Tulsi Gabbard resigning as Trump’s intelligence chief

Politics
Published Fri, May 22 20261:15 PM EDT

Updated 7 Min Ago
Kevin Breuninger

Key Points

• Tulsi Gabbard is resigning as President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence.
• Gabbard said she is leaving her post to support her husband, who is battling a rare form of bone cancer.
• Gabbard’s resignation is effective June 30, she said.
• Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas will take over from Gabbard in an acting capacity, Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Tulsi Gabbard is resigning as President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, becoming the latest Cabinet official to leave his administration, she announced Friday.

Trump’s troop reversal on Europe fuels new confusion over US military posture

May 22, 2026

Sources: CNN, Reuters

Canceled rotations earlier in the month intensified the uncertainty

President Donald Trump said Thursday that the United States will send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland, a move that confused everyone and appeared to reverse or complicate earlier efforts by his administration to "reduce the number of American service members stationed across Europe".

New Taliban Decree on Divorce Formalizes Child Marriage, U.N. Warns

A new Afghan law requires girls to wait until puberty before seeking to get out of a marriage. It also requires mediation for women seeking to escape an abusive husband.

By Elian Peltier

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan.

May 22, 2026, 6:37 a.m. ET

A decree published by the Taliban government in Afghanistan has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and human rights groups for implicitly recognizing child marriage and further eroding women’s rights.

Jamie Dimon says China has been “more consistent” in its international relations but US is still a "safe haven"

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Maintains Optimism on U.S. Economy Amid Global Turmoil

Sources: Financial Times, Bloomberg

Published MAY 20, 2026

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan, asserted that the United States remains a "safe haven" for investors, even as it faces unexpected challenges. Speaking to Bloomberg TV at a financial conference in Shanghai, Dimon addressed shifting perceptions of the U.S. economy amid geopolitical developments and recent upheavals under President Donald Trump.

Donald Trump Is Finally Cracking Up for Real

Losing It

His recent tirades confirmed what more than half of America now believes: The president is mentally unfit. How will we survive two and a half more years of this? And what’s he got in store for us?

Molly Jong-Fast, Michael Tomasky

May 21, 2026

Illustration by Brian Ajhar

Audit Immunity for Trump Family Puts I.R.S. in a Bind

News Analysis

Federal law prohibits the Internal Revenue Service from halting an audit at the direction of 

the president or his aides

By Andrew Duehren

Reporting from Washington

May 21, 2026

President Trump’s return to office has been an unforgiving crucible for the hidebound Internal Revenue Service. He and his aides have decimated its ranks, fired and replaced its leaders and made repeated attempts to enlist the agency in his quest for political retribution.

Autopsy of the autopsy: How the DNC’s 2024 post-mortem turned into a crisis

By Edward-Isaac Dovere
Updated 11 hr ago

First, the Democratic National Committee’s autopsy of the 2024 election was slated to come out last spring. Then, DNC chair Ken Martin promised members at their summer meeting last August in his home state of Minnesota, “Three weeks.” Then October. Then after the November elections.

U.K. spy plane "dangerously intercepted" by Russian military jets over Black Sea, defense ministry says

Updated on: May 20, 2026

1:20 PM EDT / CBS/AFP

Two Russian jets "repeatedly and dangerously" intercepted a British surveillance aircraft over the Black Sea last month, the defense ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

"This incident is another example of dangerous and unacceptable behaviour by Russian pilots, towards an unarmed aircraft operating in international airspace. These actions create a serious risk of accidents and potential escalation," Defense Minister John Healey said in the communique.

Ebola Screenings Start At O'Hare In Response To Outbreak

The CDC has started health screenings to prevent the disease from spreading in the U.S., and some travelers are being denied entry.

Rachel Barnes, Patch Staff

Posted Wed, May 20, 2026 at 10:54 am CT|Updated Wed, May 20, 2026 at 11:13 am CT

Why Is Mark Zuckerberg Taunting His Employees Before Firing Them?

