Force

Before Minneapolis was left to mourn the death of Renee Good, there was George Floyd.

Same town, same sorrow, same questions — what becomes of society when you can’t trust the authorities? What do you do when the people tasked with upholding the law break the rules, lie and even kill?

California is pushing to answer that question, with laws and legislation meant to combat what is increasingly a rogue federal police force that is seemingly acting, too often violently, without restraint. That’s putting it in the most neutral, least inflammatory terms.

“California has a solemn responsibility to lead and to use every lever of power that we have to protect our residents, to fight back against this administration and their violations of the law, and to set an example for other states about what is possible,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco).

This month, California became the first state in the nation to ban masks on law enforcement officers with the No Secret Police Act, which Wiener wrote. The federal government quickly tied that new rule up in court, with the first hearing scheduled Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Now, Wiener and others are pushing for more curbs. A measure by state Assemblyman Isaac G. Bryan (D-Los Angeles) would ban our state and local officers from moonlighting for the feds — something they are currently allowed to do, though it is unclear how many take advantage of that loophole.

“Their tactics have been shameful,” Bryan recently said of immigration enforcement. He pointed out that when our local cops mask up and do immigration work after hours, it leads to a serious lack of trust in their day jobs.

Wiener also introduced another measure, the No Kings Act. It would open up a new path for citizens to sue federal agents who violate their constitutional rights, because although local and state authorities can be personally sued, the ability to hold a federal officer accountable in civil court is much narrower right now.

George Retes learned that the hard way. The Iraq war vet was dragged out of his car in Ventura County by federal agents last year. Although he is a U.S. citizen, agents sprayed him with chemicals, knelt on his neck and back despite pleas that he could not breathe, detained him, took his DNA and fingerprints, strip-searched him, denied him any ability to wash off the chemicals, held him for three days without access to help, then released him with no charges and no explanation, he said.

Currently, he has few options for holding those agents accountable.

“I just got to live with the experience that they put me through with no remedy, no resolution, no answer for anything that happened to me, and I get no justice,” Retes said, speaking at a news conference. “Everyone that’s going through this currently gets no justice.”

Weiner told me that the masks and casual aggression are “designed to create an atmosphere of fear and terror, and it is and it’s having that effect,” and that without state pushback, it will only get worse.

“If California can’t stand up to Trump, then who can?” he asked Tuesday.

Good’s wife describes her as being “made of sunshine” and standing up for her immigrant neighbors when she was shot, with her dog in the back seat and her glove box full of stuffed animals for her 6-year-old son. But you wouldn’t know that from the response of federal leaders, who quickly labeled her a “domestic terrorist” and dismissed the killing as self-defense — unworthy of even a robust investigation.

The use of masks and casual aggression is “designed to create an atmosphere of fear and terror, and … it’s having that effect,” says state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), pictured in 2024.

(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

“Every congressional democrat and every democrat who’s running for president should be asked a simple question: Do you think this officer was wrong in defending his life against a deranged leftist who tried to run him over?” Vice President JD Vance wrote on social media one day after Good was killed.

So much for law enforcement accountability.

While Good’s death is filling headlines, there have been dozens of other instances where immigration officers’ use of force has been questionable. The Trace, an independent news source that covers gun violence, found that since the immigration crackdown began, ICE has opened fire 16 times, held people at gunpoint an additional 15 times, killed four people and injured seven.

One of those deaths was in Northridge, where Keith Porter Jr. was shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent a few weeks ago, and his family is rightfully calling for an investigation.

That’s just the gun violence. Lots of other concerning behavior has been documented as well.

A 21-year-old protester was left with a fractured skull and blind in one eye last week in Southern California after an officer from the Department of Homeland Security fired a nonlethal round at close range toward his head. Most officers are taught, and even forbidden by policy, from firing such munitions at people’s heads for precisely this reason — they can be dangerous and even fatal if used incorrectly.

Across California, and the nation, citizens and noncitizens alike have reported being beaten and harassed, having guns pointed at them without provocation and being detained without basic rights for days.

The answer to police overreach in Floyd’s case was a reckoning in law enforcement that it needed to do better to build trust in the communities it was policing. Along with that came a nationwide push, especially in California, for reforms that would move local and state policing closer to that ideal.

The answer five years later in Good’s case — from our president, our vice president, our head of Homeland Security and others — has been to double down on impunity with the false claim that dissent is radical, and likely even a crime. And don’t fool yourself — this is exactly how President Trump sees it, as laid out in his recent executive order that labeled street-level protests as “antifa” and designated that nebulous anti-fascist movement as an organized terrorist group. He’s also set up National Guard units in every state to deal with “civil disturbances.”

So Vance is actually right — under Trump law, which is seemingly being enforced although not truly law, someone like Good could be dubbed a terrorist.

The situation has become so dire that this week six federal prosecutors resigned after the Justice Department pushed not to investigate Good’s shooting, but instead investigate Good herself — a further bid to bolster the egregious terrorist claim.

In the wake of Good’s killing, many of us feel the fear that no one is safe, an increasingly unsubtle pressure to self-censure dissent. Is it worth it to protest? Maybe for our safety and the safety of those we love, we should stay home. We just don’t know what federal authorities will do, what will happen if we speak out.

That’s the thinking that authoritarians seek to instill in the populace as they consolidate power. Just duck and cover, and maybe you won’t be the one to get hurt.

That’s why, successful or not, these new and proposed laws in California are fights the state must have for the safety of our residents, regardless of immigration status, and for the safety of democracy.

Because, truly, if California can’t stand up to Trump, who can?

The UK will bring into force a law which will make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images, following widespread concerns over Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot.

The Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told the Commons the law would make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create such images.

Jan. 9 (Asia Today) — South Korea on Thursday formally launched an intergovernmental consultative body to coordinate nuclear cooperation talks with the United States, including discussions tied to uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing for peaceful commercial purposes, the Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry said the first inter-ministerial meeting was held Thursday under Lim Gap-soo, the government’s representative for South Korea-U.S. nuclear cooperation. The new task force will serve as the government’s main platform for preparing consultations and related negotiations with Washington to secure capabilities related to enrichment and reprocessing, the ministry said.

