NEWS SUMMARY-INTELLIGENCE REPORT FRIDAY 7/24/2020  NEWSDUMP FRIDAY

                        BIG BEN MIDNIGHT CHIMES

Israel's military on increased alert in the northern part of the country tonight.   What is being said is that the Hezbollah movement based in Lebanon and backed by Iran is planning an attack........ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS.....

This evening Israeli helicopters attacked Syrian army targets in response to earlier fire from Syria in the Golan Heights.......ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS....At least two were injured in the Israeli strikes......TASS STORY

CHAIRMAN OF THE US JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF GENERAL MARK MILLEY VISITING ISRAEL TODAY MEETING WITH TOP OFFICIALS......ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS

At the White House today President Trump signing four executive orders designed to lower prescription drug prices.........EURASIA REVIEW

A federal judge ruling that documents in a 2015 defamation lawsuit by Virginia Roberts Guiffre against Ghislaine Maxwell can be released.   But US District Judge Loretta Preska is allowing Maxwell's lawyers a week to appear her decision.

Virginia Roberts Guiffre says that she was abused by convicted child sex offender and accused child sex trafficker the late Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell aided in the abuse.      The lawsuit against Maxwell was settled in 2017........CNN

Iranian media reports say that US two US warplanes acted in an aggressive manner near an Iranian airliner flying over Syria yesterday causing injuries on board.     Iranian state TV has released video from onboard the airliner during the incident.  The Pentagon acknowledges than two F-15's were in the air at the time but that only one approached to within a safe distance of the airliner to make identification.......PRESS TV IRAN (EMBEDDED VIDEO)......A US defense official told the "Washington Post" that the US warplane may have triggered an audio collision alarm in the airliner's cockpit......TWITTER POST

IN PORTLAND TODAY US DISTRICT JUDGE MICHAEL MOSMAN REFUSING TO GRANT AN INJUNCTION AGAINST FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT SOUGHT BY OREGON'S ATTORNEY GENERAL.   MOSMAN SAID THE STATE OF OREGON DID NOT HAVE STANDING TO PROTECT ITS CITIZENS FROM FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT.......OREGON LIVE

THE NIGHTLY CONFRONTATION OUTSIDE THE FEDERAL COURTHOUSE TOOK PLACE LATE THURSDAY NIGHT AND EARLY FRIDAY MORNING........TWITTER VIDEO

TONIGHT'S PROTEST IN PORTLAND IS BEING VIDEO STREAMED LIVE AND THE EARLY REPORTING IS THAT THOUSANDS ARE MASSED DOWNTOWN NEAR THE FEDERAL COURTHOUSE.......LIVE VIDEO LINK

THE FIRST TEAR GAS VOLLEYS FIRED FROM THE FEDERAL SIDE AFTER 2 AM EASTERN US TIME SATURDAY  (11 PM PORTLAND TIME) FROM INSIDE THE FENCING AROUND THE COURTHOUSE AND FIREWORKS BEING SHOT FROM THE CROWD INTO THE FENCED AREA WHERE THE FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT WAS OPERATING FROM...

THE FEDERAL FORCES MOVED OUT INTO THE STREETS LAUNCHING OFFENSIVE ACTION AGAINST THE REMAINING CROWD AFTER 2 AM LOCAL TIME.....PORTLAND POLICE MOVED INTO THE AREA OF THE COURTHOUSE JUST AFTER 230 AM LOCAL TIME SATURDAY.

THE FEDS ALSO FIRED FLASH BANG ROUNDS DURING THE NIGHT.    THE FIRECRACKERS WERE SENT IN FROM THE PROTESTERS AND BOTH SIDES USED LEAF BLOWERS TO PUSH THE TEAR GAS BACK AND FORTH.....

THIS LIVE VIDEO STREAM BEGAN AFTER THE OTHER ONE ENDED AFTER 230 AM LOCAL TIME.......PORTLAND PROTESTS LIVE 230 AM 7/25/2020

In Chicago two Christopher Columbus statues "temporarily removed".     The statues targets of crowds........BBC NEWS........ trying to take them down.

THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER SAYS TONIGHT THAT TROPICAL STORM HANNA IN THE GULF OF MEXICO IS STRENGTHENING EXPECTED TO MAKE LANDFALL AS A HURRICANE IN SOUTHERN TEXAS TOMORROW.     THE STORM AT LAST REPORT HAD MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS OF 65 MILES PER HOUR......11 PM EASTERN US TIME ADVISORY TROPICAL STORM HANNA

In Canada an investigation launched into the country's ceremonial leader Governor General Julie Payette.     There are claims of harrassment and verbal abuse in her office.......CBC NEWS

China ordering closure of the US Consulate in Chengdu in retaliation for the US ordered closure of China's consulate in Houston earlier this week.........THE GUARDIAN

In Houston today federal law enforcement officials forced their way into the closed Chinese consulate building an hour after the Chinese staff left......RT NEWS

A Singaporean national entering a guilty plea on a federal charge of failing to register as an agent of the Chinese government.    Jun Wei Yeo worked to obtain sensitive information from American citizens on behalf of Chinese intelligence according to the US Justice Department.......JUSTICE DEPARTMENT NEWS RELEASE

THE US AND RUSSIA WILL HOLD SPACE SECURITY TALKS ON MONDAY IN VIENNA.   THE TALKS CALLED AFTER THE US AND UK JOINTLY ACCUSED RUSSIA OF TESTING A SATELLITE DESTROYING WEAPON WHICH RUSSIA DENIES.......REUTERS STORY ON YNET NEWS ISRAEL

Speaking at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in California US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there is an opening for the US to involve Russia in policies against China.    Richard Nixon was the first US President to visit Communist China........TASS STORY

 Mike Pompeo visited Denmark this week to urge its government to withdraw permission for completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to bring Russian natural gas to Germany.    Pompeo also threatening sanctions for any companies involved in helping to complete the pipeline project......DEUTSCHE WELLE VIDEO REPORT

THE WORLDWIDE CORONAVIRUS STATS FROM WORLDOMETERS TODAY SHOWING SOME 289,028 NEW CASES.

IN THE US 78,009 NEW CASES REPORTED WITH FLORIDA ADDING 12,444 TO ITS TOTAL, CALIFORNIA 10,593 AND TEXAS 8,552.    OTHER STATES INCLUDE GEORGIA WITH 4,813 NEW CASES REPORTED, ARIZONA 3,357 AND NORTH CAROLINA WITH 2,353.

Israel reporting 1,892 new coronavirus cases Thursday as officials seek to contain Covid-19 without implementing another national lockdown.........YNET NEWS....late word tonight at that an additional 1,115 cases were recorded today Friday in Israel.

The coronavirus story world-wide today as interpreted by BBC News.........BBC NEWS CORONAVIRUS BLOG 7/24/2020

In other news.......

A teenage supporter of President Trump setting his defamation suit against the "Washington Post".    Nicolas Sandmann's 2019 encounter in Washington DC with an anti-Trump Native American protester caused a storm of controversy........FOX NEWS

A federal judge ordering President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen out of prison and back to home confinement.    Cohen released from prison in May then arrested and returned to prison after he refused to sign a 'non-disclosure agreement' apparently related to a book he had written about his relationship with President Trump.

US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruling that Cohen was retaliated against for writing the book.....BBC NEWS

Forumla One racing cancelling Grand Prix events scheduled for the US, Brazil and Mexico this year because of the coronavirus situation.      Races will take place instead in Nuremburg, Germany,  Portimao, Portugal and Imola, Italy......TASS

It was once a Christian church then a Muslim mosque until it became a museum in 1934, but for the first time in 86 years Muslim worship returned to Istanbul's Hagia Sophia today following a Turkish court ruling.    In attendance the Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.....VIDEO LINK (4 MINUTES, 30 SECONDS)

That's the way it really is Friday July 24th, 2020 another day in the Dictatorship of Covid-19.