How The F-15 Rescue Mission Actually Went Down

Hi readers, happy Tuesday! Today we’re covering the search for the F-15 crew, Trump’s final (?) Iran threat, global fuel rationing, Germany’s strict new vacation law, defunding the TSA, an affirmative action ruling, and Artemis II’s record-breaking moment.

“I like kids’ work more than work by real artists any day.” — Jean-Michel Basquiat

A Wild Goose Chase For Easter

On Friday, Iranian forces shot down a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet, marking the first time the U.S. has lost an aircraft to enemy fire in over 20 years. Following that loss, the jet’s two crewmembers – a weapons systems officer and the plane’s pilot –  were forced to hide from Iranian forces while the U.S. scrambled to organize a rescue mission, which ended up involving hundreds of U.S. servicemembers and over 150 aircraft.

Two U.S. helicopters – a Black Hawk and a Pave Hawk – took part in an initial rescue mission soon after the F-15 crashed on Friday. They successfully picked up the pilot of the jet, but were forced to flee back to a U.S. base when a few crew members were injured by Iranian fire. The military and CIA continued their search for the weapons officer for about a day, while the CIA used its influence to start a mass misinformation campaign in Iran, trying to convince the Iranian military that the officer had already been rescued. 

As the search continued, the U.S. used its swarm of planes and drones to rain attacks on Iranian targets while also offering “covering fire” for the rescue operation. Eventually, they were able to locate the officer and verify their identity, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth greenlit a rescue operation. That plan involved a pair of MC-130 transport planes bringing multiple disassembled Little Bird MH-6 helicopters into range of the officer, reassembling them, grabbing the target, returning to the planes, and flying out of the country. Lucky for the officer, the operation went off without a hitch… until they returned to the MC-130s. The planes were too heavy for the makeshift landing strip where they’d touched down, and their landing gear was stuck in the mud. Mission control was then forced to send in smaller planes (a few CASA CN-235 220s) to pull out the personnel involved in the operation, and the military decided to bomb the planes and equipment left behind to keep it from falling into Iranian hands. In total, the U.S. lost at least $250 million (in aircraft alone) over the course of the mission. 

Some War Crimes To Start Your Week?

It seems like Trump wasn’t in a good mood after getting egg on his face over Easter weekend. Yesterday, the president announced that he plans to order the U.S. military to attack Iran’s civilian infrastructure if Tehran doesn’t negotiate an end to the war by 8 p.m. EDT tonight. That deal would theoretically involve Iran giving up its nuclear program and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil artery for the entire globe.

Trump first detailed the new deadline on Easter Sunday, writing an expletive-filled TruthSocial post. “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he wrote.

On Monday – at a White House Easter egg event attended by children – Trump went into further detail. “The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” he said. “I hope I don't have to ​do it.” Apparently, the U.S. has a plan “where every bridge in Iran will be decimated” by midnight EDT on Wednesday and “where every power ​plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again.” When asked about the fact that attacks on civilian infrastructure are considered a war crime, he replied, “I'm not worried about it. You know what's a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon.” Hopefully the children were too busy with their Easter goodies to learn anything from the press conference.

Our Fuel-Rationing Reality

• Governments across the globe are starting to implement fuel rationing measures in response to the oil crisis caused by the U.S.-Israel-Iran war. In Indonesia, the government has capped fuel purchases to 50 liters per car per day, and has also pushed civil workers to work from home in order to cut fuel consumption. Bangladesh, which imports 95% of its oil, has also implemented rations and closed universities, but the country is set to become the first in the world to run out of fuel thanks to the war. 

• You’d think that the rationing has been limited to countries in Asia, which consume the vast majority of the oil that passes through the Strait of Hormuz, but the global oil shortage has affected Europe as well. Slovenia has implemented a 50-liter cap on fuel purchases just like Indonesia, and the E.U.’s energy commissioner has said that the entire bloc is considering rationing as well. “This will be a long crisis ... ‌energy prices will be higher for a very long time,” he told the Financial Times. 

• Overall, daily oil production in mid-March was down by 10.7 million barrels per day, and that number likely reached 11.5 million barrels per day by the end of March. Experts say that a return to “normal” oil production could take between three to six months, but that recovery period will get longer as the conflict continues on because oil wells take longer to restart the longer they’re closed. 

Did You Get Permission For That Vacation?

• To kick off the year (which we’re a third of the way through, by the way), Germany’s government enacted wide-ranging changes to its military service policy. Hidden in those reforms was a clause that requires men ages 17 to 45 to seek permission from the country’s armed forces if they want to leave Germany for more than three months. The change could affect millions of German men looking to, say, study abroad, work a new job, or just take a long vacation.

