Trump news at a glance: Musk is denied look at China war plans and more visitors are refused entry to US

Musk has China conflict of interest, says Trump

Donald Trump said on Friday that plans for possible war with China should not be shared with Elon Musk because of his business interests, a rare admission that the billionaire faces conflicts of interests in his role as a senior adviser to the US president.

Trump rejected reports that Musk would be briefed on how the United States would fight a hypothetical war with China, saying: “Elon has businesses in China. And he would be susceptible, perhaps, to that.”

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UK punk band denied US entry

Members of a British punk rock band said they were denied entry and detained in the US. UK Subs bassist Alvin Gibbs, and bandmates Marc Carrey and Stefan Häublein, were deported back to the UK following their detention. Only vocalist Charlie Harper had been allowed entry. Harper ended up playing the band’s scheduled show in Los Angeles with a group of stand-in musicians.

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Anger at US blocking Canadian access to cross-border library

The US has blocked Canadian access to a library straddling the Canada-US border, drawing criticism from a Quebec town where people have long enjoyed easy entry to the space.

The entrance to the Haskell Free Library and Opera House is located between Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont, with an electrical tape marking the border line. The library’s entrance is on the Vermont side and Canadian visitors could previously enter using the sidewalk and entrance on the American side. Now they have to go through a formal border crossing.

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Columbia University caves to Trump demands to restore $400m

Columbia University has yielded to a series of changes demanded by the Trump administration as a pre-condition for restoring $400m in federal funding the government pulled this month amid allegations that the school tolerated antisemitism on campus.

Among the most contentious of the nine demands, Columbia agreed to place its Middle Eastern, south Asian and African studies department under a new official, a memo said, taking control away from its faculty. “In this role, the senior vice-provost will review the educational programs to ensure the educational offerings are comprehensive and balanced,” the memo read, explaining that the review would start with the Center for Palestine Studies; the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies; the Middle East Institute; and other university programs focused on the Middle East.

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Trump says Boeing will build new US fighter jets

Donald Trump on Friday awarded Boeing the contract to build the US air force’s most sophisticated fighter jet, handing the company a much-needed win. Trump, the 47th US president, announced the airline had beaten out Lockheed Martin for the deal and added that the new jet will be called the F-47.

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Teachers to sue Trump over education order

Teachers unions and Democratic politicians joined in denouncing Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at eliminating the US Department of Education, with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) saying simply: “See you in court.”

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530,000 people will have legal US status revoked

Trump officials will revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the United States, according to a Federal Register notice on Friday, in the latest expansion of his crackdown on immigration. It will be effective 24 April.

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What else happened today:

• The Trump administration will reportedly fire almost all employees at the homeland security department’s civil rights office, in a move that will undermine its ability to provide oversight as he implements hardline immigration policies.

• The US president signalled flexibility on new tariffs, due to come in on 2 April. Without giving further details, Trump said: “The word flexibility is an important word. Sometimes there’s flexibility, so there’ll be flexibility.”

• Trump also partook in some royal intrigue with a social media post declaring his love for Britain’s King Charles and saying he would welcome a reported “secret offer” billed as easing tensions with Canada.