NYT : Security Precaution Led Trump to Use Old Air Force One in Leaving Turkey T

Security Precaution Led Trump to Use Old Air Force One in Leaving Turkey
The Secret Service is said to have asked that the president not use the Qatari-donated jet when he left Ankara. The swap deepens questions about the retrofitting of the new plane.

President Trump flew out of Turkey on Wednesday night on the old Air Force One instead of his new Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8 as a security precaution related to the resumption of hostilities with Iran, according to people briefed on the plans, who said the change came at the urging of the Secret Service.

The swap deepens questions about whether the new plane, which the president had pressed to be ready as soon as possible, was retrofitted with sufficient security measures over the last year. Lawmakers and some officials have raised concerns about whether the expedited timeline allowed for the addition of an advanced missile defense system and other modifications used to protect the president.

In a statement, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, said 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.”

“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,” he added.

But people briefed on the new plane’s capabilities, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues, said the new plane does not have all the features of the older plane. The switch in the president’s aircraft when he departed Turkey was a precautionary measure made at the advice of the Secret Service and not because of a specific threat, they said.

Mr. Trump, who has marveled at the luxury touches of his new jet, flew on it on Monday night to go to Turkey for a NATO summit. After his arrival, the conflict with Iran reignited, and the United States launched a series of strikes against that country while Mr. Trump and NATO leaders were about 1,000 miles away in Ankara.

The president on Wednesday denied that the change in his aircraft was made because of security concerns. Instead, he asserted that the swap was so the new jet could leave early and make stops at U.S. military bases to show it off to the troops because the aircraft is “magnificent.”

But when pressed by reporters in Ankara about the reason for the change, Mr. Trump also repeatedly noted that he was Iran’s No. 1 target, and referred at one point to having seen or been briefed on a list of Tehran’s targets in recent days.

Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post that he would fly aboard the older aircraft “for old time’s sake” out of Ankara so that the newer plane could be shown off at Mildenhall Air Force Base in England to give U.S. troops a “chance to tour the Aircraft.”

The Secret Service declined to comment, referring to the president’s post as the explanation for the change.

When Mr. Trump departed Ankara, he boarded the old aircraft unusually quickly, before the journalists traveling with him could watch or photograph him ascending the steps, as they typically do. Passengers on board were also instructed to pull their window shades down before takeoff.

The plane landed at Mildenhall late Wednesday night, and then the president switched to the new jet to return to Washington.

After Mr. Trump departed, he told reporters that they had probably been instructed to close their blinds when leaving Ankara because they were “on a dangerous plane” due to the threat from Iran.

The older plane has been widely reported to be equipped with a system designed to blind an incoming antiaircraft missile, along with “chaff” that could be deployed to mislead a missile and force it off course.

It is unclear how many, if any, of those capabilities have been installed on the newer plane that was donated from Qatar, which Mr. Trump has been eager to get into service.

Industry and Pentagon officials have said such an extensive upgrade could cost as much as $1 billion and take up to two years to complete. But in testimony before Congress, Troy E. Meink, the Air Force secretary, estimated that the modifications would run “probably less than $400 million.”

The Air Force started upgrading the 747 jetliner in the United States last summer.

Air Force officials said at the time that they were modifying the jet for “executive airlift” support, on orders of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but that all other details about the upgrade were classified.

The plan immediately drew criticism from some members of Congress. The lawmakers expressed concern that Mr. Trump would pressure the Air Force to do the work so fast that sufficient security measures would not be built into the plane, including missile defense systems or even systems to protect it from the electromagnetic effects of a nuclear blast.

Much of the retrofitting and refurbishing that the Air Force described took place at a Texas facility known for secret technology projects.

Andrew P. Hunter, the former Air Force assistant secretary who was in charge of the Air Force One program during the Biden administration, said that a true retrofit of a 747 jet to prepare it to become Air Force One would require more than a year of work.

That is because the base plane, even if it has a luxurious interior, needs significant modifications to its physical structure to accommodate special security upgrades — work that would have taken longer than the Air Force had to retrofit the donated Qatari jet.

Mr. Hunter would not name the more complicated security upgrades individually because they are considered classified. But other government officials have told The New York Times that this more complex work includes advanced missile defense systems and hardening of the plane’s wiring to protect it from an electromagnetic pulse, in case there is a nuclear strike. It is unclear whether such work was done to the Qatari jet.

