Europe observatory hails plan to abandon light-polluting Chile project

US President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with India on Monday, saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to stop buying Russian oil over the war in Ukraine.

Trump said he was cutting tariffs on Indian goods to 18 percent. He had previously levied 25 percent reciprocal tariffs, plus an additional 25 percent for New Delhi's purchases of Moscow's oil.

Modi said Monday he had a "wonderful" phone call with Trump and thanked him for reducing levies on Indian products -- but made no reference to Trump's assertion about halting Russian oil purchases.

India's refusal to stop buying oil from Russia -- which Washington says funds Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- has been a bone of contention for months as Trump seeks an elusive end to the war.

"Out of friendship and respect for Prime Minister Modi and, as per his request, effective immediately, we agreed to a Trade Deal between the United States and India," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump said that the United States would lower the reciprocal tariff imposed on India during his waves of global "Liberation Day" tariffs last year from 25 percent to 18 percent.

A White House official told AFP that an additional 25 percent tariff Trump had slapped on India for its purchase of Russian oil in August would also be dropped.

Trump added that Modi "agreed to stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela. This will help END THE WAR in Ukraine." 

The United States is effectively overseeing Venezuelan oil exports since toppling the South American country's leader, Nicolas Maduro, in a military operation in January.

- 'Greatest friends' -

Trump called Modi "one of my greatest friends" and said they spoke about "many things" including trade and ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Modi was one of the first leaders to visit the White House after Trump's inauguration for his second term in January 2025, but that did not stop difficult trade negotiations over the past year.

Russian oil has been the major hurdle. 

As recently as December, Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to New Delhi that he was ready to continue "uninterrupted shipments" of fuel to India despite US pressure.

Trump also said in October that Modi had promised to stop buying Russian oil, but an agreement did not materialize at the time.

"Wonderful to speak with my dear friend President Trump today. Delighted that Made in India products will now have a reduced tariff of 18 percent," Modi said in a post on X on Monday.

The Indian leader however made no mention of oil sales.

India emerged as a major buyer of Russian oil after the start of the Ukraine war, providing Moscow with a crucial export market as Europe sharply reduced purchases.

In 2024, Russia supplied nearly 36 percent of India's total crude imports, around 1.8 million barrels of discounted oil per day.

Modi added however that "President Trump’s leadership is vital for global peace, stability, and prosperity."

Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for ending the brief but intense armed conflict between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan in May.

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A group of 21 friends from a Belgian village won a 123-million-euro ($145 million) EuroMillions jackpot on Friday, quickly becoming the talk of the town.

Each of the friends, who live in the Flemish village of Zingem, stands to pocket about 5.8 million euros once the prize is divided into equal shares. 

"5.8 million euros. Yeah, that's unbelievable!" Marianne, a pensioner, told AFP on Monday, speaking outside the bakery where the winning ticket was sold, still shaken by the news.  

"Crying, shaking, looking at my husband, I said, 'what is happening?'," she said, recalling the moment she realised they had won on January 30.

"We hugged and we said to each other: 'we're going to be wise, don't do anything foolish.'"

Still, some celebrations were in order, so the 21 winners met that same evening at a local cafe to celebrate with plenty of bubbles.

The venue was full of joyous laughter when the couple arrived to find two glasses of champagne waiting for them, she said.

"It will make life a bit easier," she said. "It will be very good for the children and the grandchild and they will have a good future and that's the most important thing."

The secret to such a big win? It involves a good amount of luck, according to Redgy Taerwe, who sold the winning ticket. 

"Friday in the morning, they came here and asked for a 'quick pick' for, I think, 105 euros," he said, referring to tickets with randomly and automatically selected numbers.

"That was it. They won," he added, speaking from behind the counter of the bakery that doubles as a cafe and grocery store. 

At 123,555,827 euros, the jackpot was among the largest ever won in Belgium. The all-time record was set in October 2016 when a lucky ticket-holder brought home 168,085,323 euros. 

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(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump continues to defend his use of tariffs worldwide as businesses await a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the president’s tariff authority.

