force

With one-way attack drones playing an ever larger role in American military operations, U.S. Central Command announced it is creating what it calls “the first multinational attack drone task force.” The move comes as combat between the U.S. and Iran has paused, but tensions in the region remain high, including ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels of Yemen. The task force is also being launched amid growing concerns about the U.S. magazine depth of high-end standoff weapons — a class of weapon one-way-attack drones aim to take pressure off of.

Dubbed Task Force Falcon Strike (TFFS), the command said it will “employ one-way attack drones consisting of unmanned systems from above, on, and below the sea operated by military support staff from the United States and regional partners.”

The CENTCOM announcement offered no further information about which nations will participate, what systems will be used, and whether those joining Task Force Falcon Strike will bring their own equipment. The command declined to provide further details when we asked.

The war against Iran saw the command follow global trends in warfare by deploying air and sea drones in combat for the first time. Other militaries in the Middle East have or are working on acquiring similar capabilities. Israel largely wrote the book on one-way attack munitions, for instance.

The establishment of TFFS follows the creation in December of Task Force Scorpion Strike (TFSS). As we were one of the first to report, this was the U.S. military’s first dedicated one-way attack drone squadron and the first operational unit armed with Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) kamikaze drones, a design reverse-engineered from the Iranian-designed Shahed-136, in the Middle East.

Initially, TFSS was created to send a warning to Iran, a U.S. official told us at the time. As we noted earlier in this story, after the launch of Epic Fury on Feb. 28, TFSS marked several operational firsts for America’s use of drones in war.

The first major milestone came on the opening day of the war, when LUCAS drones were used for the first time. The second came in June, when a Saronic Corsair uncrewed surface vessel (USV) rescued the crew of a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache that crashed in the Gulf of Oman after it was downed by Iran. That was the first known instance of a drone boat being used to recover personnel as part of a search and rescue mission.

The third large step forward for U.S. drone warfare came in July, when three Corsairs “hit the port at Bandar Abbas Naval Base” and “successfully struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran,” the command stated on X that day. It was the first U.S. use of a USV as an attack weapon.

You can see those attacks in the following video produced by CENTCOM.

As we have frequently reported, Ukraine has used USVs to devastating effect on the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The Magura line of drones, among others, has played a key role in this campaign.

Notably, the command also said the new task force will also use uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) as attack weapons. If they have been used in combat by the U.S., that has not been publicly acknowledged. The command did announce in April that it was using UUVs to assist in demining the Strait of Hormuz.

In December, Ukraine’s state security service (SBU) said it carried out the first-ever UUV attack on a Russian vessel. The strike was on a Project 636 Varshavyanka class, or Improved Kilo class diesel-electric submarine, in the Black Sea naval stronghold of Novorossiysk.

That attack can be seen in the video below.

In the private home studio left behind by his father, Shane Hawkins is hitting the drums hard. The teenager behind the kit is locked into “Driven to Tears,” the Police’s reggae-charged protest song, channeling its sharp, syncopated beats with controlled fury.

His long blond hair swings across his face as Hawkins loses himself in the moment, tapping into a brisk echo of ’80s rock. He then shifts into the thundering blues of Black Sabbath’s “The Wizard,” driving into the heavier groove while surrounded by the instruments, gear and treasured memorabilia of his late father, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died in 2022.

Joining him in this rehearsal are bassist Wiley Hodgden and guitarist Brent Woods, who played hard-rocking cover songs in Taylor’s side project Chevy Metal for more than two decades. After Taylor’s death, the Foo Fighters carried on, but Chevy Metal were certain they could not. Shane changed that.

“Wiley and I were in agreement, like, it’s done,” says Woods. “Shane was the one that said, ‘I want to do Chevy.’”

For Taylor’s son, the band was one more thing he didn’t want to let go.

“It was a part of my childhood and it’s like, my dad was gone and these people that I’ve watched my whole childhood, they’re still there,” says Shane, 19. “Why not keep something going? And it’s just honoring my dad, you know?”

Most of the music world first saw Shane behind the drums during Foo Fighters’ performance of “My Hero” at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert at Wembley Stadium on Sept. 3, 2022. He was 16 and already obsessed with drums, but he says it wasn’t until that moment that he knew he wanted to devote his life making music.

“It was a gnarly time,” Shane recalls. “You had to pull that off. You can’t really f— that up.

“I played for a lot of people, and there’s only one feeling like that — especially playing the drums. Once you do that, you never want to do anything else.”

With Chevy Metal, Shane is in a band committed to playing songs mostly created before he was born, with a typical setlist including songs by Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Queen, the Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Rush and the Doors. His presence now means leaning more often into classic punk rock. During their live sets, Shane will usually take the mic to growl through the Bad Brains’ speedy “Big Takeover,” pacing the stage and banging his head.

“We’re playing the Germs now,” says Woods. “We’re playing Black Flag, which we never did before.”

Shane Hawkins plays drums with Chevy Metal at the Viper Room.

(Steve Appleford)

Chevy Metal shows routinely feature surprise guests. Dave Grohl and other Foos have frequently appeared. So have Mick Jagger and players from Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns ‘N Roses and more. Even tennis star John McEnroe once joined the band on guitar at a Malibu gig, alongside his wife, singer Patty Smyth.

One regular guest is Lee Ving, singer for the pioneering L.A. punk band Fear. “Lee is like the elder statesman, and then we got Shane, who is so young,” Hodgden says of the age range. “You never see that unless it’s maybe a church band or something.”

Another regular is Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, a family friend whose son Revel also plays music with Shane.

“He’s a great dude and he is a monster drummer,” Scott says of Shane. “I sit and I watch him and Revel play together. It’s so great to see, especially in a world where a lot of younger kids don’t pick up instruments anymore. They live, eat, sleep, breathe, bleed, rock music.”

Until this month, the resurrected Chevy Metal could only perform during Shane’s breaks from his boarding school on the East Coast, but he is newly graduated and ready to play. The trio performs Saturday at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach as part of a series of shows that will take the band to the U.K. Shane is also working with other young players on new material.

“He’s already jamming with kids his own age and friends that he’s had for years, and starting his own project,” says Woods. “But this is good for him to learn, just to play in different venues and travel around and get his feet wet playing covers.”

Chevy Metal once served a similar purpose for Taylor, a favorite pastime alongside his Foo Fighters work. Hodgden has been part of the Foo Fighters crew for 24 years, both on the road and at their studio 606, starting as Taylor’s drum tech. Before that, he was a bartender newly arrived from Oklahoma that the drummer befriended.

In 2002, Hodgden and original guitarist Achim “Dange” St. Dangerfield started the band as an acoustic duo doing cover songs. Taylor was a regular, Hodgden says, turning to Shane. “There’d be two drunks at the bar, and then your dad sitting there heckling us,” Hodgden says with a laugh. “We go into ‘Hotel California,’ and he’s like, ‘Oh, great song choice, guys.’”

The Foos drummer soon wanted in.

“Taylor was trying to come up with names and he’s like, ‘How about Chevy Metal?’ And I said, ‘Well, you can’t really name the band. You’re not in it,’” Hodgden adds. “But we jammed all the time up at his house, and then one day we’re playing and it sounded good. And Taylor stood up and said, ‘I’m gonna be your drummer and we’re gonna call it Chevy Metal.’ And I was like, that’s a rad name.”

“He got to be the boss in this band and steer the ship and do whatever he wanted,” says Hodgden. “But also it was low pressure and it was all about fun.”

Taylor filled much of his downtime making more music. Aside from Chevy Metal, he recorded new songs with the Coattail Riders (which included Woods) and, earlier, the Birds of Satan (including Hodgden).

“He never stopped,” Woods recalls. “He would call me at 7 a.m. and go, ‘What are you doin? Get up here!’ He’d go to bed probably at midnight, one o’clock, and he’s up taking the kids to school, he’s mountain biking, and he’s ready to roll. I was still sleeping, but he would be up every day wanting to create and work.”

Woods saw Chevy Metal’s first show with Taylor at Abuelitas in Topanga Canyon in 2002. After Dange moved up north to work as a teacher, Woods eventually became Chevy Metal’s new guitarist. Woods grew up in Burbank and took guitar lessons from Randy Rhoads, best known for his work on Ozzy Osbourne’s early solo albums.

“He was such a great lead player, but he was adamant that if you can’t play rhythm, it doesn’t matter how great of a lead player you are,” Woods says of Rhoads, who emphasized “rhythm and feel.”

“I wouldn’t be sitting here right now if it wasn’t for Randy teaching me.”

Growing up initially in Topanga Canyon, the first beat Shane learned to play was the thunderous drum fill from Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight.” Then came Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and the Rolling Stones’ “Miss You.” By 13, he was spending hours each day practicing alone in the basement at his boarding school.

“There were no other kids that really played at the school, so I’d just sit down and play,” he says.

Shane grew up watching both Foo Fighters and Chevy Metal shows. “I’d sit behind my dad and watch him play and watch people just go crazy,” says Shane. “And as a kid, you think that’s the coolest thing in the world, because it is. It’s the best feeling.”

The band Chevy Metal — bassist Wiley Hodgden, left, drummer Shane Hawkins and guitarist Brent Woods — gestures downstairs at the Viper Room on the Sunset Strip.

(Steve Appleford)

Taylor’s home studio was built in a guest house behind his family’s home in Hidden Hills, a gated community on the northern edge of the San Fernando Valley. Inside, the walls are still covered with his guitars, posters, photographs and other relics from his favorite artists: Aerosmith, Rush, Bowie, Jane’s Addiction and Soundgarden.

The reborn Chevy Metal still rehearses in what Woods describes as Taylor’s “man cave.”

“He put a lot of work into making this room what it is right now,” says Shane. “I remember him precisely making sure every picture was hung up in the exact place. And every banner was hung perfectly and every speaker was placed perfectly for your ear.”

The band recorded a lot of songs here with Taylor, and they hope to release some of that material from the vault. They plan on more recording with his son.

Before Shane graduated high school, the last time Chevy Metal played a hometown show was at the Viper Room on New Year’s Eve. It was also a gathering of rock ’n’ roll families, as second-generation musicians took turns onstage with Chevy Metal, representing the offspring of Guns ‘N Roses, Jane’s Addiction and Anthrax.

During the sound check, the band ran through songs by U2 and Foreigner, and Shane hammered the drums at full volume. Afterward, he was chatting with Scott Ian, who advised him: “You never want to be great at dress rehearsal. You want to be good at dress rehearsal, and then be great at the show.”

Shane nodded, but for now, he says he can only play at one level: loud.

As Shane sat in the dressing room before Chevy Metal’s set, Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins walked in, asking, “Where’s the drummer?” Then he spotted Shane, smiled, grabbed his hand and said, “There he is!”

