Here’s what you need to know at the end of the day.
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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. President Trump ordered a rapid withdrawal of all 2,000 U. S. ground troops from Syria, declaring the four-year American-led war against the Islamic State largely won, officials said. “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” the president said in a Twitter post.
He offered no details on his plans for the military mission in Syria, and there was no official announcement of the strategy from the White House.
Pentagon officials seeking to talk the president out of the decision argued that such a move would betray Kurdish allies who have fought alongside American troops in Syria — and who could be vulnerable to an attack by Turkey. Above, in the Syrian town of Derik.
“At this time, we continue to work by, with and through our partners in the region,” a Pentagon spokesman said in a short statement.
Mr. Trump believes that U. S. forces cannot alter the strategic balance in the Middle East and should not be there — a view that Barack Obama fundamentally shared, our national security correspondent writes .
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2. The Fed raised interest rates.
The U. S. Federal Reserve announced a widely expected quarter-point increase, and signaled that it planned to continue raising rates next year.
The Fed chairman emphasized that the national economy was relatively healthy, while saying the choppy global economy and the recent sell-off in stocks had gotten officials’ attention.
The nuanced message added up to muddy guidance about the Fed’s plans — and markets didn’t like it. Above, at the New York Stock Exchange.
Rising interest rates have consequences for savers and spenders alike. Here’s what you need to know.
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3. Facebook shared more about you than you know.
A Times investigation found the social network gave major technology firms far more access to users’ personal data than it had disclosed, effectively exempting some partners from its privacy rules.
Facebook let Spotify and Netflix read, write and delete users’ private messages. It permitted Amazon to obtain users’ names and contact information through their friends. In all, Facebook shared data with more than 150 companies, including The Times. Above, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive.
The data-sharing deals may have violated a 2011 agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that banned Facebook from sharing user data without explicit permission. Here are the five main takeaways from our investigation.
Ready to break up with Facebook? Our consumer tech writer has a how-to guide .