Eight institutions are participating: the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety and Control and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power. The National Security Office at the presidential office will act as the control tower, the ministry said.

“At this meeting of relevant ministries, we reviewed the roles and cooperation systems of each ministry regarding key issues and tasks related to enrichment and reprocessing, and exchanged views on the direction and plan for responding to consultations with the U.S.,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said it plans to hold periodic director-level meetings and working-level consultations to review key plans step by step and to pursue a whole-of-government approach aimed at shaping domestic and international conditions for securing enrichment and reprocessing capabilities for peaceful and commercial purposes.

Separately, the Foreign Ministry said it formed its own internal task force Monday to support Lim’s work, with three working-level officials assigned.

A ministry official said there could be multiple routes for cooperation, including revising the existing bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement, making limited amendments or reaching another arrangement. The official said communication with the United States is ongoing and consultations will begin once both sides are ready.

South Korea and the United States previously discussed security cooperation measures on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju in October, including nuclear-powered submarines, enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing and defense spending, and released a joint fact sheet in November outlining the measures, the ministry said.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

VATICAN CITY — In his most substantial critique of U.S., Russian and other military incursions in sovereign countries, Pope Leo XIV on Friday denounced how nations were using force to assert their dominion worldwide, “completely undermining” peace and the post-World War II international legal order.

“War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading,” Leo told ambassadors from around the world who represent their countries’ interests at the Holy See.

Leo didn’t name individual countries that have resorted to force in his lengthy speech, the bulk of which he delivered in English in a break from the Vatican’s traditional diplomatic protocol of Italian and French. But his speech came amid the backdrop of the recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela to remove Nicolás Maduro from power, Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and other conflicts.

The occasion was the pope’s annual audience with the Vatican diplomatic corps, which traditionally amounts to his yearly foreign policy address.

In his first such encounter, history’s first U.S.-born pope delivered much more than the traditional roundup of global hotspots. In a speech that touched on threats to religious freedom and the Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion and surrogacy, Leo lamented how the United Nations and multilateralism as a whole were increasingly under threat.

“A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies,” he said. “The principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.”

“Instead, peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion. This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence,” he said.

A geopolitical roundup of conflicts and suffering

Leo did refer explicitly to tensions in Venezuela, calling for a peaceful political solution that keeps in mind the “common good of the peoples and not the defense of partisan interests.”

The U.S. military seized Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, in a surprise nighttime raid. The Trump administration is now seeking to control Venezuela’s oil resources and its government. The U.S. government has insisted Maduro’s capture was legal, saying drug cartels operating from Venezuela amounted to unlawful combatants and that the U.S. is now in an “armed conflict” with them.

Analysts and some world leaders have condemned the Venezuela mission, warning that Maduro’s ouster could pave the way for more military interventions and a further erosion of the global legal order.

On Ukraine, Leo repeated his appeal for an immediate ceasefire and urgently called for the international community “not to waver in its commitment to pursuing just and lasting solutions that will protect the most vulnerable and restore hope to the afflicted peoples.”

On Gaza, Leo repeated the Holy See’s call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and insisted on the Palestinians’ right to live in Gaza and the West Bank “in their own land.”

In other comments, Leo said the persecution of Christians around the world was “one of the most widespread human rights crises today,” affecting one in seven Christians globally. He cited religiously motivated violence in Bangladesh, Nigeria, the Sahel, Mozambique and Syria but said religious discrimination was also present in Europe and the Americas.

There, Christians “are sometimes restricted in their ability to proclaim the truths of the Gospel for political or ideological reasons, especially when they defend the dignity of the weakest, the unborn, refugees and migrants, or promote the family.”

Leo repeated the church’s opposition to abortion and euthanasia and expressed “deep concern” about projects to provide cross-border access to mothers seeking abortion.

He also described surrogacy as a threat to life and dignity. “By transforming gestation into a negotiable service, this violates the dignity both of the child, who is reduced to a product, and of the mother, exploiting her body and the generative process, and distorting the original relational calling of the family,” he said.

Winfield writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Five Senate Republicans broke with party leaders on Thursday to advance legislation that would rein in President Trump’s use of the U.S. military in Venezuela, a move that comes as a growing number of GOP lawmakers have expressed unease about the White House’s threats to use force to acquire Greenland.

The procedural vote, which came over the objections of Republican leaders, now sets the stage for a full Senate vote next week on a measure that would block Trump from using military force “within or against Venezuela” without approval from Congress. Even with the Senate’s approval, the legislation is unlikely to become law as it is unlikely to pass the House, and President Trump — who has veto power over legislation — has publicly condemned the measure and the Republicans who supported it.

“This vote greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief,” Trump wrote in a social media post shortly after the 52-47 vote in the Senate.

The Republican defection on the issue underscores the growing concern among GOP lawmakers over the Trump administration’s foreign policy ambitions and highlights the bipartisan concern that the president is testing the limits of executive war powers — not only in Venezuela but also in Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, a U.S. ally.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.), one of the Republicans who voted for the resolution, said that while she supported the operation that led to the capture and extradition of Nicolás Maduro, she did not “support committing additional U.S. forces or entering into any long-term military involvement in Venezuela or Greenland without specific congressional authorization.”

The resolution is co-sponsored by Sens. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The Republicans who supported it were Sens. Collins, Paul, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Todd Young of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

“Finally, the Senate is exercising its constitutional power over the authorization of the use of force to prevent America from being dragged into a new war over oil,” Schiff said in a social media post after the vote.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters at the White House on Thursday that he was not concerned about Trump losing support among Republican lawmakers in Washington, adding that passage of the resolution in the Senate would not “change anything about how we conduct foreign policy over the next couple of weeks or the next couple of months.”

But Republican support for the resolution reflects a deepening concern within the GOP over Trump’s foreign policy plans, particularly his threats to acquire Greenland — a move that prompted European leaders earlier this week to call on the United States to respect the Arctic territory’s sovereignty

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters on Wednesday that he does not believe “anybody’s seriously considering” using the military to take control of Greenland.

“In Congress, we’re certainly not,” Johnson said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) struck a similar tone the same day, telling reporters that he does not “see military action being an option” in Greenland.

