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US troops unload China’s only known aid flight to earthquake-ravaged Venezuela as Americans surge relief
US sends rescue crews to Venezuela after twin earthquakes devastate nation
U.S. search and rescue teams, supported by military assets, are deployed to Venezuela following two devastating earthquakes. The disaster has resulted in at least 920 fatalities and 51,000 missing persons, with over 3,300 injured. The U.N. also dispatches 1,000 emergency workers to assist in the overwhelmed nation’s recovery efforts.
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U.S. troops were seen unloading what Fox News Digital is told was China’s only aid flight sent to Venezuela so far as the country continues to reel from last month’s back-to-back earthquakes.
Photos provided by the U.S. government show an Air-China-branded plane landing at Simon Bolivar Airport on July 6, nearly two weeks after the quakes hit on June 24.
The supplies from the Chinese government were then taken off the aircraft by U.S. soldiers, who have been leading the disaster response and aid distribution efforts.
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An Air China-branded plane lands at Simon Bolivar Airport in Venezuela on July 6, 2026, to deliver aid from the Chinese government (United States Government)
In the photos provided to Fox News Digital, U.S. service members were seen lifting large packages out of shipping containers, using large vehicles to move and organize pallets on the tarmac and loading boxes into trucks for transport.
«Secretary Rubio promised the Trump Administration’s response to the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela would be big, fast, and effective. We continue to deliver on that commitment,» State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
«While some countries say they’ll deliver aid — weeks after natural disasters occur — America shows up, unloads the aid, and ensures that assistance reaches the hands of those who truly need it thanks to our close coordination with the Department of War and the great public-private partnerships our Department has spearheaded,» he added.
The U.S. has moved more than 1.5 million pounds of assistance into Venezuela since the earthquakes struck on June 24, according to the State Department.
A big part of that was repairing Simon Bolivar Airport, which sits just outside the capital city of Caracas, after its runways were seriously damaged in the natural disaster.
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U.S. soldier directs a wheel loader as it moves pallets of aid brought by the Chinese government on July 6, 2026. (United States Government)
«The U.S. military was able to repair that airfield and get it up and running to allow for C-17 and other large aircrafts to land there. And that’s very important as we continue to obviously get international relief supplies in,» a senior State Department official told reporters in late June.
Currently, one runway is operational at the airport, and one of the first American flights into the airport was carrying forklifts to help get supplies unloaded off future flights, according to the State Department official.
Florida-based Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), one of the leading nonprofits gathering and sending aid to Venezuela, said it aims to deliver 100,000 boxes of supplies monthly for the next three to six months, according to The Associated Press.
U.S soldier drives a wheel loader full of supplies on the Simon Bolivar Airport tarmac on July 6, 2026. (United States Government)
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According to GEM’s website, it has shipped nearly 1 million pounds of aid. This includes over 38,000 hygiene kits, more than 27,000 tents and tarps and 48 generators.
GEM founder and president Michael Capponi told the AP that delivering aid to Venezuela now is a «whole different animal» compared to when he tried to send supplies during the reign of Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro, who was captured and deposed during a U.S.-led raid on Jan. 3, did not allow Capponi into the country.
A U.S. soldier undoes wrapping on Chinese aid to Venezuela on July 6, 2026. (United States Government)
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«We land a private plane, it gets unloaded by U.S. soldiers, it goes in a truck we pay for and to a warehouse that we completely control. It doesn’t touch the hands of the Venezuelan government,» he said.
The State Department said on July 9 that the U.S. government has committed more than $386 million for financial assistance to Venezuela flowing through trusted partner groups. Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign minister announced in late June a $14.72 million commitment for financial and material aid to Venezuela, according to Chinese state-run media.
Nearly two weeks after the earthquakes struck, Chinese state media reported about what they called the first batch of aid arriving to Simon Bolivar International Airport on July 6. State media said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil and Chinese Ambassador to Venezuela Lan Hu received the shipment, said to include tents and generators, at the airport.
In late June, the U.S. also mobilized more than 300 search and rescue personnel throughout the country. The Miami Herald reported last week that those teams left after they «completed their mission.»
Relatives of missing people search for victims amid the rubble of a collapsed building in Caraballeda, La Guaira State, Venezuela on July 13, 2026, following the June 24 twin earthquakes. (Martin Bernetti / AFP via Getty Images)
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As of Tuesday, 4,734 people have died from the earthquakes, according to figures released by the Venezuelan government, cited by Reuters. Additionally, there are at least 16,740 people injured, while nearly 18,000 people are homeless.
The earthquakes have destroyed 190 buildings and damaged over 850, Venezuelan officials told the AP.
Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
aid, world, us army, disaster response disasters, aftermath disasters
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Lindy Li, a former top Democratic fundraiser, believes President Joe Biden is only doing himself a disservice by promising the public another explanation of why he decided to run for re-election in 2024 despite mounting concerns about his age and cognitive performance.
In her view, Biden’s upcoming memoir, «Promise Me, America,» will only serve to reopen painful wounds that Democrats have struggled to move past since the 2024 election loss. In a way, she believes the book is a bit of a microcosm of Biden’s presidency.
«They’re thinking, ‘Why can’t you just shut the f— up?’ Prior to me leaving the party, they wanted nothing to do with this guy. It was so bad that when, finally, Biden exited on July 21, there was no goodbye party other than a staffer one in the Rose Garden. There was nothing,» Li said.
