NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT WEDNESDAY 1/16/2019

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

"A catastrophic failure of leadership @Theresa May.  If she has any sense of honor then she will resign"

That is the tweet of "Mr. Brexit" Nigel Farage in the aftermath of Prime Minister Theresa May's huge defeat in the House of Commons.

Her Brexit plan failed by a margin of 432-202 with 118 Conservative MP's opposed.

Various factions have their own vision of what should happen next after Mrs. May's proposal  lost mainly because in her own Conservative Party and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party which supports the government the plan was seen as not being a real withdrawal from the European Union that threatened Northern Ireland's future status in the UK.

The Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn of the Labor Party intends a vote of no confidence with the debate set to begin at 8am Eastern time in the US with a vote six hours later.

The attempt is likely to fail.

The leader of the party of Brexit, the United Kingdom Independence Party says the future is filled with uncertainty:

In part Gerard Batten said this:

"We now enter a deeply uncertain period as the political establishment continue their project of stopping Brexit.   Mrs. May and Parliament have brought about the greatest constitutional crisis since 1642.   They have done all they can to thwart Brexit.....UKIP stands as the only major party committed to leaving the European Union....."

His full statement at the link.....HERE-UKIP LEADER STATEMENT

Today both Mr, Batten and Mr. Farage, spoke in Strasbourg, France at the European Parliament, where they are members.

Batten said:

"The British people will never surrender"

Farage warned that if the powers that be force the British people into a second Brexit referendum the British people will be more defiant than ever.

Al-Shabab Islamic terrorists based in Somalia say they are behind the attack on a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi, Kenya that killed at least 24 people including one US citizen.

The updated death toll information comes from Kenya's Red Cross.

The attack began at 7am Eastern time in the US Tuesday, 3 pm in Kenya.    Explosions and gunfire could be heard early Wednesday even though authorities had claimed Tuesday evening that the siege was over.

At mid-morning today, Wednesday, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that the terrorists had been "eliminated".    Video images from security cameras show four attackers were involved.

In the African nation of Zimbabwe opposition Pastor Evan Mwarire is under arrest following three days of protest against rising fuel prices.   Hundreds of others under arrest with some protesters killed by police.

Businesses are closed in the country and streets deserted with internet access shut off by order of the government.

The Russian Interfax News Agency quotes its sources as saying that Al Qaeda movement militants of the HTS organization in northern Syria are plotting chemical attacks in the area that will be blamed on the Syrian government of Bashar Assad.   They plan to use various methods including drones to stage the false flag chemical attacks.

The "debate" is on in France.   President Emmanuel Macron met with 600 mayors Tuesday and took questions as his government tries to calm the anger and outrage at its policies.

There's plenty of opinion polling going on in France right now and its shows that only 40 percent of the people want to participate in the "debate".

In Sweden four political parties cut a deal and have now twisted the arm of a fifth party ahead of a vote of confidence.

The aim of the "Left-Right" alliance of the Center, Liberal, Social Democrat and Green parties was to force the Left Party of Sweden, the former Communists, to join them for a majority in the Riksdag (Parliament) that would keep the anti-mass immigration Sweden Democrats out of the government.

And after two days of talks word is that Lofven now has the committment of the Left Party to support him.   

But there is concern in Sweden over possible tax and labor policies of the new government which appear to be trending in the direction of those unpopular policies of France's president Emmanuel Macron.

18-year old Rahaf Mohammed, who fled her Saudi family fearing for her life, has spoken to the media in her new home of Canada.

She told the media:

"We are treated as an object, like a slave.   I wanted to tell people my story and about what happens to Saudi women"

Mohammed fled from Kuwait to Thailand and was stranded there after a Saudi diplomat took her passport.   She went online to plead her case and eventually the UN intervened and she was allowed to enter Canada.   Mohammed says she was ready to kill herself while holed up in a hotel room in Thailand rather than be forced back to her family.

Saudi citizens accused of crimes in the United States avoid prosecution and are being spirited out of the USA by Saudi diplomats before they can face trial.

The full extent of the problem is not known but there are a number of cases in Oregon alone involving Saudi studensts that have been publicized by "OregonLive-The Portland Oregonian".    A link to the story...….HERE-OREGON LIVE STORY

"We are making an effort to reach a decision as soon as possible"

That what Israel's Deputy Attorney General had to say Tuesday night about the decision of the Attorney General's office on the prosecution of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in three separate corruption cases.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his supporters have attacked the way the investigation is being handled,  but the Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri says the attacks will not deter the final decision from being made in the midst of the election campaign currently underway in Israel.

Nizri says attacks on his boss, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, are "dangerous" and "undermine the trust in the Attorney General's considerations".

Last month in Israel the grave of Mandelblit's father was desecrated.

A sex for judgeship scandal is being reported in Israel today.

A male lawyer was arrested today and a female lawyer and  female judge have been questioned by police.    Attorney General Mandelblit has recused himself from the case because of his friendship with the main suspect.

The offices of the Israel Bar Association were raided by police.

This corruption case reaches so high in Israel's justice system that both the chief justice and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked were reported to be summoned for questioning.

But Justice Minister Shaked is quoted by the "Arutz Sheva"  news website as saying:

"A stormy day for me as a minister and as a woman.  I was not summoned to give testimony and I was not interrogated"

There is a gag order on the case with the media in Israel seeking to have it lifted.

Vice-President Mike Pence spoke with the president of Venezuela's National Assembly Tuesday two days after Juan Guaido was detained briefly by that country's secret police.

Pence spoke with Guaido to recognize his "courageous leadership".

Guaido and the National Assembly do not recognize Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela's President anymore as Maduro assumed his second term last week following an election considered tainted last year.

And that's the way it really is, Wednesday morning January 16th, 2019.