Tuesday, April 16, 2019

NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT TUESDAY 4/16-WEDNESDAY 4/17/2019 NEWSDUMP WEEK


(A WORK IN PROGRESS, MORE EDITING, EXPANSION, UPDATING UNTIL WEDNESDAY MORNING)


"No Collusion-No Obstruction!"


A tweet from President Trump repeating his consistent message since Robert Mueller's report was delivered to Attorney General William Barr, a message he's repeated countless times.

The Special Prosescutor's report set for release in a redacted form on Thursday.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he's received many congratulatory messages from Arab leaders since his election victory last week.

Netanyahu now has enough support from smaller religious, political and financial conservative political parties to command a majority in the 120 seat Knesset (Parliament).

Women's rights activists seeking to end the male guardianship system in Saudi Arabia are due back in court in Riyadh.    They were arrested last May and charged with various offenses including spying.

One of the activists,  Loujain al-Hathloul, told her brother that she was shocked  and waterboarded with the torture being supervised by Saud al-Qahtani, a close confidant of Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman.

Saud al-Qahtani threatening her with rape and murder according to what she told her brother.

The public and reporters are barred from the court proceedings against the women.

LATE WORD HERE IS THAT THE JUDGE DELAYED THE HEARING FOR 'PRIVATE REASONS'.

More on this story from the BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner......LINK


As expected a veto from President Trump of legislation to shut down US support for the war Saudi Arabia leads in Yemen.     A war that has killed many civilians through both warfare and other means with shortages of food and medicine triggered by it.

The legislation passed the Democrat controlled House and passed the Republican controlled Senate with support from Republican senators.

An extensive probe underway into the cause of the blaze at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris with 50 people assigned.

An accident is the suspected cause as extensive renovation was on to the cathedral at the time of the disaster.

There are an alert for a fire in the building at 620 pm local time Monday but nothing was found at first.   After a second alert at 643 pm the fire was detected and firefighters were summoned to the scene.

The spire and wooden interior destroyed with the outside structure intact.   Some of the art works inside the cathedral were rescued from it.   And Tuesday the very top of the spire was recovered.

President Emmanuel Macron was set to speak about reforms in response to the Yellow Vests protests Monday night but now next Monday night at 8 pm he will speak.

For now Macron aspires to Notre-Dame be rebuilt, more beautiful, within five years.   Some French business leaders have already pledged 340 million dollars for reconstruction efforts.

In Canada's energy rich province of Alberta, the left-leaning New Democratic Party ruling for the last four years .  Premier Rachel Notley won with around 40 percent of the vote amidst a division of business elites from social and libertarian conservative voters.

But Tuesday night the election results showing the new unification of business elites and conservatives called the "United Conservative Party" victorious with 55 percent of the popular vote to the NDP's 32 percent.   The UCP winning 63 seats and the NDP the other 24 in the provincial legislature.

The new premier of Alberta will be longtime Canadian politician Jason Kenney.

Spain's election board banning the anti-mass immigration Vox Party from participating in a televised debate ahead of the April 28th General Election.

Vox, described in mainstream media as "far-right", was set to debate with the four major political parties in the country.

Vox is currently polling at 11.8 percent of the popular vote, it got only .2 percent in the last election.

That would give Vox from 30-34 seats in Spain''s lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies.

Another election story, the polls closed following Indonesia's General Election with 20,000 national and local seats contested plus the presidency.   Incumbent Joko Widodo and ex-general Prabowo Subianto facing off.    While some preliminary flash results are expected the official results of the electoral commission will not come until next month.

LATE WORD IS THAT INCUMBENT JOKO WIDODO LEADS HIS CHALLENGER IN THE UNOFFICIAL PRELIMINARY RESULTS.

Sources supporting the UN backed Government of National Accord in Libya say civilian areas of Tripoli were shelled with rockets by General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army early Tuesday morning, but there were no casualties.

The air forces of both sides reported active in the fighting with claims from both sides of success on the ground.

The UN Refugee Agency says 18-thousand civilians have been displaced by the fighting.

In London, 290 arrested so far for sitting down and blocking key locations in the city center including Waterloo Bridge.    The "Extinction Rebellion" protest is fearful of climate change and demands zero carbon emissions by 2025.

In Louisiana, the church arson suspect is now charged with hate crimes.    There is no bail for 21-year old Holden Matthews, held in connection with burning three black churches.   Matthews made videos of the fires according to authorities and videos of news reports about them with his face superimposed.    A fire marshal says it looked he was going to set another fire.

Also mentioned in the media is Matthews listening to "black metal" music.

US National Security Adviser John Bolton speaking at the State Department Wednesday about US policy towards left-wing ruled countries in Latin America, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.   Bolton already saying US citizens will be able to sue in US court for property seized by the Cuban government.

A Vice-President of the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela says military intervention is coming from the US, Colombia and Brazil.

Delcy Rodriguez claimed the three nations intend military intervention and will "commit crimes against humanity".

The US, Colombia and Brazil are among the more than 50 nations that recognize National Assembly President Juan Guaido as the Interim President of Venezuela.

The first Red Cross aid shipment has arrived in Venezuela where there are shortages of both food and medicine.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet monitoring a US destroyer, the USS Ross, that entered the Black Sea.  On the shores of the Black Sea are a number of nations including Russia and Ukraine.  More from Russia's Tass News Agency......LINK

The polling data for this Sunday's presidential runoff election in Ukraine shows a wide lead for comedian-actor Volodymyr Zelensky over incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.    The poll concluded Sunday gave  Zelensky 72 percent of the vote to Poroshenko's 25 percent.    Two percent saying they will spoil their ballots.

China's economic growth surpassing expectations in the first quarter of 2019,  January to March growth at 6.4 percent.   There was a projection of 6.3 percent growth for those months.


He was a songwriter involved in songs like Tom Jones "Delilah" and Engelbert Humperdinck's "The Last Waltz".    Les Reed is dead at 83.    More on this story from the BBC.....LINK

And that's the way it really is on this pre-holiday Newsdump Week, Wednesday morning April 17th, 2019.

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