Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, speaks during a news conference, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As the partial government shutdown continues, Democrats have sent their counteroffer to Republicans and the White House — outlining their demands to fund the Department of Homeland Security and reform the embattled agency.
The specifics of the proposal, sent late Monday, remain unclear. ABC News has reached out to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office for more details, though the New York senator has been reticent to negotiate openly through the press.
President Donald Trump has said he will sit down with Democrats to negotiate.
“I will,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida on Monday, though he didn’t give any timeline. “But you know, we have to protect our law enforcement. They’ve done a great job.”
The shutdown, now in its fourth day, is affecting DHS agencies like the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Secret Service — as Democrats demand reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A majority of DHS employees are expected to work during the shutdown, though without pay — the second time in recent months after the record-long, 43-day government shutdown last fall.
Meanwhile, Capitol Hill remains nearly empty with lawmakers on recess. They’ve been told to prepare to return to Washington on 48-hours notice if a deal comes together. If not, lawmakers aren’t scheduled to return until next week.
Democrats have asked for a range of new restrictions on immigration enforcement, including a mandate for body cameras, judicial warrants before agents can enter private property — rather than administrative warrants — and a ban on ICE agents wearing face masks. They also want stricter use-of-force policy and new training standards for agents.
Republicans have objected to many of those demands, with the exception of some openness to body cameras.
On Air Force One late Monday, Trump said, “I don’t like some of the things they’re asking for. We’re going to protect law enforcement. We are going to protect ICE.”
ICE is continuing operations because of a $75 billion infusion provided in Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” that was passed by Congress last summer. More than 93% of ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials are expected to continue working during the shutdown.
The DHS funding fight erupted after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, by federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 — just weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
White House “border czar” Tom Homan, who last week announced an end to the Minneapolis surge, said that the current partial government shutdown has had no impact on the administration’s immigration enforcement operations.
“ICE has continued to enforce the law across the country. They’re already funded,” Homan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Now the ICE officers won’t be getting paid. But they’re getting used to that, it seems like. So, no, the immigration mission, the reason why President Trump was elected to be president, continues.”
Schumer, on Sunday, continued to argue for reforms to ICE.
“These are common-sense proposals,” Schumer said on CNN. He added, “ICE is rogue, out of control.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, appearing on “Face the Nation” on CBS on Sunday, declined to say if there were any points Democrats were willing to concede in the fight over DHS funding.
“Well, we’re willing to have a good-faith conversation about everything, but, fundamentally, we need change that is dramatic, that is bold, that is meaningful and that is transformational,” Jeffries said.
ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
‘Location Lost’ album artwork. (Failure Records/Arduous Records/Virgin Music Group)
Failure has announced a new album called Location Lost.
The seventh studio effort from the “Stuck on You” outfit is due out April 24. It’s the follow-up to 2021’s Wild Type Droid.
Lead single “The Air’s on Fire” is out now. The album also includes a collaboration with Paramore’s Hayley Williams called “The Rising Skyline.”
You may recall that Paramore covered “Stuck on You” on their 2006 Summer Tic EP. Williams also appears in the 2025 Failure documentary, Every Time You Lose Your Mind.
Failure will play an album release show on April 21 in Los Angeles. They’ll launch a U.S. headlining tour in May.
Jason Aldean’s “How Far Does a Goodbye Go” (BBR/BMG)
Jason Aldean’s “How Far Does a Goodbye Go” has made it all the way to #1 on both the Mediabase and Billboard Country Airplay charts.
“Man, I thought 30 was a milestone…now we’re sitting at 31 number one songs. That’s pretty wild,” Jason says in a Facebook post. “Thank you to country radio, my team, our streaming partners, the songwriters and every one of y’all who’ve listened and turned these songs into something bigger than we ever imagined.”
Jason’s now tied for the fourth most number ones on the Billboard Country Airplay chart since its start in 1990, putting him in the ranks of George Strait, Alan Jackson and Luke Bryan.
“How Far Does a Goodbye Go” is the lead single from Jason’s Songs About Us album, which drops April 24.
On Thursday, he takes his Full Throttle World Tour Down Under, headlining his first show in New Zealand before heading to Australia.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour, Dec. 06, 2024 in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Kevin Winter/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Since the Winter Olympics began, Taylor Swift has sent a special message to the U.S. Olympians, wishing them good luck, and shared skier Breezy Johnson’s joy when her boyfriend proposed to her using lyrics of Taylor’s hit “The Alchemy.” During Monday night’s primetime coverage on NBC, Taylor was back in the Olympics arena, narrating a promo for the Blade Angels — three members of the U.S. Women’s Figure Skating Team.
