Good Morning Australia!! - Trump is linked to the rise of demagoguery - Moscow warns Ukraine against a move it says will restart the civil war - Another great musician dumps on Cory Bernardi's playlist, who can it be now? - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on states and their citizens to resist the coded language of so-called populist demagogues.  In its annual report, the campaigning group says traditional champions of free speech the US and UK have stepped back from their roles, leaving vacuums filled by those who would curtail press and individual freedoms in eastern Europe and around the world.  Even worse, because the major powers put concerns over Human Rights on the back-burner, mass atrocities have gone unchecked in countries including Syria, Yemen, Myanmar and South Sudan.  HRW is praising Canada, Belgium, Ireland, and Luxembourg in attempting to pick up the baton from the US and UK.

The Saudi-led military coalition fighting in the Yemen Proxy War has carried out 87 unlawful attacks resulting in nearly 1,000 civilian deaths, according to the Human Rights watch report.  The war between the US-backed Saudi coalition and the Iran-backed Houthi has directly killed more than 10,000 people, but it has also caused famine and proliferated disease that threatens millions more people in what was already the region's poorest country. 

Why have the major powers stepped back from their responsibilities regarding Human Rights?  The UK has been preoccupied with the Brexit, but the US is fighting its own internal battle with the orange clown Donald Trump, who actually presented mock "Fake News Awards" for journalists against whom he held a grudge.  The embarrassing spectacle was described as "petty", "childish", and by some as "chilling".  Arizona Senator Jeff Flake from Trump's own Republican party delivered a lengthy rebuke on the Senate floor, likening the clown to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. 

Trump's swim in the sewer of "fake news" and "alternative facts" has empowered other abusers like Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, and Syria's Bashar al-Assad who now know they face no consequences from the Trump-diminished US.  Keep in mind, journalism is the only profession explicitly marked for protection in the United States Constitution, so for Trump to attempt to turn his followers against reporters is explicitly anti-American in addition to being morally reprehensible.  HRW also faults Trump for his racially-divisive policies.

MOVING ALONG...

The United Nations is condemning the murders of two members of FARC who were taking part in legal political activities in the town of Peque.  Wilman Asprilla and Ansel Montoya were ex-combatants who came in from the jungle as part of the deal to end the 50-year civil war, a deal which was lauded with a Nobel Peace Prize.  FARC said the attack was "a grave infringement of peace" and denounced the murders of at least 30 ex-combatants at the hands of right-wing militias.  The group urged the Colombian government to "act in order to avoid a new political genocide".

Ukraine's parliament has acknowledged the obvious, that the eastern region Donbass is "occupied" by Russia - a move that Moscow threatened could reignite the civil war.  Parliament passed a law submitted by President Petro Poroshenko Russia to be an "aggressor" state engaged in the "temporary occupation" of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.  It spells out Russia's responsibilities for backing separatist groups and gives citizens the right to sue Moscow for damages to property.

A bus fire in Kazakhstan killed 52 people, with only five being able to escape the inferno.  The bus was traveling a route frequented by migrant laborers from neighboring Uzbekistan to travel to and from Russian construction projects.

Islamist extremist gunmen on motorcycles are suspected in the murders of a mother and daughter who were administering polio vaccinations in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta.  Although numerous Mullahs have been convinced to allow the vaccination programs to go on, dumbarse fundamentalists have fallen prey to idiotic conspiracy theories claiming that the polio are a plot to sterilize them.  As a result, Polio has surged in Pakistan after being largely wiped out in the rest of the world.

Add the legendary Colin Hay to list of musicians who don't want to be associated with Senator Cory Bernardi's Australia Day playlist.  Men at Work's "Down Under" appears at the top of the list, but he says the meaning has been hijacked:  "It would appear that the true meaning behind Down Under is lost on Mr Bernardi," Mr. Hay said to the ABC, "When the lyrics were written some 40 years ago, I was worried about people like him, and movements he represents.  'Turns out I had good reason to be." 
Down Under/Men At Work
He also suggests that Senator Bernardi dabble "in some light hallucinogens" and "realise you're not quite as important as you think you are". 
She took him in and gave him breakfast!
Burn!  Colin Hay joins Savage Garden's Darren Hayes, Jimmy Barnes, Powderfinger, and the Hilltop Hoods in criticizing Bernardi for attempting to co-opt their music for his nationalist agenda. plaza-escorts.com