deal

Rams running back Kyren Williams is waiting patiently.

During the offseason, the team solidified its offense by re-signing left tackle Alaric Jackson and receiver Tutu Atwell, adding free-agent receiver Davante Adams and offensive lineman Coleman Shelton and adjusting the contract of quarterback Matthew Stafford.

Williams, who rushed for more than 1,100 yards in each of the last two seasons, is entering the final year of his rookie contract and is eligible for an extension.

In April, the Rams and Williams’ agent exchanged proposed contract terms. But with organized team activities scheduled to begin next week, a deal has not been done.

Still, Williams said he was “feeling good” about the situation.

“I know with time it’s going to happen,” Williams said last week in Pasadena, where he helped distribute new shoes to kids affected by the Eaton Fire.

And if Williams and the Rams do not reach a deal before the season?

“I would love for it to get done so I can take care of my family and the loved ones that helped me get here,” he said. “I’ve always got trust in God. Whether it happens now or I play out the season, I know it’s going to happen eventually.

“And so, time will tell. I just know I’ve got to do what I need to do each and every single day to make sure that it does happen in my favor.”

Rams running back Kyren Williams, second from right, helped distribute new shoes to kids affected by Eaton fire last week in a joint effort between the Seattle Seahawks and Rams.

(Gary Klein / Los Angeles Times)

Williams, a 2022 fifth-round draft pick from Notre Dame, was slowed by injuries much of his rookie season. But in 12 games in 2023, he rushed for 1,144 yards, scored 15 touchdowns and was voted to the Pro Bowl. In 16 games last season, he rushed for 1,299 yards and scored 16 touchdowns and helped the Rams advance to the NFC divisional round.

Williams, 24, leads a Rams running back corps that includes second-year pro Blake Corum, Ronnie Rivers, Cody Schrader and rookie Jarquez Hunter, a fourth-round draft pick from Auburn.

Williams is scheduled to earn about $5.4 million this season, according to Overthecap.com. The Rams have not given a running back a top-level extension since they awarded Todd Gurley a then-record deal before the 2018 season.

General manager Les Snead has said that Rams would “definitely like to engineer a long-term partnership,” with Williams. Coach Sean McVay said in April that “bridging that gap” financially was the challenge.

“We’ll see how far that we have to go with that but he is a very important part of what we want to be moving forward,” McVay said, adding, “He knows how much I love him, and so we’ll see if we can get something done.”

In the meantime, Williams is preparing for the season — and continuing to contribute off the field with actions consistent with those that made him the Rams’ nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award last season.

Williams directed his $25,000 from the NFL Foundation to the LAFD Foundation to help with fire relief efforts, said Molly Higgins, the Rams’ executive vice president of community impact and engagement.

“He’s been very vocal in saying, ‘However I can help with the fire-impacted families, let me know,’” Higgins said.

So when the Seattle Seahawks reached out to the Rams offering to combine forces to distribute sneakers to needy kids affected by the fires, Williams signed on to assist team mascots and several former Seahawks players at the Boys & Girls Club of Pasadena.

“I couldn’t imagine what these young kids and their families went through when they lost their houses and things due to the fire so just being able to be here — this is a blessing,” Williams said.

As his contract situation plays out, the work on and off the field will continue, Williams said.

“My only purpose is to continue to get better,” he said, “and finding joy in each and every single day and finding something to get better at.”

Derek McInnes has been confirmed as the new head coach of Heart of Midlothian on a four-year contract.

The 53-year-old leaves Scottish Premiership rivals Kilmarnock and succeeds Neil Critchley, who was sacked in late April after just six months in charge.

Coaches Paul Sheerin and Alan Archibald will follow McInnes from Rugby Park to Tynecastle.

McInnes had been in charge at Kilmarnock since 2022 and last season guided the Ayrshire side into Europe by finishing fourth.

His managerial career began when he took St Johnstone into the top flight in 2009 and, after a brief stint at Bristol City, he had eight years in Aberdeen, with whom he never finished lower than fourth and won the League Cup in 2014.

McInnes left Pittodrie in 2021 and took charge of Kilmarnock the following January, leading them to promotion to the Premiership.

His spell in Ayrshire ended with his side finishing in ninth, two places below Hearts.

Kilmarnock lost 1-0 to Hearts at Rugby Park on Sunday, with McInnes absent from the home dugout after a compensation deal was agreed between the clubs.

BRITS heading to Europe could soon find it much easier thanks to new plans allowing holidaymakers to use airport e-gates.

Since the UK left the EU, British tourists have faced huge queues at the airport across Europe after being forced to use the standard passport gates.

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However, the UK government has revealed plans of a deal that would allow UK holidaymakers to use the much faster e-gates when visiting Europe.

The talks, part of the UK-EU summit taking place today, suggest Brits would join other EU tourists in the shorter queues, The Guardian reports.

EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said he backed the potential rule change.

He told Sky News: “I would love to see you being able to go through the border more quickly in that way.

“That’s certainly something we’ve been pushing with the EU and I think that will be something that will be very helpful to British people.

“I think we can all agree that not being stuck in queues and having more time to spend, whether it’s on holiday or work trips, having more time to do what you want, would be a very sensible objective.”

Plans to allow Brits to use e-gates in European countries were put forward back in 2023 by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak although never came into fruition.

Last summer, some Brits even missed their flights when travelling through Spain due to long passport queues while waiting to get them stamped.

Another Brit wrote on Tripadvisor: “My lunchtime arrival at Oslo left me with an hour and a half wait to get through manual passport control.”

Another agreed: “The queue was horrendous, people couldn’t even get into the passport hall. Took just over 90 minutes to get through.”

However, the new rules could cause problems with passport stamping, which is still required from Brits entering and exiting Europe.

This is because of the new rules which only allow Brits to visit for 90 days in an 180 day period.

Anyone without an outgoing stamp could be mistakenly seen to have overstayed in Europe and even be banned from entering – which happened to a British tourist in Majorca back in 2022.

But it comes ahead of the constantly-delayed Entry/Exit System (EES) which will scrap the need for passport stamping entirely.

