Syria, Facebook, Interest Rates: Your Wednesday Evening Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/briefing/syria-facebook-interest-rates.html

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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.

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4. The Roman Catholic Church in Illinois vastly underreported the number of priests with sexual misconduct allegations against them and inadequately investigated reports of abuse, according to a scathing report from the state’s attorney general.

Illinois dioceses have publicly identified 185 clergy members as having been “credibly” accused of child sexual abuse, the attorney general said. But her investigation found that the Catholic Church had withheld the names of more than 500 additional priests and clergy members who had been accused. Above, Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago.

The investigation found that allegations “frequently have not been adequately investigated by the dioceses or not investigated at all.”

The report concluded that the Catholic dioceses in Illinois were incapable of investigating themselves and “will not resolve the clergy sexual abuse crisis on their own.”

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5. A stopgap spending bill that Congress is expected to pass this week would keep the government funded through Feb. 8.

It would also push a fight with President Trump, above, over billions of dollars for a border wall, to the New Year and a divided Congress.

The interim measure could pass the Senate as soon as tonight, before being taken up by the House on Thursday and sent to President Trump ahead of the midnight Friday deadline — when funding is set to lapse for nine federal departments.

Democratic leaders in both houses said the party would support the compromise. Mr. Trump has publicly embraced shutting down the government over the wall, but White House officials signaled a softer position in the last couple days.

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6. Climate change is ravaging the natural laboratory that inspired Charles Darwin.

As the world’s oceans heat up, the Galápagos Islands are a crucible. And scientists are worried.

Not only do the islands sit at the intersection of three ocean currents, they are in the cross hairs of one of the world’s most destructive weather patterns, El Niño, which causes rapid, extreme ocean heating across the Eastern Pacific tropics. Above, a marine iguana feeding on algae.

A Times correspondent and photographer traveled 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador to the islands, where warming waters are threatening native creatures with starvation and death.

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7. Like rotting lemons and sulfur.

When Californians voted to legalize recreational marijuana, lawmakers didn’t anticipate the uproar the aroma of millions of flowering cannabis plants would generate.

The plants are pungent, to put it mildly, and that’s making neighbors furious.

In Sonoma County, residents are suing to ban cannabis operations. Farther north, the Mendocino County sheriff’s deputy says the stench is the No. 1 complaint. And in Santa Barbara County, growers are installing odor-control systems designed for garbage dumps. Above, a grower in Santa Rosa, Calif.

“If someone is saying, ‘Is it really that bad?’ I’ll go find a bunch of skunks and every evening I’ll put them outside your window,” one man said. “It’s just brutal.”

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8. We have a reading list for tomorrow’s feminists.

Children absorb stereotypes by the time they are ready for preschool. But when they read books that break gender assumptions, research has found, they reach for less stereotypical toys and broaden their future goals.

Our reporter covering gender and families suggests a dozen books for children to help.

One encourages boys to help around the house and promises: “If you learn to work hard, you can do something cool — fight fires, bake cakes, fly a spaceship, teach school.”

Another is the true story of woman who followed her dream of becoming a shark scientist, ignoring the people who told her to be a secretary or a housewife.

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9. Penny Marshall, best known as Laverne from ABC’s blue-collar duo “Laverne & Shirley,” died Monday at age 75.

In that role, our television critic writes, Marshall continually struck a balance between sarcasm and sweetness. She was terrific at the big physical moments the show demanded, and she let Laverne reveal the parts of herself she tried to guard.

Marshall was also the first woman to direct a feature film that grossed more than $100 million: the 1988 comedy “Big,” about a 12-year-old boy who magically turns into an adult, played by Tom Hanks, and then has to navigate the grown-up world. Above, on the set.

We’ve collected key screen moments — and let you know where to watch them — from her career as an actor and a director.

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10. Finally, it’s time to lace up your skates.

New Yorkers have dozens of places to ice skate, from Prospect Park to Coney Island to Clove Lakes Park on Staten Island — along with Manhattan’s big rinks, Lasker and Wollman. Above, a 1956 skating party at Wollman.

We’re sharing the work of Times photographers who have chronicled skaters’ glides and slides for 75 years.

Have a graceful evening.

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