The Supreme Court will hear arguments over the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the court said Friday.

The announcement sets up a legal showdown later this year over President Donald Trump’s decision to remove protections that allow 669,000 Dreamers — who were illegally brought to the U.S. or overstayed a visa as children — to live and work in the United States legally. The high court could assign the case for argument as soon as October.

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The news comes as Trump and congressional Democrats continue to feud over his aggressive immigration crackdown and a growing influx of migrant families and children at the Southwest border.

DACA, which was established in 2012 as an executive-branch program by former President Barack Obama, provides deportation relief and work permits to Dreamers brought to the United States as children.

Trump, arguing that DACA would not withstand legal challenges, moved to phase out the initiative in September 2017. But three federal judges blocked the planned termination. Two federal appeals courts have subsequently issued rulings against Trump’s wind-down.

As a result of the lower court rulings, the Trump administration resumed processing renewals for people already enrolled in the program, and it may eventually be required to accept new applications.

Polls consistently show most Americans back a path to legal status for Dreamers, although the support is less robust among Republicans.

The Democrat-controlled House passed a bill earlier this month that would provide conditional legal status to an estimated 2.3 million Dreamers. Once legalized, Dreamers could eventually apply for permanent residence and citizenship if they meet certain criteria.

The bill also provides legal status to more than 400,000 immigrants covered by Temporary Protected Status, a separate humanitarian program for people whose home countries experience a natural disaster or armed conflict.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), however, has said it’s unlikely the Republican-controlled Senate will vote on the legislation, which was crafted by Democrats.

The administration has had a mixed record on high-profile immigration cases before the Supreme Court.

The justices on Thursday dealt Trump an unexpected blow when they ruled that the rationale for a citizenship question on the 2020 census was “contrived“ and sent the case back to lower courts. In that ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s liberal wing.

But the Supreme Court upheld another Trump policy a year ago when it ruled in favor of a revised version of his travel ban. The 5-4 ruling split along ideological lines, with the court’s conservative justices backing the president’s powers to restrict immigration in the interest of national security.

The United Arab Emirates is scaling back its military presence in Yemen as US-Iran tensions threaten security closer to home, a news report says.

The UAE – a key member of the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen – has pulled troops from the southern port of Aden and its western coast where it has built up and armed local forces leading the battle against the Houthi rebels, diplomats told Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.

Three diplomats said Abu Dhabi preferred to have its forces and equipment on hand should tension between the United States and Iran escalate further, after attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf and Tehran’s downing of an American drone last week.

It was unclear exactly how many troops had been drawn down. 

A western diplomat said the UAE withdrew “a lot” of forces from Yemen over the last three weeks.

“It is true that there have been some troop movements … but it is not a redeployment from Yemen,” a senior Emirati official was quoted as saying. He added the UAE remains fully committed to the military coalition and “will not leave a vacuum” in Yemen.

The Saudi-Emirati alliance intervened in Yemen in 2015 to try to restore the government that was overthrown by the Houthis.

Asked whether tensions with Iran were behind the move, the Emirati official said the troop movement was related to a ceasefire in Yemen’s main port city of Hodeidah, now held by the Houthis, under a UN-led peace pact reached last December.

“This is a natural progression,” the official said, reiterating the UAE’s support for UN efforts to implement the Hodeidah deal.

Hodeidah became the focus of the war last year when the coalition tried to seize the port, the Houthis’ main supply line.

Under the deal, which has yet to be fully implemented, both the Houthis and pro-coalition forces would withdraw from Hodeidah.

Tankers targeted

Two diplomats said progress on Hodeidah made it easier for the UAE to scale back its military presence in Yemen to reinforce defences at home in the wake of the attacks on four oil tankers off the UAE coast in May, which were followed by attacks on two more vessels in the Gulf of Oman a few weeks later.

Washington and Riyadh have publicly blamed Iran for the mysterious explosions, allegations Tehran has vehemently denied.

The US is in talks with allies for a global coalition to protect vital oil-shipping lanes in and near the Strait of Hormuz – through which 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes.

The Houthis have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities, further heightening tensions. 

The Yemen conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the country to the verge of famine, is largely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which publicly supports the rebels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced liberalism as “obsolete” ahead of the annual summit of the Group of 20 (G20) nations in Osaka, Japan.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times overnight on Thursday, Putin trumpeted the rise of populist movements in Europe and the United States and said Russia’s Western partners had “admitted that some elements of the liberal idea, such as multiculturalism, are no longer tenable”.

“The so-called liberal idea … has outlived its purpose,” Putin said. “It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population.”

Putin also described German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow more than one million refugees into Germany as a “cardinal mistake”.

The Russian president also heaped praise on his American counterpart Donald Trump, calling him a “talented person” before lauding the US leader for his efforts to stem the number of migrants entering the country from neighbouring Mexico.

Trump has been dogged throughout his time in office by allegations of suspicious ties to Russia, including concerns that Moscow sought to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election to benefit the US leader.

Both Trump and Putin have repeatedly denied colluding with one another, while a major probe led by US special prosecutor Robert Mueller found there was no evidence of a joint plot concerning the ballot, despite concluding that there was an organised Russian campaign to influence the vote.

