Los

“When we started we wouldn’t even sell half a goat,” Barajas says. “By word of mouth and faith we started to get going week by week. There are a lot of people that make birria. But it has to be goat, and it’s supposed to have your special mole, a kind of rub, your own recipe. Maybe that’s why we have good clientele, because we make the rub, everything, every day.”

The most popular order is the plato birria de chivo con pistola, a bowl of the spicy, fall-off-the-bone goat meat bathed in consomé that comes with a shank and tortillas, onions, cilantro, radishes, chiles and lime wedges for composing your own tacos. Of course there are regular tacos, and there are tacos dorados, folded and fried, with cheese if you want quesabirria. Every order comes with a complimentary small fried bean taco, and the beans are a recipe from Barajas’ grandmother, who died earlier this year. “My grandmother told my dad to ‘give customers a nice gesture,’” Barajas says. And once a month Barajas Sr. still prepares montalayo, a fried ball of goat stomach with sausage-like tripe stuffing; order it chopped into a taco.

On June 8, United States President Donald Trump praised the California National Guard for its response to Los Angeles immigration enforcement protests.

“Great job by the National Guard in Los Angeles after two days of violence, clashes and unrest,” he wrote on Truth Social at 02:41 EDT, Eastern Daylight Time, (06:41 GMT) on Tuesday. He ended the post, “Thank you to the National Guard for a job well done!”

But the National Guard had not yet arrived in Los Angeles, according to news reports and a spokesperson for the California governor.

The protests in downtown Los Angeles began on June 6 in response to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) declared the protests an “unlawful assembly” the same evening and began using tear gas, rubber bullets and other deterrents.

Protests continued throughout the weekend, with reports of vandalism, burning cars and looting. Trump announced on June 7 that he was deploying 2,000 California National Guard members, an action that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, criticised as an unnecessary escalation.

Less than an hour after Trump’s Truth Social post, Bass said the National Guard was not on scene. “Just to be clear, the National Guard has not been deployed in the City of Los Angeles,” she wrote on X.

Later that morning, Newsom criticised Trump’s post praising the National Guard by pointing out the timeline discrepancy.

“For those keeping track, Donald Trump’s National Guard had not been deployed on the ground when he posted this,” Newsom wrote on X.

Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a Newsom spokesperson, told PolitiFact the National Guard deployed on June 8 between 02:00 PDT, Pacific Daylight Time, and 04:00 PDT, which is 05:00 EDT to 07:00 EDT (09:00 GMT to 11:00 GMT).

The first media reports of California National Guard troops on the ground in Los Angeles were on June 8 at about 06:00 PDT, or about 09:00 EDT (13:00 GMT). Here’s what we know about the timeline of California National Guard troop activation and arrival.

June 8 timeline

00:51 EDT (04:51 GMT): United States Northern Command, a Department of Defense sector that assists with National Guard oversight, said on X that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “directed US Northern Command to assume command of 2,000 California National Guard forces to protect federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area”. The post said active-duty US Marines might also be called to respond.

02:41 EDT (06:41 GMT): Trump praised the National Guard for a “great job”, criticised Newsom and Bass, and described the protests as violent unrest.

03:22 EDT (07:22 GMT): Bass posted on X that the National Guard was not yet present.

04:32 EDT (08:32 GMT): CNN reported it had “seen no evidence that Guard units are on the ground”.

Between 05:00 EDT and 07:00 EDT (09:00 GMT-11:00 GMT): The National Guard deployed during this timeframe, according to Crofts-Pelayo.

About 09:00 EDT (13:00 GMT): The Washington Post reported that the earliest photos and videos of National Guard members arriving in Los Angeles were captured around this time, which was 06:00 PDT, or 09:00 EDT (13:00 GMT).

11:03 EDT (15:03 GMT): US Northern Command reported that members of the California National Guard had arrived in Los Angeles: “Can confirm that elements of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from the California National Guard have begun deploying to the Los Angeles area, with some already on the ground.”

12:07 EDT (16:07 GMT): US Northern Command announced that 300 members of the California National Guard were deployed to three locations in the Los Angeles area.

12:08 EDT (16:08 GMT): The California National Guard members gathered near the Metropolitan Detention Centre in downtown LA, the Los Angeles Times reported.

12:17 EDT (16:17 GMT): The LAPD announced that the National Guard had been deployed to federal facilities.

About 13:30 EDT (17:30 GMT): The New York Times reported that at 10:30 PDT, “nearly 300 members of the California Guard took positions at three different sites around the city”.

KABC-TV, a local news channel, reported that National Guard members had appeared in downtown Los Angeles and posted video of troops driving through the city of Paramount.

12:29 EDT (18:29 GMT): US Northern Command posted photos of California National Guard members in LA, working with the Department of Homeland Security.

17:06 EDT (21:06 GMT): Trump said he directed federal agencies to coordinate their response to the Los Angeles protests.

18:27 EDT (22:27 GMT): Newsom posted that he “formally requested the Trump Administration rescind their unlawful deployment of troops in Los Angeles County and return them to [his] command”.

20:03 EDT (00:03 GMT): US Northern Command shared a press release on X announcing that approximately 2,000 members of the California National Guard had been “placed under federal command” to be ready to assist in efforts against LA protests. It reiterated that 300 ​​members of the California Army National Guard were deployed at three locations.

22:23 EDT (02:23 GMT): Newsom said in an MSNBC interview that he would file a lawsuit against Trump for taking over the California National Guard.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

United States President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of Marines in Los Angeles to quell protests that have erupted against the arrests of 44 people on Friday for violating immigration laws.

Trump on Monday also doubled the strength of National Guard forces that his administration has deployed in the country’s second largest city to 4,000 soldiers.

His administration has justified the deployments by arguing, in part, that local authorities were failing to ensure the safety of law enforcement officials and federal property.

But the deployment of the Marines – coming on the back of the move to send the National Guard to Los Angeles – has sparked criticism, not just from Trump’s political opponents like California Governor Gavin Newsom but also from the Los Angeles police.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has said the deployment of Marines will make its job harder. Here’s what the dispute is about, and why the LAPD argues that the deployment of military forces could complicate its work:

What are the US Marines?

The Marines are a branch of the US armed forces and are a component of the Navy. The Marine Corps was first established in 1775.

Its soldiers are trained for land and sea operations and have a particular focus on amphibious warfare, which refers to attacks launched from ships onto shore.

US citizens or legal residents who have a high school diploma and are aged 17 to 28 are eligible to enlist for the Marines. They have to undergo an initial strength test to be recruited. Recruits undergo about 13 weeks of initial training to become a part of the Marine Corps. Once a year, each Marine undergoes a battle-readiness test with a focus on physical readiness and stamina.

There are 172,577 active duty Marine personnel in the US as well as 33,036 reserve personnel as of 2023, the latest data released by the US Department of Defense.

What is the Marine deployment?

The US military’s Northern Command released a statement on Monday saying it had activated a Marine infantry battalion in Los Angeles that was on alert over the weekend. About 700 Marines with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines and 1st Marine Division will “seamlessly integrate” with National Guard troops deployed in the city, it said.

Initially, the LAPD was involved in quelling civil unrest due to the protests, starting on Friday. On Saturday, Trump deployed about 2,000 National Guard soldiers to Los Angeles County, defying objections by Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

After the Marine deployment announcement, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said an “additional” 2,000 National Guard soldiers would also be mobilised in addition to the 2,000 who had been sent to the city over the weekend.

What did the LAPD say about the Marine deployment?

On Monday, Police Chief Jim McDonnell released a statement saying the LAPD had not received a formal notification that the Marines would be coming to LA.

“The possible arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles absent clear coordination presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city,” he said.

McDonnell added that the LAPD and its partners “have decades of experience managing large-scale public demonstrations, and we remain confident in our ability to do so professionally and effectively”.

The LAPD boss urged open and continuous communication between all law enforcement agencies involved to avoid confusion and escalation.

What does the LAPD mean by this?

History indicates that a lack of communication, coupled with differences in approach based on different agencies’ training, can inflame already tense situations that law enforcement officials confront.

While the US routinely sends its Marines on overseas missions, it is rare for the US president to deploy Marines to quell a domestic crisis.

The last time this happened was in 1992 in Los Angeles during protests against the acquittal of four policemen who had been filmed beating Rodney King, a Black man. Six days of riots broke out, and 2,000 National Guard soldiers and 1,500 Marines were deployed in the city. The riots in 1992 resulted in the deaths of 63 people and widespread looting, assaults and arson, unlike the ongoing protests, which have been largely peaceful.

On one occasion in 1992, LAPD officers and Marines were called to respond to a domestic disturbance at a local home.

When they arrived, a shotgun was fired out the front door. A police officer yelled, “Cover me,” which to the police means to prepare to shoot if necessary but to hold one’s fire. For Marines trained for combat, “cover me” means to use firepower. The Marines shot more than 200 bullets instantly as a response to the officer. Three children were inside the home at the time. While no one was killed, federal soldiers were withdrawn from Los Angeles shortly after this.

While the deployment of US Marines to Los Angeles in 1992 was carried out in coordination with state and local authorities, they are now being sent against the wishes of the state government, Bass and the LAPD.

That compounds the risks that could follow, experts said.

