Trump starts his foreign trip with a crush of problems — and outsized certainty he has the answers

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump set out on a three-nation visit to the Middle East on Monday, a trip he had originally intended to use to focus on his efforts to press wealthy Gulf nations to pour billions in new investment into the United States.

But now Trump finds himself navigating a series of geopolitical crises — and searching for glimmers of hope in the deep well of global turmoil — that are casting greater import on the first extended overseas trip of his second term.

“This world is a lot safer today than it was a week ago,” Trump crowed to reporters as he sized up the foreign policy challenges he's facing as he heads to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. “And a lot safer than it was six months ago.”

The president was brimming with an overabundance of confidence about some of the world’s most intractable problems, from tensions in South Asia to the future of sanctions in Syria to the war in Ukraine.

But behind closed doors, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, and Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed will be looking to get a bead on how Trump intends to push ahead on resolving the war in Gaza, dealing with Iran's rapidly progressing nuclear program and addressing India-Pakistan tensions.

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What's next with Trump's trade war truce with China

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s agreement with China to temporarily slash tariffs for 90 days offered the world a bit of welcome relief. But what persists is a sense of uncertainty and the possibility that some damage from the trade war could already be done.

The Trump administration agreed after talks this weekend in Switzerland to pare back its 145% in tariffs charged on imports from China to 30%. The Chinese government chose to reduce its retaliatory import taxes on U.S. goods from 125% to 10% while the sides continue to negotiate.

Trump declared the de-escalation of the trade war a victory, saying he would soon chat with Chinese President Xi Jinping about how to preserve the financial relationship between the world's two largest economies.

Regardless, the tariffs are now elevated from when Trump took office and the scramble to respond to the White House's mix of threats and olive branches might leave CEOs, investors and consumers uneasy and unwilling to take risks.

The global economy is not going to back to January 19, 2025, the day before Trump became president. Even if he routinely changes the tariff rates, the U.S. president and his aides have made it clear that most imports will be taxed at a minimum of roughly 10%.

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Hamas releases Israeli-American hostage in goodwill gesture toward Trump administration

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas on Monday released an Israeli-American soldier who had been held hostage in Gaza for more than 19 months, offering a goodwill gesture toward the Trump administration that could lay the groundwork for a new ceasefire with Israel.

Edan Alexander, 21, was the first hostage released since Israel shattered an eight-week ceasefire with Hamas in March and unleashed fierce strikes on Gaza that have killed hundreds of Palestinians.

He was handed over to the Red Cross and then to Israeli forces before being flown by helicopter to a hospital in Tel Aviv. Israeli authorities released video and photos showing a pale but smiling Alexander in an emotional reunion with his mother and other family members.

Israel has promised to intensify its offensive, including by seizing Gaza and displacing much of the territory's population again. Days before the ceasefire ended, Israel blocked all imports from entering the Palestinian enclave, deepening a humanitarian crisis and sparking warnings about the risk of famine if the blockade isn’t lifted. Israel says the steps are meant to pressure Hamas to accept a ceasefire agreement on Israel’s terms.

Wearing shirts emblazoned with his name, Alexander's extended family gathered in Tel Aviv to watch the release. They chanted his name when the military said he was free, while in the city's Hostage Square, hundreds of people broke out into cheers.

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Who is Edan Alexander, the Israeli-American hostage released by Hamas?

JERUSALEM (AP) — Edan Alexander was 19 when Hamas militants stormed the Israeli military base where the American-Israeli from New Jersey was a soldier and dragged him into the Gaza Strip.

Hamas released Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, on Monday ahead of President Donald Trump's visit to the region this week. The militant group called it a goodwill gesture aimed at reviving mediated efforts to end the 19-month war.

Alexander was among 251 people taken hostage in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. Fifty-eight remain in Gaza. Around a third are believed to be alive. Most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

After Hamas announced on Sunday he would be released, Alexander's family said it “received the greatest gift imaginable — news that our beautiful son Edan is returning home after 583 days in captivity in Gaza.”

Alexander’s parents flew to Israel on Monday. Trump’s hostage negotiator, Adam Boehler, posted a picture on social media showing Alexander's mother, Yael, aboard the flight.

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More than 100 killed in jihadi attack in northern Burkina Faso

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — An attack by a jihadi group in northern Burkina Faso killed more than 100 people, mostly soldiers, an aid worker and local residents said Monday.

The attack on several locations, including a military base and the long besieged strategic town of Djibo, occurred early Sunday, said an aid worker actively involved in dialogues in Burkina Faso’s hard-hit communities. A student from the area said her father was among those killed.

Both individuals spoke to The Associated Press on Monday on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals.

A jihadi group aligned with Al-Qaida known as Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, which is active in the Sahel region, claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack.

