Trump confirms he switched planes after Nato summit because of possible threat

By Sareen Habeshian, WASHINGTON United States 

United States President,  Donald Trump, has confirmed that he secretly swapped planes as he left a Nato summit in Turkey last month due to a possible threat.

"I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, different plane," Trump told reporters. "I just have to do what they say."

The revelation comes after reports that Trump boarded Air Force One on 8 July in view of television cameras, before hiding in a catering truck to be transported to a military aircraft.

The last-minute switch has raised questions about whether those left on the decoy plane were in danger, but Trump said on Tuesday the jet he boarded instead could have been at "greater risk... because that would be the plane, I think, that they would be more likely to go for."

Officials told reporters that the US had detected a credible Iranian threat to fire a missile at the plane. The New York Times reported that US intelligence had information of a person near the Nato summit who had been seen with a shoulder-fired missile.

Journalists and some White House staff on board did not know the US president had been smuggled out as part of an elaborate ruse in response to a possible Iranian threat.

Trump has previously said he was Iran's "number one target" during the summit in Ankara.

"I guess there was a threat out there," the president said during a visit aboard Air Force One to an event in Ohio on Tuesday. "I didn't really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats."

He added: "I have a lot of threats that you don't know about."

The clandestine manoeuvre last month came a day after the US renewed military strikes on Iran following a breakdown of negotiations between Washington and Tehran to end the war.

Trump had arrived in Turkey aboard a newer Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar, but announced that he would leave on the old Air Force One "for old time's sake".

On 8 July, footage showed him boarding the presidential jet at Ankara airport.

But according to the Washington Post, he slipped off Air Force One on to a catering truck that had been elevated to plane level on the opposite side to where he had boarded.

He was then secretly taken to a smaller C-32A military aircraft - a modified Boeing 757 often used by the vice-president.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth boarded the C-32A separately using external stairs in an effort to make the flight appear normal, according to the newspaper.

Journalists and some White House staff boarded Air Force One and were reportedly told to close their window shades. They were unaware the president was no longer on board.

Colombia quake death toll tops 250 as rescuers race to find survivors

By Nelson Bocanegra, PEREIRA Colombia

Rescue crews on Tuesday dug through mountains of rubble in western Colombia, shouting for ​quiet so they could listen for survivors still trapped under the buildings that collapsed in a powerful earthquake estimated to have killed at least 250 people.

The 7.4-magnitude quake, the most devastating to ‌strike Colombia this century, tore through its coffee-growing heartland early on Monday, leaving apartment blocks, homes, schools and health centers cracked, leaning or flattened.

Separate reports from affected cities put the death toll at 254 on Tuesday morning, with 101 people killed in Pereira, deep in coffee country, and 95 in Cali, the country's third-biggest city.

Many Indigenous communities in the forested Pacific-facing region of Choco close to the quake epicenter are still without power or basic services, complicating rescue efforts.

The earthquake struck just days after the inauguration of new President ​Abelardo De La Espriella, who traveled to the affected regions and promised economic support to people who lost their homes.

The government, which announced immediate austerity measures as it came into power, is currently preparing to ​revise a more than $180 billion budget prepared by their leftist predecessors.

The National Coffee Federation was working on the ground with families to assess damage to farms and rural ⁠infrastructure, its chief German Bahamon said on social media.

Meanwhile, rescuers worked through Monday night and Tuesday with cranes, excavators and their bare hands, creating human chains and passing buckets filled with debris as they searched for people ​still trapped.

Rosa Gonzalez described how she escaped the guest house she ran in Pereira with her husband and 10-month-old baby.

"The structure started creaking and just as we ran outside the building collapsed," she said, speaking to Reuters ​as she stroked her cat, who was rescued during the night. Though eight made it out alive, an elderly man was trapped on a terrace and she feared he may be among the people killed.

Social media influencer Jose Gallego had just arrived at Pereira airport when the earthquake struck. He was recording a live video, capturing footage of violent shaking as he crouched under a table and parts of the ceiling fell.

