Global Pulse

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  • Defenses not ‘annihilated,’ Iran reportedly downs two US planes

    Defenses not ‘annihilated,’ Iran reportedly downs two US planes

    Just 48 hours after former President Donald Trump asserted that Iran no longer posed a military threat and that the country’s entire air defense network had been completely destroyed, Iranian military forces carried out a stunning strike that downed two manned U.S. military aircraft on Friday, multiple international news outlets have confirmed.

    Citing an Israeli government official and a second anonymous source with direct knowledge of the incident, Axios first broke the news Friday afternoon that an F-15E Strike Eagle, one of the U.S. Air Force’s primary fighter-attack jets, was hit by Iranian anti-aircraft fire, forcing both crew members to eject over Iranian territory. This strike marks the first documented incident of a manned U.S. aircraft being shot down inside Iranian borders since the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran launched on February 28.

    As of Friday evening, one of the F-15E crew members had been recovered by U.S. special operations forces, though The Washington Post reports that details of his medical condition remain undisclosed. Search operations are still intensifying across the region to locate the second missing crew member.

    Shortly after Axios’ initial report, The Intercept published confirmation that a second U.S. aircraft, an A-10 Warthog ground-attack jet, crashed near the strategic Strait of Hormuz around the same time as the F-15E incident. Matching the pattern of the first crash, one crew member from the A-10 has been recovered, while the second remains unaccounted for.

    Al Jazeera later added that a U.S. Black Hawk search-and-rescue helicopter was also struck by an Iranian projectile while participating in the operation to locate missing pilots. The helicopter was able to exit Iranian airspace before making a safe landing outside Iranian territory, with no reported casualties on board.

    Iran has officially claimed responsibility for downing the F-15E, with Tasnim News Agency — the semiofficial media outlet of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — releasing a formal statement confirming the strike. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has a history of rejecting previous Iranian claims of downing U.S. aircraft, including a separate claim made near the Strait of Hormuz just one day prior on Thursday. However, CENTCOM has not issued any denial regarding Friday’s incidents, and has publicly confirmed that the F-15E was indeed lost.

    Friday’s development directly contradicts sweeping claims Trump made during a national televised address just this past Wednesday. During the speech, Trump declared that five weeks of intense U.S. bombing campaigns had “eviscerated” Iran’s military capabilities, and that the country was “essentially really no longer a threat” to regional or American interests. He went further to claim that Iran’s entire air defense infrastructure had been wiped out, saying, “They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100% annihilated. We are unstoppable.”

    Just one week prior, Trump claimed that Iran’s leadership was desperate to negotiate a peace deal because it “can’t do a thing” to defend itself against U.S. airstrikes. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed this narrative, repeatedly touting unchallenged U.S. “air superiority” over the region.

    Even before Friday’s downing of the two jets, these rosy assessments from the White House were already called into question. A Thursday report from CNN cited internal U.S. intelligence findings that roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers remain fully operational, and that the country still retains around 50% of its drone fleet. One senior source told CNN that Iran remains “very much poised to wreak absolute havoc throughout the entire region.”

    Military analysts have warned that any missing crew members captured by Iranian forces could become critical bargaining chips for Tehran in future negotiations with Washington. Iranian officials have already seized on the incident to mock the Trump administration’s claims. Mohammad Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s Parliament, posted a scathing rebuke on social media following news of the downing. “After defeating Iran 37 times in a row,” Ghalibaf wrote, “this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?’”

    The incident also comes amid growing controversy over casualty transparency in the conflict. An analysis published by The Intercept earlier this week found that at least 15 American troops have been killed in the region since the campaign began, with more than 520 others injured. CENTCOM has been accused of covering up the true scope of U.S. casualties after the command released incomplete, outdated casualty figures to reporters and repeatedly declined to share full, updated totals.

  • Australians told to continue Easter travel plans despite fuel shortages

    Australians told to continue Easter travel plans despite fuel shortages

    As Australia prepares for the Easter holiday, a national fuel crisis driven by Middle East geopolitical tensions has put the government in a delicate position: urging residents to proceed with planned getaways while calling for strict fuel conservation. The disruption stems from escalating conflict between the United States and Iran linked to Israel, which has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz — the world’s most critical chokepoint for global energy shipments.

