Melania Trump makes rare public statement with tribute to Camp Mystic girls caught up in catastrophic Texas floods
'My deepest sympathy to all of the parents who lost beautiful young souls,' she said after touring the devastation with President Donald Trump. 'We are grieving with you.'
The first couple toured damaged areas along the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, one of the towns devastated by the storms that have killed at least 120. They also were briefed by officials and took the opportunity to thank first responders.
And they later privately met with family members of the victims. 'We pray with them, we hug, we hold hands,' the first lady said of that time.
Melania Trump showed off a bracelet that she was given in honor of the victims from Camp Mystic, where at least 27 girls and counselors died in the flash floods.
'I met beautiful young ladies. They gave me this special bracelet from the camp in honor of all of the little girls that lost their lives. So we are here to honor them and also to give the support,' she said, holding up her arm with a silver charm bracelet on it.
The first lady rarely speaks in public but made a heartfelt statement of support to the grieving and vowed to return to the area.
'I will be back. I promise to them. And I just pray for them and giving them my strength and love,' she said.
More than 100 people are still missing a week after Texas Hill Country was hit by heavy rain and flash floods that destroyed homes and left families picking up the pieces.
Emergency workers and volunteers are still searching through the debris and there are hopes some trapped residents could be found alive.
But the death toll could still rise in the coming days.
She and the president stayed close during the tour and shared a tender moment before they left for Texas.
Outside the White House, Trump put his arm around the First Lady who was casually dressed in jeans, sneakers and a light jacket. Trump wore a blue suit and white shirt but no ties
From Texas they will head to Bedminster, New Jersey, and the Trump National Golf Club there. On Sunday, they'll quietly mark the one-year anniversary of the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pa.
The Trump family will be together in the morning and, that afternoon, Melania Trump will accompany the president to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to watch the Club World Cup Final match.
But, first they'll mark a somber Friday in Texas.
Their visit comes a week after heavy rainfall caused the Guadalupe River in Kerr County to rise 26 feet in less than an hour, killing at least 121, including dozens of children at the nearby Christian summer camp, Camp Mystic.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott joined the Trumps on the trip.
Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn traveled with the Trumps on Air Force One.
Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise, with more than 160 people still missing.
Trump approved a major disaster declaration for Texas earlier this week.
The president, unlike in other disasters, has not cast blame on anyone for the tragedy, calling it a horrible accident.
'I would just say this is a hundred-year catastrophe, and it's just so horrible to watch,' the president said on Sunday.
It was a marked difference from his comments on California and the devastating wildfires in that state. Trump was loud and vocal in his criticism of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Some of the hardest-hit areas of central Texas are places of strong Republican support that voted for Trump in the 2024 election.
The White House also has pushed back at criticism that FEMA and the National Weather Service was understaffed, making early warning efforts more difficult.
'Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at her briefing on Monday.
And, in a Cabinet meeting this week, Trump praised Noem for her department's handling of the response.
The Department of Homeland Security oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
'You had people there as fast as anybody's ever seen,' the president told Noem.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican and close ally of the president, said Trump was saddened by the event, particularly over the loss of the children.
'He could not stop talking about how sad he was for all the little girls who have lost their lives,' said Abbott, who has spoken with Trump repeatedly. 'He recounted his own understanding of what happened with what was really a tsunami wave, a wall of water, that swept too many of them away.'