Other Republican lawmakers have been more openly critical, warning that even floating the idea of using force against a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a defense alliance that includes the United States, risks weakening America’s position on the world stage.

“Threats and intimidation by U.S. officials over American ownership of Greenland are as unseemly as they are counterproductive,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement. “And the use of force to seize the sovereign democratic territory of one of America’s most loyal and capable allies would be an especially catastrophic act of strategic self-harm to America and its global influence.”

In a statement Tuesday, the White House said acquiring Greenland was a “national security priority” and that using the military to achieve that goal was “always an option.” A day earlier, Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, told CNN that “Greenland should be part of the United States.”

“Nobody is going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland,” Miller said.

Miller’s remarks angered Republican senators, including Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) who in an interview with CNN on Wednesday called the idea of invading Greenland “weapons-grade stupid.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C), who has served as the top Republicans on the Senate NATO Observer Group since 2018, criticized the idea as well in a searing Senate floor speech.

“I’m sick of stupid,” Tillis said. “I want good advice for this president, because I want this president to have a good legacy. And this nonsense on what’s going on with Greenland is a distraction from the good work he’s doing, and the amateurs who said it was a good idea should lose their jobs.”

Tillis, who is not seeking reelection this year, later told CNN that Miller needs to “get into a lane where he knows what he’s talking about or get out of this job.”

Jan. 7 (UPI) — The White House said military force was among a range of options it was looking at in an effort to “acquire” Greenland for the United States.

Doubling down on comments by the administration officials in the past few days that the United States has a stronger claim to the Arctic Island than Denmark, in a statement Tuesday carried by The Hill, ABC News and the BBC, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said using the military was “always an option.”

“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region. The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander-in-Chief’s disposal.”

The statement came hours after European leaders pushed back hard on the renewed claims emanating from the administration since the U.S. military action in Venezuela at the weekend that the United States needs Greenland for its security, and by extension NATO’s, and that Denmark was not up to the job of defending Greenland.

In a joint statement of solidarity with Denmark, the leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland and Spain said Greenland belonged to its people and that “it is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

They insisted that security in the Arctic was a priority and that they were taking steps to boost their military “presence, investments and activities,” but stressed that security could only be achieved collectively and “sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders,” had to be upheld.

“These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them,” read the statement.

In a closed-briefing on Capitol Hill on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested to lawmakers that Trump’s talk of taking Greenland by force was just rhetoric to pressure Copenhagen to come to the table, and his actual goal was to buy Greenland from Denmark.

However, later Monday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller reignited fears, telling CNN, military force was a non-question because America’s overwhelming military superiority meant “nobody is going to fight the United States militarily over Greenland.”

He also questioned the basis of Denmark’s territorial claim.

Greenland has been closely tied to Denmark since the 18th century, initially as a colony and then as an incorporated, semi-autonomous region with representation in the Danish Parliament.

Danish control of Greenland was recognized by the United States in 1916, as part of a deal for the purchase of what is now the U.S. Virgin Islands from Denmark.

The government in Nuuk said Tuesday it had asked for a meeting with Rubio.

A historic theater in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol has opened its doors more than three years after it was pummeled in a Russian airstrike that killed hundreds of civilians sheltering inside.

Moscow-installed authorities marked the rebuilding of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater with a gala concert on the building’s new main stage Sunday night. Images shared by Russian state media outlets showed the building’s marbled pillars and staircases, and dancers wearing traditional Russian headdresses known as kokoshniks performing.

The original theater was destroyed when it was targeted by a Russian airstrike on March 16, 2022, as Moscow’s forces besieged the city in the weeks after their invasion.

An Associated Press investigation later found evidence that the attack killed about 600 people inside and outside the building — almost double an early estimate from the government.

At the time of the strike, hundreds of civilians had sought refuge in the building after weeks of relentless shelling. The word “children” had been written with paint on the street outside the building, large enough to be seen by both pilots and satellites.

Moscow said that Ukrainian forces demolished the theater, a claim that the AP’s investigation refuted.

Russian forces took control of Mariupol’s city center shortly after the strike. The ruins were bulldozed and any remains were taken to the ever-growing mass graves in and around Mariupol.

Mariupol’s Ukrainian city council, which left the city when it was occupied for Ukrainian-controlled territory, called the rebuilding and the opening of the theater “singing and dancing on bones.”

“The ‘restoration’ of the theater is a cynical attempt to conceal the traces of a war crime and part of an aggressive policy of Russification of the city. The repertoire consists largely of works by Russian writers and playwrights,” the council said in a statement on Telegram.

Guests of honor at Sunday’s opening included Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed head of the partially occupied Donetsk region, and St. Petersburg Gov. Alexander Beglov. Workers from St. Petersburg, which was twinned with Mariupol after Russia took full control of the city in May 2022, aided in the building’s reconstruction.

The Donetsk region, where Mariupol is located, has remained a key battleground throughout the war. Russia illegally annexed it in 2022, though Moscow still doesn’t control all of it. The region’s fate is one of the major sticking points in negotiations to end the war.

New-build F-15 Eagle fighters are headed to Israel again, with a contract for 25 new F-15IA aircraft placed with Boeing. These will be the first new Eagles that the country has acquired since 1999, when it received the last of its F-15I Ra’am jets and continues the enduring legacy of the F-15 in Israeli Air Force service.

The Pentagon announced on Monday that Boeing had been awarded a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract with a ceiling of $8.58 billion for the F-15 Israel Program. The contract covers the design, integration, instrumentation, test, production, and delivery of 25 new F-15IA aircraft, with an option for an additional 25. Work will be performed at St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2035. The aircraft will almost certainly feature extensive Israeli-specific modifications, as was the case with previous Eagles, especially when it comes to electronic warfare, weapons, and communications systems.

The contract announcement came after U.S. President Donald Trump met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida.

In August 2024, Israel was given U.S. approval to buy as many as 50 F-15IAs, as well as upgrade its existing F-15Is as part of an overall package valued at $18.82 billion that you can read about here.

Subsequently, in November of last year, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced that it had agreed to buy the 25 F-15IAs, reserving the option to buy the other 25 jets.

