President Donald Trump, who recently accused Xi Jinping of working to “conspire” against the United States, hopes to finalize the fate of video-sharing app TikTok and make progress on trade talks in a phone call with the Chinese leader on Friday.”I’m speaking with President Xi, as you know, on Friday, having to do with TikTok, and also trade,” Trump said Thursday in an interview with Fox News.”And we’re very close to deals on all of it. And my relationship with China is very good.”The call will be the second between the two men since Trump returned to the White House in January, and the third since the start of the year.On June 5, the US president said Xi had invited him to visit China, and he issued a similar invitation for the Chinese leader to come to the United States. So far, no travel plans have been made, but several analysts expect Xi to repeat his offer, especially knowing that Trump is always keen to be received with diplomatic fanfare. – TikTok -“Each leader will aim to signal that he has outmaneuvered the other” in trade talks focused on tariffs, Ali Wyne, an expert on US-China relations at the International Crisis Group, predicted in a note.The pair could settle the TikTok drama, after Trump repeatedly put off a ban under a law designed to force Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its US operations for national security reasons.Trump told reporters on Thursday that he hoped to “finalize something on TikTok.”Under the deal, TikTok’s US business would be “owned by all American investors, and very rich people and companies,” Trump said. He said he believes TikTok had boosted his appeal to younger voters and helped him win the 2024 election.The president on Tuesday again pushed back applying a ban on the app, which had been decided under his predecessor Joe Biden.The Wall Street Journal raised the possibility of a consortium to control TikTok that would include tech giant Oracle and two California investment funds — Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz.- Tariffs -The telephone talks come as the world’s two biggest economies seek to find a compromise on tariffs.Both sides dramatically hiked tariffs against each other during a months-long dispute earlier this year, disrupting global supply chains.Washington and Beijing then reached a deal to reduce levies, which expires in November, with the United States imposing 30 percent duties on imports of Chinese goods and China hitting US products with a 10 percent tariff. The phone meeting also comes after Xi organized a major summit this month with the leaders of Russia and India — and invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to observe a major military parade in Beijing.”Please give my warmest regards to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America,” Trump wrote to Xi on his Truth Social platform. The US leader slammed India with punitive tariffs for its oil purchases from Moscow, and has called on European countries to sanction China for buying Russian oil, though Washington has not itself sanctioned Beijing. “If they did that on China, I think the war (in Ukraine) would maybe end,” Trump told Fox News. 

Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen threw for three touchdowns and the Bills extended their dominance of the Miami Dolphins with a 31-21 victory on Thursday to remain unbeaten in the young NFL season.Reigning NFL Most Valuable Player Allen threw for 213 yards and three touchdowns and linebacker Terrel Bernard picked off Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa with three minutes remaining to help seal a game in which the Dolphins had kept it close.”I thought their offense did a good job of sustaining drives and really limiting our opportunities,” Allen said. “I thought we had opportunities on the offensive side and we didn’t take advantage of some of them, but at the end of the day we got the win.”Buffalo running back James Cook rushed for 108 yards, including a two-yard touchdown as the Bills notched a seventh straight victory over their AFC East division rivals Miami.Tagovailoa had hit Tyreek Hill with a five-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter to knot the score at 21-21.It looked like the Bills would come up empty on their first chance to respond.But Miami’s Zach Sieler was called for roughing the punter and the penalty kept alive a Bills drive that ended with Khalil Shakir’s 15-yard touchdown that pushed the Bills to a 28-21 lead with 7:17 remaining.The Dolphins were within scoring range when Bernard stepped across to grab a pass Tagovailova intended for Jaylen Wade.”I thought I was in rhythm, in timing of the play,” Tagovailoa said, adding: “think that was a really good play by the defender.”Matt Prater added the final dagger with a 48-yard field goal on Buffalo’s next possession.”That was a heck of a game, high-level competition,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said.”The Dolphins played a real good game and our guys made a couple more plays and I thought the grit, the mental toughness of our football team was on display throughout the game, in particular in the fourth quarter there.”The Bills improved to 3-0 while Miami were left in search of a first win of the season.Tagovailoa connected on 23 of 34 passes for 146 yards and two touchdowns.Ollie Gordon had put the Dolphins up 7-0 with a two-yard TD run in the first quarter. But Miami’s late miscues will keep the pressure on Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, despite a livelier performance from his team than they showed in their previous two defeats.”We knew we had to not turn the ball over and we had to play good football and make some plays,” McDaniel said.”We had a turnover in a critical situation, we had a critical penalty on a punt and those types of things, that’s how these types of games are decided,” he added.

