Elon Musk stepped back from his explosive feud with U.S. President Donald Trump, writing on X that he regrets some of his posts about his onetime ally and that they went “too far.”

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Early Wednesday morning, he posted “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”

Musk’s break with a president whom he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect appeared to put an end to his influence in the White House and prompted concerns about effects on his companies. As a major government contractor, Musk’s businesses could be particularly vulnerable to retribution, and Trump has already threatened to cut Musk’s contracts.

Musk earlier deleted a post in which he claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Meanwhile, other posts that irritated Trump, including ones in which Musk called the spending bill an “abomination” and claimed credit for Trump’s election victory, remained live.

On Sunday, Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker that he has no desire to repair their relationship and warned that Musk could face “ serious consequences ” if he tries to help Democrats in upcoming elections.

By YURI KAGEYAMA, Associated Press Business Writer

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares mostly rose Wednesday after China and the U.S. said they had agreed on a framework for following up on the trade truce reached last month in Geneva.

France’s CAC 40 added 0.3% in early trading to 7,830.85, while Germany’s DAX edged up 0.1% to 24,063.19. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose nearly 0.2% to 8,867.82. U.S. shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures down 0.2% to 42,826.00. S&P 500 futures declined nearly 0.2% to 6,035.50. Oil prices edged higher.

In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 0.6% to finish at 38,421.19. Data from the Bank of Japan showed wholesale inflation slowed in May, meaning there might be less pressure for the central bank to raise interest rates in its next policy board meeting.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.8% to 24,356.67, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.5% to 3,402.32.

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Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost earlier gains and were little changed, up less than 0.1% to 8,592.10.

South Korea’s Kospi added 1.2% to 2,907.04 as relief set in about Trump’s trade policies. Optimism is also growing about the policies of Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who took office last week. He has promised to encourage growth in the local stock market.

Stocks have soared higher since dropping roughly 20% below their record two months ago, when President Donald Trump shocked financial markets with his announcement of stiff tariffs that raised worries about a possible recession. Much of the rally has been due to hopes that Trump would lower his tariffs after reaching trade deals with countries around the world.

Analysts said that after two days of discussion in London, the late-night agreement reached appeared to be a consensus on what was already agreed upon before. Even so, Trump’s approval is still needed.

“So what did 48 hours of talks actually produce? Apparently, a reaffirmation to eventually do what they had already said they would do. If markets were expecting substance, they got process instead,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said Tuesday evening in London that talks with China were going “really, really well.” Both the United States and China have put many of their tariffs on each other’s exports on pause as talks continue.

However, uncertainty over what is to come is still affecting companies and their profit-making abilities.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil gained 24 cents to $65.22 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, edged up 17 cents to $67.045 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar rose to 145.11 Japanese yen from 144.84 yen. The euro cost $1.1420, down from $1.1425.

From the beginning of the American experiment, one of its animating principles has been limited government overseen by citizen legislators.

Contrast that with the “big, beautiful” spending bill being steered through Congress by today’s career politicians, who euphemistically refer to themselves as “public servants.” America’s founders would be appalled.

One of the qualities George Washington’s contemporaries most liked about him was that he was not eager for power. This led to his June 14, 1775, appointment 250 years ago as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

He did have extensive combat experience, but it was years earlier and primarily in the style of backwoodsmen, not the fixed-line combat Revolutionary fighters would face against the British. Moreover, Washington was a slaveholder, problematic in a revolution dedicated to freedom.

So, others were considered for the commander-in-chief position, many of whom had more recent and relevant combat experience, such as Massachusetts militia commander Artemus Ward, who became Washington’s second-in-command; British-born Horatio Gates, then living in Virginia, who subsequently served as the Continental Army’s adjutant general; Philip Schuyler from New York; and former British officer Charles Lee.

Among the many possible choices considered by the Continental Congress, Washington stood out because he embodied the kind of leadership the colonists sought.

What were they looking for? For somebody totally unlike today’s so-called leaders.

As the late historian David McCullough recounts in his extraordinary book on Washington and America’s founding, “1776,” Washington was initially reluctant to accept the position of commander. He didn’t lobby for the position, and, when appointed, declared that “I feel great distress from a consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not be up to the extensive and important trust.”

Lest this be taken as false modesty, McCullough quotes from a letter Washington wrote to his wife, Martha: “Far from seeking this appointment, I have used every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness to part with you and the family, but from a consciousness of it being a trust too great for my capacity.”

Washington had the requisite charisma and leadership abilities, but he was also chosen because he didn’t crave the job. As the oft-quoted theologian and author James Freeman Clarke is credited with saying, “A politician thinks of the next election, a statesman of the next generation.”

In a world of hereditary monarchies, there was a very real possibility at the time of America’s founding that whoever gained power would refuse to hand it over when the time came. History is full of such examples. Washington posed little such risk.

As early as the 1760s, the American revolutionaries had been drawing parallels between their fight for freedom and the Roman Republic.

During times of war, the Romans would appoint a “dictator” to lead their armies. Dictators had broad powers, but only for a limited time. This allowed them to address the crisis at hand but return to a government of checks and balances once the crisis had passed.