At that point, the Israeli Ministry of Defense said that deliveries of the F-15IAs would start in 2031, with between four and six aircraft being supplied annually. The stated cost was $5.2 billion, and it’s not exactly clear why that has since increased substantially. We reached out to Boeing for clarification, and the company deferred to the U.S. government.

“The new F-15IA will be equipped with cutting-edge weapon systems, including state-of-the-art Israeli technologies,” the ministry said at the time. “The upgraded aircraft will feature enhanced range capabilities, increased payload capacity, and improved performance across various operational scenarios.”

As we have discussed in the past, the F-15IA that Israel will be receiving is based on the F-15EX used by the U.S. Air Force.

In the past, Boeing and the U.S. Air Force have both stressed the aircraft’s range and stores-carrying capabilities. In a U.S. context, these attributes are seen as being especially relevant for operations across the vast expanses of the Pacific. Meanwhile, Israel has long prized the F-15 for its ability to strike targets at long range while carrying heavy loads of ordnance.

The latest versions of the F-15 also have a notable ability to carry outsize weapons, including hypersonic missiles, as well as simply larger numbers of legacy weapons. Once again, this is a feature of the jet that will be of particular interest to Israel. The Israeli Air Force’s recent operations against Iran have demonstrated the increasing importance of air-launched ballistic missiles and other air-launched standoff weapons, which would also be very well suited to the F-15IA.

The 25 new F-15IAs will provide the Israeli Air Force with an additional Eagle squadron. This will double the number of strike-optimized F-15s available to the service. Currently, the 25 F-15I Ra’am jets, delivered in the second half of the 1990s, serve with 69 Squadron “Hammers” at Hatzerim Air Base.

While it’s unclear for now if the F-15I fleet will also be upgraded, as once proposed, it seems reasonable to assume that the F-15IAs will go some way toward replacing the older F-15A-to-D Baz, which survive with two squadrons stationed at Tel Nof Air Base, which you can read more about here. If the F-15I fleet is upgraded, it would parallel the approach taken by Saudi Arabia, which bought new-build F-15SA jets and upgraded existing F-15S aircraft to the same standard.

The Baz is used for both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, but these are mainly very old jets, with the first examples having seen combat as long ago as 1979. Successively upgraded and also bolstered through transfers from U.S. Air Force stocks, these jets remain very valuable to the Israeli Air Force, as demonstrated by their prominent role in recent combat operations.

The F-15IA deal has been widely viewed through the prism of the conflict that began in the Middle East after the surprise attack on Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023.

However, Israeli interest in buying more F-15s dates back many years; it is Israel’s continued demand for F-15s of any kind that has seen the aging Baz jets progressively upgraded to keep them in frontline service.

Whatever color they are painted, F-15s are very much one of Israel’s primary long-range strike weapons.

At the same time, the F-35I Adir fighter is increasingly becoming a weapon of choice for combat missions both in close proximity to Israel and over much greater distances.

With that in mind, Israel has opted for procuring a mix of fighters, the benefits of which we have described in the past:

“Buying the F-15IA and F-35I will provide the Israeli Air Force with two complementary platforms, both of which are among the most capable anywhere in the world, especially when it comes to long-range strike. Israeli F-15s, in particular, are also used for forward networking and command and control nodes, vital for managing long-range operations. On the other hand, both the F-15IA and F-35I are also more than efficient for air defense, including against drone threats, as well as air-to-ground operations closer to Israel, such as the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.”

As part of this strategy, Israel opted to buy a third squadron of F-35Is last year. Covering 25 more F-35Is worth approximately $3 billion, this will expand the Israeli Air Force Adir fleet to 75 aircraft. The latest batch of the stealth jets will begin to be delivered in 2028, meaning at least some will be delivered in parallel with the F-15IA.

Whether Israel chooses to add more F-15s or even upgrades, the current security situation in the Middle East means it would be unwise to rule out the prospect of further combat aircraft acquisitions.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

WASHINGTON — The White House provided trips on Air Force One or presidential helicopters to 56 campaign donors and fund-raisers in 1995 and 1996, administration officials said Monday.

In addition, leading campaign fund-raisers appeared on a “must consider” list for positions in the newly elected Clinton administration in 1992, according to newly released Democratic National Committee documents. Some later became ambassadors and other high-level appointees.

The White House and the national committee provided the new information as the Justice Department and congressional committees continued their investigations into Democratic fund-raising practices and White House perquisites provided to major financial benefactors.

The national committee documents included more than 10,000 pages about controversial fund-raiser John Huang’s employment by the national committee.

Among those on the “must consider” list for appointments was Huang himself, who received a mid-level Commerce Department job in 1994 after helping raise money for Clinton in the 1992 campaign.

Major donors and fund-raisers have been given jobs and political appointments for years by both Democratic and Republican administrations, but rarely have documents spelling out the practice been publicly available.

Huang’s activities at the national committee are at the center of the inquiries, particularly allegations that overseas interests, including the Chinese government, may have sought to channel contributions to the Democrats.

The documents detail contacts between Huang and the Chinese embassy and Chinese government officials as well as new information about his contacts with certain donors whose money the Democrats have decided to return as potentially improper.

White House and Democratic officials said there was nothing wrong with the Clintons’ use of Air Force One or with recommending supporters for appointments.

“We believe there is nothing inappropriate or unusual about the president of the United States inviting guests to be on his plane on official trips,” said Lanny J. Davis, a special White House counsel.

“As long as that privilege isn’t abused, we don’t believe the American people would object to that. And we believe that these numbers suggest it was very modest as an exercise of that prerogative.”

The cost of political travel is billed directly to the campaign, the DNC or the guest. But if a guest was on an official trip or leg of a trip, the individual was not required to pay air fare.

All told, Clinton took at least 477 guests on his 103 trips aboard Air Force One and presidential helicopter Marine One between Jan. 1, 1995, and Nov. 6, 1996, according to records compiled by the White House.

The White House defined “financial supporters” of the president as those who contributed $5,000 or more to the Democrats or raised $25,000 or more for the party or the Clinton-Gore campaign in the 1996 election cycle.

Vice President Al Gore, meanwhile, took 17 such donors on his 169 trips on Air Force Two or Marine Two.

