U.S. completes withdrawal from Qasrak base, Syria

April 17, 2026

Summary

U.S. forces finished leaving Qasrak air base in Syria, part of a broader military drawdown announced by U.S. and Syrian officials.

Why this matters

The withdrawal marks another step in the reduction of the U.S. military presence in Syria and shifts control of former U.S. sites to the Syrian army. It also reflects changes in how the U.S. says it will pursue counterterrorism efforts against the Islamic State group in the region.

U.S. forces completed their withdrawal from Qasrak air base on Thursday when a final convoy of soldiers and equipment left the site in Syria’s Hasakah province, officials on both sides said.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “the Syrian state’s restoration of sovereignty over areas that were outside its control, including the northeast and border regions, is the result of the Syrian government’s continuous efforts to unify the country within the framework of a single state.”

The ministry said the U.S. withdrawal followed implementation of a deal between Syria’s central government in Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which had previously controlled much of northeast Syria, and progress against remnants of the Islamic State group.

“U. S. forces have completed turning over all of our major bases in Syria, as part of a deliberate and conditions-based transition,” Hawkins said, adding that the U.S. military will “continue to support partner-led counterterrorism efforts, which are essential to ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS and strengthening regional security.”

Convoys of trucks were seen leaving the base Thursday carrying military vehicles and equipment.

U.S. forces began withdrawing from Qasrak in late February, in what appeared to be part of a broader drawdown in Syria. Earlier that month, U.S. Central Command and Syria’s Defense Ministry announced that U.S. troops had left the al-Tanf base in eastern Syria near the Jordanian border.

The departures followed the transfer of about 5,700 accused Islamic State militants from detention centers in northeast Syria to prisons in Iraq, where they are to stand trial.

The main U.S. mission in Syria has been to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group. The group lost the last territory it controlled in Syria in 2019, but sleeper cells have continued to stage periodic attacks in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere.

More top news

Asia

Beijing satellite hub core area due by late 2026

According to Beijing Daily, Beijing Satellite Town will support aerospace industry development by promoting industrial clustering and helping talent, capital, and technology move more efficiently.

Full story +

The core area of Beijing’s Satellite Town, planned as a hub for satellite manufacturers and operators, will be completed in the second half of 2026, state-owned Beijing Daily reported on Saturday.

Beijing Daily said commercial launches now account for more than 60% of all space launches, and a number of companies are seeking to go public.

Gao Yibin, head of the Strategic Research Department at Future Aerospace, said China’s commercial space market was moving toward standardization and scale as launch approvals accelerated, components were localized, and industrial funds continued to invest.

“The accelerated implementation of scenarios such as low-Earth orbit constellation networking, satellite internet, space computing power, and 6G air-space-ground integration suggests sustained growth is expected in 2026,” Gao said.
\top\

Trump Says Iran Agreed to Nuclear Halt, Hormuz Reopens

At least eight oil tankers that had been delayed in the Persian Gulf headed toward the strait after Iran and the U.S. announced the waterway was open.

Full story +

Iran said Saturday that it had reasserted control over the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian officials and President Trump announced Friday that the critical waterway was open.

President Donald Trump also said Friday that Iran had agreed to suspend its nuclear program indefinitely, raising hopes for a deal to end the war, though Tehran had not commented on the claim.

Trump said any moratorium on Iran’s nuclear activities would be “unlimited.”

“Most of the main points are finalized. It’ll go pretty quickly,” Trump said. He also said the U.S. would not release frozen Iranian funds.

Details of any potential agreement remained unclear. Iran has long said it has the right to enrich uranium.
Australia

Australia veteran granted bail in war crimes case

The charges followed a 2020 military report that found evidence that elite Special Air Service Regiment and commando troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers, and other noncombatants.

Full story +

Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia’s most decorated living veteran, was released on bail from a Sydney prison Friday, 10 days after he was charged with war crime murder over the deaths of five Afghans in Afghanistan.