“If the administration escalates to active duty troops, especially without coordination with state leaders, it would amount to a militarization of civilian protest, not a restoration of order,” attorney Robert Patillo said in a written statement to Al Jazeera. “That move could violate the First Amendment rights of peaceful protesters and would likely inflame tensions on the ground, not resolve them.” 

The First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech and assembly.

Is the Marine deployment necessary?

Reports from LA suggest that the National Guard troops who have been activated are barely being used in the city, raising questions about whether the deployment of Marines or additional National Guard soldiers is really necessary.

Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, reporting from LA, said Monday’s protests organised by unions in the city centre were peaceful.

“[The National Guard] didn’t engage with the protesters. They didn’t do much of anything other than stand there in their military uniforms,” Reynolds said.

On his personal X account, Newsom posted that the initial 2,000 National Guard soldiers were not given food or water. Of them, only 300 were deployed while the rest were sitting in federal buildings without orders, he said. Al Jazeera could not independently verify this.

I was just informed Trump is deploying another 2,000 Guard troops to L.A.

The first 2,000? Given no food or water. Only approx. 300 are deployed — the rest are sitting, unused, in federal buildings without orders.

This isn’t about public safety. It’s about stroking a dangerous…

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 9, 2025

In another post, Newsom wrote that “the Secretary of Defense is illegally deploying [the Marines] onto American streets.”

U.S. Marines serve a valuable purpose for this country — defending democracy. They are not political pawns.

The Secretary of Defense is illegally deploying them onto American streets so Trump can have a talking point at his parade this weekend.

It’s a blatant abuse of power.…

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 10, 2025

On Monday, Newsom announced that he had filed a lawsuit against Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “to end the illegal takeover” of the National Guard. Trump’s federalisation of the National Guard on Saturday marked the first time in 60 years that a US president has activated the guard in defiance of a state governor’s wishes.

“For Trump to deploy regular armed forces, such as the marines, would require him to clear another legal hurdle. He would have to invoke the Insurrection Act, which is very rare and would escalate the situation to a constitutional crisis,” Gregory Magarian, professor of law at Washington University’s School of Law in St Louis, Missouri, told Al Jazeera in an emailed statement.

So far, it is unclear whether Trump invoked the Insurrection Act to deploy the Marines. To activate the National Guard, he did not invoke the Insurrection Act but a similar federal law, Title 10 of the United States Code.

“While the Insurrection Act technically gives the president the authority to deploy active-duty military forces under extreme conditions, we are nowhere near the legal threshold that would justify sending in the marines,” Patillo said.

What is the Trump administration saying?

Hegseth wrote in an X post that Marines had been deployed “due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings”.

“We have an obligation to defend federal law enforcement officers – even if Gavin Newsom will not,” Hegseth wrote.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an X post on Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who have been leading the immigration arrests, will “continue to enforce the law” despite the protests.

What is the latest update on the LA immigration protests?

Over the weekend, the LAPD arrested 50 protesters: 29 on Saturday and 21 on Sunday.

Local news outlets have reported protests against the arrests have also begun in at least nine other US cities, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

An additional 2,000 National Guard soldiers, along with 700 Marines, have headed to Los Angeles on orders from United States President Donald Trump, escalating a military presence local officials and California Governor Gavin Newsom do not want, and which the city’s police chief says creates logistical challenges for safely handling protests.

An initial deployment of 2,000 National Guard personnel ordered by Trump started arriving on Sunday, as violence erupted during protests driven by an accelerated enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are breaking apart families.

Monday’s demonstrations were less raucous. Thousands peacefully attended a rally at City Hall, hundreds protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention centre where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city.

Los Angeles Police Department chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was confident in LAPD’s ability to handle large-scale demonstrations, and that the Marines’ arrival without coordinating with police would present a “significant logistical and operational challenge” for them.

Newsom called the deployments reckless and “disrespectful to our troops” in a post on the social media platform X.

“This isn’t about public safety. It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego.”

The protests began on Friday in downtown Los Angeles after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city.

In a directive on Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority” of the US government.

The smell of smoke hung in the air on Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major motorway and set self-driving cars on fire, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flashbangs.

Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening on Monday in several other cities, including San Francisco and Santa Ana in California and Dallas and Austin in Texas.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a post on X that more than a dozen protesters were arrested, while in Santa Ana, a police spokesperson said the National Guard had arrived in the city to secure federal buildings.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters in his announcement on Monday that Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.

Trump said Los Angeles would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the National Guard.

US officials said the Marines were being deployed to protect federal property and personnel, including immigration agents.

Several dozen protesters were arrested over the weekend. Authorities say one person was arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorbike into a line of officers.

The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Centre for Justice.

June 9 (UPI) — President Donald Trump escalated a war of words with California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday, as the administration authorized the deployment of 700 Marines to Los Angeles to quell anti-ICE immigration protests that turned violent over the weekend.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the deployment to help defend federal agents amid protests over immigration raids.

“We have an obligation to defend federal law enforcement officers — even if Gavin Newsom will not,” Hegseth said Monday.

“Due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings, approximately 700 active-duty U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton are being deployed to Los Angeles to restore order,” Hegseth added in a post on X.

On Monday night, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell warned anyone involved in violence or vandalism during the demonstrations will be arrested. McDonnell said officers were forced to fire flash-bang grenades Monday at hundreds of protesters as they tried to push the crowd back from the city’s Little Tokyo section.

“There is no tolerance for criminal activity under the guise of protest,” McDonnell told reporters and warned “there will be many more subsequent arrests.” Approximately 70 people were arrested over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Trump and Newsom ramped up their rhetoric as the president publicly endorsed calls to arrest the governor. The war of words escalated after the Trump administration deployed 2,000 National Guardsmen over the weekend to protect buildings and residents, a move Newsom called inflammatory for “peaceful” protests, as the administration called the demonstrations “chaos.”

“While Los Angeles burns — officers ambushed, city in chaos — Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom and Maxine Waters call the riots and insurrection ‘peaceful,'” The White House wrote Monday in a post on X, showing video of burning cars and protesters closing Highway 101. “They side with mobs. President Trump stands for law and order.”

In response to a reporter question Monday, Trump was asked whether he supported Newsom’s taunt to “border czar” Tom Homan to “come and arrest him.”

“I would do it if I were Tom,” Trump said Monday. “I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing,” Trump said, as he called Newsom a “nice guy,” but “grossly incompetent.”

Newsom responded on social media saying, “The president of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting governor. This is a day I hoped I would never see in America.”

“I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism,” Newsom wrote in a post on X.

By Monday evening, Newsom said he would send 800 more state and local officers to Los Angeles.

“Chaos is exactly what Trump wanted, and now California is left to clean up the mess,” Newsom wrote in a new post on X. “We’re working with local partners to surge over 800 additional state and local law enforcement officers to ensure the safety of our L.A. communities.”

Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta also announced Monday that they have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its activation of the state’s National Guard without getting state and local approval first.

“California’s governor and I are suing to put a stop to President Trump’s unlawful, unprecedented order calling federalized National Guard forces into Los Angeles,” Bonta said. “The president is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends. This is an abuse of power — and not one we take lightly.”

During Friday’s raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, demonstrators flooded the streets and freeways to protest their actions. The fire department said it responded to “multiple vehicle fires“ during the unrest. Waymo autonomous electric vehicles were among those targeted, according to Los Angeles Fire Department public information officer Erik Scott.

“Due to the design of EV battery systems, it’s often difficult to apply the water directly to the burning cells, especially in a chaotic environment, and in some cases, allowing the fire to burn is the safest tactic,” Scott said.

Over the weekend, demonstrators spilled out onto the 101 freeway that runs through downtown L.A. Approximately 70 people were arrested after being ordered to leave the downtown area. Some were also seen throwing objects at officers.

“I just met with L.A. immigrant rights community leaders as we respond to this chaotic escalation by the administration,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass wrote Monday evening in a post on X.

“Let me be absolutely clear — as a united city, we are demanding the end to these lawless attacks on our communities. Los Angeles will always stand with everyone who calls our city home.”

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania disagreed, and said the protests are not peaceful.

“I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations and immigration — but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos,” Fetterman wrote Monday night in a post on X.

“My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings and assaulting law enforcement.”

In the overcast light — on a chilly, gray Monday morning in June — a cluster of city workers quietly gathered outside Los Angeles City Hall to assess the damage.

After thousands of demonstrators converged downtown over the weekend to protest the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants in the country without documentation, the granite walls of the towering Art Deco seat of city government was marked up with fresh graffiti, with the same four-letter expletive preceding the word “ICE” in about a dozen places.

On the south and west sides of City Hall, about a dozen windows were smashed. At least 17 glass-covered light boxes surrounding the structure were busted, with broken shards of blue-gray glass covering the light fixtures.

On the front steps, insults daubed in spray paint were directed at both Mayor Karen Bass and President Trump.

The vandalism and graffiti stretched out block after block across downtown Los Angeles: “Remove Trumps head!!” was scrawled on the front facade of the Los Angeles County Law Library. The T-Mobile store on South Broadway had several windows boarded up, and glass still littered the sidewalk. Spent canisters, labeled “exact impact,” lay on the ground at various intersections.

The former Los Angeles Times building was scrawled with expletives, along with the words: “Immigrants rule the world.” The doors to its historic Globe Lobby were shattered, with graffiti on the large globe inside and across the building’s facade: “Return the homies” and “Trump is scum.”

But few Angelenos appeared outraged by the destruction.

