Taylor Swift songs pulled from Trump videos since Aug. 3

Today's essentials (5 key points)

• Police have broken up one of the Mediterranean's largest people-smuggling networks, arresting 78 people in an operation linked to Alicante, TodoAlicante reports.
• Alicante and the Costa Blanca face another hot Sunday, with highs of 34 to 35 degrees and no rain, according to Open-Meteo.
• Retirees in the Marina Alta receive a median pension of 1,031 euros a month, 210 euros below the regional average, La Marina Plaza reports.
• Santa Pola has banned swimming at Gran Playa over water-quality concerns, according to Olive Press CB.
• Benidorm hosts a packed weekend of seaside cinema, candlelight concerts, classical music and fiestas through 9 August, according to Life in Benidorm.

Today's essentials

Taylor Swift songs pulled from Trump videos since Aug. 3. Taylor Swift's music has started vanishing from Donald Trump's social-media videos, with several tracks blocked on copyright grounds since a 3 August 2026 clip and a policy shift at TikTok now letting artists fight back.

On 3 August 2026, the Team Trump TikTok account posted a clip of Donald and Melania Trump watching fireworks set to Swift's 2020 track 'August', captioned 'mood because it's August and Donald Trump is your president' and tagging the singer directly. By the evening of Friday 7 August, users noticed the audio had disappeared, replaced in the US version of the app by a notice reading 'The copyright owner hasn't made this sound available in your country', according to SDP Noticias.

It was not an isolated case. A separate Team Trump video from 6 November 2025 that used Swift's 'Father Figure' also lost its sound to the same copyright block, per Deadline, and Reuters confirmed that several of her songs have been removed from recent posts across the Trump campaign's and the White House's social accounts, as relayed by IBTimes Australia. A third title, 'Opalite', has been listed among the removals by one outlet, InMusic Blog, though that addition is less firmly established.

How the takedowns actually happened is not settled: some reports describe a standard copyright complaint from rights holders, others suggest a request routed through TikTok, and no public statement from Swift, her team or her label has confirmed a deliberate decision. The backdrop is a feud dating to 2018 that hardened when Swift backed Kamala Harris in the 2024 campaign, drawing a hostile response from Trump, according to SDP Noticias. Rather than drop her music, the Team Trump account answered by posting a doctored version of Swift's 2012 'Red' album cover with Trump's face pasted onto it.

Ce que ça change pour toi: for anyone on the Costa Blanca who posts on TikTok, the real story is a rule change. In the wake of the removals, TikTok updated its policy to let artists ask that their music be pulled from specific accounts, including brands and political campaigns, per que.es. If you build your own clips around trending songs, expect more tracks to go unavailable without warning as rights holders start using those new controls.

Weather today

Another hot, dry Sunday on the Costa Blanca. Alicante and the Costa Blanca face another hot, dry Sunday on 9 August 2026, with highs of 34 to 35 degrees, clear to lightly cloudy skies and no rain expected, according to Open-Meteo.

In Alicante city, count on a low of 25 and a high of 34 degrees under partly cloudy skies, no rain at all (0%) and a light breeze up to 17 km/h. Inland around Elda it runs a touch hotter, from 22 up to 35 degrees under overcast skies with wind to 21 km/h, while on the southern coast at Benidorm temperatures sit between 26 and 35 degrees, partly cloudy and breezy at up to 18 km/h, per Open-Meteo.

With highs at or above 34 degrees, keep water on you, stay in the shade through the early afternoon and save the beach or any errands for the morning or after 7 pm.

Transport & traffic

• Alicante airport, past 12 million passengers. Alicante-Elche airport crossed the 12 million passenger mark back in 2016, a figure AlicanteOut points to as a sign of the Costa Blanca's tourism health. That scale is exactly why summer flights fill up fast and fares climb from June onwards: the airport is the region's main gateway for visitors and residents alike, so booking well ahead and flying midweek or off-peak stays the surest way to keep both prices and queues down.
• 78 arrested in a Mediterranean smuggling ring. Police have dismantled one of the largest people-trafficking networks in the Mediterranean, arresting 78 people in an operation that moved drugs towards Algeria and migrants into Alicante, according to TodoAlicante. The case is a reminder that Alicante's coastline and port sit on well-worn cross-Mediterranean routes, and that the fight against smuggling is a running, region-wide operation rather than a one-off, with the investigation still open.

What's changing for you

• Doing Alicante on a budget. You can plan an Alicante trip without overspending, and AlicanteOut's rundown comes down to a handful of reliable moves. Travel outside the July and August peak whenever you can, book flights and accommodation well ahead, use the tram and city buses rather than taxis, and lean on what costs nothing, the beaches, the old town and the Santa Bárbara castle, to keep a weekend cheap without cutting the fun.
• Benidorm's weekend line-up, 7 to 9 August. Benidorm fills this weekend with seaside cinema, candlelight concerts, classical music, urban flamenco, electronica and traditional fiestas, according to Life in Benidorm. There is something for every budget and age group, so check the venue and start time before you set off, and get to the free open-air events early, since the best spots near the sea go quickly on hot August nights.

Local news to know

• Torrevieja moves on the San Roque civic centre. Torrevieja's local government has awarded the contract to draft the plans and supervise the works for the new San Roque civic centre, elperiodic Alicante reports.
• Benidorm government and PSOE clash over a tender. Benidorm's governing team has accused the local Socialist group (PSOE) of trying to 'paralyse municipal management' after it appealed a tender that carried every favourable report, according to elperiodic Alicante.
• Marina Alta pensions trail the region by 210 euros. Retirees in the Marina Alta draw a median pension of 1,031 euros a month, 210 euros below the Comunitat Valenciana average, with municipal figures ranging from 1,507 euros in Vall d'Alcalà down to 877 euros, La Marina Plaza reports.
• Another sweltering night in the Marina Alta. Urban sensors in Dénia still read up to 35 degrees well past 11 pm, with overnight lows holding above 26 degrees across both the coast and the inland valleys, according to La Marina Plaza.

Tonight and tomorrow, the Costa Blanca

• Swimming banned at Santa Pola's Gran Playa. Santa Pola council banned swimming at Gran Playa, one of the town's main beaches, on Thursday after water-quality tests by the General Directorate of Water, according to Olive Press CB. If you were planning on Gran Playa this weekend, pick another Santa Pola beach until the ban is lifted.

See the full agenda, tonight and tomorrow