A Secret Military Jet and a Catering Truck: How Trump Evaded an Iranian Threat

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Alex Ossola (0:33)

A threat from Iran against President Trump last month led to him being secretly flown out of Turkey. We've got the details on the elaborate decoy operation. Plus, the University of Michigan is dropping grades for freshmen. What does that say about the value of a diploma?

Doug Belkin (0:47)

The sense that there's less rigor and fewer standards attached to the credentials that these universities are issuing is a real significant vulnerability for universities.

Alex Ossola (1:00)

And why some of the most powerful names in global soccer are pushing for FIFA's president to resign. It's Tuesday, August 11th. I'm Alex Ossola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

We begin with a journal exclusive from the Middle East. Early this morning, US forces fired on a Panama flagged ship that tried to break the American blockade of Iran's ports. That's according to a US official. There were no immediate reports of any casualties from the incident. The attack comes during a relatively quiet moment in the war and it's part of the American effort to starve Iran of oil revenue and force it to make a deal to end the hostilities.

Related to Iran, more details are emerging about what prompted President Trump not to take his new Air Force One back from a diplomatic visit to Turkey last month. WSJ reported at the time that Trump returned to the US in an older Air Force One plane, but that wasn't what happened. WSJ Chief Political Correspondent Josh Dawsey explains.

Josh Dawsey (2:01)

What really happened is that once the president got on the old Air Force One, she was secretly taken off the plane in a truck that usually is used to bring food onto planes and was taken to another military jet and he flew from there to London. They believe there was intelligence that someone would want to shoot a missile at the plane. And then if the Iranian proxies or any of the other who went to kill the president or shoot the plane, when near the airport and they had shoulder to air missiles, they could fire them at the plane. Now, whether that intelligence was incredibly serious or not, we haven't seen it ourselves, so we don't know.

But what we've been told is that is what merited this extraordinary maneuver.

Alex Ossola (2:47)

The effort to secretly move Trump to another plane was first reported by the Washington Post. The new Air Force One is getting an upgrade this fall, which Josh says should make it more usable and secure.

Josh Dawsey (2:58)

To be clear here, they didn't even think the old Air Force One was safe enough for him to take off. And that plane that contained senior White House staff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the traveling press corps and others still took off, right? And all of those folks were unwitting, did not know what was going on.

Alex Ossola (3:18)

US. Home Sales Fell More Than Expected Last Month The National Association of Realtors said today that sales of existing homes declined 1.7% in July from the previous month, but were up 0.7% from a year ago.

Heightened tensions in the Middle East have led to higher borrowing rates. Plus, home prices have continued to rise. NAR said the median existing home price rose 2% from last July to the second highest price on record after June.

There's a shift going on at one of the country's largest and best known public universities. The University of Michigan said today it will drop first semester grades for new freshmen next school year. On their transcripts, the students will get a grade of pass or no credit, but they'll still know their actual grade, which will be stored internally to make sure they're eligible for scholarships. The school says it's an effort to quote, curb the mental health crisis going on among college students. Doug Belkin covers higher education for the journal. Doug, why did the university reach this decision and how is it supposed to help students?

Doug Belkin (4:18)

The university said they did this because there's so much ambient mental health issues among kids entering college right now that giving them a pass on a grade first year will give them time to acclimate. Hopefully, they say they'll be able to take more risks and then when they get their footing, they'll be held accountable on their transcripts again.