“In that time they had, they would be able to accommodate communications upgrades,” Mr. Hunter said, referring to vital security equipment that allows a president to be in contact at all times. “But not anything that would require significant structural work.”

Mr. Hunter added: “To do a full Air Force One equivalent upgrade does require structural modifications.”

The Times asked the Air Force earlier this year whether these kinds of measures had been included in the updates to the Qatari jet. The Air Force declined to respond to the questions.

FT : US launches more strikes after Tehran declares Strait of Hormuz closed Iran

US launches more strikes after Tehran declares Strait of Hormuz closed
Iran hits commercial ship transiting the waterway, with Centcom saying crew member is missing from vessel

The US hit Iran with its third round of strikes this week, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck a commercial ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz and declared the vital waterway closed.

American forces struck after the IRGC “blatantly attacked” the M/V GFS Galaxy, a Cyprus-flagged container ship, US Central Command said on Saturday.

Centcom said the US military hit roughly 140 Iranian targets launched from fighter jets, drones and warships, in the most intense set of strikes this week. Targets included “Iranian missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks and coastal surveillance locations”, Centcom said once the attacks were completed on Saturday.

The US attacks came after the IRGC’s naval forces announced on Saturday that the strait was “closed until further notice and until the end of US interference in the region, and no vessel would be permitted to transit”.

The Revolutionary Guards said the decision followed an incident in which several vessels, “encouraged by foreign actors”, attempted to transit via an “unauthorised route” and ignored warnings to proceed along the approved passage.

“As a result, one of the vessels — which had switched off its onboard systems, thereby endangering maritime safety — was struck by a warning shot and brought to a halt,” the statement said. The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations said it had received a report of an incident nine nautical miles east of Oman.

Iran appeared to be retaliating against the US strikes, with the United Arab Emirates’ ministry of defence saying the country’s air defences were “engaging with missile attacks and incoming drones from Iran”.

Bahrain’s interior ministry said that its missile alert siren had been activated.

Iran’s conventional army confirmed that it had used drones to target a Patriot missile system, an ammunition depot and a radar site belonging to the US in Kuwait. It also targeted a US communications system and a radar site in Bahrain.

The IRGC said in a statement that a second “offending” vessel in the Strait of Hormuz had been struck and brought to a halt, without providing further details. It added that, in the second phase of its retaliatory operation, its forces targeted the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar with ballistic missiles.

In another statement, the IRGC said the US had carried out air strikes against several coastal bases and communications towers along Iran’s southern coastline. The force confirmed it had struck Jordan’s Prince Hassan Air Base, “destroying the base’s command-and-control centre and MQ-9 drone hangars with several ballistic missiles”. It added that “any continuation of aggression by the treacherous US will be met with even more severe responses”.

Local officials in southern Iran said the cities of Bushehr, Asaluyeh and Dayyer had come under attack, adding that there had been no reports of injuries or fatalities. State media said explosions were heard in the port city of Bandar Abbas and in the city of Sirik.

The IRGC also said on Sunday they had struck and destroyed the logistical support centres for warships and the refuelling platforms serving US aircraft carriers at Oman’s Port of Duqm “in a heavy and surprise attack”. Centcom did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the IRGC’s claims.

The IRGC’s attack on the Galaxy came a day after top US officials issued a fresh demand for Tehran to declare publicly that it would halt attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.

Centcom said that a civilian crew member from the Galaxy was missing, adding that there was a fire and the ship’s engine room had sustained significant damage.

Washington’s military action this week was in response to Tehran’s attacks on commercial ships that were attempting to transit the strait.

“Iran was provided yet another opportunity to demonstrate adherence to the Memorandum of Understanding after being held accountable for earlier attacks on commercial vessels but has again failed,” said Centcom, referring to the agreement signed by the US and Iran almost a month ago to extend a ceasefire by 60 days. Tehran had agreed to reopen the waterway after the MOU was signed.

“In response, the United States is imposing a heavy cost by continuing to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial ships freely transiting the strait,” Centcom added. President Donald Trump ordered the strikes, the command said.

Iran’s chief negotiator with the US, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, on Sunday posted on X: “The era of one-sided deals is OVER. We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.” He highlighted one of the clauses of the agreement, which stated that “the Islamic republic of Iran will make arrangements” for the safe passage of vessels.

The US hit more than 160 targets on Tuesday and Wednesday, before pivoting back towards attempting negotiations with Iran. On Saturday Centcom said it had hit more than 300 Iranian targets across the three days of strikes.

