Donald Trump has hailed the relentless bombing of Iran alongside a giant Easter Bunny as hundreds of children descended on the White House for the annual Egg Roll.

The President was joined by Melania on the balcony facing the South Lawn as he addressed attendees about the ongoing conflict, including a daring rescue mission over the weekend to save an airman lost behind enemy lines.

‘What about the rescue that took place yesterday, that’s something that you rarely see,’ Trump told the crowd on Monday, adding that it had been pulled off despite a ‘very strong’ enemy.

‘Not so strong like they were about a month ago,’ Trump said, referring to the devastating US-Israel strikes that have decimated Iran’s leadership since they were launched on February 28. 

The President also told reporters at the event he tried to get guns to the people of Iran so they could help him enact regime change in the country, but the plan went sideways after the weapons were stolen by an intermediary. 

‘You know we sent some guns … they were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs … but the people that they sent them to kept them.’

‘I am very upset with a certain group of people and they will pay a big price for that,’ he added. 

Reports earlier this year indicated that the CIA was intent on arming the Kurds in northern Iran by the Iraq border as a part of the war. During the event, Trump reiterated: ‘We’ve had total regime change.’ 

The President also took aim at his former rival Joe Biden. 

Speaking with a child at a drawing table, the President detailed to the youth how Biden at times would sign executive actions and legislation. 

‘Biden was unable to sign his name, so they followed him around with this big machine,’ he explained to the child. 

Trump also autographed some drawings the children presented to him.

‘I could sign autographs for you guys, and then tonight, you could sell them for $25,000 on eBay,’ he told the youngsters. 

The President was also spotted carrying around a printed out rendering of an arch that he wants to build by the Arlington National Cemetery. 

Dubbed Independence Arch, the white structure – which looks similar to Paris’ Arc de Triomphe – was first proposed by Trump in 2025. He was spotted showing off the ne rendering to friends before handing it off to a White House aide.  

Families draped in pastel suits and bright sundresses flooded the White House’s South Lawn for the annual Egg Roll on Monday as military bands blared through blue skies.   

Those in attendance were fortunate enough to score sought-after tickets, which were dispersed to Trump administration employees, friends and those lucky enough to win a ticket lottery. 

Some of the President’s grandchildren were also in attendance as Eric and Lara Trump brought their kids, Luke and Carolina, while Tiffany Trump and her husband, Michael Boulos, were spotted with their son, Alexander.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and his wife, Katie, were also seen alongside their youngsters; while Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was spotted with her son Niko. FBI Director Kash Patel, his country music singer girlfriend Alexis Wilkins and other top officials were there. 

The roll on the White House lawn began in 1878 under President Rutherford B Hayes after grouchy lawmakers in Congress banned children and their families from hurling eggs down Capitol Hill, citing concerns over the little feet damaging the landscaping. 

These days, the event draws tens of thousands of people to the White House, where children get to embark on a hunt for real eggs while their parents socialize and a Trump administration official hops around the grounds dressed as the Easter Bunny.  

The main event is the Easter Egg Roll – a traditional game where decorated, hard-boiled eggs are rolled across the White House lawn using just a spoon. The custom historically symbolizes the rolling away of the stone from Christ’s tomb.

In celebration of America’s 250th birthday this summer, the White House wanted the Easter event to drip with patriotic pageantry. 

The eggs for the roll have all been dyed red, white and blue.

Less patriotic, however, possibly more American, are the many corporate sponsors that flocked to the event: Meta hosted a booth on AI, YouTube gave out swag bags, The New York Stock Exchange sponsored a challenge coin creation station, and of course, Coca-Cola provided drinks, including Trump’s favorite – Diet Coke. 

Music was provided by the US Marine Band, Army Band, Navy Band, Air Force Band and the Revolutionary War recreating Army Old Guard Fife & Drum Corps. 

An illegally-built six-bedroom mansion still has not been demolished despite the homeowner being ordered twice to remove it because it is ‘unneighbourly and overbearing’. 

Neighbours have complained the ‘eyesore’ property in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, blocks all the light from their gardens and is out of keeping with the rest of the area. 

The row centres on a two-storey extension at the back of the house which comes out further than what was approved in the original plans. 

An enforcement notice was issued against homeowner Yasmin Akhtar last year telling her to either demolish the whole property or scale back the extension. 

She appealed to the Planning Inspectorate in November but this too was dismissed on the basis her property ’causes harm’ to the living conditions of her neighbours.

The enforcement notice is yet to be complied with and this week building work was still underway at the mansion, with the windows boarded up and a van parked outside. 

Furious locals said it appears to be a case of people ‘thinking they can do what they want’ and hoping that the ‘council won’t notice’. 

They also suggested the homeowner may have got into ‘competition’ with an even bigger home that was approved by the council and built on the road.

Planning agent Parry Virdee previously told the Daily Mail that the extension at the back of the newbuild six-bed property was due to a builder ‘misreading the plans’.

However, one neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘They are basically just trying to take the p***, thinking they can do what they want.

