Presidential Ruse, Celestial Show, and WWII Military Meals

Good morning, it's Wednesday, Aug. 12. A secret presidential plane swap comes to light, while the skies are set to put on a show today. First time reading? Join over 4.7 million insatiably curious readers. Sign up here.

Also in today's Digest: a clue to age-related cognitive decline (Sci. & Tech.), Bumble drops women-first messaging (Bus. & Mkts.), Ebola outbreak spreads at record pace (Pol. & World Affairs), what mummies smell like (Etc.), and much more. 

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 Need To Know 

Presidential Plane Plot

President Donald Trump hid in a container to switch planes while leaving Turkey last month, US officials have revealed. See footage of Trump boarding an older Air Force One model before covertly exiting via a catering truck. (via YouTube)

Trump told reporters at the time they would return via the baby blue Air Force One as opposed to a newer model gifted by Qatar for “old time’s sake.” (See inside the newer jet compared with the older model.) From there, Trump was secretly transferred onto a military jet and taken to Britain. The subterfuge was designed to avoid a potential missile threat from Iran. Journalists and White House staff members were not told about the threat or that Trump had left the plane they were on. Trump was then secretly transferred back onto it when the two groups landed in the UK.

The last known time a plane decoy was used was in 2000, when then-President Bill Clinton flew from India to Pakistan.

A Celestial Doubleheader

A total solar eclipse will sweep across the Arctic and parts of Europe today, the first visible from mainland Europe in nearly 30 years. Totality will last less than two and a half minutes at its longest.

The path of totality crosses northern Russia, Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and a sliver of Portugal, while a partial eclipse will be visible across much of Europe, Canada, and parts of the northern US. A total eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, temporarily blocking the sun from view; visualize the path of every eclipse from 1900 to 2099. Eclipses can also affect wildlife behavior, with researchers documenting bees going quiet, owls hooting, and crickets chirping as the sky darkens. Learn about the different types of eclipses here.

Separately, the Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight, potentially producing up to 100 meteors per hour under dark, new moon skies as Earth passes through debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle. See the Perseids from space here.

Girls Without Schools

Approximately 2.4 million Afghan girls remain barred from secondary education five years into Taliban rule, according to a United Nations report published yesterday. Afghanistan is the only country in the world with formal bans on women's education.

The Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in August 2021, as US and NATO troops withdrew following two decades of war (Taliban 101). By March 2022, the Islamic fundamentalist group had shuttered girls' secondary schools, and women were barred from universities in December 2022. The decision erased recent gains in female education, with girls' secondary school enrollment rising from a few thousand in 2001 to roughly 1 million in 2021. The UN believes the bans could reduce the female workforce by 600,000 over the next 40 years and increase the risk of early marriage. What are Afghan female academics doing now?

Women are also prohibited from teaching boys, contributing to a teacher shortage. Afghanistan’s literacy rate is among the world’s lowest at roughly 37%. Compare literacy rates here.

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture

> LeBron James debuts with Philadelphia 76ers against New York Knicks on NBA Opening Night, Oct. 20; full 2026-27 schedule will be published tomorrow (More) | British driver sets hydrogen-powered car speed record at over 406 miles per hour (More)

> Ms. Rachel, a YouTube star who creates educational music for toddlers, to release her debut album alongside her composer husband on Sept. 25 (More) | Listen to the album's title track, "I'm So Happy" (More)

> Taylor Swift, Lyle Lovett, and more to be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame; Swift is the youngest writer ever to receive the honor (More) 

Science & Technology

> Anthropic to watermark content created by its AI models, including Claude, with invisible tags to comply with new EU regulations aimed at making AI-generated content easier to identify (More) 

> Aging may cause the brain's immune cells to secrete a protein that disrupts other brain cells, possibly contributing to age-related cognitive decline, memory loss, and neurodegenerative disorders (More) | Biology of aging 101 (More, w/videos)

> Pre-Hispanic societies in Colombia likely built vast networks of canals and raised fields without centralized rule or rigid hierarchies; archaeologists believe roughly 800 volunteers constructed the networks in roughly two months (More, w/photos) 

Business & Markets

> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.3%, Dow -0.3%, Nasdaq -0.6%) (More) | Go down the stock market rabbit hole, including market bubbles and historic crashes (More) 

> AI startup Manus to resume independent operations after China forced Meta to unwind its $2B acquisition (More) | Target appoints first-ever AI officer (More) 

> Dating app Bumble drops its signature women-message-first rule, allowing either person to initiate conversations after a match; change comes amid declining user engagement (More) | How Bumble changed dating, then lost its edge (More) 

Politics & World Affairs

> Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), sister of late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Rep. Ralph Norman (R, SC-5) advance to GOP Senate primary runoff (More) | Democratic socialist Francesca Hong and moderate David Crowley locked in tight race in Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary; scroll for latest results (More) 

> Russia frees US military veteran Robert Gilman after more than four years of imprisonment; President Donald Trump says no prisoner exchange took place (More) | Meet the other Americans still in Russian custody (More)

> Ebola outbreak is the fastest-growing outbreak of its kind, killing at least 2,011 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—spreading nearly three times faster than the 2014-16 outbreak in West Africa (More) | Ebola 101 (More)

What did American soldiers eat during World War II? (via YouTube)

See photos of a week-old pygmy hippo named after bagpipes. 

How did your town get its name? Scroll to search.

Your car color may be the most popular in the US. 

Can’t sleep? It could be the first-night effect. 

Why you may want to infect yourself with hookworm. (podcast)

What do mummies smell like? 

Get a glimpse of Midwestern culture in felt art.

Why some speed limit signs have decimal points.

In partnership: Investors are watching the deadline to invest in coal’s "Rockefeller Moment."*

Clickbait: The drink dietitians say is more hydrating than water.

Historybook: Egyptian queen Cleopatra dies by suicide (30 BCE, estimated); James Bond creator Ian Fleming dies (1964); IBM personal computer is released (1981); Explorer Susan Hendrickson discovers SUE the Tyrannosaurus rex (1990); Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall dies (2014).

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