Hello Australia!! - Florida's weak, awful gun control bill could actually make it all worse - Trump officially launches his trade war - Making International Women's Day count in a big way - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

The orange clown Donald Trump went ahead with it and signed an executive order slapping new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum - 25 percent and 10 percent respectively.  Canada and Mexico are exempt while the White House attempts to renegotiate sections of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and Trump earlier in the day hinted that Australia could be exempt.  At no point did Trump use the word "automation", which is actually more responsible for US manufacturing job losses than import/export policy.  The move is absolutely going to start a trade war, as US allies and partners will put tit-for-tat taxes on US products - the European Union has already signalled its own tariffs on Kentucky bourbon, Wisconsin dairy products, blue jeans, Florida orange juice, and other products - farm states are bracing as US agriculture exports could be hard-hit.  Buckle up!

Eleven nations including Australia and New Zealand signed what was once known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement at a ceremony in Santaigo, Chile.  Now dubbed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), it covers 500 million consumers even though the US pulled out earlier.  The other member nations are Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Millions of women in Spain made International Women's Day mean something by taking part in a giant 24-strike.  Unions say this included 5.3 million woman union members, backed by ten unions and several of the country's top female politicians.  Shouting "if we stop, the world stops" they filled public square in the major cities, leaving work behind and spending nothing for the day.  A group called the 8 March Commission organized the strike.  Its manifesto calls for "a society free of sexist oppression, exploitation and violence" and says: "We do not accept worse working conditions, nor being paid less than men for the same work."

Florida's legislature passed a weak compromise on gun control in reaction to the massacre at a high school in Parkland.  The bill doesn't ban any specific assault weapons, but it does ban bumpstocks (used in a different massacre), puts in a three-day waiting period between purchase and possession of long rifles, and raised the age to buy long rifles to 21.  That's pretty weak.  Real weak.  In exchange, the Republicans and NRA get their wet dream of funding and training school personnel to carry weapons.  School personnel like 48-year old David Swinyar of Kernan Middle School in Duval County:  He loses his temper, uses racist language, proselytizes for Trump, confronts students in a "physically agressive manner", and belittles students.  Or Dayanna Volitich Crystal River Middle School in Crystal River, Florida:  She was caught running a white supremacist podcast in which she bragged about teaching racist lessons to her students; she was removed from the classroom,  but hasn't been fired yet.

The leader of the Marxist FARC has pulled out of the party's first appearance Colombia's Presidential race because of ill health.  Rodrigo "Timochenko" Londono is recovering after undergoing heart surgery in Bogota.  The FARC will continue to campaign for legislative seats in this weekend's election, and is guaranteed ten of them under the terms of the landmark 2016 peace deal that ended five decades of civil war.

Good on the folks who started and contributed to a crowdfunding campaign for Mhlengi Gwala, the South African triathlete recovering after attackers tried to take his legs off with a dull chainsaw.  The motive for the attack is unclear - if it were a robbery, they forgot to steal his watch and wallet - but Mr. Gwala now has 400,000 South African rand (about AU$43,000) for his medical bills and rehabilitation costs. 

Polish President Andrzej Duda has apologized to Jews for the "shameful" episode in 1968 when the Communist authorities expelled many Jews from the country.  "What a shame, what a loss for the Polish Republic today that those who left - and some who are maybe dead because of 1968 - are not here with us today," said Mr. Duda, "I am so sorry."  Half the country's Jewish population - 15,000 people - were stripped of their citizenship and kicked out of Poland.