A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. It feels odd that President Donald Trump tapped a housing expert to oversee the American intelligence community. But Trump is dug in on his temporary appointment of Bill Pulte, the housing official he wants to start next week and shake things up and clean house during a temporary assignment overseeing the intelligence community. Democrats, to protest the hiring move, could let a key foreign surveillance law lapse and Republicans on Capitol Hill are scrambling, according to CNN’s most recent report.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/11/politics/pulte-dni-trump-administration-acting-officials-analysis
A Thai court handed out death sentences on Thursday to two ethnic Uyghur men from the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang for a 2015 bombing in the centre of Bangkok that killed 20 people, according to a court statement. The explosion occurred at the Erawan Shrine in the centre of Bangkok, an area popular with foreign tourists. As well as the 20 people killed, another 120 were injured. Five of the dead were from mainland China and two from Hong Kong. “The actions of both defendants constitute multiple separate offenses,” the court statement said, adding that the sentence included punishment for the charge of premeditated murder, which resulted in the death penalty.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/11/asia/thailand-uyghur-bangkok-bombing-death-sentence-intl-hnk
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he’s nominating Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be his next director of national intelligence. “Few people anywhere in the Legal Community are respected at the level of Jay,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible.” The selection of Clayton — who served as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term — comes amid a firestorm over Trump’s earlier decision to make top housing official Bill Pulte the acting national intelligence chief following the planned departure of Tulsi Gabbard.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/11/politics/jay-clayton-director-national-intelligence