US-Iran Talks, Summers Resigns Over Epstein Ties, Cuba Kills Four In Boat Strike

0:00Ayesha Rascoe:Good morning, A. Hello. Good morning. Well, we miss you already.

0:05David Greene:Really? Yes.

0:08Ayesha Rascoe:Because you were here and we enjoyed your company?

0:11David Greene:I find that hard to believe.

0:17U.S.

0:17David Greene:and Iranian officials are meeting today. President Trump is still considering military strikes.

0:22Ayesha Rascoe:The talks will focus on Iran's nuclear program, but the U.S. also wants ballistic missiles on the table. Is a deal possible?

0:28David Greene:I mean, Martinez, that is Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. Harvard professor and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is resigning from the university. His high profile has become the kind of pall that's been cast upon the university at a time where the university hardly needs any more burdens. It's the latest consequence triggered by the release of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

0:55Ayesha Rascoe:And Cuban border agents shot and killed four people on a U.S.-registered boat. The Cuban government described them as terrorists who tried to infiltrate the island. Who were these men? Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.

1:13U.S.

1:13Ayesha Rascoe:and Iranian officials are meeting today in Geneva to discuss Tehran's nuclear program in what seems like a last chance to avert war.

1:20David Greene:That's after President Trump claimed, without providing evidence in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, that Iran is building missiles that will soon be able to reach the United States.

1:29Ayesha Rascoe:NPS Jane Araf is following the talks from Amman Jordan and is with us now to tell us more. Good morning, Jane. Good morning, Michelle. So these are the third high-level talks between Iran and the U.S. in this round of negotiations over curbing Iran's nuclear program. If you would just remind us about the background against which this is all taking place.

1:46Rachel Martin:So Israel attacked Iran last June, and those were followed by U.S. airstrikes just before scheduled negotiations. So that obviously put a halt, a dramatic halt to those talks. These ones now are an even bigger deal because of the U.S. military buildup in the Middle East, the biggest since the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. So those U.S. threats against Iran and the probable Iranian retaliation have raised what seems to be a very real risk of a wider war, and it has the entire region in a state of high alert. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to reporters late Wednesday. He said he didn't know if today's talks were the key for a decision on military action, but he added this.

2:31David Greene:That would be good if progress was made on Thursday, and I would say that the Iranian insistence on not discussing ballistic missiles is a big, big problem. I'll leave it at that.

2:40Rachel Martin:So in addition to uranium enrichment being discussed, the U.S. is demanding that Iran give up ballistic weapons as well.

2:47Ayesha Rascoe:You know, it's interesting, Jane, that both sides seem to be tamping down expectations of any breakthrough today. So just give us a sense of the state of play and what can be accomplished.

2:57Rachel Martin:Sure. The Amani foreign minister who's mediating the talks is going to relay the Iranian counter proposals that he received to the U.S. delegation this morning. That delegation is headed by Steve Witkoff, the billionaire real estate developer appointed by President Trump as a special Middle East envoy, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Ar-Akji, said yesterday there was basis for some agreement with the U.S. on the nuclear issue, but he makes clear that ballistic missiles are not on the table. Iran has said that expecting it to give up its national defense assets is a demand driven by Israel, and he calls it a recipe for failure in negotiations.

3:43Rachel Martin:So bottom line, no breakthrough is expected today. But if more talks are scheduled, that itself has seen its progress.

3:50Ayesha Rascoe:And this demand for no nuclear or ballistic weapons is not all that this administration wants from Iran. So tell us more about that.

3:57Rachel Martin:The administration's also demanding that Iran stop support for militant groups in other countries. It has demanded that it halt its crackdown on Iranian anti-government protests, in which thousands of people, mostly protesters, have been killed by security forces. Limited protests restarted in Iran last weekend. Ultimately, though, there's that specter of toppling the regime. Trump in February said regime change in Iran would be the best thing that could happen. So that really is hanging over everything. As well as the specter of this wider war, I take it the rest of the region is dealing with that.

4:35Rachel Martin:Things are quite tense, actually. A lot of countries are advising their citizens to leave some countries in the Middle East while they can. Oil prices are higher. All of these countries in the Middle East are seen at risk because so many of them have U.S. bases. That's NPR's Jane Raff.

