Almost 5,000 people are known to have died in two earthquakes that devastated Venezuela in June, but the United Nations estimates that as many as 50,000 people may still be missing – with many feared buried under rubble.

The number of confirmed deaths is now higher at 4,930, lawmaker Jorge Rodriguez announced on Thursday

The disaster almost a month ago impacted tens of thousands of others. Nearly 17,000 people are wounded, and 21,120 are living in shelters.

Venezuelan teams have been operating since the earthquake struck, but locals say their response has been slow.

“From the very first moment, from when the earthquake happened, there was an immediate response, but from civilians. Civilians and independent people. The state’s response is only being seen now,” Cinthia Pulido, a Venezuelan displaced by the earthquakes, told Al Jazeera. “We’re watching and waiting for some kind of answer.”

International rescue teams sent in the immediate aftermath of the disaster have left as the focus moves to providing humanitarian relief.

“The little I can get is just for me to survive, support my children, and help my mum,” Louismarez Paez, who has also been displaced, told Al Jazeera.

Her mother, she said, does not receive any assistance other than that which she herself provides.

Venezuela has ‘crucial resources’ it cannot access

Venezuela has faced tight US sanctions since 2015, which experts say is making the government’s job even harder.

“Venezuela has crucial resources that it is not being allowed to access,” Mark Weisbrot, senior economist and co-director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said.

That includes $11bn blocked by the US and European countries that Venezuela “should legally have”, Weisbrot said.

Earlier this week, a group of 14 Democratic lawmakers in the US sent a letter urging the White House to ease economic sanctions on Venezuela to aid recovery efforts, according to a report from Spanish newspaper El Pais.

The sanctions, they wrote, are “severely hampering urgent relief efforts” and have “severely undermined the country’s response and reconstruction efforts”.

The UN estimates that the recovery efforts in Venezuela could cost the country $37bn.

[Aljazeera]

Argentina face the prospect of a Fifa fine after their players celebrated the World Cup semi-final win against England with a banner in support of their country’s claims to the Falkland Islands.

The defending world champions produced a dramatic late comeback in Atlanta, scoring twice to defeat Thomas Tuchel’s side 2-1 and book a showdown with Spain in Sunday’s final.

After the final whistle, Argentina players celebrated while holding a banner reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”, which translates as “The Falklands are Argentine”.

The Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory in the south-west Atlantic Ocean, remain the subject of a sovereignty dispute between Britain and Argentina.

The two nations went to war over the group of islands, situated 300 miles off Argentina’s east coast, from April to June 1982.

The 74-day conflict led to the deaths of 655 Argentine and 255 British servicemen. Three people from the islands also died.

In 2014, Fifa fined the Argentine Football Association 20,000 pounds after its players held up a banner with the same message before a friendly against Slovenia.

World football’s governing body said the gesture had breached rules on political action and team misconduct.

[BBC]

The death toll in a fire at a popular live music pub in Bangkok has risen to 32 after two more people died from their injuries, as Thai police continue to investigate possible negligence as a factor in the blaze.

The Erawan Emergency Medical Centre said on Wednesday that 30 people remained in hospitals in the city, with 15 of those being treated in intensive care units. It said 44 people had been discharged.

The fire, Thailand’s deadliest in 17 years, broke out at the Rong Beer Na Ladprao late on Sunday night. It took firefighters 30 minutes to put out the blaze.

Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation, while a few died from burn injuries, Wiroon Supasingsiripreecha, chief of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, told journalists on Wednesday.

Local police said that most of the people who were found dead were trapped in windowless bathrooms, where they may have tried to escape the blaze.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, and police are investigating the possibility of negligence at the venue, including whether emergency exits were obstructed.

Authorities say an electrical short circuit in a ceiling-mounted air conditioner may have sparked the fire. Some experts say that combustible acoustic materials around the stage may have ignited, producing extreme heat and smoke.

Some survivors and family members of victims arrived at the Phahonyothin Police Station on Wednesday to give statements, gather belongings and seek compensation.

Natthaphong Lakhorn, 26, told the Associated Press news agency that he was close to the stage when the fire started.

[Aljazeera]