Around 300 members of the US National Guard have arrived in Los Angeles as violent protests against immigration raids continued for a third night. Donald Trump says he dispatched the troops to preserve “strong law and order”; California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom says the state will file a lawsuit against the president’s “purposefully inflammatory” decision, calling it “illegal, immoral and unconstitutional”. Israel’s military has intercepted a Gaza-bound yacht carrying Greta Thunberg and 11 other activists. The vessel is now being redirected to an Israeli port, where the IDF has been ordered to show the activists a video of the October 7 attacks before they are deported. Playing classical music to plants could boost their growth. Botany boffins played pak choi plants – in strictly controlled temperature, humidity and light conditions – classical music, rock music or no music. Those exposed to Bach’s concertos grew larger and leafier than the others, weighing on average 6g more than those that were played rock music.

The battle for Los Angeles

“Put down your matcha lattes and trade in your Birkenstocks for boots, folks,” says Anita Chabria in the Los Angeles Times. “We are the revolution.” That, at least, is the message Donald Trump is sending to LA residents, after overriding the California governor’s authority and deploying National Guard troops to the city. It’s true that the protests against federal agents rounding up illegal immigrants have been ugly: rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown; masked protesters attacking federal buildings; cars on fire. But 99% of the city is “business as usual”, and the local police are more than capable of handling a few hundred protesters. For Trump to send in soldiers against the wishes of the state’s governor – the first time a president has done so since LBJ deployed troops to Selma, Alabama in 1965 – is a dangerous escalation.

It may be true that the National Guard isn’t needed, says The Wall Street Journal. Our guess is the White House had the little-used legal provision to send them in “teed up”, and that Trump has been “itching” to use it – he knows Americans hate public disorder. But Governor Gavin Newsom should have foreseen this. By tolerating obstruction against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, he and the rest of the state’s Democratic leadership have given Trump the perfect excuse to call in the reserves. For now, the National Guard troops are merely there to make sure the ICE teams can do their job. But Trump is no doubt desperate to invoke the Insurrection Act, under which the military would be tasked with regular law enforcement. If Democrats had any sense, they’d do everything in their power to deny him that opportunity.

🪖🗳️ The big worry is that this is all a practice run for next year’s midterm elections, says David Frum in The Atlantic. If Trump can trigger disturbances in Democratic states ahead of Election Day, he can then assert emergency powers to impose federal control over the voting process, or suspend voting until he decides that order has been restored. Many of his “most fervent” supporters urged him to do this ahead of the 2020 presidential election, but he instead tried – and failed – to steer the result using the courts. He’s unlikely to make the same mistake again.