
Russia launches deadly drone attacks on Ukrainian capital
He said at least 13 people were injured, and there were fires in at least five other districts at residential buildings, cars, warehouses, office and other non-residential structures.
Kyiv residents have sheltered in a metro station (AP)
In a post on the Telegram messaging app, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said rescue workers were working at a residential building in Shevchenkivskyi District, after falling debris caused a fire on the top floor of an apartment building.
He said three of the injured had shrapnel wounds.
Karyna Holf, 23, was in the living room near the window when she heard a whistling sound from the incoming weapon. Moment later, little was left of the room but debris.
'After such a shock, when you know from your own experience what it's like to lose everything,' she said. 'I don't even know what comes next. All I have now is a backpack, a phone, a winter coat – that's it. This is my whole life now.'
Ms Holf said she was grateful she had her parents to turn to, but added: 'There are people who have no-one at all.'
At least two people were killed (AP)
Russia has recently sought to overwhelm Ukraine's air defences with major attacks that include increasing numbers of decoy drones.
The previous night, it fired more than 700 attack and decoy drones, topping previous nightly barrages for the third time in two weeks.
More people are seeking shelter during attacks, spending nights in metro stations and underground car parks. One Kyiv station worker said more than a thousand people, including 70 children, took refuge there last night as Russian strikes intensified.
At least 13 people were injured (AP)
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was 'not happy' with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has not budged from his ceasefire and peace demands since Mr Trump took office in January and began to push for a settlement.
Mr Trump said on Monday that the US would have to send more weapons to Ukraine, just days after Washington paused critical weapons deliveries to Kyiv.
On Wednesday, the US resumed deliveries of certain weapons, including 155 mm munitions and precision-guided rockets known as GMLRS, US officials said.
It is unclear exactly when the weapons started moving.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Trump's mass layoffs hit State Department as 1,300 workers are axed in deep state purge
The State Department has officially fired more than 1,300 workers after it warned them late on Thursday that mass layoffs were set to commence. The department sent layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with assignments in the United States, the Associated Press reported. The notices said positions were being 'abolished.' The employees affected were also told they'd lose access to the State Department headquarters in Washington D.C., their emails and their shared drives by 5pm on Friday. The layoffs come only days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump 's executive order allowing mass layoffs across the federal government to proceed, despite ongoing legal challenges. Employees, some of whom were crying, were seen exiting the State Department holding boxes of their belongings. Staffers who weren't laid off lined up in the lobby and applauded for their former colleagues. Outside the building were dozens of former colleagues, ambassadors, members of Congress and others who were protesting. Signs seen in the crowd said, 'Thank you to America's diplomats,' and 'We all deserve better.' 'We talk about people in uniform serving. But foreign service officers take an oath of office, just like military officers,' Anne Bodine, who retired from the State Department in 2011 after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the AP. 'This is not the way to treat people who served their country and who believe in "America First."' Friday's firings were part of President Donald Trump's mission to dramatically shrink the size of the federal government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, though not yet commenting on the layoffs, was the one who proposed to Congress the reorganization of his department in late May. The State Department also lauded the Supreme Court ruling that allowed this reorganization to go through unchallenged. 'Today's near unanimous decision from the Supreme Court further confirms that the law was on our side throughout this entire process. We will continue to move forward with our historic reorganization plan at the State Department, as announced earlier this year,' the department posted on X, which was later reposted by Rubio himself. Rubio said officials took 'a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused.' 'It's not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don't need those positions,' Rubio told reporters Thursday. 'Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.' Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they will formally lose their jobs. For most civil servants the separation period lasts 60 days. Critics say the scale of cuts floated at the State Department will 'leave the US with limited tools to engage as a leader on the world stage during this critical juncture,' making it hard for many offices to carry out their missions. The cuts follow Trump's earlier elimination of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) - a major pillar of America's global aid apparatus that employed over 10,000 people worldwide. Diplomats warn the gutting of both agencies in a single year could cripple US influence abroad, especially as conflicts intensify in the Middle East and Ukraine, and China expands its global footprint. The American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents diplomats, urged the State Department last month to hold off on job cuts. Notices for a reduction in force, which would not only lay off employees but eliminate positions altogether, 'should be a last resort,' association President Tom Yazdgerdi said. 'Disrupting the Foreign Service like this puts national interests at risk - and Americans everywhere will bear the consequences.' While the administration is framing the cuts as streamlining, critics say the real effect is a hollowing out of US diplomacy with human rights, refugee resettlement, and war crimes offices facing extinction under the restructuring.