“It’s kind of the usual. We always have protests,” said Eileen Roman as she walked her dog near Grand Central Market.

As the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, she said she understood why people were protesting. Although she didn’t plan to join them on the streets, she said, she would be involved on social media.

“I think we all are concerned about what’s going on,” Roman, 32, said of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Thomas Folland, a downtown resident and art history professor at Los Angeles Mission College, also said he wasn’t particularly concerned by the graffiti and vandalism he saw Monday morning.

“I was curious to see what the aftermath was this morning,” Folland said, noting that it was a particularly loud night at his apartment. But so far, he said, it wasn’t anything that worried him — though he noted his apartment building did start boarding up its windows in anticipation of what might come later this week.

“I’m not that offended by graffiti,” Folland said. “This is at least a genuine community expression.”

Sunday marked the third day of protests in downtown Los Angeles after federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested immigrants at a Home Depot parking lot, L.A.’s Garment District, and several other locations on Friday.

As President Trump ordered the deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops to the city, tensions escalated Sunday. Demonstrators blocked the 101 Freeway, set self-driving cars ablaze and hurled incendiary devices — and, in some cases, chunks of concrete — at law enforcement officers. Police, in turn, wielded tear gas and rubber bullets.

At 8:56 p.m. Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a social media post that “agitators have splintered” throughout downtown and an unlawful assembly had been declared for the Civic Center area.

“Residents, businesses and visitors to the Downtown Area should be alert and report any criminal activity,” LAPD Central Division said on X. “Officers are responding to several different locations to disperse crowds.”

About half an hour later, the LAPD expanded its unlawful assembly across downtown Los Angeles. By 10:23 p.m., police said business owners were reporting that stores were being broken into and burglarized in the area of 6th Street and Broadway.

“All DTLA businesses or residents are requested to report any vandalism, damage or looting to LAPD Central Division so that it can be documented by an official police report,” LAPD Central Division said just before midnight. “Please photograph all vandalism and damage prior to clean up.”

Eric Wright and his wife, Margaux Cowan-Banker, vacationers from Knoxville, Tenn., were on a jog Monday morning downtown and paused to take photos — past scores of police vehicles — of the graffiti-covered Federal Building at 300 N. Los Angeles St., which houses offices for ICE, the IRS, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other agencies.

There was egg on the exterior walls and spray-painted slogans with expletives.

“When tyranny becomes law,” one graffiti said, “rebellion becomes duty,”

The couple — who laughed about being red-state denizens in L.A. during this time — said the peaceful protesters, of which they saw many Sunday night, didn’t bother them.

Though “the graffiti is tough — I appreciate the sentiment, but someone’s gotta clean it up,” said Wright, a 37-year-old physical therapist.

“But a few graffiti-ists don’t make the protest, right?”

As dawn broke Monday, city crews had already fanned out across downtown, cleaning up the aftermath.

Several yellow city street sweepers drove up and down Los Angeles Street in front of the federal courthouse, between blooming purple jacarandas and scores of police vehicles from various SoCal cities.

Just before 9 a.m., two workers from C. Erwin Piper Technical Center carried planks of plywood to City Hall to board up the windows. When they were done, they told The Times, they planned to head across the street to repair the Los Angeles Police Department’s headquarters.

Members of the National Guard were stationed outside the federal detention center and downtown Los Angeles V.A. clinic at Alameda and Temple streets, and police cars blocked roads around the federal buildings.

A person in a silver SUV — their head entirely covered by a white balaclava — drove by the barricade at Commercial and Alameda streets, window down. They flipped off the officers standing nearby.

Some stores that were typically open on a Monday morning remained shuttered, including Blue Bottle Coffee. But others, including Grand Central Market, were already buzzing with customers.

Octavio Gomez, a supervisor with the DTLA Alliance, quickly rolled black paint onto a wall next to Grand Central Market that had been newly covered in graffiti.

“Today’s a bad day because of … last night,” Gomez said, noting his teams had been working since 5 a.m. to respond to the damage across the city. “It’s all going to come back, right? Because there’s still protests.”

For the couple from Knoxville, the juxtaposition between their weekend in L.A. and news coverage of the protests felt bizarre.

They had an idyllic Los Angeles Sunday — a food festival, the L.A. Pride March in Hollywood, a visit to Grand Central Market.

But on TV and social media, Los Angeles was portrayed as a place of total chaos.

“People back where we live are going to completely be horrified,” said Cowan-Banker, a 42-year-old personal trainer. “I’m sure they think it’s a war zone here.”

But Wright said he thought people should be protesting the Trump administration: “They’re stealing people off the streets from their families,” he said, referring to the ICE raids. “This is America. To send the National Guard was intentionally inflammatory.”

“This feeds right into his voters,” Wright said of Trump.

“And they’re the people we go home to,” his wife added. “I’m kinda glad we’re here to carry information, though no one’s gonna listen.”

The couple, at the halfway point of their five-mile morning run, kept on snapping their photos, past a line of police cars.

The scenes unfolding in Los Angeles should alarm every American who values constitutional governance. Federal troops have been deployed to a major American city not in response to an insurrection or natural disaster, but to suppress protests against immigration enforcement operations. The whole of downtown Los Angeles has been declared an “unlawful assembly area”.

This represents a dangerous escalation that threatens the very foundations of the US democratic system.

What began as routine raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on June 6 quickly spiralled into something far more ominous. Federal agents swept through Los Angeles, detaining 121 individuals from restaurants, stores and apartment buildings. The raids were conducted in broad daylight, with a calculated boldness that seemed designed to provoke.

The community’s response was swift. By the afternoon, protesters had gathered downtown, not as rioters but as a grieving community, holding signs and chanting “Set them free!”.

This was grief made public, anger given voice. But in today’s America, even peaceful displays of grief and anger are not allowed when they go against the narrative set by those in power.

The police responded with force. Tear gas canisters flew. Flash-bang grenades exploded. A peaceful demonstration transformed into a battlefield — not because protesters chose violence, but because the government did.

US President Donald Trump decided to escalate further. He signed a memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatening to mobilise active-duty Marines if protests continued.

The legality of these actions is questionable at best. Under the Insurrection Act, federal troops can only be deployed after a public proclamation calls for citizens to disperse. Such a proclamation has not been made, and Trump has not invoked the act. Governor Gavin Newsom, who has the power to decide on matters of security in the state of California, was not consulted; he was simply informed.

There is no widespread rebellion threatening the authority of the United States. There are no enemy combatants in Los Angeles, just angry, grieving people demanding dignity for their communities. What we’re witnessing is not the lawful execution of federal authority but improvisation masquerading as application of law, the slow erosion of constitutional order, replaced by declaration, spectacle, and muscle.

If challenged in court, this deployment would likely be deemed illegal. But that may not matter – and that is the most chilling aspect of this crisis. We are fast moving towards a place where illegality no longer matters, where muscle has arrived with or without paperwork, and law is merely a facade.

This moment cannot be understood in isolation. As scholar Aime Cesaire observed in his analysis of colonialism, violence in the periphery inevitably returns to the metropole. The tools of oppression developed abroad always find their way home.

In the US, this has been a decades-long process. In 1996, a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act allowed the Pentagon to transfer surplus military-grade weaponry to local police departments. In the following three decades, the same weapons that were used for imperialist violence abroad were transferred to police departments to deploy in poor and marginalised communities.

Then with the start of the “war on terror”, tactics to target and subjugate foreign populations were transferred at home to use against vulnerable communities. Congress passed sweeping laws like the USA PATRIOT Act and amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, enabling mass surveillance and intelligence gathering on US soil.

The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists allowed for indefinite military detention of US citizens, while a Supreme Court ruling in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project expanded the “material support” doctrine to criminalise even peaceful engagement with blacklisted groups.

Programmes like Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) turned schools and mosques into surveillance hubs, targeting Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities.

While outside the US government was pursuing a campaign of renditions, torture and illegal detention at Guantanamo Bay, at home, it was deploying lawfare against “suspect” communities.

The 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial introduced “secret evidence” in a US criminal court for the first time, with an anonymous Israeli intelligence officer claiming he could “smell Hamas” on defendants. Georgia’s prosecution of Cop City protesters under “terrorism” charges directly borrowed from this playbook, as did Tennessee’s Bill HB 2348, which extends policing powers to suppress peaceful protests.

After October 2023, the US government violated its own laws in order to participate directly in the genocide in Gaza, providing Israel with weapons and intelligence. The mass repression and erasure that Palestinians had suffered at the hands of their US-backed colonisers were transferred on American soil.

The government launched an unprecedented attack on free speech and academic freedom, cracking down on students protesting the genocide and encouraging retribution against pro-Palestinian voices. We’ve seen tenure revoked, protesters surveilled, and dissent criminalised. Palestinians and their allies have endured a fourfold increase in harassment, doxing, and employment loss; they have also faced violent attacks and murder.

All this started not under Trump, but under his “Democratic” predecessor, former US President Joe Biden, who also increased the budget of police departments by $13bn and expanded ICE’s powers.

The pattern is clear: repressive measures developed to target foreign populations have become tools to suppress all dissent at home.

What is happening in Los Angeles and other cities isn’t about law enforcement; it’s about power projection, about demonstrating that defiance will be met with overwhelming force and quashed.

