US President Donald Trump called Wednesday for the Democratic governor of Illinois and mayor of Chicago to be jailed for resisting his mass deportation campaign, a day after armed troops from Texas arrived in the state.Chicago, the largest city in Illinois and third-largest in the country, has become the latest flashpoint in a crackdown by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that has sparked allegations of rights abuses and myriad lawsuits.Masked ICE agents have surged into several Democratic-led cities to conduct raids, stoking outrage among many residents and protests outside federal facilities.”Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Trump posted Wednesday on his social media platform.Trump’s attacks on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, both Democrats, follow similar extraordinary public calls by the president for his political opponents to face legal charges.Trump later hosted an event at the White House regarding left-wing Antifa groups which focused on Portland, another Democratic-run city on the US west coast which has also become a flashpoint.The roundtable featured a number of right-wing independent journalists who said they had been assaulted by left-wing demonstrators from Antifa, which Trump recently classified as a terrorist group despite its ill-defined nature.”We have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country,” Trump said.His Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was in Portland a day earlier, said Antifa protesters were “just as dangerous” as the Palestinian militant group Hamas.”They have an agenda to destroy us just like the other terrorists,” Noem said.- ‘Full-blown authoritarianism’ -Local officials argue that city and state law enforcement are sufficient to handle the protests, but Trump claims the military is needed to keep federal agents safe, heightening concerns by his critics of growing authoritarianism.After National Guard deployments in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, 200 troops arrived in Illinois on Tuesday.Chicago governor Pritzker, seen as a potential Democratic candidate in the 2028 presidential election, has become one of Trump’s most fiery critics.He pledged Wednesday to “not back down,” listing a litany of grievances against Trump’s immigration crackdown.”What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?” he wrote on X. “We must all stand up and speak out.”Chicago mayor Johnson has announced “ICE-free zones” where city-owned property will be declared off-limits to federal authorities, following raids including one in which Black Hawk helicopters descended on a housing complex.Johnson accused Republicans of wanting “a rematch of the Civil War.”Trump’s call for the arrests of the Illinois Democrats came on the same day that former FBI director James Comey was arraigned on charges of lying to Congress.Comey’s indictment came just days after Trump urged his attorney general to quickly take action against him and others.Trump’s immigration crackdown is aimed at fulfilling a key election pledge to rid the country of what he called waves of foreign “criminals.”But he has also faced some legal setbacks, including a judge in Oregon temporarily blocking his bid to deploy troops in Portland.Trump said this week he could invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act to force deployments of troops around the country if courts or local officials are “holding us up.”

Concerns over flight delays and missed paychecks due to the US government shutdown escalated Wednesday, as senators rejected yet another bid to end the standoff.Democrats voted for a sixth time to block a Republican stopgap funding measure to reopen government departments, keeping much of the federal workforce home or working without pay.With the shutdown in its eighth day, lines at airports were expected to grow amid increased absenteeism among security and safety staff at some of the country’s busiest hubs.Air traffic controllers — seen as “essential” public servants — are kept at work during government shutdowns, but higher numbers are calling in sick rather than toiling without pay, leading to shortages.Staffing problems have already been reported in almost a dozen airports from Chicago and Boston to Burbank and Houston, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), with further issues expected at Newark, a major hub for the New York City area.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN on Wednesday that he was “encouraging air traffic controllers to show up for work,” after noting an increase in use of sick days earlier this week.”We’re having maybe a bit of rebellion by air traffic controllers caused by the shutdown,” Duffy said. “The problem is, when I’ve talked to them, they are stressed out. They are wondering, how do they put food on the table?”Duffy said little more than half — 53 percent — of current delays are a result of lack of staffing, as compared to about 5 percent in recent months, before the shutdown.”My message to them: they work for me. They got to go to work, show up, control the airspace, and eventually they get paid,” Duffy said.- No end in sight -Aviation monitor FlightAware reported around 10,000 flights delayed on Monday and Tuesday. Although this is not thought to be an unusually high number, the FAA warned it could worsen.”As Secretary Duffy said, there have been increased staffing shortages across the system,” it said in a statement. “When that happens, the FAA slows traffic into some airports to ensure safe operations.”There appears to be little hope of a quick end to the shutdown, with Democrats refusing to back any funding bill that doesn’t offer an extension of expiring health care subsidies for 24 million people. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been forcing votes most days on a temporary fix passed by the Republican-led House of Representatives, each one failing to garner sufficient Democratic votes.Meanwhile Trump continues to wield the threat of turning many of the 750,000 enforced absences — known as furloughs — into permanent layoffs.A draft memo circulated by the White House this week said furloughed workers aren’t guaranteed compensation for their time off — meaning many could lose out on back pay.Some federal workers — including US Capitol Police — are set to miss part of their pay for the first time on Friday — amping up pressure for Congress to end the crisis.A bigger so-called pain point comes next Wednesday, when 1.3 million active-duty service members — as well as tens of thousands of National Guard members and thousands of Coast Guard personnel — are due to miss their first paycheck.

