Tears and gratitude filled the Ingram Tom Moore High School event center Saturday as victims of the devastating July 4 Kerr County flood received $25,000 checks from country music legend George Strait’s fundraising efforts. The checks represent the first installment of assistance from Strait’s July 27 benefit concert in Boerne, which raised roughly $7 million for flood recovery. Governor Greg Abbott, Texas Division of Emergency Management Director Nim Kidd, and Strait’s longtime friend Tom Cusick personally handed out the relief funds.
On Sunday’s broadcast of NBC’s Meet the Press, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Russian President Vladimir Putin is largely unaffected by sanctions, arguing the real pressure point is targeting the nations that continue to buy Russian oil.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that his government is considering suing the New York Times for defamation, accusing the paper of publishing a front-page photo that falsely claimed to depict a starving Palestinian child in Gaza. Netanyahu said the child, Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub, actually suffers from cerebral palsy, and that his family members shown in the image appeared healthy and well-fed.