"There were people injured, bleeding, screaming and trying to reach their families," he said. Unable ​to sleep, Gallego said he was staying in open spaces in case of aftershocks. Over 100 aftershocks had been recorded as of Tuesday afternoon.

"I crossed the city on foot; it took two hours and the scenes were devastating," he told ​our reporter. "It was like a nightmare come to life."

Thousands of people were left homeless as the earthquake brought down apartment complexes and left deep cracks in homes, leaving families to await safety assessments outside.

In Cali, residents cooked on the streets and salvaged what they could from the wreckage.

Rescue workers, civilian volunteers and local officials gathered outside the destroyed Torres del Limonar apartment complex, once a pair of multi-story towers in a genteel, tree-lined neighborhood. Crowds cheered as rescuers pulled a woman alive from ​the rubble and she was taken away on a ​stretcher.

Others were less fortunate. Cali's public health secretary ⁠German Escobar said the city's morgue was now full and authorities were bringing more bodies off the streets.

Cali mayor Alejandro Eder, one of several to impose militarized overnight curfews to prevent looting, was shouted out of a hard-hit neighborhood, footage on social media showed.

In Choco, towns close to the epicenter told local outlets they had yet to ​receive government help.

Andres Caicedo, a community leader in Sipi, a small woodland community an 11-hour road and river journey from Choco's capital, told Caracol TV residents were ​struggling in a community already ⁠ravaged by attacks from armed groups.

"We're going up trees for scraps of internet connection," Caicedo said. "We have children and older people who still haven't gotten over the shock ... We don't have a health center or medical supplies, we've done what we can with our own hands."

On Tuesday afternoon, three airports remained closed and many areas - especially Choco - still lacked access to gas, water, electricity and some major highways remained closed off.

Though De La Espriella offered a national death toll around midday ⁠on Monday and ​government entities said they had been ordered not to share their own, the national government has not given another, drawing criticisms from ​commentators and creating confusion about the number of dead.

With communications still patchy in some of the worst-hit areas, officials said the full extent of the damage and the final death toll could take days to establish.

At least 18 killed in Egypt truck crash, many children

CAIRO, Egypt 

At least 18 people, many of them children aged 13 to 14, were killed on Tuesday in northern Egypt when two pick-up trucks carrying agricultural day labourers crashed, a local medical source told our correspondent.

Egypt's health ministry had earlier said there were 47 casualties including some 30 injured in the crash in the Dawawis area of Ismailia governorate.

Dangerously overcrowded pick-ups are a regular mode of transport for millions of Egyptian informal workers, despite the danger, including to child labourers.

"Most of the dead are children 13 and 14 years old," the source told our correspondent on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the media.

The medical source could not provide immediate figures. Local media Al-Masry Al-Youm reported the youngest victim was 10 years old.

At least 1.3 million minors are engaged in some form of child labour in Egypt, according to official figures, and are regularly the victims of commuter accidents.

The workers, mostly from two villages in the Nile delta governorate of Sharqiya, were "on their way to work on an Ismailia farm," a local security said.

Authorities said investigations were underway to determine the cause of the crash, while the injured were transported to nearby hospitals.

Informal labour accounts for nearly 67 percent of employment in Egypt and nearly the entire agricultural sector, according to the International Labour Organization.

Between 8 and 13 million people are estimated to work as "irregular" day labourers -- mostly in agriculture, construction and manufacturing -- and lack robust wage and safety protections.

US Senate votes to extend AGOA trade programme for 32 African nations

WASHINGTON, United States 

The United States Senate has approved a two-year extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, maintaining duty-free access on more than 1,800 products from eligible countries until December 2028.

A cornerstone of US-Africa trade relations for 25 years, AGOA has allowed the US to buy billions of dollars of duty-free cars, clothes, and other items from 32 sub-Saharan African nations.

With the current agreement set to expire at the end of September, the extension is a relief for African businesses who depend on US exports.

US Senator Raphael Warnock, who helped secure the extension, said “it will lower the cost of everyday goods and improve our national security by helping stabilize the economies of our global partners.”

