Good Morning Australia!! - NASA goes to the Sun - The Taliban is trying to conquer a city - America is tense on the anniversary of racist mayhem - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

The US Space Agency NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe which is intended to fly closer to the Sun than any unmanned spacecraft has done before.  "Wow, here we go!  We're in for some learning over the next several years," said 91-year old University of Chicago astrophysicist Eugene Parker, the scientist who first described the Solar Wind and who gave his name to the probe.   The Parker Solar Probe will pass Venus in six weeks and make its first contact with the Sun six weeks after that, eventually making seven passes and getting to within 6.16 million kilometers from the Sun's broiling "surface".  Even that far out, the temperature will be in excess of 1,300 C degrees.

Anti-racist demonstrators outnumbered "Unite the Right" protesters at least 500 to one in Washington, DC.  In fact, they were outnumbered by Media as well.  The very small group of racists wanted to rally in the US capital on the anniversary of last year's debacle in Charlottesville, Virginia in which a nazi murdered a peaceful counter-protester by ramming his car into a crowd on video.  Every cop was on duty in DC to keep the two sides apart.  Tensions are also high in Charlottesville itself, where the two sides are expected in greater numbers and the potential for clashes is feared to be more likely.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro surprised many by saying he'd accept help from the US FBI to investigate last week's failed assassination attempt against him.  Two drones packed with explosives blew up over Maduro as he addressed a military review, but he was not hurt.  In the past, Maduro has accused the US of planning to oust or even kill him; but he says the prime suspect in the plot lives in Miami and Venezuela wants him extradited.

An explosion at an illegal arms depot in northwestern Syria killed at least 39 people, and local accounts suggest many civilians were victims.  The cause of the blast at the depot, allegedly run by a major arms dealer in one of the last rebel-held areas, is unknown.  Syrian government forces backed by Russia and Iran have made major advances against the hodgepodge of allied and competing of rebel and jihadist groups across Syria.

The Afghan Taliban is in its third day of trying to take the eastern city of Gazni, between Kabul and Kandahar.  "There was burning and fire and dead bodies everywhere in the city," said a resident who managed to flee the city.  The US military says the Afghan army "continue to hold their ground and maintain control of all government centers", but a local lawmakers says that's all they're holding and the Taliban is running amok.

A Chinese tourist got too close to a hippopotamus at a wildlife resort in Kenya, which defended its personal space by clamping its enormous jaws across the man's chest.  Rescuers rushed 66-year old Chang Ming Chuang to hospital, but he died of massive bleeding.  A second tourist was injured.  Hippos have killed six people in the area this year.

Japan is stepping up the search for a missing French tourist.  36-year-old Tiphaine Veron, who has epilepsy, was last seen two weeks ago leaving the Turtle Inn at Nikko, a tourist draw north of Tokyo renown for its natural beauty and shrines to the Tokugawa Shoguns.  

Someone fired a shotgun at a group of people hanging around hours after the Caribbean Carnival had shut down for the day in Manchester, UK, injuring ten people.  Police are treating the attack as "attempted murder", although the motive isn't clear.

Five nations signed a preliminary deal aimed at ending decades of squabbles over the Caspian Sea.  Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan - all bordering the Caspian Sea - signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea in the Kazakh city of Aktau on Sunday.  The pact divides the landlocked sea's resources and prevents other powers from setting up a military presence there.  The Caspian Sea provides 90 percent of the world caviar, but it is horribly polluted from oil and natural gas extraction.  It's estimated there are 50 billion barrels of oil and nearly 8.4 trillion cubic meters of natural gas beneath its seabed.