It is the second such government shutdown in the past year and comes just 11 weeks after the end of the previous funding impasse that lasted 43 days, the longest in US history.

That shutdown in 2025, which spanned 1 October to 14 November, had widespread impacts on essential government services including air travel and left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay for weeks.

This shutdown, however, is unlikely to be that long or widespread as the House of Representatives is set to be back in session on Monday.

The White House, though, has directed several agencies, including the departments of transportation, education and defence to execute shutdown plans.

“Employees should report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities,” a White House memo to agencies said. “It is our hope that this lapse will be short.”

Trump has urged Republicans, who hold the majority of seats in the US House, to vote for the deal.

Lawmakers plan to use the fortnight in which the DHS will continue to be funded to negotiate a deal. Democrats want that deal to include new policies for immigration enforcement agents.

“We need to rein in ICE and end the violence,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“That means ending roving patrols. It means requiring rules, oversight, and judicial warrants… Masks need to come off, cameras need to stay on, and officers need visible identification. No secret police.”

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have sharply criticised tactics used by immigration agents in the wake of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last weekend.

Pretti, an intensive care nurse, was shot by a US Border Patrol agent after an altercation in which several agents tried to restrain him.

On Friday, the Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation into the shooting.

[BBC]

The gunfire and blasts began shortly after midnight, according to residents of a neighbourhood near the Diori Hamani International Airport, the AFP news agency reports. They said calm returned after two hours.

The airport houses an air force base and is located about 10km (six miles) from the presidential palace.

Niger is led by Abdourahamane Tiani who seized power in a 2023 coup that ousted the country’s elected civilian president.

Like its neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali, the country has been fighting jihadist groups who have carried out deadly attacks across the region.

It is also a major producer of uranium.

A huge uranium shipment destined for export has been stuck at the airport amid unresolved legal and diplomatic complications with France after the military government nationalised the country’s uranium mines.

“The situation is under control. There is no need to worry,” the Anadolu news agency quoted a Foreign Affairs ministry official as saying, without elaborating.

The official told the agency they were trying to determine whether the gunfire was linked to the uranium shipment.