Today In World News: July 14, 2017

Today In World News:

Courtesy of NDTV

• Israeli police closed and cancelled Friday noon prayers in Al Aqsa mosque and briefly detained Jerusalem's top Muslim cleric after three Palestinians and two Israeli police officers were killed in a shootout in Jerusalem's Old City.

• The head of Syrian government delegation has said his team has not been asked to meet face-to-face with the opposition in the seventh round of UN-mediated indirect talks held in the Swiss city of Geneva.

• The head of ISIL in Afghanistan, Abu Sayed, was killed in an attack on his headquarters in Kunar province earlier this week, the Pentagon said.

• A prominent Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet military officer attended the controversial meeting with President Donald Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign chairman last year.

• Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump campaign members, was in touch with the Russian prosecutor general's office as part of her fight against a U.S. sanctions law.

• President Raul Castro said, Donald Trump's hardline stance towards Cuba marks "a setback" in its relations with the United States after ties were gradually restored in 2015.

• The Trump administration said it will ask the Supreme Court to block a federal judge’s ruling limiting the scope of President Trump’s travel ban.

•  A court decision on President Donald Trump’s travel ban has reopened a window for tens of thousands of refugees to enter the United States, and the government is looking to quickly close it.

• The National Law Journal reported that Jamie Gorelick, the high-powered D.C. attorney that has represented Kushner since the transition period, has stepped back from representing him regarding the evolving probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

• America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association warned that the provision from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) would mean “premiums will skyrocket for people with preexisting conditions” and “millions of more individuals will become uninsured.”

• Thermal images of North Korea's main nuclear site show Pyongyang may have reprocessed more plutonium than previously thought that can be used to enlarge its nuclear weapons stockpile.