By JONATHAN LEMIRE and KEVIN FREKING

LONDON (AP) — Moving from pageantry to policy during his state visit to Britain, President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged embattled Prime Minister Theresa May to “stick around” to complete a U.S.-U.K. trade deal, adding to this recent chapter of uncertainty in the allies’ storied relationship.

The president, whose praise for May follows his touting of her possible successors, met with the prime minister and corporate executives from the United States and United Kingdom as part of a day of negotiations on Trump’s second day on British soil. The leaders’ top priority is a possible bilateral trade deal to be negotiated once – or if — the U.K. leaves the European Union.

“I think we’ll have a very, very substantial trade deal,” said Trump, extolling its virtues for both nations. “I think that this is something we both want to do … we’re going to get it done.”

Traditionally, U.S. presidents avoid interjecting themselves in the domestic politics of other nations. But Trump is far from traditional.

Trump told the Sunday Times in an interview before arriving that Britain should “walk away” from talks and refuse to pay a 39 billion-pound ($49 billion) divorce bill if it doesn’t get better terms from the EU.

That move, known as a “hard Brexit,” could have a devastating impact on the U.K. economy, according to many experts, and stands in contrast to a previous White House position that the departure should be as painless as possible. Others in the U.K. are pressing for a second referendum that could keep the EU intact.

The president has also opined that Brexit party leader Nigel Farage, an outspoken advocate of leaving the EU without a deal, should be given a role in the negotiations. Farage, a divisive figure in Britain, has long been a Trump supporter. And while Trump has avoided criticizing May on this visit, unlike a year ago when he blistered her in a newspaper interview just before landing in London, the president has touted her rival, Conservative Party leadership candidate Boris Johnson, as an “excellent” leader for the U.K.

The economic meeting at St. James’s Palace brought together 10 leading companies — five from the UK and five from the United States. CEOs and senior representatives from BAE Systems, GlaxoSmithKline, National Grid, Barclays, Reckitt Benckiser, JP Morgan, Lockheed Martin, Goldman Sachs International, Bechtel and Splunk were listed as attending.

While the business leaders gathered, protesters began to assemble across London, some of whom had the now-infamous Trump baby balloon bobbing in the air near Parliament Square. Leaders of Britain’s main opposition party are due to join demonstrators at a rally in Trafalgar Square, just up the street from May’s Downing Street office. Also in Trafalgar Square: a 16-foot robotic likeness of Trump seated on a golden toilet.

The U.S. president arrived in Britain at a precarious moment, amid a fresh round of impeachment fervor back home and uncertainty on this side of the Atlantic. The day of meetings with May follow a whirlwind of pomp, circumstance and protest for Trump, who had lunch with Queen Elizabeth II and tea with Prince Charles before a grand state dinner at Buckingham Palace.

The queen used her toast to emphasize the importance of international institutions created by Britain, the United States and other allies after World War II, a subtle rebuttal to Trump, a critic of NATO and the U.N.

But most of the talk and the colorful images were just what the White House wanted to showcase Trump as a statesman while, back home, the race to succeed him — and talk of impeaching him — heated up. Yet Trump, forever a counter-puncher, immediately roiled diplomatic docility by tearing into London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

As so often happens when Trump travels overseas, norms were shattered, including when the president complained about his television viewing options in the foreign capital and urged people to punish CNN by boycotting its parent company, AT&T.

Following Tuesday’s focus on business and trade, Trump will use the next two days to mark the 75th anniversary of the June 6, 1944, D-Day landing, likely the last significant commemoration most veterans of the battle will see. The events will begin in Portsmouth, England, where the invasion was launched, and then move across the English Channel to France, where Allied forces began to recapture Western Europe from the Nazis.

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Associated Press writers Gregory Katz and Jill Lawless in London and Darlene Superville and Deb Riechmann in Washington contributed to this report.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) — Kevin Spacey made an unusual appearance Monday at a Massachusetts courthouse where his attorney demanded access to the cellphone of the young man who has accused the actor of groping him at a bar on the resort island of Nantucket in 2016.

Spacey’s attorney Alan Jackson called the case against Spacey “ridiculous” and accused prosecutors of withholding information from the defense. Jackson urged the judge to set a trial date as soon as possible, saying the former “House of Cards” star is “suffering” without a resolution to the case.

“This is a ridiculous case, and (prosecutors) shouldn’t have filed it,” Jackson said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors accused Spacey’s legal team of attempting to spin the case in its favor in the media by demanding information that it already had or was going to get.