Trump said on Friday that the US had agreed to continue talks with Tehran, but reiterated “in no uncertain terms” for Washington “the Cease Fire is OVER!”

Senior US officials told reporters on Friday that the talks could advance if Tehran issued a public statement pledging to stop any attacks on vessels in the strategic waterway.

“We are hoping to get to a place where they publicly say that they will stop shooting at ships,” one senior US official said.

Since the US and Iran signed the agreement, Iranian forces have attacked a number of vessels, including tankers belonging to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The US has retaliated by launching air strikes on southern Iran, as both sides accuse the other of violating the ceasefire. 

Iran has insisted that vessels use shipping lanes close to its shoreline as it seeks to maintain a degree of control of the strait, a chokepoint through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas previously passed, and which has become a key source of leverage. But the US has encouraged vessels to transit near the coast of Oman, whose territorial waters flow through the waterway.

IN PERSON

>>> Barron's Week End Update

Cover Story:
-The Barron's Roundtable argues that investors should prepare for a broadening market leadership after an AI-driven rally that has concentrated gains in a handful of technology stocks. While panelists remain optimistic about AI's long-term economic impact, many believe valuations across parts of the AI ecosystem have become stretched and that future returns will increasingly favor overlooked sectors such as healthcare, energy, industrials, materials, and select small- and mid-cap companies. Several also expect the eventual IPOs of Anthropic and other frontier AI firms to redirect investor capital away from AI infrastructure providers toward companies monetizing AI directly. The consensus view is that disciplined stock selection, rather than broad index exposure, is likely to become increasingly important in the second half of the year.

CEO Interview:
-No update

Tech Trader:
-Meta faces escalating legal risk as thousands of lawsuits alleging harm to children move closer to trial, with four U.S. states seeking up to $1.4T in damages over claims the company misrepresented the safety of Facebook and Instagram for young users. While such a penalty is widely viewed as unlikely, a negative outcome in the August bellwether trial could establish a legal framework for thousands of similar cases and increase pressure for costly settlements. The litigation also threatens Meta's long-term growth strategy by targeting youth engagement, a critical source of future users and advertising revenue.

The Trader:
-The Magnificent Seven regained market leadership after a sharp rebound led by Nvidia and Meta, helping lift the S&P 500 and Nasdaq despite renewed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Investors largely looked past Meta's mounting legal challenges to focus on its expanding AI partnership with Broadcom, while optimism surrounding AI infrastructure also boosted semiconductor shares. Barron's argues the market remains heavily dependent on a small group of AI leaders, leaving broader indexes vulnerable should sentiment toward the sector weaken again.
-Despite resilient post-pandemic demand, Barron's argues investors should become more selective in the cruise sector as higher fuel costs and geopolitical risks threaten industry profitability. BMO Capital Markets favors Royal Caribbean and Viking Holdings, citing stronger earnings growth, higher returns on invested capital, and expanding premium offerings, while remaining cautious on Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line, where slower earnings recovery, weaker execution, and limited near-term catalysts could leave performance lagging industry leaders.

Features:
-SK Hynix made its U.S. trading debut with a $26B Nasdaq ADR listing, becoming one of the largest technology listings in history and giving American investors direct exposure to the world's leading producer of high-bandwidth memory chips. Barron's argues the stock remains attractively valued despite its recent surge, citing SK Hynix's dominant HBM market share, preferred supplier relationship with Nvidia, and faster expected earnings growth than Micron. The company is well positioned to remain one of the primary beneficiaries of sustained global investment in AI infrastructure.
-Chinese AI developer Zhipu AI is seeking to raise $4B, underscoring Beijing's determination to compete directly with U.S. AI leaders. Barron's argues the fundraising reflects a broader shift in investor focus from AI infrastructure toward large language model developers, following major funding rounds for DeepSeek and growing momentum behind Alibaba's AI business. With Zhipu's latest model ranking among the world's strongest and offering substantially lower inference costs than OpenAI, Chinese AI companies are emerging as increasingly credible global competitors ahead of the anticipated IPOs of OpenAI and Anthropic.

