U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to appeal a U.S. judge’s ruling blocking his administration from using $2.5 billion in funds intended for anti-drug activities to construct a wall along the southern border with Mexico.“[W]e’re immediately appealing it, and we think we’ll win the appeal,” Trump said during a press conference on Saturday at a summit of leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies in Osaka, western Japan.“There was no reason that that should’ve happened,” Trump said.Trump has sought to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but has so far proven unsuccessful at receiving congressional approval to do so.In February, the Trump administration declared a national emergency to reprogram $6.7 billion in funds that Congress had allocated for other purposes to build the wall, which groups and states including California had challenged.U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam in Oakland, California said in a pair of court decisions on Friday that the Trump administration’s proposal to transfer Defense Department funds intended for anti-drug activities was unlawful.One of Gilliam’s rulings was in a lawsuit filed by California on behalf of 20 states, while the other was in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union in coordination with the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition.“These rulings critically stop President Trump’s illegal money grab to divert $2.5 billion of unauthorized funding for his pet project,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “All President Trump has succeeded in building is a constitutional crisis, threatening immediate harm to our state.”
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Both the U.S. and Chinese presidents, as they began a tense meeting Saturday, expressed hope about improving relations amid their escalating trade war.Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, sitting across the table from each other on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Osaka, made brief statements but did not answer any questions from a group of reporters.“China and the United States both benefit from cooperation and lose in a confrontation,” Xi stated. “Cooperation and dialogue are better than friction and confrontation.”Xi added that he wanted to exchange views with Trump “on the fundamental issues concerning the growth of China-U.S. relations so as to set the direction of our relationship.”U.S. President Donald Trump meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the start of their bilateral meeting at the G-20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019.Trump: ‘We want to do something’Trump, noting his “excellent relationship” with Xi, said “we want to do something that will even it up with respect to trade. I think it’s something that’s very easy to do.”The U.S. president said that the two countries had been very close to achieving a historic trade agreement and then “something happened where it slipped a little bit.”Trump added that regarding a fair trade deal, “we’re totally open to it. I know you’re totally open to it,” explaining that negotiations for both countries have been working hard to achieve that.“I think we can go on to do something that truly will be monumental and great for both countries. And that’s what I look forward to doing.”Lower expectationsTop U.S. officials, in the days leading up to the meeting, have been skeptical about any immediate breakthrough and played down expectations of that.Replying to a question from VOA Friday, Trump had said he was not certain that Xi would put a new proposal on the table. He also said he had not committed to avoiding placing additional tariffs on China.White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said this week that Trump did not agree to any preconditions for the high-stakes meeting with Xi and is maintaining his threat to impose new tariffs on Chinese goods.Trump has threatened another $325 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, which would cover just about everything China exports to the United States that is not already covered by the current 25% tariff on $250 billion in Chinese imports.China has slapped its own tariffs on U.S. products, including those produced by already financially strapped American farmers.March Short, the chief of staff to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, said Friday the “best-case scenario” for Saturday’s talks would be a resumption of trade negotiations between the United States and China.China Shipping Company containers are stacked at the Virginia International’s terminal in Portsmouth, Va., May 10, 2019.Eleven rounds of talksEleven rounds of previous talks have failed to ease U.S. concerns over China’s massive trade surplus and China’s acquisition of U.S. technology.The latest round of talks broke down in May, when Washington accused Beijing of going back on its pledge to change Chinese laws to enact economic reforms.Neither the United Sates nor China have indicated they will back down from their previous positions that led to the current stalemate.
