Good morning.
Senators have reached a deal to advance a major package of spending bills to avert a partial government shutdown that was to begin on Saturday.
The office of Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, confirmed the deal calls for splitting a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from a package of other funding bills, and that it would fund DHS for two weeks at its current levels.
If implemented successfully, the deal would avert a partial shutdown that would have affected many of the government’s functions. However, it would not stop a temporary lapse in funding for DHS, because any changes to the DHS funding bill would have to be approved by the House of Representatives, which is out of session until Monday. The impact of such a lapse was not immediately clear.
Earlier on Thursday, a key vote intended to head off the partial government shutdown failed in the Senate.
What is Schumer’s strategy? The intention is to buy time for further talks over Democrats’ demands for changes to immigration enforcement after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis, which include an end to mask-wearing by federal agents, the imposition of a code of conduct and independent investigations of its violations. On Wednesday, he announced that Democrats had united on a “set of commonsense and necessary policy goals that we need to rein in ICE and end the violence”.
What has the president said? Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote.”
Trump sues IRS and US treasury for $10bn over leak of tax returns
Donald Trump on Thursday sued the treasury department and Internal Revenue Service over the disclosure of his tax returns to the media in 2019 and 2020.
In a complaint filed in Miami federal court, Trump, his adult sons, and his namesake company said the agencies failed to take “mandatory precautions” to prevent the former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn from leaking their tax returns to “leftist media outlets”, including the New York Times and ProPublica.
Thursday’s lawsuit, for which he seeks $10bn, puts Trump in the unusual position of suing government agencies that are part of the executive branch, which he leads.
How does this fit into a pattern of behavior from Trump? Trump has filed many lawsuits in his personal capacity since winning a second White House term in 2024, including against the New York Times and book publisher Penguin Random House, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC.
That’s a lot of money, right? Well, yes, but it’s worth noting that plaintiffs are free to name almost any dollar amount to describe the damages they claim to have suffered. Some plaintiffs choose staggeringly high numbers because they know they’ll generate headlines.
Iran seeks to avert US military action with talks in Ankara
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, will travel to Ankara for talks aimed at preventing a US attack, as Turkish diplomats seek to convince Tehran it must offer concessions over its nuclear programme if it is to avert a potentially devastating conflict.
No formal direct talks have been held between the two countries for a decade.
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Wednesday that about 30,000 US military personnel were “within the reach of an array of thousands of Iranian one-way UAVs and Iranian short-range ballistic missiles”.
What is the context? Trump has warned Iran that time is running out, vowing that any US attack would be violent and far more extensive than the intervention in Venezuela.
In other news …
The Department of Justice filed federal charges against the man accused of attacking Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Tuesday, alleging he “forcibly assaulted, opposed, impeded, intimidated and interfered” with Omar – a crime that carries up to a year in prison.
The Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar announced she will run for governor of Minnesota, after the incumbent governor, Tim Walz, dropped out of the race in early January.
Venezuela’s congress has approved a bill making significant changes to the country’s oil sector, after pressure from the US to open it up to foreign private investment.
Stat of the day: Astronomers discover potentially habitable new planet 146 light years away
Astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable planet about 146 light-years away which has conditions similar to Mars. HD 137010 b orbits a sun-like star and is estimated to be 6% larger than Earth. But one scientist said it would “take us tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years” to reach it with current technology.
Culture ick: Seeds – stunning film following struggling Black farmers in the American south
Brittany Shyne’s stunning documentary – an Academy Award nominee – observes Black farmers in the American south over the course of seven years, and portrays the beauty and the hardships of working with the land. Phuong Le writes that the “black-and-white cinematography lends a visual sumptuousness to the rituals of harvest”.
Don’t miss this: Rebecca Solnit on what technology takes from us – and how to take it back
Decisions outsourced, chatbots for friends, the natural world an afterthought: Silicon Valley is giving us life void of connection. There is, however, a way out, Rebecca Solnit writes in this essay for the long read – but it’s going to take collective effort.
Climate check: US leads record global surge in gas-fired power driven by AI demands, with big costs for the climate
The US is leading a huge global surge in new gas-fired power generation that will cause a major leap in planet-heating emissions, according to a report by Global Energy Monitor. The gas projects in development in the US will, if all completed, cause 12.1bn tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions over their lifetimes.
Last Thing: ‘Rage knitting’ against the machine – the hobbyists putting anti-ICE messages into crafts
Online communities for hobbyists, artists, crafters and collectors have seen an outpouring of anti-ICE messages. “I’ve done more subtle political messages in the past… but it just feels like we’re past the point of subtle,” one person says. It taps into a history of resistance in handicrafts and the fiber arts, for instance the “homespun” US and Indian opposition to British imperial rule.
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