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As Washington and Beijing teeter on the brink of a possible trade war, the European Union and China have agreed to launch a working group to promote reform at the World Trade Organization. The move is part of an effort to upgrade the global trade system’s toolbox and ward off growing threats to the multilateral trade system and body.

According to a top EU official, the reform group would look at ways to modernize regulations and address the problem of state subsidies and other unfair trade practices.

How willing a participant Beijing will be in that effort is unclear as most of the EU’s proposed upgrades are connected to unfair trade measures, practices and policies that exist in China. The same concerns are driving the administration of President Donald Trump to press forward with the possible threat of heavy tariffs on some $34 billion in Chinese goods.

The Trump administration announced Monday that it is also mulling restrictions on foreign investments in technology. 

European Union Vice President Jyrki Katainen admits that the effort to try and promote reform of WTO rules will not be easy. He said it would take time and that China would have different views on priorities. 

But, Katainen added that if nothing is done, “the environment for multilateral trade will vanish.”

State media in China has portrayed Monday’s meetings with EU officials, a high-level dialogue ahead of next month’s EU-China summit, as the two teaming up to combat “unilateralism and protectionism” and promote globalization and protecting the global economy.

The European Union wants the reform effort to address issues such as industrial subsidies and unfair trade practices such as the forced transfer of technology in exchange for market access. 

“The two issues together are some of the reasons why, not the only reasons but some of the reasons why the president of the United States is taking unilateral action,” Katainen said, adding that the issue instead has to be solved in an orderly manner.

The basic idea is to update the WTO so that it is better suited to the current realities of the modern world, he said.

“The EU is not siding with any party or any country, the only thing we are siding with is rules-based trade,” Katainen said.

Chinese state media have portrayed the effort as a sign that Washington’s trade actions are creating a united front between the EU and China. A report in the Beijing-based newspaper Global Times called the joint effort to combat “unilateralism” and “protectionism” a “clear rebuttal of punitive U.S. tariffs on European and Chinese goods” and defense of the “multilateral trade system.” 

A report in the China Daily highlighted how trade frictions were bolstering closer trade ties between the EU and China. 

At the release of a survey on the business climate in China last week, the head of a top European businesses lobby noted that some companies, perhaps one or two, have already seen benefits from the ongoing trade dispute. 

Mats Harborn, president of the European Chamber of Commerce, said that it was not possible to tell if that is a trend but added that trade tensions are not good for business. 

“We don’t want companies to benefit from this trade war, we would like to see that we are all competing on a level playing field in China,” Harborn said.

In remarks following meetings with Katainen on Monday, Vice Premier Liu He did not mention the reform working group proposal for the WTO specifically. He did say that both countries agreed to pay attention to market access issues facing businesses on both sides and that they agreed to “reform the multi-lateral trade system and keep it advancing with the times.”

At a so-called “press conference” with Katainen, where journalists were not allowed to ask questions, Liu said “unilateralism and trade protectionism” was on the rise and that the European Union and China agreed to prevent such practices from impacting the world economy or dragging it into recession. 

Monday’s high-level dialogue was held in preparation for the EU-China Summit, which will be held next month on July 16-17th. During that meeting the two are looking to move forward a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment and to exchange market access offers. 
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As Washington and Beijing teeter on the brink of a possible trade war, the European Union and China have agreed to launch a working group to promote reform at the World Trade Organization. The move is part of an effort to upgrade the global trade system’s toolbox and ward off growing threats to the multilateral trade system and body.

According to a top EU official, the reform group would look at ways to modernize regulations and address the problem of state subsidies and other unfair trade practices.

How willing a participant Beijing will be in that effort is unclear as most of the EU’s proposed upgrades are connected to unfair trade measures, practices and policies that exist in China. The same concerns are driving the administration of President Donald Trump to press forward with the possible threat of heavy tariffs on some $34 billion in Chinese goods.

The Trump administration announced Monday that it is also mulling restrictions on foreign investments in technology. 

European Union Vice President Jyrki Katainen admits that the effort to try and promote reform of WTO rules will not be easy. He said it would take time and that China would have different views on priorities. 

But, Katainen added that if nothing is done, “the environment for multilateral trade will vanish.”

State media in China has portrayed Monday’s meetings with EU officials, a high-level dialogue ahead of next month’s EU-China summit, as the two teaming up to combat “unilateralism and protectionism” and promote globalization and protecting the global economy.

The European Union wants the reform effort to address issues such as industrial subsidies and unfair trade practices such as the forced transfer of technology in exchange for market access. 

