NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT SUNDAY 7/21-MONDAY 7/22/2019

(THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS WITH UPDATES, EDITING, ADDITIONS ETC. THROUGH MONDAY MORNING)

BREAKING NEWS:  SYRIAN AIR DEFENSES ENGAGING TARGETS EARLY MONDAY MORNING IN HAMA PROVINCE NEAR MASAYAF IN NORTHWESTERN SYRIA.

AN ATTACK APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN LAUNCHED BY OPPOSITION FORCES USING GRAD ROCKETS.

MORE SYRIAN NEWS FURTHER DOWN IN THIS NEWS SUMMARY.

The Iranian Foreign Minister pointing at outside forces being behind the British seizure of an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar earlier this month that led to Iran's seizure of a British oil tanker Friday.

Javad Zarif tweeted this Sunday in part:

"......Having failed to lure @realDonaldTrump into War of the Century, and fearing collapse of his #B_Team, @AmbJohnBolton is turning his venom against the UK in hopes of dragging it into a quagmire..."

Zarif's tweet in full is here......LINK 

The other "B Team" members as Zarif sees it besides Bolton are Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

The former leader of Britain's Conservative Party, Iain Duncan Smith, said the capture of the "Stena Imperio" tanker was a "major failure" in an interview with the BBC.

A former British First Sea Lord Admiral Alan West has told the BBC that the current Conservative Party government should have been more prudent in protecting British ships after the Iranian tanker was seized by British Royal Marines off Gibraltar on July 4th.

"It's clear they're glorifying a violent assault on Tommy Robinson designed only to desensitize the public in case he's murdered in there.   They don't want you to care"

That's the message from Tommy Robinson's spokesman Avi Yemeni in response to Sunday tabloid reports by the "Daily Mirror" and "Daily Star" in the UK claiming Tommy Robinson was assaulted in a prison shower his first day at Belmarsh Prison in London.

Robinson's supporters note that Tommy has been kept isolated since he arrived at HMP Belmarsh on July 5th and his only communication with other prisoners is through outside windows and he has had conversations with some including Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Avi Yemeni has released a video stating that the story is #FakeNews.....

LINK

There will be more  "Free Tommy" protests in the UK in the coming week including Sunderland on Friday and Manchester on Saturday. 

"Free Tommy Robinson" banners have appeared across the UK and around the world.

The Battle of Brexit and the contest to be the next British Prime Minister is drawing to a close.

Monday at 5 pm UK time the voting among some 160-thousand Conservative Party members ends to choose a new leader.

The winner announced Tuesday and current Prime Minister Theresa May speaks to the House of Commons and resigns Wednesday in favor of the new Prime Minister.

The contest between current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and former Foreign Secretary and Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

Johnson widely expected to be the winner.

With that in mind a prominent cabinet minister Philip Hammond, who is Chancellor of the Exchequer told the BBC Sunday he intends to resign his post before Mrs. May does in disagreement with Boris Johnson's view that Brexit must come by October 31st "do or die".

Hammond claims it's going to take longer to obtain a Brexit deal with the European Union and that the notion of a "No Deal" Brexit is unacceptable.

In Hong Kong some 430-thousand protested against the bill to extradite Hong Kong residents to the Chinese mainland Sunday as the pro-democracy, anti-Beijing movement continues.

The main protest rally in the afternoon was at Victoria Park.

Later Sunday evening a group of masked protesters numbering in the thousands  continued the protest confronting police in an area where the protest was prohibited by authorities.   Tear gas and rubber bullets were fired late Sunday night as police charged the protesters....This is live video stream from Hong Kong....LINK

Later in the night pro-democracy protesters attacked by masked men with sticks at a subway station as they went home from the protest.     Dozens taken to hospitals after the attack and the latest reports are that 45 were injured.  The BBC reports.....LINK

Who is behind all that remains a mystery?   Other mysterious events surrounding the protests this weekend included police discovering explosives Saturday ahead of the Sunday protest and the egging and spray painting of a Chinese government office early Sunday morning.

Strong suspicion must lie with the Chinese government and its operatives.

Elections on Sunday.

First, Ukraine and the political party of the recently elected President Volodymyr Zelensky winning a majority of seats in parliamentary elections.

The "Servant of the People" party winning 44 percent of the popular vote but still needing another of the four parties that cleared a five percent threshold of votes to form a government.

A political party led by a rock star, Svyatoslav Varkarchuk's "The Voice" party, is projected to get six percent of the popular vote and the comedian Zelensky will attempt to form a government with its participation.

In Japan, the Upper House of the parliament (Diet) elected on Sunday.    Japan's ruling Liberal Democrats able to keep their majority but the 2/3's majority for amending the country's constitution has been lost to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

An unusual incident reported in Syria.    Two killed and three wounded when a shell hit a car on a highway west of Damascus early Sunday morning.    All of the casualties were civilians.   The incident happening in government controlled territory near the town of Sasa.

An Anti Tank Guided Missile was reportedly used in the attack.  Later word is that the attack was an assassination of a pro-Bashar Assad militia figure from the civil war in Syria.

The Syrian government forces loyal to Bashar Assad building up their presence on the ground in northwestern Syria.   Reinforcements have moved into northern Hama province according to pro-government sources.

Jihadist opposition forces and their allies launched a ground attack in northern Hama early Sunday morning but were repelled by the Syrian government forces.

Bombing attacks continue in the northwest by Syrian and Russian air forces with pro-opposition sources reporting 18 civilians killed in recent attacks.

Puerto Rico's Governor Ricardo Rossello will not run for re-election next year.   Rossello responding after a week of protests across the island through a Facebook video.

The protests triggered by release of texts between Rossello and his aides by an investigative journalism organization.

The texts became the source of outrage over their extreme content including the dissing of the victims of Hurricane Maria.

The protesters are demanding Rossello's resignation.

Political intrigue in Israel Sunday with Ayelet Shaked, the former Justice Minister,  announcing she will be the new leader uniting political parties to the right of Prime Minister Benjamin Netnayahu's Likud.

As reports of her new role emerged, Mr. Netanyahu said that the only way to "unite the Right" in Israel was to vote Likud in the September 17th elections.

Shaked was a former leader in the Jewish Home party and its current leader Rafi Peretz, Minister of Education, was summoned to a meeting with Netanyahu Sunday but later reports said the meeting was cancelled.

More on the story from the "Jerusalem Post".....LINK