‘They must’ve thought the council wouldn’t notice. 

‘I am not the immediate neighbour so it doesn’t really bother me but I do sympathise with the neighbours that have been affected. 

‘The extension is clearly blocking their light and it has not been approved.’

Another man said: ‘It is an eyesore. It has been like that for a year or so now. It is not in keeping with the rest of the street.’ 

His wife added: ‘When we did our extension the planners were really strict. 

‘When they see that one person can just do what they like it becomes a free for all.’ 

Documents on Buckinghamshire Council’s website show that permission was granted in 2024 for a six-bed home with three parking spaces to be built on the site.

But upon closer inspection the newbuild property was deemed to be bigger than what was initially agreed in the plans, with an extension coming out further at the back.   

An appeal was lodged by Ms Akhtar with the Planning Inspectorate last year but this was also dismissed. 

In the decision notice, the Planning Inspector said: ‘I have found that the proposal results in harm to the living conditions of the occupiers of a neighbouring property.’

Ms Akhtar also applied for Buckinghamshire Council to pay her costs associated with the appeal on the basis they had ‘behaved unreasonably’. This too was rejected. 

Buckinghamshire Council has now said it will make ‘full use’ of its enforcement powers after the deadline to comply with the enforcement notice expired on April 1.

Peter Strachan, Cabinet Member for Planning, said: ‘The property constructed on this site was not built in accordance with the planning permission granted. 

‘The owner sought to retain the building as built but this was refused planning permission and a subsequent appeal has been dismissed. 

‘As such Buckinghamshire Council issued an enforcement notice on the property which the owners are legally required to comply with. 

‘The notice is due to be complied with by April 1, 2026. In the meantime, the owner submitted a second planning application seeking to retain the dwelling with amendments. That second application was also refused permission.

‘If the notice is not complied with the council will assess the best next steps to resolve breach of planning control occurring, making full use of our enforcement powers as necessary.’

However, some locals questioned why the owner should be ordered to demolish their home, when an even bigger property was allowed to be built nearby.

Aerial photos show the difference in the size of the two new houses compared to the others already on the road.

One neighbour said of the property that was given planning permission: ‘I just do not know how they got permission. 

‘It just does not make sense. It is much bigger than the other one.

‘Of course the owners should’ve followed the rules but it seems like there is one rule for some and other rule for others.

‘How is it that this one was allowed and the other one wasn’t.’ 

Another added: ‘There have been loads of substantial builds around here. When I look at it I just think oh it’s another house.’

Ms Akhtar has been approached for comment. 

Keir Starmer has been told to block Kanye West from entering Britain in order to prevent him performing in London this summer.

The Prime Minister is being urged to bar the American rapper from the UK by deeming him a person who is ‘not conducive to the public good’.

West, also known as Ye or Yeezy, has drawn widespread criticism in recent years after he began voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler and made a series of anti-Semitic remarks.

He is set to top the bill for all three nights of Wireless Festival in London’s Finsbury Park in July.

Pepsi and Diageo withdrew their sponsorship of the festival after West was announced as the headline act.

The PM himself joined criticism of the event saying it is ‘deeply concerning’ that West is due to perform ‘despite his previous anti-Semitic remarks and celebration of Nazism’.

Sir Keir is now under growing pressure to take legal steps to ensure West can’t enter the UK ahead of his summer gigs.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has powers to ‘exclude’ someone from Britain if they are not considered conducive to the public good.

This can include those who have ‘engaged in extremism or other unacceptable behaviour’, or someone who ‘if admitted to the UK the person is likely to incite public disorder’.

A person does not need to have a criminal conviction to be refused admission on non-conducive grounds, according to Home Office guidance.

Senior Tory MP Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, wrote to Ms Mahmood on Monday to use her powers to block West from entering the UK.

He wrote: ‘Given his repeated anti-Semitic remarks, including statements expressing sympathy for Nazi ideology, his return to the UK is deeply concerning.

‘This is not a one-off lapse, but a pattern of behaviour that has caused real offence and distress to Jewish communities.

‘His partial apologies have been retracted in the past and do not atone for what he has said.’

Mr Philp added: ‘At a time when anti-Semitism is rising in the UK, allowing someone with this track record to headline a major public event sends entirely the wrong message.’

Labour backbencher Rachael Maskell, the MP for York Central, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We cannot allow these performers to have a platform.

‘And that’s why it’s absolutely right that the PM has said that that festival, the Wireless Festival, should cancel that performer.

‘But also he should not be allowed to come to our country to perform in the light of the anti-Semitic comments that he has made and recorded.’

Asked whether Ms Mahmood should step in to refuse West a visa should he apply for one, Ms Maskell said: ‘I think it is clear, whether it’s in our cultural life or across society, that we should have zero tolerance for any form of antisemitism and therefore it is absolutely right that the Home Secretary takes the right considerations should an application be lodged.’

She added: ‘The Home Secretary should take appropriate steps should that occurrence happen.’

