First Thing: Democrats agree deal to avoid shutdown but demand DHS bill include reforms to ‘rein in ICE’ | US news

Good morning.

Senators agreed to introduce a massive spending bill package to avert a partial government shutdown that begins Saturday.

Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer’s office confirmed that the agreement calls for separating a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from a package of other funding bills and would fund DHS for two weeks at current levels.

If implemented successfully, the agreement will avoid a partial shutdown that would affect many government functions. But that won’t stop a temporary cut in DHS funding 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 an error was not immediately apparent.

Earlier Thursday, a key vote in the Senate to prevent a partial government shutdown failed.

• What is Schumer’s strategy? The goal is to buy time for more talks about Democrats’ demands for changes to immigration enforcement following the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis, which would include ending federal agents wearing masks, introducing a code of conduct and independent investigations of violations. He announced Wednesday that Democrats are united on “a set of common-sense and necessary policy goals that we need to rein in ICE and end the violence.”

• What did the President say? “I hope both Republicans and Democrats will deliver the much-needed bipartisan ‘YES’ vote,” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump files $10 billion lawsuit against IRS and US treasury over leaked tax returns

Donald Trump on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service over the disclosure of his 2019 and 2020 tax returns to the media.

In a complaint filed in Miami federal court, Trump, his adult sons and his namesake company said the agencies failed to take “mandatory measures” to prevent former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn from leaking his tax returns to “left-wing media outlets,” including the New York Times and ProPublica.

Thursday’s lawsuit, in which he seeks $10 billion, puts Trump in the unusual position of suing government agencies that are part of the executive branch he leads.

• How does this fit into Trump’s pattern of behavior? Trump has filed several 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? Yes, but it’s worth noting that plaintiffs are free to specify almost any dollar amount to describe the damages they claim to have suffered. Some plaintiffs choose surprisingly high numbers because they know they will make headlines.

Iran is trying to prevent US military intervention with talks in Ankara

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to Ankara for talks aimed at preventing a US attack. Turkish diplomats are trying to persuade Tehran that it must compromise on its nuclear program if it wants to avoid a potentially devastating conflict.

There have been no official direct talks between the two countries for a decade.

Nearly 30,000 U.S. military personnel are “in range of thousands of Iranian unidirectional UAVs and Iranian short-range ballistic missiles,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.

• What is the context? Trump warned Iran that time was running out, saying any US strike would be severe and far more comprehensive than an intervention in Venezuela.

In other news…

• The Justice Department on Tuesday filed federal charges against the man accused of attacking Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar. He alleged that he “forcibly assaulted, opposed, obstructed, intimidated and interfered” with Omar; This crime is punishable by up to one year in prison.

• Amy KlobucharThe Democratic senator announced that he will run for governor of Minnesota. After 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 US pressure to open it to foreign private investment.

Statistics of the day: Astronomers Discover potentially habitable new planet 146 years away

Astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable planet with conditions similar to Mars, about 146 light-years away. HD 137010 b orbits a Sun-like star and is estimated to be 6% more massive than Earth. But one scientist said it would “take tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of years” to reach that point with current technology.

Culture Selection: Seeds – compelling film about struggling Black farmers in the American South

Brittany Shyne’s stunning Academy Award-nominated documentary observes black farmers in the American South over seven years and chronicles the beauty and challenges of working the land. Phuong Le writes that “black-and-white cinematography adds a visual splendor to the harvest rituals.”

Don’t miss this: Rebecca Solnit explains what technology has taken from us and how we can take it back

Decisions outsourced, chatbots for friends, the natural world as an afterthought: Silicon Valley gives us a disconnected life. However, Rebecca Solnit writes that there is a way out in this article that will be read for a long time; But this will require a collective effort.

Climate control: US leads record global surge in gas-fired power as AI demands come at huge climate costs

The United States is leading a major global increase in new gas-fired power generation that will cause a huge jump in planet-warming emissions, according to a report by Global Energy Monitor. If all of the gas projects under development in the US are completed, they will cause 12.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions over their lifetime.

Latest Thing: ‘Rage braid’ against machine – hobbyists put anti-ICE messages on crafts

Online communities for hobbyists, artists, crafters and collectors have seen anti-ICE messages pouring in. “I’ve made more subtle political messages in the past… but it feels like we’re past the point of being subtle,” one person says. It draws on the history of resistance in handicrafts and fiber arts, such as the “plain” opposition of the United States and India to British imperial rule.

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