Howdy Australia!! - Trump declares an emergency to build his wall - 16 people are shot in a workplace bloodbath near Chicago - A bad, bad look costs a fashion editor her job - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Donald Trump went ahead and decalred a supposed "national emergency" over undocumented immigration over the US southern border with Mexico, undercutting his own case in the process.  "I want to do it faster," he said during a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, "I could do the wall over a longer period of time.  I didn't need to do this, but I'd rather do it much faster."  And then he misstated or misrepresented some statistics in an attempt to justify what he hopes will be his raiding of treasuries across the US Federal Government to get the money to build his border wall which he originally said Mexico would pay for.  In fact, undocumented immigration is down and there is no emergency.  "How can this possibly be an national emergency if you’re saying you don't need to do it?," tweeted Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

Trump is doing this because the US Congress wouldn't provide him the US$5.7 Billion he demanded to start building the border wall.  Critics say this is not an emergency.  "Trump is manufacturing a crisis and declaring a made-up 'national emergency' in order to seize power and subvert the constitution," said California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose state is now among the first filing lawsuits to stop what they believe is an illegal power grab.  "This is not 9/11," said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, "this is not the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.  This is a president showing his disdain for the rule of law and the US constitution." 

Meanwhile, one of America's real and not-made-up national emergencies reared its ugly head in a blue collar town outside of Chicago:  A long-time employee at the Henry Pratt water valve company grabbed at least one gun and shot around 16 people at about 2:30 PM Friday afternoon, local time.  The suspect had been "neutralized" and at least four police officers were wounded but were in a stable condition, police reported about an hour later.  The coroner was called to the scene.  This was America's 38th mass shooting in 2019 and the fourth this week.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called a snap general election for 28 April.  Catalan nationalist MPs withdrew their support for the Socialist government's budget.

France is investigating Vatican envoy Archbishop Luigi Ventura for allegedly groping "in an insistent and repeated manner" the buttocks of a young man who worked as a greeter at an event at Paris City Hall last month.  Ventura's representatives are not commenting.

The fashion editor for Vogue Brazil has quit in a row over photos showing her at a party flanked black women wearing 19th century period costumes, and sitting in what is colloquially called (by some)a "slave master's chair" - one of those rattan chairs with the big, round back.  The images from Donata Meirelles 50th birthday party immediately evoked criticism of insensitivity to Brazil's history of slavery and racial strife.  Meirelles apologized and denied the images were linked to slavery - Vogue also apologized.