The legislation also extends two similar trade programs for Haiti, the Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP), and the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership and Encouragement (HOPE).

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 12/8/2026

 

Trump secretly switched planes amid reported Iran assassination threat

WASHINGTON, United States 

United States President,  Donald Trump  secretly switched from Air Force One to a smaller military aircraft after last month’s NATO summit in Ankara, according to The Washington Post, in an elaborate security operation reportedly prompted by an Iranian threat against him.

Trump was publicly seen boarding an older-model Air Force One at Ankara airport after the NATO summit, leading journalists and some White House staff to believe he would fly aboard the presidential jet to Britain.

But according to the Post, Trump was secretly transferred minutes later to a smaller Air Force C-32A.

The newspaper reported that Trump and several aides used an airport catering truck to move between aircraft without being seen by those outside the operation.

The operation was reportedly driven by concerns over a potential Iranian assassination attempt against Trump as the conflict between the United States and Iran intensified.

The New York Times and CBS News had previously reported that U.S. intelligence officials raised concerns about a possible attack against the president or his aircraft, prompting additional security measures.

The White House did not directly respond to questions about the reported aircraft switch. The Secret Service also declined to comment, while the Air Force referred questions to the White House.

The operation was designed to make it appear that Trump remained aboard the older Air Force One jet.

A small group of reporters travelling with the president was instructed to lower window shades before takeoff.

Trump instead flew to Royal Air Force Mildenhall in Britain aboard the C-32A, while the legacy Air Force One aircraft continued on its publicly expected route.

Photographers at Mildenhall later captured Trump disembarking from the presidential aircraft, creating the impression that he had travelled aboard it from Ankara.

Trump had travelled to the NATO summit aboard a newly refurbished Boeing aircraft gifted by Qatar, which is intended to become a future Air Force One.

Ahead of his return journey, Trump said the new aircraft would be flown separately to allow U.S. troops stationed in eastern England to inspect it.

The aircraft was later used for the final leg of Trump’s journey from Mildenhall to Washington.

The Qatar-provided jet had already become a focus of security concerns following reports that intelligence officials had advised against using it for the first leg of the return journey.

Trump subsequently said the aircraft would undergo additional security upgrades.

During the flight, Trump was asked whether there was a credible Iranian threat against Air Force One.

“Well, I have a threat all the time. I’m number one on their list before you,” Trump told reporters.

He then warned the journalists travelling with him: “But if I go, you go.”

The reported operation offers a rare glimpse into the extraordinary security measures surrounding presidential travel as Washington remains engaged in a confrontation with Tehran.

14 clandestine miners killed in disused South Africa mine

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa 

A rockfall at an illegal mine northwest of Johannesburg killed 14 clandestine miners, most of them from Lesotho, with several hurt and others possibly still stuck underground, police said Tuesday.

Thousands of unregistered miners known as "zama zamas" operate in South Africa, scavenging abandoned mines for gold and other minerals in arduous and often perilous conditions.

"Fourteen illegal miners, mostly Basothos, died during a rockfall," police spokeswoman Colonel Adele Myburgh said.

"Eight others were hospitalised and an unknown number of illegal miners are currently possibly stuck under the ground. Police are on the scene, and the scene is still active," she said in a statement.

Officials were headed to the site of the disaster at Nkaneng, near the town of Rustenburg nearly 100 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, an area of the North West province where there are several established platinum mines.

The incident was reported late Monday, Myburgh said.

Illegal miners working in South Africa come from several countries across the region, driven by poverty and unemployment, and the sector has been linked to organised crime, assassinations, extortion and other illegal activities.

"It's not safe where they work in any way. So it's one of those situations where they had a rockfall," Myburgh told reporters.

"They go into discarded mine shafts ... it's so dilapidated, there's no infrastructure, there's no safety measures in place," she said.

Most of the thousands of illegal miners operate in abandoned gold shafts in the Gauteng province that includes Johannesburg.

President Cyril Ramaphosa in February announced the deployment of the army to help police to fight illegal mining, with the activity contributing to major infrastructure damage in some areas.

