Good Morning Australia!! - Allegations of an ugly turn in the Yellow Vest protests - IS is reduced to hiding in a single village - Purported allies don't share a common world view - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

What's left of the so-called Islamic State (as a land-holding army) is surrounded in a village on the Euphrates River in Syria, ringed by US-backed militias ready to put an end to the short-lived caliphate.  It's believed that a few hundred militants are trying to hide themselves among a thousand civilians, while the surrounding Syrian Defense Force fighters wait them out.  Donald Trump is urging the UK and European Nations to take some 800 former-IS fighters captured by the US and put them on trial - if not, he claims the US will be "forced" to release them.

France will investigate allegedly anti-Semitic chants directed at a prominent intellectual by a group of "Yellow Vest" protesters in Paris.  Alain Finkielkraut says demonstrators called him a "dirty zionist" among other things, and that he "no longer support the demonstrations - it's becoming grotesque".  Finkielkraut is a Left-wing political philosopher who supports Israel and the two-state solution to Middle East peace.  This comes after two reports showing anti-Semitic incidents "spreading like poison" in France and Germany.  The Yellow Vests began as a protest against a fuel price hike, and then morphed into a broader revolt against President Emmanuel Macron and his neo-liberal economic policies. 

The problem with "my way or the highway" is that at some point, everyone will be off on the highway.  Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki has cancelled a planned visit to Israel for a security summit after his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu suggested "Poles cooperated with the Nazis".  That is a major sore point in Poland - the current far-right government wants the world to remember how it suffered during the nazi occupation and dismisses local collaborators as minor.  The problem for Israel is that Poland is the largest state in the "Visegrad Group" - a four state club of conservative former SSRs that make up Israel's key support in Europe.  Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz will instead meet with Netanyahu and the leaders of the other three Visegrad members, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic - not exactly diplomatic, military, or economic powerhouses.

Strange times at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend.  Former US Vice President Joe Biden - who is reportedly considering running for President - got a standing ovation for promising that "America will be back" once Donald Trump leaves office, referring to Washington re-engaging with its allies and responsibilities around the world.  Current Vice President Mike Pence was met with contemptuous silence when the audience refused to applaud him bringing "greetings" from Trump.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel championed the post-World War II order that America is increasingly rejecting, while French President Emmanuel Macron didn't bother to come to the conference.

UK Officials are denouncing the hanging of a Russian flag on Salisbury Cathedral, close to where Russian spies were alleged to have poisoned an ex-spy and his daughter.  Those two survived but a British woman who handled the discarded poison container later died.  It's not clear who the pranksters were, but the city's MP John Glen called it a "stupid stunt".

Police in Liberia in western Africa have arrested more than 60 miners, many of them armed, at an illegal gold mine that collapsed earlier this month.  More than 40 miners are still believed to be underground, and reports say seven to 24 bodies have been pulled out.  It's one of the poorest regions of the world, and the miners are willing to risk death by collapse or robbery for a chance at making quick money.  One official described the situation as "lawless".