A new LAPD report released Tuesday blamed poor planning and coordination for issues with the department’s response to protests that erupted on city streets last summer in opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

But apart from identifying those problems, the report concluded that police officers performed well in the face of “unprecedented” unrest that sometimes devolved into violence and vandalism.

Missing from the 62-page report — at least in the view of some longtime department observers — was any reflection about officers’ use of less-lethal weapons that left hundreds of people injured and drew strong condemnations from human rights groups.

The report largely blamed protesters for instigating violence and injuring officers, saying “agitators” intent on taking advantage of the disorder made it impossible to avoid using force.

The report said the LAPD was not prepared to deal with the protective equipment and “improvised weaponry” employed by some protesters, including people with oven mitts who picked up and lobbed tear gas canisters back in the direction of officers and others who used leaf blowers to redirect the gas.

During the department’s presentation of the report, one police commissioner, Jeff Skobin, pointed out that demonstrators and journalists who spoke at the meeting felt as though their perspectives weren’t reflected in the report whatsoever. He suggested that LAPD officials consider reaching out to journalists or press organizations as the department reevaluates its media policy.

Commission President Rasha Gerges Shields said the department could have examined whether reforms that were called for in 2020 had been implemented — and areas where the department still needed to improve.

“I just want to make sure that this isn’t just the end-all, be-all of this conversation,” she said.

In response, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said the report had considered past lessons learned, but the “unprecedented” nature of the protests justified the department’s actions.

“The level of violence — I have been doing this for 45 years, I have not seen that here or anywhere else in the country,” he said, noting that nearly 50 officers were injured.

The report said officers were targeted with rocks, bottles, commercial-grade fireworks and Molotov cocktails. Timely communication was a concern at times, the report said, with the department lacking a necessary number of radio wave frequencies.

When less-lethal weapons proved ineffective, the department deployed tear gas on two occasions, June 8 and 14, to disperse “violent groups” and restore order. It was the first time the department had used the measure since at least the 1970s. The decision to use gas “reflected the extreme conditions faced at the height of the unrest,” the report said. The report doesn’t specify who authorized the deployment of the gas.

But the gas also created tactical challenges, since many patrol and Metropolitan Division officers lacked protective masks, increasing their risk of exposure. The report said the chemical agents were “the only viable option to reestablish control.”

In just two weeks of protests, the report said, the department spent $17.47 million in personnel costs, including $12.14 million for overtime. Ultimately, the report concluded, the department “contained the unrest” without any loss of life or “major breaches of critical infrastructure.”

Some critics said the report failed to answer basic questions, such as how many less-lethal rounds were fired or how many officers were disciplined for misconduct.

Like past after-action reports, the review was hyper-focused on the threats faced by officers, critics said. But, they noted, it had little to say about how officers’ use of less-lethal weapons — sometimes in clear violation of the department’s own policies — that were widely documented documented on social media and in news accounts.

“If the department can’t even recognize the possibility that they might have a problem with how they police protests, after last summer, how can anyone expect them to do anything differently next time?” said Peter Bibring, a civil rights attorney who previously served as director of police practices at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

According to the city attorney’s office, more than 120 claims for damages have been filed against the city in connection to police actions during pro-immigration protests as of April. The city is still facing lawsuits stemming from the 2020 protests over the police killing of George Floyd. The latest spate of civil actions could tie the city up in costly litigation for years to come.

At Tuesday’s commission meeting, the 45-minute public comment period was extended to accommodate dozens of speakers, many of whom criticized the report for whitewashing what they described as the department’s heavy-handed response to the protests.

Despite years of costly lawsuits, oversight measures and promises by leaders to rein in indiscriminate use of force during protests, officers were shown on video last year trampling demonstrators on horseback and aiming so-called less-lethal launchers at people’s heads in a violation of department policy, speakers said. None of that, observers said, was mentioned in the report.

Others argued that the report seems to cast members of the media as nuisances to be dealt with, while ignoring instances in which journalists were targeted by law enforcement.

“It’s an insult,” said Nick Stern, a British news photographer who is suing the Los Angeles County after being struck by sheriff’s deputies while covering a protest in Paramount. “Journalists only show up as logistical problems.”

Another speaker noted the inflammatory language used in the report seemed to justify the aggressive tactics by describing protesters as operating in “cells,” likening them to Al-Qaeda.

Lt. Joseph Fransen, the study’s chief author, told the Commission that he took inspiration from the federal government’s 9/11 after-action report, which dissected mistakes leading up to the terrorist attack.

“These aren’t necessarily points of failure, these are just lessons to be learned in the future,” Fransen said of his report.

Officials have promised thorough investigations of all uses of force. The department limited its use of the launchers after a federal judge issued an injunction in January, but has deployed other types of crowd control weapons in subsequent protests. The judge ruled that officers have repeatedly violated previous court orders that allow the weapon to be used only to subdue protesters who pose a threat of violence.

The report found that, on several nights, the LAPD didn’t have enough personnel to process and transport all the people who were arrested. Between June 7-16, 2025, the department made 435 protest-related arrests, including 182 on June 10 alone. Three out of every four arrest was for unlawful assembly, while 16 arrests were made for violent crimes, including assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer or attempted murder of a police officer. Most people were released on citation. Four-fifths of those arrested came from the county, while others traveled from surrounding counties or outside the state.

Reporting from Sacramento — Gov. Jerry Brown ushered in a new era of transparency in California law enforcement on Sunday, signing two new laws that for the first time give the public access to internal police investigations and video footage of shootings by police officers and other serious incidents.

The measures begin to undo decades of laws and court decisions that had made California the nation’s most secretive state for police records.

“With Governor Brown’s signature, California is finally joining other states in granting access to the investigatory records on officer conduct that the public truly has a right to know,” said Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of one of the measures, Senate Bill 1421, in a statement.

Here’s how California became the most secretive state on police misconduct »

Skinner’s bill allows the public to view investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty.

The availability of these records will allow the public to press California police departments and elected officials in ways not possible before, said Peter Bibring, director of police practices at the American Civil Liberties Union of California, which was a principal supporter of both bills.

“People have seen there are systematic problems and the police aren’t being held accountable — or at least the public isn’t aware of it because it’s secret,” Bibring said. “That’s something the public is not willing to ignore.”

Legal experts also say SB 1421 could have a significant effect on the state’s justice system by allowing broader access to records that could bear on the credibility of a police witness who has a history of discipline for dishonesty or other significant misconduct.

California is the only state in which even prosecutors cannot directly obtain officer personnel files. Under the current system, prosecutors and criminal defendants must navigate a labyrinthine process in court to glean information from those files. The procedure, which requires filing a so-called Pitchess motion, often yields only the name and contact information of a complainant against an officer.

A recent Times investigation into secrecy surrounding law enforcement discipline found that past misconduct by police witnesses, whether alleged or proven, routinely is kept hidden in court as a result of California’s confidentiality laws.

The new law opens up interview transcripts, evidence and full investigatory reports to the public, prosecutors and defense attorneys alike.

“This is revolutionary,” said San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi. “It would unveil what we have been wanting for a long time.”

Lara Bazelon, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, said the measure could expose officer misconduct that was long withheld from defendants and could lead to numerous convictions being dismissed.

“We are going to see a lot of skeletons falling out of the closets dating back years, if not decades. That means people who were convicted unjustly and unfairly will finally get a chance to be heard,” Bazelon said.

Contra Costa County prosecutors tossed 19 convictions in 2016 and 2017 after a police lieutenant revealed to a judge that files showing internal investigations into two officers had not been disclosed in criminal cases featuring the officers.

California’s rules prohibiting the public release of law enforcement records date back four decades. At the time, police unions and other law enforcement officials were complaining that criminal defense attorneys had flooded departments with requests for complaints against officers. Before the 1978 law was passed, the Los Angeles Police Department shredded four tons of prior complaints against officers that hadn’t resulted in a finding of wrongdoing.

In previous years, law enforcement labor groups waged aggressive campaigns to successfully shut down attempts to loosen the state’s police confidentiality laws.

Police unions opposed SB 1421 as well. Brian Marvel, the head of the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California — the state’s largest law enforcement labor organization — said he worried the new disclosure rules would put officers at risk. Earlier this year, protesters angry over the killing of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man in Sacramento, gathered at the wedding of a police officer after identifying him as one of the officers who shot Clark, and Marvel said releasing more information about officers could lead to more confrontations that could turn violent.

“There would be a greater potential for officers and their families being harmed by having all of their information being put out publicly,” Marvel said.

Labor officials had used similar arguments in the past to defeat transparency proposals. But Marvel said their position wasn’t as effective this year because public opinion has shifted against officers, pressuring lawmakers to act differently. Legislators and civil rights activists similarly have cited the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and increased scrutiny on police killings of civilians as reasons why SB 1421 passed when prior attempts at changing the transparency laws failed.

Brown signed the original 1978 police confidentiality law during his first term in office. He did not issue a statement after signing the bill, and a spokesman declined to comment on the decision.

Besides the open records law, Brown signed a second measure, Assembly Bill 748, requiring departments statewide to release body-worn camera and other video and audio recordings of officer shootings and serious uses of force within 45 days unless doing so would interfere with an ongoing investigation.

This law, modeled after a new LAPD policy on releasing body-camera video, makes California’s rules for releasing footage some of the most transparent in the country, according to research by Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The body-camera law also breaks a long stalemate in the Legislature over setting statewide rules on releasing the police recordings. Multiple proposals in recent years either to make the videos public or limit access had failed before AB 748.

“Public access to body camera footage is necessary to boost confidence and rebuild trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” said Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), the bill’s author, in a statement.

The new transparency laws could spur more efforts to increase public access to policing records in the state. Marvel, the police union leader, said he’d like to release body-camera footage of day-to-day interactions officers have with community members, such as typical traffic stops, so that the public has a better sense of what regular policing is like.

“If the only thing we’re releasing is negative contacts with people, then that becomes the narrative,” Marvel said.

The new open records law takes effect Jan. 1. The body-camera law won’t be implemented until July 1 to give police departments more time to update their policies on disclosure.

Coverage of California politics »

liam.dillon@latimes.com

@dillonliam

maya.lau@latimes.com

@mayalau

UPDATES:

5:45 p.m: This article was updated with comments from the bills’ authors and additional information about the governor’s decision.

This article was originally published at 5:25 p.m.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — The Defense Department on Friday revoked Frank Kendall’s access to classified information, accusing the former secretary of the Air Force of leaking sensitive information to the press.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Frank was the source who told reporters that President Donald Trump‘s new Qatari-gifted jet lacked certain security features.