Trump has been urging the high court to rule in his favor, allowing him to continue imposing tariffs at will under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Trump has declared two emergencies under the 1977 law, one on fentanyl and the other on trade imbalances. A group of small businesses and some states have challenged his authority under the law, which doesn't mention the word "tariff" and has never before been used for that purpose. Trump and his federal attorneys argue the 1977 law gives the president broad authority to act in times of emergency.

Several Supreme Court justices in November 2025 asked skeptical questions during oral arguments in the high-stakes case. While the high court agreed to take the case on an expedited basis, it has provided no indication when a ruling could come.

Trump recently said his tariffs "have created an American economic miracle," in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal.

Trump also attacked claims that his tariffs are taxes on Americans. He called them "totally false."

"The data shows that the burden, or 'incidence,' of the tariffs has fallen overwhelmingly on foreign producers and middlemen, including large corporations that are not from the U.S.," Trump wrote.

That contradicts several recent reports on who pays the tariffs, which can be a complex negotiation between all parties involved. Debate over who pays and how much is likely to continue.

Nearly all tariff costs fall on American importers and consumers, according to a report from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank. The authors said that for every $100 in tariff revenue the U.S. government collects, $96 comes "out of American pockets" and $4 comes from lower foreign exporter profits.

Last October, Goldman Sachs economists projected that American consumers will pay 55% of the tariff costs, U.S. businesses will pay 22% and foreign exporters will pay 18%.

Trump also cited a Harvard study that he said proved his point. That paper notes "tariff costs were gradually but steadily transmitted to U.S. consumers, with additional spillovers to domestic goods."

The Harvard study further stated, "our results suggest that U.S. consumers paid up to 43% of the tariff burden, with the rest absorbed by U.S. firms."

Phillip Magness, a senior Fellow at the Independent Institute, said U.S. consumers and businesses are paying the costs.

"The only real debate is over what share of the tariff incidence is being carried by U.S.-based importers, who are legally required to pay the tariffs, and what share is being passed on to consumers as they raise their prices," Magness told The Center Square. "Most studies of this question suggest that U.S. importers were initially willing to absorb some of this tax on a temporary basis before passing it on to their customers, but as the tariffs drag on, expect more of the burden to be shouldered by American consumers."

In November 2025, the Congressional Budget Office revised its tariff projections after noting that foreign businesses were absorbing about 5% of the tariff costs through lower prices.

Trump's tariffs are expected to cost U.S. consumers an extra $1,300 in 2026, according to an updated analysis from the Tax Foundation.

Trump also said his tariffs have generated $18 trillion in U.S. investment from abroad.

"I have successfully wielded the tariff tool to secure colossal Investments in America," Trump wrote.

Magness is skeptical of Trump's investment claims.

"Trump has been exceedingly vague and self-contradictory about the nature of his $18 trillion figure or where it allegedly comes from. At certain times, he suggests it is tariff revenue. At other times, he describes it as 'investments' from abroad," Magness told The Center Square. "Neither claim has any basis in reality. Tariff revenues for the year are expected to come in at around $200 to $300 billion for 2025, a tiny fraction of the $18 trillion. The alleged 'investment' deals do not appear to exist in any verifiable or written form beyond the White House's claims. Though Trump has been short on specifics about these alleged 'investments,' the $18 trillion figure is far-fetched."

He noted that in context, "that number is roughly the entire [gross domestic product] of China. There's no conceivable way that Trump has secured foreign investments equal in size with the world's second-largest economy."

Gross domestic product is a measure of total economic output.

Despite its deadly impacts, the recent winter storm that battered much of the United States was not historically exceptional, official data showed Monday.

The January 23–26 system dumped snow and crippling ice from New Mexico to Maine, with some of the worst effects felt in the South, and it was linked to more than 100 deaths.

But according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the storm ranked only as a Category 3, or "major," on the Regional Snowfall Index (RSI) -- a scale that measures the societal impact of snowstorms from 0 to 5 and has been calculated back to 1900.

Category 5 storms are extremely rare, accounting for about one percent of events classified as "extreme," while Categories 0 and 1 are common, together making up 79 percent of storms.

Last week's system reached Category 3 levels in the Ohio Valley and the South, Category 2 in the Northeast, Category 1 in the Southeast, and Category 0 in the Upper Midwest and Northern Rockies and Plains.