Luke Akehurst, Labour MP for North Durham, told The Telegraph: ‘It’s certainly an option we should be looking at given he’s gone from being one of the world’s most impressive artists to releasing a song called ‘Heil Hitler’.’

In a post on X, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said: ‘The PM is right to be deeply concerned that Wireless Festival wants to headline someone whose anti-Jewish bigotry has gone as far as recording a track titled ‘Heil Hitler’ less than a year ago.

‘But the PM is not a bystander. The Government can ban anyone from entering the UK who is not a citizen and whose presence would ‘not be conducive to the public good’. Surely this is a clear case.’

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey also called on the Government to ban West from the UK. ‘We need to get tougher on anti-Semitism,’ he said. 

Lord Austin of Dudley described the possibility of the rapper being ‘cheered by thousands of kids’ on a UK stage a ‘complete disgrace’. 

The ex-Labour MP, who is the UK’s trade envoy to Israel, told The Telegraph: ‘The organisers should cancel his invitation and if not, the council should not allow the festival to go ahead.

‘But either way the Government should prevent him from coming to the UK.’

Nimco Ali, a former Government adviser, called on Wireless to reverse its decision to book West ‘immediately’.

She said: ‘Allowing Kanye West entry into the country risks giving him a platform to amplify hate on British soil.’

Ms Ali added that ‘accountability is not persecution’, and that racism should be condemned ‘in all its forms’. 

She also said, if Britain is serious about protecting its Jewish community, then it must be clear that there ‘is no place for this kind of hatred’ on British soil. 

West has not performed in the UK since he headlined Glastonbury in 2015.

Last year, he released a song called Heil Hitler, a few months after advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.

He has been barred from social media site X over anti-Semitism on multiple occasions.

West is said, as of last week, to have not yet made a visa application for his trip to the UK.

In January this year, West took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal apologising for anti-Semitic behaviour.

In an open letter titled ‘To Those I’ve Hurt’, West attributed his inflammatory actions to bipolar disorder, which he said he developed as a result of an injury sustained in a car crash 25 years ago.

‘I am not a Nazi or an anti-Semite,’ he wrote, adding: ‘I love Jewish people.’

He previously made an apology to the Jewish community in 2023 in a social media statement posted in Hebrew.

West went on to begin selling swastika t-shirts on his website in February 2025.

Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said it was ‘absolutely the wrong decision’ for Wireless to book West.

He said the Government should ‘show mettle on tackling anti-Semitism’ and consider ‘blocking him from entering the country’.

Mr Rosenberg told Newsnight: ‘We’re in this moment of really high levels of antisemitism.

‘So to have someone whose recent track record is, as you said, declaring himself a Nazi, putting out a song called ‘Heil Hitler’, seems to be absolutely the wrong decision and many Jewish people will worry that that will just inflame what is already a very febrile situation.’

He added: ‘I’m very sympathetic to the challenges he has with mental health and bipolar disorder. But the challenge is maybe he’s not in complete control of his ability to do those things.

‘And we’re really worried that on stage at the Wireless Festival, he’ll suddenly come out with more of these things. And the organisers really need to think carefully about this.’

After having a pint of blood drained from your arm, most donors would be forgiven if they enjoy the complimentary snack and get on with their day.

But your blood is at the beginning of its journey – through freezers, high-tech machines, and across countries – to produce life-saving medicines.

Metro went behind the scenes at one of the UK’s three blood manufacturing sites in Colindale, north London, to find out what happens to your bag of blood after you donate it.

In the lab, scientists are working around the clock to extract the ‘liquid gold’in a little-known process vital to the future of the NHS.

As many as 2,000 bags of whole blood arrive at the doors of NHS Blood and Transplant’s Colindale hub every day.

The race is then on to process the packs within 27 hours of donation to maintain the quality of the final products.

One of these is red blood cells, which are used to treat people who have suffered blood loss, trauma and surgery.

But 55 per cent of our blood is a yellowish fluid called plasma.

Dubbed ‘liquid gold’, it contains vital antibodies that can be made into medicines that save and improve lives. But that is a few steps away.

Your 470ml bag of blood is firstly strung up and filtered to remove the white blood cells, which fight infections and foreign invaders.

Staff – often working throughout the night – then place the filtered blood into a large spinning machine called a centrifuge.

Once your bag is spun around, you’ll suddenly see the yellow plasma has separated from the red blood cells.

A fancy press is used to pump these two products into different bags.

Those red cells are then stored at 4C until test results – taken when you give blood and analysed in Bristol – confirm the blood is safe to give to hospitals.

When your blood is used, you’ll get a text saying which hospital your blood went to.

Your plasma, on the hand, needs to be blast frozen in a rapid freezer, reaching -20C in one hour.

Some of those bags of plasma are also sent to hospitals to help treat severe bleeding.

But the other bags of plasma get a whole lot chillier, as they are destined to be made into crucial new medicines.

Plasma is used to produce – long word incoming – immunoglobulins, which treat more than 50 devastating autoimmune conditions, as well as albumins, which treat severe burns and traumatic injuries.

More than 17,000 people rely on immunoglobulins every year.

