EARTHQUAKE: Major earthquakes of 7.5 And 7.2  magnitude struck Venezuela, collapsing buildings and knocking out electricity in parts of the country.  It’s still early in the search and rescue but the number of dead is at least 164 and the injured, 971.

  The numbers are expected to rise. Countries from around the world are offering aid and search and rescue teams.

  The two quakes were just 39 seconds apart and the 7.5  was the largest in Venezzueka since 1900, according to the US Geological Survey. 

  The epicenters were west of Valencia and Caracas. Early reports suggest that the damage is extensive. The quakes hit during the evening of a holiday celebrating an 1821 battle that eventually led to Venezuela’s independence from Spain.

  Tsunami warnings were  briefly issued for parts of the Caribbean by including the  coastlines of Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the British Virgin Islands.

THE WAR ROOM: Republican Senators reversed themselves last night on a vote to limit President Trump’s war powers following a shouting-match luncheon.

  The President and Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy shouted at each other over Cassidy’s previous vote to limit Trump’s power to wage war on Iran. Trump called Cassidy a “lunatic,” one of his favorite insults. Cassidy told reporters, “I matched his tone and his volume, and it went back and forth.”

  Trump complained that a vote to limit his war powers would hinder his negotiations with Iran.  

IT’S POLITICAL: President Trump yesterday refused to sign the bipartisan affordable housing bill, holding out for Congress to pass his voter restrictions bill that would require identification and reduced voting by mail.

  With midterm elections coming up, both parties want to be seen as champions of affordability, but Trump wrote on his social media that passing his Save America Act is a national emergency. “The Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren centric housing bill, which is of minor importance compared to lower interest rates, and even FISA, pales in comparison to passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.” 

  Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota has said the Republicans do not have the votes to pass Trump’s bill. By comparison, between the House and Senate, only 37 legislators voted against the housing affordability act.

  Senator Warren of Massachusetts said, “This just doesn’t make any sense, other than whatever it is he wants to do is a complete indifference to the cost squeeze on American families and to genuine efforts to do something about it.”

  The housing bill would loosen regulations to encourage construction and limit Wall Street investors from buying homes to turn around as rental properties. The bill is designed to increase the supply of homes, thereby lowering prices. If Trump does not veto it, the bill becomes law in 10 days.

INFINITE SCROLL: 

— President Trump asked Congress yesterday to approve $87.6 billion in extra spending for the war with Iran as well as for unrelated programs. About $70 billion would go for the war.

— Following a flu outbreak among trainees at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, the Air Force has asked the Pentagon to restore mandatory flu shots for the troops. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abandoned the requirement for flu inoculations as a matter of personal and religious freedom in the services.

—  President Trump accused major oil companies including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell ,and BP  of potential price gouging on gasoline, arguing that prices “should be, in my opinion, $2.25 right now at the pump, and we’re higher than that.”

— A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from obtaining medical records held by healthcare institutions in New York City that have provided gender identity care to minors. The ruling is a blow to the Trump administration’s attempts to investigate gender care for minors as a potential crime. 

— Acting Director of National intelligence Bill Pulte, who has no experience in intelligence, immediately began cutting staff, firing six intelligence officers and sending 45 others back to their home agencies. 

  Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas and the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee,said it is a step in the right direction. Cotton is the senator who while questioning a witness during a 2024 hearing didn’t know that Singapore is not part of China.

— A federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump Administration to explain why tarpaulins still cover the name John F. Kennedy following the removal of Donald Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

THE OBIT PAGE: Jill Smokler, a mother of three who wrote the popular blog “Scary Mommy” as a release from bedtime battles and tantrums offering a candid look to  millions of readers about what she called “the imperfect side of parenting,” died Monday at home in Pikesville, Maryland near Baltimore. She was 48 and had brain cancer.

  Smokler said she had started the blog on a whim, thinking it would be read only by friends and family. In one post she wrote, “Motherhood is siblings bickering over who can look out of which window and who started it and who you love the most even though you love all of them the same but at the moment you don’t like any of them in the slightest.”

  Smokler was married for 17 years to Jeff Smokler, who came out as gay and the couple divorced.

THE SPIN RACK: Spain says as many as 200 people have died in that country as a result of the European heat wave. France recorded its highest temperature ever, 111.7 F in the southeast. —  A NY Times reporter knocked on the door of New Jersey Republican Rep., who has been missing from Washington since March. Kean answered the door in a suit and tie and said, “It’s good to see you.” He said, “I’ll talk to you next week, thank you.”

BELOW THE FOLD: Pop star Taylor Swift has reserved Madison Square Garden for a crowd of 1,000 on July 3^rd to witness her wedding to NFL tight end Travis Kelce. Just the closest friends and family.

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