Run by a military junta, the landlocked nation of 23 million has been among the worst hit by the security crisis in Africa’s Sahel region, known as the global hot spot for violent extremism. About half of Burkina Faso is outside of government control as a result of the violence that contributed to two coups in 2022. Government security forces have also been accused of extrajudicial killings.

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Trump’s mediation offer renews focus on Kashmir after India-Pakistan clash risked broader war

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — A series of military strikes last week by India and Pakistan brought the nuclear-armed rivals closer to a broader war. The possibility of a nuclear conflagration seemed real and the fighting only stopped when global powers intervened.

Experts say the crisis deepened the neighbors' rivalry as both crossed a threshold with each striking the other with high-speed missiles and drones. The tit-for-tat strikes also brought Kashmir again into global focus, as the U.S. President Donald Trump offered mediation over the simmering dispute that has long been described as the regional nuclear flashpoint.

Paul Staniland, South Asia expert and a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, said the four days of fighting shows that “India now feels substantial space to directly target Pakistan, as well as that Pakistan is willing to escalate in response.”

Unlike in past years, when fighting was largely limited to Kashmir, the two armies last week fired missiles and drones at each other’s military installations deep inside their cities and exchanged gunfire and heavy artillery along their frontier in Kashmir.

Dozens of people were killed on both sides. Each claimed it inflicted heavy damage on the other and said its strikes met the country’s objectives.

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Defense concedes Sean 'Diddy' Combs had violent outbursts, but say no federal crimes occurred

NEW YORK (AP) — The public knew Sean “Diddy” Combs as a larger-than-life music and business mogul, but in private he used violence and threats to coerce women into drug-fueled sexual encounters that he recorded, a prosecutor said Monday in opening statements at Combs' sex trafficking trial.

“This is Sean Combs,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told the jury, pointing at Combs, who leaned back in his chair in a Manhattan courtroom. ”During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes."

Those crimes, she said, included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.

Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos, though, described the closely watched trial as a misguided overreach by prosecutors, saying that although her client could be violent, the government was trying to turn sex between consenting adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case. The judge said he expects the trial to take eight weeks.

“Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” Geragos told the jury of eight men and four women. “There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year. It is time to cancel that noise.”

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Trump administration welcomes 59 white South Africans as refugees

DULLES, Virginia (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday welcomed a group of 59 white South Africans as refugees, saying they face discrimination and violence at home, which the country's government strongly denies.

The decision to admit the Afrikaners also has raised questions from refugee advocates about why they were admitted when the Trump administration has suspended efforts to resettle people fleeing war and persecution who have gone through years of vetting.

Many in the group from South Africa — including toddlers and other small children, even one walking barefoot in pajamas — held small American flags as two officials welcomed them to the United States in an airport hangar outside Washington. The South Africans were then leaving on other flights to various U.S. destinations.

A group of 49 Afrikaners had been expected, but the State Department said Monday that 59 had arrived.

“I want you all to know that you are really welcome here and that we respect what you have had to deal with these last few years," Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said.

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Judge refuses to block IRS from sharing tax data to identify and deport people illegally in U.S.

A federal judge on Monday refused to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S.

In a win for the Trump administration, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by nonprofit groups. They argued that undocumented immigrants who pay taxes are entitled to the same privacy protections as U.S. citizens and immigrants who are legally in the country.

Friedrich, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, had previously refused to grant a temporary order in the case.

The decision comes less than a month after former acting IRS commissioner Melanie Krause resigned over the deal allowing ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records.

“The plaintiffs are disappointed in the Court’s denial of our preliminary injunction, but the case is far from over. We are considering our options,” Alan Butler Morrison, the attorney representing the nonprofit groups, wrote in an email. He noted that the judge’s ruling made it clear that the Department of Homeland Security and the IRS can’t venture beyond the strict limitations spelled out in the case.

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Trump's plan to accept free Air Force One replacement from Qatar raises ethical and security worries

WASHINGTON (AP) — For President Donald Trump, accepting a free Air Force One replacement from Qatar is a no-brainer.

“I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,” the Republican told reporters on Monday. “I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’”

Critics of the plan worry that the move threatens to turn a global symbol of American power into an airborne collection of ethical, legal, security and counterintelligence concerns.

“This is unprecedented," said Jessica Levinson, a constitutional law expert at Loyola Law School. "We just haven’t tested these boundaries before.”

Trump tried to tamp down some of the opposition by saying he wouldn't fly around in the gifted Boeing 747 when his term ends. Instead, he said, the $400 million plane would be donated to a future presidential library, similar to how the Boeing 707 used by President Ronald Reagan was decommissioned and put on display as a museum piece.

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