“The two issues together are some of the reasons why, not the only reasons but some of the reasons why the president of the United States is taking unilateral action,” Katainen said, adding that the issue instead has to be solved in an orderly manner.

The basic idea is to update the WTO so that it is better suited to the current realities of the modern world, he said.

“The EU is not siding with any party or any country, the only thing we are siding with is rules-based trade,” Katainen said.

Chinese state media have portrayed the effort as a sign that Washington’s trade actions are creating a united front between the EU and China. A report in the Beijing-based newspaper Global Times called the joint effort to combat “unilateralism” and “protectionism” a “clear rebuttal of punitive U.S. tariffs on European and Chinese goods” and defense of the “multilateral trade system.” 

A report in the China Daily highlighted how trade frictions were bolstering closer trade ties between the EU and China. 

At the release of a survey on the business climate in China last week, the head of a top European businesses lobby noted that some companies, perhaps one or two, have already seen benefits from the ongoing trade dispute. 

Mats Harborn, president of the European Chamber of Commerce, said that it was not possible to tell if that is a trend but added that trade tensions are not good for business. 

“We don’t want companies to benefit from this trade war, we would like to see that we are all competing on a level playing field in China,” Harborn said.

In remarks following meetings with Katainen on Monday, Vice Premier Liu He did not mention the reform working group proposal for the WTO specifically. He did say that both countries agreed to pay attention to market access issues facing businesses on both sides and that they agreed to “reform the multi-lateral trade system and keep it advancing with the times.”

At a so-called “press conference” with Katainen, where journalists were not allowed to ask questions, Liu said “unilateralism and trade protectionism” was on the rise and that the European Union and China agreed to prevent such practices from impacting the world economy or dragging it into recession. 

Monday’s high-level dialogue was held in preparation for the EU-China Summit, which will be held next month on July 16-17th. During that meeting the two are looking to move forward a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment and to exchange market access offers. 
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As the U.S. prepares to roll out its Middle East peace plan, President Donald Trump meets with King Abdullah of Jordan about stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a deal. So far the White House has not disclosed details about the peace process. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has more from the White House.
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U.S. defense officials say the Trump administration has chosen two military bases in Texas — Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base — to house detained migrants.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about a pending announcement.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had said Sunday that two bases had been selected but he would not identify them.

One official said unaccompanied children detained after crossing the U.S. border would be sheltered at one of the bases and the other base would house families of migrant detainees. Under the arrangement, the Defense Department would provide the land but the operations would be run by other agencies.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday again assailed judicial review for illegal border crossers, contending that the migrants ought to immediately be sent back to their homelands.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Sunday that the U.S. leader’s call to end legal hearings for undocumented immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. was unconstitutional. But Trump rejected that view in a pair of new Twitter comments.

“Hiring many thousands (sic) of judges, and going through a long and complicated legal process, is not the way to go – will always be dysfunctional (sic),” he said. “People must simply be stopped at the Border and told they cannot come into the U.S. illegally.”

He contended that if children and their parents are sent home, “illegal immigration will be stopped in it’s (sic) tracks – and at very little, by comparison, cost. This is the only real answer – and we must continue to BUILD THE WALL!”

Trump’s latest comments echoed his thoughts Sunday when he first called for ending judicial review of asylum claims, saying “when somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.”

“We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country,” he said. “Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order.” Trump claimed that the U.S. immigration law is “laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years!”

The ACLU said what Trump is suggesting “is both illegal and unconstitutional. Any official who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws should disavow it unequivocally.”

The United States for years has granted court hearings to migrants fleeing violence in Mexico and Central American countries and from elsewhere in the world, and who are looking for better economic fortunes in the United States.

Trump’s demand to end that legal process would face stiff opposition in Congress, which for years has been stalemated on changes to U.S. immigration policies and has been unable to enact new migration laws.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is planning to vote this week on comprehensive immigration policy changes after last week defeating a tougher version of new immigration controls.

Also last week, Trump signed an executive order maintaining his “zero tolerance” policy of detaining and prosecuting everyone entering the country illegally, but ending the practice of separating immigrant parents and children.

Logistical questions about those being detained have sent multiple government agencies in search of solutions, including how to provide housing.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters traveling with him on a trip to China that the Pentagon is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security to build temporary camps on two military bases. Mattis said he could not yet name them, but promised to provide those details Monday.

