A partial US government shutdown has begun after US lawmakers failed to break a budget impasse.
President Trump, who has to sign off any deal, is insisting at least $5bn (£4bn) in government funding be included to help build his long-promised US border wall.
Lawmakers adjourned from last-minute talk efforts on Friday evening.
Without a new agreement in place, funding for about a quarter of all US federal agencies will lapse at 00:00 local time (05:00 GMT Saturday).
It means the departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Agriculture, State, and Justice will begin to shutdown and federal national parks and forests will also close.
The partial shutdown, the third of 2018, is set to impact hundreds of thousands of workers.
In a video address published on Trump’s Twitter account shortly before the shutdown was due to begin, the president again insisted the onus was on the Democrats to resolve the closure.
On Wednesday, a stopgap spending bill was passed in order to keep federal agencies open until 8 February – but the agreement did not include funding for Trump’s wall.
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After a rare backlash from his supporters and hard-line Republicans, Trump dug his heels in over the issue and insisted funds for the wall must be included for him to sign it off.
Under current rules, spending bills are approved in the House of Representatives with a simple majority vote. Trump’s party currently dominate that chamber, but the Democrats are set to take control of it in January.
The House has now approved $5.7bn (£4.5bn) of funding for the wall, but before the spending bill reaches the president it also needs to be passed by 60 votes in the Senate – where Republicans only hold 51 seats.
BBC