Howdy Australia!! - Despite early denials, US troops were injured in the Iranian missile attack - Trump's "interesting" defense team takes shape - A Brazilian official claims numerous nazi references were an accident - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Donald Trump has appointed two controversial lawyers to his defense team for next week's impeachment trial in the United States Senate.  Ken Starr is best known for leading the failed impeachment drive against then-President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, and Alan Dershowitz is a television legal gadfly in the US, and both men were on the defense team for Jeffrey Epstein before that accused pedophile (probably) didn't kill himself in jail; Dershowitz also was a guest at Epstein's mansion.  Trump is accused of abusing power and obstructing Congress in his scheme to withhold previously-approved aid to Ukraine in order to pressure the government in Kiev to carry out a political smear on Democratic Party rival Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, the first person in the US Congress to endorse Trump's presidential run in 2016 - now-former upstate New York Congressman Chris Collins - has been sentenced to 26 months in prison for insider trading.

For the first time in eight years, Iran's "supreme leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran.  He called Donald Trump "a clown" and defended the Revolutionary Guards - an institution under intense criticism at home and abroad for accidentally downing Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 earlier this month, killing 176 people, and lying about their role in the "bitter tragedy" in the initial days.  The protests in Iran have been intense and the government reaction violent.

The US now says eleven troops sustained concussion injuries during Iran's missile bombardment of an air base in Iraq, which was revenge for the US air strike that killed a top Iranian general.  Initially, the US claimed the none of its people were hurt.  So, two countries that said one thing and then told the truth later.  Just saying.  Anyway, the Pentagon's soft-peddling statement read, "Out of an abundance of caution, service members were transported from Al Asad Air Base, Iraq to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for follow-on screening."  The LRMC has traditionally been the hospital where America has taken soldiers or civilians who were seriously injured in violence or natural disasters; it still has a top level Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) treatment unit on base.

Anyone flying from China's Wuhan City to three US West Coast airports plus New York City will have to undergo screening for symptoms for the new coronavirus that has killed two people and sickened dozens with a pneumonia-type ailment.  It's believed to have originated in a seafood and meat market in the central Chinese city.  But travelers have carried it to Hong Kong, Tokyo, and twice to Thailand.  

British authorities distributed counter-terrorism guides that lumped non-violent and Left-wing groups like Greenpeace, PETA, and other greens in with disgusting, violent nazi and racist terrorist groups.  The guides, given out to hospitals and educational institutions, urged recipients to inform on the groups by reporting "any concerns identified via this document" to a special website.  Prominent supporters of the Left-wing groups include Dame Judi Dench, Queen guitarist Brian May, and freaking James Bond himself Sean Connery (who apparently is still alive, bless him).  Police now claim the guide is not meant to portray all the groups that it features as extremist and thus needing to be reported to them.

Brazil's culture secretary Roberto Alvim has been sacked for a video in which he paraphrases World War II nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels while Hitler's favorite Wagner opera plays in the background.  Alvim later claimed it was all a "rhetorical coincidence", which seems ridiculous on its face.  Alvim was appointed by far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who has been accused of racism, sexism, homophobia, and pushing a draconian Christian dominionist political agenda.