In the Ring: While President Trump acted as ring master at a Sumo wrestling match in Japan, fellow populists and nationalists made modest gains yesterday in European Union elections.

  Politicians who want to diminish the power of the EU gained about five percent of the seats in the EU parliament to control 25 percent. Significantly, Britain’s new populist Brexit Party appears to have won the country’s EU elections.

  The nationalists, obviously enough, are fighting to retain power in national governments rather than in the EU, which they consider elitist and not in the best interests of individual countries. 

  Over in Japan, President Trump was bringing his own brand of nationalism to an ancient culture. He played golf and ate a double cheeseburger with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Then at the Sumo wrestling tournament, he presented the champion with a giant trophy cup he called the “President’s Cup.” Trump later said, “We brought that beautiful trophy, which you’ll have hopefully for many hundreds of years.”

  The Sumo ring is a sacred space in Japan where the wrestlers throw salt to purify the dirt. Someone please pass the salt.

The Hot Dog Circuit:Campaigning for president in Iowa yesterday, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker told potential voters, “A lot of people want to say this election is just about getting rid of Donald Trump. That’s the floor, not the ceiling.”

  Long considered a natural to run, Booker is polling low as he tries to distinguish himself among 23 Democratic candidates. The struggle for all of them is how much to make Donald Trump the issue, and how much to make the actual political issues the issue.

  “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg said, “I don’t have a problem standing up to somebody who was working on Season 7 of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ when I was packing my bags for Afghanistan.” 

Black Eye:Former “CBS Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley says he lost his job because he complained to management about the hostile work environment. “I went to the president of the news division and explained to him that this hostile work environment couldn’t go on for women and men. He told me if I kept agitating about that internally, then I’d lose my job.” He did.

  Pelley continues to report for “60 Minutes,” which has a new executive producer and CBS News has a new president, and the Evening News has yet another new anchor — Norah O’Donnell. Pelley said CBS is on the right track now.

The News Roundup: At least 30 people died and hundreds were believed missing after a boat sank over the weekend in a lake in the Democratic Republic of Congo. — A German official campaigning against anti-Semitism suggested that Jews should not wear their skullcaps everywhere in public, setting off a debate about personal safety vs. the right to religious freedom. — A new gene therapy for babies born with the rare muscle-wasting disease spinal muscular atrophy has proved successful, but it costs $2.1 million.

The Obit Page:Bart Starr, the Green Bay Packers quarterback who in the 1960s drove his team to five NFL championships and the first two Super Bowls, died in Birmingham, Ala. at age 85.

  Starr had been in failing health since a heart attack and two strokes in 2014.

  He had a reputation for being too nice a guy for the NFL. The Packers legendary coach Vince Lombardi once wrote,  “When I first met him he struck me as so polite and so self-effacing that I wondered if maybe he wasn’t too nice a boy to be the authoritarian leader that your quarterback must be.” 

  Starr played in the years when the quarterback … not the coaches … called the plays. Until Tom Brady won his sixth title with the New England Patriots this year, no quarterback won more championships than Starr.

Sports Section: It must be time for the Stanley Cup hockey finals. Temperatures in the East hit the 90s yesterday. The Boston Bruins square off tonight with the St. Louis Blues in the first game of the cup series. —  Yale is gunning for its second straight NCAA lacrosse championship, facing off against Virginia this afternoon. Yeah, we know. Almost nobody cares. 

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