Axios

As dire as the situation in Syria may be, President Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria could well prove the lesser of two evils.

The big picture: The U.S. military presence in Syria has continued despite its lack of congressional authorization or coherent strategy, risking another long entanglement of U.S. forces in a Middle Eastern country. It is also illegal under international law.

President Trump updated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Monday about his decision to pull U.S. forces out of Syria, Netanyahu said today in a statement. Netanyahu said both Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reassured him the U.S. will still have other ways to influence the situation in Syria even without forces on the ground.

Why it matters: Netanyahu has lobbied Trump very hard in the past not to pull out U.S. troops. Israel has been fighting for the last two years against Iranian entrenchment in Syria. It's most concerned about the U.S. pulling its forces from al-Tanf base, which blocks Iran from forming a land corridor from via Iraq and Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and to the Mediterranean.

Security firm Area 1 says it discovered a hacking campaign that hit as many as 100 different targets dating back to 2010, including the European Union's secure COREU network — attacks Area 1 attributes to the Chinese government. In the course of the hacking, data, including diplomatic cables, were posted to a public website.

Why it matters: Though the website was not intended for the public to find, its existence meant that anyone who found that site gained access to the documents — including any of the 100 largely public policy-based victims who may have pulled the threads of their own attack.

Judge Emmet Sullivan has ordered former national security adviser Michael Flynn to surrender his passport and remain within 50 miles of Washington, D.C., beginning Jan. 4, 2019.

Why it matters: Judge Sullivan said he was unaware that no pretrial travel restrictions were imposed on Flynn, as is typically the case for defendants who are out on personal recognizance. Flynn's sentencing hearing Tuesday took an unexpected turn for those expecting the retired three-star general to receive leniency, as the judge blasted Flynn for committing crimes while serving in the White House and argued that he sold out his country.

Go deeper: The evisceration of Michael Flynn

The Nazis stripped the grandparents of Walter Rothschild and Pippa Goldschmidt of their German citizenship in the 1930s. Now, they're among the thousands of Brits who have applied for German citizenship before Brexit comes into force next year.

"You want to know that if anything happens in one country, you can go to another, and being a European doesn't mean you're not loyal to one country. It means you're loyal to a lot at the same time."

In a surprise twist today, a federal judge delivered a withering brushback to anyone hoping Michael Flynn would get off easy for lying to the FBI.

The big picture: Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan for leniency. But in the courtroom today, Sullivan lashed into Flynn, suggested leniency wasn't coming and told the retired general he should consider delaying the sentencing.

Last week, the Trump administration unveiled its new Africa strategy, prioritizing deeper economic ties, counterterrorism and the efficient use of U.S. aid. The strategy aims to counter Chinese and Russian interests on the continent, especially the former’s strategic use of debt to control African countries.

Why it matters: The strategy oversimplifies Africa’s debt situation. It fails to distinguish between good and bad debt and doesn’t address Africa’s debt levels on a country-by-country basis. This polarizing approach could alienate key potential African allies, leading them to further align with China.

A federal judge suggested during a sentencing hearing Tuesday that Michael Flynn, President Trump's former national security adviser and a retired three-star general, sold out his country.

The big picture: Flynn, who requested his sentencing be delayed until his cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller is complete, pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI in January 2017 about the nature of his conversations with then-Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. When he pleaded guilty, he also admitted that some of his lobbying work was done on behalf of the Turkish government, which he had long denied.

The Russian propaganda campaign to disrupt our elections and divide Americans went far beyond Google and Facebook, infiltrating and infecting everything from Pinterest to PayPal. 

Driving the news: New reports out Monday about Russia’s online disinformation efforts suggest that all of the major social media platforms, ranging from Facebook and Google's empires to Reddit and Tumblr, were weaponized over the past two years. Facebook-owned Instagram was particularly "underestimated."