A revised version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children is scheduled to be debated before a federal judge in Houston who previously ruled the program illegal. Attorneys representing the nine states that have sued to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the U.S. Justice Department and DACA recipients are set to appear at a court hearing Thursday. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen is expected to reconsider the program, which was changed in October. Hanen is not expected to immediately rule.

The governors of Virginia, West Virginia and South Carolina are joining the growing list of Republican-led states sending soldiers or other state law enforcement officers to the U.S. border with Mexico.

Nikki Haley's husband will soon begin a yearlong deployment with the South Carolina Army National Guard to Africa. The mission will encompass most of the remainder of his wife's campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The National Guard told The Associated Press Wednesday that a formal deployment ceremony will likely happen in several weeks. It'll be Michael Haley's second active-duty deployment since he joined the Guard as an officer in 2006.

Russia's Interior Ministry has issued an arrest warrant for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham following his comments related to the fighting in Ukraine. Graham met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday. Zelenskyy's office later released an edited video of the encounter in which Graham notes that "the Russians are dying" and describes the U.S. military assistance to the country as "the best money we've ever spent." Graham appeared to have made the remarks in different parts of the conversation. But the short video by Ukraine's presidential office put them next to each other.

A judge has put a temporary halt to South Carolina's new law banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy until the state Supreme Court can review the measure. The ruling Friday by Judge Clifton Newman came just about 24 hours after Gov. Henry McMaster signed the bill. The decision means South Carolina reverts back to a ban around 20 weeks. The new law is similar to a ban on abortion once cardiac activity can be detected that lawmakers passed in 2021.

A longtime friend of convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh has admitted he helped his old college roommate steal more than $4 million meant for a wrongful death settlement after Murdaugh's housekeeper died in a fall. Cory Fleming pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in federal court. The 54-year-old lawyer faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced at a later date. After Murdaugh's maid, Gloria Satterfield, died following a fall at the family's home, Murdaugh convinced Satterfield's sons to hire Fleming as their lawyer, saying they could help get the family money for a wrongful death settlement. Fleming and Murdaugh then kept all the money for themselves.

A wave of newly approved abortion restrictions in the Southeastern United States has sent providers scrambling to reconfigure their services for a region with already severely limited access. South Carolina's governor signed a bill Thursday banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy, setting up an anticipated legal challenge from providers. The law Thursday goes into effect immediately. Pending bans at varying stages of pregnancy in North Carolina and Florida are threatening to further delay abortions for patients as appointments pile up and doctors work to understand the new limitations. The states had been holdouts providing wider access to the procedure in the region.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Wednesday pledged to sign a federal ban on abortion but again did not set down a marker for what timeline such a proposal should encompass. Haley suggested during remarks in Manchester, New Hampshire, that passing one would be highly unlikely without significantly more Republicans in Congress. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said "no one has been honest" about how difficult a ban could be to achieve.

The South Carolina Senate has approved a bill that would ban most abortions after around six weeks of pregnancy, sending the bill to the governor who has promised to sign it. The proposal passed on Tuesday restores the ban South Carolina had in place when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. That ban was overturned by the state’s highest court because it violated the state Constitution’s right to privacy.

South Carolina is close to joining its Southern neighbors in further curtailing abortion access. The Republican-led state Senate on Tuesday is expected to consider a bill banning most abortions after an ultrasound detects cardiac activity, generally around six weeks and before most patients know they are pregnant. The proposal cleared the state House last week following nearly 24 hours of proceedings split across two days over hundreds of Democrats' amendments. But additional regulations inserted by the House are provoking Republican ire that could prolong the debate. Those changes include requiring child support beginning at conception and limiting minors' ability to petition the court for an abortion.