He said military personnel do not play any enforcement role that is carried out by DHS, but have experience in supporting refugees and victims of natural disasters.

“This is something that we can do again — whether it be refugee boat people from Vietnam, people who have been knocked out of their homes by a hurricane — absolutely it’s appropriate the military provide logistics support however it’s needed,” Mattis said.

The U.S. says it knows the location of 2,053 children it is holding who were separated from their parents in recent weeks as they entered the country illegally along its southern border with Mexico. The U.S. said it is now working to reunite the families. The Department of Homeland Security said over the weekend it has returned 522 children to their parents, with many of them held together in detention centers while awaiting court proceedings to consider their bids for asylum.

But how quickly the remaining reunifications might occur remains an open question. A processing center in the southwestern state of Texas has been set up for the reunifications, which could lead to the deportation of some of the families.
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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will visit Brazil this week, but the focus of his trip will be the deteriorating humanitarian situation in neighboring Venezuela.

It’s the vice president’s third trip to the region, and previous visits also emphasized efforts to isolate the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro.

The trip also comes at a time when U.S.-Brazil relations are in a holding pattern. The South American country is reeling from a colossal corruption scandal, struggling to recover from a deep recession and trying to look beyond the remaining months of President Michel Temer’s lame duck administration ahead of October elections.

 
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Celebration and pride mixed with defiance in New York City on Sunday as throngs of people crowded the streets, rainbow flags waving, for the annual gay pride march.

Tennis legend Billie Jean King was one of the grand marshals, along with transgender advocate Tyler Ford and civil rights organization Lambda Legal. The event, and others like it around the country, commemorated the riots that erupted in response to a police raid at a New York gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in June 1969.

Onlookers and participants in New York noted those origins at Sunday’s event, which was both a celebration of the diversity of LGBT culture and a statement against anti-LGBT policies promoted by President Donald Trump, such as the Republican president’s attempt to ban all transgender people from serving in the military. They also spoke out against policies aimed at other communities, like immigrants and minorities.

“We’re making a statement that we’re here, everybody. Whether it’s immigrants, whether it’s queer people or people of color, we’re not going to put up with what this administration is doing,” said Diego Molano, of Queens, at his second pride parade. “You can’t just cage everybody up.”

Olivia Nadler, a Connecticut resident attending her third parade, said, “People that are oppressed are not going to go away, they’re not going to be quiet, they’re not going to be ignored.”

Among the signs people were carrying in the parade were phrases like, “Black and brown and trans lives matter” and “No more guns.”

Ohemaa Dixon, 20, from Brooklyn, teared up as she spoke about what the parade meant to her and the joy she felt in seeing everyone come out to attend.

“It’s okay to be who you are and love who you love and dress how you want to dress and do what you want to do because I think it’s so important to be who you are and who you love,” she said. “I’m getting emotional about it because I think it’s so beautiful when people are who they are. That’s why I love coming to these things. I think it’s really cool that people come and they are exactly who they want to be.”

 Elected officials, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, both Democrats, were among those attending the march.

Before it started, Cuomo officially unveiled a New York state memorial to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people that honors victims of intolerance. Placed in Hudson River Park, it has nine boulders with pieces of glass installed in them that can act as prisms and reflect rainbows in sunlight.

Cuomo formed the commission to come up with an LGBT memorial after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando that left 49 people dead.

The theme of this year’s march was “Defiantly Different.” Eighty floats and tens of thousands of marchers were expected.

In San Francisco, a weekend of gay pride events was finishing with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade and March through the city.

Organizers expected large crowds for the event, which included more than 240 contingents. This year’s theme was “Generations of Strength.

 
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Celebration and pride mixed with defiance in New York City on Sunday as throngs of people crowded the streets, rainbow flags waving, for the annual gay pride march.

Tennis legend Billie Jean King was one of the grand marshals, along with transgender advocate Tyler Ford and civil rights organization Lambda Legal. The event, and others like it around the country, commemorated the riots that erupted in response to a police raid at a New York gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in June 1969.

Onlookers and participants in New York noted those origins at Sunday’s event, which was both a celebration of the diversity of LGBT culture and a statement against anti-LGBT policies promoted by President Donald Trump, such as the Republican president’s attempt to ban all transgender people from serving in the military. They also spoke out against policies aimed at other communities, like immigrants and minorities.

“We’re making a statement that we’re here, everybody. Whether it’s immigrants, whether it’s queer people or people of color, we’re not going to put up with what this administration is doing,” said Diego Molano, of Queens, at his second pride parade. “You can’t just cage everybody up.”