Parnell said the Defense Department revoked Kendall’s “eligibility for access to classified information and his ability to hold any sensitive position.”

“This action follows his unauthorized disclosure of classified information regarding Air Force One‘s capabilities to a media outlet,” the spokesman wrote on X. “Safeguarding classified information is a non-negotiable duty.

“Those who violate that trust forfeit the privilege of access and any role requiring it.”

Kendall, a lawyer and engineer, served as U.S. secretary of the Air Force from 2021 to 2025 under the Biden administration.

When asked about the new Qatari jet, Kendall told CNN it would take three to four years to get the plane on-par with the expectations of an aircraft serving as Air Force One.

The New York Times first reported that Trump’s new Air Force One, a Boeing 747-8, lacked advanced security features such as antimissile capabilities.

The plane was a $400 million gift from Qatar, but despite retrofitting, did not reach the level of safety required of the U.S. president’s main aircraft, The Times reported.

Trump denied the report and called for the prosecution of leakers, though days later he said the plane would be taken out of commission to be “maxed out” — tacitly admitting it wasn’t fully upgraded already.

The Trump administration subpoenaed four Times journalists over the incident.

A total of 1,000sq km (386sq miles) has burned across Washington state, and some of the fires have not been contained.

Wildfires in eastern Washington state have forced the evacuation of 60,000 people in the Spokane area and destroyed at least 600 homes, businesses and other structures, authorities said on Sunday.

The fires in and around Spokane, the state’s second-largest city, burned about 21 square kilometres (8sq miles) over the weekend and were among dozens of wildfires across the Western United States that stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them.

Roughly 1,000sq km (386sq miles) have burned across the state, and some of the fires, including those in the Spokane area, have not been contained.

Fire and law enforcement officials said there had been no reports of injuries or people unaccounted for, but they stressed it was early in the response effort.

Videos from the Spokane area showed buildings on fire, black smoke billowing up near neighbourhoods, and the smoking ruins of homes, with only chimneys still standing. Several officials expressed concern that the area appears set to continue having dry weather in the coming days.

“We are not out of danger,” Senator Maria Cantwell said during a news conference with federal, state and local officials in Spokane. “The next couple of days will be challenging.”

Investigators have not determined how the blazes began.

Spokane was not the only region struggling to contain fires.

Crews using bulldozers and helicopters continued for a tenth day to fight a fire that has burned nearly 1,360sq km (525sq miles) of grassland in western Idaho and eastern Oregon. The area is home to cattle ranches, with authorities saying the fire is threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures.

In central Utah, a massive blaze more than doubled in size over the weekend, jumping from about 41sq km (16sq miles) to 145sq km (56sq miles) by Sunday morning. More than 100 cattle have been killed, according to local law enforcement.

Fast-moving wildfires have scorched more than 250,000 acres across Washington state, forcing widespread evacuations around Spokane. Communities in neighbouring British Columbia, Canada are also under threat as the UN warns of worsening global heat.

The head of Operation Aspides, the European-led task force created to provide security for ships transiting the Red Sea region, tells TWZ that there has been a major increase in the number of commercial vessels seeking escorts since the U.S. and Israel started attacking Iran in February. Security concerns in that region have spiked after the Houthi rebels of Yemen imposed a blockade on Saudi shipping and began attacking the kingdom’s vessels and oil infrastructure. Late Thursday, the leader of the Houthis promised additional escalation against the Saudis.

“We have witnessed a significant increase in requests from commercial vessels seeking Aspides’ support for their safe transit through the High Threat Area (South Red Sea/Strait of Bab-al-Mandeb [BAM]/Gulf of Aden),” Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis, Commander of EUNAVFOR Aspides, told TWZ in an email. “In particular, the number of protection requests increased by 39% from February 2026 (the start of the US-Israel-Iran confrontation) until now.”

“The increasing number of protection requests clearly demonstrates that, in times of insecurity, the shipping industry views Aspides as a credible and reliable maritime security provider,” Gryparis added. “We are working daily to maintain and strengthen bonds with the shipping industry, as mutual understanding and effective collaboration are essential to maritime security and the preservation of Freedom of Navigation.”

As we were one of the first to report, Aspides was launched in February 2024 during the previous Houthi campaign against shipping that ended last September. It was created to provide “a shield…to act in purely defensive mode to protect merchant vessels, and two non-executive tasks of ‘accompanying’ to deter with [its] presence and to strengthen maritime situational awareness,” a now former top EU official told reporters at the time.

Since its founding, the task force “has facilitated the safe passage of more than 2,240 merchant vessels and has provided close protection to more than 690 merchant vessels of different flags and interests,” the Aspides commander explained.

Aspides did not provide assistance to vessels recently attacked by the Houthis because the task force was not asked, Gryparis told us.

“Those vessels were sailing within the territorial waters under the responsibility of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (KSA MRCC),” he stated. “Consequently, assistance was provided by the Saudi Arabian authorities. The vessels in question had not registered their transit with the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean (MSCIO) and had not requested protection from EUNAVFOR Aspides.”

In addition to the blockade and strikes on Saudi assets, the Houthis are reportedly considering imposing a toll on Bab al-Mandeb Strait transits. Gryparis told us that such a move, which has yet to be enacted, would not alter Aspides’ goals.

“Such a development would not change the mandate or the mission of Operation Aspides,” the admiral proffered. “Our mission remains clear: to contribute to Freedom of Navigation, protect the lives of seafarers, support the secure flow of global trade by protecting merchant shipping, improve Maritime Situational Awareness, and contribute to regional stability.”

“Of course, any measure that could affect the free passage of commercial shipping has the potential to impact Freedom of Navigation and the confidence of the shipping industry,” he added. “How states or private shipping companies decide to address such a development would be a political and commercial decision for them.”

“From our perspective, we will continue to implement our mandate within our means and capabilities, continuously assess the maritime security environment, provide protection to eligible merchant vessels in accordance with our mandate, and support the shipping industry through Maritime Situational Awareness and the timely dissemination of information and recommendations via the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean (MSCIO),” Gryparis noted.

In a fiery speech, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi warned Saudi Arabia of an all-out escalation. He described his group’s actions as being in response to a Saudi “siege” on the Houthis in Yemen.

“The indicators show that the Saudi [side] is heading toward comprehensive escalation,” al-Houthi proclaimed. “We will seek God’s help against it — we will meet his comprehensive escalation with comprehensive escalation.”

“In this phase, regarding what the Saudi [side] has done, the outcome has been good since establishing the equation of (siege for siege) — in targeting Saudi oil tankers, in preventing their movement, turning back 16 ships, and also in shooting down the Saudi [-operated] aircraft that come to conduct reconnaissance and penetrate our airspace — armed drones,” the Houthi leader continued.

For its part, Saudi Arabia is creating its own maritime coalition to protect transits in the region.

“Recognizing the growing challenges facing global maritime security, and the resulting need to strengthen collective naval defense cooperation to protect freedom of navigation and international trade routes, and to secure global energy supply routes through the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden,” the Saudi Defense Ministry announced on Thursday. “The founding states affirm that the establishment of the Multinational Naval Defense Coalition represents a strategic step toward strengthening maritime security in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden, consolidating defense cooperation among the member states, and supporting stability and prosperity — in a manner that contributes to complementing international efforts to protect international peace and security, in accordance with the provisions of international law.”

About 50 nations were asked to join and 14 so far have signed up. It is unclear at the moment how this will differ from Aspides.

Meanwhile, Iran claims it has completely shut down the Strait of Hormuz to vessels in the wake of recent U.S. attacks.

“Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) says that passage through the Strait of Hormuz is currently impossible because of the continued ‘aggressive actions’ of US military forces in the region, adding that applications for transit would only be processed once stability returns,” the official Iranian Press TV media outlet claimed. Iran, however, frequently makes statements that are outright fabrications or extremely exaggerated. TWZ cannot independently verify this claim.

Traffic through that strategic chokepoint had already been significantly reduced by Iran since the launch of Epic Fury.

In a post on X, U.S. Central Command pushed back on that claim, saying the Strait remains open to shipping.

“CLAIM: Once again, the Iranian government claims it has closed the Strait of Hormuz. This is FALSE,” the command stated. “FACT: The Strait of Hormuz remains open for commercial vessel transit. Iran does not control it. Thousands of ships have sailed through the international waterway over the past four months.”

Regardless of the dueling claims, traffic through the Strait has slowed to a trickle, according to the Kpler global trade intelligence firm.

“The latest maritime risk data points to growing divergence across the region’s two strategic chokepoints,” Kpler stated on X. “Strait of Hormuz crossings fell 77% day on day to just five vessels, with all transits concentrated through the Iranian Unilateral Scheme, suggesting reduced operational confidence and limited routing flexibility. At the same time, Bab el Mandeb remained active, recording 47 crossings despite ongoing sanctioned vessel movements, shadow fleet activity and a dark transit. With US and Iranian public positions still at odds, operators are closely monitoring traffic volumes, routing behaviour and any diplomatic developments that could reshape risk across regional shipping lanes in the days ahead.”

Adding to concerns about energy exports, Egyptian officials yesterday confirmed that the port facility of Damietta was hit by a drone strike on Wednesday, the first public acknowledgment that the country has come under fire during this conflict. Cairo did not say who launched the attack, but Trump hinted it was the Iranians. The New York Times reported that two Iranians, who asked not to be named to discuss security matters, “said the explosion was a drone attack designed to show that global shipping and energy supplies could be more deeply disrupted if Iran chose to escalate. The individuals did not say whether Iran or an Iran-allied militia in the region had launched the attack, or from where.”

Iran, for its part, suggested Israel was to blame. Regardless, the incident raised the specter of another part of the region being brought into fighting that is largely centered on the flow of energy supplies.

While tensions on the waters are heating up, the pace of kinetic strikes on land targets seems to be slowing.

Kuwait reported its air defenses shot down several drones earlier on Friday.

“The sinful Iranian aggression targeted a number of vital and military facilities, where the hostile targets were dealt with and destroyed, resulting in material damage due to the fall of shrapnel, with no human casualties recorded, praise be to God,” the Kuwaiti Defense Ministry reported on X. “The armed forces affirm their continued execution of their missions and duties with high efficiency, within the framework of ongoing readiness and permanent preparedness, and taking all necessary measures to protect the sovereignty of the homeland, preserve its security and stability, in coordination with the competent authorities, in a manner that preserves the safety of citizens and residents.”

Tit-for-tat attacks between the U.S. and Iran have also slowed, with the last American strikes launched on July 29. However, during a cabinet meeting at Camp David, U.S. President Donald Trump indicated that more offensive action could be in the offing.

