NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT THURSDAY 3/26/2020

(LIMITED SERVICE WHEN ABLE THROUGH LATE THURSDAY)

The United States now leads the world in the number of coronavirus cases but first......

BREAKING NEWS ISRAELI POLITICS:

The outline of an emergency unity government of various Israeli politicians appears to be taking shape.    The main opposition politician,  former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, who heads the Blue and White Party becoming Speaker of the parliament with support from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party and allies.    Expectations are of a government embracing much of Gantz's party and the forces supporting Mr. Netanyahu. 

The leader of the secularist Yesh Atid party that was part of Blue and White with Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, says that Gantz stole votes in the last election only to give them to Mr. Netanyahu......YNET NEWS STORY

Two rockets landed in the Green Zone of Baghdad early today striking near an Iraqi command center a few hundred meters from the US Embassy which has been the frequent target of rocket attacks....

ASHARQ AL ASWAT NEWS STORY

THE LEADERS OF THE G 20 NATIONS MET IN A VIDEO CONFERENCE FORMAT TODAY......TASS NEWS STORY...RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN PROPOSING A MORATORIUM ON SANCTIONS AGAINST COUNTRIES AFFECTED BY THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC....TASS NEWS STORY...CHINA'S PRESIDENT XI JINPING PUSHING FOR 'STRONGER INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON ALL FRONTS'....SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST STORY

PRESIDENT TRUMP DISCUSSED THE G 20 CONFERENCE CALL IN HIS NEWS CONFERENCE LATE THIS AFTERNOON.....VIDEO LINK

In New Zealand the man accused of mass murder at two mosques in Christchurch on March 15th of last year entered an unexpected guilty plea today.

Brenton Tarrant was accused of 51 counts of murder and 40 counts of attempted murder.

Tarrant appeared by video link at the hastily arranged court hearing so he could change his plea to guilty.

No sentencing date has been set.....TIME MAGAZINE STORY

A federal judge urged Wednesday by actress Lori Loughlin and other defendants in the "college admissions bribery case" to dismiss charges because of "extraordinary misconduct" by federal prosecutors.

Defense attorneys for the accused arguing that the feds bullied an informant into lying and concealed evidence that would prove the innocence of the defendants.  The story as interpreted by the "New York Post".....LINK

The FBI shot and killed a man described as a "potentially violent extremist" in Missouri.   Timothy Wilson caught in an FBI sting operation where he was led to believe that he would be given an explosive device in a vehicle that would enable him to bomb a hospital.   Wilson said by the FBI to have expressed religious and racial hatred and "anti-government sentiment".

Wilson was said to have been frustrated by the government's policy towards the coronavirus.

More from "The Guardian" in the UK........LINK

The number of Covid-19 cases surged past 80-thousand today as testing picks up across the United States and by late this evening the total was over 85-thousand meaning that the USA leads the world in the number of reported coronavirus cases.   Well over 12-hundred now reported dead with over 1850 recovered from the virus.

THE US TOTALS VIA WORLDOMETERS AS OF 1105 PM EASTERN US TIME TONIGHT ARE 85,594 CASES WITH 1,300 DEATHS AND 1,868 RECOVERED.

Tonight in New York state some 38,977 cases reported with 466 deaths.....In New York City the totals some 23,112 cases with 365 deaths...More than 300 members of the New York Police Department have tested positive for Covid-19 and NYPD says some 3,200 members are now out on sick leave.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS STORY

New York City reported some 20,011 confirmed cases and 280 deaths as of Wednesday night.     Mayor Bill DeBlasio believes that half the city's population will become sick with most people experiencing minor symptoms......

Last night at 10 pm a one month lockdown began in Washington DC.....

Around the world for a moment, in France today the number of cases up to 29,155 with 1,696 dead.

In Russia the number of coronavirus cases now stands at 840.    In Moscow the only stores allowed to open will be grocery stores between now and April 5th.

Meanwhile Russian medical teams on the ground in hard-hit Italy to help treat coronavirus patients....SOUTHFRONT STORY

The coronavirus story worldwide as reported by the BBC.......BBC NEWS CORONAVIRUS BLOG 3/26/2020

The world wide total of coronavirus cases as of 1105 pm Eastern US time tonight is 531,860 with 24,057 deaths and 122,203 reported recovered.

Commentary on the coronavirus situation posted by Ammon Bundy on Facebook and reposted by activist Gavin Seim.....AMMON BUNDY COMMENTARY REPOSTED BY GAVIN SEIM

Other news today........

The US Justice Department announcing the indictment of the Venezuelan ruler Nicolas Maduro on drug trafficking and "narcoterrorism" charges.    Also accused are others in the leadership of Maduro's government.......AFP NEWS STORY

The US State Department backing up the Justice Department with a 15 million dollar bounty on Maduro and a 10 million dollar bounty for some of the others accused......NEWS STORY FROM THE NATIONAL IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

In a show of strength to China a US warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday.    The USS McCampbell, a guided-missile destroyer, transited the strait in what a US Seventh Fleet spokesman a "routine Taiwan Strait transit" in accordance with what "international law allows".

China blasted the action with its Defense Ministry spokesman describing it as something that "interfered in China's internal affairs" and "extremely dangerous" among other things.....REUTERS NEWS STORY

And for now that's the way it really is Thursday March 26th, 2020.