First announced in 2016, it finally hopes to be rolled out from October this year.

Instead of manual passport stamping, new biometric checks will take place instead.

And next year will see the roll out of the ETIAS – a visa waiver that Brits will need to visit Europe.

Costing around €7 and lasting three years, it will be similar to the current ESTA Brits need when visiting the US.

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May 18 (UPI) — The United States may impose regional tariffs rather than issue blanket ones as a deadline approaches for racing a global plan, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday.

The Trump administration originally said it would impose 90 deals in 90 days, but has backed down recently, acknowledging the complexities of negotiating trade pacts with dozens of countries on a compressed timeline, despite stepped-up efforts, President Donald Trump said during his recent trip to the Middle East.

“But it’s not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us,” Trump explained.

Trump said while in the Middle East that he and Commerce Secretary Scott Lutnick would begin advising some countries on U.S. plans for tariffs in the next two to three weeks.

During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Bessent said the United States will focus on a short list of countries in its initial round of tariffs.

“My other sense is that we will do a lot of regional deals,” Bessent said. “This is the rate for Central America, this is the rate for this part of Africa, but what we are focused on right now is the 18 important trading relationships.”

Following a move by Moody’s Ratings last week to downgrade the United States’ credit rating, Bessent called the service a “lagging indicator” during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“I think that’s what everyone thinks of credit agencies,” he said, and asserted that the credit downgrade was in response to Biden fiscal policies.

In response to concerns about tariff costs being passed on to consumers, Trump has said large merchants like WalMart, which imports a significant amount of its merchandise from China, should instead absorb the price increases.

Bessent said Sunday that WalMart CEO Doug McMillion told him that the retail giant would “eat some of the tariffs” as it had done in previous years.

Bessent did not offer a specific date for the tariff imposition.

During the programme’s original run on Channel 4 from 2005 to 2016, the executive producer and the banker turned out to be the same person

The identity of Deal or No Deal’s mystery banker was a secret for many years before it was revealed that they were actually a huge Coronation Street star. During the programme’s original run on Channel 4 from 2005 to 2016, the executive producer and the banker turned out to be the same person.

Deal or No Deal’s banker turned out to be Glenn Hugill, who is best known for his role as Alan McKenna on Coronation Street from 1996 to 1997. The star appeared in 86 episodes of the show as he took on the role of detective Alan, who dated Fiona Middleton and was meant to marry her.

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However, their wedding ceremony was called off when Jim McDonald revealed his affair with Fiona, and Alan soon departed the cobbles. The actor also appeared in shows like Dalziel and Pascoe, The Upper Hand and Chandler & Co. In 2001, he took on a presenter role for the 2001 series The Mole.

In early 2023, Glenn sold his production company, Possessed, to ITV and became C.C.O. of Wheelhouse, the media empire founded by American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. He was previously the managing director of the company, which quickly became one of the most successful production companies in the UK.

When he was 10 years old, Glenn scored a 207 in a national IQ test designed for under 16s, which was the highest recorded result in the country.

Local newspaper The Northern Echo once reported he took another test made for adults and recorded a result of 177, the highest score the test was capable of registering.

Glenn is said to have held the role of banker on Deal or No Deal for a decade, but it isn’t known who replaced him for the new ITV version hosted by Stephen Mulhern.

Stephen previously said: “I don’t know who the Banker is. So I wouldn’t be able to recognise who it was. So, he could walk past me at any point.”

The voice on the phone is “male” but Stephen added: “Supposedly, he goes into the hotel and listens to the contestants and what they’re up to. So when he comes on the phone to me, I’ve got to repeat what he says.

“So, he’ll say, ‘Just tell them blah, blah, blah, blah, blah’. But he gives him nicknames. So like, ‘Two Wine Wendy,’ because she’s always having an extra wine. It’s quite creepy.

“That first time the phone rang, it was like, ‘What’s he going to sound like? What’s he going to be like?’ But he takes no prisoners. There’s one contestant in particular who has a really bad ride and a really bad time, and at the end of it, the contestant is nearly in tears, and the phone rings.

“I’m thinking ‘Okay, he’s going to at least console a tiny bit’. And he went, ‘Just tell him it’s not a pity party. Let’s crack on with tomorrow,’ and put the phone down.”

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The WRU had continually insisted maintaining four professional sides on an equal footing was at the heart of its long-term strategy that was launched in 2024.

The governing body say that was their preference from the outset, but the system will not return to the model “given seismic changes in the rugby landscape”.

The WRU now says it has taken “the difficult but necessary decision” to issue the formal two-year notice to terminate the current PRA agreement, in particular, to proceed with its debt refinancing with its bank, NatWest.

They say it was not a decision that was taken lightly, however “given the WRU’s duties to the game in Wales as a whole, the broader performance, financial and strategic needs of the game must take precedence”.

“When I announced the headline strategy back in July 2024, I said one thing is for certain, given the challenges facing rugby in Wales and globally, there will be times when we need to adjust our course,” said Tierney.

“We must seize this opportunity. Our continued aim is to build a resilient and world-class structure that will support Welsh rugby’s next generation and beyond.”

The Professional Rugby Board (PRB) is the organisation set up to represent the four professional sides and the WRU.

“The next phase of consultation, as always, will be conducted with the best interests of the whole of Welsh rugby at its heart,” said PRB chair Malcolm Wall, who is also a WRU board member.

Verizon Communications Inc. won Federal Communications Commission approval for its $9.6-billion acquisition of Frontier Communications Parent Inc. after agreeing to agency demands to pare back diversity initiatives in line with President Donald Trump’s policies.

The deal “will unleash billions of dollars in new infrastructure builds in communities across the country — including rural America,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement Friday. “This investment will accelerate the transition away from old, copper line networks to modern, high-speed ones.”

The transaction values the Dallas-based company at $20 billion when including debt.

The approval marks one of the first deals to get the green light under Carr, who had threatened to block mergers unless companies rolled back what he called “invidious” diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

Carr sent a letter to Verizon in February warning the company that its DEI efforts run afoul of Trump administration directives. Carr told the New York-based telecom carrier to end its promotion of DEI in corporate values and training materials.