The legal framework matters less than the spectacle. When federal agents fire flash-bang grenades at protesters outside Home Depot stores, when ICE directors accuse mayors of siding with “chaos and lawlessness”, when FBI officials tweet about hunting down rock throwers, we’re watching the construction of a narrative that justifies state violence.

This is how soft coups unfold: not with tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue, but through executive memos, press briefings, and military logistics disguised as public safety. The Insurrection Act becomes a dead letter not through repeal but through irrelevance.

If this precedent stands, federal troops will become the standard response to resistance. Cities that don’t vote for the president will face occupation. Protest will be redefined as rebellion. The next time people gather in the streets demanding justice, they will not face police officers but soldiers.

When a president can deploy troops without following the law, and no one stops him, law loses its power. It becomes theatre, a facade for a system that has abandoned its own principles.

At this time, we don’t need just legal challenges, we need moral clarity. What’s happening in Los Angeles is not law enforcement: it’s occupation. What’s being called an insurrection is actually resistance to injustice. What’s being framed as public safety is actually political intimidation.

American imperialism has created the infrastructure for exactly this moment. The tools of empire, tested on peoples in the Global South, are now being deployed against American cities. If we don’t recognise this moment for what it is – a fundamental assault on constitutional governance – we will wake up in a country where imperial military force is the primary language of politics.

The US Constitution is only as strong as our willingness to defend it. In Los Angeles, that defence begins now.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Is empathy a desirable quality in a Supreme Court justice?

President Obama has said he’s searching for it in his nominee to replace retiring Justice David H. Souter, but as a qualification for a jurist, it gives conservatives the willies and can produce mixed results in our legal system. We expect judges to resist empathy and instead impose the law evenhandedly. We are appropriately outraged when a judge goes easy on a defendant with whom he identifies — the suburban white kid, say, who gets community service whereas his urban black counterpart goes off to jail.

If empathy can handicap judges, however, it can elevate and enlarge justices. Unlike trial court or even appellate judges, Supreme Court justices are free to regard precedent as subject to challenge, and they act not merely to apply existing judicial norms but rather to question and sometimes overturn them. Doing that well may require experience outside the judicial system and identification with those caught up in it.

In recent history, one court is particularly remembered — by critics and admirers — for its empathy and its consciousness of its outsized place in society as a whole. From 1953 to 1969, the court led by Chief Justice Earl Warren drew upon the varied backgrounds of its justices and the singular character of its chief to craft a remarkable body of work. From race relations to voting rights, from privacy to school prayer, no Supreme Court in U.S. history has done more to draft the contours of society as we experience it today.

Warren himself has to be regarded as a judge who drew upon his life as well as the law in his decision making. A native of Los Angeles who grew up in a modest Bakersfield home, he instinctively sympathized with working people and was forever suspicious of big business, a relic of early summers working for the Southern Pacific.

He started his career as a prosecutor, and that experience guided much of his reasoning on the duties of law enforcement. Partly as a consequence, the Warren court set high standards for those responsible for arresting, charging and trying defendants.

He also won seven elections. After successful campaigns for Alameda County district attorney and California attorney general, he served three terms as California’s governor. It’s no surprise that such a successful politician had enormous confidence in voters. Following his lead, the Warren court eliminated poll taxes and voter literacy tests and imposed requirements of equal representation on state legislative elections, effectively equalizing the voting power of urban blacks and rural whites.

Warren was a stepfather and father, devoted to his six children, and his parental instincts were memorably expressed as he labored over his most important opinion, Brown vs. Board of Education. “To separate [Negro children] from others of their age solely because of their color puts a mark of inferiority not only on their status in the community but upon their little hearts and minds,” Warren wrote in an early draft of that opinion. “Little hearts and minds” leaves no question about whom Warren identified with in that ruling.

Less remembered is Warren’s long struggle to find a constitutional basis for restricting pornography. Warren was raised in Progressive-era California and absorbed that movement’s intolerance for vice. Pornography thus offended his politics and, more viscerally, his sense of parental propriety. Anyone who showed a dirty magazine to one of his girls, Warren often muttered, would get a punch in the mouth. Warren’s empathy for the unwilling recipients of smut was a distraction, as he labored to find a way to punish pornographers but could not fashion a constitutional rule that upheld the 1st Amendment and also squared it with what he regarded as offensive material. The Warren court drifted without much success in the area of pornography.

What is perhaps least well known about Warren’s background and its influence on his work as a justice was his deep, personal identification with the victims of violence. Few criticisms gave him greater offense than that the Warren court was “soft on crime,” a charge that Richard M. Nixon, Warren’s nemesis, lobbed at the court in his 1968 campaign for the presidency. It is no wonder that Warren was angered by the accusation: His father had been murdered, beaten to death with an iron pipe in the family home in Bakersfield in May 1938, while Earl was in the midst of his campaign for attorney general. The assailant was never found.

To some, Warren court rulings such as Gideon vs. Wainwright (right to counsel in state trials), Mapp vs. Ohio (exclusion of illegally seized evidence from state trials), Douglas vs. California (right to counsel on appeal), Escobedo vs. Illinois (exclusion of confessions taken after a suspect asked for a lawyer and was refused access to one) and Miranda vs. Arizona (right of suspects to be informed of their rights) suggested too much empathy with criminals at the expense of police and prosecutors. Warren never did see those cases that way. To him, they were natural expectations of professionalism that he was confident police and prosecutors could meet without endangering their power to convict the guilty. His work in criminal justice reflected two strains of his experience that he never regarded as contradictory — the belief in high standards for law enforcement and the pain of having a loved one killed.

Empathy is not all that is required of great justices. Warren was a careful writer, a skilled leader and a serious, thoughtful, moderate man — all of which helped him unite his court. He was a veteran, a darling of California’s Republican elite, a grand master of the Masons and a member of the Bohemian Club. But his empathy did help shape his judicial record, and in the 16 years that he served as chief justice, the record he compiled consisted of this: Schools and other institutions were desegregated; poor defendants were given access to lawyers; states were ordered to discard voting systems and rules that intentionally disenfranchised blacks; police were reminded that the Constitution requires warrants before they may enter and ransack a home; schools were ordered to stop reading government-approved prayers to children; states were forbidden from denying married couples the right to purchase contraceptives.

Empathy for victims, defendants and others encouraged those rulings; the law and the nation were the beneficiaries. As Obama searches for a justice, Warren’s model of empathy offers sound guidance.

Angelenos love croissants. In recent years the obsession has reached a fever pitch, thanks to new bakeries that have followed in the footsteps of lauded croissant-makers like Proof Bakery and the erstwhile Konbi.

Trendy croissant hybrids have also helped fuel the pastry’s resurgence, including the Cronut, Cruffin and Crookie, as well as viral shapes like cubes and spirals. And while the classic French version has frequently been at the center of L.A.’s croissant craze, in 2025 local bakers are turning to global flavors — reinterpreting the flaky, buttery icon through the lens of their own heritage and childhood memories.

Pastry chef Sharon Wang, owner of Sugarbloom Bakery in Glassell Park, purposely sought to challenge her classic European training when creating her signature kimchi Spam musubi croissant. “The idea came from the diversity of L.A. and also a rebellion against working for an organization that favors only European ingredients,” she says.

In Victor Heights, Bakers Bench chef-owner Jennifer Yee uses the croissant to reinterpret a beloved generational recipe. “The egg roll croissant is something I’m really proud of,” she says. “My paternal parents owned a Chinese restaurant in Columbus, Ohio and they were known for their egg rolls,” says Yee. “It tastes very nostalgic if you grew up in the Midwest eating Chinese American food.”

And that’s just the beginning. In Silver Lake, you’ll find a Cuban bakery with Cubano sandwich-inspired croissants that pay homage to neighborhood history. In Pasadena, one baker is infusing her Persian heritage into a viral croissant shape. From Korean to Argentine-inspired creations, the croissant has become a new creative canvas among local pastry chefs. Here are eight bakeries with globally inspired croissants to try in L.A.

Thousands of protesters have clashed with authorities as they took to the streets of Los Angeles for a third night in response to United States President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard.

Sunday’s protests in Los Angeles, a sprawling city of 4 million people, were centred in several blocks of the city centre. It was the third and most intense day of demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of about 300 National Guard troops spurred anger and fear among many residents.

The troops were deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the Metropolitan Detention Center where protesters concentrated.

The crowds blocked a major highway and set fire to self-driving cars. The authorities used tear gas, rubber bullets and flashbangs.

Governor Gavin Newsom requested Trump remove the National Guard in a letter, calling their deployment a “serious breach of state sovereignty”.

It was the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.

The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests, which began on Friday in central Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city to the south, and neighbouring Compton.

Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA’s fashion district, in a Home Depot car park and at several other locations on Friday.

The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot.

The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said. Many more were arrested whilst protesting, including a prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement.

The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Centre for Justice.

United States President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard to Los Angeles County to quell protests against coordinated immigration raids, bypassing the authority of the governor of California.

The extraordinary development came on Saturday, the second day of protests, amid clashes between law enforcement officers and demonstrators in the city.

The Los Angeles Police Department said Saturday’s demonstrations were peaceful and that “the day concluded without incident”. But in the two cities south of Los Angeles, Compton and Paramount, street battles broke out between protesters and police who used tear gas and flashbangs to disperse the crowds.

Local authorities did not request federal assistance. On the contrary, California Governor Gavin Newsom called Trump’s decision to call in National Guard troops “purposefully inflammatory”.

