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"Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan visited a border city in Texas on Saturday and said he intends to accelerate planning to secure the border and bolster the administration’s ability to accomplish that without the Pentagon’s continuous help."

"Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesman and editor-in-chief of the insurgent group’s daily news bulletin, starts every day by collecting reports of overnight fighting with U.S. and Afghan forces."

NYT Editorial - "The American people are being kept more in the dark about the dismal state of the United States’ longest-running war, now in its 18th year."

"The leaders of Saudi Arabia and Egypt successfully lobbied President Trump to reverse U.S. policy in Libya and support a rogue general leading an offensive on a government in Tripoli backed by the United Nations, according to a senior U.S. administration official and two Saudi officials."

"The Pakistani prime minister has condemned a deadly assault by insurgents in a luxury hotel in southwestern Pakistan, saying the attack was part of an effort to "sabotage" the country's economic development."

"U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces officials admit they vastly underestimated both the size of the IS force and the fighters' civilian family members hunkered down for a last stand in Baghuz. Many may have also joined Iraqi and Syrian IS fighters who chose to shift away from the pressure as the SDF closed in on their shrinking territorial holdings."

"Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido told his supporters Saturday at a rally in Caracas that he had instructed his ambassador to the U.S. to contact the U.S. military to pressure President Nicolas Maduro to step down from his post."

"Houthi rebels in Yemen began to withdraw fighters from the country’s most strategic port city, a move that, if completed, would mark a significant step toward salvaging a peace deal that hasn’t been implemented since it was brokered by the U.N. in December."

"As Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, closes in on victory over an eight-year revolt, a secret, industrial-scale system of arbitrary arrests and torture prisons has been pivotal to his success. While the Syrian military, backed by Russia and Iran, fought armed rebels for territory, the government waged a ruthless war on civilians, throwing hundreds of thousands into filthy dungeons where thousands were tortured and killed."

"When the leaders of the Islamic State declared their caliphate in Iraq and Syria, no nationality from outside those countries heeded the call to come fight for it like the Tunisians did."

"Taliban raids like the one on a small outpost in Wardak province that killed 11 of his soldiers earlier this month are a vexing problem for Brig. Gen. Abdul Raziq Safi."

"The U.S. military plans to deploy a Patriot antimissile system to the Persian Gulf area and will beef up its naval presence in response to growing threats from Iran, the Pentagon said Friday."

"Taliban militants overran a cluster of government outposts in northwestern Afghanistan on Friday, leaving more than a dozen Afghan soldiers dead, including several troops from an elite police unit, officials said."

"As the Trump administration doubles down on the contention that Tehran is cooperating with Al Qaeda, another former Iranian commander has reportedly come forward with allegations about an Iran-Al Qaeda link."

"President Trump’s proposal to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization raises the difficult question of just whom he intends to target. The original Islamist organization, founded in Egypt in 1928, has spun off or inspired thousands of independent social or political groups around the world, and they are far from monolithic."

"Intelligence revealed Iran told some proxies and surrogates they could go after American military targets in the region, say 3 U.S. officials."

"This is the third in a VOA series looking at the threat of IS foreign fighters. Next up, a look at the foreign fighters who stayed in Syria and Iraq."

"As the Taliban opened a new front this week in the Afghan war by attacking American-backed aid organizations in Kabul, negotiators for the group and the United States were meeting in the latest round of talks on ending the war."

"Daniel Hale, 31, of Nashville was arrested in Tennessee Thursday and is set to appear in Alexandria court next week. He worked for both the National Security Agency and as a contractor for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and had a top secret security clearance. He is charged with five crimes related to the disclosure and could face a maximum of 50 years in prison."

"Army Brig. Gen. Scott Jackson, 1st SFAB commander, spoke today at the Pentagon as part of an Army Current Operations Engagement Tour. He said the Army’s concept for the new unit — one earmarked exclusively for advise and assist missions — was spot on."

"U.S. troops and Iran-backed fighters had an alliance of sorts in the anti-ISIS campaign. With Washington and Tehran at odds, could they turn on each other?"

"President Trump will nominate Patrick Shanahan as his second defense secretary on Thursday, trying to cement the acting Pentagon chief against an expected uphill battle with lawmakers and Defense Department officials skeptical of him, White House officials said."

"The United States has seized a North Korean shipping vessel that was violating American law and international sanctions, the Justice Department announced Thursday, a move certain to escalate tensions already on the rise between the two nations because of recent North Korean weapons tests."

"It was March 2018, approximately five months after U.S.-backed forces had declared victory in the battle for the Islamic State terror group's Syrian capital of Raqqa. And Afghan officials had reason to worry. Intelligence suggested the fallout from that victory had been making its way, slowly but surely, to their country."

"The Islamic State, researchers say, employed children as scouts, spies, cooks and bomb-planters, and sometimes as fighters and suicide bombers. Propaganda videos showed young children beheading and shooting prisoners."