'And he cares a lot about those young ladies. And he wants to step up and make sure that any need that we have here in Texas is going to be met very quickly,' Abbott added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
35 minutes ago
- Telegraph
How a single bullet changed Donald Trump forever
The chart showing immigration numbers was usually displayed in the closing minutes of the stump speech and on the other side of the stage. So, when Donald Trump turned his head to the right to glance at the graph, escaping an assassin's bullet by millimetres, many thought they saw the hand of God. 'There's a confluence of things that happened to avert tragedy, and I think he talks about how there must have been some divine intervention,' says Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, who was present on July 13 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. 'That is the change.' It was the day a bullet grazed Mr Trump's ear, upending the 2024 election campaign and changing the president forever. Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old would-be assassin of Mr Trump was shot dead by the Secret Service at the scene. Crooks also fatally shot audience member Corey Comperatore, and injured two other people in the crowd. Since then, Mr Trump has talked about his nerves when people move around in the crowd at his rallies, flirted with the idea of uniting the nation, and described his mission to save America as the work of God. This weekend, however, there will be little in the way of commemoration. An interview with Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, is due to be broadcast on Fox News on Saturday, when he will reflect on the past year. And that is all in keeping with a man who prefers not to look backwards, say insiders. 'He's a busy man. There's a lot to get on with,' said a senior administration official. In the past year, Mr Trump pulled off an extraordinary political comeback, becoming only the second president in history to serve non-consecutive terms. He has governed at a rapid pace, slashing the federal workforce, axing foreign aid, challenging the world to a trade war, reducing illegal immigration, and bringing media critics to heel. Mr Cheung said there had been no time to take a step back immediately after the assassination attempt. 'Immediately we went into the Republican National Convention (RNC),' he said, 'Immediately he went back on the campaign trail.' Just two days after being wounded, Mr Trump made his triumphal entry at the RNC in Milwaukee, pacing down an entry corridor in front of a camera, looking every inch the heavyweight champ returning to the ring. Thousands of supporters embraced the religious parallel. 'July 13 was the same date when the Holy Mother revealed the third secret of Fatima,' said a Catholic attendee. That was the date in 1917 when the Virgin Mary appeared to three Portuguese children, entrusting them with her prophecies. The vision foretold an attack on a 'bishop dressed in white,' and was only revealed in 2000, 19 years after an assassin tried to kill Pope John Paul II. 'You can't make this stuff up,' added the Trump supporter. For a while Mr Trump held his rallies indoors, reducing the threat of a copycat sniper. But six weeks later his security team rejigged the setup with bulletproof screens allowing the Republican candidate to resume his trademark events. His ear had healed quickly, but Mr Trump admitted some other scars might remain. During a rally in New York in September he appeared startled by a sudden movement in the audience. 'I thought this was a wise guy coming up,' he said. 'You know, I've got a little bit of a yip problem here. Right? That was amazing. I was all ready to start duking it out.' There were other effects from the shooting, according to Blake Marnell, who travels around the country attending rallies and who was in the front row at Butler, resplendent in his distinctive brick-patterned suit. He said older voters remember the anger and violence in the country around the time of the murder of John F Kennedy. If anything, the shooting this time helped voters coalesce around the wounded leader. 'When you look at the other effects post Butler, you can't ignore the fact that that is one of the driving factors that got Robert F Kennedy and president Trump speaking, which led to the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) coalition,' he said, referring to a member of the famous liberal political clan, who was best known as an environmental lawyer. 'That also crystallised Elon Musk's support for the president.' The world's richest man endorsed Mr Trump on the night after the shooting. And he appeared on stage with him when the Republican candidate returned to Butler three months later. For a while Mr Trump's speeches took on a more bipartisan air. Aides described how a caustic convention address was toned down in the interests of national unity. 'The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly,' he said at the start of his 90-minute speech. 'As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart.' Headlines about a softer Mr Trump did not last long, however, as he quickly resumed his scathing attacks on Joe Biden, the then president, and Kamala Harris, his election opponent. What endured was a greater sense of mission in a man who pulled off a surprise win in 2016 and at times struggled to impose his will on Washington during that first term. Mr Trump himself used religious framing to describe his campaign after his narrow escape in Butler. He was often seen taking part in group prayers, the president in the middle, head bowed, as supporters reached out to touch his arm, an elbow, the back of his chair. 'I would love to think it's God, and it's God doing it because he wants to save America,' he said in an interview. 'He sees what's happening. God sees what's happening in America.' He shrugged off questions about PTSD or mental scars, but has returned repeatedly to the idea that surviving that day has toughened his resolve and his faith. 'It changed something in me,' he said a month after returning to the White House. 'I feel, I feel even stronger. I believed in God but I feel much more strongly about it.' The result was a greater sense of purpose, said Mr Cheung. 'I think it was a further resolve of how important it was to work on behalf of the people, and that the mission took on an even greater importance,' he said.
