Summary
Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
Democrats and the White House have reached a deal to avoid a government shutdown, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer’s office confirmed to the Guardian. The deal will advance a package of spending bills, while separating a Department of Homeland Security spending bill from the package. The agreement will include funding for DHS for two weeks at current levels, while Democrats continue negotiating further guardrails on immigration agents in light of the recent fatal shootings in Minneapolis. However, a government shutdown could still be coming, with Senate majority leader John Thune saying it “remains to be seen” whether the chamber will approve the deal tonight and House speaker Mike Johnson saying the earliest the House could take floor action may be Monday.
Donald Trump sued the US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service for $10bn over an unauthorized disclosure of his tax returns during his first term, Bloomberg News reports. Trump famously broke precedent by not releasing his tax returns while running for, and then attaining, the presidency.
Trump will announce his choice to replace Jerome Powell as head the Federal Reserve tomorrow, he says. Powell’s term as chair of the reserve ends in May.
Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic US senator and one-time presidential candidate, announced she will run for governor of Minnesota, an expected move after the incumbent governor, Tim Walz, dropped out of the race in early January.
Matt Mahan, the moderate Democrat and mayor of San Jose, California, announced on Thursday that he would run for governor, joining a sprawling but stagnant field to succeed Gavin Newsom.
The Justice Department filed charges against the man who allegedly tried to spray Democrat representative Ilhan Omar with a “mixture of water and apple cider vinegar” from a syringe during a town hall in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan held a news conference in Minneapolis today, where he said ‘no agency is perfect’ but did not mention the fatal shootings of US citizens by immigration agents there this month.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey addressed the US Conference of Mayors in Washington, where he said “we won’t be intimidated”. He said the leaders of cities across the country are “on the frontlines of a very important battle”.
The top Democrats on Senate and House national intelligence committees questioned why Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, appeared at an FBI search of a Georgia election office this week. In a letter to Gabbard, senator Mark Warner and congressman Jim Hines wrote, “The Intelligence Community should be focused on foreign threats”.
Massachusetts governor Maura Healey announced that she plans to file legislation that would bar federal immigration officers from schools, courthouses, hospitals and churches and make it illegal for another state to deploy its National Guard in the state. Meanwhile, Josh Shapiro said Pennsylvania is preparing to respond if federal agents begin an immigration operation there as they have in Minnesota and other states.
Trump signed an executive order to create a “White House Great American Recovery Initiative” focused on addiction treatment. At an Oval Office sigining ceremony, the president appeared alongside health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and Kathryn Burgum, who is married to interior secretary Doug Burgum. The pair will be co-chairing the initiative.
The United States Treasury will allow US entities to engage in Venzuela’s oil industry under a new license announced today. The news comes as Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez signed a law today to open the country’s oil sector to privatization. Also today, the Department of Transportation rescinded a 2019 order that prohibited all US airlines from flying to Venezuela.
The Department of Transportation has rescinded a 2019 order that prohibited all US airlines from flying to Venezuela.
The 2019 order came during Donald Trump’s first presidency, when the Department of Homeland Security determined that conditions in Venezuela threatened the safety and security of travelers, and suspended air travel to - as well as embassy operations in - the country.