“We just want to win,” he stated. “We’ll be hitting them very hard. At some point, they will say we can’t take it anymore.”

When asked about a recent report that he had been given a proposal to “go big,” the president said that has already happened.

“We’ve already gone big,” Trump responded. “What’s big?”

That’s it for now. We’ll update this when there is more information to share.

UPDATE: 8:06 PM EDT –

The Houthis’ Sanaa-based Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC) sent us a statement pushing back on claims that the Yemeni rebel group is seeking tolls on the BAM.

“The Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOCC) has recently become aware of the circulation of a number of reports and claims across certain news websites and media platforms alleging that the Republic of Yemen [Houthis] intends to impose tolls for transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The HOCC categorically denies the accuracy of these claims and confirms that it has neither taken nor considered any decision to impose fees for transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The HOCC further emphasizes that transit throughthe Bab al-Mandab Strait is free of charge.

Furthermore, the services provided by the HOCC — including the Safe Transit Service for vessels — are, as is well known, entirely free of charge. The Safe Transit Service is a voluntary and cost-free service offered by the HOCC to vessels/companies (falling outside the scope of the declared ban) that wish to confirm the safe transit of their vessels through the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Gulf of Aden, and the Arabian Sea. All vessels outside the scope of the declared ban may transit safely. Additionally, for added assurance, such vessels may submit a Safe Transit Request by email to the following address: clearances@hocc.gov.ye at any time, and a response will be provided within a few hours.

Accordingly, the HOCC categorically confirms that any individual or entity requesting the payment of money in exchange for transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait does not represent the Republic of Yemen or HOCC in any capacity whatsoever. The HOCC urges shipping companies not to make any payments or provide any information to unauthorized individuals or entities.

The HOCC warns against any unauthorized use of its name or logo, or any false claim of representation, for the purpose of collecting fees or other payments in connection with transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait. It further calls upon anyone who is asked to pay such fees to refrain from making any payment, document the incident whenever it is safe and practicable to do so, and report the matter via the email address: compliance@hocc.go.ye, attaching all available details and supporting evidence that may assist in verifying the incident and taking the necessary action.

The HOCC calls upon all media outlets and news websites to adhere to professional standards, exercise due diligence and accuracy when reporting news and information, and refrain from publishing or circulating any information concerning transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait before verifying it through the HOCC’s official channels.“

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Boeing has taken a fresh $280 million loss on work to deliver two newly converted and fully equipped VC-25B Air Force One presidential aircraft to the U.S. Air Force. The company says the new cost growth reflects investments to help it keep on track to finally deliver the first of these planes in 2028. The program remains years behind schedule, as well as over budget, with Boeing now having paid more than $3 billion out of pocket. This all also follows last week’s announcement that the Qatari-gifted VC-25B Bridge jet will be pulled from service for roughly a month to receive additional upgrades amid concerns that it lacks adequate defensive and other capabilities.

The new loss, or “charge,” on the VC-25B effort was announced during a quarterly Boeing earnings call this morning. Steve Parker, President and CEO of Boeing’s Defense, Space, and Security division, had first disclosed new cost growth on the program in an interview with Aviation Week earlier this month, but did not provide a specific dollar figure at that time. The Air Force has been actively working to acquire the two VC-25Bs as one-for-one replacements for its aging VC-25A Air Force One aircraft since the late 2010s.

Boeing is doing the VC-25B conversion work under a firm, fixed-price contract, and has already absorbed billions of dollars in losses since the program began. As of 2024, Boeing had reported some $2.8 billion in charges, according to Aviation Week. The new $280 million charge would push that figure to over $3 billion.

The Air Force has infused some additional funding into the effort, as well. This includes a $15.5 million contract modification to support communications systems work in December 2025. In a report published in June, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the total estimated acquisition cost of the program on the U.S. government side had risen from $6.263 billion to $6.608 billion between December 2018 and August 2025.

“We’ve made the decision to add significant resources to support the build and test schedule on VC-25B. We have also aligned with the Air Force on moving from an FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] to a military certification basis,” Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg said during today’s earnings call. “These additional resources will also help mitigate potential risks during certification and flight tests. Since this program is in a reach-forward loss, these additional investments resulted in a $280 million charge during the quarter.”

“Results include $280 million of losses on the VC-25B program primarily driven by an investment in additional production and certification resources,” Boeing added in a press release put out today. “The company continues to anticipate first delivery in 2028.”

Boeing first announced last year that it was aiming to deliver the first fully-equipped VC-25B by mid-2028. GAO’s report in June said the Air Force hopes to receive the aircraft by March of that year. If Boeing holds to this timeline, it will represent a slight improvement in the program schedule. However, the original goal was for the Air Force to have the first of these new Air Force One jets in hand by December 2024.

“In September 2025, Boeing provided a revised schedule that would accelerate the aircraft delivery, to mid-2028 and mid-2029, respectively. Program officials said the revised schedule reflects changes to the airworthiness certification approach and aircraft requirements, including interior designs, weight limitations, and storage,” per GAO’s report in June. “They said that the supply chain is ramping up to ensure that parts are delivered on time to support the schedule. They also noted that they are exploring use of the organic industrial base to mitigate supply chain risks and ensure a diversity of suppliers.”

“Repairs of the VC-25B stress corrosion cracks are ongoing and are expected to be completed in 2026, according to officials. They are planning ongoing inspections after delivery,” the report added. “The Air Force plans to upgrade mission communications systems after the aircraft are delivered, but the timelines are still being developed, according to program officials.”

Cracking is a known issue that has been impacting 747-8s worldwide, regardless of their configuration. The FAA issued a formal airworthiness directive to all operators regarding these problems back in 2023.

The additional work required on the communications systems also speaks to the fact that delays on such a complex program inherently mean that certain technologies intended to be incorporated originally have become out of date.

“The program is developing 80 certification plans to demonstrate aircraft airworthiness,” GAO also noted. “The Air Force approved seven of these plans as of October 2025. The Air Force has yet to determine when operational testing will begin.”

Delays and cost growth in the conversion of the two fully fledged VC-25Bs are deeply intertwined with what is now known as the VC-25B Bridge aircraft. Issues related to Air Force One had already been of personal interest to President Donald Trump since he was just a candidate back in 2015. Reports that he was looking for ways to speed up the acquisition of a new Air Force One plane emerged soon after he started his second term last year. The Qatari government subsequently made the highly irregular donation of the 747-8i jet to the U.S. military, after which the Air Force announced it would be turned into an interim presidential aircraft. Defense contractor L3Harris did the conversion work in a span of roughly 10 months.

The basic justification for needing the Bridge VC-25B at all remains a subject of intense debate, and the aircraft has been a source of criticism and controversy from the start. This has been further fueled by a recent chain of events that began with the Bridge jet’s official entry in service in the Air Force One role earlier this month.

Trump took his first trip on the plane on July 1, traveling to Montana for events surrounding the 250th anniversary of the United States. Just days later, the President traveled to the NATO summit in Turkey on the aircraft, but then made an unexpected swap back to an older VC-25A on the return flight home. It has since been reported that a credible threat to Trump emanating from Iran prompted the Secret Service to advise the switch in aircraft. There were reports before and after saying the ex-Qatari 747 lacked key self-defense features and other capabilities that are found on the VC-25As and that will be included on the future VC-25Bs from Boeing.

Months after the United Nations Security Council backed a comprehensive framework to end Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Israel’s security cabinet has approved a highly constrained pilot project to allow foreign security forces into a narrow pocket of the devastated territory.

Israeli media reported on Sunday that the so-called International Stabilization Force (ISF), part of United States President Donald Trump’s 20-point “peace plan”, will include 200 members from countries such as Morocco and Uganda deploying to a designated “test” zone in the southern city of Rafah.

While international officials have welcomed the move, analysts describe the limited deployment as a calculated diplomatic gesture with little practical effect that comes as the US-backed peace process has largely stalled and as Israel’s deadly attacks continue.

Instead of a genuine transition towards peace, they argue, the move is a political manoeuvre designed to deflect US pressure ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week, while simultaneously entrenching the geographic fragmentation of the Gaza Strip.

“Netanyahu is going to Washington to say ‘no’ to the broader demands of withdrawal” from the Strip, says Wissam Afifa, a Gaza-based political analyst. “Instead, he is offering this alternative: ‘Take this small appetiser, take this minor achievement, and play within this highly restricted space.’”

Scaled-back forces and ‘rubber batons’

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the original plan anticipated the deployment of 500 Moroccan troops to a refugee camp in the city. The drastic reduction to just 200 troops may indicate that Israel’s political-security cabinet has decided to divide the deployment into even smaller, heavily controlled stages.

The force will operate in full coordination with the Israeli military. According to the Israeli news outlet Ynet, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was the sole cabinet member to vote against the measure, arguing that the Palestinian group Hamas had failed to fulfill its commitment to disarm and insisting that “the solution in Gaza is to encourage migration”.

Israeli media also reported that the government maintains that the Israeli military will retain control of the “Yellow Line” – a unilaterally imposed boundary that effectively places up to 70 percent of the Gaza Strip under tight Israeli control – and that no withdrawal will take place until Hamas has fully disarmed.

The original framework endorsed by UNSC Resolution 2803 called for the deployment of an international force alongside a transitional Palestinian administration.

Earlier this month, Hamas announced it would dissolve its government in Gaza and hand over power to a new, Palestinian technocratic governing authority called the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).

Analysts said Hamas’s move was likely designed to apply pressure on Israel and demonstrate the group’s commitment to handing over governance and allowing the rebuilding of the territory.

The pilot programme also envisions the NCAG’s entry to oversee civil affairs in Gaza. Yet, according to Haaretz, the Palestinian police accompanying them will be stripped of firearms, permitted to carry only “rubber batons and tasers”.

Meanwhile, preparations on the ground appear to be moving forward to accommodate this new security architecture. Israeli Army Radio recently broadcast a video showing a military base under construction in the southern “Gaza envelope” near the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing.

The station reported that the sprawling facility is being built specifically to host the incoming multinational forces before their deployment.

Despite the severe Israeli restrictions, Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for the Board of Peace, welcomed the Israeli cabinet’s decision, praising it as a “critical part of the agreed framework for stabilizing Gaza, supporting demilitarization, and enabling the transition to effective Palestinian transitional administration”.

A ‘sweetener’ for Washington

To understand the timing and motivation behind the decision, experts pointed to the diplomatic deadlock surrounding the US-brokered peace initiative. Trump’s plan envisioned a phased approach, bridged by the handover of Gaza to a technocratic committee. However, this framework has been stalled by Israel’s refusal to link a ceasefire to the broader political situation and its rejection of a phased withdrawal.