In the promo, which is set to Taylor’s hit “Opalite,” she says, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to Amber, Alysa and Isabeau. Three American showgirls on ice, who will capture your heart with their stories.”
Taylor goes on to give us background on the skaters — Amber Glenn, Alysa Liu and Isabeau Levito — before concluding, “They’re teammates and friends. They call themselves the Blade Angels. And tomorrow night, they’re taking center stage when the show starts in Milan.”
The three women will be gunning for the first U.S. women’s medal since 2006, when Sasha Cohen won in Turin, Italy. The last time the U.S. women won gold was back in 2002, when Sarah Hughes won during the Salt Lake City Games.
CHVRCHES “Such Great Heights” single artwork. (Hollywood Records)
CHVRCHES have released a cover of The Postal Service’s signature song “Such Great Heights” for the season 3 finale of the Hulu series Tell Me Lies.
The synth-pop trio previously put their spin on the Robert Palmer track “Addicted to Love” for the Tell Me Lies season 3 premiere in January.
“It was such a treat to get to make music for the season premiere and the season finale of this show,” says frontwoman Lauren Mayberry. “Bookending the insanity and the heartbreak of the season 3 arc was an [honor].”
She adds, “”Such Great Heights’ is basically a perfect song so we were excited and terrified to cover it in equal measure. The Postal Service is such a special band and their music means a lot to us.”
Mayberry also opened for The Postal Service during their 2023 joint tour with Death Cab for Cutie.
Tell Me Lies season 3 is streaming now on Hulu.
CHVRCHES, meanwhile, have been working on a new album to follow 2021’s Screen Violence.
Disney is the parent company of Hulu and ABC News.
Admat for Santana & The Doobie Brothers 2026 Oneness tour (Courtesy of Live Nation)
Santana and The Doobie Brothers are teaming up for a new leg of Santana’s Oneness tour.
The artists will hit the road together starting June 13 in Chicago. The tour will hit such cities as New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin and more, before wrapping Aug. 27 in Shakopee, Minnesota.
Prior to the joint dates, Santana will headline two nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, on May 27 and 28.
A Citi presale for tickets will begin Tuesday at 10 a.m. local time, followed by an artist presale that starts Tuesday at 2 p.m. local time. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
This isn’t the first time the two artists have toured together. In 2019, The Doobie Brothers were the special guest on Carlos Santana’s Supernatural Now tour, which celebrated the 20th anniversary of his album Supernatural as well as the 50th anniversary of his Woodstock performance.
Before hitting the road with The Doobie Brothers, Santana will launch the first leg of his 2026 Oneness Tour on March 28 in Thackerville, Oklahoma.
The rock band Free played their final show ever in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The band, made up of Paul Rodgers, Paul Kossoff, Andy Fraser and Simon Kirke, formed in London in 1968. Their biggest hit was the iconic tune “All Right Now,” which was a top-5 hit in the U.S.
Fraser left the band in 1972. Kossoff was replaced for the 1973 tour, which was in support of the band’s sixth and final studio album, Heartbreaker.
Following the breakup of the band, Rodgers and Kirke would go on to form Bad Company with Mott The Hoople’s Mick Ralphs and King Crimson’s Boz Burrell. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2025.
Elisabeth Moss is teaming back up with Hulu. Deadline reports The Handmaid’s Tale actress is set to star in and executive produce an upcoming series for the streaming service called Conviction. The legal drama is written by House and The Good Doctor creator David Shore. It will be based on the book by Jack Jordan. The story follows a lawyer who gets a career-making case only to be blackmailed by a mysterious stranger …
The man behind Saturday Night Live is getting his own documentary. Focus Features has announced it will release Lorne, a documentary about SNL creator Lorne Michaels. Morgan Neville is set to direct the film that will release in theaters on April 17. The documentary will feature exclusive footage and interviews from some of the show’s cast members and writers, including Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, John Mulaney, Andy Samberg, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock and more …
Take a bite out of the trailer for Forbidden Fruits. The movie, which IFC Films and Shudder are releasing, will make its world premiere at the 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival. It follows a witchy femme cult that is based in the basement of a mall. Making up the star-studded cast are Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp and Emma Chamberlain …
Steve Witkoff, US special envoy, right, and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
LONDON — Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law — will lead American negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland, in high-stakes talks starting Tuesday regarding Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. standoff with Iran over the latter’s nuclear energy program.