"Snowstorms are complex and impacts can be determined by a number of varying factors, which makes communicating the severity of a snowstorm challenging," John Bateman, a NOAA meteorologist, told AFP.

"For the Regional Snowfall Index (RSI), the area of snowfall, the amount of snowfall, and the number of people living within the snowfall boundaries are used to determine a range of impacts." 

By comparison, the "Blizzard of 1996" was a Category 5 storm that struck the Northeast in January of that year, affecting more than 58 million people. The "Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011" impacted four regions and reached Category 5 intensity in the Ohio Valley and Category 3 in the South.

More notable than the snowfall itself was the prolonged blast of extreme cold that followed, hardening snow into what has been informally dubbed "snowcrete" and making cleanup efforts especially difficult.

Another storm hit the South over the weekend, with cold-stunned iguanas falling from trees in normally mild Florida, while the city of Lexington in North Carolina recorded 16 inches (40 centimeters) of snow.

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Punctuality at Germany's much-maligned state railway Deutsche Bahn slumped even further in January, the company said Monday, adding to the network's woes.

About 52 percent of all intercity trains were on time, Deutsche Bahn (DB) confirmed to AFP, after the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper first reported the figures.

That was down from almost 67 percent on-time arrivals in the same month last year and barely above the record-low 51.5 percent rate recorded for October.

January is usually a good month for punctuality owing to a relative lack of maintenance and building work on the tracks.

A Deutsche Bahn spokesman told AFP that a January cold snap in northern Germany contributed to the high rate of delays.

"Major regional disruptions can disrupt train rotations and the deployment of our employees all throughout Germany," he said.

Long derided at home, DB made headlines abroad during European Football Championships in 2024 after fans and even players arrived at destinations hours later than planned.

Almost 40 percent of long-distance services arrived late last year -- not including trains that were cancelled, which are not counted in punctuality statistics.

Critics blame years of under-investment for the poor state of Germany's rail network, once a source of national pride.

Railway spending per head rose almost 70 percent last year as the previous government pushed to renew the network, according to passenger lobby group Pro Rail Alliance. 

However, neighbours like Austria and Switzerland still spent roughly twice as much.

DB's new chief Evelyn Palla promised a "new start" upon taking the reins in September but warned that renewing the railways would be "a marathon, not a sprint" because of the extensive work needed to rebuild the system.

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(The Center Square) - Attorneys representing Jeffrey Epstein's victims are calling on the Department of Justice to take down its website with documents related to the convicted sex offender.

President Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Elon Musk and many others have been named in the new release of documents. The trove of documents has also led to resignations from international leaders. 

The lawyers allege some of the more than 3 million pages released over the weekend associated with Epstein violated the victims' privacy by neglecting to redact private information. Lawyers reported thousands of redaction failures on behalf of 100 individual survivors.

Victims' names, addresses and bank information were left unredacted, according to the lawyers.

“This Court is the last line of defense for victims who were promised protection and instead were exposed. Judicial intervention is not merely appropriate—it is essential,” the lawyers wrote.

In a Friday press conference, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called on victims to notify the DOJ of any redaction errors. He pointed to an email inbox for victims to correct redactions and concerns.

“With the production of this magnitude, mistakes are inevitable,” Blanche said. “We, of course, want to immediately correct any redaction errors that our team may have made.”

Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November, which required the Justice Department to make publicly available “in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein.

While the law calls for a wide swath of documents to be released, it gives several notable exceptions. The attorney general is allowed to withhold or redact portions of records containing child sexual abuse material, personally identifiable information of victims, and documents that would interfere with active federal investigations or ongoing prosecutions.

The latest release comes more than a month after the Dec. 19 deadline set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The new documents contain a list of sexual assault allegations against Trump compiled by the FBI in August 2025. Officials at the Department of Justice claimed many of these tips were not credible and submitted before the 2020 election.

“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” a Justice Department press release reads. “To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”

The new documents also reveal communications between Elon Musk and Epstein. According to email communications, Musk appeared to try to arrange visits to one of the Caribbean islands Epstein owned.