Young Americans challenging President Donald Trump’s fossil fuel agenda say they were proud to have their day in court — even if it meant fielding tough, sometimes perplexing questions from government lawyers.”I don’t think the gravity of that situation has permeated through my brain yet,” 19-year-old Joseph Lee told AFP at the close of a two-day hearing in Lighthiser v. Trump.”I’m going to wake up and realize, ‘Wow, I really did that.’ I testified in court against my own federal government, and it’s just such a meaningful thing to be part of this process.”The case challenges three executive orders that the plaintiffs say trample their inalienable rights to life and liberty by seeking to “unleash” fossil fuels while sidelining sources of renewable energy. The plaintiffs also seek to reverse the administration’s dismantling of climate science — from suppressing a key national climate report to proposing to shut down a critical carbon dioxide monitoring site in Hawaii. Judge Dana Christensen is now weighing whether to grant a preliminary injunction that could pave the way to trial — or throw the case out, as the government has urged.- ‘It’s not about ACs’ -Despite the gravity of the issues at the center of the case, the plaintiffs said they found themselves questioning the seemingly insignificant details raised in court. Lee, from California, testified that a case of heat stroke left him hospitalized on the brink of organ failure.During cross-examination, Justice Department attorney Erik Van de Stouwe asked whether he had sued the University of California, San Diego over its lack of air conditioning in dorms, implying that — and not climate action — was the remedy.”It’s not about ACs,” Lee later told AFP. “Minimizing it to something as trivial just goes to show” that the government’s case lacks merit, he added.At another point, Van de Stouwe questioned whether Lee could prove Trump’s climate cuts cost him opportunities to gain a research position at university — even though a university-wide letter, entered into evidence, explicitly cited the executive actions for reducing such positions. When pressed on how he could be certain, Lee replied that as a student he lacked the power to investigate the matter beyond all doubt.”But you did have the capacity to investigate the government’s executive orders?” the lawyer shot back. Lee responded he had the ability to read their plain language — a remark that drew murmurs of approval from the packed and supportive federal courtroom in Missoula, Montana.- ‘Really empowering’ -In another strange exchange, 20-year-old Avery McRae of Oregon was asked whether the anxiety she linked to climate change might stem from having spent half her life suing the federal government.And when 17-year-old Jorja McCormick of Livingston, Montana took the stand, she recalled the day a firefighter knocked on her family’s door and ordered them to evacuate as flames closed in, a moment, she said, that left her traumatized. Under cross examination, government attorney Miranda Jensen asked: “You just testified you have three horses, right? You’re aware that raising horses contributes to global warming?”Speaking after the hearings wrapped up, McCormick said she had mulled over the exchange. “There’s coal trains going through my downtown every day,” spewing toxic dust, she told AFP. “So I think my horses being out on open property minding their own business compared to coal trains hurting the entire community is quite different.”Despite the grilling, McCormick described testifying as cathartic. “Being on the stand was really empowering — telling my story, getting it out into the world like that was almost healing.”Whatever the outcome of Lighthiser v. Trump, she said she plans to continue her activism.”A better future is possible,” added Lee. “If a decision isn’t favorable, we’ll keep fighting.”