An Air India flight to London Gatwick has crashed in Ahmedabad, western India, with 242 people, including 53 British nationals, on board. The Indian aviation regulator says the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner went down in a residential area five minutes after take-off. American embassies in the Middle East are preparing to evacuate non-essential staff and families amid warnings that Israel is poised to launch an attack on Iran. US officials, whose hopes of a nuclear deal with Tehran have diminished, believe the Iranians could retaliate by striking US sites in neighbouring countries. Humanity has captured its first ever glimpse of the sun’s south pole, thanks to the British-built Solar Orbiter. Travelling at speeds of up to 33km per second, the Stevenage-made spacecraft took images that scientists say will transform our understanding of our closest star, including how solar activity can knock out electrical grids and satellites.

Is America really sliding into autocracy?

Donald Trump isn’t going to stop at Los Angeles, says Edward Luce in the FT. The executive order the president used to authorise putting the National Guard on the streets (in defiance of California’s governor) allows the federal army to be deployed wherever the president sees fit. Under his administration’s new drive to deport 3,000 illegal immigrants a day – triple the previous target – federal agents are raiding restaurants, law courts and shopping centres across the country. And everywhere those raids spark protest, Trump will send in the troops. “Expect Chicago, San Francisco, Denver and other cities to feature soon.” The president can claim a mandate for all this, given he campaigned on a promise to deport millions of immigrants. But be in no doubt: this is his “clearest step so far towards authoritarianism”.

What an “absurd” suggestion, says Rich Lowry in National Review. These aren’t stormtroopers smashing down doors in suburban streets; they’re “guys in camo standing impassively in front of a federal building”. The old saw about the Nazis is “First, they came for the Jews...”, not “First, they protected government property from violent demonstrators...” You can disagree with Trump’s deportation orders all you want. But America’s immigration laws have been adopted over the years by a democratically elected Congress and signed by democratically elected presidents; if progressives think they’re wrong, they should try to repeal them or pass new ones. In any other scenario, gangs of rioters preventing federal law enforcement officers from doing their job would be portrayed as a “reprehensible” display of criminality. It’s only because it’s Trump that people are viewing his response as a step towards some sort of “dystopian future”.

🗳️😢 Either way, these deportation raids are finally exposing many Trump fans to what they actually voted for, says Jack Healy in The New York Times. The residents of Dunklin County, Missouri – 80.4% of whom voted Republican – are up in arms over the arrest of Carol, a much-loved mother-of-three who overstayed her visa after moving to the US from Hong Kong 20 years ago. Vigils have been held; a fund-raiser brought in nearly $20,000. “I voted for Donald Trump, and so did practically everyone here,” says a friend of Carol’s from church. “But no one voted to deport mums.”