“What day/night would be the wildest party on [y]our island?” Musk asked in a 2012 email to Epstein.

Musk denied ever visiting one of the islands and claimed to advocate strongly for the full release of the files.

“I knew I would be smeared relentlessly, despite never having attended his parties,” Musk wrote on social media, “or set foot on his creepy island or done anything wrong at all.”

Also in the documents, an email requesting Epstein’s presence at a 2015 fundraising event for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The fundraising event was hosted by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who extended the invitation to Epstein.

It is unclear whether Epstein attended the fundraising event. Bill and Hillary Clinton’s alleged ties to Epstein have been the source of controversy as documents have been released.

The Clintons defied a subpoena by the House Oversight Committee to testify on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein in January.

Lawmakers have called for greater transparency in the redaction process and have attempted to schedule meetings with DOJ officials to discuss the materials. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said any member of Congress can make arrangements with the DOJ to review documents in an “unredacted form.”

Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., requested to review files associated with Epstein shortly after the DOJ’s Friday release, according to Massie’s social media.

“We have seen a blanket approach to redactions in some areas, while in other cases, victims names were not redacted at all,” Massie and Khanna wrote. “Congress cannot properly assess the Department’s handling of the Epstein and Maxwell cases without access to the complete record.”

Outside the U.S., Peter Mandelson, a representative in the United Kingdom, resigned from his position due to ties with Epstein. Documents reveal Epstein lobbied Mandelson for favorable tax policies. 

"I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to the Labour party and I am therefore stepping down from membership of the party," Mandelson wrote in a a statement. 

Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother to King Charles III, may be summoned to testify before the U.S. Congress due to newly revealed connections with Epstein. 

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called on Mountbatten-Windsor over the weekend to testify before the U.S. Congress.

"Anybody who has got information should be prepared to share that information in whatever form they are asked to do that," Starmer said.  

Israel's ban on Doctors Without Borders' humanitarian operation in Gaza spells deeper catastrophe for the Palestinian territory's people, the head of the medical charity told AFP on Monday.

Israel announced on Sunday that it was terminating all the  activities in Gaza and the West Bank by the organisation, known by its French acronym MSF, after it failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff.

MSF slammed the move, which takes effect on March 1, as a "pretext" to obstruct aid.

"This is a decision that was made by the Israeli government to restrict humanitarian assistance into Gaza and the West Bank at the most critical time for Palestinians," MSF secretary-general Christopher Lockyear warned in an interview with AFP at the charity's Geneva headquarters.

"We are at a moment where Palestinian people need more humanitarian assistance, not less," he said. "Ceasing MSF activities is going to be catastrophic for the people of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank".

MSF has been a key provider of medical and humanitarian aid in Gaza, particularly since war broke out after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The charity says it currently provides at least 20 percent of hospital beds in the territory and operates around 20 health centres.

In 2025 alone, it carried out more than 800,000 medical consultations, treated more than 100,000 trauma cases and assisted more than 10,000 infant deliveries.

It also provided more than 700 million litres of water, Lockyear pointed out.

- 'Impossible choice' -

Israel announced in December that it planned to prevent 37 aid organisations, including MSF, from working in Gaza for failing to submit detailed information about their Palestinian employees. The move drew widespread condemnation from NGOs and the United Nations.

It had alleged that two MSF employees had links with Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which the medical charity vehemently denies.

"If Israel has any evidence of such things, then they should share that evidence," Lockyear said, insisting that "there's been no proof given to us".

He decried "an orchestrated campaign to delegitimise us", calling on other countries to defend efforts to bring desperately-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza.

"They should be speaking to Israel, pressuring Israel to ensure that there is a reverse of any banning of humanitarian organisations."

Lockyear said MSF, which counts around 1,100 staff inside Gaza, had been trying to engage with Israeli authorities for nearly a year over the requested lists.

But it had been left with "an impossible choice", he said.

"We've been forced to choose between the safety and security of our staff and being able to reach patients."

- 'Can only get worse' -

The organisation said it decided not to hand over staff names "because Israeli authorities failed to provide the concrete assurances required to guarantee our staff's safety, protect their personal data, and uphold the independence of our medical operation".

