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Protesters Gather in Chicago on Democratic Convention’s Opening Day
Hundreds of left-wing protesters were preparing to march in Chicago on Monday as the Democratic National Convention got underway nearby, providing an early test of the city’s security preparations and of Vice President Kamala Harris’s attempts to project a sense of intraparty unity.
At least two protest marches were planned for the convention’s opening day, including by a coalition of more than 200 activist groups representing a range of causes that was expected to march within “sight and sound” of the United Center, the main convention hall, on Monday afternoon.
Activists carrying signs with messages like “Free Palestine!” began to gather for that event in Union Park on Monday morning, just west of downtown Chicago, and organizers were expecting thousands or tens of thousands of people to show up. Ellie Feyans-McCool, who traveled from Minnesota to attend the march, said she hoped protesters in Chicago this week would nudge the Democratic Party to withhold future military support for Israel.
“It is no longer good enough just to stand against Trump,” said Ms. Feyans-McCool, who added that she had not yet decided whether she would support Ms. Harris or a third candidate. “You have to do good.”
At one point, a group of about a dozen people with Israeli flags marched around Union Park, leading a small contingent of pro-Palestinian protesters to break off and march alongside them. The Chicago police, which had mostly kept their distance until that point, kept the two groups separated.
Members of the coalition planning the Monday march sued Chicago in federal court over the terms of the protest. Though the activists won some concessions, including permission to have a stage and sound system at a rally before their march, they remained at odds with city leaders over the exact route they would follow.
Hatem Abudayyeh, a spokesman for the coalition and a pro-Palestinian activist, acknowledged on Monday that the turnout was far from the tens of thousands that organizers had hoped for.
“It’s a Monday morning, which in and of itself is not the greatest starting time, but we needed to do it because we wanted to have protesting happening as soon as the thing started,” he said.
But he was hopeful that more would converge on Chicago over the week and maintain a steady showing through Thursday, the last day of the convention.
City officials, exhausted and frustrated by comparisons to the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, have sought to convey a sense of calm and confidence in recent weeks.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, a first-term Democrat, has emphasized his own experience leading demonstrations with the Chicago Teachers Union. He has insisted that the city is ready to a host a safe convention where protesters can gather peacefully but violence will not be tolerated.
The Chicago police superintendent, Larry Snelling, said that a protest on Sunday night showed that the city was prepared. During that event, hundreds of demonstrators marched down Michigan Avenue as they called for the protection of abortion and L.G.B.T.Q. rights, and peace in Gaza.
“Our officers responded exactly the way we trained them to respect First Amendment activity,” Mr. Snelling said.
One 23-year-old woman was arrested nearby on Sunday and charged with defacement of property and obstructing a police officer, he said. The woman was not part of a march, he said.
Some who attended Sunday’s protest said they were taken aback by the large number of officers who lined Michigan Avenue on bicycles and followed the march.
“You almost see more police than marchers here — it’s overkill,” said Rabbi Brant Rosen, who leads a congregation in Chicago and was among the marchers.
Unlike at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month, where protests were mostly contained to the first day, activists from different groups have announced plans to gather on every day of the Democratic convention in Chicago.
Alex Nelson, who lives in Chicago, planned to be at several of them and had taken time off from work to participate.
“My hope is that things continue to be peaceful,” she said, “and that the mayor, the governor and the police continue to allow us to demonstrate and march and exercise our First Amendment rights.”
Julie Bosman contributed reporting.
A helicopter drops water on the Cottonwood Fire in Beaver, Utah, on Saturday, June 27, 2026.
Ty ONeil/AP
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Ty ONeil/AP
Three firefighters have died and two others have been injured Saturday while they tackled blazes on the Colorado-Utah border, the U.S. Wildland Fire Service has announced. The agency said the crew members had been part of an interagency response to the Knowles and Gore fires.
“The U.S. Wildland Fire Service stands united with the USDA Forest Service in grief and in our unwavering support for the loved ones left behind,” the service said in a statement on Facebook. “Their bravery, dedication, and sacrifice will never be forgotten.”
In a press release, the Department of the Interior said that the five firefighters were involved in a “burnover incident”, which refers to when officials are unable to find an escape route, so have to shelter as best they can while a fire passes directly over them. The department said the two firefighters who survived were being treated for burn injuries.
Fires in Utah, Colorado and Arizona have been intensifying, thanks to days of low humidity, high temperatures and strong winds. The conditions have pushed fire behavior to extremes not commonly seen in the region, stretching resources and forcing the governors of both Utah and Colorado to declare emergencies.
Cottonwood fire not yet contained
The biggest blaze is the Cottonwood Fire, burning in rugged terrain in southern Utah’s Beaver County, which has grown to more than 144 square miles and remains entirely uncontained. It is currently the largest wildfire burning anywhere in the United States.
