Facebook, Michael Flynn, Mourinho: Your Wednesday Briefing

As it stated in 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. "At this time, we continue to work by, with and through our partners in the region," a Pentagon spokesman said in a short statement.

Facebook, Michael Flynn, Mourinho: Your Wednesday Briefing

Facebook shared user data with tech giantsThe social network gave more than 150 companies access to users' personal data, effectively exempting them from its usual privacy rules. Some of those partners were able to conceal that they were asking for the information, making it impossible for Facebook users to disable sharing — nor were users informed by Facebook that their data had been shared. Why it matters: It is the latest example of how personal data has become the most prized commodity of the digital age. The details have also raised questions about whether Facebook ran afoul of a Federal Trade Commission agreement. Taxing tech: President Emmanuel Macron of France accelerated plans for hefty taxes on Facebook and other U.S. tech companies.

Facebook, Criminal Justice, Federal Reserve: Your Wednesday Briefing

according to The social network let Amazon obtain users' names and contact information through their friends, and allowed Spotify and Netflix to read, write and delete users' private messages. Facebook shared data with more than 150 companies, including The Times. A 2011 agreement with the Federal Trade Commission banned the social network from sharing user data without explicit permission. How we know: The Times interviewed more than 60 people, including former employees of Facebook and its partners, former government officials and privacy advocates. It also reviewed more than 270 pages of internal Facebook documents and performed technical tests and analysis to monitor the information being passed between Facebook and its partners.

collected by :Roy Mark