    Australia’s energy sector is uniquely vulnerable to this disruption, with roughly 90% of the nation’s fuel supply imported from Middle Eastern producers. As of Saturday, Energy Minister Chris Bowen confirmed that 312 of Australia’s approximately 8,000 service stations are currently out of diesel, with shortages concentrated disproportionately in regional and rural areas where supply replenishment takes far longer than in major urban centers. To reassure the public, Bowen released official reserve figures in televised comments: the country holds 39 days of petrol reserves, 29 days of diesel, and 30 days of jet fuel stockpiled for emergency use.

    In a rare national address earlier this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned Australian households that the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict will persist for months. “Australia is not an active participant in this war. But all Australians are paying higher prices because of it,” he stated, echoing a message that has been reinforced by government officials across departments. Albanese has urged residents to cut back on non-essential fuel consumption and shift to public transit for daily travel where feasible. In line with this guidance, Bowen encouraged Easter travelers Saturday to stick to necessary fuel purchases, saying “Go take a break — but get no more fuel than you need,” while affirming that Easter, as a time of faith and family gathering, remains an important occasion for communities across the country.

    While the blockade has halted nearly all commercial shipping through the strait — which carries roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil and natural gas supplies — limited transits have begun to resume in recent weeks. According to French media reports, a container ship flagged in Malta and owned by leading French shipping firm CMA CGM completed a traversal of the waterway Friday. Shipping analysts confirm this marks the first time a major Western European shipping company has moved a vessel through the strait since hostilities broke out in late February. The company has not yet issued a public comment on how the vessel secured safe passage.

    A handful of other vessels have also completed successful transits in recent weeks. Japanese energy infrastructure firm confirmed one of its liquefied natural gas carriers crossed the strait without incident. On Saturday, Turkey’s Minister of Transport Abdulkadir Uraloglu announced that a second Turkish-flagged vessel had completed the crossing, one of 15 Turkish ships that have been anchored waiting for passage since conflict erupted. Uraloglu told CNN Turk that the transits were made possible through Turkish diplomatic initiatives, and that the two vessels were either calling at Iranian ports or carrying cargo originating from or bound for Iran. The first Turkish transit, granted Iranian approval, took place on March 13.

    Third-party data from BBC Verify, analyzed in late March, shows that roughly 100 vessels have passed through the strait since the blockade began. Though overall traffic remains down by approximately 95% compared to pre-conflict levels, the limited transits confirm that the waterway has not been completely closed to all shipping. Iran has publicly stated that “non-hostile vessels” are permitted to use the strait, but continued attacks on commercial shipping in the area have deterred most major global carriers from resuming normal operations. The disruption has sent fuel prices soaring in Australia and across global markets, prompting governments worldwide to roll out fuel conservation measures to offset supply shortages.

  • Death toll from Afghan quake rises, including 8 members of refugee family returned from Iran

    Death toll from Afghan quake rises, including 8 members of refugee family returned from Iran

    Deep in the village of Ittefaq, on the eastern outskirts of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, the mud-caked rubble of a collapsed wall still holds the traces of a recently shattered life. Piles of salvaged blankets, dented cooking utensils and scattered personal belongings sit alongside broken bricks, a quiet marker of the tragedy that unfolded late Friday, when a 5.8 magnitude earthquake ripped through northern Afghanistan.

    For Mohibullah Niazi, the neighbor who led early rescue efforts, the sounds of that disaster will linger. For three full minutes after the wall collapsed onto the refugee family camped next to his property, Niazi told reporters Saturday, he could hear the trapped family screaming for help. By the time a larger group of rescuers could clear the heavy mud and rock, the screams fell silent.

    Eight members of the family, all Afghan refugees who had just returned to their home country 15 days earlier after being pushed out of neighboring Iran, were killed. The only survivor is 3-year-old Aarash, who was pulled from the rubble with a severe head injury and airlifted to a hospital in central Kabul for emergency care.

