Today In News: June 30, 2017

Today In News:

Courtesy of Reuters

• US-backed fighters have seized the last road into Raqqa, and now say they have completely encircled the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) de facto capital in northern Syria.

• Obama created the White House Council on Women and Girls in 2009, 3 months into his first term, to monitor the impact of policy changes with women’s groups and maintain open lines of communication. Now the Trump administration evaluates whether to keep it.

• MSNBC hosts assailed by Donald Trump questioned his mental health and charged that the White House had tried unsuccessfully to get them to apologize to the president for unfavorable coverage in exchange for his getting a negative tabloid story about them killed.

• President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, told "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski they would need to apologize to Trump in order to avoid the National Enquirer publishing a story about their relationship.

• Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Friday that she supports President Donald Trump’s use of social media to attack his opponents, especially when so much of the media coverage of him is “neither productive nor patriotic.”

• President Donald Trump said Friday morning he’s sending in federal assistance to Chicago to help curb its crime problem. “Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year!”   Trump tweeted.

• South Africa may need outside financial assistance to get out of its economic spiral, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, calling for "drastic measures" to revive growth.

• As U.S. officials investigated in January the FSB's alleged role in election cyber attacks, U.S. technology firms were quietly lobbying the government to soften a ban on dealing with the Russian spy agency, said the people with direct knowledge of the effort.

• French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been placed under formal investigation over an alleged European parliament funding scandal.

• Mayor Bill de Blasio is now planning to allow the New York City to pay roughly $2 million to cover most of his outstanding legal bills related to multiple investigations of his fundraising efforts.

• An appeals court has upheld a decision to dismiss a lawsuit from a Yemeni man whose relatives were killed in a U.S. drone strike he alleges was unlawful.  At issue is an August 2012 drone strike in Khashamir, Yemen, that killed Salem bin Ali Jaber, a local imam known for preaching against al Qaeda, and Waleed bin Ali Jaber, a local policeman, among others.

• Top officials in more than 10 states have announced they won't turn over all voter roll data to President Trump's commission on voter fraud.