Today In World News: July 11, 2017

Today In World News:

Courtesy of The Atlantic

• The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that it had "confirmed information" that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed. Russia's Defence Ministry said in June that it might have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit a gathering of Islamic State commanders on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa.

• A decade after the Islamist group Hamas seized Gaza, the Palestinian enclave is effectively unliveable for its 2 million people, with declining incomes, healthcare, education, electricity and fresh water. The situation in Gaza is deteriorating "further and faster" than was forecast only a few years ago.

• President Donald Trump's eldest son eagerly agreed last year to meet a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging information about Democratic White House rival Hillary Clinton as part of Moscow's official support for his father. The emails, released by Donald Trump Jr., are the most concrete evidence yet that Trump campaign officials welcomed Russian help to win the election.

• Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who had incriminating information about Hillary Clinton that could help his father's presidential campaign could lead investigators to probe whether he violated U.S. election law.

• Senate Republican leaders plan to unveil on Thursday a new version of their legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare ahead of a possible vote next week.

• The United States said on Tuesday it shot down a simulated, incoming intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) similar to the ones being developed by countries like North Korea, in a new test of the nation's THAAD missile defenses.

• The United States and Qatar signed an agreement aimed at combating the financing of terrorism.

• A House panel approved legislation on Tuesday evening that would cut funding for the Department of Transportation (DOT) by over half a billion dollars.

• Ships carrying Chinese military personnel for Beijing's first overseas military base, in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, have left China to begin setting up military bases.  Djibouti's position on the northwestern edge of the Indian Ocean has fueled worries in India that it would become another of China's "string of pearls" of military alliances and assets ringing India, including Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

• The Dutch Senate passed a law giving intelligence agencies broad new surveillance and other powers, including the ability to gather data from large groups of people at once.

• Sudan has complied with all U.S. demands for lifting sanctions, a day before the United States will decide whether to permanently lift 20-year restrictions that have hobbled the country's economy.

• The death toll in a protracted battle between fighters from to a group linked to the ISIL group and government troops in the southern Philippine city of Marawi has topped 500.