Trump has been pushing to root out such policies from the federal government, corporate America and beyond, issuing executive orders banning the practices and asking agency heads to identify targets, including listed companies, to investigate for “illegal DEI” efforts.

Verizon committed to ending some practices and has reaffirmed a commitment to equal opportunity and nondiscrimination, the FCC said in its statement. “This will ensure that the combined business will enact policies and practices consistent with the law and the public interest.”

The FCC approval paves the way for the biggest U.S. phone company to expand its high-speed internet business. It will allow Verizon to upgrade and expand Frontier’s existing network in 25 states, according to the FCC.

Telecommunications companies like Verizon have been bulking up on fiber-optic assets to add capacity for customers’ surging data use. The flow of data is expected to increase further as more companies adopt artificial intelligence.

The deal combines Frontier’s fiber network with Verizon’s portfolio of fiber and wireless assets, including its Fios offering. It also brings back some assets that Verizon sold to Frontier in 2015 for $10.54 billion.

Frontier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 after years of losses in its wire-line telecom business led to ballooning debt. It emerged from bankruptcy the following year and focused on building out its fiber network to better compete against cable and wireless companies.

Over about the last four years, Frontier has invested $4.1 billion upgrading its network and replacing antiquated copper lines. Now, the company derives more than half of its revenue from fiber products.

Following the transaction, Verizon expects to deploy fiber to 1 million or more U.S. homes annually, according to the FCC statement.

Griffis writes for Bloomberg.

SUPERMARKETS have told The Sun they have no plans to sell American beef, upping the stakes for politicians thrashing out the details of a UK-US trade deal.

Donald Trump and Keir Starmer announced the outline of an agreement last week that would allow up to 13,000 tons of US beef to be imported here tariff-free.

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That is the equivalent of one medium steak per Brit per year.

Currently the UK imports just £24million worth of beef a year, but Trump’s team have called the deal a $5billion opportunity.

However, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Lidl, Aldi, Iceland and The Co-op all said they have no plan to switch from UK and Irish farmers.

And the Government has said that imports of hormone-treated beef or chlorinated chicken will remain illegal.

Tesco boss Ken Murphy said this week that he had no plan to sell US beef.

He said: “We source 100 per cent Irish and British and for the foreseeable future that policy will be the same.”

Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons also said they don’t intend to change supply or animal welfare and food standards.

Budget pair Lidl and Aldi are also not budging on beef.

Aldi chief exec Giles Hurley said: “British farming is known for its high welfare, food safety and environmental standards — and we know how important that is to our customers.”

Iceland boss Richard Walker said there was no appetite for US beef from customers or supermarket suppliers.

He said: “Consensus is that even at a ten per cent tariff it’s a very price prohibitive option.”

The Co-op’s Matt Hood said: “We’re a long-term supporter of British farming, and the first national UK grocer to switch to 100 per cent British fresh and frozen own brand protein.”

The National Farmers Union said: “It’s brilliant to see supermarkets championing British beef. Consumers value its high standards in animal welfare.”

A government spokesman said: “This is a great deal as we have opened access to a huge American market, without weakening UK food standards on imports.”

Butty giant spreading

GREENCORE, the UK’s biggest sandwiches maker, announced it has agreed a £1.2billion takeover of rival Bakkavor to create a food-to-go giant.

It will see £4billion of revenues generated from selling pizzas, soups, salads and sushi to almost all of Britain’s supermarkets.

But workers fear job cuts after the firms said they would save at least £80million in costs a year after the deal.

GMB union national officer Eamon O’Hearn said: “The likelihood of site closures and drop in headcount confirms our worst fears — that hard-working production staff will be facing job losses.”

ITV’s not love sick with US

LOVE Island broadcaster ITV yesterday shrugged off any US tariff concerns as bosses highlighted its Studios arm made TV shows, not films.

President Trump has spooked Britain’s creative industry by slapping 100 per cent tariffs on movies “produced in foreign lands”.

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ITV yesterday said it did not “anticipate any direct impact”.

It came as the company toasted a return to growth for the Studios business, with ­revenue up one per cent at £386million after years of ­disruption from the Hollywood writers’ strike.

Speculation about a takeover of ITV or the Studios business continues to run rife, but insiders downplayed rumours.

The broadcaster, fresh from winning a Bafta for Mr Bates vs The Post Office, expects advertising revenue to be lower than last year, when companies spent big on ads during the Euros footie tournament.

Covid fraud axe

MINISTERS have scrapped a Covid fraud recovery unit and transferred investigations to the Insolvency Service — after realising even more taxpayer cash was being wasted.

Around £47billion was paid to firms as bounceback loans but there had been more than 100,000 cases of fraud and error.

The National Investigation Service received £38.5million in state funding but has secured just 14 convictions.

Trade minister Gareth Thomas said transferring the probes would “remove unnecessary waste and inefficiency”.

B&M goes Dutch

DISCOUNT chain B&M has hired a Dutch former Tesco executive in the latest sign of FTSE firms looking abroad for leadership.

Tjeerd Jegen, who recently led Europe’s biggest ebike maker Accell Group, has also worked at German clothing chain Takko Fashion and Dutch retailer Hema.

He led Tesco’s Malaysian business in 2010 and was its chief operating officer in Thailand before that.

B&M pushed out ex-boss Alex Russo after two profit warnings in as many months.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — President Trump said Thursday that the United States and Iran have “sort of” agreed to terms on a nuclear deal, offering a measure of confidence that an accord is coming into sharper focus.

Trump, in an exchange with reporters at a business roundtable in Doha, Qatar, described talks between American envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as “very serious negotiations” for long-term peace and said they were continuing to progress.

Still, throughout his four-day visit to the Gulf this week, the president has underscored that military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities remains a possibility if the talks derail.

“Iran has sort of agreed to the terms: They’re not going to make, I call it, in a friendly way, nuclear dust,” Trump said at the business event. “We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran.”