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European countries offered too little at last-ditch talks on Friday to persuade Iran to back off from its plans to breach limits imposed by its nuclear agreement with world powers, Iran’s envoy said. A week after Washington abruptly called off airstrikes on Iran, diplomats said Tehran was days away from exceeding the maximum amount of enriched uranium allowed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which Washington quit last year. The countries that are still parties to the agreement — European powers Britain, Germany and France, plus Russia and China, and the backing of the European Union — held urgent talks with Iranian officials on Friday in Vienna in hopes of persuading Tehran to hold off. The Europeans say breach of the agreement by Iran would escalate confrontation at a time when Tehran and Washington are at risk of a miscalculation that could trigger a war. Iran’s envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, said the talks were “a step forward, but it is still not enough and not meeting Iran’s expectations.” He said it was ultimately up to his superiors in Tehran to decide whether to call off plans to exceed limits in the nuclear deal, but he did not believe the talks’ outcome was likely to change their minds. “The decision to reduce our commitments has already been made and we will continue unless our expectations are met,” he said. “I don’t think the progress made today will be enough to stop our process, but the decision will be made in Tehran.” Washington’s demandThe likelihood that Iran could exceed the deal’s limits as soon as the next few days is the next looming worry for European leaders trying to keep confrontation between Washington and Tehran from spiraling out of control. Despite abandoning the deal, Washington has demanded European countries ensure Iran comply with it. Iran says it cannot do so unless the Europeans provide it with some way to receive the deal’s promised economic benefits. In particular, it wants its oil exports restored to the level of April 2018, before Trump abandoned the deal and reimposed sanctions. FILE – President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron meet in Caen, France, June 6, 2019.French President Emmanuel Macron said this week that he would ask U.S. President Donald Trump to ease sanctions to allow negotiations to begin. But the plea seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, with Trump’s Iran envoy saying on Friday that sanctions would remain in place to end Iranian oil exports altogether. China, long a big importer of Iranian oil, said it rejected U.S. sanctions, but Fu Cong, director general of the Department of Arms Control of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, would not say whether Beijing planned to keep buying. Barter mechanism launches So far, European proposals to protect Iran from the impact of U.S. sanctions have failed, with Iran largely shunned in international oil markets and all major companies canceling plans to invest there for fear of falling afoul of U.S. rules. After Friday’s talks, Araqchi said he had been informed that INSTEX, a new barter mechanism set up by the Europeans to facilitate some trade with Iran, was now operational. Britain, France and Germany have informed the EU that INSTEX “had been made operational … and that the first transactions are being processed,” the EU said in a statement. However, a European diplomat said that while the system was working on the European side and transactions had been identified, work on the Iranian end had yet to be completed. Araqchi said the new mechanism would help only if it enabled Iran to sell its oil. The Europeans say it is likely to be able to handle only small transactions for items such as medicine, already permitted under sanctions. Iran has said it is ramping up its nuclear program and has announced dates when this would push it past limits in the deal. FILE – This Jan. 15, 2011, photo shows the heavy water nuclear facility near Arak, 150 miles (250 kilometers) from Tehran, Iran.The first big deadline passed Thursday, the day Tehran said it would accumulate more enriched uranium than the deal allows. Diplomats who follow the work of U.N. inspectors told Reuters that their data suggested Iran had not breached the limit on Thursday but was on course to do so over the weekend. Another deadline falls on July 7 when Iran says it will have enriched some uranium to a purity forbidden under the deal. Tehran says it still aims to keep the deal alive and any breaches could be reversed. The crisis between Iran and the United States that began with Trump’s withdrawal from the pact has escalated in recent weeks after Washington sharply tightened its sanctions from the start of May to halt all Iranian oil exports. U.S. saw pact as weakThe U.S. administration argues that the 2015 agreement reached under Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, was too weak because many terms are temporary and it excludes non-nuclear issues such as missiles and Iran’s regional behavior. Washington says the aim of sanctions is to force Tehran to renegotiate. Tehran says there can be no talks as long as sanctions are in place and Washington is ignoring the deal it already struck. The confrontation took on a military dimension in recent weeks, with Washington blaming Tehran for attacks on ships in the Gulf of Oman, which Iran denies. Iran shot down a U.S. drone last week, saying it had entered its airspace. Washington said the drone was in international skies, and Trump ordered, then aborted, retaliatory airstrikes on Iranian targets. Any move by Iran that violated the nuclear deal would put pressure on the Europeans to take sides. “We want them to stay in the accord, but we won’t accept them messing us around,” a senior European diplomat said. 
