Hello Australia!! - Trump's military chief has had enough - The UK's second-biggest airport is shut down by a hooligan with a drone - Hail damage in Sydney is said to me in the millions of dollars - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

The end is nowhere in sight at UK's Gatwick Airport, which has been paralyzed for several hours because of as many as four drones seen buzzing around the runways.  The number of cancelled flights today now stands at 657 out of 760 that were scheduled, which adds up to tens of thousands marooned travelers.  It is not clear who is operating the drones, which have been described as large enough not to be mistaken for the average hobbyists' kit.  The Sussex police and the military are on the scene, apparently trying to trace the control signal or even catch one of the aircraft.  but every time the airport tries to reopen the runway, the drone reappears - suggesting that whoever is doing this is paying close attention, doing it deliberately, and is able to change the aircraft's battery pretty often. 

Gatwick officials are urging travelers to check with their carriers before coming to the airport.  RyanAir has wiped its schedule for Friday and is transferring all flights from Gatwick to Stansted.  Rail operators are advising people to decide quickly if they're going to blow off the airport and try to travel on trains.  Gatwick Airport is expected to remain closed until at least 6:00 AM local time on Friday, so stay tuned.

The hail storm in Sydney this morning is being called the worst in 20 years, and the insurance sector is already acknowledging it as a "catastrophe". Thousands are expected to put in insurance claims for damage, mainly to cars and vehicles but also to roof tiles and windscreens - the ABC reports some homes have been rendered uninhabitable.  Some reported hail as large as eight centimeters wide.
Sydney
Sydney
Sydney
"Giant hailstones, which is hail greater than 5 centimeters, are quite specifically driven in supercell thunderstorms," meteorologist Jordan Notara said to the ABC.  "We do get them quite regularly over summer through NSW, but these storm cells redeveloped quite intensely over Sydney specifically."  Damage estimates could be in the millions of dollars.

US Secretary of State Jim Mattis is out, with Donald Trump announcing his "retirement" via Twitter.  This comes a day after Trump reportedly went against all available advice from his experts and the Pentagon by claiming the so-called Islamic state had been defeated (it hasn't yet) and said he was pulling US troops out of Syria.  Critics say that leaves Syria to Russia and Iran, and abandons the Kurds to the whims of Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  Mattis is seen as the last of the "adults in the room" keeping an impetuous, uninformed, and undisciplined Donald Trump from acting on his worst instincts - and he has more of those than you can shake a stick at.

The US is accusing China of "industrial scale espionage" to aid its quest to become the new superpower on earth.  US Federal prosecutors say two men, Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong, worked for China's state security in a unit called "APT 10" organized hacking attacks on the US Navy, NASA, and businesses across numerous sectors including defense contractors.  They have not been arrested, zenescorts.ch and FBI director Christopher Wray says the two suspects are "beyond US jurisdiction".

Women's Reproductive Rights are now the law of the land in Ireland, after President Michael Higgins signed the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018 into law.  Abortions will be available from January.  Irish voters approved legalizing Abortion in a referendum in May, and the Dail quickly approved legislation to fulfill the will of the people.  The new law will allow for unrestricted access to abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, subject to a cooling-off period and a requirement for medical consultation.

Hungary's president signed the loathed "slave law" which critics say will allow employers to demand up to 400 hours of overtime from Workers throughout the year and defer paying for it for three years.  This happened despite days of protests in Budapest and other cities against the law.  A coalition of sixteen labor unions are promising strikes to try to force the far-right government to change back.

Anyway, here's a pretend Wikipedia meme about Gatwick y'all can share on social media today:
LOL