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
A red state reckons with Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
WALKER, La. — Few states stand to lose as much from the megabill that President Donald Trump signed into law as Louisiana. With more poverty and disease than most of the country, Louisiana relies heavily on Medicaid benefits going to people who lack the means to cover a doctor's visit on their own. That fragile lifeline is now in jeopardy. The 'Big Beautiful Bill' that Trump muscled through Congress chops Medicaid spending by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. Out of sheer self-interest, Louisiana might seem a state that would fight to preserve Medicaid. About 35% of Louisianans under the age of 65 were covered by Medicaid in 2023, the most recent year data was available. That figure is the second highest among the 50 states, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy organization. Yet the state also voted heavily for Trump in the 2024 election and, polling shows, appreciates the job he's doing as president. Louisiana loves Trump but needs Medicaid. How does a deep-red state reconcile the two? Interviews with a dozen Louisianans, most of whom supported Trump, suggest that many in the state have absorbed the arguments that Trump and his congressional allies used to sell the bill. A few warning signs for Trump emerged. Some of his voters aren't thrilled with what they describe as his bombast or are skeptical the measure will live up to its grandiose title. 'He's a jacka-- — he's the best jacka-- we've got,' said Jason Kahl, 56, wearing a shirt decorated like the American flag during a July 4 celebration in Mandeville, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. 'A lot of times he says things that we're thinking, but don't want to say out loud,' Lydia DeRouen, 66, a customer at Cat's Coffee and Creamery in DeRidder, Louisiana, said on a recent morning. The state's embrace of the new law points to a dynamic prevalent in the Trump era: If he says he wants something, that's good enough for many of his voters. 'I just support President Trump. Most everything he's doing, I'm in on it,' said Sue Armand, a 65-year-old retiree who attended a recent festival at a park in Walker, a city outside the state capital of Baton Rouge. Nationwide, the act will reduce the number of people receiving Medicaid by nearly 12 million over the next 10 years, the largest cutback since President Lyndon Johnson created the program 60 years ago as part of his 'Great Society' agenda. Among the bill's provisions are requirements that those between 19 and 64 years old work a minimum of 20 hours a week unless they are caring for a child or are disabled. The bill also limits states' ability to raise certain taxes to help pay for their share of Medicaid programs, which could cause cuts across the board. Real-world consequences could prove dramatic. 'A lot of people who will be impacted the most negatively are Trump voters,' said Silas Lee, a New Orleans-based pollster. 'We see that in different parts of the nation, where many other communities that supported Trump will experience severe cuts in services that are critical to their survival,' Lee added. Alyssa Custard of New Orleans worries what the wider cuts to Medicaid funding will mean for her family. Her 88-year-old mother suffers from dementia and goes to an adult day care center in New Orleans. Custard's mother, who worked as a preschool teacher most of her life, has little retirement savings and not enough to pay for long-term, private in-home care. Custard and her siblings have been providing care themselves and have been able to keep working because of the adult day care program. But that funding could now be in jeopardy with the cuts to Medicaid. 'My mom worked taking care of other people's kids in the educational system for 50 years,' Custard said. 'She paid into all these things, and now, when it's time for her to reap the benefits of what she paid into for a long time, you have this bill that is taking this away from her and all the other people.' A talking point that proponents used to pass the bill was that Medicaid is rife with abuse and that the changes would expel undeserving recipients from the rolls. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump loyalist who helped steer the bill through Congress, represents a swath of western Louisiana where nearly 25% of adults under 65 rely on Medicaid. Johnson has suggested that beneficiaries include able-bodied people who won't work and are thus ' defrauding the system.' 'There's a moral component to what we're doing. And when you make young men work, it's good for them, it's good for their dignity, it's good for their self-worth, and it's good for the community that they live in,' he said in May. That justification rings true to many in his home state, who believe that federal benefits more broadly are going to the wrong people. Jason Wallace, 37, an accountant working a 'Nibbles and Noshes' stand at the Walker festival, said that when it comes to Medicaid, 'Some of the stuff I've heard about [the new law is that it is] trying to keep illegals from taking advantage of our benefits that they don't pay into at all.' A common belief is that taxpaying citizens are getting shortchanged, giving rise to feelings of umbrage that Trump has managed to harness. The new law also makes cuts to a food assistance program known as SNAP. Along with Medicaid, Congress pared back SNAP benefits to create savings that would help offset the cost of extending the tax cuts Trump signed in his first term. 