A few days after a group of white nationalists rallied violently against removing Confederate statues in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, the Department of Veterans Affairs chief diversity officer proposed issuing a statement emphasizing that the VA forcefully condemns such a "repugnant display of hate and bigotry by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan," The Washington Post reported Wednesday night, citing emails obtained by the group American Oversight via FOIA request. The VA's chief communications official, John Ullyot, shot her down.

Ullyot is a political appointee of President Trump and veteran of his presidential campaign, and Georgia Coffey was the deputy assistant secretary for diversity and inclusion. Trump had declined to condemn the white supremacist protesters and blamed "many sides" for the violence that ensued, peaking with a white supremacist killing a couterprotester with a car. David Shulkin, the VA secretary at the time, had appeared to break with Trump, saying on Aug. 16 that he was "outraged" by the actions of the white nationalists.

On Aug. 17, Coffey emailed VA public affairs with a draft of her statement, saying a forceful condemnation was necessary because the VA workforce, which is 40 percent minorities, was unsettled by the Charlottesville violence. Ullyot said that after consulting with Shulkin, he wanted Coffey to remove some of the more incendiary language. Coffey wrote back that his edits would likely "dilute my message and fail to convey the sense of condemnation that I hope we all feel." She published the unedited statement under her own name in her office's monthly VA newsletter; VA officials removed it and reprimanded her, and she resigned soon afterward.

An anonymous person familiar with the dispute told the Post that "Ullyot was enforcing a directive from the White House, where officials were scrambling to contain the fallout from Trump's comments." A VA spokesman said there was no such directive from the White House. Read more at The Washington Post. Peter Weber

The opposition broke through Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's blockade for the first time on Saturday, when a humanitarian aid truck crossed the border from Brazil.

With a skyrocketing inflation, widespread hunger, and hospitals lacking medicine, the international community — led by the United States — has been attempting to deliver aid to Venezuela. But Maduro has placed an embargo on any international supplies entering the country. The blockade stems from a political crisis in Venezuela, in which the opposition, led by internationally-recognized interim President Juan Guaido, has questioned the legitimacy of Maduro's presidency.

The opposition movement has vowed to forcibly bring the aid into the country. The New York Times reported that their ability to do so effectively would signal Maduro's "loosening grip on power." Per The Washington Post, the opposition is also testing the military's loyalty to Maduro by "encouraging the armed forces to disobey" the blockade orders — indeed, three members of the Venezuelan National Guard abandoned their posts at the border and defected to Colombia.

The truck's crossing coincided with intensified protests on the Colombia-Venezuela border on Saturday, which involved Venezuelan authorities shooting volleys of tear gas on protesters. Some opposition leaders also reported the use of live fire.

As it stands, more trucks are moving toward the Colombia border. Tim O'Donnell

Construction was completed in October of 2017 on eight wall prototypes at the border near San Diego. President Trump looked at the sample walls the following March, and now they will all be torn down.

Each prototype cost between $300,000 and $500,000, for a total bill of $2.4 to $4 million. Additional expenditures will be required to remove them now that their brief show-and-tell purpose is finished.

"There is money already allocated to either take them down or build infrastructure around them," Border Patrol Agent Theron Francisco said Friday. "But the decision has been made at the national level to take them down, and the secondary replacement project will take their place." The timeline for the prototypes' destruction has yet to be set.

Earlier this month, Trump declared a national emergency to help obtain the billions he seeks for further border wall construction, but it is already facing legal challenge which could delay or permanently block Trump's plan from moving forward. Bonnie Kristian

President Trump announced on Friday that the U.S. will leave 400 soldiers in Syria.

Half of the troops will serve as part of a multinational force — which could end up consisting of as many as 1,500 soldiers — in the northeastern part of the country, while the other half will be stationed at an outpost in the southeast.

On Friday, Trump denied that the decision is a reversal from his previous rhetoric, in which he said he would pull all U.S. troops from Syria. "It's a very small, tiny fraction of the people we have, and a lot of people like that idea," he said.

The decision is part of a joint plan by the U.S. and its NATO allies to assemble a "monitoring and observing force" in northeastern Syria, with the hope of providing a buffer between Turkey and U.S.-allied Syrian opposition forces, particularly Kurdish resistance forces. The remaining soldiers will attempt to prevent an Islamic State resurgence in the area.

Per The New York Times, the United States' European allies refused to deploy troops if the U.S. did not. Tim O'Donnell

In the wake of his first choice, Heather Nauert, removing her name from consideration, President Trump announced on Friday that he has nominated Kelly Knight Craft to succeed Nikki Haley as U.N. ambassador.

Craft, a Republican donor from Kentucky, currently serves as the U.S. ambassador to Canada. She is credited with playing a key role in negotiating a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico.

Trump tweeted the announcement on Friday evening. "Kelly has done an outstanding job representing our nation and I have no doubt that, under her leadership, our country will be represented at the highest level," he wrote.

Having already been confirmed by the Senate for the Canada posting, she is not expected to face a challenge in getting confirmed for the role, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters. Tim O'Donnell

A group of nearly 100 Microsoft workers signed a petition Friday calling on their employer to cancel a $480 million contract with the U.S. Army and to stop developing "any and all weapons technologies."

Microsoft has agreed to sell the military its HoloLens headset, which allows users to see a virtually augmented version of reality. Contract bidding documents indicate the Army intends to use the gear as part of its Integrated Visual Augmentation System for both training and battlefield situations to improve soldiers' "lethality, mobility, and situational awareness."

"We did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used," says the employee petition, arguing that when the HoloLens headset is "deployed on the battlefield," it will turn "warfare into a simulated 'video game,' further distancing soldiers from the grim stakes of war and the reality of bloodshed."

In a response statement Friday, Microsoft said it appreciated workers' input but will continue working with the military.

A similar intra-company conflict at Google last year over technology used for drone strikes resulted in the resignation of about a dozen employees and protest from some 4,600 more. Google ultimately did not renew the defense contract at issue, saying it clashed with company values. Bonnie Kristian

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un fully expects his children to join the family dictatorship business someday, and when that happens, he reportedly does not want them to be burdened with a nuclear arsenal.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "asked Chairman Kim: Do you really intend to denuclearize?" former CIA official Andrew Kim said of a meeting between Kim and Pompeo last year. "You know, I'm a father, and I'm a husband, and I have children, and I don't want my children to carry the nuclear weapon in their bag to live through their entire life," Andrew Kim reported Kim Jong Un replied.

The question of the Kim regime's sincerity in its denuclearization pledges is much debated, especially given reports of secret missile test sites. Pyongyang has explicitly pointed to the fates of Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi as cautionary tales of voluntary denuclearization leading to forcible, U.S.-orchestrated regime change. Bonnie Kristian