Lockyear insisted that was a "very rational" decision, pointing out that 15 MSF staff had been killed in Gaza during the war, out of more than 500 humanitarian workers and more than 1,700 medical workers killed in the Strip.

Lockyear highlighted that without independent humanitarian organisations in Gaza, an already "catastrophic" situation "can only get worse".

"We need to increase massively the humanitarian assistance that's going into Gaza," he said, "not restrict it, not block it."

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Europe's ESO star-gazing organisation on Monday welcomed plans to call off building a massive green energy project in the Chilean desert which threatened to spoil its telescopes' view of the darkest skies on Earth.

AES Andes, a subsidiary of US energy company AES Corporation, in 2024 submitted proposals for the construction of a 3,000-hectare (7,400-acre) project in Chile's Atacama desert to generate solar and wind energy as well as green hydrogen.

The plans sparked alarm in the astronomical community over fears that light pollution from the project would interfere with the nearby Paranal Observatory's current and future telescopes.

The $10 billion Inna project had been waiting to hear the result of an environmental impact assessment.

However AES Andes announced late last month that it had "decided to desist from the execution of the Inna project" and instead focus on renewable energy and energy storage.

"When the cancellation is confirmed, we'll be relieved that the Inna industrial complex will not be built near Paranal," European Southern Observatory (ESO) director general Xavier Barcons said in a statement on Monday.

"Due to its planned location, the project would pose a major threat to the darkest and clearest skies on Earth and to the performance of the most advanced astronomical facilities anywhere in the world," he added.

Perched at 2,635 metres (8,645 feet) above sea level, and located dozens of kilometres from the nearest town of Antofagasta, Paranal's unique atmospheric conditions make it one of the most productive observatories in the world.

Analysis conducted by the ESO last year found that the Inna project "would have caused "severe, irreversible damage to the dark skies of Paranal", the organisation said.

For example, it would have increased light pollution above the Very Large Telescope, which is made up of four individual telescopes, by at least 35 percent.

Among other discoveries, the telescope produced the first ever image of an exoplanet -- a planet outside our solar system -- in 2004.

The plans would also have had an impact on the stadium-sized Extremely Large Telescope, which is scheduled to start scientific observations in 2029 with a budget of 1.45 billion euros ($1.7 billion).

"It has been incredibly reassuring to see so many people in Chile and around the world care deeply about, and actively speak up for, the protection of dark and quiet skies," Barcons said.

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has ordered the start of nuclear talks with the United States, local media said Monday, after US leader Donald Trump said he was hopeful of a deal to avert military action against the Islamic republic. 

Following the Iranian authorities' deadly response to anti-government protests that peaked last month, Trump has threatened military action and ordered the dispatch of an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East.

Trump has maintained he is hopeful of making a deal and Tehran has also insisted it wants diplomacy, while vowing an unbridled response to any aggression.

"President Pezeshkian has ordered the opening of talks with the United States" on Iran's nuclear programme, the Fars news agency reported on Monday, citing an unnamed government source. The report was also carried by the government newspaper Iran and the reformist daily Shargh. 

US news site Axios cited two unnamed sources saying Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was expected to meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday in Istanbul to discuss a possible deal on the nuclear file. 

Trump had warned "time is running out" for Iran to reach a deal on its nuclear programme, which the West believes is aimed at making an atomic bomb, a claim Tehran has repeatedly denied. 

In an interview Sunday with CNN, Araghchi said, "President Trump said no nuclear weapons, and we fully agree. We fully agree with that. That could be a very good deal," adding that, "in return, we expect sanctions lifting". 

Iran foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said earlier Monday Tehran was working on a method and framework for negotiations that would be ready in the coming days, with messages between the two sides relayed through regional players. 

- 'Police the world' -

Turkey has led a diplomatic push to defuse tensions, with Araghchi visiting Istanbul last week and speaking with other regional counterparts, including in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. 

Jordan's top diplomat, Ayman Safadi, on Monday assured Araghchi the kingdom would "not be a battleground in any regional conflict or a launching pad for any military action against Iran". 

Iranian authorities, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have warned any US attack would trigger a "regional war".