Afifa said the “failure” of the US administration’s flagship initiative had left it “embarrassed” as the project that was repeatedly highlighted by Trump “as a great achievement, resulted in zero”.

With Netanyahu heading to Washington, the Israeli prime minister desperately needed a deliverable, said Afifa. The cabinet’s decision, passed hastily via a telephone vote during a Knesset recess to avoid internal coalition fractures, provides exactly that, he added.

Mamoun Abu Amer, an expert on Israeli affairs, echoed this assessment. He viewed the rushed cabinet vote as an attempt to preempt US pressure and present an image of compliance to Trump, while fundamentally altering the agreement’s core terms to suit Israel’s long-term security strategy.

Abu Amer also said that Israel has effectively turned Resolution 2803 upside down through selective and highly conditional implementation.

“This is an inverted process,” said Abu Amer. The original text implied that the NCAG would enter Gaza, the ISF would deploy and the Israeli military would withdraw to new lines to allow for stabilisation. Instead, Israel is demanding unilateral disarmament first, while keeping the technocratic committee besieged within an Israeli security envelope.

Abu Amer also suggested the requirement for the Palestinian police force to only carry rubber batons and tasers reflects a premeditated Israeli strategy to strip the Palestinian administration of genuine law enforcement capabilities, reducing them to subcontractors managing municipal decay in a thoroughly devastated environment under a strict military occupation.

The NCAG itself appeared to reject this Israeli paradigm. In a recent statement, the committee declared it would only assume responsibility for Gaza after UNSC approval of the force’s deployment and, crucially, a full Israeli military withdrawal.

‘False witnesses’

The spatial realities of the Israeli plan reveal a strategy of deep fragmentation and long-term control, experts said, pointing to the cabinet’s decision to explicitly restrict the ISF and the technocrats to operating strictly outside the “Yellow Line”.

Afifa warned that transforming a small pocket of Rafah into an “experimental bubble” subverts the idea of Gaza as a single, contiguous territorial entity.

“This raises a massive question about the fate of two million people,” he said. “If this entire project is reduced to a few thousand individuals selected under Israeli criteria, it means a tacit agreement from the international community to leave two million Gazans hostage to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis while Israel claims to be implementing a peace plan.”

This also carries significant diplomatic risks for the participating nations. Israeli media reported the cabinet’s decision stipulated that ISF contributors must be nations that have peace agreements with Israel and do not pursue legal actions against it in international forums.

“It is not wise for an Arab country like Morocco to be a party to helping Netanyahu implement his political agenda,” said Abu Amer, urging participating nations to reject the altered Israeli formula and insist on a comprehensive withdrawal.

Failing to do so, he cautioned, would reduce foreign troops to mere security buffers, acting as “false witnesses” to the continuation of the occupation and the destruction of the Palestinian society.

Displaced Palestinians in Gaza cautiously welcome Israel’s approval for an international stabilisation force to enter the territory under the US-backed ceasefire plan. Residents hope the force can help rebuild Gaza and allow them to return home after months of bombardment and displacement.

The ISF, to be staffed by ‘friendly countries’, will operate in areas of the Palestinian enclave that are outside Israel’s military control.

Israel’s government has approved the entry of the International Stabilization Force (ISF), part of United States President Donald Trump’s 20-point “peace plan,” to Gaza.

An Israeli official reported on Sunday that Israel’s security cabinet had approved the key legal measures and that the force would operate “in full coordination with” the Israeli military, according to the Times of Israel.

There was no timeframe given for when the ISF, which will include 200 people from “friendly countries such as Uganda and Morocco”, according to the Reuters news agency, will be deployed.

The cabinet determined that Israel will have the authority to approve which countries can send forces.

Following the implementation of Trump’s deal, Israel dictates who can and cannot enter the Gaza Strip, along with how much aid and food can enter, in the wake of Israel’s two-year, genocidal war on Gaza.

Though a “ceasefire” between Hamas and Israel was agreed in October, reports of killings of Palestinians by the Israeli military occur almost daily.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since the deal was implemented, with 3,888 wounded.

The plan also called for an international “Board of Peace” to oversee the administration and reconstruction of the strip, for the creation of a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) technocratic governing body, and for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the strip.

Nickolay Mladenov, the director-general of the Gaza Board of Peace – which the vast majority of Western countries refused to join – welcomed the news.

The former Bulgarian foreign minister and defence minister said Israel enabling the deployment was “a critical part of the agreed framework for stabilising Gaza, supporting demilitarisation, and enabling the transition to effective Palestinian transitional administration” under the NCAG.

The cabinet’s approval comes a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to travel to Washington, DC in the United States.

Israel currently occupies close to 70 percent of Gaza. Its population of almost two million has been forced to live in a diminishing fraction of the strip, as Israel continues to move the “Yellow Line” it created to demarcate areas it withdrew to under the first phase of the deal.

The ISF will operate in the areas that are not under Israeli control.

As 6.3 million people embark on road trips, the UKHSA has issued a yellow heat health alert with a risk to life for the elderly and vulnerable

More than six million people are hitting the roads as the summer holidays begin – battling 30C temperatures and nose-to-tail traffic jams.

The AA predicts 6.3 million of us will make journeys between now and Thursday. Yellow heat health alerts are in place across much of the country until tomorrow morning and the UK Health Security Agency is warning of minor impacts on health and social care services and an increased risk to life for vulnerable people.

The Port of Dover is braced for its busiest weekend of the summer. Holidaymakers faced gridlock as they waited for ferries today, and tomorrow is set to be the same. Ferry company DFDS said its wait times at Dover were up to 60 minutes at border controls.

But officials hope it will be smooth sailing compared to the May half-term getaway, when waiting times hit four-and-a-half hours due to technical issues with thenew border check Entry Exit System.

The RAC’s Simon Williams warned: “Drivers should be ready for some very busy roads this weekend and expect delays. The best advice is to plan journeys and think about setting off earlier or later in the day to avoid traffic jams.”

Opting to stay at home this week will also come with its challenges. Millions of Brits are now subject to hosepipe bans and a drought has been officially declared for large parts of north and mid-Wales.

The rest of Wales, along with much of central, southern and eastern England, is in the “prolonged dry weather” ­category – one stage below a drought. But parts of Britain might be in for some light relief from Sunday, as high pressure retreats and brings outbreaks of rain.

Showers could be heavy in the north and the west of the UK, with 20mm possible in parts of north west Scotland. The rain will be much patchier further south and east, with large swathes of England and Wales forecast to get just a few millimetres at most. And it’s likely some locations in the south of England will not see a drop.

The Met Office’s Dan Suri said: “After a prolonged spell of hot, dry and settled weather, some will see a temporary change this weekend as weather fronts move south east across the UK. While some areas, particularly in the north and west, will see rain and showers, many places are likely to receive ­relatively little rainfall.

“For much of southern England, dry conditions are expected to remain the ­dominant feature, with ­temperatures recovering quickly next week and the potential for very warm or locally hot weather to return.”

Meanwhile, British holidaymakers were among thousands evacuated from the Cap Ferret peninsula as wildfires raged across south-west France. Tens of thousands are being forced to leave the upmarket resort, including hundreds escaping by boat.

Headmaster David Morton, 53, from Gloucester, was holidaying in the coastal village of Petit Piquey with his wife and sons when they received an emergency text message at 3am.

He said: “We got in our car, packed everything up as quickly as we could… and then set off and joined a very long, slow-moving queue of traffic. We could see several fires in the distance. The whole forest was on fire.”

The fire has so far consumed around 10,000 hectares – nearly the size of the city of Manchester – with water-bombing planes deployed in a bid to keep the flames under control. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 40,000 people either had been or were preparing to evacuate from the Cap Ferret peninsula.

Firefighters also battled blazes in Le Porge and Lacanau in the Gironde department of south-west France, while smoke from the fires dominated the skyline in nearby Biscarrosse.

Elsewhere in Europe, Spain has declared a national emergency after 20,000 people were forced to flee due to fires near Madrid, while the Italian island of Sicily has also been hit.

July 24 (UPI) — Authorities in France’s southwestern Gironde region ordered tens of thousands of people to evacuate from the popular Cap Ferret peninsula vacation spot Friday in the face of an “XXL” wildfire threatening to cut off the promontory. As many as 2,000 escaped by boat.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 40,000 residents and tourists had been evacuated or were currently being moved from the cape, which is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Arcachon Bay to the east.

The fire has burned through at least 25,000 hectares after breaking out Wednesday in Saumos, a small town about 25 miles away to the northeast.

Authorities began evacuating of the town of Ares, south of Lege-Cap-Ferret on the Bay of Arcachon side of the peninsula after the fire picked up pace and intensity overnight, said fire and rescue chief Marc Vermeulen.

A local council member said 2,000 people had already made the 7.5-mile boat crossing to Arcachon on the southern side of the bay.

More than 800 firefighters from across France were battling the flames in an operation run out of a command center set up in a stadium in Le Porge, six miles northeast of Lege-Cap-Ferret.

Gironda Prefect Sophie Brocas said 53 homes and a campsite had been razed but that firefighters had managed to save 2,000 houses.

More than 23,000 people were also evacuated from homes, campsites, a nursing home and a summer camp due to another wildfire around Biscarrosse, about 15 miles south of Arcachon in the Landes department.

Landes prefect Gilles Clavreul said the fire was being fueled by a combination of winds of more than 30 mph and searing temperatures in the high 30s degrees Celsius.

Calling the situation very serious, President Emmanuel Macron said France had requested the European Union’s civil protection mechanism be activated, which would allow the deployment of firefighting aircraft from other members of the bloc.

“We will soon be able to count on reinforcements from two Croatian Canadair aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor planes, as well as two heavy Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia,” he wrote in a post on X late Thursday night.

In Spain, authorities declared a national emergency Friday as they continued to battle three major wildfires west of Madrid in the areas of Villa del Prado and San Martín de Valdeiglesias, as well as Burgohondo in Avila province

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Friday that many communities across Spain and beyond were being impacted by fires “ravaging thousands of hectares.”

“The government has deployed all available resources to halt the terrible fires that are currently affecting numerous areas: Avila, Leon, Toledo, Madrid, and other parts of Spain. We are living through a dramatic situation, not only in various Spanish provinces but also in regions of neighboring countries. Forest fires are ravaging thousands of hectares and affecting numerous communities,” he wrote on X.

“The government will stand by your side during the emergency and in the recovery,” added Sanchez.

July 23 (UPI) — Three firefighters were killed, two in France and one in Italy, and 12,000 people were forced to evacuate as wildfires continued to ravage areas of southern France, Italy and Spain.