Without offering detail, he signaled growing alignment with the terms that he has been seeking.

A top political, military and nuclear advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told NBC News on Wednesday that Tehran stands ready to get rid of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium that can be weaponized, agree to enrich uranium only to the lower levels needed for civilian use and allow international inspectors to supervise the process.

Ali Shamkhani added that in return, Iran wants an immediate lifting of all economic sanctions.

On Thursday, hours after Trump said the two sides were getting closer to a deal, Araghchi said Tehran’s ability to enrich uranium remained a core right of the Iranian people and a red line in nuclear talks.

“We have said repeatedly that defending Iran’s nuclear rights — including enrichment — is a fundamental principle,” the official said. “This is not something we concede, either in public discourse or in negotiations. It is a right that belongs to the Iranian people, and no one can take it away.”

Trump said his demands have been straightforward.

“They can’t have a nuclear weapon. That’s the only thing. It’s very simple,” Trump said. “It’s not like I have to give you 30 pages worth of details. It is only one sentence. They can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

But Trump on Wednesday suggested he was looking for Tehran to make other concessions as part of a potential agreement.

Iran “must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars and permanently and verifiably cease pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Trump said in remarks at a meeting in Saudi Arabia, the first stop on the Mideast trip.

Before moving on to the United Arab Emirates from Qatar on Thursday, Trump stopped at a U.S. military installation at the center of American involvement in the Middle East and spoke to U.S. troops. The Republican president has used his visit to Gulf states to reject the “interventionalism” of America’s past in the region.

Al-Udeid Air Base was a major staging ground during the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The base houses some 8,000 U.S. troops, down from about 10,000 at the height of those wars.

Trump told the troops that his “priority is to end conflicts, not start them.”

“But I will never hesitate to wield American power if it’s necessary to defend the United States of America or our partners,” he said.

Trump has held up Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar as models for economic development in a region plagued by conflict. He urged Qatari officials to use their influence to entice Iran to come to terms with his administration on a nuclear deal.

Trump later flew to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for the final leg of his trip. He visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the country’s largest mosque. The United Arab Emirates’ founder, Sheikh Zayed, is buried in the mosque’s main courtyard.

Trump took his shoes off, which is customary, as he stepped into the house of worship and spent time marveling at the architecture.

“It’s beautiful,” Trump said.

He later attended a state visit hosted by United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the Qasr Al Watan presidential palace. Trump and his delegation were greeted by children wearing traditional robes and waving small U.S. and United Arab Emirates flags, and they were guided through a space exhibit inside the palace.

Al Nahyan also presented Trump with the Order of Zayed, the United Arab Emirates’ highest civil decoration and credited Trump with building the two nations’ economic partnership to new heights.

“This partnership has taken a significant leap forward since you assumed office,” he told Trump.

As he made his way to Abu Dhabi on Thursday, Trump reminded reporters about President Biden’s 2022 fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a moment roundly criticized by human rights activists already upset by the Democrat’s decision to hold the meeting. Trump noted in contrast that while in Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week, he had shaken many hands.

“They were starving for love because our country didn’t give them love,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “They gave him a fist bump. Remember the fist bump in Saudi Arabia? He travels all the way to Saudi Arabia … and he gives him a fist bump. That’s not what they want. They don’t want a fist bump. They want to shake his hand.”

Miller and Madhani write for the Associated Press. Madhani reported from Dubai. AP writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran and Gabe Levin in Dubai contributed to this report.

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Boeing has secured a historic deal with Qatar Airways, as part of US President Donald Trump’s regional trade drive. Shares in the largest US aerospace manufacturer rose 2% to a 52-week high on Wednesday following the announcement.

During Trump’s visit to Qatar, the White House revealed that the US president had reached agreements totalling $243.5 billion (€209 bn) with the Gulf state. “The landmark deals celebrated today will drive innovation and prosperity for generations, bolster American manufacturing and technological leadership, and put America on the path to a new Golden Age,” stated the White House.

The deals include a $96bn (€85.8 bn) Boeing aircraft order from Qatar Airways, a record order for the US’s largest exporter.

Following a $600bn (€535bn) investment plan made with Saudi Arabia earlier this week, the US-Qatar agreements further strengthen Washington’s ties with the wealthy Gulf nations. President Trump is set to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later today, with speculation that further Boeing deals may be signed with Emirates, Qatar Airways’ larger regional competitor.

Largest ever Boeing order

Boeing announced that Qatar Airways would purchase 130 787 Dreamliners and 30 777X aircraft, calling the order “a record as the largest widebody order for Boeing, the largest order for 787 Dreamliners, and Qatar Airways’ largest-ever order.” The company claims the deal will support nearly 400,000 jobs in the US. President Trump attended the signing ceremony.

“After two consecutive years of record-breaking commercial performance, and with this historic Boeing aircraft order, we’re not simply chasing scale — we’re building strength that will allow us to continue delivering unmatched products and customer experiences,” said Qatar Airways CEO Engr. Badr Mohammed Al-Meer.

“We thank our Boeing partners for answering the call and look forward to a future of continued smart growth together. Our team is excited to build 787s and 777s for Qatar Airways into the next decade, as they connect more people and businesses around the world with unmatched efficiency and comfort.”

The deal is a major win for Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who accompanied Trump on the Middle East trip. On Tuesday, Boeing also secured a $4.8bn (€4.3 bn) agreement for 737-8 MAX jets with AviLease, a Saudi Arabia-based aircraft lessor.

Boeing’s 737 MAX passenger airliner had been grounded between 2019 and 2020, and again in 2024, due to ongoing safety and production concerns. The company has remained unprofitable since 2018, with its shares falling to a multi-year low in early April following Trump’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs.

Trump’s efforts to reduce reliance on China’s businesses

China halted orders from Boeing in late April in response to Trump’s tariffs. During an interview with CNBC last month, Ortberg indicated that aircraft initially built for Chinese buyers may be redirected to other customers later this year.

