Nightly Brief

Top CNS stories for today including a bipartisan group of lawmakers began debating a funding measure that will be the latest arena for the fight over money for President Donald Trump’s long-promised border wall; The president took aim at U.S. intelligence officials for telling Congress that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal will likely stay intact; The 310-mile border that meanders through the pastures and hills of Ireland and Northern Ireland has become a decisive factor in determining how and when Great Britain will exit the European Union, and more.

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National

Floodlights from the U.S, illuminate multiple border walls on Jan. 7, 2019, seen from Tijuana, Mexico. With no breakthrough in sight, President Donald Trump will argue his case to the nation Tuesday night that a "crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico border requires the long and invulnerable wall he's demanding before ending the partial government shutdown. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

1.) With just over two weeks left to reach a deal to avert another government shutdown, a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday began debating a funding measure that will be the latest arena for the fight over money for President Donald Trump’s long-promised border wall.

Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

2.) Defending his 2018 groundwork with Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump took aim at U.S. intelligence officials Wednesday for telling Congress that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal will likely stay intact.

An election official checks a voter's photo identification at an early voting site in Austin, Texas, in 2014. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

3.) Latino voters in Texas are being targeted for voter suppression, a civil rights group claims in a federal lawsuit filed days after state officials said that 95,000 registered voters may not be U.S. citizens.

Regional

4.) A group of homeless Virginians went before the en banc Fourth Circuit on Wednesday hoping to overturn a state law that targets public alcohol consumption by “habitual drunkards.”

A voter casts her ballot during Georgia's primary election runoff at Chase Street Elementary in Athens, Ga., Tuesday, July 24, 2018. (Joshua L. Jones/Athens Banner-Herald via AP)

5.) The battle over how Georgia voters cast their ballots continued Wednesday in the 11^th Circuit as attorneys for state election officials asked a three-judge panel to reject a lawsuit claiming the integrity of state elections is compromised by electronic voting machines.

6.) Fighting a preliminary injunction before the Sixth Circuit, Ohio argued Wednesday that a state law outlawing abortions if a woman’s decision is based on indications that a fetus has Down syndrome is constitutional.

International

A traffic crossing at the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in the village of Bridgend, County Donegal, Ireland. Britain said on Aug. 16, 2017, that there must be no border posts between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic after Brexit. (Brian Lawless/PA, File via AP)

7.) Far from the halls of power in London and Brussels, it’s the 310-mile border that meanders through the pastures and hills of Ireland and Northern Ireland that has become a decisive factor in determining how and when Great Britain will exit the European Union.

8.) The small Balkan nation of Albania is shedding new light on its dark past: This year international experts are expected to begin exhuming and identifying the remains of victims of the country’s brutal former communist dictatorship.

Nightly Brief

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