During a surprise visit to troops in Iraq, President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his decision to pull U.S. forces from Syria. He said military gains against Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria made possible the withdrawal of 2,000 troops.

President Donald Trump on Sunday announced he would replace Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Jan. 1, about two months earlier than Mattis planned to leave. Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan will take over for Mattis in an interim capacity. Mattis handed in his resignation letter Thursday but wrote that he would stay in his role until Feb.

Portions of the U.S. government shut down overnight Friday after lawmakers and the president failed to reach a budget deal. The House on Thursday approved a funding plan that met President Donald Trump’s demand of at least $5 billion for a border wall, but Senate Republicans don’t have the 60 votes required to pass the bill. Negotiations are underway Saturday morning in Washington, and both the House and Senate have called rare weekend sessions in hopes of approving a solution.

The court of public opinion pronounced Harvey Weinstein guilty of sexual abuse in a matter of days last year, but the criminal justice system moves much more slowly. This week, however, the case against the disgraced movie mogul took a significant step forward when a New York judge upheld a grand jury’s indictment.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he will soon step down just one day after the White House said it would withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. In a Thursday letter to President Donald Trump, Mattis said he would leave by the end of February. “You have a right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours,” he wrote. Mattis and the president disagreed not only on Syria but also the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. Trump reportedly has the Pentagon developing plans to withdraw up to half of the 14,000 American troops now serving there.

A federal judge on Wednesday said the Department of Justice must accept the applications of asylum-seekers who have a credible fear of domestic abuse and gang violence. The ruling does not mean the United States must ultimately grant those immigrants asylum, but it does mean their applications cannot be rejected outright because they don’t face political persecution.

The United States is planning to withdraw all its remaining troops from Syria, a U.S. official said Wednesday, as President Donald Trump declared victory against Islamic State (ISIS) there. The report came from a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence met with top military leaders at the Pentagon, and the president tweeted, “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.”