Today In News: July 7, 2017

Today In News:

Courtesy of Al-Jazeera

• Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US President Donald Trump have agreed on a partial ceasefire deal covering south-western Syria during talks at the G20 summit.  The truce would come into effect at midday Damascus time (0900 GMT) on Sunday.

• Syrian rebels said they were preparing to join the Turkish military in a major new offensive against Kurdish forces in northwestern Syria, raising the prospect of yet another front in an increasingly complex conflict. The goal of the battle would be to regain a string of Arab villages in Syria near the Turkish border that were seized last year by Kurdish-led militia fighters.

• Despite clinging to only a sliver of territory in Mosul, Islamic State militants managed to launch a counterattack Friday that reversed days of Iraqi army territorial gains in just a matter of hours.

• Islamic militants attacked a remote Egyptian army outpost in the Sinai Peninsula with a suicide car bomb and heavy machine gun fire, killing at least 23 soldiers in the deadliest attack in the turbulent region in two years.

• A 19-year-old rape survivor has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in El Salvador after she suffered a stillbirth due to complications during her pregnancy.

• The Trump administration aims to further tighten its grip on spending, issuing a memo that calls for eliminating some federal agencies and cutting government jobs as part of the upcoming fiscal 2019 budget.

• Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Hamburg, Germany, to protest against capitalism, climate polices and globalisation among other issues as world leaders gather for the two-day G20 summit. About 159 police officers have been injured and 45 protesters arrested.

• President Trump tweeted “everyone here is talking about” how Democrats handled the hacking related to last year’s presidential election.

• Russian foreign minister has claimed Donald Trump accepted Vladimir Putin’s assurances that Russia did not meddle in the US presidential election.

• Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, blasted President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying Americans should be skeptical on how hard Trump pressed Putin on Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump and Lavrov were joined in the meeting by Rex Tillerson, who said the leaders planned to put in place "a working-level group" to handle cybersecurity.

• The U.N. cultural organization declared an ancient shrine in the occupied West Bank a Palestinian heritage site, prompting Israel to further cut its funding to the United Nations.

• The United States plans to carry out a new test of its THAAD missile defense system against an intermediate-range ballistic missile in the coming days. The test will be the first of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) to defend against a simulated attack by an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

• Sitting next to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at the G-20 summit in Germany, Trump told reporters Friday that he "absolutely" wants Mexico to fund the barrier.