The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
Trump team defends ICE raid at California marijuana farm where children were allegedly found working
President Donald Trump's administration has defended violent immigration raids targeting cannabis farms in California, where masked federal agents discovered allegedly undocumented minors who are victims of 'exploitation' and 'potentially human trafficking or smuggling,' according to the Department of Homeland Security. The United Farm Workers union said several workers were critically injured during the raids, while other targeted workers, including a U.S. citizen, 'remain totally unaccounted for.' Agents are accused of chasing one worker who fell 30 feet from the top of a building. He was hospitalized and placed on life support, before dying from his injuries on Friday, according to the union. The raids — which sparked an intense standoff between heavily armed federal officers and dozens of protesters — were condemned by California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose office accused Trump's administration of wielding an anti-immigration agenda that has brought 'chaos, fear and terror' into communities. 'There's a real cost to these inhumane immigration actions on hardworking families and communities, including farmworker communities, across America,' his office said in a statement. Agents arrived on Thursday in military-style vehicles to execute 'criminal search warrants' inside facilities operated by Glass House Farms, according to Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. The farms span 5.5 million square feet in California's Ventura County where it is legal for licensed operators to grow cannabis. Firefighters were dispatched around 12.15 p.m. to provide medical aid. Five people were hospitalized, and four others were treated at the farm, according to the Ventura County Fire Department. In a statement on social media, Glass House Farms said it 'fully complied with agent search warrants and will provide further updates if necessary.' Video showed agents firing tear gas and crowd control munitions into a crowd of protesters near a farm house in Camarillo. Agents were also raiding another farm site roughly 30 miles away. The FBI issued a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a demonstrator, who appeared to fire a pistol during the melee, according to federal prosecutors. Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott said agents found 10 undocumented children at the facility, including eight who were unaccompanied. It is legal in California for minors as young as 12 to work on farms but only in non-hazardous jobs and outside of school hours. Administration officials shared photos on social media showing masked agents posing with the alleged children they discovered and accused Newsom of failing to stop 'child exploitation.' 'We prosecute criminals that break child labor laws,' Newsom replied. 'You make the kids pose for photos, tear gas them, and promote laws like this,' said the governor, sharing articles about Republican-led legislation to loosen child labor laws. The workers, which included citizens, were held by federal authorities for more than eight hours. The American citizens were only released from custody if they agreed to delete video of the operation from their phones, according to United Farm Workers. The union also is demanding the 'immediate facilitation' of legal representation for minors at the facility. 'Farm workers are excluded from basic child labor laws and it is unfortunately not uncommon for teenagers to work in the fields,' the group said. 'To be clear: detaining and deporting children is not a solution for child labor.' The Trump administration's 'violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,' the union said. 'There is no city, state or federal district where it is legal to terrorize and detain people for being brown and working in agriculture. These raids must stop immediately.' The federal operation on Thursday was the latest in a series of immigration raids that have rocked communities across California and drawn federal lawsuits to stop them. Workplace raids spiked after the administration rescinded previous ICE policy that prohibited enforcement actions in sensitive locations such as places of worship, schools and hospitals. Under apparent pressure from the agricultural sector, which is made up of roughly 40 percent noncitizen workers, Trump has considered limiting enforcement actions on farms and developing a program for temporary work permits. But the president's border czar Tom Homan has said there will be 'no amnesty' for undocumented workers. The Trump administration has deployed officers across federal law enforcement agencies to focus on immigration enforcement, with a directive from the White House to make at least 3,000 daily arrests — a quota that immigration attorneys say will almost certainly result in 'collateral' arrests that could tear apart families and communities with mixed legal status. The president has also approved a record-breaking budget to hire more ICE officers and expand immigration detention center space across the country, making the agency one of the most expensive law enforcement agencies in the world, with a budget larger than most countries' militaries. More than 57,000 people are currently held in ICE custody, or roughly 140 percent more than its detention capacity. A vast majority of those immigrants do not have criminal records and 93 percent have not been convicted of any violent crime.


