Good morning! No, you didn’t wake up in 2002. Big 9/11 news really did drop this week. More on that below.

Team USA leads the Olympic board on total medal count but narrowly trails China in golds. Helping out is the four-man rowing team. They’re bringing home gold after breaking a 64-year drought without the top prize.

PRESIDENCY

✈️ Air Force One might be getting a paint job

One underrated perk of being president? Slapping that Uno reverse card down to annoy the guy you just kicked out of office. That’s exactly what Biden did in 2022 when he nixed Trump’s design for the new Air Force One.

Recap: The current planes that act as Air Force One (two identical 747-200s) have been on the job since 1990. These bad boys are nearly old enough to be president themselves and parts are getting tough to find.

• The Air Force began planning replacements more than a decade ago.

• The new planes are more modern 747-8s, which Boeing signed a $3.9 billion contract to provide. The first should arrive in 2027, with its twin coming in 2028.

Trump wasn’t a fan of Air Force One’s light blue, Kennedy-era paint job, so he came up with a new, darker blue design.

Biden restored the classic look after the Air Force reported that a darker color might require costly changes.

• The darker paint would attract more heat, possibly harming critical electronics.

Should he win this year, a source close to Trump says he would “Absolutely, 100 percent” reverse Biden’s reversal of Trump’s change. Boeing has, in a way only Boeing can, already lost more than $1.1 billion on this job. If they’re forced to adjust the design again, they stand to lose even more.

Other planes: This change could have downstream effects on other government planes, too. They maintain a whole fleet of jets used by high-level officials. You can’t have the CIA director flying (trying to fly may be more accurate these days) Delta. Many are pretty small. But the bigger planes, like the VP's Air Force Two, boast a similar paint job to the president's ride. Thankfully, Air Horse One is safe regardless.

JUSTICE

⚖️ U.S. cuts deal with architect of September 11

Three terrorists who helped plan 9/11 cut a deal with U.S. prosecutors this week, nearly 23 years after the attacks. Alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, aka KSM, and two others will be spared the death penalty for agreeing to plead guilty to charges of murder and conspiracy.

• Those hearings could take place as soon as next week with sentencing next summer. The government declined to say where the men would be held afterward.

• The suspects also agreed to respond to questions on their roles and motives from families of 9/11 victims.

• All three men have been held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for about 20 years. Only about 30 detainees remain there.

Victims' families, New York police and fire associations, and survivors' groups are not thrilled about this. They consider it a betrayal and say the victims are "being disrespected." The White House released a statement distancing itself from this, explaining they "played no role."

Guantanamo Bay: Also known as Gitmo, the U.S. built a prison (for terrorists) here in 2002. But the naval base itself has been there since 1903. The U.S. won control of Cuba in 1898 in the Spanish-American War. The island was later granted independence, but part of the settlement was a 45-square-mile U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay.

• Communists took over in the 1950s and wanted the place gone. But the lease was written with no end date and Cuba is no military match for the U.S., so... tough luck. The U.S. still sends rent checks for a few thousand dollars per month, which Cuba never cashes.

• The base is surrounded by a "cactus curtain" planted by angry Cubans in the 1960s along with thousands of landmines (which are presumably more effective barriers than cacti).

Over on Earth-2, Cuba became a U.S. state, which totally threw off Hawaii's tropical tourism jam and resulted in a completely different Harold & Kumar threequel.

And here’s a quick look at what else the U.S. government is up to:

• 🧸 The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted to hold Amazon responsible for defective products sold by third parties on its site. Amazon now has to recall 400,000 dangerous products.

• 🗿 A statue of Johnny Cash will soon join the Capitol’s collection at National Statuary Hall. Each state gets two and Arkansas, Cash’s birth state, is subbing him in for an old statue that honors a racist.

• 📦 The Department of Commerce is prepping new trade rules to prevent other countries from exporting semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. But the rules exempt some allies to avoid hurting friendly economies that depend on those exports.

POLITICS

🔵 Harris: We’ve got a new VP favorite. Kamala Harris will announce her running mate ahead of a joint appearance in Philly on Tuesday. The sus location is pushing Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to the top of the pile, though no recent VP nominee has been announced at an event in their home state.