Judge Greg Grogin granted bail in Sydney after finding the former Special Air Service Regiment corporal had shown exceptional circumstances warranting release. Prosecutors opposed bail, arguing Roberts-Smith, 47, could flee Australia or interfere with witnesses and evidence.

Roberts-Smith was arrested April 7 and charged with five counts of war crime murder tied to killings in Uruzgan province in 2009 and 2012. Under Australian law, war crime murder is the intentional killing during armed conflict of a person not taking an active part in hostilities, such as a civilian, prisoner of war, or wounded soldier.

He was driven from Sydney’s Silverwater Correctional Complex late Friday, apparently wearing the same clothes he wore when police removed him from a commercial airliner at Sydney Airport last week, according to media images.

Roberts-Smith received the Victoria Cross and the Medal for Gallantry for his service in Afghanistan. He is the second Australian veteran of that war to be charged with a war crime.

The charges followed a 2020 military report that found evidence that elite Special Air Service Regiment and commando troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers, and other noncombatants.

In a 2023 civil case, a judge found similar allegations against Roberts-Smith were substantially true when rejecting his defamation claims against newspapers. At that trial, Roberts-Smith said he had never killed an unarmed Afghan and denied committing a war crime, saying he was the victim of false claims by fellow soldiers and of others’ envy of his medals.

The civil ruling applied the lower standard of proof of balance of probabilities. The criminal case will require proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Prosecutors said Roberts-Smith was accused of personally shooting two victims and ordering subordinates to shoot three others. Prosecutor Simon Buchen called the allegations “among the most serious known to the criminal law” and said Roberts-Smith had been “on the cusp of relocating overseas” without informing authorities.

Roberts-Smith has not entered pleas. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on each conviction.
Health

U.S. judge rejects Bayer bid over J&J drug claims

Bayer sued Johnson & Johnson on Feb. 23, alleging the company falsely claimed patients had a “51% reduction in risk of death” if treated with Erleada instead of Nubeqa, based on testing that met “rigorous” U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards.

Full story +

A U.S. judge denied Bayer’s request for an injunction to block Johnson & Johnson from advertising that its prostate cancer drug Erleada cuts the risk of death by 51%.

In a decision issued Friday night, U.S. District Judge Dale Ho in Manhattan said Bayer had not shown it was likely to succeed on the merits of its false advertising claims or that it faced irreparable harm. Bayer had argued that Johnson & Johnson’s campaign threatened to erode trust in Bayer’s prostate cancer drug, Nubeqa.

Bayer sued Johnson & Johnson on Feb. 23, alleging the company falsely claimed patients had a “51% reduction in risk of death” if treated with Erleada instead of Nubeqa, based on testing that met “rigorous” U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards.

The German drugmaker said those claims were unreliable because most Nubeqa patients in the study received the drug off-label. Bayer also said the Food and Drug Administration did not review Johnson & Johnson’s retrospective, real-world analysis as a substitute for traditional clinical trials.

In his 41-page decision, Ho said Johnson & Johnson’s statements accurately reflected the study’s conclusions, and Bayer had not identified methodological errors “so substantial” that the claims were materially false or misleading.

“Based on the current record,” Ho wrote, “the methodological choices made by the authors of the study were not errant or out-of-step within the relevant scientific community.”

Bayer spokeswoman Sue Ann Pentecost said in a statement: “Bayer continues to believe the full body of evidence supports its false advertising claims and looks forward to the court’s determination on the merits of the case.”

Johnson & Johnson said the ruling was “a win for scientific exchange and a strong win for patients…. Real-world evidence helps clinicians make informed treatment decisions, especially when head-to-head clinical trials data are not available.”
Tech & Artificial Intelligence

Bluesky says DDoS attack caused service outages

On Thursday evening, the company said a “sophisticated Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack” was behind the issues, which began April 15 at about 8:40 p.m. ET. Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang attributed the interruptions to an ongoing cyberattack.

Full story +

Bluesky said a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack caused service disruptions that continued Friday, affecting its website and app.