    This small, already vulnerable family was among millions of Afghans forced to return to their unstable homeland in 2023, after neighboring Iran and Pakistan launched harsh crackdowns on undocumented foreign residents, most of whom are Afghan refugees who fled years of conflict and economic collapse. Najibullah, the 50-year-old head of the killed family, had nowhere else to go after crossing back into Afghanistan: the family set up a makeshift tent on empty low-lying land adjacent to Niazi’s home, because he could not afford permanent shelter. Just 30 minutes before the earthquake struck, Niazi said he offered the family space in his guest room to escape cold, heavy rains that had soaked the region for days. They declined his invitation.

    Days of heavy rainfall had already softened the sodden earth holding the adjacent retaining wall in place, local residents explained. When the earthquake hit, the wall crumbled directly onto the family’s tent, trapping everyone inside before they could escape. Niazi and a handful of nearby neighbors immediately began digging by hand and with small spades, but the weight of the rock and mud was too much for their small group. “We tried our best,” Niazi recounted Saturday, standing at the disaster site. “But for two or three people, this was impossible work.”

    Local authorities were alerted quickly, and Taliban-led rescue teams and ambulances arrived within an hour to continue recovery efforts. By Saturday morning, all eight bodies had been recovered, and the injured toddler had been transported for care. On Saturday, Health Ministry spokesperson Sharafat Zaman confirmed the boy remained hospitalized for his head injury, saying medical teams were monitoring his condition closely.

    In the wake of the quake, official death toll numbers have seen a small discrepancy: Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat released an updated count Saturday putting the total national death toll at 12, with four additional people injured across the affected regions. Fitrat added that five full homes had been completely destroyed, and another 33 suffered major damage, impacting 40 families across six provinces: Kabul, Panjshir, Logar, Nangarhar, Laghman, and Nuristan. The Afghanistan Disaster Management Authority has meanwhile put the total death toll at nine, and officials have not yet explained the gap between the two counts.

    Friday’s earthquake originated in the seismically active Hindu Kush mountain range, roughly 150 kilometers east of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, and 290 kilometers northeast of Kabul, according to data from both the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center and the U.S. Geological Survey. Afghanistan sits on one of the world’s most active tectonic fault zones, and major earthquakes have killed thousands of Afghans in just the last two years, as poorly constructed, informal housing across much of the country leaves communities extremely vulnerable to seismic activity.

    Just last August 2023, a 6.0 magnitude quake struck a remote mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 2,200 people. In October that same year, a 6.3 magnitude quake and subsequent powerful aftershocks hit western Afghanistan, leaving thousands dead. Two months later, a 6.3 magnitude quake hit Samangan province in the north, killing 27 people, injuring more than 950, and damaging iconic cultural sites including the historic Blue Mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif.

  • Fugitive mafia boss wanted for murder arrested in Amalfi Coast luxury villa

    Fugitive mafia boss wanted for murder arrested in Amalfi Coast luxury villa

    After more than a year evading law enforcement, one of Italy’s most dangerous organized crime fugitives has been taken into custody at a luxury Amalfi Coast hideaway, Italian military police announced this week.

    Roberto Mazzarella, 48, a high-ranking leader of the Naples-based Camorra mafia syndicate, was arrested in the coastal town of Vietri sul Mare, ending a 14-month manhunt that began when he slipped away from authorities moments before a scheduled arrest on murder charges last January.

    According to a statement from Italy’s Carabinieri military police force, Mazzarella was found living in the upscale villa under an assumed identity alongside his wife and two children at the time of the raid. The crime kingpin offered no resistance to arresting officers, who deployed multiple patrol boats off the nearby coastline to cut off any potential escape routes by sea. Released footage of the operation shows teams of heavily armed tactical officers breaching the gated property to take Mazzarella into custody.

    Long recognized as a powerful figure in the Camorra, Mazzarella heads the eponymous Mazzarella clan, a faction notorious for its long history of involvement in organized criminal activities ranging from banknote counterfeiting to extortion, drug trafficking and cyber fraud. Just one month before this capture, law enforcement operations detained 16 other individuals with alleged ties to the clan on charges of cybercrime fraud.

    During a search of the villa following the arrest, officers seized a cache of assets and evidence: three high-end luxury watches, approximately €20,000 in cash, forged identity documents, and multiple mobile phones. The capture closes one of Italy’s highest-priority fugitive cases, marking a major blow to the Camorra’s criminal network in the Campania region.