EU chief slams Putin’s comments

The Russian leader’s comments in Moscow came hours before world leaders – including Putin, Merkel and Trump – begun the G20 meet in Osaka on Friday morning.

Speaking at the summit, European Union President Donald Tusk blasted the 66-year-old leader’s choice of words.

Tusk told reporters that such comments suggest a belief that “freedoms are obsolete, that the rule of law is obsolete and that human rights are obsolete”.

“We are here as Europeans also to firmly and univocally defend and promote liberal democracy,” he said in a statement. “What I find really obsolete are: authoritarianism, personality cults, the rule of oligarchs. Even if sometimes they may seem effective.”

Tusk’s feisty comments fitted the tone of this year’s G20 meeting, with leaders present expected to clash over trade, foreign policy and climate change.

But host Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, appealed for unity among bickering world leaders at the start of Japan’s new era of “Reiwa”, or “beautiful harmony”.

“With your help, I hope we will realise a beautiful harmony in Osaka … rather than highlight our confrontations, let us seek out what unites us,” said Abe as he opened the talks.

The second night of the first United States 2020 Democratic debate took place on Thursday night with a another 10 candidates taking the stage in Miami, Florida. 

Thursday’s debate round saw a few more confrontations than the first night, including one between Senator Kamala Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden.

In an emotional exchange, Harris challenged Biden’s stance on busing to desegregate public schools during the 1970s, telling the former vice president that she was bused as a child two decades after the Brown v Board decision to end the separate but equal policy in the US education system.

Harris told Biden on Thursday that she did not believe he is a racist, but that his recollection of working with segregationist senators a generation ago in discussing partisan gridlock in Washington today was “hurtful”.

Biden said Harris was mischaracterising his position. Harris asked Biden, “Do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America?”

Biden said he didn’t oppose busing but federal intervention in the issue. Harris shot back: “There are moments in history where states fail to support the civil rights of people.”

Joining Harris and Biden on the stage were Senators Michael Bennet, Kirsten Gillibrand and Bernie Sanders, Representative Eric Swalwell, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, former Governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper, entrepreneur Marianne Williamson and startup investor Andrew Yang. 

Like Wednesday, Thursday’s 2020 Democratic debate round covered a wide range of issues including healthcare, immigration, climate change and women’s rights.

Healthcare

Only two of the 10 candidates on Thursday raised their hands when asked who supported abolishing private health insurance.

Sanders and Harris both signaled their support for “Medicare for All” and eliminating private insurance.

Sanders has long championed a Medicare-style system to cover all Americans’ healthcare services.

The question was also asked on Wednesday to the first 10 debate candidates. Senator Elizabeth Warren and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio were the only two to raise their hands.

Biden said the best way to ensure all Americans have coverage is to build on “Obamacare” rather than to pass “Medicare For All”.

Buttigieg said all people should have the option to access “Medicare for all who want it”.

Bennet said Sanders that “healthcare is a right” for all Americans, but he questioned Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan that would extend coverage to everyone in the country, saying the US isn’t ready for it.

Sanders is acknowledged that his proposals for sweeping government programmes would require middle-class Americans to pay more taxes. But he said they’d still spend less on healthcare under his system than they do today through the private insurance system.

Immigration

All but one Democratic candidate onstage Thursday said they would make irregular border crossings a civil, not, criminal offence.

Bennet was the only one of 10 candidates to not raise his hand when asked if he would seek to decriminalise irregular border crossings.

Buttigieg said he would end the felony criminalisation because it is “dead wrong”, and called Republicans who “cloak” themselves “in faith” hypocrites for letting children languish in cages. 

Biden promised a “surge” of aid and relief workers to the border to release children from the enclosures and reunite them with their families. He also said he would invest in Central America.

Asked about the Obama administration’s deportation of there million, Biden said the president that he served under “did a heck of a job” and that it would be wrong to compare him to President Donald Trump.

“The idea that he’s in court with his Justice Department saying, children in cages do not need a bed, do not need a blanket, do not need a toothbrush – that is outrageous,” Biden said.

Obama’s administration detained large numbers of unaccompanied children inside chain-link fences in 2014. Some of the images that circulated online of children in cages during the height of Trump’s family separations controversy were from 2014 when Obama was in office.

Harris promised Thursday to use her first day in office to help undocumented individuals brought to the country as children become citizens. She declared she’d use “the microphone that the president of the United States holds in her hand” to be a voice for real reform on the issue.

Sanders promised to repeal “every damn thing” Trump has done on immigration.

All 10 candidates said their proposals for government health insurance would include coverage for undocumented immigrants.

Biden and Buttigieg argued that not discriminating against covering all immigrants is humane, fiscally responsible and a matter of public health.

Buttigieg said even undocumented immigrants pay sales taxes, indirect or direct property taxes and, in many cases, payroll taxes.

Climate change

Several Democratic presidential candidates declared the climate crisis an existential threat and promising sweeping government action to combat dangers of a warming planet.

But they’re offered few specifics, and only former Hickenlooper named climate change as the first issue he’d tackle on Day One of his presidency.