In Tehran, pensioner Ali Hamidi told AFP he was a veteran and "not afraid of war", but that "America should mind its own business, why does it want to police the world?" 

But, the 68-year-old added, "Iranian officials are also at fault for not providing for the people. The economic troubles are back-breaking... The officials should do something tangible, not just talk."

The protests were sparked in late December by economic strain and exploded in size and intensity over several days in early January. 

Authorities have said the protests were "riots" inflamed by its arch foes the United States and Israel, with Khamenei likening them to a "coup" attempt.  

- Ambassadors summoned -

Tehran has acknowledged thousands of deaths during the protests, and on Sunday the presidency published the names of 2,986 people out of the 3,117 whom authorities said were killed in the unrest.

Authorities insist most were members of the security forces and innocent bystanders, attributing the violence to "terrorist acts".

US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said it has confirmed 6,842 deaths, mostly protesters killed by security forces, with rights groups warning the figure is likely far higher. 

Young Iranian Selina, who would not give her full name, travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan seeking some relief from "living in fear". 

"It's not safe for us" in Iran, the 25-year-old told AFP. 

"We don't even dare to go out after 6:00 pm because soldiers are everywhere."

The crackdown prompted the European Union to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, with Iranian lawmakers retaliating on Sunday by slapping the same designation on European armies. 

The EU also issued fresh sanctions on Iranian officials, including the interior minister, a move echoed on Monday by Britain, which announced sanctions on 10 individuals over the "brutality against protesters". 

Baqaei said Monday the foreign ministry had summoned all the EU member state ambassadors in Tehran over the designation, and that other responses were to come.

Iranian state television also announced four foreigners had been arrested in Tehran for "participation in riots", without specifying their nationalities.

Authorities have continued to announce arrests, with rights groups estimating at least 40,000 people have been detained over the protests. 

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A partial US government shutdown entered its third day on Monday amid growing uncertainty over Congress finding a path to quickly bring the 2026 budget deadlock to an end.

Despite the apparent impasse, Mike Johnson, speaker of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, is expressing optimism that an agreement is imminent.

"We'll get all this done by Tuesday; I'm convinced," Johnson said on Fox News Sunday.

He described a vote to be held in the House on Tuesday that would approve a Senate-backed deal to reopen the government as little more than a "formality."

The speaker has a razor-thin majority in the House, however, and cannot afford to lose more than one vote on the Republican side. His margin was reduced even further on Monday with the arrival of a Democrat who won a special election in Texas.

The funding lapse followed a breakdown in negotiations driven by Democratic anger over the killing of two protesters in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents, which derailed talks over new money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Late Friday, the Senate passed a package clearing five outstanding funding bills to cover most federal agencies through September, along with a two-week stopgap measure to keep DHS operating while lawmakers negotiate immigration enforcement policy.

Several members of the extreme right-wing of the Republican Party are refusing to reopen negotiations on DHS funding, however, and are threatening to vote against the Senate-backed package on Tuesday.

"Democrats are now playing politics," Chip Roy, a Republican lawmaker from Texas, told Fox News Sunday, accusing them of taking DHS funding "hostage."

- 'Good faith' -

Republican defections could force Johnson to rely on Democratic votes to advance the funding bill and end the shutdown.

"I will say that we need good faith on both sides," he said Sunday.

If the House approves the Senate deal, lawmakers would then have just two weeks to negotiate a full-year DHS funding bill.

Both parties acknowledge these talks will be politically fraught, as Democrats are demanding new guardrails on immigration enforcement and conservatives are pushing their own policy priorities.

"We need a robust path toward dramatic reform," Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries told ABC News on Sunday.

Democrats in the House want changes to the way DHS conducts its immigration sweeps -- with heavily armed, masked and unidentified agents who sometimes detain people without warrants -- before voting on the spending package.

President Donald Trump has publicly endorsed the Senate deal and urged both parties to support it, signaling his desire to avoid a second lengthy shutdown in his second term, following a record 43-day stoppage last summer.

Shutdowns temporarily freeze funding for non-essential federal operations, forcing agencies to halt services, place workers on unpaid leave or require them to work without pay. 

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