Hi, I'm Josh Hainer, and I'm a staff photographer at The New York Times covering climate change.
For years, we've sort of imagined this picture of a polar bear floating on a piece of ice.
Those have been the images associated with climate change. My challenge is to find stories that
show you how climate change is affecting our world right now. If you want to support the kind
of journalism that we're working on here on the climate and environment desk at The New York Times,
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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 US Air Force officer trapped behind enemy lines
was rescued. Julian Barnes covers US intelligence for the Times. He says when Iran downed a US
military jet on Friday, it set off an urgent race for the US 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
bridge 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 an 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 in F-15E Strike Eagle was the first US fighter jet
lost to enemy fire in this war, and for Iran, its defiant proof that the country still has military
capabilities. Meanwhile, President Trump also emerged in Bolton 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 state 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. 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. watchlists. 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, to countries where government forces have been
linked to torture and forced disappearances. 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 lunar fly-by 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 a 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. 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 day's 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.
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 appeared 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.