Up until 2021, there was a 25-year ban on plasma from Brits being used to create these medicines because of concerns around ‘mad cow’s disease’, or Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease.

In March last year – four years after that ban was lifted – the first immunoglobulins from a UK donor went into the arms of an NHS patient.

But the health service doesn’t yet have the tech to process our plasma into these small vials of medicine, so they have to be shipped to Europe instead.

So while the bags of plasma wait to leave the UK, they are kept at a bone-chilling -40C, which requires industrial-sized coats and gloves to stop workers – and the odd journalist – from being frozen stiff.

Once the removal van arrives, staff at the Colindale hub have just minutes to move boxes of plasma into mobile freezers, which will drive them out of London.

Thousands of vulnerable NHS patients have now received life-saving medicines made from British-donated plasma since March 2025.

Despite this success, the UK is still more than 75% reliant on immunoglobulin from other countries.

Jan Majkowski, who is Plasma Performance and Efficient Lead at the Colindale site and showed Metro around, said: ‘Plasma is instrumental to the process of blood donation and blood services.

‘The fractions of plasma are invaluable. They are critical in treating rare diseases and common diseases like haemophilia and immune diseases.

‘The only support for these people is to receive these plasma transfusions.’

NHSBT say they still need more donations to make the health service more self-sufficient.

It is an important part of the government’s 10 Year Health Plan ambition to build an NHS that is resilient to shocks by reducing the UK’s dependence on imported medicines.

It will also be crucial to the around 17,000 NHS patients who rely on plasma-derived immunoglobulin every year.

There are even plasma-only donation centres, located in Birmingham, Reading and Twickenham, which means donors can come back every two weeks instead of the normal four for blood donors.

Your bag of plasma also has other purposes too.

Sometimes it will be thawed for more than 16 hours to form vital clotting factors, which are separated from the plasma and used to treat bleeding disorders like haemophilia.

The Colindale blood hub can take fragments in our blood – called platelets – and combine them for use in cancer treatments and surgical procedures.

These platelets have to be kept on constantly moving agitators to keep them viable.

As many as 800,000 people donate blood every year, but more are still needed.

NHSBT analysis revealed last year that there is an annual shortfall of over 200,000 donors to meet growing demand.

The NHS urgently needs more donors of Black heritage, because they are more likely to have the Ro blood subtype which is vital for treating sickle cell disorder.

Sickle cell is most common amongst people from Black African, Black Caribbean and Mixed heritage.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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When the ‘highly respected colonel’ unclipped his safety harness and raised himself gingerly out of the battered ejector seat, he was taking a terrifying step into the unknown.

Minutes earlier, the senior US Air Force weapons systems officer had been in the cockpit of an F-15 Strike Eagle, cruising at more than 1,500 miles an hour over south western Iran.

Then his aircraft had sustained incoming fire, becoming the first US fighter jet to be shot down since the 2003 Gulf War.

As a result, he’d been left deep behind enemy lines, somewhere in the foothills of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province – a mountainous and sparsely-populated inland region more than 30 miles from the Persian Gulf.

It was Friday afternoon, and this unfortunate man was completely and utterly alone.

His nearest friend was the F-15’s pilot, who’d also pulled the yellow ‘eject’ lever, which fires crewmen of stricken aircraft through the roof of their cockpit. But the pilot had been relatively lucky: having landed on lowland terrain, some distance away, he could be found and rescued by a helicopter crew within a few hours.

The weapons systems officer had been dealt a tougher hand. In addition to being further from civilisation than his colleague, he was, as the White House later put it, ‘seriously wounded’. Bailing out of a fighter jet is a hugely traumatic procedure, which often causes bone fractures and serious spinal damage. 

While still able to walk, he’s likely to have been extremely sore, and very shaken indeed. It will have been at this stage that the airman’s training kicked in. All crewmen are experts in sere, a military acronym which stands for ‘survival, evasion, resistance and escape’.

Having patched himself up, using a medical kit in the survival vest of his flight suit, his immediate priority was therefore to remove himself from immediate danger.

That meant fleeing the area where onlookers might have seen the ejector seat land. The rule of thumb is to then head to the most secluded nearby terrain. In this instance, that appears to have involved hiking up an elevated ridge towards one of the region’s snow-capped mountain summits.

The airman’s survival vest contained a knife, water-purification tablets, basic provisions and a Sig Sauer M18 pistol, along with a compass and maps of evasion routes that are pre-planned during mission briefing.

Most important was a small device known as a Combat Survivor Evasion Locator, or CSEL. Made by Boeing, this piece of kit – which resembles a sort of walkie talkie – sends short, encrypted updates to mission command with details of a survivor’s location and status, along with simple messages such as ‘injured’ or ‘enemy nearby’, which help top brass to plan a rescue operation.

First communications from the CSEL were received by the US authorities at noon, Washington DC time, which equates to 7.30pm in Iran. After the initial ‘ping’ it went silent for several hours, to help conserve the battery and prevent hostile intelligence forces from intercepting its messages.