It has already severely damaged the Eagle Point ski resort and destroyed summer cabins. Damage assessments were underway Saturday, though no final estimates of destroyed structures were yet available.
On Saturday, hundreds of residents in the towns of Marysvale, Junction and Circleville were placed on notice to leave as conditions worsened.
Also burning is the Snyder Fire, covering more than 28,000 acres. It began as the Snyder Mesa Fire on Saturday in east Utah’s Grand County, but later combined with the smaller Jones and Knowles Fires in Colorado.
Alyssa Mason, a spokesperson assigned to the Cottonwood Fire, told NPR that crews this weekend had been dealing with single-digit humidity and wind gusts of around 45 miles per hour, on top of fuel moisture readings between 2 and 8 percent.
Those conditions grounded helicopters and other firefighting aircraft on Friday afternoon and again briefly on Saturday. The terrain has compounded an already difficult task, Morgan said, with the steep cliffs and canyon walls making it hard to move heavy equipment and engines into position and thus slowing the response.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, in a social media post Saturday, described the situation on the ground as grimmer than anything he had seen before, as he credited crews with pulling off some improbable rescues in the face of such difficult conditions. “Please pray for them and for the rains we desperately need,” he wrote.
The National Weather Service in Salt Lake City issued what it described as a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning on Friday, the first time it has used that designation in its history. It cited the volatile mix of wind, heat and low humidity, with critical fire-accelerating conditions expected to persist into Sunday.
A region primed to burn
The extreme fire behavior is rooted in conditions that have been building for months, experts have said. Utah recorded its lowest snowpack and warmest winter on record this past season. The snowpack peaked three weeks earlier than normal, leaving soils and vegetation to dry out through spring. Much of the wider region — Nevada, Colorado and beyond — has been gripped by widespread drought after an unusually dry winter.
Utah’s state forester, Jamie Barnes, told reporters that fires across the state this season had been moving in ways that had stretched Utah’s firefighting capacity to its limits, with new fires beginning closer to populated areas than in previous years.
Utah’s Governor Cox declared a state of emergency earlier this week, restricting fireworks displays ahead of the Fourth of July holiday. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued his own emergency declaration Saturday, authorizing the use of the National Guard to help fight the fires in his state.
The National Interagency Fire Center reported that nearly 3 million acres have burned across the country since the start of the year, faster than the rolling 10-year average. And from Alaska to Florida, crews worked Saturday to contain dozens of blazes, including around three dozen classified as large and uncontained.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service issued red flag warnings across a broad swath of the West, from California through Arizona to New Mexico, where additional fires were also burning.
NPR’s Nate Rott contributed to this report.
Rep. Julia Letlow won the Republican primary runoff for Senate in Louisiana, NBC News projects, defeating state Treasurer John Fleming in another victory for President Donald Trump’s slate of preferred candidates.
Trump endorsed Letlow early in the race, which went to a runoff after none of the GOP candidates won a majority of the initial primary vote on May 16. Trump waded into the state in an effort to oust GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
See live runoff results here
Letlow was the top vote-getter in the first-round primary, winning 45%, followed by Fleming at 28%. Cassidy won just 25% and did not qualify for the runoff.
Letlow will be in a strong position to win in November in the solidly Republican state, which Trump carried by 22 points in 2024. Democrat Jamie Davis, a farmer, easily won the Democratic Senate nomination Saturday night.
Letlow has pledged to be a strong supporter of the president’s policies.
“I promise you this: When I get to the United States Senate, I will never back down from fighting for your America First agenda,” Letlow told the president during a telerally with Trump on Thursday night.
Letlow framed the race as the choice between “a real conservative fighter in the Senate, or whether we are going to send another career politician who does not want to save our country.” She touted her support for eliminating the Senate filibuster to help pass the Save America Act, a Trump-backed measure to overhaul U.S. election laws.
Fleming also tried to make the case that he was the staunchest Trump ally in the race, taking aim at Letlow’s past support for diversity, equity and inclusion policies and foreign aid. Letlow told NBC News earlier this year that she reversed her position on DEI when she “saw it for what it was” and has since been “fighting against it.”
But Trump’s backing helped boost Letlow, who also had help on the airwaves from allied super PAC.
She also touted endorsements from other top Louisiana Republicans, led by Gov. Jeff Landry. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Rep. Clay Higgins also backed Letlow.
Letlow is expected to join the Senate after serving nearly three terms in the House, where she also served on the powerful Appropriations Committee. She first came to Congress in 2021 after winning a special election following the death of her late husband. Luke Letlow, a former congressional aide who won a House election in 2020, died of Covid before he was sworn into office.