  • Appeals court confirms prison sentences for 3 ex-Grenoble rugby players for rape

    Appeals court confirms prison sentences for 3 ex-Grenoble rugby players for rape

    In a high-profile ruling delivered Saturday in southwestern France, an appeals court has reaffirmed the rape convictions and original prison sentences for three former professional Grenoble rugby players, rejecting their legal challenge to a 2024 guilty verdict.

    Irish athlete Denis Coulson and French player Loïck Jammes will continue to serve 14-year prison terms, while New Zealand-born Rory Grice remains sentenced to 12 years behind bars, matching the sentences handed down in the first trial last December. All three men have been incarcerated since the original conviction.

    The case dates back to March 2017, shortly after Grenoble played a competitive match in Bordeaux. The 20-year-old student victim filed a formal complaint alleging that she met the three players during a night of heavy drinking, before being assaulted in a local hotel on Bordeaux’s outskirts. The defendants have consistently maintained that any sexual encounter was fully consensual, a claim that was rejected by both the original trial court and the appeals court.

    Presiding judge Marie-Dominique Boulard-Paoloni told the court, as quoted by French sports daily L’Equipe, that the jury and judicial panel reached the same conclusion as the lower court after weighing the severity of the documented offenses. “We also considered the absence of any notable change compared to the previous decision,” she added, informing the defendants that they have a 10-day window to file a further appeal with France’s Court of Cassation, the country’s highest judicial body for criminal matters.

    Following the ruling, legal representatives for the three convicted former players confirmed they intend to proceed with that final appeal to France’s top court.

  • European ministers call for profit caps on energy companies as Iran war drives price surge

    European ministers call for profit caps on energy companies as Iran war drives price surge

    As geopolitical tensions in Iran roil global energy markets, five European finance ministries have launched a coordinated push for the European Union to implement a region-wide windfall profit tax on energy companies, aimed at offsetting inflationary pressures that threaten to squeeze household budgets across the bloc. The joint call, spearheaded by Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo, has been backed by his counterparts from Germany, Italy, Portugal and Austria, who co-signed a formal letter submitted to the European Commission that highlights severe market distortions triggered by the sudden spike in global oil and natural gas prices.

    The letter, dated Friday and published publicly by Cuerpo via an online social post, outlines the cascading economic risks of the Middle East conflict for European communities. “The conflict in the Middle East has caused oil prices to rise, placing a significant burden on the European economy and on European citizens,” the document reads. “It is important to ensure that this burden is distributed fairly.”

    European economies have long faced structural vulnerability to global energy price shocks, due to the bloc’s heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels. That exposure was laid bare in 2022, when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine upended global energy markets and pushed annual inflation into double digits across most of the EU. In response to that crisis, the bloc introduced a temporary “solidarity contribution” framework that put caps on excess profits earned by energy companies. The five signatory nations argue that a similar, urgently implemented tool is needed now to address the current market disruption.

    “Given the current market distortions and fiscal constraints, the European Commission should swiftly develop a similar EU-wide contribution instrument,” the letter states. “It would also send a clear message that those who profit from the consequences of the war must do their part to ease the burden on the general public.”

    Current economic data already shows the impact of rising oil prices on eurozone inflation: the bloc’s annual inflation rate climbed from 1.9% in February to 2.5% in March, a jump economists attribute almost entirely to higher fuel costs. Compounding the market volatility, Iran has halted most tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint that carries roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil and gas supplies. The closure has cast a long shadow over global fuel markets, with many analysts projecting extended supply tightness in the months ahead.

    In comments earlier this week, EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen underscored the severity of the disruption, warning that fuel prices are unlikely to return to stable, pre-conflict levels any time in the foreseeable future.

  • What we know so far about the search for missing US airman in Iran

    What we know so far about the search for missing US airman in Iran

    A multinational search operation is currently ongoing across Iranian territory, involving both U.S. and Iranian security forces, after a United States military warplane was shot down in Iranian airspace. The incident has sparked immediate cross-coordination between the two nations that have long maintained strained diplomatic relations, marking an unusual moment of joint operational activity amid ongoing geopolitical tension.

