Today In News: June 12, 2017

Today In News:

• “I think he’s considering perhaps terminating the special counsel,” Chris Ruddy told PBS’ Judy Woodruff on “PBS NewsHour.” A friend of President Trump said Monday that Trump is considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the FBI investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

• President Donald Trump on Monday chaired the first meeting of his full Cabinet, saying the team is here to “change Washington.”

• The Trump administration has refused to sign an international declaration committing to action on climate change. 

• The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday ruled against President Trump's so-called travel ban...again, delivering another blow to the administration, delivering another blow to the administration as it waits for the Supreme Court to decide whether to intervene.The ban temporarily banned nationals from 6 Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S., suspended the entry of all refugees, and reduced the cap on the admission of refugees from 110,000 to 50,000 for the 2017 fiscal year.

• Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday took to Twitter to mock Senate Republicans for the process behind their ObamaCare repeal bill.

• President Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, has criticized the level of “viciousness” her father has been subjected too.

• Comey thrust Sessions back into the spotlight of the roiling Russia controversy with his incendiary appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will face a grilling Tuesday on Capitol Hill over contacts with Russian officials and his role in President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey.

• Puerto Rico's governor on Monday said the island's vote in favor of becoming a U.S. state, despite low voter turnout and widespread boycotts, was "a fair and open" process that U.S. Congress should act upon.

• Tens of thousands of protesters held anti-corruption rallies across Russia on Monday in a new show of defiance by an opposition that the Kremlin had once dismissed as ineffectual and marginalized. More than a thousand were arrested. 

• Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte avoided jail time after pleading guilty Monday to an election-eve assault on a reporter that turned the race for Montana’s lone U.S. House seat into a full-fledged political spectacle.

• Maryland and the Washington DC, the US capital, sued President Donald Trump saying he is breaking laws by raking in money from foreign governments and businesses at his luxury hotels and office towers and other business operations that effectively violate the US Constitution's ban on presidents enriching themselves while in office.    

• The Emir of Kuwait, who has led mediation efforts to resolve the Gulf crisis, has cautioned that the dispute between Qatar and three fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members could lead to "undesirable consequences".