Today’s Big Story

Israel Strikes Iran

Tehran launches more than 100 drones in retaliation, IDF says

Israel launched a stunning series of strikes early Friday local time against Iran’s nuclear program, killing three of the nation’s security chiefs. Iranian Major Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was reportedly killed. They also targeted missile sites and conducted covert sabotage operations on missile and air defense sites.

The wide-ranging attack prompted fears that long-simmering tensions between the heavily armed rivals were spiraling into a full-blown regional war. President Trump publicly opposed an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites on Thursday, saying he still believed a nuclear deal was possible. Hours later, Israel attacked.

The Israel Defense Forces later said that Iran had launched more than 100 drones in retaliation for the attacks. In a televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the goal of the operation was “to damage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, its ballistic missile factories and military capabilities.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States is not involved in the strikes.

CNN reports that imagery released by the Israeli military on Friday showed American-made F-35, F-15 and F-16 fighter jets were involved in the airstrikes. Israel said 200 fighter aircraft participated in the strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, military sites and military leadership, using 330 munitions. According to statistics in the Military Balance 2025, published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the U.S. has long been Israel’s primary weapons supplier. The warplanes represent the breadth of U.S. firepower, and all are in service with U.S. forces as well as Israel’s.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was concerned about the strikes and was working with Mideast partners to de-escalate the situation. And in separate statements, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad condemned the attacks, too. The Palestinian group said Friday that the strikes “form a dangerous escalation” that could lead to a regional war. Hamas added that the strikes reflect the Israeli government’s intention to pull the region into an open war.

Trump’s National Guard Plan in Limbo After Court Rulings

An appeals court temporarily blocks judge’s ruling to return control of National Guard to California

This is turning into an ugly game of ping pong. A federal judge issued an order late Thursday blocking President Donald Trump from deploying members of the California National Guard in Los Angeles, and ordered the administration to return control of the forces to Gov. Gavin Newsom. The White House quickly filed an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which temporarily stopped the ruling from taking effect while it considers the case.

That means, of course, Trump’s deployment of California's National Guard can continue. For now. The Department of Justice in a Wednesday filing arguing that Trump was legally entitled to take the action “to quell lawless violence directed against enforcement of federal law” emphasized that the military members are not engaged in law enforcement. Rather, they are protecting law enforcement, the DOJ said.

On the seventh day of protest in Los Angeles, and a third overnight curfew downtown, the core of the city is calm according to local reports. Previous protest hotspots of the last week are quiet as other demonstrations pop up around the country. And many are anticipating a massive day of protest on Saturday, the day of nationwide “No Kings” rallies against Trump.

At Least 290 Killed in Fiery Air India Crash

But one man, thrown from the plane, survived

At least 290 people are dead after a passenger plane crashed on departure at an airport in Ahmedabad, India, health officials said. The plane, en route to London, hit a hostel for doctors when it crashed, and images show the aircraft’s tail protruding from the building. The death toll includes people on the plane and others on the ground, police said. But one passenger who was thrown from the plane survived.

“I don’t know how I am alive,” the passenger, Viswash Kumar Ramesh told the New York Times via his family. In India, a doctor who said he had examined the 38-year-old man told reporters that the former Air India passenger was “disoriented, with multiple injuries all over his body, but he seems to be out of danger.” Shortly after the plane went down, Viswash, who had been on vacation, managed to make a video call to his father from next to the wreckage.

The BBC reports that the aircraft involved was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, and the Air India crash is the first time it has come down like this. The model was launched 14 years ago. Just six weeks ago, Boeing lauded the fact that it had reached the milestone of carrying one billion passengers. There’s still much to investigate, but aviation experts have told the BBC the position of the plane’s wing flaps (seen in videos) as it took off may have caused a problem for the plane.

Massive Cloud Outage Disrupts the Web

Google services, Cloudflare and Spotify were all down

These recent outages are a little concerning, right? Because yesterday, it felt like the entire internet was down … at least for a while. Multiple popular online services were grounded on Thursday afternoon, including Spotify, Discord, Amazon web services and Google, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks service disruptions across the web.

Late on Thursday evening, Google Cloud reported that “all the services are fully recovered from the service issue.” An update from the company stated: “We will publish analysis of this incident once we have completed our internal investigation.” But the outage was a reminder of how interconnected our go-to online destinations are. From Etsy and Equinox to Snapchat and DoorDash to Twitch and the Pokémon Trading card game, it seemed like everything was throwing error messages.

According to the Associated Press, Google Cloud, which hosts a significant amount of services on the internet, has become the fastest growing part of Alphabet Inc., even though the company still makes most of its money from Google’s ubiquitous search engine. Google Cloud’s revenue last year totaled $43.2 billion, a 31% increase from 2023. By comparison, Alphabet’s overall revenue grew by 14% last year.

A Weekend Pairing

‘Atsuko Okatsuka: Father’ + a Yuzu Sake

Make good choices this weekend.