By this stage, the US airman was at the centre of a huge manhunt, with Iranian authorities, eager to score a propaganda coup, offering a reward of $60,000 for his capture, and the US anxious to avoid the PR disaster of a serviceman falling into enemy hands.

On Saturday morning, Iranian state TV broadcast footage of an armed militia flooding into the mountains seeking the bounty.

‘This brave warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer’, is how Donald Trump later put it.

Thankfully, he by now had a decent hiding place. During the hours of darkness, on Friday night, the weapons systems officer is thought to have hiked up to 7,000ft up the ridge, before concealing himself in a remote location where he was confident of being able to evade capture once the sun came back up. 

His CSEL then used another ‘ping’ to inform mission control of its new location, which is believed to be high above a village named Mahyar.

According to the president, the airman’s messages at one point left rescuers fearing thet were walking into a trap set by the Iranians. The lieutenant colonel said : ‘Power be to God,’ but it was later confirmed by a US defense official that the exact phrase was: ‘God is good.’  

‘What he said on the radio sounded like something a Muslim would say,’ Trump continued, adding that those who know the officer said he is a religious person. 

However the CIA was able to determine his exact identity and location, they have not revealed how, and let the rescue mission continue.  

The US swiftly sent a fleet of unmanned Reaper drones to patrol the skies around the area. Intelligence sources said yesterday that any fighting-age males who got within three miles of his location were ‘liquidated’.

American A-10 Warthog fighter jets also flew a series of missions in the region to block roads and take out communication towers and approaching vehicles. Iranian authorities say at least four people were killed in various strikes. Back at mission command, top brass spent Saturday plotting an audacious rescue, overseen from the White House situation room.

First, though, they needed to do everything possible to throw the Iranian authorities off the scent.

According to several US news outlets, CIA assets ran a ‘deception campaign’ inside Iran, spreading false rumours that he’d already been located and suggested they were moving him on the ground for ‘exfiltration’ in a different region to his hiding spot.

Whether this succeeded in sowing confusion is unclear. As, for now, are many of the finer details of how exactly the real rescue operation then unfolded. 

But early signs are that it involved hundreds of the most fearsome troops in the US military, including Navy Seals, Delta Force operators and Pararescuemen from the 24th Special Tactics Squadron.

They appear to have been ‘inserted’ close to the rescue site on C130J transport aircraft carrying MH-6 Little Bird helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, a unit known as the ‘Night Stalkers’ who carried out the daring raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.

The Little Bird helicopters flew commados to retrieve the airman from his mountain hideout. 

When President Trump was told of the airman’s predicament, he reportedly said ‘we have to get him’ to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. He worried that video footage of a captured US airman in enemy hands would hand Tehran a major propaganda tool. 

As the mission closed in on the airman’s position, his CSEL switched modes, allowing comrades to lock on his exact position. At around 4am, explosions were seen in the night sky around Dehdasht, a city on the far side of the mountain range.

Footage purportedly filmed there around this time showed roads blocked with traffic. There has been (as yet unconfirmed) speculation that locals in the region, many of whom are hostile to the Iranian authorities, were seeking to prevent troops from getting to the mountains.

Despite the overwhelming firepower, the US extraction didn’t go entirely according to plan. Shortly after dawn, when in theory a well-planned rescue operation would have already been completed, small-arms fire appears to have been exchanged close to the airman’s hideaway.

‘A firefight broke out. This happened in daylight,’ reported Al Jazeera. ‘Generally, special operations troops would go in for a rescue operation like that, and they would try to extract someone very quickly in the darkness. This went on for hours, we were told.’

Three Iranian revolutionary guards were killed, according to unconfirmed local sources. There was also trouble on the ground for US forces at an abandoned airport on the far side of Mahyar, around 30 miles south-east of the city of Isfahan. 

The location appears to have been established overnight as a sort of forward base, which would be used to help with logistics, refuelling and extraction of troops after they had located the missing airman.

Unfortunately, two transport planes which had landed at the site appear to have got stuck in the mud. The aircraft, possibly huge C-130 Hercules which are each worth £100million, were effectively rendered useless, meaning three more planes had to be scrambled to the scene to remove all the troops involved. 

It took several hours for the replacements to arrive, during which the rescue team and the airman were left waiting uneasily at the airfield.

In high-stakes military operations, such last-minute developments can lead to disaster, as occurred during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1980, when a daring rescue mission named Operation Eagle Claw to extract diplomats being held at the US embassy in Tehran, had to be abandoned.

During that operation, a sandstorm damaged several helicopters and contributed to a fatal crash at a makeshift airfield outside the Iranian capital which US troops planned to use to mount their raid. The fallout from the PR disaster saw President Jimmy Carter suffer defeat in that year’s election.

While it had some similarities to the 1980 raid, President Trump’s Iranian rescue mission had a luckier outcome: the three new planes were able to do their job, and all troops were removed from the scene without any US casualties.