'You go stand in line and the lady in front of me has her nails done, her hair done and she's got food stamps. I work too hard for what I get,' said Charles Gennaro, 78, who was among those on the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline in Mandeville on July 4 as a bluegrass band played on an outdoor stage. 'People come into this country for no reason and get things that they shouldn't get,' he added. Nancy Adams, 50, who also turned out for the celebration in Mandeville, said: 'I'm a single mom. I raised my daughter, struggling every day. And yet these illegals come in and they can get everything. I'm paying for them. But I'm struggling to raise my daughter and I don't qualify for food stamps or anything.' Independent analyses of the Medicaid program show that most recipients are already employed. KFF released a report in May showing that in 2023, nearly two-thirds of those under 65 receiving Medicaid and not other forms of federal aid were working full or part time. Those who lacked jobs cited reasons that included school attendance, care-giving duties, illness, disability or other causes. A separate KFF report that month showed that 95% of Medicaid payments last year were made properly, while the vast majority of improper payments sprang from paperwork errors or administrative actions. Robin Rudowitz, director of KFF's program on Medicaid and the uninsured, cited government estimates that 10 million people could lose health insurance coverage under the new law. 'These are not people who were fraudulently on the program,' she said. Heading toward DeRidder in the western part of the state, a driver sees billboards advertising legal services for those who've endured car wrecks or injury or are in bankruptcy. A city of about 10,000, DeRidder is part of Johnson's congressional district. A Walmart in the city was doing brisk business last Sunday, with people stocking up on groceries and supplies. Some customers of varying ages weren't ambulatory and used motorized carts. Outside the store, Don Heston, 41, who works in the oil and gas industry, described Medicaid as a 'great idea,' but one that 'needs serious rework.' 'Lots of people who are on it shouldn't be. You have people that have paid into it their entire life. They're physically messed up. They can't work any more and they can't get it. But you have people who have never worked a job with any meaning and they're getting it that quick' he said, snapping his fingers, 'because they know the ins and outs of the system.' Weeding out those who are abusing the program might be a worthy goal, but Medicaid advocates worry that cuts won't be made with such precision. Those who truly need the help may get caught up in the purge, according to Keith Liederman, CEO of Clover, the organization that serves Alyssa Custard's mother. 'In the state of Louisiana, it's many of the same staunch supporters of our president who are going to suffer as a result of this bill, and especially in rural areas of our state, of which there are many, many struggling individuals and families, many of whom are supporters of the president,' Liederman said. Clover is bracing for severe cuts that could cause it to shutter its adult day care service entirely, Liederman added. 'It's confounding to me how so many people throughout our country, when they think about people who are economically poor and struggling, think that there's something wrong with them, that they're not trying hard enough, that they're not working hard enough, that they're shirkers trying to abuse the system,' he said. 'That couldn't be further from the truth based on my direct experience in working with thousands of people who are in these positions. I've never seen people who work harder and who are trying harder to get out of poverty than the people that we serve and so many others in our community.' If health centers that rely on Medicaid patients are forced to close, it will affect patients with other forms of health insurance as well, who also rely on those providers in their community. At the David Raines Community Health Centers in northwest Louisiana, which includes several clinics in Johnson's district, officials are preparing to make cuts to their services as they anticipate a significant drop-off in the number of their patients with health insurance as a result of changes in the bill, David Raines CEO Willie White said. 'It really is going to be devastating, to say the least, for the patients that we serve and for other community health centers as a whole, as to how we're going to be able to continue to provide the level of access that we currently provide,' White said. 