Among those who made multiple flights were Terence McAuliffe, the Clinton-Gore finance chairman and his top aide, Laura Hartigan, and three Democratic officials: Finance Chairman Marvin Rosen, Finance Director Richard Sullivan and Treasurer Scott Pastrick.

A trip aboard Air Force One is among the most highly prized perquisites offered to major donors and fund-raisers. Supporters who flew with the president said that they were given “Welcome to Air Force One” name tags and sat in the VIP section equipped with large cabin-cruiser seats and telephones.

“It’s a tremendous ego boost,” said a Democratic official who participated in several trips. “The most exciting part for these people was to fly into their city and be able to get off the plane with all the local dignitaries on the tarmac.”

The guests on Air Force One in 1995 and 1996 contributed a total of $9.2 million to Democratic candidates and party committees since 1991, when Clinton first sought the party’s presidential nomination, according to an analysis by the Campaign Study Group. Of this total, $6.7 million went to the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton-Gore committees in the two races.

Twenty-one of the Air Force One guests and their companies each donated more than $100,000. One of those was Stanley Chesley, a Cincinnati attorney. He and his law firm gave $581,450. Another was Rashid Chaudry. His company, the Raani Corp. of Bedford Park, Ill., contributed $401,819.

Three of the Air Force One guests, all major Democratic givers, also provided employment to Clinton friend Webster L. Hubbell after Hubbell’s resignation from a top Justice Department position because of improprieties in his previous law practice.

Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr is investigating whether administration officials and supporters arranged employment deals for Hubbell to dissuade him from providing Whitewater prosecutors with damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, his former law partner in Little Rock.

Those who arranged deals and rode on Air Force Once included Truman Arnold, a Texas oil executive and longtime Clinton friend; Wayne Reaud, a Beaumont, Texas, lawyer who paid Hubbell a total of $36,000 in 1994; and Bernard Rapoport, a Waco, Texas, insurance executive.

The rewarding of campaign donors with high-level political appointments is a staple of any administration. However, the Democrats had criticized previous Republican administrations for some of these practices–such as giving ambassadorships to big-dollar contributors.

The first Democratic memo about jobs for financial backers was sent to Michael Whouley, a Clinton campaign aide who was in charge of providing names to the transition team, on Dec. 21, 1992, a month before Clinton’s inauguration.

“We urge you to consider strongly the following leading national fund-raisers who are interested in serving in the White House,” the memo said. “We are pleased to sponsor these ‘must considers.’ ”

Among those named were Erskine Bowles, who obtained the post he sought as head of the Small Business Administration. He is now Clinton’s chief of staff. Also recommended was Arthur Levitt, who was proposed as a possible ambassador to Germany or a member of the National Economic Council. He became chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Those touted for ambassadorships and receiving postings, though not necessarily in their first-choice countries, were Alan Blinken in Belgium; Donald Blinken, Hungary; Clay Constantinou, Luxembourg; and Thomas Siebert, Sweden.

Huang, then an executive in Los Angeles with the Indonesian-based Lippo conglomerate, was recommended for a position of “under- or assistant secretary for international affairs” in an unspecified agency. He was ultimately appointed deputy assistant Commerce secretary for East Asia and the Pacific in 1994.

“We make no apologies for trying to get jobs for those who were helpful in trying to elect this president,” said Democratic Communications Director Amy Weiss Tobe. “It is not unusual for somebody who is helpful to end up on a list for a must consider for a top position.”

Democrats noted that more than a dozen of those on the Republicans’ major donor group known as Team 100 received ambassadorships and sub-Cabinet positions in the Bush administration.

The documents also reveal that Huang was extensively involved in Chinese organizations and participated in events at the Chinese embassy in Washington. Included were numerous business cards from representatives of Chinese groups and invitations to events. Huang also is listed as a director of the Committee of 100, a New York-based nonprofit group of Chinese-Americans who are active in public affairs.

A handwritten note that was faxed to Huang by Haipei Xue, an official with the Council on U.S.-China Affairs in Washington, reads: “What follows is an update on strategies & programs I drafted for discussion with our partners, like Boeing in this case, & with the Embassy. Although you are not directly involved in U.S.-China . . . your Committee of 100 and often yourself, I believe, will be engaged in it.”

DNC officials said that they were unable to determine whether any of Huang’s Chinese-related activities while he was employed by the party raised concerns because they did not know the context of the documents.

Times researchers Edith Stanley and D’Jamila Salem-Fitzgerald contributed to this story.

* RENO DENIES COUNSEL BID: Attorney general denies request for outside counsel on donations. A14

* SUBPOENA MIX-UP: Investigators issue subpoenas for the wrong DNC donor. A16

One of the U.S. Air Force’s last remaining EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare planes is now in Puerto Rico, video emerging on social media shows. The arrival marks the latest in an increasing buildup of military assets in the region to pressure Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and for what seems increasingly likely to be a contingency for a sustained kinetic operation over Venezuela.

You can catch up with our latest coverage on Operation Southern Spear in the Caribbean here.

The Compass Call landed 10 p.m. on Saturday at the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico, the videographer, an aircraft spotter who uses the Instagram handle Pinchito.Avgeek, told us. Other aircraft spotters told The War Zone that this is the first confirmed Compass Call to be seen in Puerto Rico as of late. The airport is also home to the Puerto Rico Air National Guard’s 156th Wing and has seen C-17 Globemaster III and other military aircraft operating there for Southern Spear.

While there are a number of C-130 Hercules variants in Puerto Rico, a screencap of that video shows that antennas under the tail and on top of the aircraft behind the cockpit conclusively show this is an EC-130H Compass Call.

Though the Air Force is phasing these aircraft out in favor of EA-37B Compass Call jets, the EC-130H brings capabilities that would be called upon for an attack on Venezuela should one be ordered. The heavily modified C-130 Hercules cargo planes carry a suite of electronic attack gear that can find and track “emitters” like radios and radars and then scramble their signals. This equipment can also jam cell phones.

The equipment aboard the Compass Call would help to blind Venezuelan air defenses, communications and command and control, making it harder to respond to attacks by combat aircraft and cruise missiles. The four-engine aircraft can fly for many hours without refueling and much longer with tanker support, giving U.S. Southern Command a long-loitering airborne EW platform.

