, according to a letter from Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.

  • The Pentagon request is down from the $200 billion War Secretary Pete Hegseth had floated in March, but Democratic senators, including Chris Murphy and Mazie Hirono, said the package seems designed to fail given the party’s opposition to providing additional funding for the Iran war.

• Second Iran War Powers resolution fails: The Senate voted 50-47 late Wednesday to reject a procedural motion that would have advanced Sen. Tim Kaine’s resolution directing President Donald Trump to remove U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran, unless the action was authorized by Congress.

  • Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Me.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) joined most Democrats in voting to advance the measure, while Rand Paul (Ky.) voted present after saying on X that he wanted to give Trump “more space and leverage to negotiate” with Iran.

  • Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.)—who had voted for a separate House-passed war powers resolution a day earlier—voted against advancement after being briefed on Iran at the White House by Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff. His vote follows a heated exchange with President Donald Trump during a closed-door Senate GOP conference meeting on Wednesday.

• Federal judge scraps most of Trump executive order on elections: U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper in Boston permanently blocked most of President Donald Trump’s first executive order on elections Wednesday, converting a preliminary injunction issued a year ago into a permanent ban.

  • Casper ruled the order—which sought documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration and would have disqualified late-arriving mail ballots, threatening to withhold federal grants from noncompliant states—violated the Constitution’s separation of powers, which delegates authority over elections to the states and Congress, not the president. The administration is expected to appeal the decision.

• Three ICC judges sue Trump administration over sanctions: Three International Criminal Court judges—Kimberly Prost of Canada, Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin, and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda—filed suit in the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, arguing that sanctions imposed against them by the Trump administration exceeded the president’s legal authority.

  • The judges claim the sanctions, imposed over the past year in response to ICC investigations into Israeli and American conduct and arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, were not based on a genuine national emergency as required under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. “Being subjected to such sanctions under IEEPA is tantamount to the financial death penalty. Due to the sanctions, Judges Prost, Bossa, and Alapini-Gansou are no longer able, among other ⁠things, to use credit cards; access banking services; use common online platforms, such as Amazon and Google; book travel; and in some cases, obtain health insurance,” the lawsuit said.

• Mamdani defends boosting primary challengers: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani defended endorsing challengers against incumbent Democrats in a television appearance on Wednesday, after New York Attorney General Letitia James criticized the move. “All of us are a little frustrated with the Democratic Party. But you don’t blow it up,” James told CNN. “That’s what MAGA has done.” Mamdani responded that “the Democratic Party is its voters,” and New Yorkers are backing “a new kind of politics” centered on the working class. He said he kept his promise to voters to use every tool, including his political capital, to help elect candidates who would advance the same agenda in Albany and Congress.

• Federal judge dismisses DOJ lawsuit against four New Jersey “sanctuary” cities: A federal judge dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit against Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken, and Paterson on Wednesday that had accused the cities of shielding undocumented immigrants from federal immigration enforcement.

  • Judge Evelyn Padin ruled the suit failed to account for New Jersey’s 2008 immigrant trust directive, which governs how local police interact with federal immigration authorities, meaning the federal government lacked standing.

Other International News

• At least 164 killed in pair of major earthquakes in Venezuela: At least 164 people were killed and roughly 971 injured by two powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela Wednesday evening, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said early Thursday, with the toll expected to rise as rescuers continue searching collapsed buildings.

  • The U.S. Geological Survey recorded magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5 in a “doublet” 39 seconds apart, with its predictive modeling showing a 42 percent chance of at least 10,000 fatalities based on historical averages.

  • The coastal state of La Guaira was hit hardest, according to Rodríguez, who declared a state of emergency and said the quakes forced the closure of Caracas’s main international airport.

  • President Donald Trump said he had directed U.S. agencies to mobilize aid, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said search teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance were being deployed to Venezuela, with additional offers of help coming from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, and Uruguay.

• Rubio says U.S. pressing for ceasefire in Sudan: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Kuwait that Washington is pressing regional powers to help secure a ceasefire in Sudan, expand humanitarian access, and lay the groundwork for a lasting peace in the country.

  • Rubio said Sudan remains a focus of every regional meeting and confirmed he would raise the war again with Saudi officials.

