This is the Intelligence Feed.
Dispatch Washington · June 9, 2026 President Donald Trump's selection of Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence has sharpened a long-running debate on Capitol Hill over whether the Office of the Director of National Intelligence should continue to exist, elevating abolition from a fringe position to a topic of active discussion among senior…
Dispatch Washington · June 8, 2026 Marc Polymeropoulos, a 26-year CIA veteran who became one of the first U.S. officials to speak publicly about Anomalous Health Incidents, is calling on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to declassify a revised intelligence assessment on AHI before she leaves office [POLITICO][1][2]. Polymeropoulos, who retired from the CIA…
Dispatch Washington · June 8, 2026 Germany's government publicly declared June 8 that European powers are prepared to assume the leading role in negotiations to end Russia's war against Ukraine, explicitly framing the shift as a continuation of a mediation effort that Washington has largely deprioritized. The statement followed a June 7 meeting at 10…
Dispatch Washington · June 8, 2026 Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Pyongyang on June 8 for a two-day state visit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his first trip to the country in seven years [1][2]. The visit comes weeks after Xi separately hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump…
Dispatch Washington · June 8, 2026 A months-long investigation by POLITICO has documented a coordinated effort by energy investors, a disgraced former congressman, and a network of political consultants to steer the Trump administration away from maximum-pressure sanctions on Venezuela, an effort that collapsed as Secretary of State Marco Rubio consolidated control over Latin America…
Dispatch Washington · June 8, 2026 The Trump administration has publicly maintained that ceasefires it brokered in Gaza, Lebanon, and against Iran are holding, even as active combat has continued in all three theaters. The pattern has prompted legal and policy analysts to question whether the arrangements constitute ceasefires in any conventional sense, and whether…
Dispatch Washington · June 8, 2026 The Senate on June 6 failed to advance a long-term reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, leaving the surveillance authority on track to expire June 12 unless the chamber can broker a new agreement in the days ahead. The motion to proceed failed 47-52, with…
Dispatch Washington · June 8, 2026 Multiple Iranian missiles struck the Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, during the early weeks of the war, rendering the facility inoperable. The extent of the damage had not been previously reported publicly. The disclosure, first published by Air & Space Forces Magazine, confirms that…
Dispatch Washington · June 8, 2026 Russian President Vladimir Putin declined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's proposal for direct face-to-face negotiations on June 6, telling attendees at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that he saw "no point" in a bilateral meeting at this stage of the conflict [1][2]. The rejection came one day after Zelenskyy…
Dispatch Washington · June 8, 2026 Lebanese President Joseph Aoun publicly accused Iran of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its ongoing conflict with the United States and Israel, a charge that Tehran promptly rejected and that marks a sharpening of Beirut's effort to assert independent sovereignty over its own foreign-policy posture. In an…