As we noted in an earlier story: “Previous iterations of the EC-130H-based Compass Call system have proven their value in combat zones on multiple occasions in the past two decades. A contingent of these aircraft was continuously forward-deployed in the Middle East, from where they also supported operations in Afghanistan, between 2001 and 2021. EC-130Hs supported the raid that led to the death of Al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011 and prevented the detonation of an improvised explosive device that might have killed then-Maj. Gen. James Mattis, who later rose to the rank of General and also served as Secretary of Defense under Trump, in Iraq in 2003, among many other exploits, according to a recent story from Air Force Times.”

The current status and location of the Compass Call are not publicly known. The videographer told us he only saw it land. A U.S. official we spoke with could not comment on the arrival of the EC-130H but told us that there have been no new military orders for Southern Spear.

The EC-130H joins a squadron of E/A-18G Growler electronic attack jets, deployed on the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, as well as another squadron on land, as airborne electronic warfare assets now operating in the Caribbean. While Compass Calls offer some overlapping capabilities and some significantly different ones than the Growlers, the arrival of the EC-130J is another indication that electronic warfare is clearly taking a lopsided focus compared to the size of the rest of the fighting force deployed in the region.

While it is unclear if the Compass Call has performed any of its offensive operations yet, both the U.S. and Venezuela are using defensive jamming to protect assets. This has become an increasing problem for the region as tensions rise.

“At least some of the U.S. warships that have deployed to the Caribbean in recent months have been jamming GPS signals in their vicinity,” The New York Times reported, citing an analysis of data provided by Stanford University and a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

In an effort to protect important resources, “the armed forces of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela have jammed the GPS signals around the country’s critical infrastructure, including military bases, oil refineries and power plants,” the publication noted, citing an analysis by Spire Global, a satellite data firm.

Combined, the jamming is raising concerns for aviation.

“Whether jamming is due to the U.S. or Venezuelan forces, it really doesn’t matter: You don’t want an aircraft going in there,” Gen. Willie Shelton, the former head of the U.S. Air Force’s Space Command, told The Times.

As for the EC-130Hs, the aircraft is being retired from the Air Force inventory.

“Currently, the U.S. Air Force is operating and maintaining eight EC-130H aircraft,” Capt. Ridge Miller, a spokesperson for Air Combat Command (ACC) told The War Zone Monday afternoon. “A total of 10 EA-37B aircraft are on track to be delivered while simultaneously retiring the EC-130H fleet in a phased approach. Both platforms currently operate out of the 55th Electronic Combat Group at Davis Monthan AFB in Arizona.”

The EA-37B is based on a heavily modified version of the Gulfstream G550 airframe.

In addition to the Compass Call, other C-130 variants are operating out of Puerto Rico. One of which is the Marine Corps’ KC-130J Hercules tanker/transport aircraft. The KC-130Js uses the probe-and-drogue method for Navy and Marine Corps aircraft, and is used to refuel fixed-wing fighter aircraft and helicopters.

Plane spotter @LatAmMilMovements told us that at least one of these aircraft, and sometimes two, have had a steady presence ever since Marine F-35B Lightnings arrived in Puerto Rico in September. This matches the imagery and satellite photos we have seen of the installation for months now. AV-8B Harriers, MV-22 Ospreys, and CH-53 Sea Stallions, all from the USS Iwo Jima and its flotilla, are also using the base regularly and they can all refuel from the KC-130J.

Air Force HC-130J Combat King II combat search and rescue (CSAR) planes are also flying out of Puerto Rico. Traditionally, they provide fuel to HH-60W Jolly Green Giant II CSAR helicopters, CV-22 Ospreys, and, to a lesser degree, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) helicopters.

These types are just part of a growing fleet of aerial refuelers in the region. The Air Force has also deployed KC-135 Stratotankers and KC-46 Pegasus tankers to the Dominican Republic and U.S. Virgin Islands.

As more tanker aircraft arrive in Puerto Rico, they are also building up at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. Aerial images show at least 28 KC-135s at the base. The image also shows at least two E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft are operating from MacDill, located about 1,400 miles northwest of Venezuela. As we pointed out last week, at least one Sentry was recently tracked on FlightRadar24 flying close to the Venezuelan coast. 

While E-3s may have been present but not trackable over the Caribbean in recent days, this one being trackable was not a mistake. U.S. military aircraft executing easily trackable sorties very near Venezuelan airspace have been a key component of the pressure campaign placed on Maduro. 

In addition to the growing military pressure on the Venezuelan leader, the U.S. is also raising the stakes economically. Since President Donald Trump declared a blockade against sanctioned oil tankers, U.S. authorities have seized two tankers. On Sunday, the Coast Guard was in “active pursuit” of the massive tanker Bella 1 after it refused to submit to U.S. seizure efforts. The status of that effort was unclear as of Monday afternoon. We have reached out to the Coast Guard for more details.

Though the military and economic pressure are building on Maduro, Trump’s exact intentions remain an open question, although they appear to be becoming clearer by the day. During his announcement of the new Trump class battleships Monday afternoon, the president again said that the U.S. would soon be going after drug cartels on land; however, he explained that would not just be focused on Venezuela.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

Booking a trip abroad can come with a hefty price tag, but one traveller was left baffled by the cost of food while visiting a European supermarket, as he claimed, ‘food costs more than the flight’

Food in one European country is so expensive that some tourists are packing food in their suitcases.

Iceland is a prime spot to catch the awe-inspiring Northern Lights, offering a spectacular getaway with its stunning Nordic landscapes, mountainous backdrops, and hot springs.

Yet, the European destination is notoriously pricey, to the extent that holidaymakers have resorted to packing their suitcases with food just to avoid the extortionate prices.

One traveller visited the Nordic island in the North Atlantic earlier this year and visited a local supermarket to see just how much the cost of food really was. In a video, @jesusansal explained that tourists often travel to Iceland with their own food stashed in their luggage because “food costs more than the flight.”

He videoed himself heading into a supermarket, and said: “Let’s see if it’s as expensive as people say”. And it didn’t take long before he found some costly everyday items that are almost double the price of what we’d find in an English supermarket.