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As Supreme Court expands Trump’s immigration power, experts warn of steeper U.S. population decline
President Trump holds up a bill funding immigration enforcement after signing it in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, in Washington.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
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Even before the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Trump has broad power to deport hundreds of thousands of migrants living legally in the U.S. under temporary protected status, David Bier feared the U.S. was slipping toward a demographic cliff.
“We’re destined to be there, in short order, there’s no question,” Bier said. “We’re already seeing a situation where most counties in the United States had more deaths than births.”
An expert on population and immigration at the libertarian Cato Institute, Bier believes the U.S. is beginning to look more like China, Italy and South Korea — nations that face rapid aging and population decline are seen as a crisis.
U.S. birthrates have been declining for decades. There are far too few children born each year to maintain a stable population.
Until last year, high rates of foreign immigration largely offset that trend. But for the first time since the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the U.S. now faces record low birthrates and low numbers of migrants at the same time.
“Our higher birthrates of a century ago are not coming back. There’s no way to have a sustainable fiscal and economic situation that doesn’t involve immigration,” Bier said.
Trump’s legal fight to end temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, Syrians and others living in the U.S. legally is only one part of a wider administration effort to squeeze immigration.
The Supreme Court also ruled this week that the administration has authority to block most asylum seekers from entering the country. Federal agents have also conducted raids in cities across the U.S., to accelerate deportations.
Last month, Trump issued an executive order that could make it harder for many migrants living in the U.S. without full legal status to use banking and financial services.
Many immigration opponents see these changes as progress. In a statement following this week’s Supreme Court decisions. A spokesman for the Federation for Immigration Reform said Trump should have full authority to direct who enters the U.S.
“Our immigration laws are written to be pro-enforcement, not anti-enforcement,” said FAIR’s Christopher Hajec.
But according to Cato’s Bier, Trump’s policies are already reshaping the demographics of communities, meaning there are fewer workers, consumers, taxpayers, and children in schools.
“If you’re not allowing immigration, you’re going to have [an aging and] a declining population and that creates all kinds of problems,” Bier said.
Economists say that without migrants, the number of young workers paying into Social Security will fall more rapidly; schools in many areas will close; and the number of young families having children will decline.
Census data already shows big changes to U.S. population
The immigration decline under Trump is dramatic. In 2024, roughly 2.7 million foreign migrants entered the U.S., according to the Census Bureau. This year, census experts predict that number could drop as low as 300,000. Some demographers believe the U.S. may be reaching a point where more migrants are leaving than entering.
Impacts of this massive shift on America’s wider population are already emerging. Studies by the Census Bureau, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Federal Reserve all point to a more rapidly aging national population under Trump.
Population growth in the U.S. fell by half in 2025 from the previous year, with five states losing population. Census data shows the total number of young Americans, those under age 25, is already falling nationwide.
William Frey, a demographer at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution, described last week’s Supreme Court rulings as “alarming.” He believes without robust foreign immigration, more states will quickly see their populations stagnate or decline.
“Not just in big immigration states, but in places that have relatively small numbers of immigrants, you know, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska — those states require immigrants to get any population growth,” Frey said.
Even before Trump’s policies curbed immigration, the U.S. population was expected to decline later this century. Experts say low immigration rates will cause that downward trend to happen much sooner.
According to Frey, the U.S. has time to reverse course. But he believes the Trump administration is committed to lowering both legal and illegal immigration over the long term, a policy he described as dangerous.
“This is as clear as the nose on your face,” he said. “You’ve got to have this growth in the younger population if you’re going to survive. Immigration is a key part of that going forward.”
“America’s doors are closed”
Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy, speaks with reports at the White House, Thursday, June 25, 2026, in Washington.
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Jacquelyn Martin/AP
The Trump administration sees this very differently, describing foreign migrants not as people who sustain state populations and economies, but as a social burden and a threat.
“America’s doors are closed fully to asylum seekers,” Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top White House policy advisors, said on Thursday.
Speaking with reporters, Miller described the Supreme Court rulings as a victory and said ending birthright citizenship for the children of migrants born in the U.S. is the next step.
“This country doesn’t have a future if we don’t end birthright citizenship,” Miller said. Justices are expected to rule on birthright citizenship as early as next week.
This kind of opposition to both legal and illegal immigration is now widespread among conservatives, said Cato’s David Bier, who worked as a Republican congressional staffer on immigration policy.
He told NPR that when he talks to conservatives about the economic and demographic risks of closing the country’s doors to migrants, many answer with a cultural argument. “[They] would rather have a declining population of ‘true Americans’ than have an economy kept afloat by people who don’t share [their] values,” Bier said.
But if extremely low or zero-level immigration does become the new normal for the U.S., experts say it would swiftly remake the fabric of the country. The Census Bureau estimates that without robust migration in the coming years, total population loss by the end of this century could exceed 107 million people.
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