WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
LA protests, Israel seizes Thunberg's aid boat, and why sumo is taking a beating

 
today's international story

LA protests intensify after Trump deploys troops

What happened
Protests have flared again in Los Angeles over immigration raids, with demonstrators clashing with law enforcement officers who fired tear gas and rubber bullets after Donald Trump called in the National Guard to help disperse demonstrators. The unrest initially flared after Homeland Security Investigations announced that 44 people had been arrested in LA raids on Friday. It signalled a renewed phase in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, with officials shifting focus to workplaces amid concerns that deportation numbers have lagged behind the president's goal of one million a year.

Who said what
"We'll send whatever we need to make sure there's law and order," Donald Trump told reporters yesterday. Democratic governors condemned the deployment of National Guard troops as "an alarming abuse of power".

Trump's intervention in LA is a "political fight he is eager to have", said Anthony Zurcher on the BBC. The US president "believes that law and order, and aggressive immigration enforcement are winning issues for him".

What next?
The chances of Trump's deployment being challenged in court "seem high", said The New York Times. "But it is early, and little concrete has happened so far." California governor Gavin Newsom has insisted that the deployment is unnecessary because "there is currently no unmet need" for additional security assistance. He has urged protesters to stay peaceful and "never use violence" in order to avoid giving Trump an excuse for a "spectacle". He called Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's fresh threat to deploy active-duty Marines "deranged behaviour".

 
 
today's politics story

Tice denies that Reform UK is in chaos

What happened
Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice (pictured above) has defended the party's direction after a turbulent 48 hours in which chairman Zia Yusuf resigned, only to return days later in a different role. Yusuf initially quit on Thursday, calling the effort to get Reform UK elected "not a good use of my time". By Saturday he had reversed his decision, saying exhaustion had prompted his departure and that he would now lead the party's new council spending audit unit, inspired by the US Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

Who said what
Tice told the BBC that chairing the party was a "tough, brutal job" and Yusuf had been "essentially exhausted". Party leader Nigel Farage said Yusuf had also suffered "vile abuse", adding: "He overreacted to it and he admits himself it was a mistake."

Critics pounced on the disarray, with Labour calling the episode a "humiliating hokey cokey" and the Lib Dems accusing Reform of playing "musical chairman". But the episode isn't all bad for Reform, according to Henry Hill in The Telegraph. The return of Yusuf suggests that Farage "might have learnt how to work with others at last". He has "finally shown that he can be a team player".

What next?
The party will soon appoint a new chair and deputy chair, while Yusuf will lead the Doge-inspired initiative to audit council spending.

 
 
Today's middle east story

Israel seizes Thunberg's aid boat

What happened
Israeli forces boarded a Gaza-bound humanitarian ship and detained Greta Thunberg and other activists on board, enforcing the blockade of the territory amid the ongoing war with Hamas. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which organised the mission to deliver aid and protest against the blockade, described the activists’ detention as a "kidnapping".

Who said what
"Greta Thunberg has been kidnapped by the Israeli military," said the Freedom Flotilla Coalition in an Instagram post. "The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted."

Greta's "horrible voyage" should be "reviled, not celebrated", said Zoe Strimpel in The Telegraph, adding that the website for the voyage used the same tone as Thunberg's "horrible climate stunts" used to do: "extreme, unbending, threatening, self-loving and bratty all at once". For her part, Thunberg had said prior to her detention that the team's mission was simply about "trying to retain our humanity".

What next?
In a post on X, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said "the 'selfie yacht' of the 'celebrities'" was "safely making its way to the shores of Israel" and that those on board were "expected to return to their home countries". It claimed that the humanitarian aid aboard the boat would be transferred to Gaza through established channels.

 
 

It's not all bad

Carlos Alcaraz staged an extraordinary comeback to win the longest French Open final in tennis history yesterday, defeating Jannik Sinner in five sets after nearly five and a half hours. Down two sets and facing three match points, the 22-year-old Spaniard rallied to take the final super tie-break 10-2. It marks the first time that a man has saved three match points on the way to winning a major final. "It was just playing with the heart," said Alcaraz after the match.

 
 
under the radar

Sumo wrestling is taking a beating

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.

Last week Hakuho Sho left the Japan Sumo Association (JSA), 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. But that image has been "sullied" in recent years. The sport has been "plagued" by scandals involving "violence, match-fixing and mismanagement". Japan's dramatically falling birth rate has also "hurt sumo". Last spring only 34 people applied to become wrestlers – known as rikishi – down from its peak of 160 in 1992.

But one wrestler's ascendance is being seen as a "chance to increase the sport's popularity" and distance it from its controversies. Sumo may have its "smiling 30-stone champion": Onosato.

Onosato was promoted to the rank of yokozuna last month, "completing a meteoric rise to the summit" of sumo in a record span of just 13 tournaments, said The Guardian. Aged 24, he is the youngest yokozuna since 1994. He's also the first Japanese-born sumo wrestler since 2017 after Mongolian-born athletes like Hakuho had "dominated" in recent years. Onosato's rise has been "widely hailed both for its symbolic significance and his calm, composed style".

"I hope he leads by example and lifts the entire world of sumo," said Nishonoseki, Onosato's stablemaster, who competed as Kisenosato.

 
 
on this day

9 June 1983

Margaret Thatcher was re-elected as UK prime minister in a landslide victory partly propelled by Britain's success in repelling Argentina's invasion of The Falklands. But the conflict over the tiny archipelago remains unresolved: President Javier Milei has insisted that he will never relinquish Argentina's claim to what it calls Las Malvinas.

 
 
Today's newspapers

Police will receive an "above-inflation cash boost" as ministers took negotiations over the spending review "down to the wire", says The Times. Forces are "in line" for a funding boost after officers warned Downing Street of "stark choices". Trump has deployed the national guard in LA in a "dramatic escalation" to quell protests against sweeping immigration raids, says The Guardian. The "NHS is out for your blood!" says Metro, reporting that around "200,000 more" blood donors are "urgently" needed. This is a "red alert", says The Mirror.

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Poppy seeds or poppycock?

An "embattled" Australian surgeon has blamed a positive drug test result on bagels, according to News.com.au. Dr Tobias Pincock was "hauled" in front of medical authorities after he tested positive for drugs including cocaine, amphetamine and opioids. Pincock claimed that he had eaten poppy seed bagels around the time of the testing and that this could have caused a false positive result. The Health Care Complaints Commission rejected the explanation, but it's understood that the surgeon still denies all allegations.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Harriet Marsden, Ross Couzens and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu / Getty Images; Dan Kitwood / Getty Images; Fabrizio Villa / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images.