Firstly, he found that a small pack of strawberries would set him back 800 Icelandic króna, which is around £4.75. For lunch, there was a baguette on offer for 1,065 króna, which is approximately £6.32, or a cheese sandwich for 750 króna (£4.45).

Elsewhere, a medium-sized bottle of olive oil costs 1,300 króna (£7.72), while instant noodles would set someone back 800 króna (£4.75) – a considerable hike compared to the 45p packs you can find in Tesco. “Mari, this is so expensive,” the TikToker said as he walked around the Iceland supermarket, but it didn’t end there.

He also found slices of Serrano ham for 500 króna (£2.97) and a small jar of the traditional Icelandic delicacy, hákarl, for 1,300 króna (£7.72). When it comes to making a basic breakfast during a stay in Iceland, the influencer found that it would cost someone around 2,000 króna (£11.87), which includes a couple of doughnuts, water, and juice.

Research from The Drinks Business found that Iceland is the most expensive place in Europe to purchase a bottle of wine, with the average cost of a mid-range wine setting someone back £18.30. This is compared to the European average of around £7.17 for the same quality of wine.

Having been left baffled by the prices of essential items, the Spanish traveller ended his video with: “Iceland may have spectacular views, but it’s quite expensive.” And he’s not the only one who feels this way.

Commenting on his TikTok video, one follower wrote: “What surprised me most was definitely the bread.” Another asked: “Can you get a mortgage at the supermarket?”

However, others noted the reason behind the higher prices could be due to their higher salaries. One commented: “In Iceland, the basic monthly salary is €6,000, so I even consider it cheap.”

One more added: “Well, the ham seems cheap to me, and the individual hams there will be five times more expensive than ours.” Another compared the prices to those in Europe and said: “The price of oil and ham is almost the same as in Spain.”

While you can find cheap flights to Iceland and affordable accommodation during your stay, the cost of food items can quickly add up. However, if you keep a budget for food each day and have this in mind before your trip, it’s still well worth a visit.

Do you have a travel story to share? Email webtravel@reachplc.com

An expanded federal healthcare subsidy that grew out of the pandemic looks all but certain to expire on December 31, as Republican leaders in the United States faced a rebellion from within their own ranks.

On Wednesday, four centrist Republicans in the House of Representatives broke with their party’s leadership to support a Democratic-backed extension for the healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), sometimes called “Obamacare”.

By a vote of 204 to 203, the House voted to stop the last-minute move by Democrats, aided by four Republicans, to force quick votes on a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidy.

Democrats loudly protested, accusing Republican leadership of gavelling an end to the vote prematurely while some members were still trying to vote.

“That’s outrageous,” Democratic Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts yelled at Republican leadership.

Some of the 24 million Americans who buy their health insurance through the ACA programme could face sharply higher costs beginning on January 1 without action by Congress.

Twenty-six House members had not yet voted – and some were actively trying to do so – when the House Republican leadership gavelled the vote closed on Wednesday. It is rare but not unprecedented for House leadership to cut a contested vote short.

Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said the decision prevented some Democrats from voting.

“Listen, it’s playing games when people’s lives are at stake,” DeLauro said. “They jettisoned it.”

It was the latest episode of congressional discord over the subsidies, which are slated to expire at the end of the year.

The vote also offered another key test to the Republican leadership of House Speaker Mike Johnson. Normally, Johnson determines which bills to bring to a House vote, but recently, his power has been circumvented by a series of “discharge petitions”, wherein a majority of representatives sign a petition to force a vote.

In a series of quickfire manoeuvres on Wednesday, Democrats resorted to one such discharge petition to force a vote on the healthcare subsidies in the new year.

They were joined by the four centrist Republicans: Mike Lawler of New York and Brian Fitzpatrick, Robert Bresnahan and Ryan MacKenzie of Pennsylvania.

The Democratic proposal would see the subsidies extended for three years.

But Republicans have largely rallied around their own proposal, a bill called the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act. It would reduce some insurance premiums, though critics argue it would raise others, and it would also reduce healthcare subsidies overall.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Tuesday said the legislation would decrease the number of people with health insurance by an average of 100,000 per year through 2035.

Its money-saving provisions would reduce federal deficits by $35.6bn, the CBO said.

Republicans have a narrow 220-seat majority in the 435-seat House of Representatives, and Democrats are hoping to flip the chamber to their control in the 2026 midterm elections.

Three of the four Republicans who sided with the Democrats over the discharge petition are from the swing state of Pennsylvania, where voters could lean right or left.

Affordability has emerged as a central question ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Even if the Republican-controlled House manages to pass a healthcare bill this week, it is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate before Congress begins a looming end-of-year recess that would stop legislative action until January 5.

By then, millions of Americans will be looking at significantly more expensive health insurance premiums that could prompt some to go without coverage.

Wednesday’s House floor battle could embolden Democrats and some Republicans to revisit the issue in January, even though higher premiums will already be in the pipeline.

Referring to the House debate, moderate Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski told reporters: “I think that that will help prompt a response here in the Senate after the first of the new year, and I’m looking forward to that.”

The ACA subsidies were a major point of friction earlier this year as well, during the historic 43-day government shutdown.

Democrats had hoped to extend the subsidies during the debate over government spending, but Republican leaders refused to take up the issue until a continuing budget resolution was passed first.

WASHINGTON — Four centrist Republicans broke with Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday and signed onto a Democratic-led petition that will force a House vote on extending for three years an enhanced pandemic-era subsidy that lowers health insurance costs for millions of Americans.

The stunning move comes after House Republican leaders pushed ahead with a health care bill that does not address the soaring monthly premiums that millions of people will soon endure when the tax credits for those who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act expire at year’s end.

Democrats led by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York needed 218 signatures to force a floor vote on their bill, which would extend the subsides for three years.

Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Robert Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie, all from Pennsylvania, and Mike Lawler of New York signed on Wednesday morning, pushing it to the magic number of 218. A vote on the subsidy bill could come as soon as January under House rules.

“Unfortunately, it is House leadership themselves that have forced this outcome.” Fitzpatrick said in a statement.

Origins of a Republican revolt

The revolt against GOP leadership came after days of talks centered on the health care subsidies.

