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President Donald Trump reportedly flew home from Turkey aboard the older Air Force One after the Secret Service recommended the change as tensions with Iran escalated, despite officials insisting there was no specific threat targeting the president.

The recommendation was made while Trump was attending the NATO summit in Turkey after fighting between the United States and Iran flared up again, according to an initial report by The New York Times.

Although authorities stressed there was no credible intelligence indicating an imminent danger to Trump, the Secret Service advised that he return on the long-serving presidential aircraft as an added precaution.

The decision underscored the extraordinary security precautions taken whenever the president travels during periods of heightened geopolitical instability.

Rather than remaining on the recently acquired Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar, Trump left Turkey aboard one of the veteran Boeing VC-25A aircraft that has transported American presidents for decades. He later reunited with the upgraded 747-8 at RAF Mildenhall in England before continuing the journey back to Washington, according to The New York Times and ABC News.

Additional security measures accompanied the flight. Those on board the older aircraft were instructed to keep the window shades closed during takeoff, and publicly available flight-tracking information showed the plane’s transponder remained off until after it had passed over the Black Sea—a tactic frequently used to reduce visibility during presidential travel through potentially dangerous regions.

Trump rejected the suggestion that the switch was driven by security concerns. Instead, he said the newer aircraft flew separately so American military personnel stationed in England could tour what he called the “magnificent” plane.

Even so, the president openly discussed the risks posed by Iran.

“I’m No. 1 on the kill list for Iran,” Trump told reporters, later adding that passengers were “probably on a dangerous flight” because of the threats posed by Tehran.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung defended the Qatari-donated aircraft, saying it 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.”

Cheung also noted that because “many enemies of America have their sights” on Trump, the administration uses “every tool at our disposal — including distraction and misdirection — to address those threats.”

Nevertheless, Trump’s use of the older Air Force One has intensified questions about whether the retrofitted Qatari aircraft possesses all of the defensive capabilities found on the longstanding presidential fleet. The Air Force spent roughly a year upgrading the jet at a cost estimated to be nearly $400 million.

According to The New York Times, both current and former defense officials have expressed concern that the accelerated retrofit schedule may not have allowed enough time to install every classified protection system carried by the VC-25A fleet, including sophisticated missile defense technology and shielding against electromagnetic pulse attacks.

The Air Force has countered that the aircraft satisfies all required standards for security, communications, and safety. Officials also acknowledged that certain highly advanced modifications intended for the next-generation Air Force One fleet were deliberately omitted because the aircraft is serving only as an interim “bridge” platform.

Administration officials emphasized that the Secret Service’s recommendation was simply a precaution reflecting the elevated international security environment and was not prompted by any known or specific threat directed at the president.

{Matzav.com}

Jewish Wikipedia editors said they felt “traumatized” and emotionally exhausted after editing topics related to Jews and Israel, according to a recent study in the journal Convergence by University of Haifa researcher Shlomit Lir.

Lir conducted video interviews with 19 veteran Jewish editors between February and August 2025. Most remain active on the platform, though several have stopped editing.

There was a “great sense of fear” among the editors to even talk about the subject, Lir told JNS. Some participants kept their cameras off during Zoom interviews, and one used a pseudonym.

“Editing on Wikipedia is a great part of their identity, and the fear of being banned is great,” she said. “Some of the conversations were very alarming.”

Wikipedia editors are unpaid volunteers, and anyone can contribute to the online encyclopedia.

The editors interviewed live in the United States, Europe and Israel and have between two and 24 years of editing experience. All have contributed to articles about Israel, and some identify politically with the Left, according to Lir.

Several said their experience on Wikipedia was largely positive until they began editing articles related to Israel after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

One editor cited the lead section of Wikipedia’s article on the Gaza war, saying it emphasizes devastation in Gaza, with only a brief mention that “there was an axis of resistance led by Iran and its proxies.”

Another said that after Oct. 7, “all kinds of entries related to Palestinian terror and such things were deleted.”

Other participants said efforts to correct anti-Jewish, inaccurate or “libelous” content, even in articles unrelated to Israel, were often quickly reversed by editors they described as “condescending” and “exclusionary.”

One editor said anti-Israel contributors “have more time and they are more numerous,” adding that they “know all the relevant books, so arguing with them is very difficult.”

Several participants also accused anti-Israel editors of engaging in “data attacks,” using Wikipedia’s dispute-resolution process to seek sanctions against them.

“They will contest your edit, and then they will make false reports against you,” one said. “They will go through, like, months, if not years, of your past edits, and it’s almost like being knocked—like someone’s threatening your front door, and then all of a sudden they send somebody around to the back door.”

One participant said they felt “traumatized” but believed reporting harassment would accomplish little, Lir told JNS.

“As long as you didn’t touch the sensitive topics, then things were OK,” she said. “Once you started editing Israel-related or conflict-related articles, then the problem began.”

‘Physical feeling of not being safe’

According to the study, one editor has received threatening messages warning, in effect, that others would ensure the person could no longer edit Wikipedia. “We’ll get to you,” one of the messages stated, according to the study. “You won’t be editing here much longer. We’ll make sure of it.”

The editor realized that “if someone is really interested in me, they can find me very easily.” While he has continued editing, the realization made him “stop and think,” the study stated.

“There’s an actual physical feeling of not being safe,” Lir told JNS.

Another editor quit editing after feeling “shocked and deeply hurt” as well as a “sense of personal risk and betrayal” over anti-Israel content. Lir also noted a doctoral researcher interviewed for the study who suffered a heart attack after stressful editing experiences on Wikipedia.

The latter can’t go back on the site because “she was so upset by it,” she told JNS.

Lir said some “extremely biased editors have been banned” by Wikipedia, but argued that more needs to be done to safeguard neutrality.

“Wikipedia is a place of knowledge,” Lir told JNS. “It cannot be a place of manipulation, and if the manipulation occurs, then there’s a need to examine how it happens, why it’s not diversified, what can be done.” JNS

{Matzav.com}