NBC News
5 hours ago
- NBC News
How latest block of Trump's birthright citizenship order tests legal landscape after Supreme Court ruling
A federal judge's decision to temporarily prevent the Trump administration from stripping birthright citizenship for some babies born in the U.S. is an early test of the legal landscape, after the Supreme Court greatly restricted the ability of judges to issue nationwide blocks of presidential policies. On Thursday morning, in New Hampshire, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante granted class action status to a lawsuit that seeks to protect babies who would be denied birthright citizenship, and granted a temporary block of President Donald Trump's order from going into effect throughout the country. The decision brought hope to pregnant women and groups who were dealt a blow two weeks ago when the Supreme Court largely restricted the ability of federal judges to use one of the strongest tools at their disposal — the use of nationwide injunctions to prevent federal policies from going into effect. The Supreme Court decision would have allowed Trump's executive order to go into effect on July 27 in parts of the U.S. In the aftermath, immigrants and their attorneys pivoted to seeking class action status for immigrant babies and parents in hopes of finding another way to stop the president. 'It was clear that the Supreme Court decision had closed one very important door for challenging policies, but it also in the process opened other doors,' Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow with the Migration Policy Institute, told NBC News. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether Trump's executive order is unconstitutional and multiple lawsuits challenging it remain ongoing. But its decision on June 27 left open an important avenue for plaintiffs to try to stop federal government policies nationwide through the use of class action lawsuits. 'This case is an early test for how litigants will adapt to the legal landscape after the Supreme Court's death blow to national injunctions,' Chishti said. 'It normally takes months, if not years, for an altered landscape to be observed. But since this is such an important constitutional issue, we are getting a chance to revisit the landscape within two weeks.' Under Trump's plan, birthright citizenship would be limited to those who have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. The order also denies citizenship to children whose mothers are temporarily in the United States, including those visiting under the Visa Waiver Program or as tourists, or who are students and whose fathers are not citizens or lawful permanent residents. In the written order issued Thursday, Laplante wrote that the court certified class action status to the following group in issuing the nationwide block of Trump's order: 'All current and future persons who are born on or after February 20, 2025, where (1) that person's mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person's father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person's birth, or (2) that person's mother's presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person's father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person's birth.' Laplante, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, had previously denied issuing a nationwide injunction in a similar case earlier this year. Instead, he had issued a narrower order where he only blocked the policy from being enforced on members of groups that would be affected by Trump's order. A 'viable' legal challenge But his order on Thursday effectively blocked Trump's executive order from being enforced nationwide, at least temporarily. 'This was a ruling that certified a preliminary class of folks across the nation from a judge who was skeptical of nationwide injunctions, and so I think it shows that the class action mechanism is a viable one, that courts are willing to entertain,' said Haiyun Damon-Feng, an immigration and constitutional law professor at Cardozo School of Law. Cody Wofsy, the American Civil Liberties Union's lead attorney in the case, said after Thursday's court hearing that Laplante's order was 'going to protect every single child around the country from this lawless, unconstitutional and cruel executive order.' White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement to NBC News that the decision was 'an obvious and unlawful attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court's clear order against universal relief.' 'This judge's decision disregards the rule of law by abusing class action certification procedures. The Trump Administration will be fighting vigorously against the attempts of these rogue district court judges to impede the policies President Trump was elected to implement,' Fields said in the statement. The Trump administration has seven days to appeal Laplante's temporary block to a higher court, and the issue could find itself back at the Supreme Court to determine if the judge's order complies with last month's ruling. 'It's not the end right of the birthright question. We are probably going to see more fights take place over procedure, over the question of class certification, as well as the question of birthright citizenship on the merits,' Damon-Feng said.