MILWAUKEE — Thousands of protesters descended on this Midwestern city on Monday, denouncing the Republican Party and its presidential nominee Donald Trump, who had survived an assassination attempt less than 48 hours earlier.
Washington
Thousands of RNC protesters denounce Trump, GOP agenda in Milwaukee
Inside the Fiserv Forum, home to the city’s professional basketball team, the Republican National Convention was kicking off its first day, still reeling after a gunman opened fire at the former president’s Pennsylvania rally on Saturday. The gathering brimmed with defiant energy, as delegates formally nominated Trump and prepared to greet his newly chosen running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance (R).
Outside, about 3,000 people filled a park near the arena, including representatives from more than 100 activist groups, in a long-planned protest of the GOP’s positions. The coalition said in its platform that it opposed Republicans’ “racist and reactionary agenda,” which organizers said threatens the rights of women, the LGBTQ community and immigrants.
The twin events — convention and protest — served as two early tests of how Americans would react to the first assassination attempt of a president or candidate in more than 40 years, which unfolded during what was already one of the darkest and most divided eras in recent memory. The initial indication: On both sides, little seems to have changed.
For Trump supporters, the shooting only increased their resolve, becoming the latest — and largest — grievance to animate a campaign focused on retribution.
Anti-Trump demonstrators, meanwhile, confronted the more delicate task of condemning the man they deem an existential threat to democracy while at the same time decrying the violent act that threatened his life. And the language of protest offered little room for nuance.
Organizers were careful to call out political violence of all stripes, but otherwise they showed few changes in rhetoric.
“Defeating the Republican agenda is a matter of life and death for working and oppressed people,” Kobi Guillory of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization told the crowd of protesters as they prepared to march toward the convention site.
Few speakers mentioned Saturday’s shooting, and demonstration coordinators said it did not impact their plans. It remains more important than ever to oppose the GOP agenda as loudly as possible, they said.
“If we can’t do it now, are we going to do it when it’s “Handmaid’s Tale” time?” said 69-year-old protest attendee Jackie Sparks, referring to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel set in a totalitarian society. “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Sparks, who drove up from Chicago to march, said both left and right have contributed to the corrosive political discourse, but one side bears much more blame.
“There’s divisive rhetoric on both sides, but the most violent rhetoric has been on the Trump side,” she said.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the head of Wisconsin’s largest immigrant rights group, Voces de la Frontera, said the country’s most vulnerable residents are still dealing with dangerous fallout from Trump’s first term in office.
“It is undeniable that Trump’s rhetoric, policies and actions have contributed to a climate of increased violence and hate crimes by white nationalists, especially against people of color,” she said.
Responding to a question about the shooting, Omar Flores, the co-chair of the Coalition to March on the RNC, said, “I think the Republicans are experts on political violence.”
The protest drew attendees from across the country, from Seattle and Los Angeles to Detroit and D.C., ranging in ideology from Democratic die-hards to far-left establishment critics. Many said they had made the trip because the stakes of November’s election have never been higher.
“If I have a message to the American people, it’s: Please stop being apathetic,” said Nadine Seiler, of Waldorf, Md. “I just want people to participate.”
Seiler, an American citizen originally from Trinidad, was wearing a shirt that read, “Stop Project 2025,” referring to the conservative playbook for a second Trump presidency.
Nearby, Jim Schwartzburg held a tie-dye sign denouncing the Republican Party in explicit terms. He traveled to Milwaukee from northern Wisconsin and said he was disappointed at the protest turnout.
“Obviously, the other side cares more,” he said. “And that’s the magic of Trump: He gets people who never got off their couches to come out.”
Other protesters echoed a long-held Democratic anxiety that seemingly everything that has happened in this chaotic presidential campaign only increases Trump’s chances of reelection.
Ranay Blanford, who served 20 years in the Army and was clad in a “Veterans Against Trump” tank top, worried that the shooting will energize Trump’s base, who will see him as “a hero, a martyr.”
At the same time, she said, the attack was “awful, deplorable.”
“We do not do that in America,” she said. “We vote people out, we don’t shoot them.”
As the demonstrators wound their way through downtown Milwaukee, they encountered small groups of counterprotesters, mostly composed of antiabortion activists, holding signs comparing the procedure with domestic violence and murder.