He accused the Trump administration of ordering the deployment “not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle”.

How did it start?

It all started on Friday, when law enforcement officials in full riot gear descended on Los Angeles, rounding up day labourers at a building supply shop.

The raids, part of a military-style operation, signalled a step up in the Trump administration’s use of force in its crackdown against undocumented immigrants. The arrests were carried out without judicial warrants, according to multiple legal observers and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Department of Homeland Security said more than 100 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in two days of raids across southern California.

After word spread through southern Los Angeles of immigration agents arresting people, residents came out to show their outrage, and a police crackdown followed.

What is the National Guard?

It is made up of part-time soldiers who can be used at the state and federal levels. Under the authority of state governors, National Guard troops can be deployed to respond to emergencies, such as the COVID pandemic, hurricanes and other natural disasters. It can also be used to tackle social unrest when local police are overwhelmed.

During times of war or national emergencies, the federal government can order a deployment for military service – that is, when the National Guard is federalised and serves under the control of the president.

Can the president deploy the National Guard in a state?

The president can federalise, or take control of, the National Guard in very specific cases.

The main legal mechanism that a president can use to send military forces is the Insurrection Act to suppress insurrections, rebellions, and civil disorder within the country. If certain conditions are met, the president can send in the National Guard, bypassing the authority of the governor, though that is rare and politically sensitive.

Following the breakout of protests in Los Angeles, Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act, but rather a specific provision of the US Code on Armed Services. It says National Guard troops can be placed under federal command when “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority” of the US.

But the law also says “orders for these purposes shall be issued through the governors” of the states, making it not clear whether Trump had the legal authority to bypass Newsom.

Trump’s directive ordering the deployment of troops said “protests or acts of violence” directly inhibiting the execution of the laws would “constitute a form of rebellion” against the government.

According to Robert Patillo, a civil and human rights lawyer, Trump’s order will likely face legal challenges.

“Normally, federal troops are going to be used inside states at the invitation of the governor of that state,” he told Al Jazeera, citing the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, which were put down by federal troops invited by Pete Wilson, then-governor of California.

“But if the governor, such as Gavin Newsom, has not asked for federal troops to come in, and these troops are coming in against his will, then there will be challenges … and this will have to go to the Supreme Court in order to determine who has a legal right to deploy those troops,” Patillo said.

Is it the first time Trump has activated the National Guard?

In 2020, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to respond to the protests that followed the killing by a Minneapolis police officer of George Floyd. Then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper pushed back, saying active-duty troops in a law enforcement role should be used “only in the most urgent and dire of situations”.

Finally, Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act and asked governors of several states to deploy their National Guard troops to Washington, DC. Those who refused to send them were allowed to do so.

But this time around, Trump has already signalled his unwillingness to hold back on calling in troops. When on the campaign trail in 2023, Trump told supporters in Iowa that he would not be waiting for a governor to be asked to send in troops as during his first term.

“The next time, I’m not waiting,” he said.

Even in a building as massive as the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown, the organ stands out. How could it not?

Standing 85 feet tall behind the right side of the altar, weighing 42 tons, featuring over 6,000 pipes and bearing the epic name Opus 75, it looks half smokestacks, half battleship and all awesome. It’s regularly used during Mass and has hosted organists from around the world since its 2003 debut.

But what’s coolest about Opus 75 — and what not enough people know — is that the Cathedral holds free lunchtime recitals featuring its star instrument on the first Wednesday of each month.

As an organ fanatic, I have long wanted to attend one. I finally had the chance this week.

A cathedral of and for L.A.

Accompanied by my Times colleague (and fellow classical music head) Ruben Vives, I arrived at the cathedral during the daily 12:10 service, just before the Eucharist. Resident organist Sook Hyun Kim worked the King of Instruments like the seasoned pro she is, including a moving version of “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace” — an apropos hymn for the era of Pope Leo XIV.

About 40 people representing the breadth of L.A. — white, Latino, Asian, Black and all age groups — spread out across the pews after Mass ended to listen to guest organist Emma Yim. The 22-year-old graduated from UCLA (Go Bruins!) two years ago with degrees in biology and organ performance. She is pursuing a master’s from our alma mater in the latter discipline, does research for a UCLA Department of Medicine women’s health lab and also plays the cello.

Man, and I thought I covered a lot of ground!

Her choice for the cathedral recital: three of the five movements from French composer Charles-Marie Widor’s Symphony No. 5. It would be Yim’s first time playing Opus 75.

Playing the King of Instruments

The first movement was mostly variations on a cascading theme. Kim stood to Yim’s side to flip the pages of the score while the latter’s hands leaped around the rows of the organ’s keys. Yim played at first like she didn’t want to tempt the power of the behemoth before her — the notes were soft and cautious.

But during Widor’s playful second movement, the young adults in attendance who had been on their smartphones began to pay attention. Heads began to sway with every swirl of Baroque-like chords that Yim unleashed. “I could hear elements of ‘Lord of the Rings’ in there,” Ruben whispered to me as we looked on from our center pews.

Opus 75 was waking up

She skipped two movements to perform the Fifth’s fifth, better known as Widor’s Toccata. Its soaring passages have made it a popular song for weddings. More people began to poke their head in from the hallways that ring the cathedral’s worship space to see what was going on. Yim became more animated as she worked the keys and foot pedals faster and faster. High-pitched arpeggios accentuated resonant bass notes.

Kim stopped flipping the score, stepped back and looked on in awe like the rest of us as Yim roused Opus 75 to its full might.

A performance that pushes us to a better place

The majesty of L.A. suddenly crossed my mind. Even in tough times like these, it’s unsurpassed in beauty, in its people and especially in its capacity to surprise and delight in places expected and not. It’s people like Yim and performances like hers that stir us all forward to a better place.

The recital ended. “Beautiful, just beautiful,” Ruben said, and I agreed. The applause the crowd gave Yim was swallowed up by the cathedral’s size and our sparse numbers, but she was visibly moved. “Thank you all for coming,” the youngster quietly said, and we all went off to our day.

Kim told Ruben and me that the cathedral’s organ series will take a summer break before it relaunches in September. See you then!

Today’s top stories

A for-sale sign is posted at a home on Lake Avenue that was destroyed by the Eaton fire.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Developers are buying up Altadena

Elon Musk and Donald Trump have very publicly broken up

UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk vows to restore campus trust amid ‘nervousness and anxiety’

• Since he took the helm this year at UCLA, Chancellor Julio Frenk has found himself in a vortex of unprecedented obstacles not only to his campus, but also to the nation’s institutions of higher education.
• In an interview, he defended scientific university research, diversity efforts, admissions practices and international students amid attacks from Trump, and said he wanted to “eradicate antisemitism.”

Candidates for California governor faced off in first bipartisan clash

• In the first bipartisan gathering of 2026 gubernatorial candidates, four Democrats and two Republicans agreed that despite the state boasting one of the world’s largest economies, too many of its residents are suffering because of the affordability crisis in the state.
• Their strategies on how to improve the state’s economy, however, largely embraced the divergent views of their respective political parties as they discussed housing costs, high-speed rail, tariffs, climate change and homelessness.

California petitions the FDA to undo Kennedy’s new limits on abortion pill mifepristone

What else is going on

Commentary and opinions

This morning’s must-reads

Other must-reads

For your downtime

(Carla Blumenkrantz / For The Times)

Going out

Staying in

A question for you: What’s the best advice you’ve gotten from your father or father figure?

Polly says, “My dad used to love the saying, ‘if you’re not living life on the edge, you’re taking up too much space!’ He would say it as reminder for himself and to my sister and I to not overthink things and to just let loose, stop worrying, or try something new.”

Peter says, “I was around 8 or 9 years old and prattling on about something I knew nothing about, when my father sternly admonished me. He said ‘Peter, you only learn when you listen, never when you talk.’ His words resonated and got me to my core.”

Email us at [email protected], and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally … your photo of the day

Sliding Fleetwood pocket doors open the airy kitchen and living spaces to the backyard.

(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

Today’s great photo is from Times photographer Juliana Yamada at the Manhattan Beach home of Paul and Cailin Goncalves, who turned their formerly compartmentalized home and ADU into a bright, flexible family home.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected]. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

Federal agents have fired flashbangs and tear gas towards crowds angered by the arrests of dozens of migrants in Los Angeles, United States, a city with a large Latino population.

The Department for Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Los Angeles this week had led to the arrest of “118 aliens, including five gang members”.

The standoff came on Saturday in the suburb of Paramount, where demonstrators gathered outside a reported federal facility, which the local mayor said was being used as a staging post by agents.

On Friday, masked and armed immigration agents carried out high-profile workplace raids across different parts of Los Angeles, drawing angry crowds and causing hours-long standoffs.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass acknowledged that some residents were “feeling fear” following the federal actions.

“Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but let me be clear: violence and destruction are unacceptable, and those responsible will be held accountable,” she said on X.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said multiple arrests had been made after Friday’s clashes.

“You bring chaos, and we’ll bring handcuffs. Law and order will prevail,” he said on X.

The White House has taken a firm stance against the protests, with deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller describing them as “an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States”.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

White House says the US president is deploying 2,000 guardsmen to address ‘lawlessness’ as protests against immigration raids continue.

United States President Donald Trump is deploying 2,000 National Guard troops to the city of Los Angeles, where a continued immigration crackdown has led to protests and clashes between authorities and demonstrators.

