The briefing for Thursday, February 19.

The U.S. is preparing to withdraw roughly 1,000 remaining troops from Syria over the next few months, a senior White House official told the BBC. The Syrian government has agreed to take the lead in combating terrorism within its borders, and American military presence "at scale" is no longer required, according to the official. U.S. troops have been in Syria since 2015 as part of an anti-terrorism campaign against ISIS.

The decision comes as President Trump significantly increases U.S. military presence near Iran. BBC Verify confirmed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is positioned near Iran, while the USS Gerald R Ford—the world's largest warship—is expected to arrive in the region within three weeks. Senior national security officials told CBS News that Trump indicated the military would be ready for potential strikes on Iran as soon as Saturday, though no final decision has been made. Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to travel to Israel next week to update Prime Minister Netanyahu on U.S.-Iran nuclear talks.

The withdrawal follows the collapse of Syria's Assad government in 2024 and a weakened Islamic State. Trump administration officials have strengthened diplomatic ties with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who visited the White House in November—the first such visit by a Syrian leader in the country's history. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran would be "very wise" to make a deal, noting that while progress was made in Geneva talks this week, the U.S. and Iran remain "far apart" on key issues.

A coalition of health and environmental groups sued the EPA on Wednesday, challenging its repeal of the 2009 "endangerment finding" that declared carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. The Obama-era finding has been the legal foundation for nearly all U.S. climate regulations under the Clean Air Act, covering motor vehicles, power plants, and other pollution sources.

The repeal eliminates all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks and could trigger a broader rollback of climate regulations on stationary sources like power plants and oil and gas facilities. President Trump called it "the single largest deregulatory action in American history," while EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin described the endangerment finding as "the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach" that led to "trillions of dollars in regulations that strangled entire sectors of the United States economy."

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by groups including the American Lung Association, Sierra Club, and Natural Resources Defense Council, argues the rescission is unlawful. "After nearly two decades of scientific evidence supporting the 2009 finding, the agency cannot credibly claim that the body of work is now incorrect," said Brian Lynk of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA is legally required to limit emissions of any air pollutant that endangers public health or welfare—a determination the Supreme Court upheld in its 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA decision.

The FDA announced it will no longer require two rigorous studies to approve new drugs, marking a significant shift in the agency's decades-old standard. Going forward, the FDA's "default position" will be to require one study for new drugs and other novel health products, according to FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and deputy Dr. Vinay Prasad in a New England Journal of Medicine piece published Wednesday.

The two-study standard dates to the early 1960s, when Congress required FDA to review data from "adequate and well-controlled investigations" before clearing new medications. For decades, the agency interpreted that as meaning at least two studies. However, beginning in the 1990s, FDA increasingly accepted single studies for treatments for rare or fatal diseases. Over the last five years, roughly 60% of first-of-a-kind drugs approved each year have been cleared based on a single study.

Makary and Prasad argue that modern advances have made drug research "increasingly precise and scientific," and that "overreliance on two trials no longer makes sense." Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA's former drug director who led the agency's drug center for more than 20 years, said the change reflects the FDA's decades-long evolution and makes scientific sense. The shift primarily impacts drugs for common diseases that previously weren't eligible for reduced testing standards, as the agency has already been approving cancer and rare disease treatments based on single trials.

Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life in prison for his brief imposition of martial law, in a dramatic culmination to the country's biggest political crisis in decades. Judge Jee Kui-youn of the Seoul Central District Court found Yoon guilty of rebellion for mobilizing military and police forces in an illegal attempt to seize the liberal-led National Assembly, arrest politicians, and establish unchecked power.

Yoon shocked the nation on December 3, 2024, by declaring martial law on live television, claiming it was necessary to protect the country from "anti-state" forces sympathizing with North Korea. The decree lasted about six hours before being lifted after lawmakers broke through a military blockade and unanimously voted to overturn the measure. Yoon was impeached on December 14, 2024, and formally removed by the Constitutional Court in April 2025. He has been under arrest since July while facing multiple criminal trials.

The court found that Yoon's decision to send troops to the National Assembly to block the building and arrest key political figures was key to determining the martial law imposition amounted to rebellion. Though prosecutors demanded the death penalty, most analysts expected a life sentence since the poorly-planned power grab resulted in no casualties. South Korea has not executed anyone since 1997. Former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun, who advised Yoon to impose martial law, was jailed for 30 years on Thursday. Yoon's lawyers rejected the conviction and accused the judge of issuing a "predetermined verdict."

National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya will temporarily become acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an administration official. The change makes Bhattacharya the third leader of the CDC during President Trump's second term, following a period of upheaval at the nation's top public health agency.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired then-CDC Director Susan Monarez last summer, less than a month after the Senate confirmed her for the job. Monarez, a longtime government scientist, later testified before a Senate committee that her dismissal came after she refused to sign off on Kennedy's requested changes to the childhood vaccination schedule without data to back them up. Deputy Health Secretary Jim O'Neill had been serving as acting CDC director before his reported departure last week.

Bhattacharya is a health economist who, as a Stanford University professor, was an outspoken critic of the government's COVID-19 shutdowns and vaccine policies. At the NIH, he oversees the largest public funder of biomedical research. At a recent Senate hearing, Bhattacharya said childhood measles vaccination was "the best way to address the measles epidemic in this country" and testified that he'd seen no evidence linking any single vaccine to autism. Trump administration officials have said they plan to find a permanent CDC director, a job that requires Senate confirmation.

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya has been appointed acting director of the CDC, becoming the third leadership change at the agency under President Trump's second term, following the abrupt firing of Senate-confirmed Director Susan Monarez who reportedly refused to approve vaccine schedule changes without supporting data. Bhattacharya, a Stanford health economist critical of COVID-19 lockdowns, now oversees both the nation's largest biomedical research funder and its top public health agency while the administration searches for a permanent CDC director.