Musk spoke to Trump before posting ‘regret’
WASHINGTON (NYT) — President Donald Trump received a phone call from Elon Musk late on Monday night, outreach that led to a public expression of regret by the billionaire early Wednesday for the attacks he had lodged against the president in their extraordinary public showdown last week, according to three people briefed on the conversation.
The call came after the tech entrepreneur spoke privately on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, about a path to a truce. Wiles told associates she had come to like working with Musk and was one of his regular points of contact. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions.
Those conversations paved the way for the strikingly chastened tone Musk struck in a post on the social site X early Wednesday, in which he wrote: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”
What began as criticism by the tech billionaire of Trump’s signature domestic bill devolved into an exchange of insults that mounted throughout the day, as the president claimed he had not needed Musk’s help to get elected and Musk tried to link Trump to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
It remains to be seen how Trump will handle the attempted rapprochement and whether the two men’s relationship can be restored.
US to withdraw diplomats from Iraq amid Iran tensions
WASHINGTON (NYT) — The State Department is withdrawing diplomats from Iraq and the Pentagon authorized the voluntary departure of military family members from the Middle East amid signs that sputtering nuclear diplomacy between the United States and Iran may end in conflict.
Word of the U.S. decisions, along with a warning from Britain about new threats to Middle East commercial shipping, came hours after President Donald Trump said in a podcast released Wednesday that he had grown “less confident” about the prospects for a deal with Iran that would limit its ability to develop nuclear weapons.
American and Iranian negotiators have been planning to meet later this week for another round of talks, although Trump told reporters Monday that Iran had adopted an “unacceptable” negotiating position. Israeli officials have threatened to attack Iran if it does not effectively surrender its nuclear program.
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from across the Middle East, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military activity in the region.
Analysts debated a range of possibilities Wednesday, including that the United States and Britain might be trying to intimidate Iran, or alternately were responding with alarm to bellicose statements from Iranian officials. Some also wondered whether U.S. and British officials were reacting to a heightened chance that Israel would attack Iran.
ICE raids meat plant in Omaha
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — An immigration raid on Tuesday at a meat production plant in Omaha, Nebraska was the “largest worksite enforcement operation” in the state during the Trump presidency, the Homeland Security Department said.
U.S. Congressman Don Bacon told local media 75-80 people were detained.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid happened at a plant of Glenn Valley Foods. The food packaging company said it was surprised by the raid and had followed the rules regarding immigration status.
ICE officers have been intensifying efforts in recent weeks to deliver on U.S. President Donald Trump’s promise of record-level deportations. The White House has demanded the agency sharply increase arrests of migrants in the U.S. illegally, sources have told Reuters.
Local police in Omaha said they were informed by immigration officials about the raid in advance while the company said it got no notice about the operation ahead of time.
ICE said a criminal investigation was ongoing into what immigration officials called a large-scale employment of immigrants who are present in the U.S. illegally.
More than half of all meatpacking workers in the U.S. are immigrants, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank.
Rights advocates, including the ACLU of Nebraska, condemned the raid.
Jury in NY convicts Weinstein in second sex crimes trial
NEW YORK (NYT) — Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced former Hollywood mogul whose downfall spurred a global reckoning over sexual abuse and harassment of women, was found guilty in Manhattan on Wednesday of a felony sex crime for the second time in a little more than five years.
But a jury of 12 New Yorkers acquitted Weinstein on another of the charges against him, and reached no decision on a third.
The panel was instructed to return today to continue deliberating on the final charge, third-degree rape.
The conviction, on a single count of criminal sexual act, was handed down despite bets by Weinstein’s lawyers that the #MeToo movement had waned enough to cast doubt on the motives and credibility of his accusers — three women who were seeking work in the film and television industry.
Weinstein had previously been convicted of sex crimes in Manhattan in 2020, but the conviction was overturned.
