Good morning.
Los Angeles police have announced they are making “mass arrests” in the city’s downtown area, as people gathered in defiance of an overnight curfew imposed after days of protests against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and military deployment.
Late on Tuesday night local time, the Los Angeles police department (LAPD) wrote on X that “multiple groups” continued to congregate within the designated downtown curfew area.
“Those groups are being addressed and mass arrests are being initiated,” it said.
The mayor, Karen Bass, had announced a 10-hour curfew for a square-mile area of downtown, where demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) have continued. The LA police department has said it had carried out more than 300 arrests of protesters in the last two days.
The city’s crackdown came after Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, filed an emergency request to block the Trump administration from using military forces to accompany Ice officers on raids throughout LA.
Trump has ordered the deployment of 4,000 national guard members and 700 marines to LA after days of protests driven by anger over aggressive Ice raids that have targeted garment workers, day laborers, car washes and immigrant communities across the US’s second-largest city.
What has Newsom said? Trump’s decision to deploy the national guard in LA was “a brazen abuse of power”, that has “inflamed a combustible situation”, Newsom said in a searing rebuke of the administration.
What about Trump? In an address to troops at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina yesterday, Trump spread conspiracy theories, maligned California’s Democratic leaders and misleadingly portrayed protesters as part of a “foreign invasion”.
Hamas has killed 50 Palestinian fighters armed by Israel in Gaza, faction’s associates say
Hamas has killed 50 fighters in recent months from a Palestinian gang armed by Israel in Gaza, according to a statement released amid reports that Israeli troops directly intervened this week to protect the faction.
According to media reports in Israel, clashes between Hamas fighters and members of a militia led by Yasser abu Shabab, known locally for his involvement in criminal activity, erupted early Tuesday in Rafah.
The Israeli news channel i24 reported that Israeli soldiers had clashed with Hamas members in order to protect Abu Shabab from being killed, which resulted in deaths on both sides.
Were they really armed by Israel? Yes. Israeli defence officials acknowledged last week that they had been arming the group, with the aim of undermining Hamas. Aid workers said the group had a long history of looting from UN trucks.
Elon Musk says he ‘regrets’ some of his posts about Trump
Elon Musk has said he “regrets” some of his posts about Donald Trump, in an apparent attempt to patch up relations with the US president. In a post on X, Musk wrote: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”
The U-turn comes almost a week after the world’s richest man launched a fierce attack on Trump, calling his “big, beautiful bill” a “disgusting abomination” and alleging that Trump was implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein files, a claim denied by Trump and by Epstein’s former attorney. But Musk subsequently deleted the post and several others.
Did Musk explain his change of heart? No, but Tesla’s share price sank last week, with a significant impact on Musk’s wealth – knocking approximately $90bn off his fortune – and on Wednesday following his statement Tesla’s shares were back up 2.5% in premarket trading.
In other news …
Shares have risen in China as traders appear to welcome the trade framework agreed with the US in London last night, though negotiations to resolve the wider tariff war triggered by Trump in April will continue.
The US representative Mikie Sherrill won the Democratic primary in New Jersey’s race for governor. The navy pilot and former prosecutor has been a vocal critic of Trump.
A Canadian man has defied the odds to win three more lottery jackpots between August and May, accumulating about $2.5m in prize money – after his first win a decade ago.
Don’t miss this: ‘Made for sex’ – the hedonistic party palaces of New York’s Fire Island
Over the last century, Fire Island Pines, as the central square-mile section of this sandy spit off the coast of Long Island in New York is known, has evolved into something of a queer Xanadu. Now counting about 600 homes, it is a place of mythic weekend-long parties and carnal pleasure, a byword for bacchanalia and fleshy hedonism – but also simply a secluded haven where people can be themselves.
Climate check: does experimental technology hold the key to saving the world’s seas?
Last year, a US company called Ebb Carbon announced the world’s largest marine carbon removal deal to date, signing a multimillion-dollar agreement with Microsoft to try to help fix a very real problem: ocean acidification. The sector’s growth – part of the larger carbon removal market – has been astronomic, and has started to ring alarm bells for many ocean scientists across the world.
Last Thing: Florence finally loses a notorious 60-metre crane – after two decades
A giant crane that has blighted the skyline of Florence for almost 20 years is to finally be removed. The controversial structure, described as “a metal monster”, has stood in the centre of the Tuscan capital since 2006. Over time, the crane not only became a target of mockery, with an Instagram account set up for the purpose, but also the ultimate symbol of Italy’s notoriously sluggish bureaucracy.
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