Good Morning Australia!! - The US threatens the entire world over Jerusalem - France takes a major step towards total clean power - "Something terrible" is happening in Myanmar, fears a UN official - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

The United States Congress passed a sweeping tax reform bill that will slash taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans - including several of the lawmakers who voted for it and some who didn't.  At the same time, it will provide a small amount of relief for American families that will appear on paycheck stubs this February.  But even that will disappear or even be overwhelmed when families do their Federal Income Taxes in April 2019 and find out that deductions and credits they enjoyed for decades have been eliminated and given to the rich.  That's why a vast majority of the American people were against the bill, and the Republicans rammed it through anyway.

Donald Trump invited lawmakers to the tax bill signing ceremony at the White House to celebrate his first and only legislative achievement; all were Republicans - although a handful of prominent Republicans from the House wouldn't be there because they joined with Democrats and voted against it.  Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders said the Republicans ought to celebrate now because they "will not be celebrating" next November, signalling that the Democrats he caucuses with will run on their opposition to the bill in the next election.  Bernie said, "Well, it is a victory for billionaires like Donald Trump.  It's a victory for wealthy campaign contributors like the Koch brothers." 

The United States is threatening its friends and foes alike in the United Nations over the General Assembly resolution condemning the US for Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.  In the letter apparently written to every other nation on Earth, Haley wrote that the orange clown infesting the White House "will be watching (Thursday's) vote carefully" and "requested I report back on those who voted against us" - implying that the US would cut off foreign aid to these countries.  A day earlier, Haley used the US' veto power to kill a similar resolution in the Security Council, after it got the support of the 14 other countries - calling it "an insult" that would "not be forgotten". 

While the US was threatening its friends and screwing its working families:

France banned fracking and oil drilling in all of its lands and territories, vowing to wrap it all up by the year 2040.  Center-right President Emmanuel Macron wants France to lead the world by weaning off of fossil fuels and the nuclear industry, onto renewable sources.  Socialist lawmaker Delphine Batho said she hoped the ban would be "contagious", inspiring nations that are bigger producers to follow suit.

High-speed broadband Internet service at speeds of at least 10Mbps will be a legal right for all homes and businesses in the UK by 2020.  Large Internet providers said they would meet the standard voluntarily, however the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport said only a universal service obligation (USO) would ensure it happens by 2020.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that Uber is a transport services company; this will require the ride-hailing service to submit to the same stricter regulation and licensing as any other taxi operator.  Uber had tried to claim it was a computer services business and should be governed by e-commerce regulations.  Nope, and it's the latest stop on this ride!  The ECJ's ruling cannot be appealed, and will apply in every EU country including the UK (at least until the Brexit is complete).

Anyway..

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez is calling for peace and calm, while the opposition is calling for a new, clean presidential election.  The country's electoral court, which is allied with Hernandez' conservatives, declared him the winner over Salvador Nasralla after a nearly-month-long vote count in the tiny Central American country.  Mexico and the US recognized the installation of their favorite candidate, but more international observors are pointing out the flagrant vote massaging that went on to get Hernandez his victory,and calling for a fresh election.  More than 24 people have died in violence related to the debacle.

Poland's right-wing government has begun whinging that everyone is picking on them as the European Union begins the process of taking away its voting rights in the bloc over Warsaw's adoption of legal "reforms" that gut the independence of the judiciary.  Brussels is confident it has votes of 22 of the 28 members states to issue a warning to Poland in a procedure that has never before been used on an EU member.  Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki claims the EU's motivation is "political, not legal".  The hallmark of the far right in this century is to claim victimhood, so look for Warsaw to continue claiming it is being persecuted from forces outside Poland's borders.

Myanmar is barring entry to a UN official who was to come in January and investigate what has happened to the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state.  The government is refusing to cooperate with UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee for the rest of her tenure.  Me. Lee says it suggests Myanmar has something to hide:  "This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country."  It is feared more than 6,700 Rohingya were killed in ethnic cleansing that sent 650,000 across the border into refugee camps in Bangladesh.