Almost 6,000 acres have been burnt in the area west of Bordeaux, where 10,000 people were ordered to flee amid a ban on internal combustion and electric engines and road closures, the Gironde regional government said Thursday.

Authorities said 500 firefighters were tackling the blaze, which was moving southwestwards after breaking out in Saumo, a small town 20 miles northwest of Bordeaux, on Wednesday and that firefighting aircraft were en route to the scene.

No injuries had been recorded.

The two French firefighters died Tuesday as they battled to bring a separate blaze under control in a suburb of Bordeaux.

Var, a department on the Cote d’Azur between Marseille and Nice, was also badly affected, with thousands of acres burnt. Residents evacuated there were allowed to return to their homes Thursday to assess damage on strict instructions to restrict movement and activities because of the risk the fire could flare up again, amid windy conditions.

Meteo-France red alerts for forest fires were in place across several other departments in southern France on Thursday.

In Italy, a firefighter was killed and another was injured Wednesday battling a major fire on Sicily.

Sicilian Civil Protection chief Salvo Cocina said the wildfire in San Cataldo, in the southwest of the island, was one of 10 major incidents that had triggered the evacuation of residents, as a precaution.

About 6,000 firefighters, forestry officers and civil protection personnel were deployed in the operation.

The regional government said the most critical fires were in Casaboli, Bivona, Alimena, San Cataldo, Galati Mamertino districts and certain areas of the Madonie Park and Syracuse areas.

Footage online, shot by the Spanish Civil Guard, shows officers going door-to-door telling residents to leave as a major wildfire raged southwest of Madrid, between Almorox and Villa del Prado.

It comes after a huge wildfire to the north of the capital in Guadalajara province that broke out on July 16 razed almost 80,000 acres and a deadly forest fire in southeastern Almeria province that killed at least 11 people on July 10.

Across European Union countries, wildfires have burnt more than 628,000 acres so far in 2026, European Forest Fires Information System figures show — although the figure was below the 668,000 acres burnt in the same period in 2025.

The U.S. Air Force’s new VC-25B Bridge aircraft will receive additional upgrades that will result in its capabilities being “maxed out,” according to President Donald Trump. This follows a flurry of recent reports that the modified, Qatari-gifted Boeing 747-8i lacks the same array of defensive features and other capabilities as the Air Force’s existing VC-25A Air Force One jets. TWZ has repeatedly raised serious questions about the overall feasibility of turning this plane into an interim Air Force One, especially on an extremely tight timeline and with a relatively small budget, since the plan first emerged last year.

New questions were raised about the Bridge aircraft’s self-protection suite, in particular, after Trump took it to the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month, but then left unexpectedly on an older VC-25A. Subsequent reports said that the Secret Service had urged the President to make the swap as a security precaution amid escalating fighting with Iran.

“Mr. President, this plane does not have anti-missile defense systems on it. Why are you flying it?” S.V. Date, White House correspondent for HuffPost, asked Trump at a press gaggle at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C., yesterday. The President had just returned from a trip to attend the FIFA World Cup final in New Jersey.

“Well, it has – it has a lot, and, you know, it has a lot of capability,” Trump said in response. “But as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out. So they’re going to be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out. It’ll take about a month.”

Reporter: Mr. President, this plane does not have antimissile defense systems on it. Why are you flying it?

Trump: Well, it has — it has a lot, and uh, you know it has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be,… pic.twitter.com/wDimk6RiQm

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) July 20, 2026

Trump did not elaborate on what “maxed out” might mean for the Bridge aircraft.

“The new Air Force One is perfectly safe for the President’s travels, but will receive additional upgrades and enhancements in the fall which will take approximately one month to complete,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to TWZ. “During that time, the President will fly on the old Air Force One.”

We have also reached out to the U.S. Air Force and L3Harris for more information. L3Harris is the defense contractor that served as the lead integrator for the modifications to the former Qatari 747. You can read more about what is known about the conversion process, which took approximately 10 months, here.

“We knew there were some issues around security with the plane. We’ve known that from the very beginning,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, said separately at a roundtable at the Farnborough International Airshow in the United Kingdom today, according to Breaking Defense. “Obviously, there was an effort to address that.”

“If there … was an examination and a problem apparently was determined to exist, the good news is that it’s apparently going to be addressed,” Senator Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, also said, per Breaking Defense. “And I think it’s important for all of us to determine what that problem is and to be supportive of corrective measures.”

Shaheen and Moran both serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Defense. Shaheen is also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

As noted, there has been significant new scrutiny of the Bridge aircraft’s defensive and other capabilities since Trump’s trip to Turkey and the swap with the VC-25A on the way back. On July 9, The New York Times reported that the ex-Qatari jet “lacks the same defensive countermeasures that were security features of the old model, including its advanced antimissile capabilities,” citing unnamed officials.

The Times‘ story included a statement from White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, saying that “the new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff.”

Other outlets published similar stories about Air Force One’s capabilities, also citing anonymous sources. In a highly unusual development, the FBI subsequently subpoenaed four journalists at the Times as part of a leak investigation, which now appears to go beyond the more recent reporting on the Bridge aircraft.

The current array of defensive features found on the VC-25B Bridge aircraft is unknown. Details about the self-protection capabilities of the existing VC-25As — arguably the most well defended aircraft on the planet — are not usually openly discussed, but at least some of the countermeasures systems on those aircraft are plainly visible to the general public. This includes a version of the AN/AAQ-24 directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) system, also called Nemesis or the Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) system. There is the AN/ALQ-204 Matador infrared countermeasures (IRCM) system, as well. The AAQ-24 uses lasers to blind and confuse the seekers on infrared-homing missiles. These laser turrets are mounted all over the bottom of the aircraft. The older ALQ-204 system has a similar function, but sends out large fixed pulses of infrared energy rather than a steerable laser beam. The VC-25As also have visible missile launch warning sensors at various points around the aircraft to cue these and other defensive capabilities, and to just provide general alerts to incoming threats. There are certainly other capabilities that are not so plainly visible, as well. The planes are hardened against electromagnetic pulses (EMP), as well.

Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM)

To date, there have been no visible signs of any of these obvious defensive features found on the VC-25As being present on the VC-25B Bridge aircraft. This is something we have noted since the official rollout of the new aircraft in June. The Air Force and L3Harris have previously pushed back on any operational security concerns surrounding the jet gifted by Qatar.

There are additional questions now about what modifications could reasonably be made to the Bridge aircraft during another month-long upgrade period. As we previously wrote after Trump’s swap back to the VC-25A on the way back from Turkey:

“Defensive countermeasures, in particular, take time and careful work to integrate onto any airframe, let alone a newer type for which there might not be pre-existing procedures. Rigorous testing has to be done after integration to ensure those systems work as intended and do not conflict with other features, physically or in the radiofrequency spectrum.”

That being said, there are countermeasures systems that have already been qualified on at least some 747 variants, such as the aforementioned capabilities known to be found on the VC-25As today. There are other self-protection options available on the open market today for 747s and other similarly large aircraft, such as the C-MUSIC DIRCM system from Elbit in Israel. Northrop Grumman also offers a podded DIRCM system called Guardian that utilizes some of the same components as NEMESIS/LAIRCM. Both of these examples are not for high-volume threats, though.

Elbit Systems / DIRCM Missile Defense

Any move to upgrade the Bridge aircraft’s defensive capabilities now can only prompt the question as to why this was not done already. This is a matter of ensuring the safety of the President of the United States, whoever that might be, and underpinning the credibility of America’s nuclear deterrent whenever they are onboard.

There was certainly a push to have the Bridge aircraft in service, at least to some degree, by July 4th. The plane was a centerpiece of flyovers above the nation’s capital to mark this year’s Independence Day. Trump had flown on the jet for the first time just before, on a trip to North Dakota to attend the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and other celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the United States.

If the Bridge aircraft was rushed into service without certain defensive systems installed to be available for July 4th and other 250th anniversary celebrations, it could still have been sent back for additional upgrades afterward. However, there appears to have been no plans to get the Bridge aircraft any additional defensive or other capabilities before it was put into full service. This was proven when Trump and many other passengers headed overseas to Turkey aboard the new jet. Before the plane was delivered, TWZ had questioned whether the jet would ever fly abroad in the Air Force One role, and not be reserved for lower-risk domestic travel, due to these exact kind of security concerns.

There is an additional operational security layer to the equation here given that any aircraft serving in the Air Force One role inherently slots into America’s nuclear deterrent posture. Beyond their array of self-protection features, the VC-25As, in particular, have an extensive secure communications suite designed to ensure the President remains in contact with the National Command Authority at all times. The National Command Authority is the mechanism through which the President would order a nuclear strike, as you can read about in more detail here.

A report from CBS News earlier this month implied that the new Bridge aircraft lacks the same communications capabilities, as well as defensive features, found on the VC-25As. That story suggested both aspects here pushed the Secret Service to recommend Trump use the older aircraft on the return trip from Turkey, which came amid the start of the new campaign against Iran. The President had also just directed a new round of strikes on Iranian targets from the sidelines of the NATO summit. TWZ highlighted all of this at the time as potential contributing factors in the swap between Air Force One jets.

All of this raises further questions about what risks may have been accepted in allowing Trump to use the Bridge aircraft to travel to Turkey in the first place. There’s an additional question here of what would have happened had circumstances not prompted Trump to swap Air Force Ones, and had The New York Times and others not reported on the reasons behind that decision. Would it have ever gotten these extra defenses if those things didn’t happen?

The Boeing VC-25B Bridge, Air Force One, carrying President Donald J. Trump has landed in Ankara, Turkey, ahead of this week’s NATO Summit. pic.twitter.com/Qqea5RihiM

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 7, 2026

The Bridge aircraft has been the subject of criticism and controversy from the start. The circumstances under which the Qatari government gifted the plane to the United States in the first place were highly irregular.

The justification for needing the Bridge Air Force One at all remains a subject of debate, now fueled further by the clear continued relevance of the VC-25As. The Air Force’s efforts to acquire two fully equipped VC-25B Air Force One jets from Boeing have been repeatedly delayed, and the costs of that effort continue to rise. The first of those jets is now expected to be delivered in 2028, which is actually a slight improvement in the timeline. What will happen to the Bridge aircraft afterward is unclear.

The Air Force has separately acquired another 747-8i from German flag carrier Lufthansa, which is now being used as a trainer for aircrew and ground personnel. An additional ex-Lufthansa 747 will be cannibalized for spare parts, as well, in support of the burgeoning Air Force One fleet.

It is worth noting here that the VC-25As are also based on older 747-200 models, a type that has all but disappeared from service globally, even with commercial airlines. Those jets are becoming more complicated and costly to operate and maintain just as a result of diminishing supply chains.