In order to prevent them from falling into enemy hands, the stricken aircraft were then blown up, alongside a helicopter which had also suffered an engine failure. They were left at the scene. Film of their smoking wreckage has, bizarrely, allowed the Iranian authorities to describe the whole thing as a disaster for the US.

Footage taken yesterday morning tells a different story. It shows one of the Hercules planes disappearing over a mountain top in the direction of Kuwait, where the airman at the centre of one of the most audacious rescues in military history was last night receiving medical treatment.

More than 400 years after his death, a huge new town of 6,700 homes is set to be built by the farm where William Shakespeare’s mother grew up. 

Furious residents living near Mary Arden’s Farm say the celebrated playwright would be turning in his grave at the sprawling development which would swamp the famous Grade I-listed property where his mother spent her life.

For the hitherto tranquil village of Wilmcote is being lined up to receive a brand-new  community that would create an urban sprawl across stretches of the Stratford-upon-Avon district – an area which has become a magnet for developers.

Developers want to build across some 329 hectares of green belt land – the size of some 460 football pitches – and include more than 6,700 homes between Wilmcote and Bearley for 16,000 people.

Residents are livid, claiming the housing and people would shatter their rural peace, obliterate wildlife, cripple local infrastructure and swamp already overstretched public services.

One of those is Diana Dobson, a volunteer railway worker for the Friends of the Shakespeare Line who has lived just 100 yards away from Mary Arden’s Farm for the past 35 years.

Diana, 77, told the Daily Mail this week: ‘We made a choice to live in the countryside and now we face being covered in concrete.

‘It’s the sheer number of them – we simply don’t need 10,000 homes around here and the infrastructure cannot support it.

‘We live in an area of historical interest within a conversation area and I don’t understand how they can justify this number of homes on green belt land.

‘Warwick Hospital has already declared critical incidents – it is full to capacity, as are Stratford’s schools and you can also not get a dentist appointment.

‘There is also the issue of flooding, some new houses built on the south side of the town is already suffering from the problem.

‘I know someone who works in flooding for a various agency I won’t name who said he had done a survey and the results of these houses being built would be, in his words, catastrophic.

‘Then there’s all the wildlife that would disappear as their habitats are destroyed. There are far more suitable places which have the infrastructure in place where these homes could be built.

‘We only have two buses a day, our train station is only small with no waiting room or staff and no parking. The A46 would also not cope with the increased traffic. ‘

A 2024 study found Stratford-upon-Avon had the highest number of new homes built over the preceding three years in relation to its population.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) said the ongoing developments in the area was ‘very sad and not necessary’.

Chair of Wilmcote Parish Council Janine Lee, said: ‘We are not against sustainable development – but this is not sustainable. Ten thousand homes is a new town – not a settlement.

‘One of the main roads into Stratford is the A3400 and either side of this green gateway near to two villages they want to put in 10,000 homes.

‘You are looking at double or triple the traffic levels on what can be an already very busy road – it would be a ridiculous route.

‘Stratford is world-renowned and this is a place where tourists come, it is not just a market town, people visit from all over the world.

‘And they come to Wilmcote to visit Mary Arden’s Farm, which is a heritage property and that and its surrounding areas need to be protected.

‘Any development would harm its appeal and also the pollution from passing cars will cause damage to such an old timber-framed building and erode the structure.

‘There are more suitable and affordable locations which are not on green-belt land or near to several Grade I-listed buildings or heritage properties.

‘These are developer-led options which do not have the best interests of the town or district at its heart.

‘They should exhaust all other options before building on green-belt land – and that has not happened in this case.

‘One of the developers specialises in executive homes, so they will not be for local people or young people – but for people from Birmingham and Solihull who want to move to the countryside. It is desire rather than need.

‘It will urbanise Stratford and ironically turn it into the sort of more built-up areas people will be moving from.

‘If approved, it will choke our roads, overwhelm local services, and permanently change the character of Stratford itself as well as our villages.’

Another local resident dad-of-four Terry Cundy, 58, said: ‘We are already pretty much the UK’s capital of newbuild developments and now they want to destroy our countryside and cultural assets. It’s absolutely outrageous and we won’t stand for it.

‘They are just trying to make a fast and easy buck without having any consideration for the people who live here. We already have loads of tourists and we would not be able to deal with the extra footfall.

‘Any peace will be shattered and we are now looking to move away from an area we have loved and called home for many years.’

Stratford District Council is currently trying to maintain a five-year supply of land for housing in line with government requirements as it bids to provide 1.5 million new homes.

Lib Dem Councillor George Cowcher, deputy leader of Stratford District Council and its portfolio holder for planning and economic development, told his local newspaper the Stratford Herald: ‘We’re working as hard as we possibly can.

‘And there are some very difficult decisions to be taken as the year goes on because we’re not masters in our own house.

He said the council thought it had a five-year land supply until the Government suddenly ‘moved the goalposts’ by disallowing the inclusion in the supply of homes already built or granted planning permission.

It also doubled the number of houses it required to be built in the Stratford district from 500-odd a year to over 1,000 a year.

He added: ‘To re-establish our five-year land supply will mean granting permission for more houses, and in some cases they will be very difficult decisions.