Johnson, R-La., had discussed allowing more politically vulnerable GOP lawmakers a chance to vote on bills that would temporarily extend the subsidies while also adding changes such as income caps for beneficiaries. But after days of discussions, the leadership sided with the more conservative wing of the party’s conference, which has assailed the subsidies as propping up a failed marketplace through the ACA, which is widely known as “Obamacare.”

House Republicans pushed ahead Wednesday a 100-plus-page health care package without the subsidies, instead focusing on long-sought GOP proposals designed to expand insurance coverage options for small businesses and the self-employed.

Fitzpatrick and Lawler tried to add a temporary extension of the subsidies to the bill, but were denied.

“Our only request was a floor vote on this compromise, so that the American People’s voice could be heard on this issue. That request was rejected. Then, at the request of House leadership I, along with my colleagues, filed multiple amendments, and testified at length to those amendments,” Fitzpatrick said. “House leadership then decided to reject every single one of these amendments.

“As I’ve stated many times before, the only policy that is worse than a clean three-year extension without any reforms, is a policy of complete expiration without any bridge,” Fitzpatrick said.

Lawler, in a social media post, similarly said that “the failure of leadership” to permit a vote had left him with “no choice” but to sign the petition. He urged Johnson to bring the plan up for an immediate floor vote.

Path ahead is uncertain

Even if the subsidy bill were to pass the House, which is far from assured, it would face an arduous climb in the Republican-led Senate.

Republicans last week voted down a three-year extension of the subsidies and proposed an alternative that also failed. But in an encouraging sign for Democrats, four Republican senators crossed party lines to support their proposal.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued against the Democratic extension as “an attempt to disguise the real impact of Obamacare’s spiraling health care costs.”

Freking writes for the Associated Press.

The U.S. Air Force has confirmed it is buying two Boeing 747-8 airliners from German flag carrier Lufthansa. The jets will be used for training and as sources of spare parts as part of a larger effort to try to accelerate the entry into service of two new VC-25B Air Force One aircraft. This follows the service’s recent announcement that it now hopes to have the first VC-25B in hand by mid-2028, a slight improvement in the still much-delayed delivery timeline for the aircraft.

“As part of the presidential airlift acceleration efforts, the Air Force is procuring two aircraft to support training and spares for the 747-8 fleet,” Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokesperson, told TWZ in a statement. “Given [that] the 747-8i is no longer in active production, and is a very different aircraft than the 747-200, it is important for the Air Force to establish an overall training and sustainment strategy for the future Air Force 747-8i fleet.”

The Air Force’s two existing VC-25A Air Force One jets are based on the 747-200, a type that has become increasingly difficult to operate and maintain in recent years. The last 200-series model rolled off Boeing’s production line in 1991. This version is also the basis for the service’s four E-4B Nightwatch ‘doomsday plane’ flying command posts, which are in the process of being separately replaced with E-4C Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) jets converted from newer 747-8s.

Furthermore, Boeing shuttered the 747 line entirely in 2022. Lufthansa, Korean Air, and Air China are the only airlines that still use 747s of any kind for scheduled passenger flights. A number of other commercial operators continue to fly freighter versions, and a number of specially configured 747s also remain in VIP fleets globally.

“The Air Force is procuring the two aircraft for a total of $400M. We expect the first aircraft to arrive early next year. The second is expected to be delivered before the end of the year,” Stefanek, the Air Force spokesperson, added, though the reasons for the reverse order in delivery of the jets are not clear. She further clarified that one of the aircraft will fly and be used for training purposes, at least initially. The other aircraft will be utilized as a source of spare parts from the start. Air Force One pilot and flight engineer training has previously been contracted out.

Unconfirmed reports that Lufthansa was selling two 747-8s to the Air Force first emerged last week. The aircraft in question reportedly have the registrations D-ABYD and D-ABYG, which have been flying for the German airline since August 2021 and March 2013, respectively. There had been no prior indications that Lufthansa was looking to divest any part of its 747 fleet, and it is unclear how long this deal has been in the works.

“To be clear,  Boeing continues to modify two 747-8i aircraft for the VC-25B program, the first of which is expected to deliver in mid-2028,” Stefanek stressed. “The two aircraft mentioned above are additional aircraft to be used for training and spares.”

As mentioned, the VC-25B program has repeatedly faced delays due to technical and other issues. Earlier this year, the White House confirmed the first of these aircraft was not expected to arrive until sometime in 2029 at the earliest, representing a new schedule slip. The Air Force had originally hoped to take delivery of the first jet in December 2024.

Pushing the timeline to the left to 2028 would notably give President Donald Trump a better chance of flying in one of the VC-25Bs before the end of his second term. Trump has been particularly outspoken and active in regards to the program since before his first term. In December 2016, as president-elect, he had publicly called for the purchase of the two new Air Force One jets to be cancelled. Trump subsequently became a supporter of the program after claiming to have single-handedly been responsible for slashing the cost of the aircraft, though this remains debatable.

He has, however, continued to be critical of the progress, or lack thereof, on the new VC-25Bs. This is said to have contributed to the acquisition of a highly-modified ex-Qatari VVIP 747-8i aircraft earlier this year, ostensibly as a gift from that country to the United States. The process of converting that jet into an ‘interim’ Air Force One, reportedly helmed by L3Harris, began in September. The Air Force has said previously that it expects the conversion to cost less than $400 million. TWZ has previously questioned the feasibility of this plan in detail, given the strenuous operational and other requirements the jet will have to meet to truly serve in the Air Force One role.

With the ex-Qatari jet and the two 747s from Lufthansa, the plans around the future VC-25B fleet have ballooned from two aircraft to five, four of which will be flyable. This also reflects a broader trend under the Trump administration to expand U.S. government executive aircraft operations.

Separate from the VC-25B program, the Air Force’s acquisition of the two 747-8s from Lufthansa highlights broader potential challenges for operating any aircraft based on this design, also including the E-4Cs, as time goes on. It is worth noting here that with no new 747s in production, at least the initial tranche of E-4Cs are being converted from ex-Korean Air jets. Many more 747-200-series jets were made than -8 versions, as well.

Ensuring there is a sufficient logistical base to support the VC-25B and E-4C fleets will be critical going forward, and the secondary market looks set to continue playing an important role.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com