European Trader:
-No update

Emerging Markets:
-The renewed Iran conflict is accelerating the international use of China's renminbi as countries seek alternatives to the U.S. dollar for trade and financial transactions. Barron's argues that wider adoption of the renminbi could provide a significant tailwind for emerging-market currencies by expanding regional trade settlement and reducing reliance on dollar funding. Investors should watch whether sustained geopolitical tensions and shifting energy trade flows further strengthen China's financial influence across emerging markets.

Commodities:
-Veolia Environnement is positioning itself as a long-term beneficiary of structural trends including water scarcity, environmental regulation, industrial reshoring, and expanding AI infrastructure. Following its acquisition of Suez, the French utility has strengthened profitability while expanding hazardous waste and water treatment operations in North America. Barron's argues the market still underappreciates Veolia's diversified business model, with additional growth opportunities emerging from partnerships with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Amazon to support the growing water demands of advanced semiconductor fabs and AI data centers.

Streetwise:
-The long-awaited broadening of equity market leadership is finally benefiting investors beyond the S&P 500, with developed international markets, emerging markets, and U.S. small-cap stocks outperforming this year. Barron's argues the shift reflects improving earnings outside large-cap U.S. technology, particularly in Europe, while cautioning that emerging-market gains remain heavily concentrated in AI leaders such as SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The publication sees better diversification opportunities in developed international markets, where improving fundamentals across banks, industrials, healthcare, and consumer sectors support further upside at more attractive valuations.

WSJ : How to Invest When the Global Crises Never Stop In a world of wars, trade

How to Invest When the Global Crises Never Stop
In a world of wars, trade wars and crop failures, bond yields need to be higher than they were because they offer so much less protection than they used to


More war. More political conflict. More weather disasters. The future looks grim, and for investors there’s worse: The standard ways to protect against such shocks might not work.

The basic problem is the return of superpower conflict and the withdrawal of the U.S. as the world’s policeman, exacerbated by more frequent extreme weather events due to global warming. Combine that with toxic dog-eat-dog politics threatening trade, and investors and policymakers are bracing for bigger and more frequent shocks to the economy.

The on-off U.S.-Israeli war on Iran offers a template. Every time it flares up, as it did on Wednesday, stocks fall, bonds fall and even gold falls.

The difficulty for investors is what to do.


Raphael Arndt, chief executive officer of Australia’s Future Fund, the country’s sovereign-wealth fund, came to a surprising conclusion: Buy more stocks.

After Covid, he and his team realized geopolitics is back, big government is back, politics has become more populist and the old approach to investment no longer works.

“I said we have to tear everything down to first principles and rebuild it,” he said. The result of a deep review of how the fund invests: “A pretty clear portfolio strategy that said, ironically enough, we need more equities, not less. Because we need higher returns to make up for the risks.”

In the old investment paradigm, government bonds acted as shock absorbers, with prices rising and yields falling when the economy takes a hit.

But in a world where the shocks cause inflation, bond prices fall and yields rise when bad stuff happens. That is particularly true when government debt levels are so high.

“We need to work hard to diversify, and bonds won’t necessarily diversify,” Arndt says. He bought gold in the hope of it offering protection as bonds used to, although since the Iran war it hasn’t worked. He also uses hedge funds designed to make money in both up and down markets.

The Future Fund is unusual among large funds in having the freedom to ignore benchmarks. But plenty of investors agree that bond yields need to be a lot higher than they were to compensate both for the newfound volatility of inflation, and because they aren’t offering the same downside protection as they used to.

“The biggest risk is inflation moving far out of control, like the 1970s-80s,” says Raman Srivastava, CEO of Insight, part of Bank of New York Mellon. He likes infrastructure bonds with yields that rise with inflation, holds fewer long-dated bonds to avoid the volatility inflation brings and suggests a more active approach.

The obvious pushback is that investors should know all this, and that’s why bond yields are stubbornly high. U.S.-China rivalry isn’t news to anyone, and you would have to be living in a cave to be unaware of Russian aggression in Europe, ever-louder Chinese claims on Taiwan or, under President Trump, U.S. territorial ambitions in the Americas.

Yet, says Mike Bell, head of market strategy at RBC BlueBay Asset Management, “markets don’t really price geopolitical things until they actually happen, even if the risks are very clear.”

The massing of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border before the 2022 invasion was well known, and both Britain’s MI6 and the CIA warned of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans in advance. To be fair to investors, the oil price had already risen significantly and stocks had fallen in the six weeks before tanks rolled over the border, but oil then leapt 30% in just over a week, while the S&P 500 fell into a bear market as war boosted already soaring inflation.