    As of the latest updates, details surrounding the downing of the aircraft – including the exact location of the crash, the mission the warplane was conducting at the time of the incident, and the circumstances that led to it being targeted – remain undisclosed by official spokespersons from both governments. Multiple defense sources have confirmed that one member of the plane’s flight crew has not been accounted for, prompting the urgent search operation that is now in its early stages.

    This unexpected event has drawn international attention, as observers monitor how the two countries will navigate the joint search effort while continuing their long-standing diplomatic disagreements. It remains unclear at this time whether the missing airman survived the crash, and search teams are working around the clock to comb through the crash site and surrounding areas to locate the crew member. Officials from both sides have stated they will provide additional updates as more information becomes available.

  • Russia and Ukraine trade deadly strikes as Zelenskyy travels to Istanbul for talks with Erdogan

    Russia and Ukraine trade deadly strikes as Zelenskyy travels to Istanbul for talks with Erdogan

    A fresh wave of large-scale reciprocal strikes between Russian and Ukrainian forces over the overnight period into Saturday has left at least 10 civilians dead and dozens more injured, officials from both nations confirmed this weekend. The outbreak of violence coincides with a high-stakes diplomatic visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Istanbul, where he is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the global spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

    Shortly after touching down in Istanbul, Zelenskyy released a statement via the messaging platform Telegram outlining the goals of his trip. “We are working to strengthen our partnership to ensure the real protection of lives, advance stability, and guarantee security in Europe and the Middle East. Joint efforts always yield the best results,” he wrote.

    According to a public statement released by the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia launched a massive drone assault on Ukrainian territory overnight, dispatching 286 attack drones across the country. Ukrainian air defense systems successfully intercepted and destroyed 260 of the incoming unmanned aerial vehicles before they could reach their targets.

    The deadliest single attack of the wave was recorded in Nikopol, a city in Ukraine’s southern Dnipropetrovsk region. Regional military administration head Oleksandr Hanzha confirmed that five civilians — three women and two men — were killed in the strikes, with another 19 people left wounded. The assault also caused significant damage to local civilian infrastructure, destroying market stalls and a neighborhood retail shop.

    In Sumy, a northeastern Ukrainian city located just kilometers from the Russian border, a separate missile strike left 11 civilians wounded, Ukraine’s National Police reported. The attack targeted residential areas, damaging multiple private homes, civilian vehicles, and critical public utility networks.

    In Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, a downed drone sparked a blaze on the ground floor of a three-story mixed office and warehouse building, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported. No fatalities or injuries were recorded at that site.

    Overnight into Saturday morning, a Russian drone strike targeted a civilian passenger car traveling along the Kostyantynivka–Druzhkivka highway in the partially occupied Donetsk region. Kostyantynivka City Military Administration head Serhiy Horbunov confirmed that the attack killed one civilian woman and left a second woman wounded.

    The Russian Ministry of Defense issued a statement Saturday defending its strikes, claiming that all attacks targeted “long-range air- and ground-based precision weapons, as well as strike drones” against “military-industrial and energy facilities used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”

    Ukrainian counterattacks on Russian and Russian-occupied territory also caused civilian and military damage over the same period. Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-appointed head of occupied Luhansk region, claimed that Ukrainian strikes targeted local railroad infrastructure and private residential buildings, killing an entire family of three: two adult parents and their 8-year-old child.

    Ukraine’s domestic security agency, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), claimed responsibility for a targeted drone strike on a key metallurgical plant in Alchevsk, a Russian-occupied city in Luhansk. The plant supplies critical components to Uralvagonzavod, a major Russian state-owned manufacturer of military tanks and railroad cars. In a post on its official Facebook page, the SBU reported that the strike successfully halted all production at the facility, damaging blast furnaces, core production workshops, distillation columns, gas transit pipelines, and electrical substations that power the site. Russian officials have not yet issued an official response to the SBU’s claim.

    On the Russian side of the border, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that its air defense forces intercepted and shot down 85 Ukrainian drones over nine Russian regions, the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula, and the Black Sea overnight. Russian regional officials confirmed civilian casualties from the downed drones that struck populated areas.

