ICE's Withdrawal From Minneapolis & NASA's Moon Mission Hiccup

Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, ICE’s withdrawal from Minneapolis, a new industry under threat from AI, Trump’s call with Xi Jinping, the U.S. quest for minerals, the Supreme Court’s redistricting decision, and NASA’s Artemis II struggles.

“Time, which changes people, does not alter the image we have of them.” ― Marcel Proust

Tehran Comes To The Table

The relationship between the U.S. and Iran was already tense enough at the start of this year. Now, over a month into 2026, things have somehow become even more fraught, though we’ve somehow avoided an outright war. In late January, Tehran quashed popular protests with a combination of military force and sweeping internet blackouts. During that crisis, Trump threatened to use a growing U.S. presence in the Middle East to fire strikes on Tehran if it didn’t halt its executions of protesters. After Iran’s government complied, Trump issued another round of threats, promising that the U.S. armada would begin missile strikes unless Tehran agreed to a deal to hand over its nuclear weapons. 

Over the past few days, both governments have been haggling over when and where those nuclear talks might be held. The U.S. and Iran had initially agreed to meet on Friday in Istanbul, discussing a wide variety of issues with diplomats from other Middle Eastern nations in attendance. But on Tuesday, Tehran switched course, saying that they wanted to hold nuclear-only one-on-one talks with the U.S. in Oman instead. American diplomats initially accepted that request, then decided to reject it, but then decided that the meeting was back on after the media reported on the flip-flopping. So that’s where things stand currently – Iranian and U.S. officials are set to hold talks only dealing with Tehran’s nuclear program on Friday. “We are not naive about the Iranians,” said one unnamed U.S. diplomat. “If there is a real conversation to have we will have it but we are not going to waste our time.”

A Partial Thaw In Minneapolis

After weeks of tension, violent clashes with locals, and the shootings of two U.S. citizens, ICE is finally de-escalating its operations in the Minneapolis area. Yesterday, so-called “border czar” Tom Homan announced that 700 agents from both ICE and the Customs and Border Protection agency are leaving Minnesota, effective immediately. The force reduction means that the number of federal agents in the state will shrink from 3,000 to 2,300. Prior to Operation Metro Surge on December 1, there were just 80 federal immigration agents in the area. 

“My goal with the support of President Trump is to achieve a complete drawdown and end this surge as soon as we can,” Homan said. According to the Department of Homeland Security, its agents arrested over 4,000 immigrants as part of the surge, though it’s not clear how many of those people were actually violating immigration laws. In January, the agency noted that just 103 of the 2,000 people it had arrested at the time had records of violent crime.

Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey responded to the drawdown in a social media post, writing that “2,000 federal agents isn’t a de-escalation. My message to the White House has been consistent — Operation Metro Surge has been catastrophic for our residents and businesses. It needs to end immediately.”

AI Is Coming For B2B-SaaS

• Over the first half of this week, a massive selloff saw software and services companies lose almost $1 trillion in stock value. The selloff was sparked over fears that emerging AI tools could destroy the business models of companies that provide data analysis and professional services to other firms, such as Salesforce and TurboTax owner Intuit. More specifically, the selloff was triggered when AI firm Anthropic released a new tool for its Claude LLM that allows the chatbot to automate legal, sales, marketing, and data analysis tasks. Software and services firms across the globe took big hits, and the S&P 500 software and services index has lost 13% of its value over just six days.

• Meanwhile, Google announced that it plans to double its capital expenditure this year. The new trajectory will see the tech giant spend up to $185 billion in 2026, with much of that money being allocated towards cloud computing and AI. “Our capex spend this year is an eye towards the future,” said Google chief Sundar Pichai. “The demand we are seeing across the board for our services — and what we need to invest in Google DeepMind and in cloud — is exceptionally strong.” The CEO cited a significant increase in cloud computing contracts and a jump in monthly users of Google’s Gemini LLM as evidence that the company is on the right track.

A Pleasant Call Between Co-Workers

• The two most powerful men in the world had a nice little phone call yesterday. During their talk, Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump discussed Taiwan, Ukraine, Iran, and international trade – Trump described their call as “excellent” and “long and thorough.” The news seems to signal that relations between the two superpowers are warming in the wake of Trump’s attempts to slap massive tariffs on Chinese goods. 

• “The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way,” Trump wrote on social media after the call. He’s scheduled to visit China in April – he added that he “very much looks forward to” that trip.

• According to Chinese state media, Xi told Trump that Taiwan is “the most important issue” in the U.S.-China relationship, warning his U.S. counterpart to be “prudent” in supplying the island nation with weapons. While Xi’s statement indicates that he doesn’t want to give up any ground on the Taiwan issue, he did compromise on trade – Trump stated that China is considering purchasing 20 million tons of US soybeans, expanding its current plan to purchase 12 million tons of beans.

Additional World News

• Gunmen kill more than 160 people in attacks on two west Nigeria villages (Guardian) 

• MPs back plan to release Mandelson files after Labour anger forces climbdown (BBC) 

• Russia and Ukraine envoys meet in Abu Dhabi for 2 days of US-brokered talks (AP) 

• I’m the Prime Minister of Spain. This Is Why the West Needs Migrants. (NYT, $) 

• Internal document shows the Vietnamese military preparing for a possible American war (ABC)

• Revealed: Israel bulldozed part of Gaza war cemetery containing Allied graves (Guardian) 

Join the 5th Military Veteran Startup Conference (MVS) on 2/11-2/12/26. MVS is the largest convening of military veteran startup and venture capital leaders. In total the last 3 conferences brought in over 1,500 founders, future founders, operators, VCs, and LPs.

