NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT MONDAY 1/14/2019

(UPDATES, ADDITIONS, EDITING ETC. UNTIL 8 AM EASTERN TIME US)

Good Morning.

The third attempt to form a new Swedish government since last September's General Election is underway this week.

What's emerging as a potential government to keep the anti-mass immigration Sweden Democrats out of power is a combination of two "Right" bloc parties, the Liberals and Center, with two "Left" bloc parties, the Social Democrats and Greens.

But the catch for potential Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Lofven is giving up traditional Social Democrat positions on taxes and labor laws to make Sweden's positions more like those of the French government of President Emmanuel Macron.

Lofven is out in public defending the notion of the four parties forming a government but the acid test for it will come with a confidence vote in the parliament called the Riksdag.

The four parties have 167 seats, still eight short of the 175 seat threshold for a majority.

The British Prime Minister Theresa May making her final pitch for her controversial Brexit plan considered a sellout to the European Union by those who campaigned for a total separation from the EU when Brexit was approved in the June 2016 referendum.

Some 100 members of her own Conservative Party and 10 from Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party oppose May's plan as a sellout.

She is trying to define her plan, expected to go down to defeat in a vote tomorrow night, as the real Brexit and warning Brexit will not happen if her plan is rejected.

Comment and analysis in this post.....LINK

The leading political party in the polls in France right now, the National Rally led by Marine Le Pen, held a national convention to roll out its list of candidates for the European Parliament elections over the weekend.

A 23 year old candidate and a former cabinet minister in a government of the "Right" in France are among those on the list.

"We're coming"

is the slogan for the party in this year's election with Le Pen saying supporting the National Rally on May 26th will be a chance to beat President Emmanuel Macron.

Regarding the Yellow Vests protests, the party is not taking a position but its leader Marine Le Pen simply says:

"We are all Yellow Vests"

A  French journalist working for the "South West" newspaper and the Agence France Press (AFP) news agency says police injured him in the knee with a 'flash bang' round during a Yellow Vests protest in La Rochelle on the Atlantic Coast Saturday.

Xavier Leoty said he was clearly identifiable as member of the media but was targeted by police aiming at his knee.    Leoty says that Yellow Vests medics rescued him after he fell to the ground.

Some 84-thousand estimated by police attending Yellow Vests protests Saturday as the protest movement shows signs of picking up again.

France's embattled President Emmanuel Macron launching his "national dialogue" in answer to the Yellow Vests protests this week.

Israel's Prime Minister has made it official, that Israel has attacked targets in Syria in recent years.

There have leaks and anonymous military sources but now Benjamin Netanyahu in the midst of his re-election campaign has come out into the open to say Israel has been attacking Syrian targets he says are Iranian targets.

Israel's attacks on the Iranian allies of the Syrian government are interpreted by the Syrian government and its supporters as military intervention on the side of  the Assad government's opponents backed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar including Al-Qaeda movement jihadists and other Islamist militants.

And criticism of President Trump's decision to withdrawal US troops from Syria from a high ranking Saudi figure.

Prince Turki al-Faisal says the withdrawal will result in a "negative impact" that benefits Iran, Russia and Syria's leader Bashar al-Assad.

The prince made his comments to the BBC.

"Terrorists can't be your partners and allies"

That's the reaction of Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to President Trump's Sunday evening tweets about the Kurds and Syria's future as US troops withdrawal.

Trump urged the Kurds not to provoke Turkey, but he also said there will be devastating economic retaliation against Turkey if the Kurds are attacked when US troops leave northeastern Syria in the coming months.

The Turkish spokesman Mr. Kalin said that Turkey expects the US to  "honor our strategic partnership".

An Italian Communist wanted for four murders in the 1970's has been extradited from leftist-run Bolivia back to Italy.

Cesare Battisti fled neighboring Brazil which for years had given him refuge to use Bolivia as a hideout.

Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte thanking Bolivia and Brazil for helping with Battisti's capture.

Battisti is on a plane back to Italy expected to arrive this afternoon Italian time.

A son of Brazil's new president Jair Bolsonaro, Eduardo Bolsonaro, tweeted Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini that:

"Brazil is no longer a land of bandits.  The 'little gift' is coming"

Juan Guaido, the president of the opposition controlled National Assembly in Venezuela, was detained by agents of Venezuela's secret police (SEBIN) for an hour on so on Sunday.   He was stopped and taken into custody while traveling in his car north of Caracas.

The government claimed that rogue agents were responsible for what happened, but Guaido's detention came after he said he was ready to assume the presidency in Venezuela.   Some foreign nations have already said they recognize Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate president.

Many foreign nations and the National Assembly have said they do not recognize Nicolas Maduro as president after he was sworn in for a second term last week.

A vote of confidence expected Wednesday for the left-wing led government in Greece.  Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Syriza party depended on the conservative Independent Greeks led by Defense Minister Panos Kammenos for a majority.

But now Kammenos has resigned because Tsipras agreed to settle Greece's dispute with its northern neighbor Macedonia over using the name "Macedonia" by allowing that country to take the name "North Macedonia" instead.

In the dispute over the Democratic Republic of Congo election where the leading opposition presidential candidate says its result was rigged against him and where the Roman Catholic Church with its 40-thousand election observers said the announced winner was not the real winner, a call for a  "compromise".

It comes from SADC group of nations led by South Africa, a country with democratic elections dominated by one party.

The SADC group is calling for what describes a a 'unity' government in the nation represented by various factions.

The result of the election is being questioned at the United Nations with some saying not respecting its real result undermines democracy.

The President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa addressed a massive crowd decrying the "rape crisis" in his country.     The president urging men in South Africa to do something about it.

And that's the way it really is Monday morning January 14th, 2019.