Good Morning Australia!! - Spies warn Israel not to trust Trump - Which country is regressing and making it easier on wife-beaters? - Tough talk on China's island building campaign - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

US intelligence agents have reportedly warned counterparts in Israel not to share sensitive information with the incoming Trump administration, for fear it would be shared with Russia and then onto Iran.  US-Israel cooperation had intensified since 2000, with most of the joint operations involving Iran, with some others targeting Hezbollah and Hamas.  But Israel's Yediot Ahronot newspaper says the agents are concerned over the embarrassing material that Russia has on Trump, and Russia's close intelligence ties with Tehran - if Russia pressures Trump, state secrets could easily be pipelined to the Iranians. 

Russia says the build-up of 3,000 new US troops along Poland's eastern border is a "factor destabilizing European security" and a threat.  Poland's Undersecretary of State for Defence Tomasz Szatkowski said the deployment was necessary because of Russia's "large exercises" next to its border and its "aggressive actions in our vicinity - I mean Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea".  Three months ago, Russia stationed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to its exclave of Kaliningrad - sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania - making them capable ot hitting Berlin and other key European cities.

As the world continues the digest the caustic, unpalatable hot mess that was US pretender-elect Donald Trump's news conference, there is growing consensus in one area:  Trump's ethics plans is woefully inadequate.  He is handing over business operations to his sons and placing his assets in a trust, but not a blind one controlled by an independent actor.  "This is not a blind trust - it's not even close," said Walter Shaub, director of the US Office of Government Ethics.  "He has all of the conflicts of interest that he had before," said Richard Painter, the chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration.  Norm Eisen, who served as President Obama's ethics lawyer said Trump "is going to precipitate an ethics and a constitutional crisis from the day he's sworn in".  But, it appears that no one is doing anything about it.

Trump's nominee for Secretary of State says China should be "blocked" from the islands it built in the South China Sea - islands on which China built several military facilities.  "They are taking territory or control or declaring control of territories that are not rightfully China's," said Rex Tillerson at his Senate confirmation hearings.  The Islands are in international waters claimed by other countries, but hundreds of kilometers beyond China's internationally-recognized maritime boundaries. 

The Republican-led US Senate waited until the middle of the night to launch its assault on the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.  In passing the repeal, the Senate also rejected various measured that would have protected people with pre-existing medical conditions from losing their health care coverage.  The measure goes to the House, where it will certainly be passed.

Russia is moving to decriminalized some domestic abuse.  The Duma passed a first reading of a bill to re-categorize first assaults which cause less serious injuries as administrative - rather than criminal - offenses.  "A huge number of women tolerate domestic violence but do not bring it out to the public," said Olga Yurkova, executive director of the group Sisters which works with domestic abuse victims.  "The decriminalization will worsen the situation," she added.  The bill is being pushed by President Vladinir Putin's ultra-right pals in the name of "family" and "cultural" rights.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will lead West African leaders for a visit The Gambia on Friday to attempt to broker a deal for President Yahya Jammeh to leave office.  Nigeria's lower house voted to give Jammeh asylum.  Mr. Jammeh - who seized power in a 1994 coup - refuses to leave the presidency, despite losing last month's election.