• After a continuing surge of high-profile Trump support from (very Democratic) Silicon Valley, Team Harris is pushing back, with more than 200 tech leaders on board.

• The Democratic Party's virtual roll call to officially nominate Harris for president kicked off yesterday. The process should be complete by Monday, though she may secure the nomination beforehand once a majority of delegates have voted.

🔴 Donald Trump’s interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention was combative from the top, which one moderator blamed on her co-moderators. But the story that's emerged is his suggestion that Harris uses her biracial identity to her advantage depending on the situation. Harris called his comments divisive and disrespectful.

• Trump returned to Pennsylvania for the first time since the July 13th assassination attempt. At the (indoor) rally, he hit Harris for wanting to ban fracking — an industry important to Western Pennsylvania's economy.

• Trump is still not allowed to talk much about his hush money criminal trial after a New York court upheld the gag order.

🔵 ActBlue, the Democrats’ online fundraising behemoth, is under legal fire from Republicans. Officials in Virginia and Wyoming are investigating the platform for fraud. In one example, a 79-year-old woman made 22,619 separate donations totaling more than $800,000. The copycat Republican version, WinRed, was also investigated recently.

TRIVIA

Not all countries’ passports are created equal. Some provide you the right to waltz into just about any country in the world without a visa. Others are… less useful (looking at you, Afghanistan). Thankfully, there’s a ranking for this. According to the 2024 Henley Passport Index, which country’s passport is the most useful for international travel?

Hint: It’s not the U.S. and it’s not Switzerland. Keep thinking.

WORLD

🇮🇷 Iran: Two months ago, Mossad (Israeli intelligence) snuck a bomb into a heavily guarded Iranian guesthouse and waited patiently. Eventually, Hamas's leader paid his Iranian friends a visit aaand, well, his funeral was yesterday. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, ordered retaliation for the embarrassing security failure.

🇮🇶 Iraq: About 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, but that's likely to change soon. Iraq wants the U.S.-led military coalition to begin winding down next month and be outta there by September 2025. No plan is yet in place, but a few troops are likely to remain as military advisors.

🇷🇺 Russia: The U.S., Russia, and several U.S. allies completed the biggest prisoner exchange since the Cold War. The deal, which went down in Turkey, involved 24 total prisoners. Germany got twelve people and the U.S. received four, including journalist Evan Gershkovich and retired Marine Paul Whelan. The U.S., Slovenia, Norway, Germany, and Poland gave up a total of eight Russian prisoners.

🇻🇪 Venezuela: Embattled dictator Nicolas Maduro accepted Elon Musk's challenge to fight after school tomorrow. In related news, the U.S. is urging international recognition of Edmundo Gonzalez as the rightful winner of last week's presidential election as evidence mounts that Maduro rigged the results.

BRIEFS

• An ex-U.S. special forces soldier has been arrested for smuggling as part of a 2020 attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government

• The Biden staff exodus continues as another top aide departs the lame-duck administration in favor of Democratic outside groups

• A 23-story Manhattan office building sold for 97% less than its last sale, in 2006, amplifying fears that the office real estate market is toast

• Google Maps is getting more features from Waze, including easier speed trap reporting and better identification for building entrances

• Kohl’s might have a solution to its rapidly aging customer base — open hundreds of mini Babis R Us shops inside existing stores

• An Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon killed a top commander of terror group Hezbollah and an Iranian advisor

QUOTE

SNACKS

🍿 Movies: Trent Crimm’s The Independent takes a look at 11 actors who absolutely hate some of their most famous movies.

🎤 Music: Life is coming full circle for Carrie Underwood. She’ll serve as a judge on American Idol’s next season, airing in Spring 2025 — 20 years after her season 4 win.

ANSWER

An American passport will get you into 186 countries visa-free. We’re tied for 8th place on the list. Switzerland? Tied for 4th at 190. The current winner is the world’s most populous city-state: Singapore. A Singaporean passport will get you into a cool 195 countries. No visa required. Afghanistan brings up the rear with visa-free entry into just 26 countries.

PS: The Henley list gets its data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). They’re the ones responsible for those three-letter airport codes.