On Tuesday, Trump also finalised an $80bn (€71 bn) artificial intelligence investment plan with Saudi Arabia, which helped fuel rallies in Nvidia and other major tech stocks. Previously, US semiconductor shares had come under pressure amid the escalating US-China trade tensions.

The Trump administration rescinded the AI diffusion rule introduced by former President Joe Biden, which would have taken effect today. However, the Department of Justice said it would rewrite the export curbs on AI chip exports to China. On Wednesday, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced a 90-day suspension on export restrictions targeting 28 US companies, including rare earths and other critical materials, as part of a bilateral agreement reached after trade talks over the weekend.

State-owned airline Qatar Airways has signed an agreement to buy 210 aircraft from United States manufacturer Boeing, coinciding with President Donald Trump’s visit to Qatar as part of his tour of the Gulf region.

Trump and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, witnessed the signing ceremony in Doha on Wednesday. The White House said that the deal for the Boeing 777X and 787 planes with GE Aerospace engines was worth $96bn.

Trump said Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who signed the deal with Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al Meer next to Trump and the emir, told him: “It’s the largest order of jets in the history of Boeing. That’s good.”

Trump had initially said that the deal was worth more than $200bn and was for 160 planes, before the White House issued updated numbers after his comments.

The White House also said that agreements signed by the US and Qatar would “generate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion”.

“This is a critical next step for Qatar Airways on our path as we invest in the cleanest, youngest and most efficient fleet in global aviation,” Qatar Airways Group CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer said in a statement.

“After two consecutive years of record-breaking commercial performance and with this historic Boeing aircraft order – we’re not simply chasing scale; we’re building strength that will allow us to continue to deliver our unmatched products and customer experiences.”

The sale is also a boost for Boeing and its biggest engine supplier at a time when large versions of rival Airbus’ A350, powered by Rolls-Royce engines, have struggled with maintenance problems from operating in the world’s hottest climates, including the Gulf region.

Boeing shares rose 0.9 percent in New York, while GE Aerospace stock edged up 0.1 percent.

For the 787s, Qatar opted for GE Aerospace’s GEnx engines rather than Rolls-Royce’s Trent 1000, according to the administration. GE Aerospace’s GE9X is the only engine option for the 777X.

It is the largest widebody engine deal for GE Aerospace, the company’s CEO Larry Culp said in a statement.

Faisal al-Mudahka, editor-in-chief of the Gulf Times, said the Qatar Airways purchase of Boeing aircraft is a “win-win”.

As one of the world’s top airlines with a growing market, Qatar Airways has more demand than supply at the moment and will need the fleet, he said.

“I think Donald Trump and Qatar know how to package things to make political gains and economic gains.”

Trump’s Qatar visit is the second destination of his Gulf tour, after an initial stop in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he made a surprise announcement about lifting sanctions on Syria and then met the country’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Trump is to land on a third and final stop in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday for a one-day visit.

No mention of Gaza

The Qatari emir said the two leaders had a “great” few hours of discussion covering a range of issues. “I think after signing these documents, we are going to another level of relations,” he said.

Trump thanked the emir and said it had been a “very interesting couple of hours” discussing topics including the Russia-Ukraine war, Iran and trade relations.

However, Israel’s war on Gaza was not mentioned by either leader.

Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said the fact that Gaza wasn’t mentioned led him to believe the discussion is “ongoing”.

“When it comes to Gaza, you have the Israelis there as well. On the issue of a ceasefire, Trump can put pressure on the Israelis, … but you still have the Israelis there making decisions. This is going to be a little bit more difficult to work out,” he told Al Jazeera.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who was also in Doha, said “we’re making progress” in response to a question by Al Jazeera Diplomatic Editor James Bays on whether discussions on Gaza were ongoing.

“His tone was pretty telling. He was very positive,” Bays said. “When I asked him whether that was regarding aid deliveries or a ceasefire, he said, ‘We’re making progress on all fronts.’”

“He said he hopes there would be a positive announcement ‘soon’, but we have no indication of what that might mean,” Bays added.

May 14 (UPI) — The United States has imposed additional Iran-related sanctions, as the Trump administration negotiates with Tehran on a new nuclear weapons deal.

The sanctions announced Tuesday by the U.S. Treasury target an Iranian oil smuggling network the Trump administration accuses of generating billions of dollars for the Tehran regime’s military and proxy forces.

Fifteen front companies, buyers and facilitators in Hong Kong, mainland China, the Seychelles and Singapore were hit by the punitive measures, along with 52-year-old Iranian national Mohammad Khorasani Niasari and two shipping vessels.

The secondary sanctions were levied due to their links to Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars Company, which the previous Biden administration blacklisted in November 2023 for overseeing the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff’s network of front companies that it uses to sell commodities, including oil, internationally — funds that are used to further Iran’s weapons and nuclear programs and other destabilizing activities.

According to Treasury officials Sepehr Energy obfuscates the origin of these oil shipments through a series of deals involving between multiple front companies it owns. Some of the entities that were blacklisted Tuesday were established in China and Hong Kong.

Among the tactics deployed to conceal the oil’s Iranian origin is the use of ship-to-ship transfers at sea before the cargo reaches China. Once in the country, Sepehr Energy relies on complicit local agencies willing to aid their sanctioned sales.

Khorasani is a financial inspector for Sepehr Energy and its affiliates and was sanctioned Tuesday for helping to manage the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff’s transactions.

“As long as Iran devotes its illicit revenues to funding attacks on the United States and our allies, supporting terrorism around the world and pursuing other destabilizing actions, we will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to hold the regime accountable,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

The sanctions are the latest the Trump administration has imposed since early February when President Donald Trump resumed his so-called maximum pressure policy from his first term — an effort that failed to coerce Iran into returning to the negotiating table for a new nuclear weapons deal.

During his first term in office, Trump imposed sanctions against Iran and unilaterally withdrew the United States from a landmark Obama-era multinational nuclear accord aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Trump applied his maximum pressure campaign of sanctions and political pressure to force Tehran to negotiate a new deal he believed would be better. Instead, the Middle Eastern country ignored its obligations under the accord and escalated its nuclear weapons program to the point where the U.S. government estimates Iran could need as little as a week to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear bomb.

