Trump news at a glance: Plan to accept luxury jet from Qatar draws criticism from allies and rivals

Trump indicates he is prepared to accept ‘palace in the sky’

The US president has long been unhappy with the Air Force One jets and reportedly toured the Qatari-owned jet in February when it was parked at the Palm Beach International Airport.

A Qatari spokesperson it was “inaccurate” to say that the plane would be given “during the upcoming visit of president Trump”, but on Sunday evening Trump appeared to confirm the proposal in a post on social media.

According to ABC’s sources, Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, and his top White House lawyer, David Warrington, have pre-emptively concluded that it is “legally permissible” for Trump to accept the luxury gift and then transfer it over to his presidential library.

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White House claims China trade deal reached

The White House has announced that a trade deal with China has been struck after two days of talks in Geneva, while Beijing has hailed “important first steps.”

The announcement on Sunday came after the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, told reporters that there had been “substantial progress” in talks between his team and that of the Chinese vice-premier, He Lifeng, in Geneva on defusing the trade war between the world’s two largest economies sparked by Donald Trump’s 145% tariffs.

At a news conference later on Sunday, He, the top Chinese trade official, called the talks “candid” and said substantive progress had been made to reach an “important consensus”, according to China’s state-run media. The two sides will issue a joint statement agreed during the talks on Monday, the vice-premier said.

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Hamas says it will release last living American hostage in Gaza

Hamas announced on Sunday that it will release the last living American hostage in Gaza, Edan Alexander, an Israeli-American soldier who was kidnapped on 7 October 2023.

Trump confirmed the news in a social media post, writing that Alexander, 21, “is coming home to his family”, while thanking mediators Qatar and Egypt.

Alexander’s release is set to take place on Tuesday, Reuters reports, citing a source familiar with the matter. Trump begins a trip to the Middle East the same day, although there is no stop in Israel on his schedule as of yet. The president is set to visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

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White South Africans depart for US after being offered refugee status

A group of 49 white South Africans departed their homeland on Sunday for the United States on a private charter plane having been offered refugee status by the Trump administration under a new program announced in February.

They are the first Afrikaners – a white minority group in South Africa – to be relocated after Trump issued an executive order in February accusing South Africa’s Black-led government of racial discrimination against them. The South African government said it is “completely false” that Afrikaners are being persecuted.

The Trump administration has fast-tracked their applications while pausing other refugee programs, halting arrivals from Afghanistan, Iraq, most of sub-Saharan Africa and other countries in a move being challenged in court.

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Trump health cuts create ‘real danger’ around disease outbreaks, workers warn

Mass terminations and billions of dollars’ worth of cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have gutted key programs – from child support services to HIV treatment abroad – and created a “real danger” that disease outbreaks will be missed, according to former workers.

Workers at the HHS, now led by Robert F Kennedy Jr, and in public health warned in interviews that chaotic, flawed and sweeping reductions would have broad, negative effects across the US and beyond.

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What else happened today:

• The US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, plans to reduce the number of flights in and out of the Newark Liberty international airport for the “several weeks”, as the facility – one of the country’s busiest airports – struggles with radar outages, numerous flight delays and cancellations due to a shortage of air traffic controllers.

• A group of Quakers were marching more than 300 miles from New York City to Washington DC to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants. Organisers of the march say their protest seeks to show solidarity with migrants and other groups that are being targeted by Trump.

• Trump said on Sunday he would sign an executive order to cut prescription prices to the level paid by other high-income countries, an amount he put at 30% to 80% less. The White House did not immediately offer more details on how the plan would work.