Olivia Nadler, a Connecticut resident attending her third parade, said, “People that are oppressed are not going to go away, they’re not going to be quiet, they’re not going to be ignored.”

Among the signs people were carrying in the parade were phrases like, “Black and brown and trans lives matter” and “No more guns.”

Ohemaa Dixon, 20, from Brooklyn, teared up as she spoke about what the parade meant to her and the joy she felt in seeing everyone come out to attend.

“It’s okay to be who you are and love who you love and dress how you want to dress and do what you want to do because I think it’s so important to be who you are and who you love,” she said. “I’m getting emotional about it because I think it’s so beautiful when people are who they are. That’s why I love coming to these things. I think it’s really cool that people come and they are exactly who they want to be.”

 Elected officials, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, both Democrats, were among those attending the march.

Before it started, Cuomo officially unveiled a New York state memorial to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people that honors victims of intolerance. Placed in Hudson River Park, it has nine boulders with pieces of glass installed in them that can act as prisms and reflect rainbows in sunlight.

Cuomo formed the commission to come up with an LGBT memorial after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando that left 49 people dead.

The theme of this year’s march was “Defiantly Different.” Eighty floats and tens of thousands of marchers were expected.

In San Francisco, a weekend of gay pride events was finishing with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade and March through the city.

Organizers expected large crowds for the event, which included more than 240 contingents. This year’s theme was “Generations of Strength.

 
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Protests continue over the treatment of migrants detained in Texas for entering the United States illegally, although the Trump administration on Wednesday reversed its controversial practice of separating detained children and parents at the border.

On Sunday, about 30 parents who have been separated from their children by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol were released. U.S. officials had dropped criminal charges against the parents, who had been apprehended entering the country illegally.

Annunciation House, an El Paso, Texas, organization that aids immigrants, said it would be receiving the parents. It was not known how or when they might be reunited with their children.

Annunciation House Director Ruben Garcia said, “It is my understanding the charges were not dismissed by a judge, but rather they were withdrawn by the government.”

Garcia said the immigrants were given little guidance, other than an 800 number to call, to try to get information about their children. Some of the 30 parents were being held in the El Paso County facilities, he said.

Protests

Still, thousands of migrants remain in detention awaiting their court cases, and many are still apart from their children. As the dramatic story unfolds, Americans are hearing conflicting narratives.

On Sunday, about 100 people had gathered in Tornillo, Texas, where a children’s tent encampment has been built to deal with the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. Protesters chanted, “Free the children now!” according to the El Paso Times.

At an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Otay Mesa, California, near the U.S.-Mexico border, protesters on Friday chanted “immigrants are welcome” and demanded the release of the families detained in Texas.

“They’ve got a big mess right now, families that are separated that can’t even talk to each other, connect with each other, make sure that everybody in the family is still okay,” said protester Jan Denny. “We’re not even sure yet how they’re going to get all these people reunited,” she added of the confusion surrounding the shifting policy.

At the White House on Friday, President Donald Trump highlighted other families whose loved ones had been killed by illegal immigrants. “These are the families the media ignores,” he said, as he introduced people holding photos of their loved ones.

“Respect this country. Respect the laws of this country, and then you can come in, like my family did,” said Agnes Gibboney, the mother of a son killed by an illegal immigrant.

The Trump administration says 500 of the more than 2,000 separated children have been reunited with their families.

Protesters in California say Trump is following a pattern of blaming migrants for the nation’s problems.

“Whether these are Chinese immigrants, whether these are Mexicano immigrants, and now Central American immigrants,” said a protester named Myron of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, “there has always been an excuse to blame others.”

Trump critics

Among those raising their voices at the rally was Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California.

Harris, a frequent Trump critic, toured an adult detention center, where she met with mothers separated from their family members and children. “This is a fight,” she said, “born out of knowing who we are and fighting for the ideals of our country.”

Julian Castro, a former San Antonio mayor and secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration, told demonstrators in Tornillo Sunday that it’s an issue “about what is right and what is wrong.”

Trump has demanded better border security and a merit-based system of immigration. Protesters say he wants to bar immigrants from the developing world, who already face a hard path to entry and huge backlog of cases.

“We have a broken immigration system,” said Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. “This is not news to anybody.”

The immigration issue is divisive, but Andrew Pappas of Cincinnati, Ohio, told the Associated Press that he believes Trump’s goal “was not to tear families apart” but “to make Congress act on immigration reform.”