However, talks about a new nuclear deal between the two countries have resumed during the Trump’s second term, with State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott telling reporters in at a Washington press conference on Tuesday that the negotiations “continue to show progress.”

There have been four rounds of informal talks with the fifth round yet to be scheduled.

Trump, speaking in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, called on Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions and accept “a much better path toward a far better and more hopeful future” or expect consequences. The United States under administration of both Democrats and Republicans have said they will not permit Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

“I want to make a deal with Iran,” Trump said. “This is an offer that will not last forever. The time is right now to choose. We don’t have a lot of time to wait.”

The Trump administration is demanding that Iran discontinue its uranium enrichment program and dismantle its facilities. Iran has said it will not compromise on its enrichment capabilities.

On Monday, after the United States blacklisted three Iranians and a related technology firm involved in nuclear weapons research, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Majid Takht-Ravanchi suggested there was a possibility of negotiating on its enrichment allotments.

For a limited period of time, we can accept a series of restrictions on the level and volume of enrichment,” he said, state-run Press TV reported.

“We have not yet gone into details about the level and volume of enrichment.”

According to the Treasury, since Trump announced the resumption of his maximum pressure campaign, the United States has sanctioned 253 individuals, entities and vessels related to Iran and its proxies.

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Nvidia’s shares surged 5.6% on Tuesday, boosted by a tens-of-billions-of-dollars artificial intelligence (AI) investment plan agreed between the US and Saudi Arabia. However, the AI powerhouse’s stock remains down 4.5% year-to-date as of market close on 13 May, facing challenges stemming from US-China trade tensions and the launch of China’s DeepSeek, a lower-cost AI model.

CEO Jensen Huang was among the US tech leaders—alongside Tesla’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, AMD’s Lisa Su, Palantir’s Alex Karp, and other executives—who accompanied President Trump on his visit to Saudi Arabia. At the investment conference, the White House announced a $600 billion investment pledge by the Middle Eastern kingdom into the US, including a nearly $142 billion defence sales deal, an $80 billion commitment into “cutting-edge transformative technologies” in both countries, and other agreements across energy, aerospace, and sports sectors.

Trump also vowed to lift all sanctions against Syria during his visit, a political gesture to warm the relationship with key Middle East countries. He is also going to meet leaders of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this week.

The Middle East AI deals

Nvidia announced it will partner with HUMAIN, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund focused on AI, to transform the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) into “a global powerhouse in AI, cloud and enterprise computing, digital twins and robotics.” Nvidia will supply its most advanced AI chips over the next five years, including 18,000 units of the GB200 Grace Blackwell AI supercomputer with its InfiniBand networking in the initial phase. The purchase forms part of a broader project for HUMAIN to build AI factories in the kingdom, with a projected capacity of up to 500 megawatts.

The announcement also includes a deal with the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA), which will “deploy up to 5,000 Blackwell GPUs for a sovereign AI factory and enable smart city solutions.” Aramco Digital, the technology arm of oil giant Saudi Aramco, will also collaborate with Nvidia to develop AI infrastructure in the country.

Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich nation, is seeking to diversify its economy, which still relies heavily on crude exports. The kingdom aims to attract $100 billion in foreign direct investment annually, as outlined under its Vision 2030 strategy.

According to a Bloomberg report, the Trump administration is also considering a deal with the UAE, which would permit the import of over one million advanced Nvidia chips—well above the export limits imposed under the Biden administration.

Other major US tech firms, including AMD, Global AI, Amazon, Cisco, and OpenAI, also announced AI investment plans in Saudi Arabia during the event.

The US scraps Biden’s AI diffusion rule

Trump’s Middle East trip is shaping up to be a major win for US AI chipmakers, as the president looks to ease export curbs to China. On the same day, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced that it is rescinding the AI diffusion rule imposed during former President Joe Biden’s administration, which had been due to take effect on 15 May.

Biden’s administration had implemented fresh restrictions on AI chip exports to China in January, its final month in office, expanding controls to much of the world, amid concerns that China was accessing US AI chips via third countries. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE had also been subject to those restrictions.

“The Trump administration will pursue a bold, inclusive strategy to advance American AI technology with trusted foreign partners, while keeping the technology out of the hands of our adversaries. At the same time, we reject the Biden administration’s attempt to impose its own ill-conceived and counterproductive AI policies on the American people,” stated the DOC.

The department added that the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued new guidance to strengthen controls over overseas exports of AI chips to limit China’s access to advanced US technologies.

President Trump has spent the first major overseas trip of his second administration — next stop Wednesday in Qatar — beating back allegations that he was personally profiting from foreign leaders by accepting a $400-million luxury airliner from the Gulf state’s royal family.

Trump has bristled at the notion that he should turn down such a gift, saying he would be “stupid” to do so and that Democrats were “World Class Losers” for suggesting it was not only wrong but also unconstitutional.

But Democrats were hardly alone in criticizing the arrangement as Trump prepared for broad trade discussions in Doha, the Qatari capital.

Several top Republicans in Congress have expressed concerns about the deal, including that the plane would be a security risk. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Tuesday said there were “lots of issues associated with that offer which I think need to be further talked about,” and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), another member of the Republican leadership team, said that Trump and the White House “need to look at the constitutionality” of the deal and that she would be “checking for bugs” on the plane, a clear reference to fears that Qatar may see the jetliner as an intelligence asset.

Criticism of the deal has even arisen among the deep-red MAGA ranks. In an online post echoed by other right-wing influencers in Trump’s orbit, loyalist Laura Loomer wrote that while she would “take a bullet for Trump,” the Qatar deal would be “a stain” on his administration.

The broad outrage in some ways reflected the stark optics of the deal, which would provide Trump with the superluxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet — known as the “palace in the sky” — for free, to be transferred to his personal presidential library upon his departure from office.

Accepting a lavish gift from the Persian Gulf nation makes even some stolid Trump allies queasy because of Qatar’s record of abuses against its Shiite Muslim minority and its funding of Hamas, the militant group whose attack on Israel touched off a prolonged war in the region.