“It seems providing the media with the defendant’s version was the true intent,” First Assistant District Attorney Brian Glenny wrote in court documents filed Monday.

Spacey, who was wearing a gray suit and glasses, sat at a table alongside his lawyers. He occasionally whispered in Jackson’s ear but didn’t speak during the hearing or respond to questions from reporters as he walked in or out of the courthouse.

Spacey was not required to attend the hearing and has stayed away from the courthouse except for his arraignment in January, which he also tried to avoid.

The 59-year-old actor, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of indecent assault and battery, faces up to 2½ years behind bars if convicted.

Spacey’s attorneys have stepped up their attacks on the credibility of the man who brought the allegations. In court documents filed Friday, Jackson accused the man of deleting text messages that support Spacey’s claims of innocence.

It’s the only criminal case that has been brought against the two-time Oscar winner since his career fell apart amid a flurry of sexual misconduct allegations in 2017.

The case came to light that year when former Boston TV anchor Heather Unruh said Spacey got her son drunk and then sexually assaulted him at the Club Car, a popular restaurant and bar on the island off Cape Cod.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people alleging sexual assault.

Spacey’s lawyers have called the allegations “patently false” and accused the man of lying in the hopes of making money in a civil case against Spacey. They argued the two engaged in nothing more than “consensual flirtation” and questioned why, according to the man’s story, he did not object or try to move away if he was being assaulted.

Prosecutors say they have already agreed to provide the defense a copy of the information they downloaded from the accuser’s phone, but Spacey’s attorneys say that’s not enough. They want the phone itself so they can do their own analysis and try to recover messages they claim were deleted.

Jackson said Monday that Unruh told authorities she removed anything concerning her son’s “frat boy activities” from his phone before handing it over in 2017. Jackson says it appears the accuser deleted certain messages between him and his then-girlfriend from his phone before sending screenshots of conversations to an officer investigating the case.

“There’s clearly information on that phone that (the accuser) and Heather Unruh do not want us to know,” Jackson said.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Trump administration is following through on a plan to allow year-round sales of gasoline mixed with 15{99cd714f394079a7f0ed2eb1518dd31342ff3ceb5b6c267c3ad8acd5b5a7d66b} ethanol.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced the change Friday, ending a summertime ban imposed out of concerns for increased smog from the higher ethanol blend. The agency had proposed the change in March.

The change also fulfills a pledge that President Donald Trump made to U.S. corn farmers, who see ethanol as an important driver of demand for their crops. Oil refineries have been seeking exemptions from government requirements to include ethanol in their fuel mixes.

Environmental groups contend the U.S. Clean Air Act prohibits year-round sales of E15, and court challenges are expected. Bill Wehrum, assistant administrator of the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, said Friday the agency is prepared to win a court fight.

Wehrum said Friday in a conference call with reporters that if the agency believed the change ran afoul of the Clean Air Act, “we wouldn’t have done it.”

Federal law for more than a decade has mandated that oil refineries mix ethanol into their fuel. The Trump administration’s former EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, had angered lawmakers, growers and ethanol processors in Iowa and other key election states by granting a spate of exemptions sparing refineries from that mandate.

The dispute sparked a billboard campaign and at least one tractor rally by angry farmers in the Midwest last year, threatening to erode what has been a base of support for Trump.

The change removes a barrier to wider sales of E15 and is expected to expand the market for ethanol — although immediate effects on the market are expected to be minimal. Only about 1,000 to 1,500 of more than 150,000 U.S. gas stations currently sell the higher-ethanol blend, Wehrum said.

“It’ll take some time” to see an overall jump in E15 sales, he said.

Friday’s announcement was widely lauded by Midwest lawmakers, farm groups and the biofuel industry.

“Our corn farmers are experiencing a perfect storm of economic and weather difficulties. This is a sign that the skies could be clearing,” said Ted Mottaz, a farmer from Elmwood, Illinois, and president of the Illinois Corn Growers Association.

Brooke Coleman, executive director of the Advanced Biofuels Business Council, said in a statement that the EPA deserves credit for making the change ahead of this year’s summer driving season.

“Year-round E15 opens up a vital new market, where innovators in advanced and cellulosic biofuels will have space to grow alongside American farmers,” Coleman said.

The EPA move also implements a regulatory change in the ethanol program intended to curb what the oil industry believes in price manipulation in the ethanol program. Wehrum said the regulatory change makes more transparent how ethanol tax credits are applied by ethanol blenders.