Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky and Trump consider drone ‘mega-deal' as Putin's troops advance on frontline
The Ukrainian president said his latest talks with Mr Trump focused on a deal that would help each country bolster its aerial technology.
Ukrainian drones have been able to strike targets as deep as 800miles (1,300km) into Russian territory. 'The people of America need this technology, and you need to have it in your arsenal," Mr Zelensky told the New York Post.
The Ukrainian leader said drones were the key tools that have allowed his country to fight off Russia 's invasion for more than three years.
"We will be ready to share this experience with America and other European partners," he said. Ukraine was also in talks with Denmark, Norway and Germany, Mr Zelensky said.
On the battlefront, Russia said its troops have taken control of three villages in three different parts of the frontline running through Ukraine, a claim Kyiv denies.
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Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Now Trump is blamed for $2bn surge in cost of building reservoir in drought-plagued California
California 's most ambitious water infrastructure project in nearly half a century has just become a whole lot more expensive - and President Donald Trump is being blamed for part of the staggering price surge. Planners behind the colossal Sites Reservoir, a sprawling basin that could one day provide drinking water to more than 24 million Californians have confirmed that the cost of construction has ballooned from $4.5 billion to at much as $6.8 billion. And among the reasons cited for the $2 billion spike are the Trump tariffs imposed during the early part of this year which project leaders say are still sending shockwaves through the supply chain. 'The biggest drivers of the increase included factory shutdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic and recent tariffs from President Donald Trump,' Jerry Brown, executive director of the Sites Project Authority (no relation to the former governor), told the Press Democrat. 'Increasing costs are never looked forward to, but they are something that is a fact of life.' He attributed the jump to inflation for steel, concrete, and other building materials since 2021. The revelation has ignited fresh political tensions in the Golden State, where Governor Gavin Newsom 's administration has been pushing hard to shore up water infrastructure amid escalating climate extremes. The Sites project - a reservoir so massive it would stretch 13 miles long and four miles across in Colusa County - is fast becoming a flashpoint in the long-running battle over water, money, and environmental priorities. Nearly 70 residents in Antelope Valley are expected to lose their homes as the basin swallows up swaths of Colusa County. For them, the price tag isn't measured in billions of dollars, but in broken lives and uprooted communities. 'Scores of people are set to see their homes flooded,' read a previous report on the project's local impact, which has been more than 45 years in the making. If completed, the Sites Reservoir would become California's eighth-largest, holding 1.5 million acre-feet of water, or nearly 490 billion gallons - intended primarily for use in Southern and Central California, as well as the Bay Area. Construction is still slated to begin next year with completion by 2033, Brown said. But rising costs may force tough decisions on funding and prioritization. Although the Sites project received backing from both Congress and the Biden administration, with nearly $365 million in federal grants over the past three years, the newly projected cost spike has become a political lightning rod particularly as Trump-era tariffs are now being identified as a contributing factor. On Wednesday, Brown presented the updated cost to the nine-member State Water Commission, which has already set aside $875 million in Proposition 1 bond funds for the project. Commissioner Daniel Curtin said 22 water agencies have committed planning money, with 16 more on a waiting list seeking extra water capacity. 'The rubber hits the road when the money comes,' Curtin said. 'But it sounds like the commitments are pretty strong.' Commissioner Jose Solorio added: 'All of the state would benefit from the construction of this project.' California Republicans have largely avoided commenting on the tariff connection, while environmental groups are using the moment to revive their long-standing opposition to the plan. 'The Sites Reservoir would harm the Sacramento River ecosystem, threaten already imperiled fish species, and release greenhouse gas pollution,' argued a lawsuit filed by conservationists, later dismissed in Yolo County Superior Court. 'The project will cause much environmental harm, which falls on the public, and a small amount of good, which primarily benefits the project investors,' added Stork, senior policy advocate at Friends of the River. 'Among other harms, the reservoir will be a major greenhouse gas emitter. A recent analysis estimated that Sites would emit the equivalent of 80,000 gasoline-powered cars each year.' Opponents lost their appeal last year, but they aren't backing down. 'It's not surprising,' said Ron Stork, policy director at Friends of the River. 'Large mega-projects typically escalate in costs considerably from their initial estimates. There's a reason why these dams haven't been built yet.' Stork added, 'We'll have to see if the wealthy urban water districts in Southern California and the Bay Area want to continue to invest in this project.' He estimated that the Sites Reservoir's odds of being built now stand at 'about 50-50.' The backlash hasn't deterred Governor Newsom, who has thrown his full support behind the project as part of his broader water resilience strategy. 