LA protests updates: California suing Trump over National Guard deployment

If you’d like to read more about the protests in Los Angeles and the back and forth between US President Donald Trump and state authorities, you can read our explainer here.

You can also read our coverage of ongoing trade talks between the US and China here.

We will be closing the live page soon. Here’s a brief recap of today’s main events:

• US President Donald Trump continued to take an escalatory approach to protests in Los Angeles sparked by heavily armed immigration raids last week. He said that he could have California Governor Gavin Newsom arrested and that the Marines could be deployed to the city, even as demonstrations have quieted down.
• Newsom and other California officials announced they were suing the Trump administration for deploying the National Guard without the consent of state authorities.
• Trump’s near-total travel ban on people from 12 countries has gone into effect, banning citizens from those countries from entering the US. Many countries listed, such as Haiti, Afghanistan, and Libya, have experienced war and displacement. People protested against the ban in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
• Chinese and US officials met in London for talks over trade relations between the two countries.

US Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool has said that thousands of law enforcement workers will be deployed to provide security for a military parade in Washington, DC later this week.

“We’re preparing for an enormous turnout,” McCool said. “That is why we are leaving no stone unturned.”

The parade will mark the 250th anniversary of the US Army and will coincide with US President Donald Trump’s birthday.

An official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, has told the Reuters news agency that a Marine battalion would be sent to the city.

However, the official maintained that for now, Trump was not invoking the Insurrection Act, which would suspend another law that prohibits federal forces from taking part in domestic law enforcement.

The official said the Marines would only be acting in a support capacity, adding that the situation was fluid and could change. CNN also reported the deployment, but put the number of Marines at about 500.

Trump had previously deployed Marines to the US border to provide support and logistics to ICE agents.

The robotaxi company Waymo has suspended service in downtown Los Angeles, after several of its self-driving cars were set ablaze during protests over the weekend.

Waymo confirmed to The Associated Press that five of its robotaxis were impacted and removed from downtown Los Angeles. The company added that it would not be operating in this area of the city for the time being, citing guidance from local law enforcement.

Waymo’s services in other parts of Los Angeles county remain available, it said. The self-driving taxis were first introduced in the city last year.

A paper published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics has found that US states that loosened existing gun regulations after a court ruling saw thousands of additional childhood deaths from firearms.

“Mortality from car accidents has fallen dramatically, but at the same time, firearm mortality rose and replaced car accidents as the leading cause of death in children over the age of one,” said Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and lead author of the paper. That trend is unique among peer nations.

The study, based on an excess mortality analysis, found more than 7,400 excess paediatric firearms deaths in states that loosened gun laws.

Rallies in solidarity with Los Angeles and against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown are being held across the country with hundreds of people gathering near City Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, to protest against the detention of California union leader David Huerta.

“An immigrant doesn’t stand between an American worker and a good job – a billionaire does,” said Chrissy Lynch, Massachusetts president of the national union American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.

People held signs reading, “Come for one, come for all,” “Free David, free them all” and “Massachusetts stands with our neighbors in Los Angeles.”

Father Greg Boyle, a Jesuit priest well-known for his social justice work in the Los Angeles area, including involvement in the movement to offer sanctuary to undocumented immigrants and refugees fleeing violence in Central America during the 1980s, has offered his support to the undocumented community, who he says is living with “unnecessary” fear.

“To our undocumented sisters and brothers who live in fear at the moment, in a way that is completely unnecessary, to them we say we will not abandon you ever,” Boyle said in remarks posted by Homeboy Industries, a group he founded that offers services and support to former gang members seeking to change their lives.

“We stand with anybody who is demonised or left out or excluded or seen as disposable. We stand with them. We will never abandon you ever,” he added.

The S&P 500 has risen 0.3 percent in afternoon trading, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 100 points, or 0.2 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rising 0.4 percent as of 2:05pm local (18:05 GMT).

The upward drift comes as high-level delegations from the United States and China were meeting in London, in the latest effort to avert a global economy roiling trade war.

The economic giants last month agreed to cool the temperature, temporarily rolling back newly imposed tariffs, although both countries have traded barbs since.

Today’s meeting comes after US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a phone call last week.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says at least four reporters were injured when they were hit by nonlethal rounds as they covered the protests in Los Angeles.

It said officers shot Ryanne Mena, a crime reporter with the Los Angeles Daily News, and freelance reporter Sean Beckner-Carmitchel with pepper balls and tear-gassed them on Friday and Saturday.

Nick Stern, a British freelance photojournalist based in Los Angeles, had emergency surgery after a 7.5cm (3-inch) plastic bullet struck his leg on Sunday. Stern said he was wearing his press credentials and carrying a camera when he was struck.

Lauren Tomasi, a reporter for Australia’s 9News, was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet as she reported live on Sunday.

CPJ said Adam Rose, secretary of the Los Angeles Press Club, has also documented more than 20 incidents of obstruction and attacks against journalists since the protests kicked off on Friday.

“We are greatly concerned by the reports of law enforcement officers shooting non-lethal rounds at reporters covering protests in Los Angeles. Any attempt to discourage or silence media coverage by intimidating or injuring journalists should not be tolerated,” CPJ US, Canada and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen said in a statement. “It is incumbent upon authorities to respect the media’s role of documenting issues of public interest.”

Here are the latest events:

• US President Donald Trump has hailed his decision to deploy National Guard troops to California, while suggesting he would support authorities arresting California’s Governor Gavin Newsom if he interferes with immigration enforcement.
• This came shortly after Newsom announced he was suing the Trump administration, claiming the president had overstepped his authority in deploying the forces.
• Protesters were again gathering in Los Angeles and cities across the country to protest Trump’s immigration policies, including a travel ban on 12 countries that went into effect today.
• A Trump official said rare earth metals would be a priority in high-level trade talks with China in London today.

US officials have told The Associated Press that there are currently about 1,000 National Guard members in the city under federal orders, and more will be flowing in all day.

The officials said that they believe that the full 2,000 that the president has ordered will be on the ground there by the end of the day.

The increase in members, who numbered about 300 yesterday, indicates the Trump administration is not backing away from the deployment despite pressure from state officials.

When Donald Trump said the city of Los Angeles would have been “obliterated” without the National Guard being here, that’s utterly preposterous, because the National Guard actually did nothing during those protests yesterday.

They just stood around in front of the federal building where the ICE detainees were being held. They didn’t participate at all in any crowd control.

That was all down to the local law enforcement, the Los Angeles Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, and others. The Guard had nothing to do with that whatsoever.