This is the Intelligence Feed.
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…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 — Hormuz Standoff Shapes Trump's Beijing Summit Agenda on Iran and Taiwan The Strait of Hormuz crisis has emerged as the central variable in President Donald Trump's summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, scheduled for May 14 and 15, positioning Beijing as an indispensable intermediary in one…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 The Commerce Department's Center for AI Standards and Innovation announced May 5 that it has signed pre-deployment evaluation agreements with Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and xAI, bringing the total number of major frontier AI developers under voluntary federal review to five. The agreements authorize CAISI, a component of the National…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 Thirty House Democrats, led by Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, sent a formal letter dated May 4 to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding that the Trump administration publicly acknowledge Israel's nuclear weapons program. Castro, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, led the group…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 Iran Races Beijing for Diplomatic Standing Before Trump-Xi Summit Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled to Beijing on May 6 for face-to-face talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, arriving just over a week before President Donald Trump was scheduled to begin a state visit to China on May…
Dispatch Washington · May 16, 2026 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally announced Project Freedom on May 5, designating it as a distinct military operation from Operation Epic Fury, the broader U.S.-led war against Iran that began Feb. 28 [1][2]. Speaking at a Pentagon press briefing alongside Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, Hegseth described the…