Inside the Race to Save a U.S. Airman in Iran, and Artemis II Heads Behind the Moon

Hi, I'm Solana Pine. I'm the director of video at The New York Times. For years, my team has made videos that bring you closer to big news moments. Videos by Times journalists that have the expertise to help you understand what's going on. Now, we're bringing those videos to you in the Watch tab in the New York Times app. It's a dedicated video feed where you know you can trust what you're seeing. All the videos there are free for anyone to watch. You don't have to be a subscriber. Download the New York Times app to start watching. From The New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, April 6th. Here's what we're covering. We've been speaking to senior administration officials, military officers and others, piecing together the story of how a U.S. Air Force officer trapped behind enemy lines was rescued. Julian Barnes covers U.S. intelligence for the times. He says when Iran downed a U.S. military jet on Friday, it set off an urgent race for the U.S. to find the crew who had ejected before Iranian forces could. The pilot was located quickly, but the second airman was missing, raising fears of a potential hostage situation. The airman hiked up a 7,000-foot ridge line hiding in a mountain crevice that made him hard for the Iranians to find, but also hard for American rescuers to spot. Julian says the CIA launched a deception campaign to try and throw Iran off while both sides kept searching. They spread false information that the airman had already been found and was moving out of the country in a ground convoy. In the hope Iran would shift its focus to the roads. The CIA ultimately located his hiding spot, brought that information to the Pentagon and White House, who launched a rescue operation to extract him from Iran. This was a major event of the war and has solidified the will of both sides to fight. The Iranians, in that they brought down a fighter jet, the Americans, in that they executed a daring operation behind enemy lines. This could have big implications of how this war develops in the days ahead. The plane that was hit, an F-15E strike eagle, was the first US fighter jet lost to enemy fire in this war. And for Iran, it's defiant proof that the country still has military capabilities. Meanwhile, President Trump also emerged emboldened from the incident, boasting about the rescue mission and doubling down on his threats to strike Iran's infrastructure if it doesn't reopen the Strait of Hormuz. In a social media post yesterday filled with expletives, Trump warned that Iran would be, quote, living in hell, just watch, praise be to Allah. He's given Iran until this evening to start letting ships pass through the Strait, a deadline he's moved twice before. If it's not met, Trump has promised that attacks on power plants and bridges will start tomorrow. Deliberate strikes on civilian infrastructure would be a violation of international law. In Washington, the Times has uncovered new details about how the Trump administration has turned to a growing list of autocrats, strongmen, and human rights abusers to help speed up its deportation effort. I say this unapologetically. We are actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries. At a cabinet meeting last year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio talked about how the administration had come up with a plan for what to do with migrants it couldn't legally deport back to their home countries for fear of persecution. We are working with other countries to say we want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries. Will you do that as a favor to us? The government's solution has been to cut deals with so-called third-party countries to take them. Under those agreements, the administration has already deported thousands of people. But in going through diplomatic cables, government documents, and interviewing U.S. officials, my colleagues have found that the White House is pushing for more deals at almost any cost. It's offered not just millions of dollars, but also things like easing visa restrictions and tariffs, or even reconsidering a country's placement on U.S. watch lists. Many of the deals have been coming together in Africa. The administration is in talks to send migrants to the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, two countries where government forces have been linked to torture and forced disappearances. And the U.S. has already reached deals with the strong man leaders of Cameroon and Rwanda, and with South Sudan, which is teetering on the edge of civil war. The Trump administration has explicitly told the third-party countries not to send the migrants back to their home nations, where they were deemed to be in danger. Still, despite that, some have been sent back. Our flight operations team and our science team are ready for the first-wiener flyby in more than 50 years. Today, NASA's Artemis-2 mission is starting its big swing around the Moon. Using the Moon's gravity, the plan is for the astronauts to slingshot around the far side of it, the side you never see from Earth, and parts of which no humans have ever seen with their own eyes. While they're behind the Moon, starting around 7 p.m. Eastern tonight, they'll be completely cut off from all communications with Earth for about 20 minutes, since radio waves won't be able to reach them back there. Today also marks another milestone in the mission. The astronauts will reach a distance of 252,760 miles away from Earth, the farthest into space that any human beings have ever gone. You can follow live coverage of the Artemis-2 mission in the New York Times app or at nytimes.com. In Russia, the government has long had a reputation for controlling the Internet. Here are my apps, but if I try to scroll, I can't see anything. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and others all blocked. Here's YouTube, just blinking. It's trying to load. But now, my colleague Valerie Hopkins, who's been on the ground there, says the Kremlin is tightening its grip even more. What they're doing is slowing them down so much that nothing really loads and you don't want to go on them. Valerie says in addition to blocking access to a lot of VPNs and trying to force people to only use a Kremlin-approved messaging app, the Russian government is now temporarily cutting off mobile Internet entirely in some places. For example, there was a days-long outage in the center of Moscow recently that created Havoc, as ride-sharing apps went dark and people had to start paying for things in cash. The Russian government says the new restrictions are all about national security, but experts say they are more evidence of growing repression in the country. The Internet crackdown has spurred widespread public anger. There have been plans for protests in nearly 30 cities across Russia, but those were all shut down by the authorities before they could happen. And finally, yay! The rapper formerly known as Kanye West has been trying to mount a comeback after years of anti-Semitic and racist comments. In Los Angeles at SoFi Stadium last week, he performed his first live show in the US since 2021, tied to the release of his new album called Bully. But his plan to headline a music festival in London this summer has come under fire. The festival booked him to lead the lineup, but this weekend Pepsi pulled out as a sponsor, and British Prime Minister Kier Starmer said he was deeply concerned by the planned appearance. He said, quote, Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe. Over the years, yay! has posted statements attacking Jewish people, declared that he is a Nazi, and professed his love for Adolf Hitler. He also wore what would appear to be a black KKK robe in an interview. He has blamed his behavior on mental health issues and a brain injury from a car crash. And earlier this year, he issued a public apology, taking out an ad in the Wall Street Journal saying he hoped to be forgiven by, quote, Those I've Hurt. Still, at least one British politician has said yay! should be banned from entering the UK. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, how Europe is getting pulled into the war with Iran, even as many of its leaders have tried to stay out. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.