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The Latest: Democrats challenge Trump, GOP to end shutdown

WASHINGTON — The Latest on the partial government shutdown (all times local):

9:05 a.m.

Democrats are using their weekly radio address to challenge President Donald Trump and Senate Republican leaders to reopen the government and sit down to discuss border security measures that “we can all get behind.”

Rep. Scott Peters of California says Democrats want to strengthen security along the U.S.-Mexico border, but not in the way the president does, with what Peters calls “a wall that is never going to be built.”

Peters favours “smart approaches” that might include radar and sensors, drones with cameras, high-tech ways of detecting tunnels, and physical barriers such as levees or fences where it makes sense.

He says Democrats don’t support a wall costing billions of dollars that will, in his words, “destroy sensitive lands, take private property, and can be tunneled under, climbed over or cut through.”

To Peters, “that’s not border security. That’s borderline crazy.”

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12:05 a.m.

The federal government has entered Day 22 of a partial government shutdown, becoming the longest closure in U.S. history.

Nine of the 15 Cabinet-level departments have not been funded. The Defence Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the government’s largest agencies, are the most notable exceptions and continue to operate since they were funded through Sept. 30.

The previous record for the longest shutdown occurred during Bill Clinton’s presidency. That one lasted from December 15, 1995, through January 6, 1996.

The current shutdown appears destined to last at least a few more days, Democratic lawmakers rejecting President Donald Trump’s demands to include $5.7 billion for a border wall in a spending bill.

The shutdown has furloughed 380,000 federal workers and forced an additional 420,000 to work without pay.

The Associated Press