Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller announced Tuesday that the US will withdraw thousands more US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq by January 15 -- just days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, confirming plans first reported by CNN on Monday.

Publish Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2020 – 2:50 ET

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President-elect Joe Biden is building out the staff that will surround him in the White House, announcing Tuesday that he is tapping two longtime advisers for top roles and naming several other veterans of his presidential campaign to senior positions.

Publish Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2020 – 12:01 ET

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US military commanders are anticipating that a formal order will be given by President Donald Trump as soon as this week to begin a further withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq before he leaves office on January 20, according to two US officials familiar.

The Pentagon has issued a notice to commanders known as a "warning order" to begin planning to drawdown the number of troops in Afghanistan to 2,500 troops and 2,500 in Iraq by Jan 15, the officials said. Currently there are approximately 4,500 US troops in Afghanistan and 3,000 troops in Iraq.

Publish Date: Monday, November 16, 2020 – 2:30 ET

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The Moderna vaccine is 94.5% effective against coronavirus, according to early data released Monday by the company, making it the second vaccine in the United States to have a stunningly high success rate.

"These are obviously very exciting results," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease doctor. "It's just as good as it gets -- 94.5% is truly outstanding."

Publish Date: Monday, November 16, 2020 – 7:15 ET

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A SpaceX spacecraft carrying four astronauts soared into outer space Sunday — marking the kick off of what NASA hopes will be years of the company helping to keep the International Space Station fully staffed.

NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi, an astronaut with Japan's space agency, are now in orbit, riding aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that is expected to dock with the ISS on Monday at 11 pm ET. That means the crew will spend 27 hours in orbit as the spacecraft slowly maneuvers toward its destination.

Publish Date: Sunday, November 15, 2020 – 8:05pm ET

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Chad Wolf was not legally serving as acting Homeland Security secretary when he signed rules limiting DACA applications and renewals, and those rules are now invalid, a federal judge ruled Saturday.

Wolf in July issued a memo saying that new applications for DACA, the Obama-era program that shields certain undocumented immigrants from deportation, would not be accepted and renewals would be limited to one year instead of two amid an ongoing review.

The Supreme Court blocked a Trump administration attempt to end the program and the memo sought to buy time while the administration decided its next steps.

Publish Date: Saturday, November 14, 2020 – 6:30pm ET

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Former White House chief of staff John Kelly issued an on-the-record statement Friday night lambasting President Donald Trump for not helping with the transition to a Biden administration.

"The delay in transitioning is an increasing national security and health crisis. It costs the current administration nothing to start to brief Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris, the new chief-of-staff, and ALL identified cabinet members and senior staff," Kelly wrote in a rare rebuke of his former boss.

Kelly added that "the downside to not doing so could be catastrophic to our people regardless of who they voted for."

Publish Date: Friday, November 13, 2020 – 7:35pm ET

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Joe Biden will win Georgia, CNN projected Friday, striking at the heart of what has been a Republican presidential stronghold for nearly three decades. The former vice president is the first Democratic nominee to triumph in Georgia since Bill Clinton did it in 1992.

Biden's victory adds 16 electoral votes to his tally, bringing him to 306 -- matching President Donald Trump's 2016 total. With CNN's projection that Trump will win North Carolina, the final tally is 306-232.

In Georgia, Trump had raced out to an early lead in the counting, but Biden surged ahead as the votes from Atlanta and its suburbs were tabulated.

Publish Date: Friday, November 13, 2020 – 3:15pm ET

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For just the second time in more than seven decades, a Democrat will carry Arizona in a presidential election, a monumental shift for a state that was once a Republican stronghold.

CNN projected on Thursday that President-elect Joe Biden will carry Arizona, defeating President Donald Trump and providing Democrats in Arizona and the universe of allied grassroots organizations in the state with a crowning achievement a decade in the making.

Publish Date: Thursday, November 12, 2020 - 11:45pm ET

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California just became the second state to surpass 1 million Covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic -- closely following Texas, which hit the grim milestone earlier this week.

More than 5,000 new cases and 18 new deaths have been reported so far on Thursday, for a total of 1,000,631 confirmed cases and 18,126 deaths statewide, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

And health officials report that, like most other states in the country, California's Covid-19 numbers are all trending in the wrong direction.

Airdate: Thursday, November 12, 2020 - 7:25pm ET

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