In a post on its Bluesky account, the company said the attack was “impacting our operations, with users experiencing intermittent interruptions in service for their feeds, notifications, threads, and search.” Bluesky said it had not seen evidence of unauthorized access to private data.

Distributed denial-of-service attacks typically flood apps or websites with traffic intended to overload servers and knock services offline. Bluesky did not provide an estimated time for a fix when reached for comment Thursday, directing inquiries to its status page and status account for updates. Its status page was later unavailable.

Bluesky said it would provide another update on the attack and mitigation efforts by 1 p.m. ET Friday.

The disruptions were intermittent. At times, the site and app loaded slowly; at others, they showed error messages. In the app, some users saw: “This feed is currently receiving high traffic and is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. Message from server: Rate Limit Exceeded.” Popular feeds such as Discover and the official Bluesky Team feed were often affected, even when users’ personal feeds were working.

The site also sometimes showed an error message when users tried to visit a profile, requiring a refresh.

Bluesky protocol engineer Bryan Newbold wrote at about 3:46 a.m. ET Wednesday, “oof, our services are getting hit pretty hard tonight.”

The disruptions affected Bluesky, but Blacksky and other communities running their own infrastructure on the underlying protocol remained operational. Blacksky told TechCrunch the Bluesky outage led to a “significant spike” in migration requests from Bluesky users over the previous 12 hours, as users, developers, and other ATmosphere founders, including Sebastian at Eurosky, promoted its services.

One status-page message during the incident included a typo, saying Bluesky was “investigating an incident with service in one of our reginos [sic].”
US

DOJ prepared egg antitrust suit, WSJ reports

The lawsuit alleged the producers coordinated through an industry price-benchmarking service.

Full story +

The U.S. Justice Department was preparing an antitrust lawsuit against several major egg producers, including Cal-Maine Foods and Versova, over alleged price coordination, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The lawsuit alleged the producers coordinated through an industry price-benchmarking service. The Justice Department and the companies could still reach a settlement to avoid litigation.

Cal-Maine shares fell nearly 5% in extended trading after the report.

U.S. egg producers have faced a growing number of class-action lawsuits alleging price-fixing as consumers contend with higher food prices, including eggs.

Earlier this month, Cal-Maine said it was cooperating with a Justice Department investigation into potential price-fixing by egg producers after receiving a civil investigative demand. The company said the scope, duration, and outcome of the probe were uncertain.
Middle East

South Lebanon bridge reopens after ceasefire begins

The 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel was announced by President Donald Trump.

Full story +

Hundreds of displaced residents waited Friday for bulldozers to reopen the Qasmiyeh bridge in south Lebanon, hours after an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire took effect.

The bridge over the Litani River, a main route between southern areas and the rest of the country, was bombed by Israel shortly before the truce began at midnight. Three bulldozers working under Lebanese army supervision started filling the crater at dawn.

As soon as the crossing became passable, motorcycles and then cars moved through single file. By 9 a.m., the highway between Sidon and Tyre was backed up for kilometers, with tens of thousands of vehicles heading south, many carrying mattresses, kitchenware, and blankets.

Many of those returning had fled at the start of the war and said they did not know whether their homes were still standing.

“We set off an hour before the ceasefire took effect so we could reach the bridge once it opens, allowing us to return to our town,” said Amani Atrash, 37, who had been waiting with her family in a line of cars northeast of Tyre. “The wait is very difficult because we want to get there as quickly as possible.”

The war began on March 2 after Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel, which the group said was retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the outset of the Middle East war. Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese authorities said the war killed more than 2,100 people and displaced more than 1 million, especially from Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut’s southern suburbs and south Lebanon.

Despite warnings against returning to the south from Hezbollah, Lebanese officials, and the Israeli army, displaced people continued moving back.
Personal Finance

Better.com CEO warns recession could spur home buying

Mortgage preapprovals and refinancing applications are rising, while home purchase activity remained subdued, suggesting many buyers were still cautious.

Full story +

Better.com CEO Vishal Garg said he expected a recession and argued that an economic downturn could create an opening for some renters to buy homes.