«Jill has him writing books that no one wants to read instead of fully enjoying his retirement,» Li said, referring to Jill Biden, the former first lady.
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Former President Biden was dogged throughout his term by rumors of his purported cognitive decline. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
«Just like she had him out running for president — a presidency that no one wanted, not even Democrats — instead of enjoying his retirement. He should have been in retirement 10, 20 years ago, but they need the money.»
Biden described his upcoming book in a post to X Wednesday morning.
«It’s about the challenges we face as a nation. About the decisions I made and why I made them,» Biden said, igniting mockery on social media. «It’s about why I chose to run for reelection and why I chose to step aside.»
«The first lie of Joe Biden’s book launch: ‘I’ve written a book,’» conservative communicator Steve Guest wrote.
«Joe Biden couldn’t sign his own pardons. Now he’s ‘written’ a book, which Democrats forced him to release after the midterms so he wouldn’t be in the news to remind people how bad he was,» wrote Outkick founder Clay Travis. «Who in the world is buying this book?»
«Who do we think wrote this book,» Daily Wire editor-in-chief Brent Scher wondered.
«Did the autopen write this too,» Missouri Republican Rep. Jason Smith questioned.
Li, who is publishing a new book of her own, «Unburdened,» later this year, was privy to many of the party’s internal discussions, research and panic behind the scenes, which indicated Biden enjoyed only shaky support even among his own camp long before he ultimately dropped out of the 2024 election.
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Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser, poses for a picture with former President Joe Biden at a 2023 campaign event. (Lindy Li)
In light of what she knows, Li doubts there is a way for Biden to spin his exit that won’t do further harm to his own image, an image his campaign went to great lengths to protect.
Li recalled how the Biden campaign confiscated her phone at a 2023 event.
«The [Democratic National Committee] was routinely confiscating the phones of top donors with social media followings,» Li said, referring to a party fundraising and campaign group.
«They took away my phone because they knew I was a prolific tweeter. And I posted something on Instagram that night, and a finance director from the DNC called me at around 10 or 11 that same night to instruct me to delete everything from Instagram about Biden that I posted that day.
«The reason is because [Biden] seemed infirm. He seemed weak.»
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Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser, and former President Joe Biden (Lindy Li; Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
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Now on this side of his presidency, Li believes he will further aggravate Democrats who have wanted to move past the 2024 election and reignite questions of why Biden wasn’t asked to step aside sooner.
«It’s very clear they were trying to hide the fact that instead of having a candidate they could be proud of, they were busy hiding a candidate that they were deeply ashamed of,» she added.
Fox News’ Ashley DiMella contributed to this report
politics, biden pushed out, joe biden
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WATCH: Russian soldier thrown through air as Soviet-era helicopter gun spins out of control
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President Donald Trump said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, even as Moscow warned Wednesday that Western troops deployed to enforce any eventual peace deal would become Russian military targets.
«I say, ‘Vladimir, it’s time for you to stop. It’s time for this war to end,’» Trump told Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst in an interview released Tuesday.
Trump said he believed Putin was «ready to make a deal» to end the fighting.
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Meanwhile, fighting continued across Ukraine and Russian-occupied territory.
The intensifying drone war has forced both militaries to search for additional ways to intercept unmanned aircraft, sometimes using weapons designed decades before modern drones emerged.
A video supplied by East2West shows a Russian soldier apparently losing control of a Soviet-era YakB-12.7 rotary machine gun mounted on an improvised ground platform.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump meet in 2019, before their relationship began to sour. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
The weapon begins spinning violently, dragging the service member around before throwing him several yards from the mounting. Another soldier ducks as the gun swings in his direction.
East2West reported that no one was injured, though Fox News Digital has not independently verified the location, date or circumstances of the footage.
The four-barrel machine gun was originally developed for use aboard the Soviet-designed Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter. Russian forces have reportedly attempted to repurpose such weapons as ground-based defenses against Ukrainian drones, East2West news reported.
TRUMP SAYS US WILL LET UKRAINE MAKE PATRIOT MISSILES IN MAJOR POLICY SHIFT
An explosion lights up the sky over the city during a Russian missile and drone strike amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine in Kyiv July 2, 2026. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said any multinational force deployed by Ukraine’s allies after a ceasefire would be unacceptable to Moscow.
«We would regard such units as legitimate military targets,» Zakharova said, according to a Reuters report published Wednesday.
Members of the Western «coalition of the willing» reaffirmed at a meeting in Paris this week that they intend to deploy a multinational force after hostilities end. The proposed force would seek to reassure Ukraine and help Kyiv rebuild its military.
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Ukraine’s military said Wednesday that its forces struck the Balaklava thermal power station in Russian-occupied Crimea, a facility that accounts for nearly half of the peninsula’s electricity generation, according to Reuters.
Russia, meanwhile, launched another major drone and missile attack against Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing three people, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said. He said civilian, industrial and port infrastructure had been targeted during five consecutive days of Russian attacks.
Emergency services personnel work to extinguish a vehicle fire after a Russian drone attack in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, May 5, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service/AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said Wednesday that Ukraine expects to develop the technical capability to manufacture missiles for U.S.-made Patriot air-defense systems by the end of 2026.
Reuters contributed to this story.
russia, ukraine, vladimir putin, world
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