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Israel fires first, feds handcuff senator and Air India crash

 
Today's INTERNATIONAL story

Israel strikes Iran, killing military and nuclear chiefs

What happened
Israel attacked Tehran and Iranian nuclear facilities and missile sites early this morning, killing the country's three top military leaders and at least two leading nuclear scientists. Israeli officials said the attack, involving 200 warplanes that hit more than 100 targets, was a "preemptive" strike on Iran's nuclear program. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel "took unilateral action" and the U.S. was "not involved in strikes against Iran." 

Who said what
Iranian state media confirmed the deaths of Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces; Gen. Hossein Salami, top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps; and deputy armed forces commander Gen. Gholamali Rashid. Israel's strike dealt a "major blow to Iran's chain of command," The New York Times said, and escalated fears that the "long-simmering tensions between the heavily armed rivals could explode into a full-blown regional war."

A spokesperson for Iran's armed forces said both Israel and the U.S. "must pay a very heavy price" and would "receive a very forceful slap." But the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, did not mention the U.S. in a later statement, saying only that Israel "should anticipate a harsh punishment" for opening its "wicked and blood-stained hand to commit a crime against our beloved country."

"Should Iran retaliate," The Washington Post said, "it was not immediately clear whether the U.S. would assist Israel's defense, including shooting down Iranian drones and missiles as it did twice last year." A U.S. official said that decision was "up to the president." Iran subsequently fired about 100 drones in retaliation, which Israel said it was starting to intercept.

What next?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement that "this operation will continue for as many days as it takes" to "roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival." U.S. intelligence does not share Israel's view that Iran is close to building a nuclear weapon, and President Donald Trump said yesterday he had told Netanyahu "I don't want them going in" while his administration was negotiating a nuclear deal with Tehran. Iran said this morning it will not participate in U.S. talks scheduled for Sunday. 

 
 
Today's National story

Trump's LA deployment in limbo after court rulings

What happened
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer yesterday ruled that President Donald Trump must relinquish control of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), calling the president's Guard deployment to Los Angeles an "illegal" overreach and violation of the 10th Amendment. A federal appellate court last night halted Breyer's ruling until at least Tuesday. Earlier in the day, tensions over Trump's operation had flared when federal agents forcibly removed Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) from an L.A. news conference and handcuffed him on the ground after he tried to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question.

Who said what
Breyer's 36-page ruling was an "extraordinary rebuke of Trump"s unprecedented use of the military to support federal immigration authorities as they carry out deportation raids amid volatile protests in Los Angeles," Politico said. The protests, contrary to Trump's characterization, "fall far short of 'rebellion,'" Breyer said. And "it is not the federal government's place in our constitutional system to take over a state's police power whenever it is dissatisfied with how vigorously or quickly the state is enforcing its own laws."

Padilla interrupted Noem at yesterday's briefing as she promised to "liberate" Los Angeles from the "socialists and burdensome leadership." DHS said the federal agents did not recognize the U.S. senator and "thought he was an attacker," and they "claimed erroneously that Padilla did not identify himself," The Associated Press said. Video of the "shocking" scene "ricocheted through the halls of Congress" and "prompted immediate outrage" from "stunned Democrats." If this is how DHS "responds to a senator with a question," Padilla said, "you can only imagine what they're doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers."

What next?
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the government's appeal of Breyer's ruling on Tuesday, "ensuring Trump's deployment will remain in place at least into next week," Politico said.

 
 
Today's AVIATION DISASTER Story

Hundreds die in Air India crash with 1 survivor

What happened
A London-bound Air India flight crashed into a residential area of Ahmedabad seconds after takeoff yesterday, killing 241 or 242 passengers and crew and more than two dozen people on the ground, including at least five medical students in a hostel hit by the plane. The only surviving passenger, British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, told medics he was thrown from the plane as it split in two. It was the first fatal crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the deadliest aviation disaster in India since 1996.

Who said what
About "30 seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed," Ramesh told the Hindustan Times. "When I got up there were bodies all around me." His brother told Sky News that Ramesh "video-called my dad and said, 'Our plane crashed — I have no idea how I got outside, or how I survived.'" Most of the people on the flight were Indian nationals, but 52 British passengers, seven Portuguese and one Canadian also died in the crash.

What next?
Outside experts speculated, based on CCTV footage, that the plane may have lost altitude and crashed due to a bird strike, "extremely rare double engine failure," improperly set flaps or heat-related lift issues, the BBC said. "Early hypotheses often are ruled out during lengthy, technical crash investigations," The New York Times said.

 
 

It's not all bad

Decades after 90% of their ancestral lands were taken during the California Gold Rush, the Yurok Tribe had 73 square miles returned to their stewardship this month. The land, recently used for commercial timber, is along the lower Klamath River in Northern California and will now be called the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and Yurok Tribal Community Forest. This stretch of woodland, home to an important Chinook salmon run, is spiritually significant for the tribe.

 
 
Under the radar

The man widely considered to be the greatest sumo wrestler in history has resigned from the sport's governing body, compounding a bruising few years for Japan's ancient competition. On Monday, Hakuho Sho officially left the Japan Sumo Association, the latest in a series of resignations among yokozuna, the highest-ranking wrestlers. Now only four of the 10 most recently retired grand champions are still in the JSA. 

Sumo "prides itself on being a repository of the samurai values of courage, determination and loyalty," said The Times of London. But that image has been "sullied" in recent years as the sport was "plagued" by scandals involving "violence, match-fixing and mismanagement." Last spring only 34 people applied to become wrestlers — known as rikishi — down from a peak of 160 in 1992. However, sumo's new "smiling 30-stone champion," Onosato, opens the "chance to increase the sport's popularity" and distance it from its controversies.

Onosato was promoted to the rank of yokozuna last month, "completing a meteoric rise to the summit" of sumo in a record 13 tournaments, said The Guardian. At age 24, he is the youngest yokozuna since 1994 — and the first Japanese-born sumo champion since 2017, after Mongolian-born athletes like Hakuho had "dominated" in recent years.

Despite Onosato's widely hailed ascent, it's "hard to argue that sumo hasn’t been lessened" by the departure of Hakuo, its "most decorated champion," said The Japan Times. The JSA will "continue to survive and thrive," but it should face its problems and "figure out a way to stem the tide of such high-profile departures."

 
 
On this day

June 13, 1966

The Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that law enforcement officers must warn suspects about their constitutional rights before questioning them, most notably the right to an attorney and the right to remain silent. Today, this process is commonly referred to as being read your Miranda rights or being Mirandized.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

"Tensions boil over as senator is tackled, ICE arrests pick up," the Los Angeles Times says on Friday's front page. Many migrants are "arriving at court check-ins, ensnared by ICE," The New York Times says. As "immigration courts staked out," some question if "judges are improperly coordinating with ICE officers," the Arizona Republic says. "ICE raids alarm Hispanic consumers," says The Wall Street Journal. "Trump's troop deployment in California is ruled illegal," The Washington Post says. With federal cuts to community intervention programs, "cities fear a surge in summer violence," says USA Today.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Out of fin air

An osprey flying over the Splinter City Disc Golf Course in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, last month dropped its lunch — a small, dead hammerhead shark — right next to a group of players. "We couldn't believe it and kept asking ourselves, 'Did that really just happen?'" witness Jonathan Marlowe told Garden & Gun. Ospreys often dive into water to catch fish, plunging feet-first and using their curved talons to grab their prey, but it's rare for them to capture sharks.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harriet Marsden, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Morteza Nikoubazl / NurPhoto via Getty Images; AP Photo / Etienne Laurent; Sam Panthaky / AFP via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images