'I'm just not sure how it's going to work.' Clocking in at nearly 900 pages, the act brims with policy changes that will take time for voters across the country to digest. Trump directed Republican lawmakers to pass it by July 4, and they complied. So far, the bulk of this pro-Trump state seems pleased that they did. But some who voted for Trump are waiting and watching. They know the new law is big; they're just not sure yet whether it's beautiful. Jennifer Bonano, 52, is a retail clerk who came to the festival in Walker. Sitting in her folding chair, she said she voted for Trump but isn't persuaded yet that the new law is all that was advertised. 'You don't want the people that need the Medicaid and that need the food assistance to be suffering,' she said. As for the vote she cast back in November, she said: 'I'm still wondering.' 'You don't know just yet what the outcome is going to be, because with Trump he doesn't know when to hush,' Bonano said. 'You don't know if it's going to be good outcome or a bad outcome, anything he does.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump to send weapons to Kyiv after Putin's forces kill two in drone attack
Russia has launched a new barrage of drones and missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, killing at least two people. Vladimir Putin 's forces launched 597 drones and 26 missiles targeting the west of the country on Saturday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram. At least two people were killed in the city of Chernivtsi on the border with Romania. Western Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Lutsk, and Chernivtsi suffered the most due to the Russian attacks, and other Ukrainian regions were also hit, foreign minister Andriy Sybiha said. " Russia continues to escalate its terror,' he said in a post on X. The attack comes as Donald Trump is expected to send weapons to Kyiv. The US president said he is set to make a 'major statement' on Russia on Monday as he grows frustrated with the Mr Putin amid intensified attacks on Ukraine. 'We're sending weapons to Nato, and Nato is paying for those weapons, 100 per cent,' Mr Trump told NBC News. The US president has also issued an ominous warning to the Russian president after a maternity ward in Kharkiv was damaged in a drone strike. 'You'll be seeing things happen,' he said. Mr Zelensky confirmed that among the nine wounded were women in the hospital – 'mothers with newborns, women recovering from surgery'. Ukraine says Russian attacks hit cities 30 miles from EU border Ukraine's first deputy prime minister says Russia has continued to escalate the scale of its attacks on Ukraine, after Moscow launched 597 drones and 26 cruise missiles at targets across the country. Yulia Svyrydenko said cities just 50 km (31 miles) from the border with the European Union were attacked, highlighting the risk to the rest of the continent. 'Cities 1,000 km from the front — and just 50 km from the EU border — were attacked. This is rapidly growing threat to all of Europe, and failure to recognise it as such only assures the eventual cost increases with every passing day,' she said. 'This cycle of escalation must be stopped. It requires stronger sanctions, more air defence systems, and greater investment in interceptors. Signals are no longer enough. Lives depend on decisive action.' 12 July 2025 09:48 What would Trump's weapons supply to Ukraine include? Donald Trump on Tuesday said the US would send more weapons to Ukraine to help the country defend itself against intensifying Russian advances. The package could include defensive Patriot missiles and offensive medium-range rockets but a decision on the exact equipment had not been made, sources said. One of the people said this would happen at a meeting on Thursday. The Trump administration had so far only sent weapons authorised by former president Joe Biden, who was a staunch supporter of Kyiv. The Pentagon and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr Trump had pledged to swiftly end the war but months into his presidency, little progress has been made. The Republican president has sometimes criticised US spending on Ukraine's defence, spoken favorably of Russia and publicly clashed with Ukraine's leader. However, sometimes he has also voiced support for Kyiv and expressed disappointment in the leadership of Russia. Rachel Clun12 July 2025 09:38 Russia launches 597 drones and 26 missiles on Ukraine, Zelensky says Russia launched 597 drones and 26 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram. Tara Cobham12 July 2025 08:41 Watch: Trump's warning to Putin after Russia drones hit maternity ward Tara Cobham12 July 2025 08:30 Russian foreign minister arrives in North Korea to discuss Ukraine conflict, state media reports Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in North Korea on Friday, North Korea's state media KCNA said on Saturday, the latest visit by a senior Russian official to the isolated state amid warming ties between the countries. Lavrov's visit, scheduled to Sunday, includes a meeting between the countries' foreign ministers, KCNA reported. Lavrov flew out