The Senate confirmed Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary on Saturday, putting the South Dakota governor in charge of a sprawling agency that is essential to national security and President Donald Trump’s plans to clamp down on illegal immigration.

Fighting around Sudan’s largest oil refinery has set the sprawling complex ablaze, sending thick, black polluted smoke over the country’s capital, Khartoum. 

The Senate on Friday night confirmed Pete Hegseth as defense secretary by the narrowest of margins, elevating an Army National Guard veteran and former Fox News host to the top Pentagon job with the help of a rare tiebreaking vote by the vice president.

Social media posts from official accounts at the Defense Department will be suspended for 10 days excluding communications about operations along the U.S.-Mexico border or military base activities, according to a memo issued by the acting defense secretary’s office.

Four Army units will deploy to Europe, South Korea and the Middle East in the spring as part of regular unit rotations, the Army announced Friday.

The United States has been sharing secret intelligence on threats from the Islamic State with the new government in Syria, which is itself run by leaders of a militant group long considered by Washington to be a terrorist organization, according to multiple current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges.

U.S. officials are preparing to send thousands of additional troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, including, potentially, soldiers equipped with 20-ton Stryker combat vehicles, according to four U.S. officials familiar with the planning.

President Donald Trump spoke in a pre-recorded video address while Vice President JD Vance attended the event. Protesters had come to the capital for decades to call for the repeal of Roe v. Wade, but now they want to build on their victories and focus on the state-by-state battles taking place over abortion.

The latest wave of anti-government rallies was fueled by Prime Minister Robert Fico’s recent trip to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was a rare visit to the Kremlin by a European Union leader since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine began.

The State Department has frozen new funding for almost all U.S. aid programs worldwide, making exceptions to allow humanitarian food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt to continue.

M23 made significant territorial gains in recent weeks, encircling Goma, which has around 2 million people and is a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts. M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo.

Colombia’s president has issued a decree giving him emergency powers to restore order in a coca-growing region bordering Venezuela that has been wracked in recent days by a deadly turf war among dissident rebel groups. President Gustavo Petro’s decree is the first of its kind in more than a decade.

President Donald Trump wants to withdraw 20,000 U.S. troops from Europe and demand a subsidy from allies to pay for the remaining American military presence on the Continent, Italy’s leading news agency reported this week.

In total, 1,500 active-duty troops will join about 2,500 National Guard members and helicopter crews already working at the southwest border in support of Customs and Border Protection. The forces will install physical barriers along the border and conduct detection and monitoring missions.

President Donald Trump surveyed disaster zones in California and North Carolina on Friday and said he was considering “getting rid of” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, offering the latest sign of how he is weighing sweeping changes to the nation’s central organization for responding to disasters.

A new $23 million operations facility for the storied 37th Airlift Squadron took its first step toward becoming reality Friday, with a groundbreaking that heralded a long-anticipated move to a more suitable home.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta’s order on Friday comes two days after Stewart Rhodes visited the Capitol, where he met with at least one lawmaker, chatted with others and defended his actions during a mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021. Rhodes was released from a Maryland prison a day earlier.

The Trump administration circulated photos Friday showing U.S. troops loading shackled detainees onto a military cargo plane, as the White House declared a start to the mass deportation campaign the president promised along the campaign trail.

Afghan refugees are appealing to Pakistan’s premier to ease a visa regime on humanitarian grounds after President Donald Trump paused the U.S. refugee programs. An estimated 20,000 Afghans are currently waiting in Pakistan to be approved for resettlement in the U.S. via an American government program.