"In general, the average intelligence of the people who are at this company is significantly higher than the average set of people."

By Joe Wilkins

Published May 20, 2026 

4:02 PM EDT

In ancient Roman times, military generals are thought to have used a tactic known as decimation to punish mutinous groups of mercenary soldiers. Essentially, they’d kill one in every 10 unruly soldiers as a horrifying message to discipline those who remained. Today, the same tactic is evidently in play — not by bloodthirsty generals, but by tech billionaires thinning their ranks to free up money for AI.

Trump Can’t Relate to the Squeeze Americans Feel After His Iran War Because He is a Rich Tax Evader

May 20, 2026

By Yiannis Damellos

Are you pissed off yet with Trump, or are you still waiting for this war to end and prices to return to their pre-war levels? Cause that’s not going to happen. I’ve been researching inflation and supermarket prices since COVID, and my assessment is negative. Oil prices won’t drastically drop, and coffee, cocoa, grains, produce, meat, or clothing won’t get cheaper anytime soon. Same for electronics and all products whose development depends on fertilizers. The war in Iran will go on as long as it is logistically supported, and your President won’t stop lying—unless he doesn’t have to, that is, if a few Republicans he’s pissed off recently decide to cut his war funding soon.

US charges Raúl Castro with murder as Trump escalates pressure on Cuba

By Jana Winter and Jack Queen
May 19, 2026 11:06 PM PDT

Updated 1 hour ago

Summary

• Indictment escalates Washington pressure on Cuba
• Charges relate to the 1996 incident when planes were shot down
• Rubio offers $100 million in aid in parallel
• Cuban President calls indictment a 'political maneuver.'

It’s Not Neofeudalism, It’s Hypercapitalism

By Stephen Maher

The tech giants at the commanding heights of the modern economy did not invent a new mode of production — they are simply classically exploitative capitalists.

One of the most persistent left shibboleths is the notion that productive investment is giving way to unproductive speculation, leading to the “hollowing out” of the industrial economy and the decline of capitalism. After all, it seems obvious that capitalists would rather make a quick buck than undertake the arduous and risky process of actually producing something. Neo-feudalism is having a moment.

Ally of DOJ pardon attorney seeks to join board of Trump's $1.7+ billion fund

By Gabe Kaminsky

May 20, 2026 / 7:12 PM EDT / CBS News

A Republican lawyer and close ally of Ed Martin, the U.S. pardon attorney, has submitted a request to the Justice Department to join a panel that will dispense over $1.7 billion to people who claim they were victims of legal "weaponization," according to a letter obtained by CBS News.

Ebola fears surge on the ground in Congo over rapid spread of a rare type

BY JUSTIN KABUMBA AND MONIKA PRONCZUK
The Associated Press 

May 20, 2026

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Anxious healthcare workers in eastern Congo said Wednesday they are underprotected and undertrained in the face of a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak of a rare type of the virus in one of the world’s most remote and vulnerable places.

Russia and China scold the United States over 'Golden Dome' plans

By Reuters

May 20, 2026

2:31 AM PDT 

Updated 6 hours ago

MOSCOW, May 20 (Reuters) - Russia and China said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile-defence shield plans threatened strategic stability and that Washington had been irresponsible not to ​work on a replacement for a landmark nuclear treaty.

Empty rooms and FIFA cancellations - US hotels fear World Cup washout

The World Cup runs from 11 June to 19 July
By Dale Johnson
Football issues correspondent
Published 6 hours ago

The World Cup was supposed to provide a tourism boom for the US, but now the fear is that it may never materialise.

Early War Goal Was to Install Hard Line Former President as Iran’s Leader

An Israeli strike designed to free Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from house arrest in Tehran, U.S. officials said, was part of an effort to bring about regime change and 

put him in power.

Published May 19, 2026

By Mark Mazzetti Julian E. Barnes Farnaz Fassihi and Ronen Bergman

The reporters have been covering the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

Days after Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials in the opening salvos of the war, President Trump mused publicly that it would be best if “someone from within” Iran took over the country.