This is the Intelligence Feed.
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 President Donald Trump said Monday he would raise U.S. arms sales to Taiwan directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a summit in Beijing, placing a decades-old cornerstone of U.S.-Taiwan defense policy on the bilateral negotiating table. "I'm going to have that discussion," Trump told reporters, acknowledging that Xi…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who served as NATO Secretary General from 2009 to 2014, called this week for European nations to form a "coalition of the willing" capable of organizing the continent's conventional defense without relying on the United States, citing what he described as mounting uncertainty over Washington's commitment…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 The Department of Defense released 162 declassified files on unidentified anomalous phenomena on May 8, publishing them through a newly launched government website at war.gov/UFO, as part of a multiagency initiative ordered by President Donald Trump [1][2]. The files represent the first tranche released under PURSUE, the Presidential Unsealing…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Rome that the United States is awaiting an Iranian response to its latest proposal to end the ongoing conflict, even as a fresh military exchange in the Strait of Hormuz cast doubt on the durability of the existing ceasefire. Rubio said…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a three-day cessation of hostilities running May 9 through May 11, timed to coincide with Russia's Victory Day, the annual commemoration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. The ceasefire would…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on May 7, pressing the Holy See to serve as a distribution channel for U.S. humanitarian aid to Cuba, as the Trump administration pursues a coordinated pressure-and-relief strategy toward Havana. The audience took place in the…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit signaled May 16 that it is unlikely to reverse a lower court ruling that blocked the Defense Department's administrative effort to reduce Sen. Mark Kelly's (D-Ariz.) retired military rank and retirement pay. According to POLITICO, the…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 A confidential CIA analysis delivered to White House policymakers this week concludes that Iran can endure the current U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing materially worse economic conditions, according to four people familiar with the document. [1][2] The assessment directly contradicts public statements…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council and Kyiv's chief negotiator, departed for the United States this week for another round of direct talks with the Trump administration's lead envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner [POLITICO]. The White House confirmed the meeting [POLITICO]. The talks come…
DispatchWashington · May 16, 2026 Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on May 7, in what both governments framed as a bilateral engagement on the Middle East and Western Hemisphere affairs [1][2]. Rubio and the pope discussed the war in Iran, humanitarian aid, and what the…