Shumita Basu

It's Monday, February 2nd.

I'm Shamita Basu.

This is Apple News Today.

While the Senate came to an agreement to separate out extended funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the House was not in session to vote before the midnight deadline on Friday, pushing the government into a partial shutdown.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview with Meet the Press yesterday that he was confident the shutdown would end soon after the House reconvenes today, and he expressed optimism about further negotiations.

Some of these conditions and requests they've made are obviously reasonable and should happen, but others are going to require a lot more negotiation.

President Trump was reportedly the catalyst for the bipartisan dealmaking that's unfolding.

Trump reached out directly to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, marking a stark departure from his position last year when he refused to work with Democratic leaders on averting the longest shutdown in history.

The private outreach comes as some Republican members of Congress and strategists have voiced concerns about immigration enforcement becoming a liability for the party in this year's midterm elections.

And at a moment where House Republicans have little margin for error, as Natalie Andrews with The Wall Street Journal explained to us.

As lawmakers negotiate over funding and ultimately over stipulations for ICE funding, the actions of immigration agents on the street are still at the forefronts of minds across the country.

That's from a protest in Minneapolis on Friday as the city still reels from the killings of Alex Preddy and Renee Good by federal immigration agents.

On Saturday, protests also took place in other cities like Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and New York.

Meanwhile, much of what Democratic lawmakers are asking for in their negotiations could have a direct effect on the actions of immigration agents on the ground.

Speaker Johnson has already pushed back on the idea of the ban on masking and the names on uniforms, saying that it could lead to doxing of immigration agents.

As Andrews pointed out to us, both parties are arguing that time is of the essence in getting this bill through.

Yesterday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told ABC that Democrats did not agree to fast-track the package of bills passed by the Senate, which means the soonest the partial shutdown can be resolved with a vote is Tuesday.

Over the weekend, another batch of documents from the Epstein files were released by the federal government.

But despite anticipation over whether the latest release would produce new incriminating evidence against any notable figures, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch says they likely won't lead to any new charges.

Speaking on CNN on Sunday, Blanch said even though some disturbing materials were included in the latest release, the administration's position hadn't changed.