Good Morning Australia!! - An internationally-celebrated fashion designer commits suicide - Iran takes steps to resume its nuclear program - Germany bristles as the US fiddles with its internal affairs - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Hundreds of people lined the streets of the Guatemalan town of Alotenango as mourners carried the caskets of seven people killed in the eruption of the Fuego Volcano, among them girls aged three, six, and 13 years.  The death toll is at least 69 lives lost, and expected to rise.  But recovery crews are having a hard time getting to towns that were pretty much wiped out by torrents of mud and ash or hot lava.

Iran has informed the UN that it is taking steps to boost its capacity to enrich uranium in case the international nuclear deal falls through.  The status of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) remains in danger after the incompetent orange clown Donald Trump violated the agreement by ending US participation.  Since then, the European Union has been working on ways to provide Iran with relief from economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran holding back its research on nuclear power and weapons.  "If we were progressing normally, it would have taken six or seven years, but this will now be ready in the coming weeks and months," said the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi.  "However, for the time being, we move within the framework of the JCPOA."

Jordan's King Abdullah is ordering the government to review plans to hike the income tax, which has enraged the public in the normally-peaceful Middle East state.  He already sacked the prime minister after days of protests against the tax hike and social budget cuts that were prescribed by the dorks at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  Abdullah said the new government must avoid "unjust taxes that do not achieve justice and balance between the incomes of the poor and the rich".  Hmph, it's almost as if people-powered protests work or something.

Amnesty International says the UK should "come clean" about its role US-led air strikes that allegedly killed hundreds of civilians in the Syrian city of Raqqa, once the capital of the so-called Islamic State.  "Civilians in Raqqa have suffered grievously at the hands of IS, but they've also been imperilled by the coalition's disproportionate aerial attacks," said Amnesty director Kate Allen, hinting at possible war crimes.  The group interviewed more than a hundred witnesses and say that the US and UK are deliberately playing down the true casualty rate in the city.  The strikes began in June of last year, and Syrian rebels led by the Kurdish YPG had gotten control of Raqqa by October. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed he isn't trying to split apart the European Union, hours before arriving on a visit to Austria where a far-right government with a pro-Putin junior partner governs.  Putin is trying to convince European leaders to roll back sanctions related to Russia's invasion of Crimea and involvement in the eastern Ukraine separatist movement.  The Kremlin is believed to be helping if not directly financing far right "populist" movements throughout Europe.

Some German politicians are demanding the US recall Trump's ambassador Richard Grenell, a former Fox News contributor who told a US far-right "news" website that he "absolutely wants to empower" far-right movements throughout Europe, improperly involving himself and the US in the internal politics of EU members.  That most of these far-right parties wants to pull their countries out of the continental union makes Grenell's and Trump's heinous goals crystal clear.  "If people like US ambassador Richard Grenell believe they can dictate like a lord of the manor who rules in Europe and who doesn’t, they can no longer remain in Germany as a diplomat," said Sahra Wagenknecht, the co-chair of leftwing party Die Linke.  Grenell has also been irking diplomatic norms by demanding and sometimes getting meetings with heads of state and other Ambassadors outside of normal channels.

Fashion designer Kate Spade, known for colorful handbags and accessories, is dead of suicide at age 55.  New York City police say she was found by her housekeeper in her Park Avenue residence hanged with a scarf from a doorknob.  Her husband was at home at the time, and the couple had a 13-year old daughter.

Disgraced former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to rape and criminal sex act charges in a brief hearing before a judge in New York.  A week ago, a grand jury in Manhattan indicted him on charges brought by two women; one who remains anonymous, and the other being actress Lucia Evans who alleges Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him.

And now, the continuing adventures of a chronic liar:

Usually, winners of the big American sports contests - the Super Bowl, the World Series, The NBA Championship - are invited to the White House for a meeting with the sitting president.  However, this time around, fewer than ten members of the NFL Super Bowl champion Philadelphia chose to accept the invitation.  Rather than just have a small event or just quietly cancel it, the orange clown Donald Trump lied to the American people and to sports fans around the world, and he claimed he cancelled it because of the NFL players' "take a knee" protests against police brutality of African-Americans, which social conservatives have willfully misportrayed as unpatriotic. 

Two problems immediately arose:  Not one member of the Philadelphia Eagles Football Team had ever taken part in that protest.  And then Rupert Murdoch's conservative "news" outlet Fox News attempted to support Trump by misrepresenting photos of kneeling Eagles teammates.  But those photos were taken of players who were saying their prayers BEFORE the games, not part of the "take a knee" protests.  Fox News released an apology - Trump just kept right on lying.  Instead of hosting the Super Bowl champions, he held some weird, hastily improvised "Celebration of Patriotism", during which he couldn't remember the words to "God Bless America".

The First Amendment of the US Constitution protects Americans from government attempts to limit their freedom of speech.  In using the power of the Executive Branch of the US government's "bully pulpit" to try and intimidate NFL players from using their freedom to oppose police brutality of African-Americans, he is violating that First Amendment.

However, there is no backbone in the Republican Party-run US government to stop him.  It's been said that economically, when America sneezes the whole world catches a cold.  It will be incumbent upon freedom-loving nations to protect their own institutions from the cold wave of fascism and intimidation, because the US will no longer be there to do it for them.