Good Morning Australia!! - A Republican mob endangers US Congressional security - The grisly cost of human trafficking - What can Chile's government offer to stop the protests - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

A truck driver is in police custody and UK authorities are trying to identify the 39 bodies found inside a Bulgarian-registered trailer on an industrial estate in Essex, east of London.  Police launched a murder investigation and the truck driver - 25-year old Mo Robinson from Portadown, Northern Ireland who owns and operates the cab - was arrested on suspicion of murder.  According to Bulgarian authorities, the owner of the trailer is a woman from the Republic of Ireland.  The gruesome discovery has elicited statements of condemnation from local and national political leaders.  It's the worst example of the potentially deadly nature of human trafficking since the bodies of 58 Chinese people were found in a container at Dover, Kent in 2000.

And now..

A group of Republican lawmakers attempted to throw a spanner into the impeachment investigation into Donald Trump; they stormed the US Capitol basement conference room where a top Pentagon official was going to testify about Trump's illegal dealings with Ukrainian officials.  Led by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, the group of middle-aged white males with cellphones recording video demanded the hearing be held in public; they also lied about Republicans being excluded.  In fact, several Republicans are part of the committee interviewing the witness and took part in the questioning.  As for "secrecy", public cross-examination would happen if/when Donald Trump is impeached for abuse of power - just like any other criminal trial.  

Since it had no grounding in law, the stunt seemed in part geared for conservative Internet sites.  "This is, as you can imagine, also an effort to intimidate witnesses who seek to come forward," said Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California.  "The witness was in the hearing room at the time Republicans started to come in.  We did all we could to get the witness out, to make sure the witness was protected and not affected by these tactics."  In the end, the witness was not intimidated:  Ms. Cooper, a career member of the senior executive service who currently serves as the Pentagon's expert on Eastern Europe, gave her testimony a few hours later.

Why was this hearing being held in the US Capitol basement?  Well, Democrats wanted to use the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) room, which was designed to prevent electronic eavesdropping so that ranking lawmakers can receive highly classified information about very sensitive intelligence operations.  Gaetz's mob not only violated US House rules, but that committed a serious security breach by bringing recording devices and transmitting messages from the SCIF.  "To disrupt testimony from a DOD official on how the President endangered national security for both the US and Ukraine by withholding military aid" was bad enough said Mieke Eoyang, a defense policy pundit.  "The President's allies further endangered national security by storming the SCIF with their electronic devices," she alleged.

Anyway..

Thousands of people joined a general strike in Chile, as protests rage on.  And all it took for the facade of South America's model of neo-liberalism to shatter into chaos was a 30 cent hike in the subway fare, now rescinded.  It was the last economic indignity thousands of Chileans could stomach, and the protests continued even after President Sebastian Pinera offered concessions such as:  A promised 20 percent raise to government-subsidized base pensions; a guaranteed minimum wage; and the reversal of a planned increase in electricity prices. 

But these are not enough for people who have been on the wrong side of 30 years of widening inequality.  Protests now center on a lack of access to quality health care and education, as well as the high price of privatized water service.  The death toll is now 18, including a man and his toddler daughter struck a killed by a car attacking a protest, and another man allegedly beaten by police.  Troops continue to patrol Santiago, with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International now voicing their concern for the militarized response.

Moving along..

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ruled out a coalition government, after coming up just short in the election of having enough seats to declare a majority.  Instead, he'll negotiate with opposition party leaders for their support.  Jagmeet Singh of the Leftist New Democrats says he's not about to give up much of his party's agenda:  "We have a divided country," Singh said, "It is essential for Justin Trudeau to take this seriously, to try to find common ground."

Thailand's King Vajiralongkorn fired six officials for "extremely evil" conduct and "exploiting their official positions for their own or other people's gain".  This comes days after he sacked his royal consort Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi for "misbehaviour and disloyalty against the monarch".  

Baby Chimp Alert!  Baby Chimp Alert!  At the Beauval Zoo, in France's Loir-et-Cher region.