The White House said in a statement on Saturday that Trump was deploying the Guardsmen to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester” in California.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, objected to the move and said in a post on X that the move from the Republican president was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions”.

More soon…

June 7 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to quell protester violence while Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conduct local raids.

ICE agents used riot gear as they clashed with protestors during a series of raids in Los Angeles, where they detained dozens of people.

“In recent days, violent mobs have attacked ICE officers and federal law enforcement agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement shared with UPI.

“These operations are essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States,” Leavitt said.

“In the wake of this violence, California’s feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens,” she added.

President Trump signed a memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to end the violence.

“The Trump administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs,” Leavitt said.

“These criminals will be arrested and swiftly brought to justice,” she continued.

“The Commander-in-Chief will ensure the laws of the United States are executed fully and completely.”

Separate raids by ICE agents earlier this week at a Home Depot and two separate clothing outlet stores drew crowds of protestors on Friday.

In some instances, the federal agents carried shields, military-style rifles and shotguns while conducting the raids.

The department later confirmed it was executing four federal search warrants at the three locations.

“Approximately 44 people were administratively arrested and one arrest for obstruction,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told KTLA TV.

“The investigation remains ongoing, updates will follow as appropriate.”

Service Employees International Union leader David Huerta was among those detained.

The SEIU local president was charged with obstruction of justice.

“Federal agents were executing a lawful judicial warrant at a LA worksite this morning when David Huerta deliberately obstructed their access by blocking their vehicle. He was arrested for interfering with federal officers and will face arraignment in federal court on Monday,” U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli wrote on X.

“Let me be clear: I don’t care who you are — if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted. No one has the right to assault, obstruct, or interfere with federal authorities carrying out their duties,” he wrote.

People can be heard on video yelling at the crowds in Spanish, and telling them not to sign paperwork or speak to federal officials.

By Friday evening, the Los Angeles Police Department declared unlawful assembly near the Civic Center in the northern part of the city’s downtown core, issuing a city-wide alert that forced all officers to remain on-duty.

LAPD officers were later forced to use tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse crowds in the city. At one point, protesters were reportedly throwing large pieces of concrete during the unrest

The alert was cancelled around midnight Friday.

“As mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wrote on X.

“These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. My office is in close coordination with immigrant rights community organizations. We will not stand for this.”

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s David Zahniser, with an assist from Noah Goldberg and Laura Nelson, giving you the latest on city and county government.

If Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass manages to hold on to her power to oversee the city’s homelessness programs, she may well have one person to thank: City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo.

Szabo, a fixture in the administrations of the past three mayors, was effectively the city’s star witness in its legal battle against the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, the nonprofit group that sued the city in 2020 over its handling of the homelessness crisis.

During a seven-day hearing that concluded Wednesday, the alliance pressed U.S. Dist. Judge David O. Carter to take authority over homeless services away from Bass and the City Council and give it to a to-be-determined third party overseen by the court.

On four of those seven days, Szabo sat in the witness chair, defending the city’s decisions and occasionally offering cutting remarks about the city’s critics. Above all, he insisted the city would meet its obligation to provide 12,915 additional homeless beds by June 2027, as required under a settlement agreement with the alliance.

Szabo, who reports to both Bass and the council, is well known within City Hall for his work preparing the city budget, negotiating with city unions and providing policy recommendations on homelessness and other issues. During his time in Carter’s courtroom, he was also a human shield, taking the brunt of the hostile questions and helping to ensure that Bass and others would not be called to testify.

Throughout the proceedings, the city’s lawyers lodged hundreds of objections to the alliance’s questions, sometimes before they had been fully asked. Carter cautioned them that the rapid-fire interruptions could make things difficult for inexperienced witnesses.

He also made clear that the group did not include Szabo.

“Mr. Szabo,” the judge said, “certainly is used to the stress.”

The alliance had placed not just Bass but also Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Traci Park on its witness list, saying all three had made public statements criticizing the response system. Bass herself called the system “broken” during her State of the City address in April, a fact highlighted by Matthew Umhofer, an attorney for the alliance.

Those statements, Umhofer said, only reinforce the alliance’s argument that the city’s homelessness programs are beyond repair and must be placed into receivership.

“The city is not fixing that broken system,” he said during closing arguments. “It’s simply doubling down on that broken system.”

Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl, asked to explain the mayor’s use of the word “broken,” said she was referring to a number of obstacles, including “an urge from many to return to the old way of doing things that allowed homelessness to explode.”

“But change is happening,” he said. “Under the Mayor’s leadership, we are moving forward.”

The city’s newly hired legal team from Gibson Dunn, the law firm that persuaded the Supreme Court to uphold laws barring homeless encampments on public property, sought to amplify that message. They also claimed the mayor and council members were shielded by the “apex doctrine,” which bars high-level, or apex, government officials from testifying except in extraordinary circumstances.

The city’s lawyers offered up just two witnesses of their own: Szabo and Etsemaye Agonafer, Bass’ deputy mayor for homelessness programs, saying they were the most familiar with the issues. The alliance initially sought 15.

Agonafer testified for about four hours, highlighting progress made by the mayor’s Inside Safe program, which moves people out of encampments and into hotels and motels.

Umhofer ultimately withdrew his subpoenas targeting Bass and the others, saying he didn’t want to incur additional delays. But he called Bass cowardly for failing to show up. By then, he said, his team had enough evidence to show that the city’s elected officials should no longer control homeless programs.

“We have quite literally put the homelessness response system in Los Angeles on trial,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, another alliance attorney, on the final day of proceedings.

The alliance used much of the questioning to highlight problems at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, also known as LAHSA. That agency, overseen by a board of appointees from the city and county, has been criticized repeatedly in audits dating back to 2001 — documents highlighted by the alliance during the proceedings.

Szabo acknowledged that LAHSA has faced issues with data collection. But he insisted that the city is closely tracking the beds required under its settlement with the alliance. “We have taken steps to ensure that the data we are reporting is accurate,” he told the court.

Carter, who has yet to rule in the case, did not sound as confident in the city’s attention to detail. On Wednesday, he demanded that the city turn over records regarding its compliance with another agreement in the case — this one known as the “roadmap.” The roadmap agreement, which expires June 30, required the city to produce 6,700 beds.

In his order, Carter raised questions about whether city officials had double counted “time-limited subsidies” — money used to help homeless people move into apartments and pay their rent — by applying them both to the roadmap requirements and to the obligations within the alliance settlement agreement.

Szabo said city officials are collecting the records for the judge.

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, whose district includes Hollywood, voiced confidence in Szabo. He also praised Bass for taking on the issue of homelessness, pointing out that LAHSA reported that the city had made progress last year.

“We’re doing things that are showing results,” said Soto-Martínez, whose office has participated in 23 Inside Safe encampment operations. “Is it perfect? No. But we’re working through it.”

State of play

— ICE RAID OUTRAGE: L.A.’s elected officials voiced their anger on Friday over a series of federal immigration sweeps in Westlake, Cypress Park and other parts of the city. L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said the individuals detained were “hardworking Angelenos who contribute to our local economy and labor force every day.”

Bass issued her own statement, saying: “We will not stand for this.”

“As Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place,” she said. “These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.”

— WELCOME, AECOM: Nearly five months after a firestorm laid waste to a wide swath of Pacific Palisades, Bass announced that the city has hired the global infrastructure firm AECOM to develop a plan for rebuilding the area and reconstructing utilities and other infrastructure. The firm will work alongside both the city and Hagerty Consulting, which Bass tapped as a recovery contractor in February, according to the mayor’s office.

— SWITCHING HORSES? Businessman and gubernatorial candidate Stephen J. Cloobeck offered praise for L.A.’s mayor last year, commending her for her work addressing homelessness. He even said he had donated $1 million to LA4LA, an initiative promoted by Bass during her 2024 State of the City address, an event he attended. But last weekend, while making the rounds at the California Democratic Convention, he told The Times he wasn’t so keen on Bass’ leadership. “I would support Rick Caruso in a heartbeat over Mayor Karen Bass, and that’s a quote,” he said.

— MISSED MESSAGES: Bass has come under heavy scrutiny for deleting text messages she sent during the January firestorms. But she wasn’t the only one. L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the area devastated by the Eaton fire, has an iPhone that “auto deletes” messages every 30 days, her spokesperson said.

— ENGINE TROUBLE: Earlier this year, then-Fire Chief Kristin Crowley cited disabled engines, and a lack of mechanics, as one reason why fire officials did not dispatch more personnel to Pacific Palisades before the Jan. 7 fire. But a Times analysis found that many of the broken engines highlighted by department officials had been out of service for many months or even years — and not necessarily for a lack of mechanics. What’s more, the LAFD had dozens of other engines that could have been staffed and deployed in advance of the fire.

— SAYONARA, CEQA: State lawmakers are on the verge of overhauling the California Environmental Quality Act, which has been used for decades to fight real estate development and public works projects in L.A. and elsewhere. One proposal would wipe away the law for most urban housing developments.

— PADRINOS PAYOUT: L.A. County has agreed to pay nearly $2.7 million to a teenager whose violent beating at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall launched a sprawling criminal investigation into so-called “gladiator fights” inside the troubled facility. Video of the December 2023 beating, captured on CCTV, showed Jose Rivas Barillas, then 16, being pummeled by six juveniles as probation officers stood idly by.

