Updated at 9:53 a.m. ET

President Trump has announced that the government will not allow transgender people to serve in the U.S. military.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday morning, he wrote:

The Senate Judiciary Committee is hearing from a handful of witnesses Wednesday as the multiple probes into Russia's interference with last year's presidential election continue and expand in scope and intensity.

Committee Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Vice Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., had hoped to have President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort testify, along with Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son.

"Dear Dickie," the woman wrote on thin parchment paper. "Here I am, so please don't scold me ..."

The Jan. 2, 1947, letter had made its journey from Honolulu to Kobe, Japan, courtesy of a 5-cent airmail stamp — evidence of an overseas courtship between two young people. She began with an apology for not writing sooner but quickly eased into flirting and teasing, anticipating the day when they would see each other again.

France is asking European neighbors to help it fight fast-growing wildfires that have consumed thousands of acres of forest near the Mediterranean coast, forcing tourists to leave an area that's normally packed with visitors in the summer.

Several large fires have struck near the French Riviera this week, in resort areas near Saint-Tropez and also on the island of Corsica. Their rapid growth is being blamed on dry and windy conditions, and plentiful fuel.