The United States will send an advanced air defense system to Israel to protect against attack by Iran and its proxies. The delivery of the sophisticated missile defense system risks further inflaming the conflict in the Middle East despite widespread diplomatic efforts to avoid an all-out war.

The Army has seven Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries. Generally, each consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors, along with radio and radar equipment, and requires 95 soldiers to operate. This isn’t the first time the United States sent a THAAD battery to the region. After the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas in Israel, the Pentagon sent a THAAD battery to the Middle East to defend its interests in the region.

The Middle East is on high alert in anticipation of possible retaliation by Israel against Iran, which sent a volley of long-range rockets at Israel on Oct. 1, after multiple incidents involving exploding pagers and walkie-talkies that occurred across Lebanon, for which Iran has blamed Israel. Read the full story here›

A SpaceX launch tower, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty, successfully caught a giant rocket booster after it detached from the Starship rockets 42 miles above.

Elon Musk wants SpaceX to be the first company to build a reusable spaceship and rocket, with the goal of ferrying people to the moon and Mars. The successful catch of the booster, on first attempt, is a major breakthrough toward that goal.

The launch tower, taller than the Statue of Liberty at over 400 feet, is fitted with two large metal arms at the top. With its engines roaring, the 233-foot-tall Super Heavy booster fell, from an altitude of 42 miles, into the launch tower’s enclosing arms, hooking itself in place by tiny, protruding bars under the four forward grid fins it had used to steer itself through the air. Read the full story here›

The sheriff who arrested an armed man outside the Trump rally in Coachella, California, told The Epoch Times that the man said he intended to “kill the president.” The Secret Service says the former president was not in any danger.

At around 5 p.m. local time and before former President Donald Trump arrived on-site, deputies assigned to the rally encountered the driver of a black SUV at a checkpoint at the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive, said the sheriff’s department in a news alert on Oct. 13. The driver was initially allowed through an outer security perimeter.

“As he got to the inside perimeter, where deputies were conducting obviously a more thorough evaluation of the vehicles that were coming in, there were many irregularities that popped up,” the sheriff said. The interior of the vehicle was in disarray and it had a fake license plate, prompting further investigation. The driver had multiple passports with multiple names and multiple driver’s licenses with different names, and the vehicle was unregistered. Authorities found unregistered weapons. Read the full story here›

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