Court blocks Trump's plan to bar transgender people from military

A federal court in Washington has blocked Donald Trump from changing the government's policy on military service by transgender people.

The US president announced in August that he intended to reverse a 2016 policy that allowed troops to serve openly as transgender individuals.

He said he would order a return to the policy prior to June 2016, under which service members could be discharged for being transgender.

US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote on Monday that transgender members of the military who had sued over the change were likely to win their lawsuit, and she barred the Trump administration from reversing the policy.