Former White House adviser Karen Hughes is appointed as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, where she will be charged with remaking the United States' image abroad.
Michele Kelemen has been with NPR for two decades, starting as NPR's Moscow bureau chief and now covering the State Department and Washington's diplomatic corps. Her reports can be heard on all NPR News programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
Comments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken this weekend were the first time a U.S. official has acknowledged contact with the Syrian rebel group that drove Bashar al-Assad from power.