DREAMERS CAN STAY IN THE UNITED STATES

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The US Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a President Donald Trump a major

setback on his hard-line immigration policies, ruling against his bid to end

a program that protects from deportation hundreds of thousands of

immigrants, dubbed "Dreamers", who entered the United States illegally as

children.

The justices on a 5-4 vote upheld lower court rulings that found that

Trump's 2017 move to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

(DACA) program, created in 2012 by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama,

was unlawful.

Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's four liberals in

finding that the administrations actions were "arbitrary and capricious"

under a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act.

The ruling means that the roughly 649,000 immigrants, mostly young Hispanic

adults born in Mexico and other Latin American countries, currently enrolled

in DACA will remain protected from deportation and eligible to obtain

renewable two-year work permits.

Mr Trump denounced the decision in a series of tweets.

"These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme

Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call

themselves Republicans or Conservative," he wrote.

He called on voters to re-elect him in November to put more conservative

judges in the court, should there be a vacancy.

CHINA SAYS IT WILL 'RESOLUTELY HIT BACK' AT US OVER SANCTIONS LAW ON UIGHUR

ABUSES

China on Thursday sharply criticised a new US law that aims to sanction

Chinese officials for human rights violations in Xinjiang, saying it

"maliciously attacks" government policies.

China will resolutely hit out and the US will bear the burden of

consequences, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday.

China reacted after US President Donald Trump signed the Uyghur Human Rights

Policy Act into law on Wednesday.

The statement came after US secretary of state Mike Pompeo met top Chinese

diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Hawaii on Wednesday.

Yang, a member of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) politburo is also the

director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central

Committee, expressed strong dissatisfaction with the new law.

"China strongly deplores the US signing into law the 'Uyghur Human Rights

Policy Act of 2020'. We urge the US side to respect China's

counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation efforts, stop applying double

standards on counter-terrorism issues, and stop using Xinjiang-related

issues as a pretext to interfere in China's internal affairs," Yang was

quoted as telling Pompeo in the foreign ministry statement.

TRUMP SAYS 'COMPLETE DECOUPLING' FROM CHINA REMAINS AN OPTION

President Donald Trump said the US could pursue a "complete decoupling from

China" in response to unspecified conditions, his most forceful statement

yet on the souring ties with Beijing.

In a tweet Thursday, Trump refuted comments a day earlier by US Trade

Representative Robert Lighthizer, who said a full decoupling of the world's

two biggest economies was not "a reasonable policy option."

The tweet comes a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Chinese

official Yang Jiechi, amid questions over whether the nations' trade pact

will remain intact. According to Pompeo, Yang said China is committed to

maintaining agriculture purchases that were crucial to Trump's support of

the deal.

"I think the trade deal is a great deal. But ever since we got hit with the

Chinese plague, I feel different toward everything having to do with China.

And I've always been hardline on China," he told the Wall Street Journal

during an interview on Wednesday.

FACEBOOK REMOVES TRUMP ADS WITH SYMBOLS ONCE USED BY NAZIS

Facebook has removed campaign ads by President Donald Trump and Vice

President Mike Pence that featured an upside-down red triangle, a symbol

once used by Nazis to designate political prisoners, communists and others

in concentration camps.

Nathaniel Gleicher, the company's head of security policy, confirmed at a

House Intelligence Committee hearing on June 18 that the ads had been

removed, saying Facebook does not permit symbols of hateful ideology unless

they're put up with context or condemnation.

"In a situation where we don't see either of those, we don't allow it on the

platform and we remove it. That's what we saw in this case with this ad, and

anywhere that that symbol is used, we would take the same action," Mr.

Gleicher said.

The ad began running on June 17.

In a statement, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said the

inverted red triangle was a symbol used by antifa so it was included in an

ad about antifa. He said the symbol is not in the Anti-Defamation League's

database of symbols of hate. "But it is ironic that it took a Trump ad to

force the media to implicitly concede that Antifa is a hate group," he

added.

'IRANIAN NAVY TEST-FIRES CRUISE MISSILE'

Iran said on Thursday its navy had successfully fired a locally made cruise

missile during war games in the northern Indian Ocean and near the entrance

to the Gulf.

The test-firing comes as the United States is seeking an extension of a

U.N.-imposed arms embargo against Iran, which is due to expire in October

under Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Washington withdrew from

that pact.

"During the exercises, short-range and long-range coast-to-sea and

sea-to-sea missiles were successfully fired from the coast and from decks of

ships, hitting their targets with great precision," the semi-official Tasnim

news agency reported.

FRANCE SLAMS 'PROVOCATION' AS U.S. HALTS DIGITAL TAX TALKS

France and the U.S. locked horns on Thursday over taxing digital giants such

as Google and Facebook, after Washington said it was breaking off talks

aimed at establishing a global framework for making the companies pay larger

levies where they operate.

"This letter is a provocation," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said,

confirming receipt of the announcement by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven

Mnuchin.

France, Britain, Italy and Spain have already sent a reply expressing their

desire to agree on "a fair digital tax at the level of the OECD as quickly

as possible," Mr.Le Maire said.

"We were a few centimetres away from an agreement on a tax for digital

giants, who are perhaps the only people in the world to have benefitted

immensely from the coronavirus," he told France Inter radio.

In January, 137 countries agreed to negotiate a deal on how to tax tech

multinationals by 2020-end, under the auspices of the OECD.

European countries in particular say the so-called GAFA - Google, Apple,

Facebook and Amazon - are unfairly exploiting tax rules that let them

declare profits in low-tax havens, depriving them of a fair share of their

fiscal payments.

Meanwhile, France as well as U.K., Spain, Italy and others have imposed

taxes on the largest digital firms.

PAKISTAN KEEN TO FORGE LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIP WITH RUSSIA: FM QURESHI TO

SERGEY LAVROV

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday called his

Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and expressed Islamabad's desire to forge

a long-term and multi-dimensional partnership with Moscow as the two leaders

discussed matters such as coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the Afghan

peace process.

During their telephonic conversation, Mr. Qureshi offered condolences on the

loss of precious lives in Russia due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Russia, currently the third worst-hit country from COVID-19, has reported

5,61,091 confirmed cases. The country's death toll stands at 7,660. Matters

of mutual interest, including the COVID-19 pandemic, cooperation at the

multilateral fora, prospects of enhanced bilateral cooperation, and regional

issues were discussed, according to Foreign Office in Islamabad.

The two Foreign Ministers exchanged views about the socio-economic

ramifications about the pandemic. Foreign Minister Lavrov expressed

solidarity with Pakistan in its efforts to combat the outbreak.

Mr. Qureshi underlined that Pakistan considered Russia an important partner

and desired to forge a long-term and multi-dimensional partnership with

Russia.

AUSTRALIA CYBER ATTACK: PM MORRISON WARNS OF 'SOPHISTICATED' STATE HACK

Australia's government and institutions are being targeted by an ongoing

sophisticated state-based cyber hack, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says.

Mr Morrison said the cyber attacks were widespread, covering "all levels of

government" as well as essential service providers and businesses.

He declined to identify a specific state actor, adding no major personal

data breaches had been made.

The activity has been increasing in frequency over many months, he said.

He said cyber experts had identified it as a state hack "because of the

scale and nature of the targeting and the trade craft used".

When asked whether that country had been identified, Mr Morrison said he

would not make "any public attribution".

"There are not a large number of state-based actors that can engage in this

type of activity," he told reporters on Friday.

He stressed that similar "malicious" activity had been seen in jurisdictions

globally, making it not unique to Australia.