— EVADING EVICTION: A 70-year-old homeless man who illegally moved into a state-owned house in the path of the now-canceled 710 Freeway extension is fighting his eviction. Benito Flores, who seized a vacant residence in El Sereno several years ago, recently holed up in a tree house he built in the backyard — and so far has warded off attempts by sheriff’s deputies to lock him out.

— AIRPORT AHEAD: The long-awaited LAX/Metro transit center at Aviation Boulevard and 96th Street finally opened on Friday, bringing commuters tantalizingly close to Los Angeles International Airport. For now, free shuttle buses will run every 10 minutes along the 2.5-mile route between the transit center and LAX.

— BREAKING BARRIERS: The first transgender captain in the Los Angeles Fire Department died last month at age 80. Michele Kaemmerer joined the LAFD in 1969, retiring in 2003. She transitioned in 1991 and later led Engine 63 in Marina del Rey. In a 1999 interview with PBS, Kaemmerer said that some firefighters who knew her before she transitioned refused to work with her. Despite those hardships, she “always had a good attitude,” said her widow, Janis Walworth.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to combat homelessness did not launch any operations at new locations this week.
• On the docket for next week: The city’s newly formed Charter Reform Commission holds its first meeting on Tuesday, discussing the process that will be used to select its remaining members.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Los Angeles witnessed a series of coordinated immigration raids by United States law enforcement officials on Friday, resulting in the arrest of dozens and igniting widespread protests.

The raids, which were carried out in a military-style operation, have intensified concerns about the force used by federal immigration officials and the rights of undocumented individuals.

Here is what we know about the raids and the latest on the ground.

What happened in LA?

Federal agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) conducted a series of “immigration enforcement operations” across Los Angeles on Friday morning.

Individuals suspected of “immigration violations and the use of fraudulent documents” were arrested. The arrests were carried out without judicial warrants, according to multiple legal observers and confirmed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), which did not take part in the raids, was called in to quell ensuing protests.

The raids were part of a broader initiative under the Trump administration’s intensified immigration policies.

Which areas were raided?

The raids focused on several locations in downtown LA and its immediate surroundings. These spots are known to have significant migrant populations and labour-intensive industries.

Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), which covers California, said advocates had recorded enforcement activity at seven sites. This included two Home Depot stores in the Westlake District of Los Angeles, a doughnut shop and the clothing wholesaler, Ambiance Apparel in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles.

Other locations in which raids were carried out included day labour centres and one other Ambiance facility near 15th Street and Santa Fe Avenue in south Los Angeles.

How many people have been arrested?

ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) reported the “administrative arrest” of 44 individuals for immigration-related offences.

An administrative arrest, unlike a criminal arrest, refers to detention for civil immigration violations such as overstaying a visa or lacking legal status, and does not require criminal charges. These arrests can result in detention, deportation, temporary re-entry bans and denial of future immigration requests.

Advocates believe the number of arrests made was higher, however. Caleb Soto, of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, told Al Jazeera that between 70 and 80 people had been detained, but only three lawyers have been allowed access to the detention centre where they were being held to provide legal advice.

Additionally, David Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California, was arrested for allegedly obstructing federal agents during the raids. Huerta was reportedly injured during the arrest and received medical treatment at Los Angeles General Medical Center before being taken into custody.

What kinds of raids were these?

What sets these raids apart from typical civil enforcement actions was their military-style execution, experts say.

According to witnesses, legal observers and advocacy groups, federal agents involved in the operations were heavily armed and dressed in tactical gear, with some wearing camouflage and carrying rifles.

Agents arrived in unmarked black SUVs and armoured vehicles and, at certain points, sealed off entire streets around targeted buildings. Drones were reportedly used for surveillance in some areas and access to sites was blocked off with yellow tape, similar to measures which would be taken during a high-threat counterterrorism or drug bust operation.

The ACLU described the show of force as an “oppressive and vile paramilitary operation”. Civil liberties groups said the tactics used had created panic in local communities and may have violated protocols for civil immigration enforcement.

How did protests break out?

As news of the raids spread via social media and through immigrant advocacy networks, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Edward R Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, where detainees were being processed.

Demonstrators blocked entrances and exits to the building, chanted slogans and demanded the release of those arrested. Some spray-painted anti-ICE slogans on the building’s exterior walls. Several protesters attempted to physically stop ICE vehicles, leading to confrontations with law enforcement.

LAPD officers issued dispersal orders and warned protesters that they would be subject to arrest if they remained in the area. To enforce the order, officers in riot gear deployed tear gas, pepper spray and “less-lethal munitions”, including firing rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. A citywide tactical alert was also issued, requiring all LAPD officers to remain on duty.

What’s happening now?

Shortly after 7pm on Friday [02:00 GMT Saturday], the LAPD declared the protests to be an “unlawful assembly”, meaning that those who failed to leave the area could be subject to arrest. The declaration appeared to remain in effect until the crowd dispersed later that evening, though no formal end time was publicly announced.

US media outlets and rights groups reported that hundreds of detainees, including children, were held overnight in the basement of the federal building without access to beds, blankets or adequate food and water.

However, an ICE spokesperson told CBS News that the agency “categorically refutes the assertions made by immigration activists in Los Angeles”, stating that it takes its mandate to care for people in custody “seriously”.

The status of all individuals detained remains unclear. While some have been released, others continue to be held and details about their current locations or conditions have not been fully disclosed.

What are the reactions to the raids?

Local and state officials condemned the raids and the manner in which they were conducted.

In a statement shared on X on Friday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said such operations “sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city”.

We will not stand for this. pic.twitter.com/Ug1CN4JKOz

— Mayor Karen Bass (@MayorOfLA) June 6, 2025

California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement describing the operations as “cruel” and “chaotic”, adding that they are an attempt “to meet an arbitrary arrest quota”.

All 15 members of the Los Angeles City Council issued a joint statement denouncing the raids.

Some Trump administration officials, on the other hand, defended the actions and criticised local leaders for pushing back. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, for instance, suggested that Mayor Karen Bass was undermining federal law.

You have no say in this at all. Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced. https://t.co/N53UBl3UM4

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) June 6, 2025

Protesters gathered after immigration agents took dozens of people into custody during raids across Los Angeles.

There have been tense confrontations in Los Angeles as riot police and demonstrators – protesting federal immigration raids – squared off in the downtown area.

Earlier on Friday, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took dozens of people into custody during raids across Los Angeles city.

Caravans of unmarked military-style vehicles and vans loaded with uniformed federal agents streamed through the city as part of the operation.

The ICE agents raided several locations, including an apparel store in the city’s Fashion District, a Home Depot in Westlake District, and a clothing warehouse in South Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles City News Service.

In response, crowds of demonstrators protesting the raids massed outside a jail where some of the detainees were believed to be held and spray-painted anti-ICE slogans on the walls of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers – who did not take part in the immigration raids – were called in to quell the unrest. Wielding batons and tear gas rifles, LAPD officers faced off with the demonstrators after authorities ordered them to disperse on Friday night.

Some protesters hurled broken concrete towards the LAPD officers, the Reuters news agency reports. Police responded by firing volleys of tear gas and pepper spray.

LAPD spokesperson Drake Madison said police on the scene declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, meaning that those who failed to leave the area were subject to arrest, according to Reuters.

It’s not immediately clear how many arrests have been made.

Stoking fear and terror

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass condemned the federal immigration raids, saying they “sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city”.

Caleb Soto, of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, told Al Jazeera that between 70 and 80 people had been detained, but only three lawyers have been allowed access to the detention centre where they were being held to provide legal advice.

“The chaotic manner of the raids that we saw today happening throughout Los Angeles and different day-labour worksites and garment worker work sites was an example of the purpose of what this Trump administration has set out to do, which is create as much fear as possible,” Soto told Al Jazeera.

He said the ICE agents conducting the raids did not obtain a judicial warrant required under US law, and granted by a judge if there is probable cause to carry out an arrest because of suspected criminal activity.

Soto said ICE agents were showing up at work sites “where they know that there are a lot of immigrant workers” and “people without documents”, and if someone starts running they use that as “reasonable suspicion” that the person is undocumented.

“They use that as the pretext to start arresting people who are there in that area and around them. We find that to be pretty unconstitutional,” he said.

The Los Angeles raids are the latest sweeps in several US cities over recent months as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Trump, who took immediate steps to ramp up immigration enforcement after taking office in January, has promised to arrest and deport undocumented migrants in record numbers.

In late May, his administration stated it would revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 people in the country, including Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

From Jack Harris: It was a night of redemption at Dodger Stadium.

For the struggling home team, its recently beleaguered closer and its enigmatic third baseman most of all.

In a 6-5 win against the New York Mets on Tuesday, Max Muncy atoned for a costly fifth-inning error with a two-home run performance, including a game-tying blast in the bottom of the ninth.

Left-hander Tanner Scott snapped out of his recent funk, throwing a scoreless 10th inning a night after taking a loss in the same situation.

And after two consecutive frustrating defeats, the Dodgers finally bounced back on Freddie Freeman’s walk-off double in the bottom of the 10th; earning a win that kept them in sole possession of first place in the National League West, and chased a few demons for both Scott and Muncy in the process.

“We needed every bit of it,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s good to see the resilience from a lot of our guys.”

