Good Morning Australia!! - Why is a 97-year old royal driving on his own? Anyway, he wasn't hurt.. - Europe girds for an ugly Brexit - Trump goes tit-for-tat - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Prince Philip was unhurt after taking his Range Rover out for a drive and rolling it in a collision with another vehicle.  The occupants of the other car were slightly injured.  This happened Thursday afternoon local time just outside the gates of the Queen's Sandringham estate.  The 97-year old Duke of Edinburgh was reportedly shaken and had to be helped out of the toppled vehicle, but walked away.  In the UK there was some surprise that the duke still drives (at least until someone has the sense to hide his keys), after he retired from public life in 2017.

France is launching contingency plans to cope with a no-deal Brexit, after Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said it is looking "less and less" likely that UK Prime Minister Theresa May will be able to sell to her parliament her plan for an orderly withdrawal from the European Union.  What's more, EU officials are visiting all 27 capitals to coordinate plans on confronting the expected chaos of the UK crashing out:  "We are taking this very seriously now as the possibility of a no-deal Brexit is becoming more possible after Tuesday night," said European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas, "This is work which is ongoing and it's developing fully.  We are not taking any chance."

Donald Trump pulled authorization for Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to US troops in harm's way in Afghanistan, claiming the government shutdown made it impossible.  In fact, this is not true: The military funding authorization bill was passed last year, and their is no budget issue involved.  Trump himself went to Afghanistan during the shutdown, as did some Republican congressional members.  Trump is believed to be striking back at Pelosi after she asked him to postpone the State of the Union address, also because of the shutdown.   Critics point out that none of this does a thing to end the shutdown, which has 800,000 government workers not getting paid because Trump refuses to sign a budget that doesn't contain US$5.7 Billion for his border wall.  Meanwhile, five members of the Trump administration will fly to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum this month, protected by Secret Service agents whose paychecks are delayed because of the shutdown.

Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama told Scott Morrison that climate change is "no laughing matter" and poses an "enormous" threat to Fijians and Pacific Islanders.  Mr. Morrison is visiting Australia's Pacific Island neighbors, and this is believed to be the first time a Pacific leader directly confronted an Aussie PM about climate chance and rising seas.  "From where we are sitting, we cannot imagine how the interests of any single industry can be placed above the welfare of Pacific peoples - vulnerable people in the world over," said Mr. Bainimarama. 

A truck bomb killed nine people outside a police academy in Bogota, Colombia.  President Ivan Duque called it an "attack"; and the Leftist opposition FARC is calling it a "provocation against the political way out of the conflict", referring to the peace talks that allowed the FARC to transition from an armed militia to a political party.  Mr. Duque was not a fan of those talks and has refused to return to the negotiating table with another Leftist militia, the ELN.

Kenya has arrested nine people in the manhunt for those responsible for planning the attack on a hotel and office complex in the capital Nairobi earlier this week.  The Red Cross confirms that 21 civilians were killed, but everyone has been accounted for.  Kenya says five terrorists were killed during the siege.  The terrorist group Al Shabaab took responsibility for the carnage.