At one point, a handful of counterprotesters shouted into a megaphone that the marchers were going to hell.
“There might be a bullet with your name on it today,” the man leading the calls yelled. “You might not be as blessed as Trump and dodge that bullet. It’s time to get right with God!”
Another held a sign that read “Homo sex is a sin.”
As the march passed, one protester called back: “It’s fun, you should try it!”
Nonetheless, organizers largely succeeded in putting on the “family-friendly” protest they promised. The groups exchanged sharp words, but there were no apparent clashes. Volunteer marshals helped separate the participants when necessary, while the police presence was minimal except for a few officers on foot wearing light blue vests identifying them as members of a community policing team from Columbus. A few more small rallies are planned for the rest of the week.
The demonstration’s coordinators promised a larger turnout next month in Chicago, where the Democratic Party will hold its own nominating convention and protests will focus on Israel’s war in Gaza.
Participants from the left and right said they were unafraid to show up Monday, even after the assassination attempt plunged the country into a new state of unease.
“This is the safest place in America right now, wherever Trump is,” said Dan Gilles, a graduate student in Chicago, who was among the counterprotesters and wore a “Make America Straight Again” hat.
But even as the status quo — and its poisonous political dialogue — seemed destined to prevail, some among the crowd were searching for harmony. One of them was Joshua Hanson, a 52-year-old from Asheville, N.C.
Hanson, a ministry worker, bears a striking resemblance to the Jeff Bridges character from the movie “The Big Lebowski,” and he was wandering around the protest area in a shirt emblazoned with the film’s protagonist, a go-with-the-flow slacker type.
Hanson, who had been driving across the country on his way home from a Grateful Dead concert in Las Vegas, stopped off in Milwaukee to preach the gospel of unity.
“We need healing as a nation. We’re so divided,” he said. “We’re all lost. We’re all hurting. … We just need to come together and see what we can agree upon.”
America, he seemed to be saying, will abide.
ASHBURN, Va. – The Washington Commanders have released their 2026 Training Camp schedule, with eleven open practices between August 1 and August 19, including five open to all fans and six reserved for season ticket members.
For the fifth straight year, training camp will take place at the team’s football operations headquarters in Ashburn, Virginia.
Open practices for all fans are scheduled for August 1, August 7, August 8, August 18 and August 19.
Season ticket member practices will be held August 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12.
All sessions begin at 8:30 a.m., with gates opening at 7:30 a.m.
Fans can claim free tickets beginning June 23 at 10 a.m. General admission fans may request up to six tickets and one parking pass for a single day of camp. Season ticket members can claim tickets for two member‑exclusive days in addition to one general admission day. All parking will be on site at the BigBear.ai Performance Center and requires a parking pass.
The team plans several themed events throughout camp, including Back Together Weekend on August 1, Military Appreciation Day on August 7 and Kids Day on August 8. Local youth football and community groups will also be hosted throughout the summer.
For more information visit the Washington Commanders online.
The Source: Information in this article comes from the Washington Commanders.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Washington’s National Mall is set to be drained again for repairs after algae and peeling paint appeared just weeks after a US$14.7 million renovation, while President Donald Trump threatened prison time for anyone caught damaging the pool.
The DC Water authority issued a permit to drain the 609-metre rectangular pool, it said on Monday, while the repair company said it would fix the pool as part of its warranty.
Peeling paint and algae growth have been visible in the pool since soon after Trump declared the renovation project complete on June 6. Critics have raised concerns about the no-bid contract to recoat the pool before the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations next month, as well as for the ducks that use its water. Workers from the National Park Service earlier this week poured hydrogen peroxide into the pool to combat the algae.
Trump, without evidence, has blamed vandals for the state of the landmark. On Monday, he echoed a weekend threat by US Attorney Jeanine Pirro to prosecute people accused of attempting to destroy the pool.
“Please remember that there is a 10-year prison sentence for the destruction, or even the attempted destruction, of such things – Which will be fully enforced!” Trump earlier wrote in a social media post. Destruction of federal property can carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
It was not immediately apparent what criminal or civil violation someone might commit reaching into the pool.
Half a year can be an eternity in the NBA.