With Trump’s comments yesterday, the VC-25B Bridge aircraft is now slated to get the defenses it should have had originally, or at least more than it has now, but the path to getting there is bizarre and raises real concerns, to say the least.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

When Spain appointed Luis de la Fuente as head coach in December 2022, few expected him to deliver the Nations League (2023), European Championship (2024) and World Cup (2026) in so short a time frame.

Spain had just been knocked out of the World Cup by Morocco in the last 16 in Qatar and the federation needed a replacement after Luis Enrique left his role.

“They went with this guy [De La Fuente] who understood the style and the system,” added Balague.

“It was a very risky decision – I don’t think anyone thought he would be so successful.”

It appeared risky because De La Fuente took charge of Spain, who have won three of the past five men’s European Championships – (2008, 2012, 2024) – without having managed a big club.

After retiring as a player in 1994, De La Fuente spent 15 years in different roles with a succession of different clubs, including managing in the lower Spanish leagues, youth roles and assistant coach positions – before he took charge of Spain’s youth teams.

“De la Fuente knew most of these players from the academies and they are growing as a team,” former Spain midfielder Juan Mata told BBC Sport.

“This is not only a team for the present, but also a team for the future.”

Since being appointed senior boss after stints in charge of the under-19s, under-21s and at Olympic level, De La Fuente has implemented a culture of respect for their rivals, for the process and preaching patience and calmness.

“Most of you are younger than me and you need to respect experience,” the 65-year-old told journalists at his pre-match news conference in New York on Friday.

“Once we finished the game, there were footballers who said ‘coach, now what else is there to win as we have won everything in all the categories’.

“We came to the conclusion that what remains is the next match in September because this team are relentless.”

The success of the national teams and Spanish coaches has spilled over to club football.

Despite Pep Guardiola’s decision to leave Manchester City after 10 trophy-packed years, at least a quarter of the managers who start the 2026-27 Premier League season are Spanish.

Spain are now unbeaten in their last 38 matches in all competitions, the longest ever run by any European or South American team in history.

HOLLYWOOD’S Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner shared a kiss at the World Cup final as a host of celebrities have turned out in force.

Spain and Argentina battle it out in this year’s final which is being played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Make-up mogul Kylie, 28, was among a list of A-listers in the crowd, along with her Interstellar actor boyfriend Timothee, 30.

Kylie wore a plunging black long sleeve top and black jeans, while the Dune star went for a blue and white jersey top and black trousers.

The pair were spotted holding hands while they watched the tense game, before enjoying a kiss in the stands.

The famous duo were joined by a number of other famous faces in the crowd, including the likes of Tom Cruise and David and Victoria Beckham.

The Beckhams looked stylish with David sporting a navy suit and Victoria in a white vest top and white jeans.

The pair were seen smiling and laughing with good pal Tom Cruise, 64, in the stands.

The I Need Your Love hitmaker Ellie Goulding, 39, was spotted in the crowd with her boyfriend Beau Minniear, who was seen with a disposable camera.

Split actress Anya Taylor-Joy was sat in the row behind and she looked chic in a satin one-shoulder beige midi dress.

She was seen chatting with her US musician and actor husband Malcolm McRae.

Other big names included Robbie Williams and Ayda Field.

It’s been a tense World Cup final between Spain and Argentina so far – but the star-studded half-time show livened up the crowd.

Justin Bieber, Shakira and Madonna are just a few blockbuster names who performed at the interval.

This follows the huge closing ceremony that saw Robbie Williams, Post Malone and IShowSpeed rock the stage.

But fans have flooded social media to brutally hit out at the tournament’s closing ceremony.

Nicole Scherzinger and actor Tom Cruise were also involved as the curtain was brought down on the tournament.

But the performances did not go down well in the stadium or at home – leading to fans heading onto social media to slam Fifa.

One said: “The worst closing ceremony ever. Even the fans look bored.”

Another added: “I’m crying what a terrible ugly closing ceremony.”

A third chimed in: “That closing ceremony was so underwhelming.”

A fourth noted: “A completely forgettable closing ceremony is finally and thankfully over.”

And a fifth comically claimed: “The crowd has gone absolutely mild at this closing ceremony.”

A huge number of fans missed the closing ceremony due to massive queues outside the stadium.

There has been an increased security presence due to President Donald Trump being in attendance.

And that led to those who snapped up tickets having to wait more than TWO HOURS to reach their seats.

President Donald Trump has left Turkey on an older VC-25A Air Force One jet. The U.S. Air Force’s new VC-25B Bridge aircraft had brought Trump to that country yesterday for the NATO Summit, but left without him on board earlier today. Trump had earlier confirmed that he would head from Turkey to RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom on the VC-25A rather than the Bridge aircraft “for old time’s sake.” The Bridge aircraft, a modified, Qatari-gifted Boeing 747-8i, flew to Mildenhall first. This is all highly unusual and has prompted questions about whether other factors, specifically changes in operational security, may be at play.

The VC-25A had followed the Bridge aircraft to the Turkish capital, Ankara, yesterday, as a backup. The change in planes follows a new round of U.S. strikes on Iran yesterday, which Trump reportedly ordered directly from the summit. Questions also continue to be raised about the full suite of communications, defensive, and other capabilities on the Bridge aircraft.

“To honor our brave men and women of the Military, we are sending the brand new, and truly spectacular, Air Force One [the VC-25B Bridge aircraft] to Mildenhall Air Force Base, in the United Kingdom, to give them a chance to tour the Aircraft – Everybody is so excited, and we thought that they should be the first,” Trump wrote earlier today on his Truth Social site. “For old time’s sake, we’ll be taking the former Air Force One, from Turkey to Mildenhall, a short trip that is totally worth doing in order to give our Great Military Heroes a chance to appreciate our beautiful new addition to the Air Force Fleet!”

“To honor our brave men and women of the Military, we are sending the brand new, and truly spectacular, Air Force One to Mildenhall Air Force Base, in the United Kingdom, to give them a chance to tour the Aircraft…” – President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Nf2qCGDKUs

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 8, 2026

While Trump referred to the VC-25As as “former” Air Force One aircraft in his Truth Social post, the Air Force has expressly confirmed to TWZ that they are set to remain in service and in the rotation despite the delivery of the Bridge jet. It’s also worth remembering that any Air Force aircraft that carries the President will use the Air Force One callsign.

RAF Mildenhall is a major hub for U.S. air operations and was heavily utilized to support strikes on Iran earlier this year. The President has also hinted that the Bridge aircraft may make stops elsewhere in Europe before returning home.

“It’s flying to Europe to one of the big bases, two or three of the big bases, where we can show it to the people,” Trump also said at a press conference at the NATO summit today in response to a question about his travel plans. “We’ll be going home by normal methods.”

Q: But why aren’t you flying the new plane home?

TRUMP: Uh, it’s flying to Europe to one of the big bases where we can show it to the people. And we’ll be going home by uh normal methods pic.twitter.com/rWXV3bsGla

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 8, 2026

“We are boarding the old, big plane. No eyes on POTUS / no under wing gaggle.” Politico‘s Megan Messerly, a member of the press pool accompanying Trump, also shared before the VC-25A left Ankara. “We have been advised to keep our window shades in the press cabin closed. See you on the other side.”

Travel pool note #25 // Wheels up 🛫

We are wheels up from Ankara as of 8:43 p.m. We have been advised to keep our window shades in the press cabin closed. See you on the other side.

Megan Messerly
POLITICO
Wed. Jul. 8, 8:44 PM

— White House Press Pool Reports (@WHPressPool) July 8, 2026

Travel pool note #24 // Boarding AF1 ✈️

We arrived to Ankara Esenboga Airport at 8:25 p.m.

We are boarding the old, big plane. No eyes on POTUS / no under wing gaggle.

Megan Messerly
POLITICO
Wed. Jul. 8, 8:28 PM

— White House Press Pool Reports (@WHPressPool) July 8, 2026

As noted, President Trump traveled to the NATO summit aboard the VC-25B Bridge aircraft and with one of the Air Force’s two existing VC-25As in tow. This was the first time Trump had used the Bridge jet for an overseas trip. The President flew on the aircraft for the first time ever last week for a visit to North Dakota for events marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. A VC-25A was also used as a backup for that trip.

The Boeing VC-25B Bridge, Air Force One, carrying President Donald J. Trump has landed in Ankara, Turkey, ahead of this week’s NATO Summit. pic.twitter.com/Qqea5RihiM

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 7, 2026

As also mentioned, U.S. forces launched new strikes on Iran yesterday. “President Trump approved and ordered the Iran strikes from the NATO summit” after meeting “with senior U.S. officials in Ankara, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” according to a report from The New York Times, citing an unnamed U.S. official.

The latest U.S. strikes were in response to a new round of Iranian attacks on commercial ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier today, Trump raised the prospect of further action against Iran tonight. This, in turn, has prompted new concerns about the possibility of the resumption of a large-scale conflict between the two countries, as you can read more about in TWZ‘s separate reporting here.

A key requirement for aircraft serving in the Air Force One role is ensuring the President remains securely in contact with top U.S. military leaders, as well as other senior officials, to be able to respond immediately to any serious contingency. This would be particularly important now, given the fluidity of the situation in the Middle East and the prospect of further military action against Iran in the very near term. Key planning efforts and other meetings are likely to be underway.

The decision to strike Iran yesterday and the possibility of doing so again today may well have also had impacts on the overall force protection posture around Trump. The regime in Tehran has threatened Trump directly on multiple occasions in the past.

As an aside here, pictures now circulating on social media also show tractor-trailer trucks and tarps apparently being used to at least try to block the view of Mildenhall from a spot outside of the base’s perimeter where plane spotters regularly gather. Spotters have still been able to catch glimpses of the Bridge aircraft.

#USAF United States Air Force

Boeing VC-25B Bridge 1x#AF83F3 25-3300 – SAM 33

SAM 33, the new VC-25B, is en route to RAF Mildenhall from Turkey.

The USAF are currently covering the fences of the usual viewing areas at Mildenhall. pic.twitter.com/Y7OopAF9pj

— Armchair Admiral 🇬🇧 (@ArmchairAdml) July 8, 2026

TWZ, as well as others, have consistently raised serious questions about the adequacy of modifications done to the ex-Qatari 747-8i to prepare it for its new role. L3Harris led the conversion work and delivered the Bridge aircraft to the Air Force within the space of just 10 months.

Defensive countermeasures, in particular, take time and careful work to integrate onto any airframe, let alone a newer type for which there might not be pre-existing procedures. Rigorous testing has to be done after integration to ensure those systems work as intended and do not conflict with other features, physically or in the radiofrequency spectrum. To date, there have been no visible signs of any of the obvious defensive systems installed on the VC-25As present on the VC-25B Bridge aircraft.