‘We need to maintain our statutory duty to provide a five-year land supply.’

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which runs Mary Arden’s Farmhouse, did not respond to requests for comment.

A Stratford-on-Avon District Council spokesman said: ‘Stratford-on-Avon District Council endorsed a comprehensive action plan aimed at restoring its five-year housing land supply in October 2025.

‘This followed changes to the national planning policy Framework by government. The action plan currently sets out around 5,600 planning applications for houses across the district.

‘However, this number is constantly monitored by the district council at regular housing delivery advisory group meetings.

‘This situation is cross-cutting and involves various service areas within the district council, as well as partners.

‘Officers have been working hard to deliver solutions, and new staff have been recruited to ensure this is addressed.

‘Part of the solution will be the delivery of the South Warwickshire Local Plan, which will be submitted to Government in December 2026.’

Savannah Guthrie held back tears as she described her ‘deep disappointment with God’ on the first Easter without her beloved mother Nancy by her side. 

The Today Show host, who recently made her way back to New York City after more than two months without any indication of where her missing 84-year-old mother is, delivered a personal message on Sunday morning. 

During the holiday mass at her church, Good Shepard New York, Savannah shared what this day means for her, as Nancy has yet to be seen or heard from since her mysterious disappearance from her home in Tucson, Arizona, on February 1. 

After speaking about what Easter is all about, including family time and Spring cheer, Savannah said it’s been challenging for her to navigate the day. 

‘We celebrate today the promise of a new life that never ends in death. But, standing here today, I have to tell you, there are moments in which that promise seems irretrievably far away,’ she said as her voice trembled. 

‘When life itself seems far harder than death. These moments of deep disappointment with God, the feeling of utter abandonment. 

‘For most of us, there will come a time in our lives when these feelings hold sway. In our tradition, we are taught to take comfort in the fact that our friend, Jesus, in his short life, experienced every single emotion that we humans can feel. 

‘That his taking on the form of humanity made him not a distant observer to our pain, but a hands-on experiencer of it. Recently, though, in my own season of trial, I have wondered, I have questioned whether Jesus ever experienced this particular wound that I feel,’ Savannah shared, referring to the ‘grievous and uniquely cruel injury of not known’ she is enduring. 

Since her mother vanished, there have been a series of blackmail messages sent to the family and to media outlets demanding money in bitcoin in return for Nancy. 

None of the ransoms were ever paid as the Guthrie family demanded that they proof of life, but never got it. 

Authorities and the family also could not verify the authenticity of the ransom notes, despite their willingness to pay. 

Over the course of the investigation, only a few people have been taken in for questioning. No one has been arrested. 

Various pieces of evidence have also been found at the home and in the surrounding area, including drops of blood on Nancy’s front porch, a torn-down doorbell camera, and various gloves. 

Surveillance footage also captured a masked person outside her front door, appearing to tamper with the doorbell camera before it was snatched off. 

Nearly two weeks ago, Savannah revealed she will return to anchoring the Today Show on Monday, April 6, but warned her comeback might be short-lived because of her mother’s abduction. 

In a tearful interview with her NBC colleague Hoda Kotb, Savannah said of her Today colleagues: ‘I have been so grateful to have this family.

‘I consider this my family, my greater family, and when times are hard, you want to be with your family and I want to be with my family,’ she said.

‘I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore but I would like to try.’ 

She’s been off-screen since the horrible news broke,  and suggested she is a fundamentally different person from the one last seen hosting from Studio One at NYC’s Rockefeller Center.

‘I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not. But I can’t not come back, because it’s my family. I think it’s part of my purpose right now,’ she told Kotb in the portion of the interview that aired Friday.

‘I want to smile, and when I do, it will be real. My joy will be my protest. My joy will be my answer. And being there is joyful.

‘And when it’s not, I’ll say so.’

Savannah, in her interview with Kotb, also suggested that she could forgive Nancy’s kidnapper if they come forward.

‘We need an answer and someone has it in their power to help,’ she said, before directly addressing her mother’s abductor and potential witnesses.

‘It is never too late and when you do, the warmth of love and forgiveness, that will come, will be greater than can be imagined.

‘I know what it is to be forgiven. And there is no greater joy. And that joy awaits whoever can hear this and find it in their heart to help.’

The Today show co-host further shared how her Christian faith has kept her connected to her mom and helped her survive the horrific nightmare.

‘God doesn’t tell us not to wrestle with him. This isn’t some cheap faith and my mom taught me that. God only requires our authentic presence, and that he has,’ she said.

Savannah said she ‘never doubted’ God despite the pain that her family was enduring.

‘Faith is how I will stay connected to my mom. God is how I’m holding hands with my mom. And I won’t let sadness win.’

A ‘fun, bright, and athletic’ boy has been named as the teenager killed in a horror crash that left two others seriously injured.

Noah Campbell, 13, died in the crash between a car, a bike and a scooter on Greenfield Road, Flitwick, at 11.50pm on Friday.

