Try the political quiz
 @ISIDEWITHNewsUnited StatesDonald TrumpDiplomacyElon MuskUnited NationsUS-Iran RelationsTensions•••2yrs ago

Elon Musk Steps Into Diplomacy: Secret Meeting with Iran's UN Ambassador to Ease US-Iran Tensions

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, reportedly met with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, in a secret meeting in New York.

The discussions focused on ways to reduce tensions between the United States and Iran, which have been strained in recent years. The meeting, which lasted over an hour, highlights Musk's growing influence not just in the tech world but also in international diplomacy.

The New York Times reported that two Iranian officials confirmed the meeting, though further details remain scarce.

.
+
Expand

Knowledge quiz

How much do you know about Elon Musk?

See if you know more than the average American.

Test your knowledge!

Knowledge quiz

How much do you know about Donald Trump?

See if you know more than the average American.

Test your knowledge!

Knowledge quiz

How much do you know about Diplomacy?

See if you know more than the average American.

Test your knowledge!

6 Replies

 @5QH7V7RConservatismfrom Minnesota  commented…2yrs2Y

It's interesting to see someone like Musk stepping into diplomacy, but let's not forget that dealing with Iran requires a firm stance, not backdoor meetings. We need to stay tough on regimes like this, not give them opportunities to manipulate us.

 @8CY96CNLibertarian from Florida  commented…2yrs2Y

Honestly, good for Musk if he's trying to cool things down between the U.S. and Iran, but I’m not a fan of any private citizens getting too cozy with governments. The real issue here is the U.S. government sticking its nose in foreign conflicts to begin with. If we had less interventionist foreign policies, we wouldn’t even need these backdoor deals. Also, why is diplomacy being handled in secret? If people knew more about what these governments were up to, we might be less willing to support all this meddling. At the end of the day, we should be focused on free trade and non-intervention, not playing global referee.

 @HouseMooseSocialism from North Carolina  commented…2yrs2Y

Why is a billionaire tech CEO getting involved in international diplomacy when we should be prioritizing democratic processes and public accountability in foreign policy decisions?

 @9ZLH5KM from Texas  commented…2yrs2Y

anytime we are interfering with other countries we should be aware.

 @ISIDEWITHlinked…2yrs2Y

Elon Musk Reportedly Met With Iran’s UN Ambassador

https://forbes.com

The New York Times reported Musk met with the Iranian ambassador earlier this week to discuss defusing tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

 @ISIDEWITHlinked…2yrs2Y

Elon Musk Met With Iran’s U.N. Ambassador, Iranian Officials Say

https://nytimes.com

The tech billionaire, a top adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump, was reported to have discussed ways to defuse tensions between Iran and the United States.

Demographics

Loading the political themes of users that engaged with this discussion

Loading data...

More conversations

Join in on more popular conversations.

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…2yrs2Y

U.S. Students Slide in Math, Science Test Scores

U.S. scores were no better than when the tests were first given in 1995. In math, the recent declines wiped out years of gains. American science scores have fallen since 2015, although the latest drops from 2019 weren’t statistically significant.The results come as President-elect Donald Trump has criticized America’s education system and pledged to abolish the federal Education Department. Wednesday’s release did come with a slice of good news, though: U.S. students still score above international averages, which include countries with a range of economic levels.Some other countries’ scores also declined since before the pandemic, but U.S. rankings slid comparatively on some measures, falling to 24 out of 45 education systems in eighth-grade math and 15 out of 63 in fourth-grade science.Countries whose performance moved ahead of the U.S. included Finland in math, England in science, and Poland for both subjects in fourth grade.High-scoring countries included Singapore, Japan and England. Officials say it is difficult to determine why some places excel and others struggle. The quality of a country’s schools, as well as other factors like poverty, can influence test performance. Carr said some countries use curriculum that is more closely aligned with the TIMSS exams.Even as U.S. schools have long since returned to normal from Covid-19 closures, educators struggled with new challenges. More teachers have left the profession. Student misbehavior and absenteeism jumped. “Coming out of Covid, parents and students got comfortable with the idea that it’s OK to stay home,” said Suzan Harris, a middle-school principal in Butts County, Ga. Chronic absenteeism rates have improved recently, but remain elevated compared with prepandemic figures, according to an American Enterprise Institute compilation of state data.In the years before the pandemic, national exams showed that school achievement was already stagnating or declining.

▲  95 replies

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…1yr1Y

Biden bans new offshore oil drilling along most of US coastline

President Joe Biden announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the US coastline on Monday in a move designed to bolster his environmental and climate legacy as he prepares to leave office.The order will protect 625mn acres of ocean on the US east coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coasts of Washington, Oregon and California, as well as portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska, the White House said on Monday.“My decision reflects what the coastal communities, business and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said.The executive action will not prevent oil and gas companies obtaining leases in the central and western parts of the Gulf of Mexico, areas that produce almost 15 per cent of the nation’s oil supplies. Nevertheless, the move is expected to complicate the policy agenda of incoming president Donald Trump, who has vowed to “drill, baby, drill” and boost US oil production, even though it is already at a record level.The Trump transition team said it was a disgraceful decision designed to exact “political revenge on the American people” and the incoming president said he would immediately “unban” Biden’s prohibition on new offshore drilling.“I have the right to unban it immediately . . . we can’t let that happen to our country. It’s our greatest, it’s really our greatest economic asset,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview on Monday.Biden’s action will probably be challenged by the oil industry in court and face pushback from Republicans in Congress. But overturning the order could prove challenging and may require an act of Congress, according to legal experts.Biden is using his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, to protect the areas from drilling — the same mechanism which former president Barack Obama used previously to ban offshore drilling in some Arctic and Atlantic waters in 2016.In 2019, a federal judge ruled that an executive order by former president Donald Trump that lifted an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean was unlawful.

▲  1910 replies