NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT SATURDAY 12/22/2018  NEWSDUMP WEEK

(UPDATES, EXPANSION, EDITING ETC. UNTIL 815 AM EASTERN US)

The House and Senate will return at Noon today after there was failure to reach agreement on border wall funding in Friday night talks.

Budget funding for five federal departments was not passed because of the lack of agreement on the money for a wall on the US-Mexico border.

President Trump reiterated his call for border wall funding in a Friday night video posted on Twitter.

He has tweeted that Republicans in the Senate should change the rules so 51 votes will get the border wall funding approved instead of the 60 needed to end debate.

The situation being hyped in the media as a partial government shutdown, but with this weekend leading into Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, one could argue the departments are pretty much shut down anyway.

Act Six or Phase Six of the Yellow Vests protests underway in France today.   Speculation as to the size of the protests on the Saturday before Christmas with expectation for smaller demonstrations than on other Saturdays.

Versailles was cited as a major gathering point for protesters today, a city associated with the French Revolution.  But with police ordering a railway shutdown from Paris to Versailles, a procession of Yellow Vests formed in Paris.

Yellow Vests protesters were visible in the Montmarte section of Paris at 4am Eastern time US, 10am in Paris.  Some 43 arrests were reported in Paris as of 11am Paris time.

A procession estimated to number 800 was in the 9th Arrondisement of Paris, northeast of the Champs-Elysees.     More on today's protests in the Breaking News post....LINK

What if the "Yellow Vests" were a political party in France?    They would get 8 percent of the vote in the European Parliament elections set for next May.   But the leading party would still be the National Rally of Marine Le Pen at 21 percent with President Emmanuel Macron's LaREM party at 19 percent.

Without Yellow Vests National Rally has 24 percent and LaREM would be at 21.5 percent.

The US Supreme Court decided 5 to 4 to uphold lower court rulings against President Trump's policy denying asylum to those who enter the country illegally.

The liberal justices were joined by Chief Justice John Roberts.    The four in favor of the Presidents's policy were justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas.

Cancer surgery for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.    Two malignant nodules were removed from her lung.    They were discovered when she fell and broke her ribs last month.

The statement released by the Supreme Court said there is "no evidence of any remaining disease".

The CEO of China's JD.com e-commerce site will not face rape charges in the US.

Prosecutors in Minneapolis say there was not enough evidence to charge Liu Qiangdong.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said:

"As is the case in many sexual assault incidents, it was a complicated situation"

A court in Ecuador rejected Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's appeal for better conditions at the Ecuadorean embassy in London where he is currently seeking refuge from criminal charges in the United States.

The court ruled there was no infringement of his rights there.  Restrictions were imposed on Assange earlier this year believed to be a way of forcing him out of the embassy and into the arms of British authorities, who would extradite him to the United States.

Federal court documents released into the public record in northern Virginia recently point to federal charges pending against Assange.

The US and Canada are calling for the release of two Canadians detained in China.

Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland formally demanded the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in a written statement issued Friday.

They were arrested in China after Canadian authorities arrested Chinese businesswoman Meng Wanzhou of the Huawei telecom firm for extradition to the United States on charges of breaking US sanctions on Iran.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also issued a statement calling for release of the two men.

Both cited the "rule of law" in connection with arrest of Meng in their statements.

The UN will be sending a team to oversee a ceasefire in the key Yemeni port of Hudayah.   The UN Security Council agreed Friday to send the team after the cease-fire began Tuesday of this week.

The port a key lifeline of supplies to civilians in Yemen where millions have suffered from famine.

Fighting in Yemen reported also with 18 Houthi rebels killed and 12 injured by Saudi backed Yemeni government forces.

More declarations of states of emergency in more parts of the African nation of Sudan Friday as protests over economic conditions went into their third day.

Schools and universities were closed in many parts of the country.    The President of Sudan recently paid a visit to Syria and met with that country's President Bashar Assad.  Hopefully his country is not descending into the kind of conditions Syria experienced during the last seven years of civil war.

The US aircraft carrier John C. Stennis has entered the Persian Gulf, the first US aircraft carrier there in months.

On the northern side of the Persian Gulf is Iran.   Today Iran announced military maneuvers on an island at the northern side of the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Persian Gulf.  Ground units, drones and helicopters said to be involved.

Government officials making the rounds of pre-Christmas visits to military units.

The British Defense Minister chose to visit a Royal Navy warship in Ukraine.    HMS Echo came into the Black Sea and arrived at the port of Odessa after the recent incident when Russian border police seized three Ukrainian warships that entered Russia controlled waters at the Kerch Strait.

Gavin Williamson said to the crew of the warship:

"What we are saying to Russia-what we are saying to President Putin-they cannot continue to act with no regard or care for international laws or international norms"

French President Emmanuel Macron visited French troops in the African nation of Chad.

And the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison visited 800 members of his military on a logistical support mission in Iraq.

British police made two arrests at 10 pm local time Friday over the drone sightings that forced closure of London's Gatwick Airport for nearly two days.

A man and a woman taken into custody with police saying their investigation into "malicious use of drones" is continuing.    The police also urging vigilance at the airport and the cooperation of the public in their investigation.

A report from the office of Michigan's Attorney General hits hard at Michigan State University for obstruction of its investigation into the former US gymastics team doctor Larry Nassar who also worked at the university.

The report released Friday notes how the university is still withholding documents related to the investigation.

The outgoing special prosecutor in the case, Bill Forsyth, says MSU has stonewalled his investigation by refusing to turn over relevant documents that would have revealed:

"Who knew what, when they knew it and what if anything, they did about it"

Criminal charges were brought against the former MSU president Lou Anna Simon and two others in connection with his investigation.

Nassar was convicted and sentenced on sex abuse and child pornography charges.

The new AG in Michigan who takes office at the beginning of the new year promises to continue the probe.

And that's the way it really is Saturday morning December 22nd, 2018.