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A federal judge in Seattle on Friday was hearing a challenge to a new Trump administration policy that would keep thousands of asylum seekers locked up while they pursue their cases, instead of allowing them to be released on bond.Attorney General William Barr announced the policy in April as part of the administration’s efforts to deter a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, and it is scheduled to take effect next month. It targets immigrants who have recently entered the U.S. without permission and have demonstrated a credible fear of persecution or torture if returned to their home country.For the past 50 years, the government has given such asylum seekers bond hearings before immigration judges where the asylum seekers can argue they are not flight risks and pose no threat to the public, according to court documents filed by the ACLU, American Immigration Council and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. That gives the asylum seekers the opportunity to reunite with relatives in the U.S. and to find lawyers to handle their asylum claims, making them more likely to succeed.The new policy would end that practice, keeping between 15,000 and 40,000 immigrants in custody without requiring the government to show that their detentions are justified, in violation of their due process rights, the groups argued.
 
We're talking about people who would be stuck in detention for at least six months, and many beyond a year,'' said Matt Adams, legal director with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.Under the attorney general’s decision, it doesn’t matter whether that person is a flight risk or a danger. They’re categorically going to be locked up.”President Donald Trump has said he is determined to end the catch and release'' of migrants at the border. He has also called the asylum system broken, saying that some take advantage of it with frivolous claims.The Justice Department argued in court papers that the new policy is a legitimate interpretation of a federal law that says if immigration officers determine immigrants have a credible fear of persecution, theyshall be detained for further consideration of the application for asylum.”That language does not require asylum seekers to be detained for the entirety of their case, the immigrant rights groups have said. But even if it did, that would violate Supreme Court precedent that says the government cannot detain someone without reason, the groups have said.U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman has certified the case as a nationwide class action and issued an injunction in April ordering the government to give migrants with bona fide asylum claims the opportunity to seek bail within seven days of a request. Barr announced the new policy 11 days later.Under the policy, detained asylum seekers would still have another avenue for release: a request to an immigration officer for parole. The immigrant rights groups say such requests are rarely granted under the Trump administration and are not a substitute for bond hearings before independent fact-finders. 
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New York City is marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, days of unrest in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village that began with a police raid on a gay bar and catalyzed a sustained LGTBQ liberation movement.The streets outside the modern incarnation of the Stonewall Inn were blocked off Friday in preparation for a day of celebrations that include musical performances and an evening rally.Sunday’s huge Pride parade — and an alternative march intended as a less corporate commemoration — also will swing past the bar and a tiny park outside. The park is at the center of the Stonewall National Monument.Cities around the world also began celebrating Pride on Friday. Participants in a march in the Philippines went by the presidential palace in Malina, waving placards as they marked the 25th year since the first such gathering.In 1969, the Stonewall Inn was part of a gay scene that was known, yet not open. At the time, showing same-sex affection or dressing in a way deemed gender-inappropriate could get people arrested, and bars had lost liquor licenses for serving LGBTQ customers.The police raid on the bar began early the morning of June 28. It was unlicensed, and the officers had been assigned to stop any illegal alcohol sales.Patrons and people who converged on the bar on Christopher Street resisted , hurling objects and at points scuffling with the officers.Protests followed over several more days. A year later, gay New Yorkers marked the anniversary of the riot with the Christopher Street Liberation Day March. Thousands proudly paraded through a city where, at the time, LGBTQ people were largely expected to stay in the shadows.The Stonewall Inn itself closed not long after the raid.Since then, the space has been a bagel shop, a Chinese restaurant and other establishments, including a gay bar called Stonewall that briefly operated in the late 1980s.The current Stonewall Inn dates to the early 1990s.For years, its path was pitted with financial strains, business vagaries and loss. One co-owner, Jimmy Pisano, died three months before the Stonewall rebellion’s 25th anniversary in 1994.Current owners Stacy Lentz and Kurt Kelly bought the business in 2006 and have sought to keep its legacy current.”We understand we’re the innkeepers of history,” Lentz said. “We really feel like the fire that started at Stonewall in 1969 is not done. The battleground has just shifted.”
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