World News AM Briefs For Monday, 23 Sep 2019
Hey Australia!! - A Firebrand hits at the Democrats' inaction on Trump - Australia will not talk Climate with the UN this week - Iran warns the world to stay away - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
The effects of Climate Change are speeding up faster than expected, said a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) compiled just before the special UN summit on climate change taking place in New York on Monday. Sea-level rise has accelerated significantly: From 1993 - 2014, the average rise was 3.2 millimeters. But that suddenly increased to 5 millimeters a year from 2014 to the present day. "As we have seen this year with tragic effect in the Bahamas and Mozambique, sea-level rise and intense tropical storms led to humanitarian and economic catastrophes," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas. At the same time CO2 emissions have hit new highs.
But Australia's coal-loving government will not be taking part in the Climate Summit, and neither will the US, Japan, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia. About 60 other heads of state will take part, including leaders from China, India, France, Germany, and the UK. "I told leaders not to come with fancy speeches, but with concrete commitments," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "People want solutions, commitments and action. I expect there will be an announcement and unveiling of a number of meaningful plans on dramatically reducing emissions during the next decade, and on reaching carbon neutrality by 2050." The Swedish high school student Greta Thunberg and other youth activists, fresh from marching on the streets of New York on Friday, spoke at the opening of the meeting last week.
Iran is warning "foreign forces" to stay out of the Persian Gulf region, even as the US plans to increase troops strength station in Saudi Arabia. "Foreign forces can cause problems and insecurity for our people and for our region," President Hassan Rouhani said on the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq War, and said if other countries were serious about keeping the peace "then they should not make our region the site of an arms race." The US committed more troops to Saudi Arabia after the drone attack that heavily damaged two oil producing facilities. Meanwhile, Iran reportedly will release the Stena Imperior, the British-flagged oil tanker it seized in July in retaliation for UK commandos detaining an Iranian ship near Gibraltar.
Outrage in Rio De Janeiro, where a stray bullet fired by police struck and killed an 8-year old girl. Agatha Vitoria Sales Felix was riding in the back of her mother's vehicle, when police chasing a motorcyclist somehow came the decision that shooting at the bike was a good idea. A record 1,249 people have died in police raids since hardline Governor Wilson Witzel came into office in January - five of them were children.
Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong stomped a Chinese flag and threw it in a river, which isn't going to go down well in Beijing. Riot police responded with tear gas as rioters damaged a mall and a subway station.
There could be a shift going on in the race for the US Democratic Party presidential nomination - Elizabeth Warren has for the first time overtaken former Vice President Joe Biden in a poll in Iowa, which has the first major face off in the election season. The Des Moines Register/CNN poll showed Ms. Warren with 22 percent, Biden with 20 percent, and progressive icon Bernie Sanders with 11 percent.
Another rock star of the Democratic Party - Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York City - said, "At this point, the bigger national scandal isn't (Donald Trump's) lawbreaking behavior - it is the Democratic Party's refusal to impeach him," referring in anguish to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's go-slow approach to dealing with Trump's scandals. This follows a whistle-blower in the US intelligence community filing a complain of Trump's contacts with a foreign leader, which three major newspapers have reported as Trump threatening to withhold military aid from Ukraine unless Kiev dug up some dirt on Joe Biden that Trump could use in the 2020 presidential campaign. Several Democrats went on the Sunday Morning news shows to say that Trump's latest stunt might make impeachment inevitable.
For the first time in 27 years, an Israeli-Arab political group is making an endorsement for Prime Minister - and it's not Benjamin Netanyahu. The Arab List coalition came in third in Israel's election last week, and it is throwing its weight behind the Blue and White party's leader Benny Gantz. "We want to bring an end to the era of Netanyahu," said the List's leader Ayman Odeh. That gives Gantz 57 seats, still short of the 61 seats needed to form a majority coalition but ahead of Netanyahu. Full election results will be announced later this week.
It's Oktoberfest in Bavaria.