MVS26 will take place in downtown San Francisco at the Marines Memorial Club on February 11-12, 2026 (Wednesday-Thursday). The Military Veteran Startup Conference is the premier event connecting military veteran founders, VCs, institutional LPs, and operators. There is no other forum that convenes this community at scale, and past conferences have driven meaningful dealmaking, partnerships, and hiring.

Thank you to our Sponsors JPMorgan, DLA Piper, Citizens Private Bank, Sightline Ventures, Holland & Knight, Cooley & PenFed Foundation

10% off discount for Daily Pnut readers.

The Diplomats Yearn For The Mines

• The White House’s quest to strengthen its access to rare earth minerals continues. Yesterday, the State Department hosted an event attended by representatives from over 50 countries including Japan, Mexico, and the E.U. During the talks, Vice President JD Vance spoke about a “foreign supply” of critical minerals that’s supposedly flooding global markets, apparently referring to China without actually mentioning Beijing. 

• “Every single one of us represented in this room has become dependent on arrangements we did not choose, and right now, arrangements that we cannot control,” said the second-in-command of the most powerful nation on the planet, alluding to the idea that China is flooding the market with cheap minerals that make it harder for other countries to develop their mining sectors. According to a special assistant to President Trump, the U.S. is now planning to “deploy hundreds of billions of capital into the mining sector to get projects going” across the planet in order to diversify global mineral supply chains. 

Gerrymandering Gets The Green Light

• The Supreme Court has ruled that California can use its new congressional map, which has been redrawn to put five Republican-held districts into the hands of Democrats. Normally, the Supreme Court isn’t in charge of regulating state voting districts, but California Republicans emergency appeal to the court, claiming that Democrats are trying to redistrict in order to give Latino voters more power instead of simply redistricting to shore up their political power.

• The redistricting’s “professed purpose was to pick up five seats in Congress for the Democratic Party to offset the five seats the Republican Party gained in Texas,” California Republicans said. “But those officials harbored another purpose as well: maximizing Latino voting strength to shore up Latino support for the Democratic Party.” Unfortunately for the GOP lawmakers, the Supreme Court decided unanimously that their argument wasn’t valid. The emergency ruling is in line with a previous decision from the court, which struck down a similar Democrat appeal to stop Republican-favored redistricting in Texas.

Additional USA News

• ICE Deportation Flights Are Getting Longer and Crueler (Mother Jones)

• Trump Team to Hold Daily Meetings on Getting Revenge (New Republic)

• Minnesota girl, 10, released from ICE custody after a month in detention (Guardian)

• Federal Agency Investigates Nike for Discrimination Against White Workers (NYT, $)

• Washington Post announces sweeping layoffs scaling back news coverage (WaPo, $) 

• Ryan Routh sentenced to life in prison for 2024 attempt on Trump's life (BBC) 

The Man On The Moon Will Have To Wait

• On Tuesday, NASA announced a delay in its plans to send humans to the moon. The space agency had hoped to launch its Artemis II mission – which would involve briefly sending four astronauts into the moon’s orbit before bringing them back to Earth – as early as next Sunday. After running through a multi-day “wet dress rehearsal” that started on Saturday, though, NASA decided to push back the Artemis II launch to sometime in March.

• A wet dress rehearsal isn’t as sexy as it sounds. The two-day process involves filling up the massive fuel tanks of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with millions of pounds of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. After the tanks are filled, the NASA team is then supposed to go through the motions of a real launch, simulating everything until there’s just about 30 seconds left on the countdown clock, at which point the rehearsal is supposed to end.

• Unfortunately for NASA engineers, they didn’t get that far. Soon after fueling began, the SLS began leaking hydrogen where the rocket and the launchpad met. The team kept at it, allowing the seals on the rocket’s tanks to warm up, and the tanks were eventually totally filled. But with five minutes left in the countdown, the hydrogen leaks reappeared as the rocket’s propulsion system was pressurized, forcing NASA to scrub the rehearsal just a few minutes short of the finish line. “With more than three years between SLS launches, we fully anticipated encountering challenges,” said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman. “That is precisely why we conduct a wet dress rehearsal. These tests are designed to surface issues before flight and set up launch day with the highest probability of success.”

Additional Reads

• The Swedish Start-Up Aiming to Conquer America’s Full-Body-Scan Craze (NYT, $) 

• Ultra-processed foods should be treated more like cigarettes than food – study (Guardian)

• I shaved off my hair – and immediately became an invisible woman (Guardian) 

• Your phone edits all your photos with AI - is it changing your view of reality? (BBC) 

• Everyone is stealing TV: Fed up with increasing subscription prices, viewers embrace rogue streaming boxes. (Verge) 

• Reporter's notebook: A peek inside the Olympic Village (NPR) 

Please consider supporting Daily Pnut, an independently operated and bootstrapped publication, and you'll receive our exclusive Sunday edition. Many thanks to everyone who already supports us!

Peanut For Your Thoughts

Yesterday, Senator Ron Wyden (the longest-serving member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence) sent a classified letter to CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Then he proceeded to publicize the fact that he’d sent the letter to Ratcliffe, publishing an unclassified letter to the CIA director that reads, “I write to alert you to a classified letter I sent you earlier today, in which I express deep concerns about CIA activities.” 👁️

Editor + Writer: Marcus Gee-Lim

Designer: Joe Stella