  • He said Special Envoy Massad Boulos is engaged daily on the crisis, but did not say whether the U.S. had pressed the UAE to end its documented support for the RSF.

  • Separately on Wednesday, the Sudan Doctors Network reported that more than 215 civilians detained at Daqrees prison in Nyala, South Darfur, died over the past two months from torture and disease outbreaks. The group cited field sources who attributed the deaths to a lack of healthcare, mistreatment, and spreading epidemics at the facility. The group also raised concern over 31 detainees, including children, transferred from the prison to Nyala Hospital despite reportedly having no medical conditions warranting relocation, and said their current whereabouts remain unknown.

• Cepeda concedes in Colombia: Leftist candidate Iván Cepeda officially conceded Colombia’s presidential runoff election on Wednesday, formalizing his recognition of far-right businessman Abelardo de la Espriella as the country’s next president. “I do so as an act of democratic responsibility. I do so to contribute to coexistence, peace and dialogue among Colombians,” Cepeda said.

  • President Gustavo Petro also acknowledged the runoff’s outcome and announced he will begin the transition process before de la Espriella takes office on August 7, 2026.

  • As the runner-up, Cepeda is entitled to a seat in the Senate, where he has vowed to lead a “democratic, vigilant, and constructive opposition.”

• Hacked emails reveal the role of Jeffrey Epstein’s Israeli network in Africa: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak coordinated closely with Jeffrey Epstein on mineral, oil, and gas ventures across Africa after leaving his post as Israel’s defense minister in 2013, according to U.S. Justice Department documents and hacked Gmail correspondence reviewed by Drop Site News.

  • The emails show Barak drew on former Mossad chief Danny Yatom’s private security firm, which trained a Congolese army special operations unit during the 2012-2013 war against the M23 rebel movement, while Epstein simultaneously worked to connect business associates with Congolese officials over mining, oil, and port investments.

  • The cache also details Epstein’s later involvement in sanctions diplomacy around Congo’s conflict minerals and Russian aluminum interests tied to Barak’s own business network.

  • Read the latest from Murtaza Hussain and Ryan Grim for Drop Site here.

• App workers in Mexico stage two-hour strike demanding fair pay and labor protections: Hundreds of app-based drivers and delivery workers across Mexico City and five states held a two-hour work stoppage on May 15, chanting “We are not partners, we are workers” and demanding fair rates, an end to unjustified account deactivations, and a collective labor agreement with platforms including Uber, Didi, and Rappi, according to the National App Workers Union (UNTA).

  • Workers in at least 15 other countries staged similar stoppages during peak hours.

  • The action follows a 2024 labor law reform under President Claudia Sheinbaum that recognized Mexico’s 1.2 million app-based workers as employees, though UNTA says income thresholds and earnings exclusions for costs like gas and maintenance leave only about 10 percent of workers eligible for the resulting benefits. Read more about Mexico’s gig worker mobilization from Labor Notes, here.

• North Korean soldier defects across heavily fortified border: A North Korean soldier crossed into South Korea on Tuesday night and was taken into custody after indicating he wanted to defect, according to a statement by the South Korean government. The alleged defection marks the fourth known North Korean crossing into the South since President Lee Jae Myung took office in June 2025, and the second military defection in less than a year. The soldier is currently undergoing South Korea’s standard defector screening process which can take up to three months.

• Iraq threatens to leave OPEC as oil revenues collapse: Iraq will consider leaving OPEC if the oil producers’ group does not allow Baghdad to sharply raise its production quota, according to a report by Reuters. Iraq’s oil-dependent budget has been badly hit by the Iran war and the disruption of exports through the Strait of Hormuz, increasing pressure on Baghdad to push for a higher output ceiling as OPEC reviews members’ production capacity for future quota baselines. The reported threat comes amid the recent departure of the UAE from the group, which works with members to manage global oil supply and prices.

• Ukrainian drone strike knocks out power in Sevastopol: A Ukrainian drone attack on Russian-occupied Crimea hit Sevastopol’s main power substation overnight, cutting electricity in parts of the strategically important port city, according to Ukrainian officials and the Moscow-installed governor. The strike comes as Kyiv has escalated attacks on Russian-held energy and logistics infrastructure, including facilities tied to fuel supplies and military operations in Crimea, leading to reported gas shortages in the territory which was taken by Russia in 2014.

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