Long reads shortened
The remains of the US aircraft destroyed at the end of the rescue mission. Iranian state television
The astonishing multimillion-dollar rescue mission in Iran
When an American F-15E fighter jet – call-sign Dude 44 – was hit over Iran last Friday, says The New York Times, the two crew members ejected and floated down to the ground with their parachutes. But while the pilot was quickly located and rescued, the weapons-systems officer, who was injured, couldn’t be found. Surveillance planes and drones combing the nearby area saw no signs of life. On the ground, the downed airman’s evasion and survival training had kicked in. He hiked up a 7,000ft ridgeline, wedged himself into a crevice and briefly activated an emergency beacon. Then he waited.
Once the signal had been detected, the CIA sought to keep the Iranians guessing by spreading word inside Iran that the airman had been found and was being evacuated by road. Four B-1 bombers dropped nearly 100 satellite-guided bombs to keep the enemy search parties at bay, while Reaper drones took out suspected fighters. On Saturday night, once the airman’s identity had been confirmed – there were fears it was an Iranian trap – a team of around 100 Special Operations forces were flown in. Firing their weapons “ferociously” to keep any would-be attackers at bay, they found their man and flew him by helicopter to a “sandy, austere” airstrip that special ops soldiers had prepared previously for rescues like this. In a final twist, they couldn’t free some of the evacuation aircraft from the sand, so had to call in replacements and blow up the disabled planes ($100m a pop) to prevent the Iranians getting them. At sunrise on Sunday, three planes took off. The rescue of the first US airmen downed in enemy territory for 20 years was complete.
🫀🤯 To pinpoint the missing aviator, says Steven Nelson in the New York Post, the CIA used a highly classified new tool called “Ghost Murmur”, which uses “quantum magnetometry” to detect heartbeats from several miles away. “In the right conditions, if your heart is beating,” says a source, “we will find you.”
Advertisement
Property
THE FARMHOUSE This Grade II-listed six-bedroom farmhouse in the Hertfordshire village of Wareside dates back to the late 15th century, says The Guardian. A tree-lined drive leads to the white gabled house, where the ground floor has a reception room with a red-brick fireplace, a formal dining room and a kitchen that opens through to an orangery. The principal bedroom has a vaulted ceiling and a spectacular stained-glass chapel window. A detached annexe provides additional accommodation and, outside, two acres of south-facing grounds include a summerhouse, tennis court and vegetable garden. Ware station is a short drive, with trains to London Liverpool Street in 46 minutes. £2m. Click on the image to see the listing.
Our most clicked story this week
We don’t really measure things by “most clicked” here at Knowledge Towers. Everything we do is written in a way that means you can still enjoy it without going back to the original.
For what it’s worth, though, the piece our subscribers clicked on the most this week was a link to a website that tells you roughly how many people live near your home (or anywhere in the world). Within 3km of our office, for example, are just over 413,000 people. Cosy.
Other top pieces this week include:
💣 A Prue Leith recipe that led to a visit from the bomb squad
🍤 Which nation eats the most seafood per head
🤭 A very silly letter about having sex in your eighties
🤳 The TikToker going viral for rating sticky toffee puddings
🧶 Ryan Gosling’s must-have knitwear from Project Hail Mary
🏏 Where Arthur Conan Doyle got the name Sherlock
😡 The Waitrose employee sacked for trying to stop a thief
🚀 A tear-jerking moment on the Artemis II mission
🍎 How does your favourite apple rate in the apple rankings?
To read them all, and go back to receiving the newsletter in full every day, please take out a paid subscription.
Let us know what you thought of today’s issue by replying to this email
To find out about advertising and partnerships, click here
Been forwarded this newsletter? Try it for free
Enjoying The Knowledge? Click to share
