Stunning moment an English teacher at a $34,000-a-year private school is arrested in front of horrified students by cops for allegedly sending disgusting text messages to a 13-year-old girl

Alexander Simpson, 39, was arrested at an elite private school in Sydney

Police allege the grammar teacher believed he was speaking to a 13-year-old girl

He allegedly spoke about sexually explicit acts and sent sexually explicit images

A teacher at an exclusive Sydney private school has been arrested by the child abuse squad in front of shocked students over the alleged grooming of a 13-year-old girl online.

Alexander Simpson was taken into custody while on campus at Trinity Grammar School, in Summer Hill, in the city's inner west, at 3pm on Thursday.

Police will allege the 39-year-old English teacher was sending sexually explicit texts and images to who he believed was a 13-year-old girl, sending some messages while at school.

In an email sent to parents, the school's headmaster, Tim Bowden, moved to reassure parents there was no suggestion any of their children had been mistreated.

'I am writing to inform you that on Thursday August 27, a member of the teaching staff at the Summer Hill campus was placed under arrest by police from the Child Abuse Squad,' Mr Bowden said in a statement to parents on Thursday.

'I am relieved to be able to share that the police have informed me there is no suggestion that offences have been committed against students of the school.'

The school came under scrutiny in 2019 after Daily Mail Australia revealed the school spent $1million in school funds fighting a compensation case over a paedophile teacher.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8671959/Teacher-Sydney-private-school-arrested-child-sex-abuse-cops-students.html

Tony Abbott's climate denial prompted Barack Obama's Brisbane barbs

Tony Abbott's climate change denial caused such frustration to Barack Obama that as president he ad-libbed barbed comments about the death of the Great Barrier Reef in a speech during a visit to Australia.

The diplomatic slight came during a G20 meeting of the leaders of the world's largest economies hosted by Mr Abbott in Brisbane in 2014.

Two months before the event Mr Obama's then-chief of staff John Podesta, who recalls Mr Abbott as "the Donald Trump of the times" had a "frank and forthright" exchange with Australian officials in Washington DC about climate change, according to a new book called The Carbon Club by journalist Marian Wilkinson about the influence of fossil fuel interests in Australian politics.

Mr Abbott opened the summit with a speech in which he celebrated his success in ending Labor's "carbon tax", but hours later Mr Obama gave a speech at the University of Queensland in which he took a swipe at the Australian government line that coal lifted people out of poverty, and said developing economies should be helped to break free of the "false choice between development and pollution".

He noted the "incredible natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef is threatened" and he wanted to be able to return to view it one day with his daughters.

"We can get this done. And it is necessary to get this done," he said.

Mr Abbott was furious and some of his staff believed they were "payback" from Mr Podesta after the meeting in DC, Wilkinson writes. But Mr Obama's speechwriter Ben Rhodes says this is not the case.https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/tony-abbott-s-climate-denial-prompted-barack-obama-s-brisbane-barbs-20200827-p55py0.htmlhttps://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/tony-abbott-s-climate-denial-prompted-barack-obama-s-brisbane-barbs-20200827-p55py0.htmlhttps://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/tony-abbott-s-climate-denial-prompted-barack-obama-s-brisbane-barbs-20200827-p55py0.html

"What was interesting is that the [written] speech had a short section on climate, but then in delivery Obama ad-libbed in a much longer section completely on his own," he told Wilkinson.

Mr Abbott's climate views were significant to the White House at the time because Mr Obama wanted to ensure the 2015 Paris climate talks ended with an agreement. To that end in early 2014 he signed a bilateral agreement with China to cut emissions, and he wanted to continue diplomatic momentum at the Brisbane G20 meeting.

This week it was reported that Mr Abbott has been appointed as an adviser to the British Board of Trade, which is now in talks with the EU.

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/tony-abbott-s-climate-denial-prompted-barack-obama-s-brisbane-barbs-20200827-p55py0.html