• Protesters march in Chicago against troops’ deployment.
• Governor Pritzker slams Trump’s threat against Chicago.
• “This is not a joke,” says Pritzker in social media post.
  

President Donald Trump has threatened to unleash his newly rebranded “Department of War” on Chicago, further heightening tensions over his push to deploy troops into Democratic-led US cities.

The move seeks to replicate an operation in the US capital, Washington, where Trump deployed National Guard troops and boosted the number of federal agents, sparking a backlash and a fresh protest on Saturday that drew thousands.

“Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” Trump posted Saturday on his Truth Social account.

The Democratic governor of Illinois, where Chicago is located, voiced outrage at Trump’s post.

“The President of the US is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal,” Governor JB Pritzker wrote in a post on X.

“Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator,” he added.

The post featured an apparent AI image of Trump and the quote: “I love the smell of deportations in the morning” — both references to the 1979 Vietnam War film “Apocalypse Now”.

In the film, the line is spoken by Lt Col Bill Kilgore who says he loves the smell of “napalm” — not “deportations” — as the American military drops the highly flammable weapon on Vietnamese targets.

The 79-year-old Republican has steadily ramped up threats against Chicago since an early mention of it at the end of August.

Anti-Trump protesters took to the streets of Chicago on Saturday, carrying signs that read “stop this fascist regime!” and “no Trump, no troops.”

The protest route also went past Chicago’s Trump tower, and protesters made rude gestures at the president´s building as they walked past.

On Saturday in the US capital, where National Guard troops have been deployed since Trump declared a “crime emergency” in August, a thousands-strong protest march wound through downtown with participants demanding an end to the “occupation.”

Demonstrators in DC carried inverted US flags as they marched past the country´s national monuments, traditionally a symbol of a country facing existential peril.

Trump´s troop and federal agent deployments — which first began in June in Los Angeles, followed by Washington — have prompted legal challenges and protests, with critics calling them an authoritarian show of force.

Local officials in Los Angeles spoke out against the deployments and the violent tactics employed by ICE agents in Los Angeles, who often wore masks, drove in unmarked cars and chased down and snatched people from the streets without cause or warrants.

In addition to Chicago, Trump has threatened to replicate the surges in Democratic-led Baltimore and New Orleans.

On Friday, Trump signed an order changing the name of the Department of Defence to the Department of War, saying it sends “a message of victory” to the world.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth cheered the move, saying the US will decisively exact violence to reach its aims, without apology.

LISBON: Hundreds of firefighters in Portugal and Spain are battling fresh wildfires after a summer already scarred by devastating blazes, civil protection authorities said.

Strong winds have fanned the flames in several areas, forcing road closures, village evacuations and urgent efforts to protect homes.

The largest fire raged in Seia, central Portugal, where 600 firefighters were deployed to tackle the flames, the civil protection agency said.

The priority was “to protect homes,” the Lusa news agency quoted a civil protection spokesperson as saying. Police said they had arrested a person suspected of starting the fire.

In Spain, authorities confined the small village of Castromil in the northwest as a precaution on Saturday due to a nearby blaze.

The area had been hit hard by a wave of devastating fires in August. One blaze there revived on Saturday due to strong winds, a source in the nearby Castilla and Leon region’s environment ministry said.

Spain on Sunday ended a state of emergency that had been in effect for several weeks due to one of the worst waves of wildfires to hit the country in recent years. Four people were killed and more than 300,000 hectares burnt.

Central and northern Portugal were also ravaged in August by devastating wildfires that killed four people and caused several injuries.

The Portuguese fires destroyed about 254,000 hectares, the worst toll since 2017, according to data from the National Institute for Nature and Forest Conservation.

Portugal experienced its hottest summer since 1931 this year, the national meteorological agency said on Friday.

• Justice dept data shows violent crime at 30-year low in DC.
• DC AG files lawsuit against troop deployment.
• Protesters chant slogans denouncing Trump.

WASHINGTON: Several thousand Washington DC residents on Saturday marched to demand US President Donald Trump end the deployment of National Guard troops patrolling the capital city’s streets.

Protesters at the “We Are All DC” march, who included undocumented immigrants and supporters of Palestine, chanted slogans denouncing Trump and carried posters, some which read “Trump must go now,” “Free DC” and “Resist Tyranny.”

“I’m here to protest the occupation of DC,” said Alex Laufer. “We’re opposing the authoritarian regime, and we need to get the federal police and the National Guard off our streets.”

Claiming that crime was blighting the city, Trump last month deployed the troops to “re-establish law, order, and public safety.” Trump also placed the capital district’s Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control and sent federal law enforcement personnel, including members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to police the city’s streets.

But Justice Department data showed violent crime in 2024 hit a 30-year low in Washington, a self-governing federal district under the jurisdiction of the US Congress.

The National Guard serves as a militia that answers to the governors of the 50 states except when called into federal service. The DC National Guard reports directly to the president.

“What they’re trying to do in DC is what they’re trying to do with other dictatorships,” said Casey, who declined to give his last name. “They’re testing DC, and if people tolerate it enough, they’re gonna do it to more and more areas. So we have to stop it while we still can.”

More than 2,000 troops, including from six Republican-led states, are patrolling the city. It is unclear when their mission will end, though the Army this week extended orders for the DC National Guard through November 30.

Washington DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb on Thursday filed a lawsuit for courts to block the troop deployment, arguing that it was unconstitutional and violated multiple federal laws.

But some residents have welcomed the National Guard and called for the troops to be deployed in the less affluent parts of the city where crime is rampant. The National Guard has been mostly visible in downtown and tourist areas.

Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser has praised Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement personnel into the city, but hoped that the National Guard’s mission would end soon. Bowser said there had been a sharp decline in crime, including carjackings since the surge. The mayor this week signed an order requiring the city to coordinate with federal law enforcement.