Continue reading here

Dodgers star Freddie Freeman’s family appreciated kind gesture from slain Baldwin Park officer

Shigeo Nagashima, Japanese baseball legend with ties to the Dodgers, dies at 89

Judge orders woman who accused ex-Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer of sexual assault to pay damages by default

Dodgers box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS

All Times Pacific

NBA FINALS

Oklahoma City vs. Indiana

Thursday at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Sunday at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC
Wed., June 11 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Friday, June 13 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC
Monday, June 16 at Oklahoma City, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Thursday, June 19 at Indiana, 5:30 p.m., ABC*
Sunday, June 22 at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., ABC*

*if necessary

ANGELS

Automatic runner Zach Neto scored on Taylor Ward’s bases-loaded double-play groundout to lift the Angels to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox in 10 innings on Tuesday night.

Nolan Schanuel had two RBIs and Neto added two hits and an RBI to give the Angels consecutive wins for the first time since capping an eight-game win streak on May 23.

Kenley Jansen (1-2) pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up the win a night after getting a save and Reid Detmers got his first save.

Continue reading here

Angels box score

MLB scores

MLB standings

RAMS

From Gary Klein: Puka Nacua is using organized team activities to hone his craft and prepare for his third NFL season.

But the Rams’ star receiver also recently took time to help others prepare to avoid potential health challenges.

Nacua last week returned from a trip to Samoa, where he and his mother joined medical professionals from Utah Valley University to provide testing, clinics and education about diabetes.

Nacua said his father, who died when Nacua was a youngster, experienced complications from the disease.

So the opportunity to travel with his mother to his maternal grandmother’s village was “kind of a full-circle moment” for his family, Nacua said Tuesday.

“To be able to go and improve the situation in the homeland was something sweet,” Nacua said after the team went through a workout.

Continue reading here

ANGEL CITY

From Kevin Baxter: It doesn’t seem that long ago that Christen Press was helping the national team to consecutive World Cup titles. She was unstoppable then, a key cog in the greatest women’s soccer team in history.

Yet she played her 155th and final match for the U.S. in the Tokyo Olympics.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Press, just 18 days removed from those Olympics, became the first player signed by expansion club Angel City. She was bringing the NWSL to her hometown and was being rewarded with what was then the richest contract in league history.

Yet she’s started just 10 games since then, losing most of the last three seasons to a stubborn anterior cruciate ligament injury that took four surgeries to repair.

Press eventually will be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame, but she isn’t ready for that trip just yet. If her body isn’t always willing, her mind and her heart are still keen on the sport, so Press makes her most valuable contributions now in the quiet of the locker room.

Continue reading here

L.A. PARALYMPICS

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Already slated to be the first venue in the world to host events from three different Olympic Summer Games, the Coliseum will help break new ground for the Paralympics in 2028.

The iconic stadium is at the center of the first Paralympic Games in L.A. as it hosts the para track and field competition, LA28 announced Tuesday in an updated venue plan that placed 23 disciplines into their future Paralympic homes.

“This is a momentous occasion for the city of Los Angeles,” para swimmer and Inglewood native Jamal Hill said in an interview with The Times. “Being a native Los Angeleno, you always hear about this melting pot of Los Angeles and many times, that melting pot, the default is to really thinking like, ethnic or racial or even cultural based. … I think it’s really, really beautiful and inclusive now that that melting pot is really starting to cover ability.”

Continue reading here

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE, RESULTS

All times Pacific

STANLEY CUP FINALS

Edmonton vs. Florida
Wednesday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Friday at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT
Monday at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Thursday, June 12 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT
Saturday, June 14 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*
Tuesday, June 17 at Florida, 5 p.m., TNT*
Friday, June 20 at Edmonton, 5 p.m., TNT*

* If necessary

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1870 — Ed Brown becomes the first Black jockey to win the Belmont Stakes, with Kingfisher.

1927 — The United States wins the first Ryder Cup golf tournament by beating Britain 9½-2½.

1932 — Faireno, ridden by Tommy Malley, wins the Belmont Stakes by 1½ lengths over Osculator. Burgoo King, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, doesn’t race.

1966 — Ameroid, ridden by Bill Boland, wins the Belmont Stakes by 2½ lengths over Buffle. Kauai King, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, finishes fourth.

1974 — NFL grants franchise to Seattle Seahawks.

1984 — 1960 champion Arnold Palmer fails to qualify for the US Open Golf Championship for the first time in 32 years.

1987 — Danny Harris defeats Edwin Moses in the 400 hurdles at a meet in Madrid, ending the longest winning streak in track and field. Moses, had won 122 consecutive races dating to Aug. 26, 1977.

1988 — West Germany’s Steffi Graf beats 17-year-old Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union in 32 minutes with a 6-0, 6-0 victory to win the French Open for the second straight year.

1990 — Penn State is voted into the Big Ten. The school becomes the 11th member of the league and first addition to the Midwest-based conference since Michigan State in 1949.

1994 — Haile Gebrselassie becomes the first Ethiopian to set a world track record with a time of 12:56.96 in the men’s 5,000 meters at Hengelo, Netherlands.

1998 — Harut Karapetyan of the Galaxy scores three goals in five minutes for the fastest hat trick in MLS history in an 8-1 rout of the Dallas Burn. The seven-goal margin sets an MLS record.

2005 — Justine Henin-Hardenne beats a rattled and fumbling Mary Pierce 6-1, 6-1 to win the French Open, capping a comeback from a blood virus with her fourth Grand Slam title and her second at Roland Garros.

2005 — Eddie Castro sets a North American record for most wins by a jockey in one day at one track, winning nine races on the 13-race card at Miami’s Calder Race Course.

2008 — The Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in 11 seasons with a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 .

2011 — Li Na becomes the first Chinese — man or woman — to win a Grand Slam singles title. She beats Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-6 (0) in the French Open final for her fifth career title and first on clay.

2016 — Garbine Muguruza wins her first Grand Slam title by beating defending champion Serena Williams 7-5, 6-4 at the French Open, denying the American her record-equaling 22nd major trophy.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1940 — The Pirates beat the Boston Bees 14-2 in the first night game at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field.

1940 — The St. Louis Cardinals play their first night game at Sportsman’s Park, defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers 10-1.

1951 — Pittsburgh’s Gus Bell hit for the cycle to lead the Pirates to a 12-4 victory over the Phillies at Philadelphia.

1964 — Sandy Koufax pitched his third no-hitter, striking out 12, as the Dodgers beat the Phillies 3-0 in Philadelphia.

1968 — Don Drysdale of the Dodgers blanked the Pirates 5-0 for his sixth straight shutout en route to a record 58 2-3 scoreless innings.

1972 — A major league record eight shutouts were pitched in 16 major league games: five in the American League, three in the National League. The Oakland Athletics swept a pair from the Baltimore Orioles by identical 2-0 scores.

1974 — The game between the Cleveland Indians and the Texas Rangers at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium was forfeited to Texas. Umpire Nestor Chylak had problems with fans all night on 10-cent beer night. The crowd got out of control when Cleveland tied the score 5-5 in the bottom of the ninth.

1989 — Toronto beats Boston 13-11 in 12 innings after trailing 10-0 after six. Red Sox starter Mike Smithson threw six scoreless innings before leaving in the seventh because of a foot blister. The Jays then scored two in the seventh, four in the eighth and five in the ninth and two more in the 11th on Junior Felix’s home run. It was the biggest lead the Red Sox have blown and their 12th consecutive loss to the Blue Jays at Fenway Park.

1990 — Ramon Martinez struck out 18 and pitched a three-hitter, sending the Dodgers past the Atlanta Braves 6-0.

1996 — Pamela Davis pitched one inning of scoreless relief and got the win in a minor league exhibition game. She is believed to be the first woman to pitch for a major league farm club under the current minor league system. The 21-year-old right-hander pitched for the Jacksonville Suns, a double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, against the Australian Olympic team.

2000 — Esteban Yan of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays becomes the 77th major league player to hit a home run in his first at bat, but just the fourth American League pitcher and the first since the Angels’ Don Rose in 1972, the year before the designated hitter rule took the bat out of AL pitchers’ hands.

2005 — Rafael Palmeiro and Melvin Mora each hit grand slams to help Baltimore rally for a 14-7 win over Detroit.

2007 — Mark Ellis hit for the cycle and Eric Chavez had a two-out homer in the 11th inning to lift Oakland to a 5-4 win over Boston.

2009 — Randy Johnson became the 24th major league pitcher to win 300 games by leading San Francisco to a 5-1 victory over the Washington Nationals in the first game of a doubleheader.

2012 — Mike Scioscia of the Angels became the ninth manager in AL history to manage 2,000 games with one club. The Mariners beat the Angels 8-6.

2018 — In a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees OF Aaron Judge sets a record by striking out eight times.

2019 — San Francisco Giant Manager Bruce Bochy wins his 1,000th game as the manager of the Giants with a 9-3 victory over the New York Mets.

2022 — The rule preventing position players from pitching in a close game is invoked for the first time when Crew chief C.B. Bucknor objects to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts calling on OF Zach McKinstry to pitch the 9th inning against the Mets with his team trailing, 9-4. The rule, adopted before the 2020 season but not implemented until this year due to the upheavals caused by the coronavirus pandemic, states that a team cannot use a position player on the mound unless there is a difference of six or more runs between the two teams. Roberts is thus forced to use a real pitcher, Evan Phillips, to pitch the final inning.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.