One California border protester, Ellen Montanari, said the issue is close to her heart because her adopted daughter is Latina, like most families in detention.

“We do need sane members of Congress to sit down and talk about what a reasonable immigration policy looks like,” Montanari said, although she worries that in this year of congressional elections, there will instead be more posturing.

 
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Protests continue over the treatment of migrants detained in Texas for entering the United States illegally, although the Trump administration on Wednesday reversed its controversial practice of separating detained children and parents at the border.

On Sunday, about 30 parents who have been separated from their children by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol were released. U.S. officials had dropped criminal charges against the parents, who had been apprehended entering the country illegally.

Annunciation House, an El Paso, Texas, organization that aids immigrants, said it would be receiving the parents. It was not known how or when they might be reunited with their children.

Annunciation House Director Ruben Garcia said, “It is my understanding the charges were not dismissed by a judge, but rather they were withdrawn by the government.”

Garcia said the immigrants were given little guidance, other than an 800 number to call, to try to get information about their children. Some of the 30 parents were being held in the El Paso County facilities, he said.

Protests

Still, thousands of migrants remain in detention awaiting their court cases, and many are still apart from their children. As the dramatic story unfolds, Americans are hearing conflicting narratives.

On Sunday, about 100 people had gathered in Tornillo, Texas, where a children’s tent encampment has been built to deal with the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. Protesters chanted, “Free the children now!” according to the El Paso Times.

At an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Otay Mesa, California, near the U.S.-Mexico border, protesters on Friday chanted “immigrants are welcome” and demanded the release of the families detained in Texas.

“They’ve got a big mess right now, families that are separated that can’t even talk to each other, connect with each other, make sure that everybody in the family is still okay,” said protester Jan Denny. “We’re not even sure yet how they’re going to get all these people reunited,” she added of the confusion surrounding the shifting policy.

At the White House on Friday, President Donald Trump highlighted other families whose loved ones had been killed by illegal immigrants. “These are the families the media ignores,” he said, as he introduced people holding photos of their loved ones.

“Respect this country. Respect the laws of this country, and then you can come in, like my family did,” said Agnes Gibboney, the mother of a son killed by an illegal immigrant.

The Trump administration says 500 of the more than 2,000 separated children have been reunited with their families.

Protesters in California say Trump is following a pattern of blaming migrants for the nation’s problems.

“Whether these are Chinese immigrants, whether these are Mexicano immigrants, and now Central American immigrants,” said a protester named Myron of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, “there has always been an excuse to blame others.”

Trump critics

Among those raising their voices at the rally was Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California.

Harris, a frequent Trump critic, toured an adult detention center, where she met with mothers separated from their family members and children. “This is a fight,” she said, “born out of knowing who we are and fighting for the ideals of our country.”

Julian Castro, a former San Antonio mayor and secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration, told demonstrators in Tornillo Sunday that it’s an issue “about what is right and what is wrong.”

Trump has demanded better border security and a merit-based system of immigration. Protesters say he wants to bar immigrants from the developing world, who already face a hard path to entry and huge backlog of cases.

“We have a broken immigration system,” said Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. “This is not news to anybody.”

The immigration issue is divisive, but Andrew Pappas of Cincinnati, Ohio, told the Associated Press that he believes Trump’s goal “was not to tear families apart” but “to make Congress act on immigration reform.”

One California border protester, Ellen Montanari, said the issue is close to her heart because her adopted daughter is Latina, like most families in detention.

“We do need sane members of Congress to sit down and talk about what a reasonable immigration policy looks like,” Montanari said, although she worries that in this year of congressional elections, there will instead be more posturing.

 
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For many Americans, the ultimate embodiment of their love for cars and freedom is renting or owning recreational vehicles, or RVs, which made their mass debut in the U.S. in 1930s, only to become more popular in ensuing decades. Today, more than nine million Americans own RVs and love traveling and spending their vacations in these miniature homes. Mariia Prus explains how it is possible to have everything needed for a comfortable trip in one vehicle or towed trailer. Steve Baragona narrates.
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For many Americans, the ultimate embodiment of their love for cars and freedom is renting or owning recreational vehicles, or RVs, which made their mass debut in the U.S. in 1930s, only to become more popular in ensuing decades. Today, more than nine million Americans own RVs and love traveling and spending their vacations in these miniature homes. Mariia Prus explains how it is possible to have everything needed for a comfortable trip in one vehicle or towed trailer. Steve Baragona narrates.
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