Biden said he’d prioritise rebuilding world alliances committed to reducing emissions.

Sanders said taking on the fossil fuel industry is the key to reducing carbon pollution.

Harris said she supports a Green New Deal, a reference to proposals some Democrats are pushing on Capitol Hill.

Reproductive rights

For only the second time in history, more than one woman appeared on a presidential debate stage.

Rather than waiting for their turn to speak, Harris and Gillibrand repeatedly made their voices heard.

Gillibrand cut off Bennet to make a point and gave a firey defence of women’s reproductive rights.

“Women’s reproductive rights are under assault by President Trump and the Republican Party,” she said.

“It is mind-boggling to me that we are debating this on this stage in 2019 among Democrats whether women should have access to reproductive rights,” she added. “I think we have to stop playing defence and start playing offence.”

Sanders said if the Supreme Court overturns the Roe v Wade, the high court decision that legalised abortion, women would have access to the procedure when he’s president through his healthcare plan, “Medicare For All”.

Several states have passed abortion bans and restrictions recent months. Conservatives are hoping the laws will make their way to the Supreme Court, where a new conservative majority could reverse Roe v Wade.

Sanders said Medicare For All “guarantees every woman in this country the right to have an abortion if she wants it”.

He also said he would only nominate justices who support Roe v Wade, and he believes justices could be rotated to other courts to “bring in new blood” to the Supreme Court.

Relations with US allies

On the foreign policy front, the 10 Democrats were asked how they’d repair frayed foreign ties if they’re picked to replace Trump.

Biden, Harris and Swalwell said that they would reach out first to NATO alliance members to reinforce those ties.

Sanders urged a focus on the United Nations, while Williamson and Bennet said they’d call European allies.

Hickenlooper and Yang said they’d address China, while Gillibrand would engage with Iran and work towards stabilising the Middle East.

Buttigieg said all US international relationships should change because by the end of Trump’s term, the country “likely will have pissed off other allies”.

What was Trump doing?

Even though Trump was thousands of kilometres away at the G-20 summit in Japan, the US president took to Twitter during the debate.

He said that he “passed a TV set” and saw the Democrats debating.

Trump tweeted: “All Democrats just raised their hands for giving millions of illegal aliens unlimited healthcare. How about taking care of American Citizens first!?”

He then added: “That’s the end of that race!”

Who was onstage Wednesday?

Senators Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, Representatives Tulsi Gabbard and Tim Ryan, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Representatives Beto O’Rourke and John Delaney and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro took the stage Wednesday night in Miami, Florida.

Aside from technical difficulties, Wednesday’s round offered few major surprises, but some heated exchanges, as the candidates sought to appeal to voters by highlighting individual platforms and points of divergence.

Leaders from the Group of 20 nations are meeting in the Japanese city of Osaka for their annual summit. At the top of the agenda is the ongoing trade war between China and the United States, the world’s two biggest economies.

The G20 is an international leaders’ forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union.

Collectively, the grouping represents more than 80 percent of the world’s economic output and two-thirds of its people. Its primary aim is to promote international financial stability.

Here are the latest updates:

Friday, June 28:

‘A fantastic woman’

After his meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump had a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he called “a fantastic person, a fantastic woman.”

Subjects discussed included Iran. Libya, supporting the economy of Ukraine, trade negotiations with China, and global trade standards more generally.

After the meeting, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe greeted each of the G20 leaders one-by-one.

Mason Richey, Professor of international relations at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul tells Al Jazeera: 

“I think that Trump is going to be interested in playing up the positive side of the relationships that the US has with allies and strategic partners whether that be Japan, or whether that be NATO or whether that be India.

“And I think in some ways he’s perhaps playing good-cop-bad-cop with himself. He’s played bad cop with Japan and India on security issues and on trade issues. And now he’s a there playing up the positive side of the relationship, talking about how close the US relationship is with India and Japan.”

Trump, Modi and Abe meet

US President Donald Trump arrived at the G20 Summit venue by car and was greeted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the host.

“We’ll be discussing trade, we’ll be discussing military,” Trump told reporters, praising Japanese auto companies building plants in the US.

“The car companies have been terrific. They’re coming in and they’re building magnificent plants. We haven’t had that, and we very much appreciate it.”

North Korea, Iran, and bilateral trade were issues raised in the discussions, though few details were offered.

Later, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined for a trilateral meeting. Abe described the grouping as “the foundation of peace and prosperity in the region.”

As for US-India trade talks, Trump declared, “It’ll be very positive … I think we will just continue to get along with India … I think we are going to have some very big things to announce. Very big trade deal.”

In a tweet on Thursday, Trump said Indian tariffs on US products were “unacceptable.”

Earlier this month, India imposed higher retaliatory tariffs on 28 US goods such as walnuts, almonds and apples.

That was in retaliation for Trump’s move to scrap trade privileges under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for India, the biggest beneficiary of a scheme that allowed duty-free exports of up to $5.6bn a year.

Speaking of Iran, Trump stated, “We have a lot of time – there’s no rush they can take their time. There is absolutely no time pressure. Hopefully in the end it’s going to work out. If it does, great, if it doesn’t, you‘ll be hearing about it.”