Good Morning Australia!! - Malcolm's first phone call with Trump was even "worse" than thought - Breaking News about the investigation into Russian influence over Trump's campaign - Fire races near a Tokyo landmark - Chicago cops probe a very strange murder - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

"You are worse than I am," said Donald Trump to PM Malcolm Turnbull in their now-legendary first phone call as world leaders in January.  The two were discussing Australia's total ban on refugee boats; and the choice of the word "worse" might just show a limited vocabulary, but to this observer seems to suggest that Trump KNOWS that blanket bans on desperate people are wrong and cruel, but for whatever reason he's doing it anyway.  He didn't say "tougher" or "more strict", he said "worse" and he liked it - Trump wished the US had a similar policy.

This comes as the Washington Post published the leaked transcripts of Trump's first Oval Office phone calls with Malcolm, and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.  Trump and Mr. Turnbull shared a contentious 28 minute conversation in which Trump incessantly whinged about the refugee-swap deal negotiated under the Obama administration.  The orange clown harangued Malcolm about how the swap would make him look bad and harm him politically.  While Malcolm hung in there, Trump moaned about this "most unpleasant call" compared to discussions with other world leaders - including Russian strongman Vladimir Putin - and claimed Oz might send over new "Boston bombers" in a "stupid deal" which he "hated".  Say what you want about Malcolm, he didn't take the cheeto-faced shytegibbon's bait.

Trump's discussion with President Pena Nieto a day earlier was even worse, with the Mexican leader repeatedly telling the clown that his country would not pay for America's border wall, would not lie about it to the media, and urged Trump to tell the truth.  Both Nieto and Turnbull tried to get Trump to talk about things that were actually important, such as organized crime and the drug trade, North Korea's nuclear ambitions, and the Syrian Civil War.  Trump didn't.

Breaking News this morning:  US Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in the investigation into Russian influence over Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and Reuters News Agency.  It's a sign the investigation is picking up.  The jury issued subpoenas for witness testimony about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer.  Junior gave shifting reasons for accepting the meeting before finally admitting that he expected the lawyer to give over damaging information about his father's election rival Hillary Clinton.

Anyway:

A Libyan militia leader is vowing to repel any Italian ships approaching Libya's waters without permission.  Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar has now ordered naval bases in four Libyan cities to block Italian ships.  He leads the eastern faction of Libya's torn government - the western faction is supported by the UN.  Italy's parliament this week approved a plan to send naval boats to Libya to stop migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Brazil's congress, where a majority of members are implicated in corruption scandals, has legitimized last year's legislative coup d'etat and refused to put President Michel Temer on trial for corruption.  A majority voted for impeachment but failed to clear the two-thirds threshold.  Temer was caught on tape endorsing bribery payments and allegedly accepted bribes himself; the democratically-elected president he replaced was ousted because of an accounting irregularity that isn't illegal. 

A half-ton statue of The Buddha has been stolen from a temple in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. 
Buddha
Police fear the thieves have mistaken the bronze statue for gold and will melt it down to try and fence it.  The Dalai Lama was already scheduled to visit the African nation's tiny, multi-national Buddhist community later this month in his first visit to Africa.

Firefighters battled a smokey blaze at Tokyo's famous Tsukiji Fish Market, the transit point between the ocean and dinner plates for a great deal of seafood in Japan. 
Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo
This happened in the outer market, one of the few remaining examples of old town Tokyo left where narrow streets and pathways separate old wooden buildings.  It's the part where scores of tiny shops cater to professional chefs with handmade cutlery and kitchen gadgets.  The market is famous for its sushi bars that open for breakfast to cater to hardworking fish mongers and jet-lagged tourists.

Chicago Police issued a coast-to-coast all points bulletin (APB) for employees of two world-class universities in the murder of a hairdresser.  Cops got an anonymous tip about the the ritzy high-rise apartment belonging to 42-year-old Northwestern University professor Wyndham Lathem, and entered using a master key.  In the bedroom, they found the the body of 26-year-old Trenton Cornell-Duranleau lying face down in the blood-drenched apartment, and a broken knife in the kitchen.  The investigators believe that Lathem is on the run with 56-year old Andrew Warren, a payroll employee with the UK's University of Oxford.  The professor and his Oxford pal are considered armed and dangerous.

New York City police charged a Hip Hop pioneer with murder.  56-year old Nathaniel Glover - a part-time janitor and handyman once known as Kidd Creole from the seminal rap group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five ("The Message", "White Lines") - is charged with repeatedly stabbing homeless man John Jolly.  Prosecutors say Glover believed Jolly might rob him after propositioning him.

Legendary drummer Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac helped US authorities crush two tons of illegal ivory in New York City's Central Park.  One of Fleetwood Mac's big hits was the song "Tusk".  The ivory destroyed in Central Park would be equivalent to the tusks of 100 elephants