    In Russia’s southern Rostov region, which shares a long border with Ukraine, regional governor Yuri Slyusar confirmed one civilian was killed and four more were injured by a Ukrainian strike. The attack sparked two separate blazes: one at a warehouse operated by an unspecified logistics firm, and a second on a dry-cargo ship sailing under a foreign flag several kilometers off the regional coast. In the city of Tolyatti, located in Russia’s Samara region, regional governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev reported one civilian was wounded, and the strike damaged the roof of a residential apartment building, shattered windows across multiple units in the area.

  • Rescue team in Iran face ‘harrowing and dangerous’ search for US crew member

    Rescue team in Iran face ‘harrowing and dangerous’ search for US crew member

    Early unconfirmed reports have emerged that one pilot from a US F-15 fighter jet downed over Iranian territory has been successfully recovered in a daring behind-enemy-lines operation. If verified, the mission would mark the latest chapter in the United States’ decades-long history of high-risk combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) operations. As of the latest updates, search efforts remain active deep inside Iran for a second crew member, according to CBS, the US partner of the BBC.

    Combat search-and-rescue operations are widely ranked among the most complex, time-sensitive missions that the US military and its allied partners train to execute. Unlike conventional search-and-rescue efforts, which are typically carried out during humanitarian responses or post-disaster recovery in permissive environments, CSAR missions operate exclusively within hostile, contested territory — and in cases like this week’s operation in Iran, that means penetrating hundreds of miles deep into enemy sovereign territory.

    In the US, elite US Air Force pararescue units hold the primary responsibility for CSAR operations, with pre-emptive deployments to forward positions near active conflict zones where aircraft are at heightened risk of being downed. At its core, a CSAR mission is focused on locating, providing medical care to, and extracting isolated military personnel, from downed aircrew to cut-off ground troops. These operations are almost always conducted with a fleet of specialized platforms: rescue helicopters as the primary extraction craft, supported by aerial refueling tankers to extend range, and combat aircraft on standby to provide air support, defensive patrols, and offensive strikes against approaching enemy forces.

    A former squadron commander of pararescue jumpers told CBS that an operation of the scale reported in Iran would involve at least two dozen elite pararescue personnel, inserted into the search area via UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. The team is trained to parachute into the operating zone if helicopter insertion is not feasible, the commander explained. Once on the ground, their first priority is to establish contact with the missing crew member. After locating the personnel, they provide emergency medical care if required, evade hostile detection and pursuit, and move to a pre-planned rally point for final extraction.

    “‘Harrowing and massively dangerous’ is an understatement,” the former commander told CBS. “This is what they train to do, all over the world. They are known as the Swiss Army knives of the Air Force.”

    Verified video footage circulating from Iran on Friday shows US military helicopters and at least one refueling aircraft operating over Khuzestan Province in southern Iran, matching the reported area of operations. The mission’s clock is already ticking: Iranian state media has confirmed that Tehran has ordered civilians to locate the remaining missing US crew member alive, with a formal reward offered for information leading to their capture.

    Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s *Today* programme, Laurel Rapp, director of the US and North America programme at the international affairs think tank Chatham House, noted that capturing the surviving crew member would represent a major diplomatic win for Iran. “Capturing the crew member would be a huge prize for Iran and would offer them a very powerful bargaining chip” in any future negotiations with Washington, Rapp explained.

    Jonathan Hackett, a former US Marine Corps Special Operations specialist, told the BBC’s *World Tonight* programme that the top priority for US search teams is confirming whether the second crew member is still alive. “They’re trying to work backwards from the last point they knew that person was, and fan out based on the speed that person could move under different circumstances in this really difficult terrain,” Hackett said. He added that the reported operation would qualify as a “non-standard assisted recovery mission”, which may involve activating pre-existing contingency plans with local indigenous groups that were established in advance to support potential extraction efforts.

    Wartime airborne rescue operations have a long and storied history dating back to World War I, when Allied pilots conducted improvised landings behind German lines in France to rescue downed colleagues. The modern lineage of US Air Force pararescue units traces to a 1943 mission in Japanese-occupied Burma (modern-day Myanmar), where two combat surgeons parachuted behind enemy lines to treat wounded cut-off US troops. A year later, the first ever helicopter combat rescue took place, when a US lieutenant extracted four trapped soldiers from behind Japanese lines — marking the first operational use of a helicopter in armed combat, according to Smithsonian’s *Air & Space Magazine*.