Two other teenage boys were taken to hospital to be treated for serious injuries.

In a statement issued by Bedfordshire Police on Sunday, Noah’s family said: ‘Noah was a fun, bright, handsome, athletic and incredibly well-liked boy.

‘Above all else, he cherished spending time with his friends and family; they were the heart of his world.

‘Noah was a talented and versatile sportsman. While football was his favourite sport — playing for many local teams — he was a gifted all-rounder who excelled in rugby, cricket and athletics. Outside of organised sports, Noah stayed active and adventurous; he loved challenging himself at the gym and spending time at the bike park.

‘Some of his happiest memories were made enjoying attending Liverpool FC and Luton Town FC matches alongside his dad.

‘We would like to thank everyone for their kind words and support during this incredibly difficult time.

‘We are utterly devastated; Noah’s death has left a hole in our lives that will remain forever.’

It comes as Jamie Fountain, 24, and Ellie Ireland, 23, were charged in connection with the crash.

Fountain, of Fir Tree Close, Flitwick, was charged with causing death by careless driving, and an additional charge of causing death by careless driving while over the legal limit for alcohol and drugs, police said on Sunday.

He was also charged with two counts of causing serious injury by careless driving in relation to two other boys who were injured in the incident.

Fountain has been further charged with failing to stop at the scene of an accident, failing to report an accident and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Ireland, of Wingate Drive, Ampthill, Bedfordshire, has been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

They have both been remanded in custody to appear before Luton Magistrates’ Court on Monday, officers said.

Of the two other boys who were injured, one remains in hospital in a serious condition.

The other was treated for serious injuries and has been discharged, police said.

Detective Sergeant Shona Searle, of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire serious collision investigation unit, said: ‘This incident has sent shockwaves through the small community of Flitwick and the surrounding area, and we maintain a community policing presence around the scene for reassurance.

‘While we understand the strong feeling associated with the loss of a young life, and the serious injury of others, we would ask that people do not speculate on the circumstances of the situation.

‘The families of the victims, who we are supporting through family liaison officers, have requested that their privacy is respected at this difficult time.’

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Pope Leo XIV seemed to have used his first Easter Sunday address to send a message to President Donald Trump as he urged ‘let those who have weapons lay them down’. 

The pope, who has strongly denounced Trump’s war in Iran, deplored to the thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square that people ‘are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it and becoming indifferent’.

Speaking from the Vatican balcony, the first US-born pope exclaimed: ‘Let those who have weapons lay them down!

‘Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force but by dialogue.’

Leo, 70, did not specify a specific conflict within his message, known as the Urbi et Orbi blessing – translated as ‘to the city and the world’. 

The papal address was unusually short and lasted around 15 minutes. It is normally around double the length in time.

Leo also reflected on the story of Easter – when the Bible writes Jesus rose from the dead three days after peacefully accepting his death by crucifixion – to highlight the ‘entirely nonviolent’ nature of Christ. 

He added the peace Jesus gives ‘is not merely the silence of weapons’, and urged: ‘On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars.’

Leo noted there is a ‘globalisation of indifference’, including to the ‘deaths of thousands of people’, the ‘repercussions of hatred’ and the ‘social and economic repercussions’ wars produce.

The pontiff continued: ‘The cross of Christ always reminds us of the suffering and pain that surround death and the agony it entails. 

‘We are all afraid of death and out of fear, we turn away preferring not to look. we cannot continue to be indifferent. We cannot resign ourselves to evil.’

Leo’s Easter Sunday address follows his public cries calling for the end of global conflicts, including a significant step up in his criticism of the Iran war.

Pope’s do not typically mention world leaders by name, yet an exception was made last week when he publicly referred to Trump. 

He told reporters on Tuesday: ‘I’m told that President Trump has recently stated that he would like to end the war…I hope he is looking for an off-ramp.’

Leo, who was born in Chicago, added: ‘We constantly make the call for peace but unfortunately, many people want to promote hatred, violence and war.’

His comments contradicted those made by the US secretary Pete Hegseth – who deemed the Iran war as a holy one. 

While in prayer last week, Hegseth asked God for ‘overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy’. 

He added: ‘Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation.’ 

In what seems to be retaliation the Pope said at St Peter’s on Palm Sunday, God ‘does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them’.

Turning to the Bible, he said: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’ 

The seemingly back-and-forth row between the Trump administration and Pope Leo XIV started last year. 

Before he was elected in May last year, Leo scrutinised JD Vance’s claims that the Bible justified caring for one’s family before migrants. 

Following an invite by the US vice-president to the US for Independence Day on July 4 this year, the Pope said he will instead spend the day visiting Lampedusa – an Italian island where migrants land after sailing from Africa. 

This year marks Leo’s first Easter as Pope after the death of Pope Francis, aged 88, on Easter Monday last year. 

The Urbi et Orbi is the most solemn form of blessing in the Catholic Church, reserved for occasions including Easter and Christmas.

By TARYN KAUR PEDLER, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER

Updated: 05:10 EDT, 5 April 2026