The talks on Ukraine will be in a trilateral format including American, Ukrainian and Russian representatives. They are the third instalment of the trilateral format following two rounds of recent negotiations in the United Arab Emirates.
Those talks were described as constructive by participants, but appeared to have failed to achieve a breakthrough on key contentious points, such as the fate of Ukraine’s partially-occupied eastern Donbas region, the future of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and proposed Western security guarantees for Kyiv.
Asked what he expected ahead of talks with Russia and Ukraine in Geneva on Tuesday, Trump on Monday put the onus on Ukraine to “come to the table fast,” appearing to suggest that the U.S. and Russia “are in a position” to make a deal.
“Well they’re big talks. It’s going to be very easy,” Trump said. “Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you. We are in a position, we want them to come.”
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Alexus Grynkewich — the top U.S. commander in Europe and NATO’s chief military officer — will also attend the Ukraine-Russian talks in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of the U.S. delegation, a person familiar with the upcoming discussions told ABC News.
The Ukraine talks are expected to stretch through Tuesday and into Wednesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Monday evening address that Kyiv’s negotiators had already traveled to Switzerland, warning that Moscow was preparing fresh long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities despite the ongoing diplomatic push.
Ukraine’s air force on Tuesday reported a major Russian overnight attack, in which it said Moscow launched 396 drones and 29 missiles into the country. Ukrainian forces downed or suppressed 367 drones and 25 missiles, the air force said. Four missiles and 18 drones impacted across 13 locations, the air force reported.
“It was a combined strike, deliberately calculated to cause as much damage as possible to our energy sector,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. Twelve regions of Ukraine were targeted in the Russian strikes and at least nine people, including children, were injured, the Ukrainian president said.
Among the targets was the southern port city of Odesa and the wider region, where “tens of thousands of people are without heat and water supply after the drone strike,” according to Zelenskyy.
Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command said NATO aircraft were scrambled and air defenses put on alert as a response to the Russian strikes. “No violations of the Republic of Poland’s airspace by objects that could pose a threat were recorded,” the command said on X.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down at least 151 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Also on Tuesday, U.S. representatives are scheduled to take part in talks over Iran’s nuclear program. The talks will be mediated by Oman, traditionally a conduit for U.S.-Iran exchanges.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Geneva on Monday. Araghchi said in a post to X that he would hold talks with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi and Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi.
“I am in Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal,” Araghchi wrote. “What is not on the table: submission before threats.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday that he would be “indirectly” involved in Tuesday’s talks with Iran.
“They’ll be very important,” Trump told reporters of the talks. “We’ll see what can happen. Specifically, Iran is a very tough negotiator.”
Trump has said the U.S. wants Iran to end all nuclear enrichment as part of any deal, while American officials have also indicated that the U.S. wants constraints on Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its support of regional proxies.
All three demands have long been U.S. goals, but such proposals have been repeatedly rebuffed by Iranian leaders.
The talks have been preceded by a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East, with officials in Tehran warning that Iranian forces will retaliate against U.S. and Israeli targets if Iran is attacked.
The latest round of talks also come in the aftermath of a major anti-regime uprising in Iran, in which protests — initially sparked by the deteriorating economic conditions inside the country — spread nationwide. Trump offered his support to the demonstrators, telling them to “keep protesting”, saying “help is on its way.”
Security forces violently suppressed the demonstrations, killing at least 7,000 people according to data published by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
The Rev. Jesse Jackson walks to the front of the “Invading our community with peace” weekly Friday peace walk led by St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham, Chicago on June 25, 2021. (Vashon Jordan Jr./Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, Baptist minister and pioneering politician who launched two bids for the U.S. presidency, died on Tuesday morning at the age of 84, his family said in a statement.
“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the family statement said.
“We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by,” it added.
Jackson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Jackson, whom he married in 1962, and six children.
Jackson had weathered a myriad of health issues in recent years. In November 2025, Jackson was hospitalized in Chicago for treatment of complications from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a neurodegenerative condition that he had been managing for a decade, according to a statement from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the civil rights organization Jackson founded.
“Reverend Jackson is in stable condition and is breathing without the assistance of machines,” the Jackson family said in a statement a few days after Jackson’s hospitalization, in response to speculation about his condition. “Contrary to specific reports, he is not on life support.”
“The Jackson family extends heartfelt appreciation for the many prayers and kind messages offered during this time,” the statement also said. Jackson was released from the hospital the following week.
A further family update on Jackson’s health came in mid-December 2025, when it released a statement saying that Jackson had been released from an acute-care facility where he had “received additional care” following his hospital release. The statement also said Jackson “has battled several infections consistent with the progression of his PSP diagnosis” for “the last several months.”