    Formal dedicated search-and-rescue units were established by the US in the immediate aftermath of World War II, but the modern iteration of CSAR was forged during the Vietnam War. One famous, high-cost mission known as Bat 21 saw multiple US aircraft lost and multiple US service members killed during a days-long effort to extract a downed pilot behind North Vietnamese lines. The massive expansion of CSAR missions required by the Vietnam War, with their growing scope and complexity, pushed the US military to refine tactics and operating procedures that remain the foundation of CSAR work to this day. Thousands of rescue missions across Southeast Asia shaped the modern CSAR capabilities the US military deploys today.

    While every branch of the US military maintains limited in-house CSAR capabilities, the US Air Force holds formal primary responsibility for personnel recovery across the US armed forces. This work is led almost entirely by pararescue jumpers, an elite component of the US special operations community. The official pararescue motto, “These Things We Do, That Others May Live”, reflects the unit’s core mission: upholding the US military’s longstanding promise to all service members that no one will be left behind on the battlefield.

    Pararescuemen are dually trained as elite combatants and certified civilian paramedics, and complete what is widely considered one of the most rigorous selection and training pipelines in the entire US military. The full process takes roughly two years to complete, and includes advanced parachute and combat dive training, basic underwater demolition, survival training, resistance to interrogation training, escape and evasion training, and a full accredited civilian paramedic certification. Trainees also complete specialized advanced courses in battlefield trauma medicine, complex recovery operations, and advanced weapons handling. On deployment, pararescue teams are led by specialized Combat Rescue Officers, who are responsible for mission planning, inter-unit coordination, and on-ground execution of extraction operations.

    Parescue teams deployed extensively across the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying out thousands of missions to extract wounded US and allied troops from combat zones. In 2005, pararescue teams carried out the extraction of wounded US Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, who was sheltering in an Afghan village after his four-person team was ambushed by Taliban fighters — an incident later adapted into the major motion picture *Lone Survivor*.

    Missions to recover downed US pilots have grown increasingly rare over the past three decades. The most high-profile prior incidents include the 1999 recovery of a pilot whose F-117 stealth fighter was shot down over Serbia during the Kosovo War, and the 1995 extraction of US pilot Scott O’Grady, who evaded capture for six days after being shot down over Bosnia before being rescued in a joint Air Force and Marine Corps CSAR mission.

  • One dead and dozens injured at Peru soccer stadium during fan rally

    One dead and dozens injured at Peru soccer stadium during fan rally

    LIMA, Peru – A tragic crowd crush incident at a major soccer stadium in Peru’s capital has left at least one fan dead and 60 others injured, according to official government and emergency management updates shared in the hours after the Friday night event. The chaos unfolded at Alejandro Villanueva Stadium, the home ground of top Peruvian side Alianza Lima, just one night before the team was set to face its long-standing bitter rival Universitario in a highly anticipated local derby. Thousands of Alianza Lima supporters had gathered in the stadium’s south stands for pre-match festivities when a sudden overcrowding triggered the dangerous crush, trapping dozens of attendees that responding police officers later pulled to safety. Initial unconfirmed reports from Peru’s Ministry of Health claimed a structural wall inside the venue had collapsed, a statement that has since been rejected in official, separate releases from both the national police force and Alianza Lima club leadership. Marcos Pajuelo, a senior brigadier with the local fire department, confirmed that one person had been killed in the incident, adding that all 60 injured fans have been transported to hospitals across Lima for urgent and ongoing care. As of the latest updates, investigators have not yet reached a definitive conclusion on what triggered the dangerous overcrowding. Footage captured by local television news outlets and circulated on social media shows thousands of fans packed tightly into the south stand, with visible fireworks exploding above the crowd. Separate clips show injured supporters waiting for emergency assistance in stadium seating areas while first responders worked to clear the overcrowded section. The tragedy has sent shockwaves through Peru’s tight-knit soccer community, with fans and officials already calling for thorough reviews of venue security and crowd management protocols ahead of future high-attendance matches.