Sunday, December 23, 2018

NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT SUNDAY 12/23/2018 NEWSDUMP WEEK


(THIS SUMMARY WAS PREPARED SATURDAY PM UNTIL MIDNIGHT SUNDAY EASTERN TIME WITH SOME UPDATING, EDITING ETC. AFTER MIDNIGHT)

The Senate was unable to approve money for a wall on the US-Mexico border Saturday.

The Senate is adjourned until Thursday but a short session is set for tomorrow, Christmas Eve.

President Trump is staying at the White House and will not go to Florida while five government departments are shutdown because there is no border wall funding in the budget package for them.

The US envoy to the coalition fighting Islamic State, Brett McGurk, submitted his resignation Friday.

McGurk is reported to be resigning over President Trump's decision to withdrawal US troops from Syria.

A tsunami has struck the coasts of Indonesia's Sunda Strait after the nearby legendary Krakatoa volcano erupted Saturday.   Undersea landslides after the eruption are a possible cause of the tsunami.
Eyewitnesses describe seeing a small wave come ashore before a larger one swept through.

At least 220 are dead and 843 injured according to Indonesian authorities.  20 are missing.

In 1883 the massive eruptions of Krakatoa spewed hot ash that killed thousands and created massive tsunami waves that killed thousands more.    The eruptions were heard thousands of miles away and spread volcanic ash around the world.

40-thousand Yellow Vests protesters were on the streets and highways of France on the Saturday before Christmas.    In Paris some two thousand participated with some confrontations with police during the evening in the city.   A police officer pulled a gun during a confrontation.

There were protests at border crossings with Spain, Italy and Germany with the crossings blocked by demonstrators.

220 protesters were arrested with 81 kept in police custody nationwide.

There was no chance to save nine miners trapped in Russia.   The Governor of the Perm Region posted on his Instagram account that six attempts were made to rescue the miners after a fire broke out Saturday morning just over one thousand feet underground.   Eight miners made it out of the mine but the nine others could not be reached in the fire and smoke.

The late word is that the bodies of the nine miners were recovered today.

Palestinian factions in Gaza issued a statement Saturday pledging to avenge what they called "Israel's stupidity and its crimes against our people".   Four Palestinians were killed in protests at the border fence with Israel on Friday.

Its reported that China has successfully tested a Russian S-400 air defense system delivered to the Chinese military last May.   The S-400 was able to shoot down a ballistic target at a range of 250 kilometers with a missile moving at 3 kilometers per second.   The S-400 is Russia's most advanced air defense system.

Some 3-thousand members of Russia's military have conducted drills in southern Russia to simulate the aftermath of a massive nuclear attack.   Russia's Southern Military District announced Saturday that the drills included practicing the decontamination of weapons and equipment after nuclear attack.

India has slashed its national sales tax for 23 different items including movie tickets, televisions and other items with the rate for wheelchairs and parts being cut from 28 percent to five percent.

Its seen as a political move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his BJP party lost five state elections recently with national elections coming in the spring.    The GST was imposed in July 2017 and has resulted in job losses for thousands of workers in small businesses.

Those pre-Christmas visits to military forces around the world from political leaders continue with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the African nation of Mali.  Trudeau visited with Canadian soldiers who are part of a UN peacekeeping mission there sharing a turkey dinner and dropping off a foosball table.

Late word from the UK that police have released the couple they arrested Friday night, satisfied they are not the suspects in the drone flights around Gatwick Airport.   The police have also found a damaged drone on the ground in the area.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office will not file charges against actor Steven Seagal.  Former model Faviola Dadis told police earlier this year that Seagal groped her when she was 17 years old in 2002 during an audition at a Beverly Hills hotel.

The DA's office says there wasn't sufficient evidence and the statute of limitations had expired.

One of the last Jewish fighters of 1943's revolt against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto is dead.

Simcha Rotem was 94 years old.   He was a leader of the Jewish Combat Organization that planned the resistance to Nazi deportation of the last Jews in the ghetto to death camps.

And that's the way it really is Sunday morning December 23rd, 2018.

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