Speaking at the Semafor World Economy event in Washington, D.C., Garg said, “I personally believe a recession is coming, and recessionary times are the best time to stop paying rent and be your own landlord.” He added that downturns can be a good time to move from renting to owning.

His comments came as mortgage rates eased. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 6.42% in the week ending April 10, 2026, the second straight weekly decline and the lowest level in about a month. The group said the drop was tied in part to lower Treasury yields.

At the same conference, Citadel founder Ken Griffin also warned that energy-market disruptions could trigger a downturn. He said a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about 20% of global energy flows, would likely push the world into recession. “Let’s assume the strait is shut down for the next six to 12 months, the world’s going to end up in a recession,” Griffin said. “There’s no way to avoid that.”

Garg also cited labor-market changes tied to artificial intelligence and signs of consumer strain, including the financing of large purchases through payment plans.
Health

Trump names CDC director pick, fills key agency roles

Since Trump returned to office, the Atlanta-based CDC has been led by temporary leaders. The agency is overseen by Kennedy.

Full story +

President Donald Trump named Dr. Erica Schwartz as his nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and announced several other senior appointments at the agency.

In a Truth Social post Thursday, Trump said Schwartz, a former deputy surgeon general during his first term, would be his next pick for CDC director. Schwartz attended Brown University for college and medical school and served as a physician in the U.S. military. Trump called her a “STAR!”

Trump also named Sean Slovenski as CDC deputy director and chief operating officer, Dr. Jennifer Shuford as CDC deputy director and chief medical officer, and Dr. Sara Brenner as senior counselor for public health to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

At a House Appropriations Committee hearing Thursday, Kennedy told lawmakers the new CDC team would revolutionize the agency and get it “back on track.”

Trump’s first CDC pick was former Florida congressman Dr. David Weldon, but his Senate confirmation hearing in March 2025 was canceled. Weldon said he had been told there were not enough senators willing to vote for him.

Trump next chose Susan Monarez, who had been serving as acting CDC director. She was confirmed by the Senate, but was removed less than a month later after the administration said she was not “aligned with their agenda.” Her removal prompted several senior scientific leaders at the CDC to resign in protest.

National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya has overseen the agency for the past few weeks.
World

2 U.S. men sentenced in North Korea IT fraud

According to the Justice Department, the operation brought North Korea about $5 million.

Full story +

Two U.S. citizens were sentenced for helping North Korea place remote IT workers at American companies, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday.

Kejia Wang and Zhenxing Wang, both of New Jersey, received prison terms of 7 1/2 years and nine years, respectively. Prosecutors said they provided infrastructure for the scheme, including running or managing “laptop farms” in the United States that let North Korean workers connect remotely and appear to be based in the country.

Co-conspirators also stole the identities of more than 80 Americans and obtained jobs at more than 100 U.S. companies, including some Fortune 500 firms.

The Justice Department said the jobs gave North Korean IT workers salaries and, in some cases, access to trade secrets and source code. In one instance, the department said, a worker stole export-controlled data from an unnamed California artificial intelligence company.

“The ruse placed North Korean IT workers on the payrolls of unwitting U. S. companies and in U.S. computer systems, thereby harming our national security,” John A. Eisenberg, the department’s assistant attorney general for national security, said in the announcement.

Prosecutors said that from 2021 to 2024, Kejia Wang oversaw laptop farms made up of hundreds of computers, while Zhenxing Wang hosted laptops at his home. They also created shell companies and financial accounts linked to the fake IT workers to move millions of dollars in payments overseas.

“In exchange for their services, Kejia Wang, Zhenxing Wang, and the four other U. S. facilitators received nearly $700,000 for their respective roles in the scheme,” the Justice Department said.

The U.S. government also announced rewards of up to $5 million for information that could help counter the schemes, including information on nine people who allegedly worked with the two men.

The case was the latest legal action tied to North Korea’s effort to place suspected IT workers at U.S. and Western companies. The article said U.S. officials have linked such activity, along with cryptocurrency thefts, to funding for the country’s government and weapons program.