World News Briefs For Wednesday, 6 Nov 2019
Hello Australia!! - Scientists declare a global Climate Emergency and warn of "untold human suffering" - Trump wants to send troops to Mexico - Did Buckingham Palace kill a scoop about a now-notorious pedophile? - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
Eleven thousand scientists from 153 countries are declaring a climate emergency, warning in a letter that "untold human suffering" caused by man-made global warming is unavoidable without huge changes in the way we live. "Despite 40 years of major global negotiations, we have continued to conduct business as usual and have failed to address this crisis," said ecology Professor William Ripple of Oregon State University, who spearheaded the letter published in the journal BioScience. The scientists - including several Australians - say bad habits such as rising meat consumption, more air travel, and chopping down forests faster than ever are resulting in more global carbon dioxide emissions.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) is rejecting Donald Trump's offer of US military forces at attack drug cartels and "wipe them off the face of the earth". Trump put out the idea in a rage tweet after learning suspects members of a drug cartel attack a convoy of three SUVs carrying American families, killing six children and three adults. Mexican officials suspect the drug gangs saw the convoy travelling through Sonora State - a prime drug smuggling route to the north - and attacked believing it was a rival cartel. The LeBaron family is part of a breakaway Mormon sect that settled in Mexico decades again. AMLO said said Mexico would pursue the criminals behind the bloodshed with "independence and sovereignty".
Donald Trump's former Syrian envoy Gordon Sondland has revised his testimony to US Congressional impeachment investigators and now admits there was "quid pro quo" in Trump's dealings with Ukraine. In other words, pretty much everyone who has testified before the committee has now said that Trump threatened to withhold a bunch of missiles the US Congress had approved to Ukraine until Ukraine's government concocted a scandal to smear Trump's Democratic party rival, former US Vice President Joe Biden. Sondland's updated testimony not only contradicts his earlier claims of being unaware, but hands Trump's lawyer out to dry - saying Rudy Giuliani's drive to "get something" on Biden "kept getting more insidious".
A US TV news anchor was caught on camera complaining about how her bosses suppressed her story on the scandal around politically-connected millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein for fear of backlash from Buckingham Palace and other powerful people now figured into it. Amy Robach had an interview with the woman who claimed to have been abused by both Epstein and Prince Andrew. The journalist is seen in a video that was apparently recorded on the news set before broadcast or during a commercial break griping "the Palace found out" and that they "threatened us a million different ways" and that her bosses didn't have her back. There was also concern of blowback from celebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz and former President Bill Clinton, who were known to use Epstein's private jet. Epstein was found dead in a Federal jail cell in August while awaiting trial for child sex crimes.
The former UN special envoy to Syria said he quit his post last year because he didn't want to be the one to shake Bashar al-Assad's hand after essentially winning the lengthy and destructive civil war. Staffan de Mistura says he didn't like the way it worked out, but he claims the UN's actions such as aid convoys helped save 700,000 lives.