The sun went down and the volume went up.

In the shadow of Chicago’s high-rise skyline, downtown streets reverberated with protest.

“Ain’t no power like the power of the people, and the power of the people don’t stop,” they chanted.

The president’s plan to deploy troops in the city brought hundreds to the streets in opposition.

They marched the full length of Michigan Avenue, flanked by a line of Chicago police officers.

This is a city on edge, the federal government taking on the state, both braced for a showdown.

Among the people I spoke to, there was no surprise about Donald Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act, just outrage.

Asked why he’d joined the protest, a Vietnam veteran pointed to the word ‘Trump’ blazing in bright lights from a nearby hotel.

“That idiot right there, that’s why,” he said.

Read more: What is the Insurrection Act?

His message to the president: “Get the hell out of the White House, or we will put you out of it.”

“I’m on this march because I’m concerned the US is slipping away from democracy to authoritarianism,” another man told me.

One older woman said she was marching for her daughters and granddaughters, “because there isn’t going to be an America for them”.

“I don’t think he [Donald Trump] listens to anybody,” she added, “but doing nothing is not going to do anything so we got to do something.”

A young African American woman told me she felt compelled to march because immigration agents “taking people from their families just isn’t right”.

Shades of orange and pink reflected off the glass skyscrapers, casting long shadows on the streets where the threat of troop deployment looms.

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Hundreds of National Guard troops from Texas have set up camp at Elwood, an army training centre on the outskirts of Chicago.

Their presence drew a diverse crowd of protesters to the city centre – their faces lit by phone screens, voices raised and fists raised in defiance.

“No ICE, no fear,” they chanted, telling Immigration Customs Enforcement agents to leave Chicago.

“Immigrants are welcome here,” they repeated on cue from those wielding megaphones.

It was much more than the noise of protest. This was the pulse of a city fighting back.

A restless city, charged with tension, refusing to be silent.

A man has been arrested in connection with a deadly wildfire that destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood in Los Angeles, California.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, was detained for allegedly starting a fire on New Year’s Day that burned down much of the wealthy area a week later, acting US attorney Bill Essayli said.

The blaze, which erupted on 7 January, killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes and buildings in the Pacific Palisades, a wealthy coastal neighbourhood. It burned down mansions with views of the ocean and central Los Angeles.

Rinderknecht allegedly started the fire after finishing his shift as an Uber driver.

He fled the scene of the original fire, but returned to the same trail where he had been earlier to watch it burn, according to Mr Essayli.

“He left as soon as he saw the fire trucks were headed to the location. He turned around and went back up there. And he took some video and, and watched them fight the fire,” Mr Essayli said

Rinderknecht made several 911 calls to report the fire, according to a criminal complaint.

During an interview with investigators on 24 January, Rinderknecht spoke of where the fire began – information that was not yet public and he would not have known if he hadn’t witnessed it, the complaint said.

The suspect was visibly nervous during the interview, according to the complaint.

His efforts to call 911 and a question to ChatGPT about a cigarette lighting a fire indicated he “wanted to preserve evidence of himself trying to assist in the suppression of the fire and he wanted to create evidence regarding a more innocent explanation for the cause of the fire,” the complaint added.

Investigators determined the fire was intentionally lit, likely by a lighter used on vegetation or paper, according to the criminal complaint. Authorities found a “barbecue-style” lighter inside the glove compartment of his car.

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Rinderknecht also lied about his location when the fire began, claiming he was near the bottom of the hiking trail, Mr Essayli said.

The fire was put out initially, but it continued to smoulder underground before reigniting during high winds a week later, Mr Essayli added.

Rinderknecht was arrested in Florida on Tuesday and will appear in court in the state on Wednesday.

He faces between five and 20 years in prison if convicted, according to the US Attorney’s Office.

“While we cannot undo the damage and destruction that was done, we hope his arrest and the charges against him bring some measure of justice to the victims of this horrific tragedy,” Mr Essayli said.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said: “More than nine months ago, our city faced one of the most devastating periods our region had ever seen. Lives were tragically lost. Thousands of homes were destroyed.

“Our heroic firefighters fought the blaze valiantly with no rest. Each day that families are displaced is a day too long and as we are working tirelessly to bring Angelenos home, we are also working towards closure and towards justice – and today is a step forward in that process.”

Investigators are still to determine the cause of the Eaton Fire, which broke out the same day in the community of Altadena and killed 18 people.

Hundreds of National Guard soldiers from Texas have arrived at an army facility outside Chicago, as part of Donald Trump’s threat to deploy troops targeting Democratic-led cities.

On Sunday, the US president ordered the deployment of 300 National Guard soldiers to America’s third-largest city, prompting a strong response from local protestors and politicians.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has accused Mr Trump of using troops as “political props” and “pawns”.

On Monday, Illinois’ attorneys failed in a legal attempt to block their deployment, which they labelled “illegal, dangerous and unconstitutional”.

‘Ready to go’

“The elite Texas National Guard are on the ground and ready to go,” said Greg Abbott, Republican governor of Texas, in a post on X.

“They are putting America first by ensuring that the federal government can safely enforce federal law.”

Armed Border Patrol agents have been making arrests in an immigration crackdown that began last month, targeting immigrant-heavy and largely Latino areas, which has prompted a series of protests.

In September, in a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump shared an AI-generated image of himself as a military officer in the movie Apocalypse Now, with the title changed to “Chipocalypse Now” over flames and the city skyline.

The post – a screenshot from X – said: “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’.

‘Aggressive overreach’

Officials in Will County, southwest of Chicago, said they were not warned by the federal government about the deployment at the US Army Reserve Centre in Elwood.

“The arrival of the National Guard by the Trump Administration is an aggressive overreach. Our federal government moving armed troops into our community should be alarming to everyone,” said Will County’s executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant.

National Guard troops are state-based militia who normally answer to local governors and are often deployed in response to natural disasters.

While the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws is limited, Mr Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law.

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The National Guard’s exact mission in Illinois was not immediately clear, although the Trump administration has an aggressive immigration enforcement operation, and protesters have frequently rallied at an immigration building outside Chicago in Broadview.

The president repeatedly has described Chicago in hostile terms, calling it a “hell hole” of crime, although police statistics show significant drops in most crimes, including murders.

Following Mr Trump’s earlier deployment of troops to Los Angeles and Washington DC, he has also ordered soldiers to Portland, Oregon, which he has described as a “war zone”.

None have been deployed there yet, as a legal battle between his administration and Oregon is waged in the courts.

Local Democratic governor Tina Kotek has insisted there is “no insurrection” in the state.

The US president has defied staunch opposition from Democratic mayors and governors, who say his claims of lawlessness and violence do not reflect reality.

However, troops are also being sent to Memphis, where they would be welcomed by Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee. He said they will “play a critical support role” for local law enforcement.