Today In News: June 8, 2017

Today In News:

• Comey told lawmakers the Trump administration had lied and defamed him and the Federal Bureau of Investigation after the president dismissed him on May 9--Former FBI director James Comey accused President Donald Trump on Thursday of firing him to try to undermine its investigation into possible collusion by his campaign team with Russia's alleged efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

• Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party will fail to win a parliamentary majority in Britain's election, according to an exit poll on Thursday.

• President Donald Trump's personal attorney disputed key points of the testimony of former FBI director James Comey on Thursday and attacked Comey for leaking information to the media.

• A series of trade and movement measures against Qatar imposed by neighbouring countries are "against human rights before anything else...the people living there not to be left without necessary food and water supplies, after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut trade and diplomatic ties with Doha.

• A joint statement by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE has placed 59 individuals and 12 organisations - Qatar based or funded by Qatar - on a "terror list". "This list is connected to Qatar and serves suspect agendas, in an indication of two-faced Qatari policies, which announce that they are fighting terrorism on one hand, while funding, supporting and sheltering various terrorist groups on the other." the statement read.

• 2 Congressional sources told NBC News that President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, intends to meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee staff in mid-June on the condition that he submit documents and answer questions from the senators themselves at a later time.

• Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden on Thursday defended former FBI Director James Comey's efforts to publicly disclose memos of his interactions with President Trump.

• “Was the Russian activity in the 2016 election a one-off proposition or is this a part of a long-term strategy?   Will they be back?”  “Oh, it’s a long-term practice of theirs.   It’s stepped up a notch in a significant way in ’16,” Comey replied. Fired FBI Director James Comey on Thursday said that Russia “will be back” to interfere in future U.S. elections. 

• A few months ago when Comey allies began fighting back with negative stories about Trump in the press, the president issued a startling warning on Twitter: “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”---“Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” Comey said.

• The Republican-led House approved sweeping legislation Thursday to undo much of former President Barack Obama’s landmark banking law created after the 2008 economic crisis that caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs and homes.

• Last month, Qatar's official news agency was hacked and false statements attributed to the country's ruler were posted that helped spark a rift with other Arab Gulf states.  Today, The websites and digital platforms of Al Jazeera Media Network are undergoing systematic and continual hacking attempts.