Good Morning Australia!! - A galactic neighbor might have the stuff to host life - Starvation is stalking four countries, and the UN doesn't have the cash to deal with it - Muslims come to the aid of Jews under attack in the US - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Astronomers believe a single, relatively near-by star has seven planets about the size of earth.  All seven of the globes orbiting Trappist-1 - a low-mass, cool star located 40 light-years away from here - might be able to support water on their surfaces.  Three lie within the so-called "habitable zone", the distance from the star where life as we know it might be sustained.  A fourth, the furthest one out from the star, appears to have an atmosphere that can efficiently trap heat and possibly host some form of life.  Or, you know, they might be lifeless rocks and since no one I know has access to a Starship with a Warp Engine we're stuck with this planet which we are doing a fine job of screwing up.  Astronomers found the planets with the NASA Spitzer space telescope.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says famine relief programs need US$4.4 Billion by the end of next month to prevent "a catastrophe" of hunger in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen.  Only US$90 million has been collected so far, but Mr. Guterres is confident governments and individual donors will step up.  UNICEF already warned that nearly 1.4 million children are at "imminent risk of death" from acute malnutrition this year in those four countries; earlier this week, officials declared a famine in parts of South Sudan's Unity state.

In just one month of infesting the White House, Donald Trump has already racked up as many personal travel expenses as Barack Obama did in a year.  The Washington Post reports that Trump's three trips to his gauche Mar-A-Lago private club in Florida "probably cost the federal treasury about $10 million".  The paper bases its analysis on past expenditures on special Coast Guard units to patrol the exposed shoreline as well as "other military, security and staffing expenses associated with moving the apparatus of the presidency".  The US Secret Service has also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars protecting Trump's two adult sons on two international trips to promote their father's business.

American Muslims quickly donated more than US$85,000 to fund repairs to a Jewish cemetery in Saint Louis where vandals knocked over and destroyed 150 tombstones.  That's more than four times the goal of the couple that started the fundraising effort "to help rebuild this sacred space where Jewish-American families have laid their loved ones to rest since the late 1800's".  This isn't the first time that Muslims and Jews banded together in solidarity against the hatred unleashed by Donald Trump's political campaign and administration.  Last month, the B'nal Israel Synagogue in Victoria, Texas opened its doors for Muslim services after some cretin burned down the Islamic Center of Victoria mosque. 

Warsaw, Poland is publishing a list of 50 properties that were seized by the Communists after 1945 can be legally claimed by their rightful, pre-World War II owners - including by survivors of Holocaust victims.  But the window is short - any of the properties that are not claimed within six months of the lists' publication will become city property.  "It is unfair for claimants - particularly those who now live outside of Poland - to lose this last opportunity to reconnect with their past because of the administrative complexity of this law," complained Gideon Taylor of the World Jewish Restitution Organization.

Germany's Bavaria state is moving ahead with a ban on full-face veils worn by women from conservative Muslim backgrounds.  The ban would cover government workplaces, schools, universities, and while driving.  Critics say there are only a small number of Muslims who wear the veil in Bavaria.  The ruling conservative coalition state government probably just wants to fend off a challenge from the racist and xenophobic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in seven months.

Ecuador's presidential election is heading to a second round.  The ruling Alianza Pais party won majorities in the National Assembly and Andean Parliament - but its presidential candidate, Vice President Lenin Moreno, came up 0.7 percent under the 40 percent threshold to avoid a runoff.  Mr. Moreno will face off against conservative Guillermo Lasso.  President Rafael Correa says Lasso is the "easiest to beat", but some have speculated that Lasso could pull off an upset if he gets the endorsement of one of the lesser candidates from last weekend's voting.

South Africa is raising taxes on the top incomes earners.  With a slow recovery from the 2009 recession and rising inequality, lawmakers decided it's time for people taking home more than US$150,000 annually to pay 45 percent in income tax instead of 41 percent.  The move impacts only about 100,000 people in the entire country, just under 0.2 percent of South Africa's almost 53 million population.  Corporate taxes were raised as well. It is hoped that the tax changes will help to narrow its budget deficit to 3.1 percent of GDP.

Okay Grampy, time to hand over the keys to the airplane.