Good Morning Australia!! - Egypt busts a big money but very macabre crime ring - Merkel makes a play to the right - Trump says something stupid - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Egyptian authorities arrested several in what they call "the largest international network for trading human organs", confiscating "millions of dollars and gold bullion".  The country's largest anti-corruption body, the Administrative Control Authority, arrested at least 25 people said to be organ buyers and middlemen who took "advantage of some of the citizens' difficult economic conditions so that they buy their human organs and sell (them) for large sums of money".  The UN World Health Organization has long warned that Egypt is a global hub for the illegal traffic of human organs.

Europol will investigate the biggest mass drowning of immigrants in the Mediterranean Sea on 9 April of this year.  Until now, there has been no official inquiry into the deaths of more than 500 people from Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, and a number of other countries; only 37 survived.  Investigators hope to establish the boat's origin, which could have been Egypt instead of the lawless Libyan coast, to track down the human traffickers responsible for the disaster.  The United Nations estimates that 4,663 people have died this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is backing a partial ban on the full face veil worn by some Muslim women.  At a meeting of her CDU party in which she won reelection as leader by an overwhelming margin, she said the burka should be banned in schools, courts and other state buildings - "Wherever legally possible."  Merkel's popularity has slipped slightly off previous high with the welcoming of more than a million refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. 

Brazil Senate President Renan Calheiros is defying a Supreme Court judge's order to stand down while he goes on trial for embezzlement.  Mr. Calheiros says he will wait for the full court to rule on Wednesday.  At stake is the conservative unelected government's austerity plan which would gut pensions; if Calheiros steps down, the next in line for his job would be a member of the opposition Worker's Party, who is expected to block the vote.

US president-elect Donald Trump is pulling one of his "hey look at me being outrageous!" stunts:  The orange toddler - who doesn't take office for a month and a half - says the US should cancel its order for new Air Force One airplanes from Boeing, claiming that costs are "totally out of control".  Boeing released an adult statement ignoring the baseless claim from Trump, and promising to "to deliver the best planes for the president at the best value for the American taxpayer".  The special 747s are outfitted with sensitive communications, safety, and defensive kit which are required when you're the flipping president of the United States.  It's not clear which conflict-of-interest or example of blatant incompetence the media-savvy clown was trying to distract from.  We'll know in a few days when he'll just change the news cycle again with a stupid tweet or something.

Beijing is demanding the US refuse to allow Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen transit through the US when she travels to Central America next month.  This comes after the stunt phone call between Ms. Tsai and Trump, orchestrated by the Trump camp - possibly to intentionally irk Chinese officials.  The phone call basically reversed three and a half decades of US policy.  China - which considers Taiwan to be a rogue province instead of another country - routinely leans on other countries to deny travel rights or official recognition of entities it considers "enemies", like Taiwan or the Dalai Lama. 

So, what is the world going to look like over the next few years, with countries led by immature and belligerent authoritarians continually trying to annoy each other?