Critics have called the deal an out-and-out bribe for future influence by the Qatari royal family, and one that would clearly come due at some point — raising serious questions around the U.S.’ ability to act with its own geopolitical interests in mind in the future, rather than Qatar’s.

Trump and Qatar have rejected that framing but have also deflected questions about what Qatar expects to receive in return for the jet.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in response to detailed questions from The Times, said in a statement that Trump “is compliant with all conflict-of-interest rules, and only acts in the best interests of the American public — which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media.”

Leavitt has previously said it was “ridiculous” for the media to “suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit,” because he “left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service, not just once, but twice.”

Ali Al-Ansari, media attache at the Qatari Embassy in Washington, did not respond to a request for comment.

Beyond the specific concern about Qatar potentially holding influence over Trump, the jet deal also escalated deeper concerns among critics that Trump, his family and his administration are using their political influence to improperly enrich themselves more broadly — including through the creation of a $Trump cryptocurrency meme coin and a promised Washington dinner for its top investors.

Experts and other critics have for years accused Trump of violating constitutional constraints on the president and other federal officials accepting gifts, or “emoluments,” from foreign states without the express approval of Congress.

During Trump’s first term, allegations that he was flouting the law and using his office to enrich himself — including by maintaining an active stake in his golf courses and former Washington hotel while foreign dignitaries seeking to curry favor with him racked up massive bills there — went all the way to the Supreme Court before being dismissed as moot after he’d been voted out of office.

Since Trump’s return to office, however, concerns over his monetizing the nation’s highest office and the power and influence that come with it have exploded once more — and from disparate corners of the political landscape.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), left, speaks with Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security oversight hearing on May 8, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)

In a speech last month on the Senate floor, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) alleged dozens of examples of Trump and others in his family and administration misusing their positions for personal gain — what Murphy called “mind-blowing corruption” in Trump’s first 100 days.

Murphy mentioned, among other examples, the meme coin and dinner; corporations under federal investigation donating millions to Trump’s inaugural fund and those investigations being halted soon after he took office; reports that Trump has sold meetings with him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for millions of dollars; and Donald Trump Jr.’s creation of a private Washington club with million-dollar dues and promises of interactions with administration officials.

Murphy also noted Trump’s orders to fire inspectors general and other watchdogs meant to keep an eye out for corruption and pay-to-play tactics in the federal government, and his scaling back of laws meant to discourage it, such as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Corporate Transparency Act.

“Donald Trump wants to numb this country into believing that this is just how government works. That he’s owed this. That every president is owed this. That government has always been corrupt, and he’s just doing it out in the open,” Murphy said. “But this is not how government works.”

When news of the Qatar jet deal broke, Murphy joined other Democratic colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a statement denouncing it.

“Any president who accepts this kind of gift, valued at $400 million, from a foreign government creates a clear conflict of interest, raises serious national security questions, invites foreign influence, and undermines public trust in our government,” the senators wrote. “No one — not even the president — is above the law.”

Other lawmakers — from both parties — have also weighed in.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) blasted Trump’s acceptance of the plane as his “lastest con” and a clear attempt by the Qatari government to “curry favor” with him.

“This is why the emoluments clause is in the Constitution to begin with. It was put in there for a reason,” Schiff said. “And the reason was that the founding fathers wanted to make sure that any action taken by the president of the United States, or frankly any other person holding federal public office, wasn’t going to be influenced by getting some big gift.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said in an interview with MSNBC on Monday that he did not think it was a “good idea” for Trump to accept the jet — which he said wouldn’t “pass the smell test” for many Americans.

Experts and those further out on the American political spectrum agreed.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley School of Law and an expert in constitutional law, said the gift of the jet, “if it is to Trump personally,” clearly violates a provision that precludes the president from receiving any benefit from a foreign country, which America’s founders barred because they were concerned about “foreign governments holding influence over the president.”

Richard Painter, the top White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said that Trump accepting the jet would be unconstitutional. And he scoffed at the ethics of doing business with a nation that has been criticized as having a bleak human rights record.

“After spending millions helping Hamas build tunnels and rockets, Qatar has enough to buy this emolumental gift for” Trump, Painter wrote on X. “But the Constitution says Congress must consent first.”

Painter criticized the White House justifying the deal by saying that Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi had “signed off” on it, given Bondi’s past work for the Qatari government, and said he knew of no precedent for a president receiving a lavish gift without the approval of Congress. He noted that Ambassador Benjamin Franklin received a diamond-encrusted snuff box from France’s King Louis XVI, but only with the OK from Congress.

Robert Weissman, co-president of the progressive nonprofit Public Citizen, said that it was unclear whether Trump would heed the cautionary notes coming from within his own party, but that the Republican-controlled Congress should nonetheless vote on whether the jet was a proper gift for him to receive.

“If the members of Congress think this is fine, then they can say so,” Weissman said, “and the voters can hold them accountable.”

Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro, a prominent backer of Trump, criticized the deal on his podcast Monday, saying that Trump supporters would “all be freaking out” if Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, had accepted it.

“President Trump promised to drain the swamp,” Shapiro said. “This is not, in fact, draining the swamp.”

The world’s two biggest economies have stepped back from the brink.

After imposing retaliatory tariff hikes at rates never seen before, the United States and China have agreed to a truce.

US taxes on Chinese goods will now fall from 145 percent to 30 percent, and China will cut theirs on US items from 125 percent to 10 percent.

Some of the levies have been scrapped altogether while others have been put on hold.

After weeks of considerable strain, many people are looking to see how global supply chains will be affected.

Is it the end of the global trade war, triggered last month by US President Donald Trump?

And what does it mean for those countries who had been anticipating big investments due to the steep duties on China?

Presenter: Elizabeth Puranam

Guests:

William Lee, chief economist, Milken Institute

Huiyao Wang, founder, Center for China and Globalization

Jayant Menon, former lead economist, Asian Development Bank

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The first time President Trump visited Riyadh in 2017, he posed with a ceremonial orb, took part in a traditional sword dance and secured an agreement by Saudi Arabia to purchase $350 billion in weaponry, the largest arms deal in U.S. history.

