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Aug 13, 2026 - World

A New York Times photographer on Wednesday revealed several suspicious new details in President Donald Trump's plane swap amid a threat.Douglas Mills, a photojournalist who was on Air Force One with the press corps as the group headed back from Turkey after a NATO summit in July with Trump and several administration officials, told CNN's Erin Burnett the incident was "alarming" after learning Trump had left the plane in a catering truck.Burnett mentioned that Mills and other reporters were asked to lower their window shades. And in an interview with reporters after that flight, Trump had commented specifically on window shades."Probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleazebags that we have to deal with, it has to be closed," Trump said. "But if I go, you go, right? Perhaps someday you want to change professions?"Mills said that comment now has a different meaning."In hindsight, I think back on that, wow, if he didn't, why did they just put our shades down and not his shades up in the front of the plane? So that was kind of a red flag to me mentally," Mills said. "I felt like obviously we were a decoy. And in that moment, we didn't know all the facts that we know now."Burnett pointed to the window shades, asking if that was a potential giveaway that something irregular was happening."Maybe that's why they had to put your window shades down, right? Because they didn't want you to see the catering," she said. "That's exactly right," Mills said."By the time we got to the front of the plane, I had taken those pictures of the catering truck on the backside of the plane as we were motoring up," he said. "And I was shooting pictures through the van that we were driving in. And once we got up and looked out and saw the president was already on board, that kind of also said to me something's going on." This foreign visit was atypical, and Trump ditched his usual goodbye."But no, none of that happened this time," Mills said. "He went up the steps and was on there before we ever got out of our cars. It was unusual. And then once we got up on the plane and the shades had to go down, there were just a lot of questions throughout. And now in hindsight, it was one of those things as a reporter, photographer, you know, that we probably should have been asking more questions about because a lot of things didn't fit right."

Aug 12, 2026 - World

Former Republican insider Steve Schmidt argued on Wednesday that President Donald Trump's biggest fear is someone who tries to hold him accountable — like CNN's Kaitlan Collins.In his podcast and video series "The Warning," the co-founder of the anti-Trump organization, The Lincoln Project, compared Trump's "Trojan horse" move in Turkey, where he left journalists and his own aides as "bait on the chum plane" under a credible threat, to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. He juxtaposed this with the moment FDR learned that a torpedo was fired at the USS Iowa, where he rushed to the rail to see it coming towards the ship. "When he was aboard a presidential aircraft flying with Dwight Eisenhower sitting next to him shortly after giving him command of the D-Day operation with the hydraulics out on the airplane, FDR lit a cigarette, threw his head back and laughed at all of it," Schmidt said, citing a book from Rick Atkinson that describes the incident."He says we'll see how good those Army Air Corps pilots are and has a big laugh," Schmidt said. "That's what courage under fire looks like. That's what cool under fire looks like. But this man, intimidated by Kaitlan Collins, is no FDR. He's no Eisenhower. He's the weakest American president in history, with a yellow stain as wide as his ankles running down the middle of his back. This is a fearful man, and you see it all the time."As Trump made his way off Air Force One with a catering cart, it revealed more about him "as an obese American fascist," Schmidt explained. And his reaction after the reports surfaced was telling."Look at this decaying geriatric sloth trying to make it up these stairs," Schmidt said. "Look at him coming down. Look at the bruising on his hand, the skin color, the preposterous wig. Decrepitude and decay etched all over his body and face. And we, the people, are his prisoners in a dungeon of rot and American decay.""With Pete Hegseth and little Marco as bait and Donald Trump safe on his way back to the loving arms of Melania," Schmidt added, mocking Trump. "What a sick and demeaning moment, perhaps in all the history of the country, the lowest in the history of the degraded American presidency."

Aug 12, 2026 - World

Ángel Aguirre indicted in case that rocked Mexico and became symbol of its brutal cartel violenceThe former governor of Guerrero state in Mexico has been formally charged over his alleged involvement in the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, a case that has become a symbol of the country’s brutal cartel violence and government impunity.Ángel Aguirre, who was arrested last week, is accused of forced disappearance and obstruction of justice for ordering the destruction of surveillance tapes that may have shed light on what happened to the students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college on the night of 26 September 2014. Continue reading...

Aug 12, 2026 - World

Kyaw Zwar Minn was ousted for declaring loyalty to Aung San Suu Kyi after 2021 coup but refused to leave his homeMyanmar’s ousted ambassador to the UK has gone on trial on trespassing charges for refusing to leave a diplomatic residence after being unceremoniously locked out of the embassy in 2021.Shortly after Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021, triggering mass protests that spiralled into a civil war, Kyaw Zwar Minn was locked out of the embassy for declaring his loyalty to the deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Continue reading...

Aug 12, 2026 - World

A frantic President Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that the U.S. maintains control of the Strait of Hormuz even as transit hit record lows and peace talks stalled, reports show. “The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz," wrote Trump on Truth Social. "I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT! Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,’ and there is nothing Iran can do about it."This boast arrived as problems mount in ceasefire talks with Iran, multiple reports show. "Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict and fully re-open the strait have continued to stall," Al Jazeera reported. "Iran has continued to assert its influence over the strait as it has pursued talks with Oman on future management. Wider peace talks with the US have been largely paused amid the Iran-Oman talks, which do not include Washington."What's more, multiple news outlets report just eight vessels passed through the strait this week, compared to pre-war 130 ships a day.Nonetheless, on Truth Social, the president claimed things could not be better.“They have no Navy, they have no Air Force, their remaining soldiers are unpaid, the IRGC is decimated and fleeing, and their ‘Leadership’ is uncertain, at best!” he continued, “They have No Money - Their country is ‘shot.’”Trump also claimed Iran has a problem currently plaguing his own nation. “All they have is FAKE NEWS and 300% INFLATION, and getting worse! Iran is all talk and no action, the Bully of the Middle East No Longer," he wrote. "Praise be to Allah!”