Heroic Rescue for the Ages Detailed. Left Very Excited about (But Probably Can’t Define) War Crimes. NY Homeless Couple Does Everything in the Road. Did Your Supermarket Do Ramadan? More

Well, that was spine-tingling.

In case you had the distinct misfortune of missing yesterday’s briefing on the dazzling rescue of two American airmen (given by President Trump and military and intelligence officials), here is a full video.

Charles Lipson, an American correspondent of the London Spectator, writes that it was impossible to listen to yesterday’s briefing without “an overwhelming sense of patriotic emotion, suffused with gratitude for the men and women who have pledged their lives to keep America safe.”

Well, alas and alack, it was possible to listen to the presser without patriotism or gratitude. Powerline (which also has a video of the presser) has a description (“Daring Rescues and War Crimes”) of the opposite reaction:

The New York Times has been promoting the idea that for the U.S. to bomb Iranian power plants and bridges would be a “war crime.” Yesterday’s Times email bore the subject heading “Trump revels in threats to commit war crimes in Iran.” In today’s press conference, a New York Times reporter asked President Trump whether he is concerned about committing war crimes by bombing power plants and bridges.

So, what defines bombing power plants or bridges as a war crime?

But what defines a war crime? Is it the destruction of “civilian infrastructure” such as bridges, which seems to be the popular definition currently (since President Trump has vowed to do this, if necessary—and here)? National Review’s Andrew McCarthy is no fan of what he calls “President Trump’s disgraceful rhetoric,” but McCarthy is clear about what constitutes a war crime:

We should stop speaking of “civilian” infrastructure, because it deludes us. “Civilian” is a Western concept, based on the Western understanding of the individual’s relation to the state, the individual’s array of civil rights that states are formed to promote and safeguard. In a sharia-supremacist state such as Iran, there are no citizens, no “constituents” of the state’s government, as we understand these terms. There are subjects and rulers

The war crime narrative quickly spread from the haughty New York Times to—well, everywhere—as a USA TODAY story headlined “Why are you getting war memes on your feed?” shows. Slate’s Fred Kaplan portrays President Trump as “openly” calling on the nation to commit war crimes. In “The Iran War Around the World,” Walter Russell Mead gives his take on losses and gains for other countries. Biggest loser if regime collapses: Russia.

The Man in White. “Pope Leo XIV Goes to War” by Bill McGurn in the Wall Street Journal describes the Holy Father’s Easter remarks about peace:

Pope Leo didn’t name names. He didn’t have to. This was a shot at Donald Trump. In the abstract, the pope’s words might apply to any number of leaders, including Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. But the press are taking this as a shot against President Trump—and that is how it was meant.

McGurn is critical of Pope Leo and other recent Popes for giving the erroneous impression that pacifism is the only Christian response to war. But that is not the case:

[P]acifism is always an individual option, not a communal response. To put it another way, I have the right to turn my cheek. I don’t have the right to turn my neighbor’s cheek.

In “Why the Vatican and the White House Are on the Outs,” The Free Press takes readers inside the collapse of White-House-Vatican cooperation. This Just In: The Iranian regime is calling upon (I bet that’s really ordering) young people to surround infrastructure targets as human shields. Not actively participating: Supreme Leader Junior, who is said to be “unconscious” and “unable to be involved in decisions” because of injuries. Meanwhile, President Trump’s deadline tonight draws near without a breakthrough in negotiations. Nicole Russell of USA TODAY calls the deadline “strategic, not stupid.” Okay, Ms. Must admits she is detecting some hyperbole on the president’s part.

The Artemis II astronauts are heading home after venturing farther from the Earth than human beings have ever gone. Rich Lowry captured the exuberance of the mission beautifully in a column headlined “Yes, Boldly Go.” Lowry says we must also go boldly to Mars. The Artemis II crew also got to see a solar eclipse during a lunar flyby:

The mission’s showstopper event gave the astronauts the world’s first-ever glimpses of parts of the lunar dark side, which they described as being “impossibly rugged” and “alien” — and broke the historic record set more than 50 years ago by Apollo 13.

They later crowded around the windows — wearing protective glasses — to watch a solar eclipse. Unlike on Earth, where the celestial phenomenon lasts just a few minutes, the crew’s glimpse lasted for nearly an hour.

In “My Morning in Mission Control,” The Free Press’s Frannie Block asks if NASA administrator Jared Isaacman can build NASA back into the leading space power it once was.

Back on earth, New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser is miffed that in “Mad Mamdani’s” New York, a homeless couple is permitted to do everything—and I mean everything—in the middle of the sidewalk:

A homeless couple — or should I say “unhoused,” a euphemism that implies victimhood — lives outside in filth in Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s New York. Boozing. Sexing. Using the sidewalk as an al fresco toilet….

And authorities shrug and do nothing, claiming they can’t force the filthy and aggressive pair to leave or, at a minimum, wash. Not as long as lefty policies treat them as poor, downtrodden recipients of society’s disgust rather than entitled perverts luxuriating in squalor of their own making.

Meanwhile, Howard Husock writes about “Mamdani’s Racial Equity Obsession” at The Free Press. Mayor Mamdani believes that New York’s history has been “one of colonization, exploitation, and racial oppression,” and so he wants policies that “privilege minorities.” Like Ms. Peyser’s randy homeless couple? More on Mamdani’s “racial equity” plan.

And “New York Times Finds More Illegal Aliens It Thinks Should Be Allowed To Break The Law” is by Eddie Scarry at The Free Press:

It’s been a minute, but The New York Times is back with a couple of articles meant to assist in blocking the deportation of every single illegal alien in the country, even if it means excusing their reckless, dangerous conduct.

Also back on earth, “The Islamification of Britain” proceeds apace according to Joanna Williams in City Journal:

In Britain, March meant Ramadan. My local supermarket advised me to “Make this holy month meaningful” and offered “everything you need for Iftar, Suhoor, and beyond,” including a range of halal foods. At televised Premiership football matches, play stopped to allow Muslim players to break their fast. Days before Eid, Muslims gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square to pray in public. The Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, hailed the “power of being Muslim” as he addressed thousands at the “biggest Iftar in the Western world.”…

For more than a generation now, British politicians have told voters that “diversity is our strength,” and that multiculturalism should be welcomed. Yet, what has emerged are decidedly monocultural communities that are prepared to act collectively in their own political interests—and a political class afraid that commenting on the phenomenon will expose them to accusations of racism or Islamophobia.

I noticed the same thing at D.C. grocery stores—displays of Ramadan fast-breaking foods were prominently displayed, but nothing about what one might cook during Lent.

In “The Left Is Baffled—but Still Repulsed—by the White Working Class,” Victor Davis Hanson argues that the Left simply won’t be able to hide its condescension. I think we can say that Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger was able to hide her lack of moderation during her campaign—but Virginia has caught on, Jim Geraghty says.

Hatchet Job. Politico profiles the DOJ’s Harmeet Dhillon. Fears she will emerge more important in post-Bondi DOJ. Congrats, Harmeet.