'We are going to need more storage projects with climate change,' said Matt Keller, a spokesperson for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, one of the project's backers. 'Our board is evaluating several different water supply projects from around Northern California and locally, and has been following this one for a while.' 'The longer we wait and the longer it takes to get this done, the more expensive it becomes,' Brown told reporters. 'Even though it is costing more, it is still something we need to do badly.' He compared Sites to a savings account for future droughts: 'People look at all the water running through rivers in wet winters and say why can't we save more of that?' Proponents argue that Sites is uniquely positioned to capture 'excess water from major storms' and store it for drier years, which are increasingly common as global temperatures rise. But for critics, the project epitomizes the high environmental and social cost of mega-infrastructure in an era of climate uncertainty. 'It's very difficult to justify the expense and environmental costs of big surface storage infrastructure projects,' said John Buse, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. 'The Sites Reservoir will cause far more harm than good.' Ironically, the project's price hike comes after a rare string of wet winters that have filled existing reservoirs to capacity. Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville both overflowed for a third consecutive year in 2025. Had the reservoir already existed, Brown noted, Sites could have captured runoff from the past two wet winters. 'It would have filled to the top,' he said, adding that it would have diverted only about 3% of Delta flows during the wettest months. But experts warn that complacency is dangerous. With California's precipitation increasingly concentrated into short, intense bursts followed by prolonged dry spells, the need for storage remains urgent. 'Water scarcity is always just around the corner,' the project's website warns. Brown acknowledged that the project has drawn sharp scrutiny - but said history is on its side. 'Rarely when looked back upon 20, 40 or 60 years later are these projects regretted in terms of the benefits to society,' he said. 'These are hard decisions to make as a society, but we are building this for ourselves and future generations.'
Telegraph
25 minutes ago
- Telegraph
US moves to free up Patriot missiles for Ukraine
The Trump administration has started freeing up Patriot air defence systems to send to Ukraine, days after the US president vowed to send more weapons to Kyiv. The Pentagon has moved Germany ahead of Switzerland to receive the next Patriots, which will allow Berlin to send Ukraine the two weapons it already has, US officials told The Wall Street Journal. Switzerland had purchased five Patriot systems which were scheduled to be delivered between 2026 and 2028. It comes days after Donald Trump announced his decision reversal on supplying weapons to Ukraine, proposing a pipeline plan to sell weapons to Nato allies in Europe, who could in turn provide them to Kyiv. Mr Trump gave Vladimir Putin a deadline of 50 days to negotiate a peace deal or face 'very significant' tariffs and sanctions, including on its trading partners. The costly Patriot systems – in high demand among US allies – have proven effective at destroying Russian ballistic missiles aimed at Ukraine's cities. 'We're sending weapons to Nato, and Nato is paying for those weapons, 100 per cent,' Mr Trump said in an interview with NBC News last week. 'So what we're doing is, the weapons that are going out are going to Nato, and then Nato is going to be giving those weapons (to Ukraine), and Nato is paying for those weapons.' Mr Trump said last week the weapons were 'already being shipped', adding: 'They're coming in from Germany and then replaced by Germany, and in all cases, the United States gets paid back in full.' Germany was believed to be the nation most invested in the scheme. Friedrich Merz, its chancellor, proposed buying Patriot air defence batteries for Ukraine in a deal with the US. Some European allies had so far refrained from committing to the $10 billion (£7.5 billion)initiative, which involves countries giving up their prized systems, including the Patriot missile batteries that Kyiv has been desperately seeking. The Trump administration will manoeuvre plans for its future deliveries to prioritise the countries who sign on to send Patriots to Ukraine, a US official told the WSJ. Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, is scheduled to meet his Nato counterparts on Monday to discuss the issue. A separate meeting Wednesday involving countries that own Patriots will be chaired by Gen Alexus Grynkewich, chief of European Command. The Swiss government said the US had 'decided to reprioritise the delivery of Patriot ground-based air defence systems' as part of its effort to support Ukraine. It is now not clear when the country will receive the equipment. Kyiv has six fully operational Patriot batteries – two from the US, two from Germany, one from Romania and one jointly given by Germany and the Netherlands, according to the arms monitoring group Action on Armed Violence. During his Oval Office meeting with Mr Trump last week, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte mentioned six Nato countries – Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada – that were willing to participate in the weapons-purchasing scheme. Some had been hesitant to make a decision on whether to join the scheme without the release of key details. France had told allies it will not join the initiative, according to officials briefed on the discussions. The Italian government said it would not purchase weapons but could help with the logistics of transporting them to Ukraine, Italian media reported.