4:51Ayesha Rascoe:Jane, thank you. Thank you.

5:01Ayesha Rascoe:Harvard professor and economist Larry Summers announced he will resign from teaching there later this year.

5:06David Greene:This comes after more was revealed about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Harvard is continuing to investigate Summers and others for their ties to the convicted sex offender.

5:15Ayesha Rascoe:Suvonne Lee from WBUR in Boston is here to tell us more. Good morning, Suvonne. Good morning, Michelle. So catch us up to these developments. They seem to be happening pretty rapidly.

5:24Larry Summers:Sure. So both Summers and Harvard announced his resignation in separate statements. Summers said his decision to retire was, quote, difficult. He said he will be always grateful to his students and colleagues. Summers had been on academic leave since new emails with Jeffrey Epstein surfaced in November. Those emails shed more light on their tight relationship. They discussed Summers' interest in a woman outside his marriage, and they banter about Epstein being Summers' wingman. Summers had stopped teaching his fall courses and stepped back from public appearances, so for him to announce that he's retiring doesn't totally come out of left field.

5:58Larry Summers:A Harvard spokesman said Summers' resignation comes in connection to the school's ongoing review and to the new Epstein files released by the government. Now, it's unclear what his affiliation with the school will be, but the spokesman tells me he won't receive the honorary title of Professor Emeritus.

6:14Ayesha Rascoe:Can we just clarify here, is he resigning or is he just retiring sooner than perhaps was expected?

6:20Larry Summers:Well, Summers' statement said that he was retiring. However, the Harvard University statement said that at least the dean of the Harvard Kennedy School accepts his resignation from being a co-director at that center in connection to the school's new investigation. Interesting. Okay, so remind us, if you would, about why there's so much attention on Larry Summers. Sure. So Summers is one of the most well-known figures at Harvard. He's a prominent economist. He was Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton. And he was Harvard's president for five years, starting in 2001. During his tenure, Epstein gave millions of dollars to the university.

6:57Larry Summers:We know Summers kept up a personal correspondence with a late financier even after Epstein's first conviction in 2008. That continued until 2019, shortly before Epstein's arrest on charges of federal sex trafficking of minors. Summers hasn't been accused of any criminal wrongdoing, but the emails demonstrate the closeness he had to Epstein. And what are other faculty there saying? Yeah, so I've been talking with faculty since these emails came to light in November. Some applauded Harvard's decision to reopen investigations into Epstein's ties with professors. Summers' retirement doesn't come as a huge surprise.

7:35Larry Summers:Here's Timothy Patrick McCarthy, who's among the faculty at Harvard's Kennedy School.

7:40David Greene:His high profile has become not just a distraction for Harvard to have to deal with, but a kind of pall that's been cast upon the university at a time where the university hardly needs any more burdens.

7:53Larry Summers:And McCarthy is referring there to what he called President Trump's full frontal assault on higher ed. I also talked with Theda Scotchpole, a government professor at Harvard. She told me Summers' departure is also a loss.

8:06Ayesha Rascoe:Despite his repeated failures of good judgment, this is somebody who has a lot to offer intellectual life and was a valued teacher by many Harvard students. Not just Harvard, though. He had relationships with faculty at other economic institutions, as we recall.

8:23Larry Summers:Right. A handful of professors and at least one college president are among the names in the Epstein files. A math professor at Harvard was just placed on administrative leave. Bard College, a small liberal arts school in New York, is investigating its longtime president, Leon Botstein, for emails that show a deeper friendship to Epstein. Each day is bringing new developments. It's kind of like, what consequences will be next? That is WBUR's Suvonne Lee.

8:48Ayesha Rascoe:Suvonne, thank you. Thank you.

8:59Ayesha Rascoe:The Cuban government says its border troops engaged in a gunfight with a boat registered in Florida and killed four people on board.

9:06David Greene:The government says they were, quote, terrorists trying to infiltrate the island.

9:09Ayesha Rascoe:NPR's Ada Peralta is following this story from his base in Mexico City. Ada, good morning.