In 2017, Jackson announced that he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. However, the November 2025 announcement said that the PSP diagnosis had been confirmed the previous April.
Jackson also underwent gall bladder surgery in 2021 and was hospitalized later that year after falling while protesting with students at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He also was hospitalized for COVID-19 that August.
Beginning his career as a protégé of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson quickly rose to become one of the nation’s most prominent and influential civil rights leaders. In 1971, he formed the nonprofit Operation PUSH – People United to Save/Serve Humanity – to advocate for social and economic parity for Black Americans.
Jackson ran for president twice, both times as a Democrat, placing third for the party’s nomination in 1984 and second in 1988, marking the most successful presidential runs of any Black candidate prior to Barack Obama’s two decades later.
Following his first campaign, Jackson formed the nonprofit National Rainbow Coalition with the stated purpose of affording minority Americans a greater political voice. In 1996, Jackson merged the groups into Rainbow/PUSH, and served as the head of both until 2023.
Jackson was also elected in 1990 as the shadow delegate for the District of Columbia, serving a single term. In 1999, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Jesse Louis Jackson was born Oct. 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, in the segregated South, and grew up poor in a sharecropping family. He was a gifted student and athlete, graduating from high school with offers for a minor league baseball contract and a Big 10 football scholarship.
He opted instead to attend the University of Illinois before transferring to and graduating from North Carolina A&T, a historically Black university. He then began theological studies before going to work full-time with Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He was ordained a Baptist a minister in 1968.
In 1966, 24-year-old Jackson became head of the Chicago Chapter of the nascent Operation Breadbasket, the economic activism arm of the SCLC, and was appointed its national director the following year. He also helped establish the Chicago Freedom Movement to work for open housing and school desegregation.
Jackson participated in many of the civil rights movement’s landmark moments, including the March on Washington in 1963, where King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and the Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama in 1965. He was also with Dr. King when the civil rights leader was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.
Reflecting on Dr. King’s memory almost 50 years later, Jackson said he was inspired by his ability to remain undaunted even in the face of overwhelming challenges.
“He is a frame of reference. His resurrection is powerful,” Jackson said in a 2018 interview with ABC Chicago station WLS.
Speaking of King’s assassination, Jackson added, “All I can remember is some voice saying, ‘One bullet cannot kill a movement.’ We must keep going … If your key player is hurt on the field you cannot forfeit the game, you have to internalize your pain and keep marching and keep moving, and we have to be faithful to his charge 50 years later.”
Three years after King’s murder, Jackson left the SCLC and founded Operation PUSH, a social justice organization dedicated to improving the economic conditions of Black communities across the U.S.
The organization fought for greater educational and employment opportunities for Black Americans and was successful in compelling major corporations to adopt affirmative action policies benefiting Black workers.
Jackson’s social activism evolved into political ambition in in the 1980s, when he launched two campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, in 1984 and 1988. He placed third in primary voting in 1984 and came in second to Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in 1988, winning 12 primaries and caucuses and receiving some 6.9 million total votes.
As only the second Black American to mount a nationwide presidential campaign, after New York Rep. Shirley Chisholm in 1972, Jackson’s historic runs were the most successful by a Black candidate until President Barack Obama won in 2008.
Jackson ultimately did win political office, when he was elected to serve in the U.S. Senate as a shadow delegate for the District of Columbia, from 1991 to 1997.
Jackson also used his skills as a negotiator to facilitate the freedom of people held abroad, leading to the release of Navy pilot Robert Goodman in 1984 from captivity in Lebanon after his plane was shot down, as well as three American prisoners of war held by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 1999.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson a frequent critic of Clinton and his policies – the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in recognition of Jackson’s decades of social activism.
“It’s hard to imagine how we could have come as far as we have without the creative power, the keen intellect, the loving heart, and the relentless passion of Jesse Louis Jackson,” Clinton said at the ceremony. “And God isn’t done with him yet.”
Jackson was the recipient of numerous other awards throughout his lifetime, including the NAACP President’s Award and the American Institute for Public Service’s Jefferson Award. In 2021, Jackson received France’s highest order of merit, the Commander of the Legion of Honor.
In later years, Jackson was a vocal proponent for the reauthorization of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He was also involved in the United Kingdom’s Operation Black Vote to promote minority participation in British elections.
In July 2023, Jackson stepped down as head of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition after more than 50 years as its head. “We’re resigning, we’re not retiring,” Jackson said at the time, vowing to continue fighting for social justice causes.