Reuters
25 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump sues Wall Street Journal over Epstein report, seeks $10 billion
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, July 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump sued the Wall Street Journal and its owners including Rupert Murdoch on Friday, seeking at least $10 billion in damages over the newspaper's report that Trump in 2003 sent Jeffrey Epstein a birthday greeting that included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared. Trump filed the lawsuit in federal court in the Southern District of Florida against Dow Jones, News Corp (NWSA.O), opens new tab, Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal reporters, accusing the defendants of defamation and saying they acted with malicious intent that caused him overwhelming financial and reputational harm. Trump has vehemently denied the Journal report, which Reuters has not verified, and warned Murdoch, the founder of News Corp, that he planned to sue. Dow Jones, the parent of the newspaper, is a division of News Corp. "I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his 'pile of garbage' newspaper, the WSJ. That will be an interesting experience!!!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday morning. Representatives of Dow Jones, News Corp and Murdoch could not be reached for comment. Disgraced financier and sex offender Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019. The case has generated conspiracy theories that became popular among Trump's base of supporters who believed the government was covering up Epstein's ties to the rich and powerful. Some of Trump's most loyal followers became furious after his administration reversed course on its promise to release files related to the Epstein investigation. A Justice Department memo released on July 7 concluded that Epstein killed himself and said there was "no incriminating client list" or evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent people. Attorney General Pam Bondi had pledged months earlier to reveal major revelations about Epstein, including "a lot of names" and "a lot of flight logs." With pressure to release the Epstein files building, Trump on Thursday said he directed Bondi to ask a court to release grand jury testimony about Epstein. The U.S. government on Friday filed a motion in Manhattan federal court to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases of Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who in 2021 was convicted of five federal charges related to her role in Epstein's sexual abuse of underage girls. She is serving a 20-year sentence. "Public officials, lawmakers, pundits, and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the filing. "After all, Jeffrey Epstein is the most infamous pedophile in American history." Blanche called the transcripts "critical pieces of an important moment in our nation's history," and said "the time for the public to guess what they contain should end." He said prosecutors would work to redact all victim-identifying information before making anything public. The Journal said the letter bearing Trump's name was part of a leather-bound birthday book for Epstein that included messages from other high-profile people. The newspaper said the letter contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appeared to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. The newspaper said the letter concludes "Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret," and featured the signature "Donald." Allegations that Epstein had been sexually abusing girls became public in 2006 - after the birthday book was allegedly produced - and he was arrested that year before accepting a plea deal. Epstein died just over a month after he was arrested for a second time and charged with sex-trafficking conspiracy. Trump, who was photographed with Epstein multiple times in social situations in the 1990s and early 2000s, told reporters in 2019 that he ended his relationship with Epstein before his legal troubles became apparent. In 2002, Trump, a Florida neighbor of Epstein's, was quoted in New York magazine as saying, "I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office in 2019, Trump said he and Epstein had a "falling out" before the financier was first arrested. Trump said he "knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him" but that, "I had a falling out with him. I haven't spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you." The release of the grand jury documents may fall short of what many of Trump's supporters have sought, including case files held by the administration. Grand juries review evidence from prosecutors to determine whether people should be indicted for crimes. This includes hearsay, improperly obtained information and other evidence that prosecutors would not be allowed to present at trial. Transcripts of grand jury proceedings are generally kept secret under federal criminal procedure rules, with limited exceptions. A judge may allow disclosure of grand jury matters in connection with judicial proceedings, or at the request of defendants who believe it could lead to the dismissal of their indictments. It is likely that some material released from grand jury proceedings would be redacted, or blacked out, because of privacy or security concerns.
