The San Francisco Police Commission unanimously accepted a nearly $9.4 million donation Wednesday night to expand the police department’s drone program and add 10 new drone take-off sites.

“This is by far the largest one-time donation I think we’ve ever considered,” said police commissioner Kevin Benedicto. The Board of Supervisors will vote on the gift later this month.

The donation was proposed last week by Ripple Labs, a San Francisco-based crypto company run by billionaire Chris Larsen, and the San Francisco Police Community Foundation, a nonprofit that Larsen founded in 2023. Larsen has been a long-time proponent of increasing the SFPD’s use of technology and donated $250,000 to the passing of Prop E.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday seemed ready to keep Donald Trump in control of California national guard troops after they were deployed following protests in Los Angeles over immigration raids.

Last week, a district court ordered the US president to return control of the guard to Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, who had opposed their deployment. US district judge Charles Breyer said Trump had deployed the Guard illegally and exceeded his authority. But the administration quickly appealed and a three-judge appellate panel temporarily paused that order.

Tuesday’s hearing was about whether the order could take effect while the case makes its way through the courts, including possibly the supreme court.

It’s the first time a US president has activated a state national guard without the governor’s permission since 1965, and the outcome of the case could have sweeping implications for Trump’s power to send soldiers into other US cities. Trump announced on 7 June that he was deploying the guard to Los Angeles to protect federal property following a protest at a downtown detention center after federal immigration agents arrested dozens of immigrants without legal status across the city. Newsom said Trump was only inflaming the situation and that troops were not necessary.

A day after Israel attacked Iran on Friday, a cargo plane took off from China. The next day, a second plane departed from a coastal city. Then on Monday, yet another departed, this time from Shanghai – three flights in three days.

Data showed that on each flight, the plane flew westward along northern China, crossing into Kazakhstan, then south into Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan – and then falling off the radar as it neared Iran.

To add to the mystery, flight plans indicated a final destination of Luxembourg, but the aircraft appeared to have never flown near European skies.

Aviation experts have noted that the type of plane used, Boeing 747 freighters, are commonly used for transporting military equipment and weapons, and hired to fly government contract orders.

Israel is facing a shortage of Arrow missile interceptors, raising concerns over its capacity to counter long-range ballistic attacks from Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a senior US official.

The Jerusalem Post has reached out to the IDF and other sources for comment, but cannot verify this report at this time.

According to the report, the US has been aware of the issue for several months and has taken steps to bolster Israel’s missile defense systems by deploying additional US assets across multiple domains – land, sea, and air.

A senior officer at the Pentagon has come under scrutiny over a series of social media posts sharply critical of Israel, its leadership, and US foreign policy in the region.

Colonel Nathan McCormack, who leads the Levant and Egypt branch at the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate, has used a semi-anonymous account to post numerous comments targeting Israeli actions and US support.

The posts, reportedly written since the 7 October 2023, have sparked outrage among pro-Israel circles in Washington. Here’s what he said:

• “Netanyahu and his Judeo-supremacist cronies are determined to prolong the conflict for their own goals: either to remain in power or to annex the land.”
• “Israel’s actions over decades have prompted the accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide.”
• “The Western states go to great lengths to avoid criticism of Israel, much out of Holocaust guilt.”
• “Our worst ‘ally.’ We get literally nothing out of the ‘partnership’ other than the enmity of millions of people in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.”
• “The US has not been an honest broker. We have overwhelmingly enabled Israel’s bad behavior.”
• Responding to the idea of relocating Gaza’s population, McCormack wrote that Israel wants “to expel them and cleanse ‘Eretz Israel’ (Greater Israel) of ethnic Palestinians.”
• Since June 2024 he also called Israel a “death cult”

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti says the Houthis will come to the aid of any Arab or Muslim nation under attack.

“We will intervene to support Tehran against Zionist aggressions as we supported our brothers in Gaza,” al-Bukhaiti said.

The Houthis have been carrying out drone and missile attacks against Israel in a campaign that they say aims to pressure the country to end its war on Gaza.

Over the past days, Houthi missiles have coincided with Iranian launches against Israel.

The nearly 5,000 soldiers in Los Angeles detained one man, briefly. Was that worth $134 million and a constitutional crisis?

While it’s true no president or political leader has ever used social media quite as prolifically as Donald Trump, no recent secretary of defense has ever weaponized X or any other platform, quite like former Fox & Friends weekend host, Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth is actively reshaping the Pentagon in his own image since taking over, prompting a social media policy that has taken a dramatic turn towards supporting Hegseth’s every move and public appearance.

Part of that has been the resurrection of the Pentagon’s so-called “rapid response team”. Originally the name of a public relations brainchild of former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld to combat what he saw as Iraq war disinformation, the new team seems to have a similar mandate according to its X account: “Fighting Fake News!”

In the hours after Israel attacked Iran, food shipments and distribution in Gaza stopped and a French-Saudi summit meant to pave the way for wider recognition of a Palestinian state was postponed indefinitely.

International pressure over starvation and civilian killings in Gaza had apparently dissipated in little more than the time it took for the smoke of the first missile strikes to clear over Tehran.

Israel’s military moved fast to declare Iran its top priority, with the battle for Gaza relegated to second place. That shift was echoed in foreign ministries and newsrooms around the world.

Israel has escalated its ongoing conflict with Iran, striking the world's largest gas field and other energy infrastructure as part of a two-day assault that had otherwise largely targeted sites and personnel tied to the Islamic Republic's armed forces and nuclear program.

Iranian semi-official media outlets, including Tasnim News Agency and Fars News Agency, reported on Saturday that an Israeli drone struck Iran's South Pars Gas Field, which is shared with Qatar, where it is known as the North Dome Gas Field. The attack was said to have targeted Phase 14 refineries of the Iranian section, with at least one unit reportedly on fire, leading to a suspension in operations.

Footage circulating on news channels and social media appeared to show flames and smoke rising from a section of the complex, which is located in the Kangan area of Iran's south coast Bushehr province.