Update docs/whats_new.rst for upcoming draft release content

[Copilot]

Description

This updates docs/whats_new.rst to reflect the changes expected in the current draft release. The release notes now align with merged work after 4.5.3, replacing outdated content and grouping new items by feature/fix/docs impact.

Changes Made to Code

• Release notes refresh
  • Replaced the stale Buy Me a Soda entry with a Time Picker Gizmo section.
  • Added a Bug Fixes section summarizing key merged fixes.
  • Added a Documentation and CI section for docs and build-pipeline updates.
• Referenced merged PRs
  • Bug fixes: Login/Register Form Fixes #1293, Add node_modules to STATICFILES_DIRS when STATICFILES_USE_NPM is enabled #1291, Fix database access warning during app initialization with Django 5 #1288, Component bugfixes #1285, Fix app with service setting install bug #1284
  • Docs/CI: New Recipes #1282, Fix Read the Docs builds broken by Ubuntu 26.04 image #1289
• Example snippet (added structure)

Time Picker Gizmo
-----------------

* Added a new ``TimePicker`` gizmo for time-entry form inputs.

See: :doc:`tethys_sdk/gizmos/time_picker`

Related PRs, Issues, and Discussions

• Let job status be reported to the portal instead of polled for #1294
• Login/Register Form Fixes #1293
• Add node_modules to STATICFILES_DIRS when STATICFILES_USE_NPM is enabled #1291
• TimePicker Gizmo #1290
• Fix Read the Docs builds broken by Ubuntu 26.04 image #1289
• Fix database access warning during app initialization with Django 5 #1288
• Component bugfixes #1285
• Fix app with service setting install bug #1284
• New Recipes #1282

Additional Notes

• Scope is documentation-only (docs/whats_new.rst), intended to synchronize shipped notes with current draft-release content.

Quality Checks

• At least one new test has been written for new code
• New code has 100% test coverage
• Code has been formatted with Black
• Code has been linted with flake8
• Docstrings for new methods have been added
• The documentation has been updated appropriately

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Updates the current draft release notes in docs/whats_new.rst to reflect post-4.5.3 merged work, replacing outdated notes and grouping recent updates by feature, bug fixes, and docs/CI changes.

Changes:

• Replaced the “Buy Me a Soda” entry with a new “Time Picker Gizmo” release-note section that links to the new gizmo docs.
• Added a consolidated “Bug Fixes” section with links to the relevant merged PRs.
• Added a “Documentation and CI” section summarizing docs additions and CI/build pipeline fixes.

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[coveralls]

coverage: 100.0% (+0.007%) from 99.993% — copilot/update-whats-new-doc into main