Seven months ago, as Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks headed toward a divorce, Young’s value within the league had never been lower.
On Monday, Young and the Washington Wizards agreed to a new four-year, maximum-salary contract worth approximately $212.9 million, according to a league source. The fourth year of the contract will be a player option.
Young’s first-year salary is estimated to be $49.5 million, which amounts to 30 percent of the projected 2026-27 salary cap of $165 million. During the 2029-30 season, the final year of the contract, Young will earn $56.9 million if he accepts his player option.
Wizards officials would love it, of course, if Young can return to the form that made him an All-NBA Third Team player during the 2021-22 season. But at the very least, they place significant value on knowing that their team’s offense will start with him on most occasions, and that he will be around to shoulder a large portion of the scoring load while the team’s young players, who comprise the team’s long-term nucleus, continue to improve.
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That Young will receive such large annual salaries no doubt will come as a shock to many observers, especially after Young’s reputation took a beating toward the end of his Hawks tenure. The NBA rumor mill, which is often inaccurate, predicted months ago that any new deal between Young and the Wizards would average no more than $40 million annually.
But in recent weeks, Wizards decision-makers became convinced that, with the NBA’s new anti-tanking measures compelling more teams to compete, Young was going to command maximum-salary contract offers from other franchises through either a straight free-agent signing or a sign-and-trade proposal.
Because the Wizards hold Young’s Bird rights, the Wizards had the latitude to offer Young up to a five-year contract with 8 percent annual raises. But Young’s new four-year deal instead features 5 percent year-over-year raises, the maximum year-over-year raise that any other team could have offered Young as a non-Bird free agent. For Washington, the difference between signing Young to 5 percent raises instead of 8 percent raises will amount to a total savings of $8.9 million over four years.
Wizards officials are not concerned that Young’s new contract will age poorly and prevent them from making future moves to improve their roster. Anthony Davis, who is due to earn $58.5 million in 2026-27, and Young are now Washington’s highest-paid players on its young roster, but the person with the third-largest salary is big man Alex Sarr, who will be paid the relatively small sum of $12.3 million this season. At the earliest, the Wizards do not expect to approach the dreaded first apron until the 2028-29 season, when any new rookie-scale contract extensions for Sarr and Kyshawn George would go into effect.
Plus, Wizards officials reason that Young, who will turn 28 years old in September, will remain in his prime years through the end of his contract. The onerous large contracts that age the worst — potentially Jimmy Butler’s current deal with the Golden State Warriors and Paul George’s current deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, for example — tend to be contracts in which players already are past their primes at the start of their contracts.
Young is by no means a perfect player. Undersized at 6 feet 1, and undeniably more focused on the offensive end of the floor, he tended to be a significant defensive liability throughout his Hawks tenure. That trend could worsen if he begins to lose a step (or two) over the next several years.
At the same time, though, Wizards officials have always known that their lineups would have to feature enough positional size and enough defensive-oriented players to compensate for Young’s shortcomings — in the same way that the defensive liabilities of LaMelo Ball, Jalen Brunson, Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving and Donovan Mitchell (and others) are compensated for by their respective teams.
The Wizards’ decision-makers believe Davis and youngsters Bilal Coulibaly, Davis, George, Sarr and whomever they pick first overall in Tuesday night’s draft will develop into strong enough defenders to help Young.
Young appeared in only five games for Washington last season after his trade from Atlanta for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert. That was a large enough sample size to demonstrate how his gravity and his passing skill could create open shots for his new teammates. George, Tre Johnson and others should receive more wide-open 3-point looks when Young directs the offense, and Sarr and Davis should feast on lobs from Young in pick-and-rolls.
Only 16 players in NBA history have averaged at least 20 points and 10 assists per game in the same season, according to Basketball Reference. Young is one of those players, and he has done it three times, during the 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. The only other players who have had at least three seasons of at least 20 points and 10 assists per game are James Harden (four times), Kevin Johnson (three times), Magic Johnson (three times), Oscar Robertson (five times), Isiah Thomas (four times) and Russell Westbrook (five times).
The franchise expects Young to make Washington’s offense more efficient and, because opponents will have to take the ball out of their net more often, give Washington’s defense more opportunities to set itself.
July 6 is the first day when new free-agent contracts may be signed and made official.
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