U.S. officials and L3Harris have repeatedly downplayed any operational security or other concerns surrounding the newest addition to the Air Force’s executive transport fleet, but questions remain. This has been just one aspect of the criticism and controversy surrounding the jet. The very circumstances surrounding its gifting to the U.S. government were highly irregular, and the justification for needing it at all remains a subject of debate.

Just yesterday, Breaking Defense reported that a group of 13 Democratic Senators, led by Connecticut’s Chris Murphy, had sent a letter to Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and L3Harris CEO Chris Kubasik asking for more information to address their ongoing concerns. The legislators contend that the Trump administration has been stonewalling their request so far, according to that story.

For its part, Boeing has been working for years now to transform a pair of other 747-8is into fully-equipped VC-25B Air Force One jets. That program has been mired in delays and cost growth, and the first of these two jets is not expected to be delivered until 2029. The Air Force also now has an additional ex-Lufthansa 747-8i that it is using as a trainer for aircrew and ground personnel assigned to support the expanded VC-25 fleet. Another former Lufthansa 747 will be cannibalized for spare parts.

If nothing else, Trump has now flown overseas on the new VC-25B Bridge aircraft, but his trip today underscores that the older VC-25As are very much still available if needed.

Update: 7:02 PM ET –

The VC-25A carrying President Donald Trump has arrived at RAF Mildenhall.

“We just landed and met up with our new Air Force One, which was sent earlier to RAF Mildenhall, so we could show the wonderful Servicemembers, as per the entire Base’s request. They were very excited, picture enclosed,” Trump wrote in another post on Truth Social, which was also shared on other official White House social media accounts. “It was on our way back to the States from Turkey, with virtually no deviation of flightpath.”

One of the U.S. Air Force’s C-32A executive transport aircraft was also spotted arriving at RAF Mildenhall ahead of the VC-25A. The C-32A was later seen being moved from where it had been parked on the apron to make way for Air Force One.

Special thanks to local aviation photographer Andrew McKelvey for sharing his pictures of the VC-25B Bridge aircraft arriving at Mildenhall.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

WASHINGTON — President Trump flew home from a NATO summit in Turkey on an old baby blue Air Force One plane instead of the new Qatari-gifted and retrofitted red, white and navy blue jet he arrived in, a surprise swap that came as the U.S. and Iran once again began trading strikes.

Trump offered little clarity on the swap, instead saying he would fly on the legacy aircraft “for old time’s sake,” and indicating that both aircraft would make a previously unscheduled stop on the way back to the U.S. at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, a base used by U.S. troops.

The travel switch raised fresh security questions about the new aircraft that the U.S. spent $400 million to retrofit. Images of the Qatari-gifted jet captured since its unveiling show it is not equipped with some of the same missile detection and countermeasure systems as the older jets.

The swap was also announced less than a day after the U.S. military conducted a series of large strikes in Iran in retaliation for its attacks on merchant shipping in the region. Iran shares a border with Turkey.

Trump first announced in a social media post that the gleaming new plane he had proudly shown off a day earlier would instead visit the U.K. base on the way home so military members could “tour the Aircraft.” Trump said he instead would be flying home in an older plane previously used as Air Force One.

When asked later during a news conference if security concerns had played a role in the switch, Trump didn’t directly answer but said that when it came to Iran, he was “No. 1 on the list for killing.”

When another reporter followed up, Trump said he’d be “going home by normal methods” while the new plane would be shown off to troops.

When asked if the missing countermeasures systems played a role in the jet being swapped out, the U.S. Air Force directed questions to the White House.

“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff,” spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal— including distraction and misdirection— to address those threats.”

Trump departed Turkey aboard one of the older Boeing VC-25As that have carried presidents for three and a half decades. Consumer flight trackers were unable to monitor its transponder early in the flight after takeoff, suggesting it had been temporarily disabled by the crew — a security measure used when ferrying the president to and from high-risk environments like war zones, not a major NATO ally hosting a long-scheduled summit.

Other world leaders’ flights departed with trackable transponders, including those from Germany and the U.K.

The luxurious Boeing 747-800 gifted by Qatar, that was modified to carry Trump, departed earlier Wednesday from Turkey and landed at RAF Mildenhall on Wednesday afternoon, flight trackers showed.

Iran has several missiles and drones in its inventory with enough range to make the roughly 800-mile flight from its own borders to Turkey, including some of its Shahed drones and Shahab ballistic missiles.

However, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Iran does not possess weaponry that would be capable of effectively striking England at a range of roughly 2,500 miles.

The U.S. Air Force, which oversees the running of the fleet of aircraft used by every president, had previously said that they had to prioritize making only some of the necessary upgrades and changes in order to deliver the Qatari jet — also known as the “bridge” aircraft — into service.

The Air Force argued that the rapid conversion of the jet was done “without accepting any risk regarding security, safety, or secure communications,” but did concede that “several highly complex engineering modifications required for the final (Air Force One aircraft) were intentionally excluded from the Bridge aircraft.”

Jeremiah Gertler, a senior analyst for Teal Group, an aviation and defense consulting firm, previously told The Associated Press that the absence of countermeasure systems, as well as a seemingly smaller number of communications antennas, suggested that the Qatari jet was better suited to only work as a domestic aircraft.

Trump’s first flight on the new Qatari jet was to North Dakota last week.

The original Air Force One planes were built from scratch near the end of the Cold War and they were hardened against the effects of a nuclear blast and included a range of security features, such as anti-missile countermeasures and an onboard operating room.

The jets are also equipped with air-to-air refueling capabilities for contingencies, though it has never been utilized with a president on board.

The pair of Boeing jets that are currently being modified to act as the permanent upgrades to the Air Force One jets have been delayed, and are expected to be delivered in 2028.

Price and Toropin write for the Associated Press. AP writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday posted a falsified image of former President Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, waving before boarding an Air Force One that had been spray-painted with graffiti.

It came months after another post by the president that showed the couple as primates in a jungle. That one was deleted after stiff, bipartisan backlash.

The latest image shows the Obamas smiling and waving at the top of stairs alongside a baby blue and white presidential plane with graffiti painted on it that included the Democrat’s campaign slogan “Yes We Can,” “Obama” and “BLM,” short for Black Lives Matter. The post also shows graffiti in Arabic on the plane that says the phrase “alhamdulillah,” which means “praise be to God” or “thank God.”

The use of graffiti is a coded message to remind people of crime and urban decay and has been used in racist messaging against Black people in the past.

Trump has a yearslong record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas, and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric. That includes everything from feeding the lie that Obama was not born in the United States to crude generalizations about majority-Black countries and posts that have sparked anger on his Truth Social website.

The president’s post of the Obamas as primates came in February, during the first week of Black History Month. It was removed following widespread criticism from civil rights leaders and Republican senators. Trump refused to apologize, however, and a staffer was later blamed for making the post.

This time, the presidential plane is a sensitive topic since Trump last week took his maiden voyage on a new Air Force One — a retrofitted Boeing 747-800 worth $400 million gifted by Qatar. The aircraft’s trademark light blue hull that helped Air Force One blend into the sky was replaced with Trump’s preferred color scheme: a navy-blue belly with red and gold stripes.

After giving a speech on the National Mall in Washington to mark Independence Day and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on Saturday night, Trump had no public events Sunday and spent the day at his golf club in Virginia. He’s scheduled to leave Monday for Turkey to attend a summit with NATO allies.

The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Nor did a spokesperson for the Obamas.

Sunday’s post also followed one from last month when Trump shared an doctored image of Obama’s new presidential library in Chicago so that it looked like the building had a large bag of garbage on top and was surrounded by a wasteland. “The Obama Library ten years from now will be a ‘Mecca’ for those who hate America! President DJT,” he wrote then.

Trump has frequently criticized the Obama library in public comments, and he posted the library image twice on his social media platform.

The Air Force One image was part of a series of Sunday posts Trump made on Truth Social, including a past picture that appeared to show Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni grinning and gazing upward at Trump under the words “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED.”

That, too, could touch off a new firestorm at this week’s meetings in Turkey, since Trump had suggested that Meloni asked “over and over” for a photo with him during the recent Group of Seven summit.

Trump’s comments prompted Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to cancel a subsequent, planned trip to Washington, while Meloni called Trump’s account “completely fabricated,” saying “Italy and I never beg.”

Weissert writes for the Associated Press.

After what appeared to be cryptic indications that prompted online speculation and excitement, fans of the B-21 Raider won’t be seeing America’s newest bomber in any Fourth of July celebrations, the Air Force confirmed to TWZ Wednesday morning. The aircraft, two of which are now undergoing flight testing, will remain at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Asked by TWZ to “confirm B-21 will not take part in any 250th celebration events in DC or anywhere else,” an Air Force official offered the following response: “The B-21 will not take part in any flyovers for this week’s celebration.” 

The official further clarified that the aircraft won’t take part in any such events, even though the flyovers in Washington, D.C. continue through July 10.

The Air Force official’s statement about the B-21 not taking part in any Independence Day celebrations adds additional clarity to comments Air Force Secretary Troy Meink made to Air & Space Forces Magazine last week about the topic.

“No, no, the program is going really, really well, but the planes are out at Edwards, and we just started doing refueling,” Meink told the publication. “So to get a B-21 here [for the Fourth], not going to happen.” 

TWZ was first to report on the Raider’s initial refueling trials.

The first pre-production B-21 arrived at Edwards Air Force Base following its maiden flight in 2023. A second pre-production Raider took to the skies last year. The Air Force is eventually expected to take delivery of a total of six pre-production examples of the new stealth bomber. Non-flying airframes are also being used to support ongoing testing.

The Air Force expects to procure 100 of these jets, and possibly significantly more. You can read more about the program in our story here.

B-21 Takeoff and Landing

Speculation about whether the B-21 would make an appearance over the nation’s capital was mainly fueled by a campaign of cryptic videos and an image posted on social media by the jet’s manufacturer, Northrop Grumman.

A 30-second video titled “Stealth Meets Spotlight: B‑21 Blows Out 250 Candles to Celebrate America’s Birthday” was posted on YouTube 11 days ago.

It opens with credits showing “Utah Salt Flats” and then shows the silhouette of a Raider followed by one flying low and blowing out 250 candles on pillars placed in a row before roaring off with the words “Happy Birthday, America” emblazoned on the screen.

Stealth Meets Spotlight: B‑21 Blows Out 250 Candles to Celebrate America’s Birthday

A seven-second version of that video, posted on X June 25 and titled: “Some things stay off the radar. America’s 250th isn’t one of them,” just shows the silhouette and the candles being blown out.