NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT TUESDAY 12/24/2019  NEWSDUMP CHRISTMAS EVE

(SERVICE AT INTERVALS DURING THE DAY WITH WRAP UP LATE TUESDAY NIGHT EASTERN US TIME)

Previously undisclosed internal messages related to the Boeing 737 Max turned over to the Federal Aviation Administration yesterday.

The move came the same day that Boeing fired its CEO amidst the continued grounding of the aircraft following two deadly accidents.

BNN Bloomberg has this report.....LINK

Democrat Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg's campaign has ended a relationship with a call center company named "ProCorn".     His move came after a published report that "ProCorn"  uses prison labor with two of the company's call centers operating out of state prisons in Oklahoma.

"We didn't know about this and we never would have allowed it if we had"

That's what a spokesperson for the Bloomberg campaign is telling the media.

CNN reported on the story.......LINK

The leaders of Japan and South Korea meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu today.

It will offer an opportunity for Japan and South Korea to deal with a rift between their countries that goes back to the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945.

The talks also come amid North Korea's signals that its about to break away from talking with the United States about denuclearization and conduct a provocative missile test in the coming days.

PRESIDENT TRUMP SAYS THE US IS READY TO DEAL WITH ANY 'CHRISTMAS GIFT' THAT NORTH KOREA SUGGESTS IT WILL DELIVER DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON.   HE SPOKE TO REPORTERS IN FLORIDA TODAY.

There's chit chat about what happened at the Christmas party President Trump attended this evening .     That's because he spoke briefly with legal scholar Alan Dershowitz.    Speculation that Dershowitz will join the President's legal team to defend him during the upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate.

A warning from the United States about the United Kingdom using the Chinese firm Huawei for its 5G network.   US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien interviewed by the "Financial Times" saying among other things:

"It is somewhat shocking to us that folks in the UK would look at Huawei as some sort of commercial decision, 5G is a national security decision"

O'Brien says allowing Huawei 5G into the UK would allow the country's national security secrets to be stolen.

The story as published by the "Epoch Times"......LINK

Flash mobs of protesters appeared as shopping malls in Hong Kong Christmas Eve chanting slogans including "Hong Kong independence".    Police attacked them with pepper spray and batons.   The protesters fighting back with umbrellas and other objects.

Protesters also visible in a major shopping district.     They wore masks and reindeer horns.  Police used tear gas and in one case a gun was pointed by police at protesters.   The police made arrests.

More from "Al Jazeera" in  Qatar.......LINK     Here is a 73 minute video from "Global News" in Canada of the protest tonight in Hong Kong....VIDEO LINK

Raging forest fires engulfing homes in Valparaiso, Chile today and at least 80 reported destroyed by early evening.    Mass evacuations in the city and power shut off to tens of thousands of homes.

Chile's "24 Horas" is providing news coverage this evening.....VIDEO LINK    The BBC has published a story....LINK

RUSSIA SAYS IT SHOT DOWN TWO DRONES ATTACKING ITS HMEIMIM AIRBASE IN SYRIA LATE SUNDAY NIGHT.

Iraq's parliament has passed an electoral reform law.   Passage of the law a major demand of protesters on the streets in recent months.

The reform law will create electoral districts to replace proportional lists of candidates in future elections.

The US Ambassador to the African nation of Zambia recalled after the Zambian government objected to his criticism of a 15 year prison sentence imposed on two gay men after they had engaged in sex.

At the time of Daniel Foote's criticism, the country's foriegn minister  Joseph Malanji had said:

"You cannot ask a government to make a decision at gun point-because we are giving you aid, we want you to do this"

The BBC reports on this story......LINK

The co-founder of Uber and its one time CEO Travis Kalanick is leaving the company's board at year's end.   Kalanick had stepped down as CEO in 2017 but remained on the board for the last two years.  He recently sold off  most of his shares in the company.

He says now is the right time "to focus on my current business and philantropic pursuits" according to a statement released by Uber.

A big music festival was held in Saudi Arabia last week praised by influencer-attendee celebrities posting on social media from it.

But ignored were the human rights abuses of Saudi Arabia with organizers accused of taking "blood money" from the Saudi government trying to improve the country's international image.

"The Age" newspaper from Melbourne, Australia has more......LINK

A jihadist attack in the African nation of Burkina Faso today with more than 100 killed.   The  battle in the northern town of Arbinda near the border with Mali.

35 civilians and seven soldiers dead along with 80 of the attacking jihadists.

More from the "Voice of America"......LINK

Two more women have filed suit accusing the late Jeffrey Epstein of sexually abusing them when they were teenagers.   These accusations are from 1984 and 1999.

The "New York Post" reports......LINK

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office reviewing eight different accusations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein.    Weinstein is set to go on trial in New York January 6th on charges of rape and sexual assault.

More from "Variety"......LINK

A court in Moscow extending the detention of multinational citizen and former US Marine Paul Whelan today.     Whelan was arrested last December 28th on espionage charges.    He holds US, Canadian, British and Irish passports.

The US has called for Whelan's release as well as the other nations whose passports he holds. 

The Russian President Vladimir Putin condemning the Polish ambassador to Germany in the 1930's for his praise of Adolf Hitler uncovered in archive documents.  

Putin noting the ambassador thought a monument should be erected in Warsaw to honor Hitler because of his 1930's notion to expel Jews to Africa.

Putin referring to him as "scum" and an "anti-Semitic pig".

Today the speaker of Russia's legislature, the Duma,  Vyacheslav Volodin, says Polish authorities must apologize for their country's collaboration with the Nazis in the 1930's.

Earlier this year Israel was involved in a row with Poland when its foreign minister said that Poles collaborated with Nazi Germany and was supported in his view by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Poland had passed a law criminalizing statements that Poles had collaborated with Nazi Germany.

More from "Tass" in Russia on Mr. Putin's comments.......LINK.    And a story on Mr. Volodin's comments....LINK

FROM INDONESIA AN ACCIDENT WHERE AT LEAST 28 HAVE DIED WHEN A BUS PLUNGED DOWN A RAVINE AND INTO A RIVER.    THE BUS CARRYING 37 PASSENGERS AND A DRIVER WAS HEADING TOWARDS THE CITY OF PALEMBANG ON THE ISLAND OF SUMATRA.


And for now that's the way it really is on this Christmas Eve, December 24th, 2019.