Hello Australia!! - Trump pulls one right out of Fascism 101 - Xenophobia is blamed for the murder of a tech engineer - Authorities know what killed the brother of Kim Jong-un - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

The White House banned several news organizations from a closed media briefing today, raising questions about propriety and transparency from an administration openly moving closure to authoritarian fascism.  Instead of holding the daily media briefing in the James Brady Press Room - the famous venue with the blue curtain backdrop - diminutive spokeshobbitt Sean "Spicy" Spicer called members of the far-right blogosphere to an off-camera "gaggle" with reporters inside his West Wing office, apparently to ensure he wouldn't have to deal with tough questions and to punish outlets that have run negative stories on the chaos in the White House.

Invited in were the likes of:  Breitbart, a "personal Pravda" for fascist demagogue Donald Trump formerly run by White House advisor Steve Bannon; The Washington Times, a small newspaper run by the cult of Reverend Moon; and the stalwart conservative Wall Street Journal, which said in a statement that "had we known at the time, we would not have participated and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future".  The Associated Press and Time magazine were allowed in but refused to attend.  "AP believes the public should have as much access to the president as possible," responded the AP. 

Left on the outside were CNN and the New York Times; influential beltway websites Politico and The Hill; stalwart and conservative newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.  The Washington Post didn't have a reporter in the West Wing at the moment, but was nonetheless appalled:  "This is an undemocratic path that the administration is traveling. There is nothing to be gained from the White House restricting the public's access to information," said Executive Editor Marty Baron.  "We are currently evaluating what our response will be if this sort of thing happens again."  The Post was excluded days after it changed the slogan on its masthead to "Democracy dies in Darkness".

Earlier in the day, Trump might have gotten a gold medal in Orwellian illogic at the annual gathering of sociopaths, the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference:  "I love the First Amendment; nobody loves it better than me.  Nobody," said the orange clown, repeating the exact same speech pattern he uses before doing the opposite of what he claims.  "A few days ago, I called the fake news media the enemy of the people, and they are," he barfed, echoing Hitler, Stalin, and shytehead dictators around the world, "They are the enemy of the people."  Ben Wizner, director of the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union called the White House's move "yet another disturbing example of the Trump administration's contempt for the vital role a free press plays in our democracy."

Some prankster handed out Russian flags emblazoned with Trump's name at the CPAC, organizers furiously tried to gather them all from attendees too stupid to know what the Russian flag looks like.

BTW, a day earlier at the CPAC:  White House advisor Steve Bannon inappropriately groped Chief of Staff Reince Priebus in front of a conservative audience that pretended it wasn't happening before their eyes.  Priebus slapped away the creepy and clearly not-playful advance, which resembled a scene from the TV prison drama "Oz".

It's getting impossible to cover all of the trumpanzee poop being thrown out of the cage at the White House, but here are two more chunks:  Trump denounced the FBI - his last allies in the intel community - for allegedly being "totally unable to stop the national security 'leakers' that have permeated our government".  This is after Reince Priebus reportedly approached FBI Director James Comey to publicly dispute media reports that Trump campaign advisers had been frequently in touch with Russian intelligence agents.

The White House is denying that its immigrant-bashing, xenophobic rhetoric played a role in a deadly triple shooting in an Olathe, Kansas bar.  Witnesses say 51-year old loser Adam Purinton yelled, "Get out of my country!" and other epithets when he opened fire on two Indian engineers for the Garmin GPS company.  32-year old Srinivas Kuchibhotla was killed, 32-year old Alok Madasani was wounded - as was 24-year old Ian Grillot who tried to stop Purinton.  "The situation seems to be pretty bad after Trump took over as the US President," said Alok's father Madasani Jaganmohan Reddy.  "I appeal to all the parents in India not to send their children to the US in the present circumstances," he said.  Federal authorities are weighing hate crime charges against Purinton.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo is visiting Australia this weekend.  Some are taking it as a sign that bilateral relations have stabilized after Indonesia's military was offended by training materials found at an Aussie military base.

Guatemala's military is blocking the boat operated by the Dutch group "Women on the Waves", which takes women from restrictive countries out to international waters to perform legal abortions.  Women's reproductive rights are severely in much of Latin America.

Philippine police arrested opposition leader Senator Leima De Lima on drug charges that most observers believe are bogus.  Ms. De Lima has been a vocal critic of lunatic President Rodrigo Duterte's gruesome war on drugs, which has seen more than 7,000 people killed without trial.  "They will not be able to silence me and stop me from fighting for the truth and justice and against the daily killings and repression by the Duterte regime," said Ms. De Lima.

Kim Jong-nam was killed with one of the most deadly substances on earth.  Malaysian authorities confirm that the weapon of mass destruction VX - a deadly nerve agent - was on the clothe that an assassin rubbed on the face of the estranged brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.  They're working on decontaminating the terminal at Kuala Lumpur airport, where the hit was carried out.