After years of pressure to increase defense spending, Japan announced plans to do so just ahead of a trip by President Donald Trump to the region next week. “We are firmly preparing for President Trump’s visit,” Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said. Trump is expected to meet with Japan’s new hawkish Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office on Tuesday and leads a new right-wing coalition. Trump already congratulated...

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is looking to hold Democrats’ “feet to the fire” with new legislation seeking special funding for farmers and food assistance programs amid the government shutdown. Hawley’s bills would reinstate federal funding for the Farm Service Agency as well as the federal SNAP food program. Democrats have so far refused to work with Republicans amid the government shutdown, now the second-longest in...

The Coast Guard is bolstering its forces along western Texas’ Rio Grande to support President Donald Trump’s border security mission as part of a “surge operation,” according to the service.  Trump declared a national emergency at the border in January, and his administration stood up Joint Task Force Southern Border in March to allow troops under the Department of War to assist with the Department of Homeland Security’s...