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President Trump announced plans to “max out” the security on the $400 million luxury jumbo jet gifted to him by the Qatari royal family, suggesting that insufficient security  was indeed the reason he ditched it so abruptly earlier this month. “Mr. President, this plane does not have anti-missile defense systems on it. Why are you flying it?” a reporter asked Trump Sunday as he was preparing to board following the FIFA men’s World Cup final. “Well, it has—it has a lot, and 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 maxed out. So they’re going to be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out,” Trump replied. “It’ll take about a month.” While it’s unclear what exactly the president means by “maxed out,” and whether his timeline is accurate, his answer confirms pretty much what every expert was saying about the jet from the moment he got it—that it would take time and lots of money to bring it to the security standards of Air Force One. Yet when Trump refused to fly on the jet following the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month, he told the media that it was because U.S. soldiers at a European base really needed to see it for some reason. This was his story, even though it was reported that the Secret Service advised him to take the old Air Force One as the war with Iran resumed. This jet—a questionable gift at best, an obvious bribe at worst—has already cost U.S. taxpayers $400 million. Trump plans to move it to his presidential library in 2029. 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

Spain’s World Cup–winning team have made it abundantly clear that they did not want Donald Trump in their victory photos.The official account for Spain’s national football league shared an altered image of the country’s celebration in New Jersey Sunday, snipping the U.S. president out of photos after he refused to leave the dais. The FIFA World Cup account also cropped Trump out of the shot, leaving only the president’s shoulder in view.Trump handed the World Cup trophy to Spain’s team alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino, after they beat Argentina 1-0. But the U.S. president then refused to leave the picture, apparently trying to run out the clock before the traditional trophy lift by chatting with the players as he jockeyed for a prime position in front of the group.Spain’s team, however, was not having it. Video footage of the historic celebration captured several players politely pushing Trump away as they prepared for their official photograph.Spain’s players refused to celebrate with Trump after the U.S. president attempted to insert himself into the middle of their victory photo. He was politely pushed aside. pic.twitter.com/x82yxxCZgw— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) July 20, 2026Yet Trump stayed anyway, lingering beside the team even after repeated attempts by Infantino to pull him off the stage. He finally exited only after the team lifted its trophy and blew the confetti cannons in a glaring attempt to ensure he’d be included in the photograph.His insistence on remaining in frame followed weeks of scathing remarks by Trump against Spain and its prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, over NATO defense spending. Trump has referred to Spain as “hopeless,” derided its people as “bad,” and also threatened to “cut off all trade” with the longtime U.S. ally as he ramped up his NATO disputes. In the months prior to that, he also raged against Spain after it refused to let the U.S. military use Spanish bases to bomb Iran.None of that hostility was on display after the game, however—at least publicly. Back at Joint Base Andrews, Trump said he had “spoken to Spain” and “congratulated them on having a great team.” He also noted that he had “no tension” with the country’s leadership.“I have no tension with anybody,” Trump remarked cavalierly.

The defense minister’s firing was the catalyst, but polling suggests Ukrainians are rallying around a broader fight for freedoms and against corruption.

Donald Trump’s administration has found a new way to grant ICE total impunity after a slew of deadly incidents involving federal immigration agents. Last week, FBI agents received notice that their agency would no longer investigate claims of assault against immigration agents, sources told The New York Times. Instead of involving the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations—a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement—would likely be responsible for investigating confrontations, according to the agency’s guidance. The purpose of these investigations is to determine whether federal immigration agents were in fact attacked, but their findings can also be used to prosecute DHS agents who are involved in violent confrontations. Trump administration officials have insisted that anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates or interferes” with immigration agents should be charged with felony assault, which is punishable by up to eight years in prison. In multiple violent confrontations between agents and civilians, both fatal and not, the government has been quick to claim that the agents felt threatened.The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security denied that any such change had been made.“The relationship between D.H.S. and D.O.J. in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed, and F.B.I. will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy,” the agencies told the Times in a joint statement. “This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”Already, hundreds of criminal cases alleging assault against immigration officers have completely fallen apart. If implemented, this guidance would be particularly concerning considering how many lies immigration officials have told about their violent confrontations with protesters and immigrants. Last week, an ICE agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man legally in the United States, while he drove with his three-year-old daughter in Maine. The next day, a man in Florida was struck and killed by a tractor trailer while being chased by ICE.The week before that, an ICE agent shot and killed longtime Houston resident and father of three Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while he was driving. Federal agents claimed that he tried to ram the officers—a claim that eyewitnesses denied and that has crumbled under the slightest scrutiny.

The road to fascism, as Ece Temelkuran writes in “Nation of Strangers,” was constructed over the last six decades of neoliberal assault. We have arrived at the terminus.

This week, about 350,000 Haitians in the US will lose their legal status in light of a US Supreme Court decision on June 25 that allows the Trump administration to gut the Temporary Protected Status program. For decades, immigrants from countries rocked by natural disasters or armed conflict have sought refuge in the US under […]

Obviously, testosterone doesn’t make us smarter or savvier, more capable to handle complex situations quickly or to adjust to an opponent. Otherwise, War/Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would be getting calls from Mensa’s brain crowd about instant membership. Hegseth, a constant advocate for muscularity over empathy, now is ordering testosterone deficiency testing for all military members [...] The post There’s no ‘T’ in War appeared first on DCReport.org.

Ayissi is the only designer from sub-Saharan Africa to ever take part in Paris’ haute couture shows.

The new version is a bid by the Danish drug manufacturer to squeeze out counterfeit products in Africa's most obese nation.