Rachael Larimore

6 days ago | thedispatch.com | Rachael Larimore

Hello and happy Saturday. The war between Israel and Iran entered its second week, with Israel continuing to strike Iranian nuclear facilities and military leadership. On Thursday, an Iranian missile hit an Israeli hospital in Be’er Sheva, and Saturday Israel claimed to have taken out Mohammad Saeed Izadi, an Islamic Republic Guard Corps Quds Force commander who Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said financed and armed Hamas ahead of the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.

1 week ago | thedispatch.com | Rachael Larimore

Hello. I had some quiet time Thursday evening—the teens were teening and my husband had met up with some work friends—so I thought I’d get a head start on this newsletter. We had published some good analysis of President Donald Trump’s deployment of not just the National Guard but also 700 Marines to the Los Angeles area to quell protests against immigration raids. Surely that would be the biggest story of the week, right? Wrong.

2 weeks ago | thedispatch.com | Rachael Larimore

Hello and happy Saturday. On Wednesday, Alex Demas and I were putting the finishing touches on a deeply reported story he had written about Elon Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink. Countries had signed contracts with Starlink and acknowledged they were doing so to curry favor in tariff negotiations, and the Commerce Department had announced it was considering changes to a federal initiative to expand broadband access to make it easier for states to choose satellite internet providers.

2 weeks ago | newsobserver.com | Rachael Larimore

US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk (L) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 30, 2025. Musk, who stormed into US politics as President Trump's chainsaw-brandishing sidekick, announced on May 28 that he is leaving his role in US government, intended to reduce federal spending, shortly after his first major break with the President over Trump's signature spending bill.

3 weeks ago | thedispatch.com | Rachael Larimore

Hello and happy Saturday. President Donald Trump’s reliance on executive power—not only to implement his policy agenda but also to pursue action against law firms with ties to lawyers who investigated or prosecuted him—has prompted scores of legal challenges in the early months of his second term. This week, the Trump administration suffered legal setbacks on numerous fronts.