The most famous of these dictators was Cincinnatus, a farmer who was called to defend the Roman Republic in 458 B.C. After being summoned from his fields, he won a speedy victory, resigned, and returned to his plow.

Americans began comparing Washington to Cincinnatus early in the Revolutionary War, and he did not disappoint. With the Treaty of Paris and the end of the war in 1783, Washington resigned and returned to his farm at Mount Vernon, Virginia.

He would be called back again in 1789 to lead the United States as its first president. After serving two terms, he retired again, establishing a precedent of two terms.

The following six two-term presidents adhered to that precedent until Franklin D. Roosevelt not only served a third term but also won a fourth before dying less than three months in. (The 22nd Amendment, passed by Congress in 1947 and ratified in 1951, now limits presidents to two terms.)

The greatest threat to limited government is leaders who covet power, gain it, and are reluctant to cede it.

Washington’s greatness came not only from his essential contributions in office but also from the statesmanship he showed when it was time to step aside.

Frederic J. Fransen is president of Ameritas College Huntington (W.Va.) and CEO of Certell Inc. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

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When chef Carla Lalli Music recently made pasta with sausage and broccoli rabe for dinner, it came out too salty. Her error? She used oversalted pasta water to finish her sauce. “Sometimes it’s better not to use it,” she said, claiming that a splash of “regular old water” does the same trick.

Many a recipe writer and Italian cook has espoused the virtues of saving some starchy water before draining pasta to then toss with the noodles and sauce. That starch is said to help thicken a sauce so it can better coat pasta. But does it really make that much of a difference?

Even renowned cookbook author Marcella Hazan, in “Marcella Cucina,” writes that cooking with pasta water “imparts the same tedious, faintly gelatinous texture to what might otherwise have been fresh and lively sauces.” Use it “occasionally,” she advises.

Daniel M. Busiello, a physicist and researcher at the University of Padova, said over a teleconference call that the keys to a silky sauce are the relationships among starch, cheese and water. In April, Busiello, along with seven other Italian scientists, published the latest version of a paper on cacio e pepe, finding — after months of tests — that the concentration of starch relative to the amount of cheese and water is what directly affects the dish’s creaminess.

Here’s why: Starch prevents what the scientists coined as the “Mozzarella Phase,” or what happens when heat causes the proteins in cheese (casein and whey) to clump, creating a sauce that is wet and stringy like mozzarella, rather than smooth, creamy and emulsified. “The starch screens the interaction between proteins by basically putting itself in the middle,” to prevent that sticking, he said.

Stirring in plain water achieves the same saucy, glossy result as pasta water, so long as there is enough cheese and starch released from stirring the pasta. But you’re boiling pasta and already have that water, so why not use it?

In this recipe, pasta water is made more useful as fresh green beans boiled with the pasta season the water with their gentle vegetal umami, while the quick sausage ragù simmers in another. In a dance of sorts between the two pans, the cooked beans and pasta are drained and added to the ragù. As a final step, a spritz of lemon juice and a generous splash of that savory green bean broth are stirred vigorously into the sauced pasta, along with Parmesan, helping to draw out the pasta’s starch while letting the cheese melt into the sauce without splitting.

A short pasta shape, such as orecchiette, macaroni or wagon wheels, is the easiest to stir into a silky sauce here — and means that you can eat the dish with a spoon in front of the television. Just be sure not to oversalt your water — you’re going to need it.

Pasta With Green Bean Ragù

This spoonable pasta, the result of smart home cooking, is a dance of sorts between two pots: Fresh green beans boil with the pasta in one pot to season the water with their gentle vegetal umami, while the quick sausage ragù simmers in another. That green-bean broth gets incorporated into the final dish, a rich, melting mix of Italian sausage, fennel seeds and crushed red pepper. A squeeze of lemon and a generous grating of Parmesan bring it all together.

By Eric Kim

Yield: 4 servings

Total time: 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 ounces green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
8 ounces hot or sweet Italian sausage links, casings removed
1 teaspoon fennel or cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 lemon, halved
1 pound short pasta, such as orecchiette, macaroni or wagon wheels
3 ounces grated Parmesan (about 3/4 cup), plus more for serving

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook, adjusting the heat as needed to maintain a simmer, as you cook the sauce. (Don’t worry about overcooking the beans; they can simmer for 10 to 30 minutes total.)

2. While the beans simmer, heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium. Add the onion and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft and translucent, about 3 minutes.

3. Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and stirring occasionally, until well browned and starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, about 7 minutes.

4. Reduce the heat to low. Stir in the fennel seeds and red pepper and cook until fragrant, just a few seconds.

5. Add the juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 cup of the cooking water from the green bean pot. Raise the heat if needed to simmer, stirring constantly, until the ragù is glossy, about 5 minutes. Add more water from the pot if necessary; the ragù should be saucy like gravy. Keep warm over very low heat.

6. Add the pasta to the saucepan with the green beans and cook according to package instructions. Reserve 2 cups of the cooking water. Drain the pasta and green beans and transfer to the Dutch oven with the ragù. Add the Parmesan and 1 cup of the reserved cooking water, stirring vigorously, until the pasta is saucy and shiny and lightly coated with sauce. If needed, stir in more water, a little at a time. Taste and add more salt, pepper, lemon juice and cheese as desired.

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