When President Donald Trump announced he was given a new luxury Boeing 747-8 from Qatar to use as an interim Air Force One, many national security analysts were worried about risks potentially inherent to the plane. And now that Trump has started using the aircraft, it seems some of those concerns have borne out, with many, including the president, suggesting the plane may have security lapses.

What makes it different?
In keeping with Trump’s affinity for conspicuous luxury, the plane’s interior features “cognac leather seats” with lie-flat capabilities alongside tray tables made of “mahogany with silver trim,” said CNN. It’s designed to be used only during Trump’s presidency. To communicate with the outside world, the plane serves as an “airborne command post equipped with a new communications system that enables resilient, secure connectivity to respond to global events without disruption,” said L3 Harris Technologies, the contractor used by the U.S. Air Force to upgrade the plane.

What are the security issues?
The new model “lacks the same defensive countermeasures that were security features of the old model, including its advanced antimissile capabilities,” sources told The New York Times. And at least two Air Force officials were “surprised to see Trump fly on the new jet overseas, where there are greater security risks.”

The $400 million plane was gifted by Qatar, a nation that Trump “used to accuse of supporting terrorism,” said MS NOW. But since receiving the jet, the White House has “cozied up to Qatar to a remarkable degree, even unilaterally extending a NATO-like security guarantee to the nation.” That has not changed the fact that the plane “may ​not be as ⁠secure as the baby-blue Air Force One that preceded it,” said Reuters.

The White House originally shot back at these concerns, sending subpoenas to the reporters at The New York Times who wrote about the plane, but these were later withdrawn. Trump has since “acknowledged that the Boeing jet given to him by Qatar cannot match the defensive armor of a true presidential aircraft,” said The Guardian, telling reporters he will go back to using the original plane while the new one is “grounded and ‘maxed out’ with the protections it was never built with.” But Republicans in Congress have blocked efforts to halt further work on the plane.

After their terms end, most U.S. presidents try to make their remaining time count. Every commander-in-chief of the 20th and 21st centuries has built a presidential library and museum, and many have written autobiographies or memoirs, with former President Joe Biden set to publish his two weeks after the November midterms. But many ex-presidents have also undertaken more singular projects after leaving the White House.

Barack Obama
While Obama’s presidential center recently opened in Chicago, the former 44th president has been keeping busy in a variety of other ways. Most notable is Higher Ground, the production company he launched with Netflix in 2018 alongside his wife, Michelle Obama (pictured above). The company began with film and television projects and has since branched out into documentaries and podcasts.

Jimmy Carter
When Carter died at age 100 in 2024, many said it was his post-presidency for which he’s most remembered. While his time in the White House was largely seen as unsuccessful, upon leaving Washington he vowed to “continue to work toward the promotion of peace, progress and human rights throughout the world,” said the American Historical Association (AHA). 

Carter used his four decades after his presidency to “promote peace in the Middle East, address international security and arms control, and close the gap between what we know how to do in healthcare and what’s actually achieved,” said the AHA, largely through the creation of the Carter Center. He also waged a “war against ‘neglected’ diseases” — ones in “far-off lands that most Americans will never suffer from and may not have even heard of,” said NPR. These efforts helped lead to the near-eradication of the parasitic Guinea worm disease.

William Howard Taft
Taft didn’t stay out of government long after his presidency ended in 1913. Eight years later, the former president was appointed chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He remains the only person to have held both roles. The court marked a leap back into public life for Taft, who first became a “professor of constitutional law” at Yale University after leaving the White House, said Encyclopedia Britannica.

A woman watches smoke from the beach in Andernos-les-Bains during a forest fire outside of Lège-Cap Ferret in southwestern France. Tens of thousands of residents have fled by both land and sea after officials ordered a total evacuation of the peninsula. 
Olivier Morin / AFP / Getty Images

On Aug. 12, there will be a total solar eclipse over parts of Europe for the first time in almost 30 years. For a few moments, parts of Greenland, Iceland, Portugal, Russia and Spain will experience total darkness in daylight hours.

The moon will pass directly between the sun and Earth, completely blocking the sun’s brightness and plunging “daylight momentarily into darkness,” said National Geographic. To protect the eyes, anyone watching will need proper eclipse glasses, which are thousands of times darker than regular sunglasses.

Valencia, Spain, is on the path of totality. And in the months leading up to the eclipse, the city has been hosting celestial experiences, lectures and workshops at museums and cultural centers. Cruise lines traveling between mainland Spain and Mallorca, including Celebrity and Princess, are also offering “eclipse specials” and will “ensure their vessels are on the path of totality,” said The Independent.

If you are lucky enough to be in Valencia on Aug. 12, seek out an open location with a clear western horizon and minimal light pollution in the late evening shortly before sunset. Some of the “best vantage points” will be rooftops, said National Geographic. Hotels including the Grand Hotel Centenari and Luna de Valencia in Hotel Puerta Serranos are staging rooftop viewings, with cocktails and music to “complete the experience.”

Other Spanish towns in the path of totality include Burgos, Leon, Oviedo and Valladolid. And northern Russia will experience total darkness at midday before it moves to Iceland and Greenland in the afternoon and evening.