A man suspected of deliberately causing one of the deadliest fires in US history appeared in court Wednesday charged with sparking a blaze that tore through Los Angeles in January.The development comes as the nation’s second-largest city was still grappling with the aftermath of two huge fires that together killed 31 people and left thousands of acres (hectares) in ruins, as they displaced thousands of people.Jonathan Rinderknecht, a 29-year-old who was arrested on Tuesday, made an initial appearance in a federal court in Florida, where he now lives, charged with destruction of property by means of fire.”The complaint alleges that a single person’s recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen, resulting in death and widespread destruction in Pacific Palisades,” Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli said.Rinderknecht did not enter a plea and is expected to appear in court again Thursday, the US Attorney’s Office said.Rinderknecht is alleged to have ignited the Palisades Fire in the early minutes of New Year’s Day on a popular hiking trail above the well-heeled suburb, which is home to celebrities and is one of the most sought-after pieces of real estate in the United States.The blaze was initially contained by firefighters, but smoldered underground in the roots of plants.Investigators believe powerful winds that swept through the area a week later reignited it.Those flames grew to engulf Pacific Palisades and parts of Malibu, destroying thousands of homes and killing a dozen people.A separate fire that erupted in the more modest suburb of Altadena at the same time also caused devastation over a wide area, killing 19 people.- AI images -Essayli said Rinderknecht, who lived in Pacific Palisades at the time, was working as an Uber driver in the area and had dropped passengers off moments before he set the fire.At a press conference, investigators showed AI-generated images that they allege the suspect had created in the weeks before the blaze, showing a cityscape in flames.Rinderknecht was also alleged to have repeatedly watched the video for a French rap track that included images of fire.Kenny Cooper of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), one of the agencies that investigated the fire, said he could not speak to motive at this stage.”I wish we could get into somebody’s head, but we can’t,” he said. “Evil people do evil things.”The two major fires that gripped the Los Angeles area in January were among the deadliest blazes in California history.They were also one of the costliest natural disasters ever, with estimates of damage running into hundreds of billions of dollars.Firefighters struggled for days to contain the blazes, hampered by winds up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) an hour that prevented their using helicopters and planes.The sheer scale of the inferno in a city created difficulties, as did an urban water supply that was never designed to cope with such enormous conflagrations.The arrest came after an intense investigation, with speculation that errant fireworks may have sparked the Palisades Fire.In July, the Southern California Edison power company said it would begin paying compensation to those affected by the Eaton Fire that devastated Altadena.While no official cause of the fire has been revealed yet, the finger of blame has been pointing for months at a power line in the hills behind Altadena.Several videos and witness accounts suggest the equipment produced sparks that could have caused the fast-moving flames.

US President Donald Trump will have a “routine” medical checkup on Friday at a military facility near Washington, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.”On Friday morning, President Trump will visit Walter Reed Medical Center for a planned meeting and remarks with the troops. While there, President Trump will stop by for his routine yearly checkup,” Leavitt said Wednesday.The doctor’s visit will mark the second such annual medical appointment this year for Trump — who reported feeling “in very good shape” after his annual visit in April. At the time of that checkup, Leavitt said all of Trump’s test results “were within normal limits,” and he had a “normal cardiac structure and function, no signs of heart failure, renal impairment or systemic illness.”At 79, Trump is the oldest serving US president, and has frequently boasted of his vigor, especially in comparison to his adversary, former president Joe Biden.  Trump has repeatedly been accused of a lack of openness about his health despite huge interest in the well-being of America’s commander-in-chief.In September, he dismissed social media rumors swirling about his health — including false posts that he had died. In July, the White House said Trump was diagnosed with a chronic but benign vein condition — chronic venous insufficiency — following speculation about his bruised hand and swollen legs.The hand issue, Leavitt has previously said, was linked to the aspirin he takes as part of a “standard” cardiovascular health program.