President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a directive ordering the Department of War to keep paying U.S. troops despite the ongoing government shutdown, bypassing Congress after lawmakers failed to reach a funding deal for weeks. The White House said the move is necessary to protect “military readiness” as the budget standoff stretched into its third week. The order, issued as National Security Presidential Memorandum-8 (NSPM-8), directs the department...

A federal judge has temporarily blocked key parts of Texas’ new law limiting expression on campuses after dark, preventing the University of Texas System from enforcing a ban on overnight expression as well as restrictions on inviting outside speakers and using amplified sounds during the last two weeks of a semester. U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra said on Tuesday that the student groups who brought the lawsuit...

President Donald Trump confirmed he would be authorizing Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) activity in Venezuela amid his efforts to combat Latin American drug traffickers with force.  Trump indicated during a press conference alongside FBI Director Kash Patel on Wednesday that his administration was next looking “at land” in Latin America after the U.S. military conducted at least five fatal strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean since...