US government partially shut down after clashes over Mexican border wall funding

A partial shutdown of the United States government has started to take effect after lawmakers failed to reach any consensus over issued surrounding funding of President Donald Trump’s promised wall border with Mexico.

Trump, who has to approve any final deal, is insisting that at least $5 billion (€4.4 billion) in funding be set aside to build a wall along the Mexican border.

The source of the impasse was the President's refusal to agree to a short-term funding deal which was meant to keep federal agencies open till 8 February.

He said he would not give his approval unless the deal included funding for his wall.

But lawmakers adjourned their last-minute talks on Friday evening without having reached an agreement, with funding for about a quarter of all US federal agencies having expired at midnight.

As a consequence, the departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Agriculture, State and Justice subsequently will begin to shut down. Federal national parks and forests will also close.

This marks the third such partial closure of 2018, and the first time in 40 years there have been this number of such shutdowns in a single year. It means hundreds of thousands of people employed with the federal government will have to be put on temporary leave or undertake unpaid work.

In a video posted on Twitter after the shutdown began, Trump, however, said it was the responsibility of the Democrats to resolve the closure issue.

On their part, senior Democrats have accused the president of triggering the situation after he had a “temper tantrum”.