Hello Australia!! - Hate and readily-available guns combine in the massacre at a US Synagogue - Trump's stunning reaction to the shooting - Thousands protest the latest decline of Rome - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

A far-right gunman shouting anti-Semitic slogans burst into a Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and opened fire with a military assault weapon and two handguns, killing eleven people and injuring several more, including four cops who had very quickly responded to the slaughter.  This happened during Saturday morning Shabbat services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in the city's Squirrel Hill neighborhood, where a bris was reportedly in progress. The people inside sheltered in place or ran for the basement as shots rang out, but the aftermath had shaken even experienced law enforcers.  Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said, "It's a very horrific crime scene.  One of the worst that I've seen and I've been on some plane crashes.  It's very bad." 

Because of social media and the nature of this atrocity, word of the shooting raced through Jewish communities throughout the world, which responded with messages of support and solidarity.  Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said the victims of the attack were "targeted" because of their religion:  "We are devastated.  Jews targeted on Shabbat morning at synagogue, a holy place of worship, is unconscionable.  Our hearts break for the victims, their families, and the entire Jewish community."  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was "heartbroken and appalled" by the massacre.  The Federal Prosecutor for the region vowed that "justice will be swift, and it will be severe".  It is believed to be the worst assault specifically targeting Jews in US history.

The gunman is identified as 46-year old angry white male Robert Bowers of North Versailles, Pennsylvania.  He had announced his intentions on social media with a chilling message: "HIAS likes to bring invaders that kill our people.  I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered.  Screw your optics.  I'm going in."  HIAS is a century-old Jewish-American organization that helps refugees in the US and around the world.  Bowers posted on an obscure social media network called Gab.com which apparently specializes in giving a home to far-right wingers and nazis who were banned from mainstream platforms.  He frequently used the most vile language to spout his hatred of Jews; and although he parroted the anti-immigration line heard from throughout the White House and far-right world, he criticized Donald Trump for not being far-right enough.  Neighbors who spoke with reporters say they didn't really know Bowers; law enforcement didn't have him on its radar.

Donald Trump reacted to the massacre by gaslighting the victims, saying that the Synagogue should have had armed security guards on site to deal with violent threats and refusing to discuss gun control.

Anyway..

This could be a make or break weekend for Brazil's democracy:  Voters will decide between a "pink wave" People's Party social democrat Fernando Haddad - and dictatorship-praising far-right Jair Bolsonaro, who has vilified Leftists, LGBT, African-Brazilians, Indigenous Brazilians, Women, and pretty much everyone who isn't a far-right white male.  Unfortunately, the polls favor Bolsonaro who at a closing rally vowed that the Brazilian Left will "either go overseas, or they will go to jail".  Bolsonaro's favorite for Vice President General Antonio Hamilton Mourao said, "If institutions cannot solve the problems, we will have to impose the solutions ourselves," renewing fears of impending dictatorship.

Saudi Arabia's top diplomat dismissed the global outcry over the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi as "hysterical", and called on critics to wait for the results of the oil kingdom's case against the suspects.  Riyadh has offered shifting explanations since the day Khashoggi disappeared in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 3 October, never to emerge alive.  Turkey insists it has evidence Khashoggi was tortured and killed by close associates of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad over a gruesome seven minutes; it has reportedly shared that evidence with US CIA Director Gina Haspell.

Sri Lanka is on the brink, after President Maithripala Sirisena dismissed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with his arch-rival and former strongman ruler Mahinda Rajapaksa - who crushed the long-running Tamil rebellion in 2009.  The law does not appear to support this, and the country is in a constitutional crisis:  "What the President now should do immediately is to summon Parliament and have a vote," said Jehan Perera, executive director of the nonpartisan National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.  "That's the democratic way to resolve this crisis."

Thousands protested against Rome's Mayor Virginia Raggi, blaming her for incompetence leading to the ancient city's current run-down state:  They say rats and even wild boars roam the streets, trash is all over the place and infrequently collected, infrastructure such as roads and sidewalks are literally falling apart.  Even the escalator that failed at Rome's train station last week is blamed on Raggi.  They want Raggi, a Five-Star Movement politician who took power in 2016, to step down.