Bell says investors were similarly sanguine about U.S. ships massing near Iran before they attacked. His advice is to pay attention to troop buildups—and to be ready to buy and sell quickly.

“If you just need to buy and hold something for the next decade I think you just have to accept that it’s going to be a bumpier ride than in the past,” he says.

At the moment I like government bonds as protection against a major fall in stocks if traders turn sour on artificial intelligence. A big drop would be a much more traditional type of shock, slowing the economy, slowing inflation and making the solid yield of Treasurys look attractive.

But in a world of wars, trade wars and crop failures, bond yields need to be higher than they were because they offer so much less protection than they used to.

FT : China cracks down on top ratings for corporate bonds Regulators pressure ag

China cracks down on top ratings for corporate bonds
Regulators pressure agencies to limit triple-A designations for higher-interest borrowers

Chinese regulators are pressuring rating agencies to cut back on triple-A designations for higher-interest borrowers amid mounting concerns about ratings inflation in the country’s corporate bond market.

The People’s Bank of China told domestic agencies in April to review high credit ratings, especially for bonds with much higher yields than government debt, according to three people familiar with the instruction.

Since then, top domestic agency Lianhe Credit Rating has withdrawn ratings from several triple-A issuers and its rival Chengxin briefly published a rating suspension notice before removing it.

“Over the past three months, these rating agencies are taking concrete steps to limit the portion of triple-A ratings,” said Kaihua Deng, associate professor of economics and finance at Renmin University.

High proportions of triple-A ratings have long been a concern in China’s corporate bond market, which evolved rapidly after the country’s financial system reopened to the world in the 1990s.

An FT analysis in August last year found more than 90 per cent of newly issued rated bonds were triple A, compared with less than half in 2016.

“Two years ago, the authorities already knew that the portion of triple A ratings was just too high,” said Deng.

Ratings — which are paid for by issuers — had already been under scrutiny after the 2021 collapse of property developer Evergrande and a wave of domestic defaults.

Authorities have this year sought to address off-balance-sheet debt held by local governments, curbing new sales of their debt in an effort to shift the economy away from property-driven growth.

As part of the top-down push, regulators have carried out on-site inspections of rating agencies since May, the three people said.

They have focused on bonds in which the coupon rate is more than 2 percentage points above the yield to maturity of comparable government debt at the time of issue.

In June, the PBoC flagged bonds with a 1 to 2 percentage point spread and bonds with a spread above 2 percentage points, and asked rating agencies to review them.

The inspections also covered compliance issues, such as whether agencies won clients by assigning more favourable ratings than their rivals.

Market participants expressed concern about the lack of clarity over regulators’ thresholds for problematic ratings.

They said the action could distort financing decisions and push borrowers to issue more short-term bonds, which have spreads that are likely to comply with regulators but would expose them to rollover risk.

“Yield spreads are not determined solely by an issuer’s credit quality,” said a credit officer who asked not to be named. “They reflect a range of factors including duration, asset class, sector and liquidity and even risk events around that time.

“But the regulator is now taking a very blunt, one-size-fits-all approach.”

Lianhe withdrew its ratings for Xi’an Qujiang Cultural Financial Holdings and Tianjin Jinrong Investment Service Group last month. Both companies’ bonds were rated triple A and had coupon rates well above the benchmark government yield.

Chengxin published a notice on its website saying it would suspend issuance of ratings on some bonds for three months or more but then removed it after it faced accusations of halfheartedly complying with regulators. It told local media its plan was unrelated to regulatory scrutiny of high ratings.

Among bonds issued since the start of 2025, just over 1 per cent had spreads above 2 percentage points, while about 9 per cent had spreads of 1 to 2 percentage points, according to data compiled by brokerage Industrial Securities.

“I think the market on average can identify the less qualified firms and obviously they impose a penalty,” said Deng.

But the professor noted some investors, “for example insurance companies and smaller institutional investors”, might still be misled by high ratings.

“Even if on average the market is not stupid, the authorities still want to contain this rating inflation issue,” he said.

Lianhe and Chengxin did not respond to requests for comment. The PBoC declined to comment.

Yao Yu, founder of RatingDog, which publishes China’s private-sector purchasing managers’ index, said the share of triple-A bonds would still be “very high” even after regulator-flagged ratings were lowered or withdrawn.

“You can’t bring down the number of triple A ratings overnight with an administrative order,” he said.