Around 90 clandestine miners lost their lives nearly two years ago when police blocked a disused gold mine near the town of Stilfontein, west of Johannesburg, for weeks from August 2024 in a bid to drive out the illegal workers.

Nearly 2,000 miners resurfaced in the weeks-long operation, many illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries including Lesotho and Mozambique.

Police said on July 31 they had arrested 24 undocumented foreign nationals in the Stilfontein area in an operation against suspected illegal gold mining.

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 11/8/2026

 

Zambians hope for peaceful elections, economic change as vote nears

By Our Correspondent, LUSAKA Zambia

Zambians vote Thursday in a closely watched presidential election that will test whether recent economic gains can offset frustration over the high cost of living in one of Africa's most stable democracies.

Incumbent Hakainde Hichilema faces Brian Mundubile, a former ally of late president Edgar Lungu, who surged to the front of a fragmented opposition after being backed by a coalition of rival parties.

Up to 8.7 million voters -- a majority of them women -- will decide whether Hichilema's economic reforms deserve another term or whether the opposition can turn widespread discontent into a comeback.

Hichilema, leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND), won the presidency in 2021 on his sixth attempt, inheriting a country in sovereign default after years of heavy borrowing under Lungu.

His victory marked a rare peaceful transfer of power to an opposition party through the ballot box in Africa.

The government has since secured a landmark debt restructuring agreement, restored an International Monetary Fund programme and returned the economy to growth, winning praise from international lenders and investors.

But many Zambians say the benefits have been slow to reach ordinary citizens. Rising food prices, unemployment and persistent poverty remain dominant concerns in a country where more than 70 percent of the population lives on less than three dollars a day, according to World Bank data.

"Worldwide there has been recognition that we are doing well but he needs to bring it home," medical student Semi Malama, 26, told AFP.

Zambia is Africa's second-largest copper producer and the government has set an ambitious target of tripling production by 2031.

Chinese companies are major players in the mining sector, underscoring Beijing's outsized economic influence in the country.

The opposition has sought to exploit the squeeze on household finances, arguing that reforms have failed to improve livelihoods despite signs of recovery.

Until the opposition coalesced behind Mundubile, re-election had looked all but certain for the 64-year-old Hichilema, widely known as "HH".

Although 14 candidates are on the ballot, analysts say the race has narrowed into a two-horse contest between Hichilema and Mundubile, a 55-year-old former minister.

"The opposition alliance is bringing energy to their rallies and appealing to youth, women, and rural voters," Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, told AFP.

Mundubile's challenge is built around "mopping up" the support base of Lungu's Patriotic Front, particularly in the north and east, where the former ruling party has historically held sway, political analyst Louw Nel said.

But his relatively late entry into the race and association with the Lungu era could limit his ability to expand beyond that base, he said.

Nearly half of registered voters are aged between 18 and 35, making young people a potentially pivotal bloc.

"Ultimately, the election will hinge on whether voters believe continuity offers the best chance of consolidating recent economic reforms, or whether they conclude that change is needed to address immediate economic pressures," Institute for Security Studies researcher Zenge Simakoloyi told AFP.

The campaign has been marked by pockets of violence and allegations of intimidation.

Police have used tear gas to disperse clashes between rival supporters, while Mundubile's National Republican Party (NRPUP) has accused authorities of restricting its campaign activities.

The opposition leader last week alleged that snipers were deployed at a campaign event in Mongu, about 580 kilometres west of Lusaka, calling the tear gas "just the tip of the iceberg."

Polling stations open Thursday at 0600 local time (0400 GMT) and close 12 hours later.

Zambians will also elect an expanded parliament, with directly elected members of parliament rising to 226 from 156.

Presidential results are due August 17, according to the electoral commission's calendar. A candidate needs more than 50 percent of valid votes to win outright; otherwise, the top contenders face a run-off.

The outcome could hinge on "relatively small swings" in support across Zambia's 10 provinces, Simakoloyi said.

The vote will also test Zambia's reputation for political stability amid growing concerns over restrictions on dissent and a narrowing political space.