The sequel, coming eight years later — almost to the day — promises much the same in the way of pageantry and purchases, only more so.

Even before the trip, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman vowed he would invest about $600 billion over the four years of Trump’s presidency (Trump asked him to round it up to $1 trillion).

And although the orb will probably not make an appearance this time around, Trump is bringing with him a phalanx of business leaders for a Saudi-U.S. business summit Tuesday — the day he arrives — that will include BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Palantir Technologies’ Alex Karp, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.

The heads of other major firms, including IBM, Boeing, Qualcomm and Alphabet, also will attend. White House artificial intelligence and crypto czar David Sacks, meanwhile, is already in Riyadh.

Trump will then attend a summit with gulf leaders on Wednesday, travel to Qatar that same day and end the trip Thursday in the United Arab Emirates. There will be more gifts: The UAE has pledged $1.4 trillion in U.S. investment packages over the next decade.

“Trump is there to solidify a very close relationship,” said Ali Shihabi, a political and economic expert who is close to the Saudi government, adding that although he did not expect a breakthrough on security matters, the deals signed would nevertheless bring “economic ties and coordination to a very high level.”

Not to be outdone by its two regional competitors, Qatar is in discussions about the “possible transfer” of a luxury Boeing 747-8 to replace Air Force One.

Before departing on the current Air Force One, Trump found himself defending plans to accept the gift, which is thought to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. He dismissed those with concerns over the ethics and constitutionality of the gift as “stupid people,” suggesting he planned to proceed with it, a topic sure to fuel questions over his visit to Doha, the Qatari capital.

Trump also visited Saudi Arabia on the first international trip of his first term, breaking a presidential tradition of visiting U.S. allies and major trade partners such as the United Kingdom and European countries. That Trump chose the gulf region as his first destination, commentators say, reflects the Mideast’s growing centrality to the U.S. in terms of political and security partners. (Technically, this is not his first overseas trip since returning to the White House because he attended the recent funeral of Pope Francis.)

“The gulf nations succeeded in positioning themselves in a way that lets them play constructive roles in several issues,” said Hasan Alhasan, senior fellow for Middle East policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Bahrain. He pointed out that Saudi Arabia has sponsored talks between Russia and Ukraine and was involved in peacemaking efforts in Sudan.

Qatar is a driving force in negotiations between Israel and Hamas and has helped to stabilize Syria. Oman, which is not on the itinerary but whose leader will take part in the summit, is hosting high-level talks between the U.S. and Iran.

“Trump is not tied to the protocols of other presidents. He sees an overlap in aims, whether political or commercial,” Alhasan said.

Israel is watching the visit with consternation on a host of fronts, expecting Trump to hear an earful from Arab governments on its continuing conflict with Hamas militants in Gaza and the role Israel is playing in the future of Syria. And Israeli officials are increasingly concerned that their voices will be drowned out as the Trump administration progresses in its negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

Any hint from Trump that he would tolerate the Iranians continuing with a civilian nuclear program will send reverberations throughout Washington, particularly on Capitol Hill, where Republicans have long opposed allowing Iran to continue any enrichment of uranium on its soil.

Trump also appears unconcerned with limits placed by his predecessors on what countries can receive from the U.S. He has reportedly revoked the AI diffusion rule, the U.S. policy intended to control the export of advanced semiconductor chips and AI, paving the way for gulf nations to ramp up their already considerable advanced chip holdings.

That’s especially true for the UAE, whose $1.4-trillion investment will be heavily weighted toward AI. Meanwhile, MGX, an investment fund based in the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, has pledged $100 billion in energy infrastructures and data centers in the U.S. to support AI.

At the same time, G42, another UAE-based AI firm, has divested from Chinese companies and partnered with Microsoft in an attempt to appease U.S. lawmakers.

There have also been reports that Trump will revive potential arms deals that were on the table from his first term but were never completed, including sales of F-35 fighter jets and Reaper drones to the UAE, and the co-production of advanced missiles with Saudi Arabia, said Prem Thakker, a partner with the global advisory firm DGA and a former official with the National Security Council under President Obama.

Another issue on the table could be nuclear power for Saudi Arabia. President Biden made supporting a civilian nuclear program for the kingdom contingent on Riyadh agreeing to a peace deal with Israel similar to the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements forged with the UAE, Bahrain and others during Trump’s first term.

Under Trump, that condition appears to have been dropped, with negotiations that could potentially allow Saudi Arabia to capitalize on its uranium reserves and a domestic enrichment program.

“And this means that traditional nonproliferation concerns over Saudi Arabia have really subsided over the last few years,” Thakker said. “Twenty years ago no one in the U.S. would have contemplated such an agreement.”

The trip dovetails with a raft of investments involving the Trump Organization. Its real-estate development arm, which is led by Trump’s son Eric, has announced since last year construction projects across the gulf region, including a $2-billion golf course in Qatar, an 80-story hotel and residential tower in Dubai and two Trump towers in Saudi Arabia — one in Riyadh and one in Jeddah.

Though the deals appear gargantuan, experts say financial realities will cut them down to size. Many point out that Saudi Arabia’s investments during Trump’s first term did not reach the $450 billion he mentioned (the figure includes nonmilitary spending). Even the most generous of calculations would put the Saudi investments at less than $300 billion, experts say.

Though its investments in the U.S. are likely to increase during Trump’s second term, Riyadh has focused much of its spending on gigaprojects such as NEOM. And current oil prices sitting below the government’s break-even price of around $100 a barrel means that it will be running a deficit, said David Butter, a Middle East energy expert at Chatham House, a think tank in London.

He added that the Saudi government and its colossal sovereign fund, the Public Investment Fund, both of which own a part of Saudi oil giant Aramco, have not received performance-linked dividends for this year. The result, Butter said, is a looming financial crisis.

“The investment numbers are fantasy,” he said.

Bulos reported from Riyadh and Wilner from Washington.