• For now, it seems that German men are free to come and go as they please despite the regulation, according to a spokesperson for the Bundeswehr. “We will clarify through administrative regulations that authorisation is deemed to have been granted as long as military service is voluntary,” they said, adding, “As military service under current law is based exclusively on voluntary participation, such authorisations must, in principle, be granted.” Overall the military service reform is aimed at substantially growing the ranks of Germany’s military, bringing the Bundeswehr from its current tally of 182,000 active soldiers and 50,000 reservists to 260,000 active soldiers and 200,000 reservists by 2035.

Additional World News

• China is winning one AI race, the US another - but either might pull ahead (BBC)

• Gunmen attack building housing Israeli Consulate in Istanbul (AP)

• South Sudan's Kiir sacks parliament speaker and deputy (Reuters)

• A Single Strike Won’t Shut Off the Gulf’s Desalination System (Wired, $)

• New Revelations Reignite Crypto Scandal Involving Argentina’s President Milei (NYT, $)

• He spent years investigating Opus Dei, a Catholic group accused of a vast conspiracy of abuse. Then Pope Leo asked to meet (Guardian)

Let’s See How Long Those Lines Can Get

• Just a few weeks ago, security lines at airports across the country stretched for hours as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown caused Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents to stop showing up for work. That DHS shutdown should be resolved once the GOP gets its far-right flank to obey orders, but it seems like our airport line problem is only going to get worse in the future. 

• In a recent budget proposal document for the DHS (which would take effect next fiscal year), the Trump administration has floated the idea of firing more than 9,400 TSA workers. Those job cuts are part of a Trump initiative to cut the agency’s budget by $1.5 billion, and would constitute a roughly 15% reduction in the TSA’s workforce. The overall budget cuts would see the agency lose about 20% of its funding.

• Trump has been a vocal critic of the TSA for years, and the recent chaos at airports hasn’t changed his mind. On his first day in office last year, the president fired TSA David Pekoske and has yet to nominate a replacement head for the agency. Last Friday, the administration even proposed privatizing airport security operations, calling for private security companies to take over security screening at smaller airports nationwide.

From The Courtroom To The Classroom

• On Friday, Boston’s U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV temporarily blocked the Trump administration from collecting data on whether or not colleges consider race in their admissions processes. The president ordered colleges nationwide to report that information to the federal government last August, when he claimed that some schools are still using personal statements and other data as a way to still bring race into the admissions equation. 

• In a 2023 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action – using an applicant’s race as a factor in admitting students to a school – was unlawful. However, the court decided that admissions departments could still consider how race shaped an applicant’s life if they choose to share that information in a personal statement essay.

• “The 120-day deadline imposed by the President led directly to the failure of NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) to engage meaningfully with the institutions during the notice-and-comment process to address the multitude of problems presented by the new requirements,” wrote Saylor in his decision. However, he noted that the federal government probably has the legal authority to collect the data as long as it collects the information in a more professional manner. Once that happens, the Trump administration is likely to withhold funding from schools that it thinks are still considering applicants’ race in any way.

Additional USA News

• Trump’s homeland security secretary mulls removing customs agents from airports to punish sanctuary cities – as it happened (Guardian) 

• The California Lake Billed as the ‘Saudi Arabia of Lithium’ (NYT, $)

• DHS Launches Massive “Less Lethal” Chemical Weapons Buying Spree (Intercept)

• CBS will hand Colbert’s late-night time slot to ‘Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen’ (CNN)

• Trump White House Pushes Satellite Firm to Withhold All Images of Iran War (Common Dreams)

• Supreme Court clears the way for Bannon contempt case to be dismissed (NPR)

The Far Side Of The Moon

• Just before 2 p.m. EDT on Monday, the astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission officially broke the “furthest a human has ever traveled from Earth” record. A few hours later at roughly 7 p.m. EDT, their Orion spacecraft reached the farthest point in its journey – 252,756 miles from Earth – yesterday, before slingshotting around the Moon and starting the trip back home.

• The astronauts experienced a (planned) 40-minute communications blackout as their spacecraft swung across the far side of the Moon, giving them a nice period of radio silence to observe lunar features that no human has ever seen before. “When we were on the far side of the moon, looking back at Earth, you really felt like you weren’t in a capsule,” said Jeremy Hansen, the lone Canadian Space Agency astronaut aboard the Orion capsule. “You’d been transported to the far side of the moon. And it really just bent your mind. It was an extraordinary human experience. We’re so grateful for it.” 

• The astronauts are now making the long journey back to Earth, and their capsule is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on Friday at roughly 8 p.m. EDT. Both the crew and the Orion capsule will be brought back and run through even more tests after their brief dip in the ocean.

Additional Reads

• Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? (New Yorker, $)

• How bad smells affect your health (BBC) 

• Nobody Knows How to File Taxes on Prediction Market Wins (Wired, $)

• The secret to successful conversations with strangers (Vox) 

• Polymarket took down wagers tied to rescue of downed Air Force officer (TechCrunch)

• Half of planned US data center builds have been delayed or canceled, growth limited by shortages of power infrastructure and parts from China — the AI build-out flips the breakers (Tom’s Hardware)

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