of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur following the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting and arrived in Wonsan, North Korea's eastern coastal city, which is home to a recently opened resort and known for its missile and naval facilities. Lavrov's visit is the latest high-level meeting between the two countries amid a dramatic upgrading of their strategic cooperation that now includes a mutual defence pact. The South Korean intelligence service has said North Korea may be preparing to deploy additional troops in July or August, after sending more than 10,000 soldiers to fight with Russia in the war against Ukraine. North Korea has agreed to dispatch 6,000 military engineers and builders for reconstruction in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched a mass cross-border incursion nearly a year ago. Russian news agencies also reported Lavrov's arrival and said after North Korea he is expected to travel to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, which is set to take place on Monday and Tuesday. Russia's state TASS news agency said Lavrov and his North Korean counterpart, Choi Son Hui, would discuss the 40-month-old Ukraine conflict and the situation on the Korean peninsula. Tara Cobham Russia's drones and missile barrage targets Ukraine's west killing two Russia launched a new barrage of drones and missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Saturday, targeting the west of the country and killing at least two people in the city of Chernivtsi on the border with Romania. Western Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Lutsk, and Chernivtsi suffered the most due to the Russian attacks, and other Ukrainian regions were also hit, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said. "Russia continues to escalate its terror, launching another barrage of hundreds of drones and missiles, damaging residential areas, killing and injuring civilians," Sybiha said in a post on X, reiterating the call for stronger sanctions against Moscow. "Russia's war machine produces hundreds of means of terror per day. Its scale poses a threat not only to Ukraine, but to the entire transatlantic community." Ruslan Zaparaniuk, the governor of the Chernivetskyi region, said that two people were killed and 14 others wounded as Russian drones and a missile struck the city, located about 40 kilometres (24 miles) from Ukraine's border with Romania. Several fires broke out across the city, and residential houses and administrative buildings were damaged, regional officials said. In the city of Lviv, on Ukraine's border with Poland, 46 residential houses, a university building, the city's courts, and about 20 buildings housing small and medium-sized businesses were damaged in the attack, mayor Andriy Sadovyi said. Tara Cobham12 July 2025 08:05 Recap: 'Wartime censorship is justified', says Kremlin spokesperson Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said wartime censorship in Russia is justified amid the conflict with Ukraine. Russian authorities swiftly blocked Russian-language media outlets in February 2022 to quash dissenting voices as Russia invaded Ukraine, and they introduced laws threatening many years in prison for those "discrediting" the army, Reuters reported. Speaking to a Russian magazine called Expert, Peskov said that many media outlets have been closed and some reporters have emigrated from the country in the past three years. "But don't forget the situation we are in. Now is the time of military censorship, unprecedented for our country. After all, the war is going on in the information space too," Peskov is quoted as saying by the magazine. "It would be wrong to turn a blind eye to the media that are deliberately engaged in discrediting Russia. Therefore, I believe that this regime (censorship) is justified now," Peskov told the magazine. Bryony Gooch12 July 2025 03:00 Recap: NATO needs more long-range missiles to deter Russia, US general says NATO will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range weapons, a U.S. Army general told Reuters. Russia's effective use of long-range missiles in its war in Ukraine has convinced Western military officials of their importance for destroying command posts, transportation hubs and missile launchers far behind enemy lines. "The Russian army is bigger today than it was when they started the war in Ukraine," Major General John Rafferty said in an interview at a U.S. military base in Wiesbaden, Germany. "And we know that they're going to continue to invest in long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defences. So more alliance capability is really, really important." Bryony Gooch12 July 2025 02:00 Trump's stark warning to Putin after Russia drones hit maternity ward: 'You'll be seeing things happen' Trump's stark warning to Putin after maternity ward strike President has become increasingly frustrated with Russian leader as efforts to broker Ukraine ceasefire have faltered Bryony Gooch12 July 2025 01:00 European court finds Russia responsible for human rights abuses during Ukraine invasion Bryony Gooch12 July 2025 00:00
