The United States pulled off a daring rescue of two aviators whose fighter jet was shot down by Iran, plucking the pilot from behind enemy lines before setting off a complicated extraction of the second service member who hid deep in the mountains as Tehran called for Iranians to help capture him. Plus, why utility elections are amped up, a look at this week's contests in Georgia and Wisconsin and how trivia games play into a Maine Senate race. |
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In this image provided by Sepahnews, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's official website, wreckage is shown at what Iran's state TV claimed was the site of a downed American transport plane and two helicopters involved in a rescue operation, in Isfahan province, Iran, April, 2026. (Sepahnews via AP) |
What to know about the rescue of a US aviator in Iran — By Seung Min Kim, Matthew Lee & Samy Magdy
The CIA looked to throw off Iran’s government before the crew member was found, launching a deception campaign to spread word inside the Islamic Republic that the U.S. had already located him.
Even as President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials described an almost cinematic mission, rescuers faced major obstacles, including two Black Hawk helicopters coming under fire and problems with two transport planes that forced the U.S. military to blow them up.
In a pair of social media posts, Trump said the operation over the weekend required the U.S. to remain completely silent to avoid jeopardizing the effort, even as the president and top members of his administration continuously monitored the airman’s location.
The White House and the Pentagon refused to publicly discuss details about the downed fighter jet for well over 24 hours after the initial crash, particularly about the first crew member rescued from the F-15E Strike Eagle — an effort that Trump later said took seven hours in broad daylight over Iran.
The United States and Iran's government then were both racing to find the second crew member, a weapons systems officer, whose location neither side knew.
The CIA spread word in Iran that the U.S. had found him and were moving him by ground to get him out of the country, according to a senior Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public.
The confusion allowed the CIA time to uncover the location of the service member, who was hiding in a mountain crevice, the official said.
Read more from Kim, Lee & Magdy on the daring rescue mission. |
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Utility elections ramp up with higher energy bills, power demand |
A sign directing voters sits outside the headquarters of Salt River Project on Monday, March 30, 2026, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper) |
Low-voltage utility elections face surge of attention as electricity bills rise — By Marc Levy, Kim Chandler & Jonathan J. Cooper
Rising household electricity prices and controversy over data centers are reshaping low-profile elections for control over utilities that build power plants and power lines — and then bill people for the cost.
The tensions played a prominent role during last year's elections in Georgia, New Jersey and Virginia, and now they're sweeping through Arizona and Alabama, where once-sleepy contests are becoming political brawls.
Even national groups like Turning Point Action — better known for its role mobilizing young conservatives behind Trump — are getting involved by knocking on doors and texting campaign messages. The organization wants to curb environmentalists' influence over the Phoenix-area Salt River Project, the largest public utility in the country, in a Tuesday election. The skirmishes are a preview for more campaigns later this year, when at least a half-dozen states will hold elections for utility regulators. That includes Georgia, where a second-straight hotly contested campaign is anticipated. The burst of attention is dragging the behind-the-scenes politics of elected utility commissioners — long dominated by power brokers or monopolistic companies, critics say — into an intensely national debate over how to power artificial intelligence without driving up electricity costs. Read more from Levy, Chandler & Cooper on energy utility politics. |
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AP Elections Spotlight: Georgia-14 and Wisconsin Supreme Court |
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks during a news conference on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Nov. 18, 2025, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) |
The big picture: The midterm primary calendar heads into spring break in April, shifting the electoral spotlight for the month to a handful of special elections, plus a few contests that are nonpartisan in name only. First on deck are a pair of elections on Tuesday: a special runoff to replace Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, and yet another race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Regularly scheduled primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor and other state and local offices resume with a vengeance in May and June, when 28 states will hold contests over the course of nine weeks. But until then ...
Georgia-14: Democrat Shawn Harris edged Republican Clay Fuller by about 2 percentage points in the March 10 special election, where candidates of all parties ran on the same ballot. The district’s sizable Republican vote was split among a dozen GOP candidates, which helped propel Harris to a first-place finish. Winning the runoff against a single Republican candidate will be a much taller order in a district Trump carried in 2024 with 68% of the vote.
Wisconsin Supreme Court: Liberal justices hold a 4-3 majority on the state’s highest court, and Tuesday’s contest will either maintain or expand that advantage. The court is technically a nonpartisan body, but support for the two candidates running to replace a retiring conservative justice has fallen along party lines. In highly publicized high court races in 2023 and 2025, the winning liberal candidates generally outperformed Kamala Harris’ 2024 showing in heavily Democratic areas like Milwaukee and Dane counties and reduced the margins in more Republican-friendly areas. They each also won more than 10 swing counties that voted for Trump in 2024.
Read more from Yoon on the Georgia and Wisconsin elections. |
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AP is there: Trivia games and happy hours in Platner's Maine campaign |
Dave Harvey participates in a trivia night for supporters of U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner, Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Kittery, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) |
Handing it over to PATRICK WHITTLE, our reporter on the ground in Maine covering Graham Platner's Senate campaign:
"Volunteers working for Platner are taking an innovative approach to campaigning by holding happy hours, poster making nights and even a trivia game to boost their candidate. I covered a Platner trivia night recently in Kittery and saw a room full of Platner supporters talking and laughing about questions about the oyster farmer and military veteran’s dog’s name and past work as a bartender. Some of the questions even touched on controversies surrounding Platner, such as his history of inflammatory online postings, for which he has since apologized. One question even mentioned his tattoo of a Nazi symbol, which he had covered up last year after saying he was unaware of its meaning."
Read Whittle's story with Kimberlee Kruesi on Platner's strategy. |
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President Donald Trump uses his phone in the back seat of an SUV while departing Trump National Golf Club, Sunday, April 5, 2026, in Sterling, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) |
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