Hello Australia!! - The world economy needs to beware of the US tax cut bill - Trump seems to have admitted an impeachable crime - Violence grows in Honduras as protesters accuse the government of rigging an election - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Under cover of darkness and with few witnesses, US Congressional Republicans forced through a massive tax cut bill that experts across the board warned will do harm to the economy.  Simply put, the bill overbalances the burden of government onto the backs of the poor and working classes by raising their taxes and taking away deductions for health, home ownership, and education, among other things.  At the same time, it provides massive tax relief to the wealthiest and large corporations - many of which have already said there will be no trickle-down and they will not spend their new surpluses on hiring new workers. 

Senator Bernie Sanders described the bill - which adds US$1.45 TRILLION to the deficit - as "one of the great robberies in US history because Republicans are looting the Treasury".  Only one Republican would vote against it, Tennessee's Bob Corker who is retiring at the end of his term: "At the end of the day, I am not able to cast aside my fiscal concerns and vote for legislation that I believe, based on the information I currently have, could deepen the debt burden on future generations."  Other Republicans were bought off by promises of correcting the flaws they recognized at a later date.

Because the US is the world's largest economy, when US sneezes the world catches a cold, and Australians have reason to be worried.  Professor Robert McElvaine of Mississippi's Millsaps College points to corporate taxes heading to their lowest point since the early 20th Century, and says it's 1929 all over again:  "As a historian of the Great Depression, I can say: I've seen this show before," he warned.  Economists, analysts, and editorials over the past few weeks laid out the case how the US economy surged in the postwar with higher corporate taxes, lurched after Reagan cut them in the 1980s, gained again when Bill Clinton passed a moderate corporate tax hike in the 1990s.

But the true harm of the bill could come from the amendments that were actually scribbled in hand-written notes in the margins of the bill.  The tax bill removes the individual mandate from Obamacare, which will raise healthcare costs as well as remove coverage for 13 million Americans.  It also opens the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.  One of the most egregious amendments was stripped out - it would have given a massive tax cut on a small, private college trust fund at a school with links to Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.  But only four Republicans crossed the aisle to help Democrats kill this gross reward for privilege and violation of the public trust. 

Anyway..

Did Trump just admit an impeachable offense?  In an abrupt about face from its narrative throughout the year, Donald Trump tweeted: "I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.  He has pled (sic) guilty to those lies."  Shyte grammar aside, Trump in essence admitted that he knew that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had lied to the FBI as early as February, when Trump sacked Flynn.  California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu said Trump has pretty much admitted obstruction of justice.  "Before we slipped into an alternate universe of unabashed corruption, this tweet alone might have ended a Presidential administration," said Walter Shaub, the former director of the US Office of Government Ethics.

Honduras has instituted a curfew and suspended civil rights as it appears more and more likely that the government is massaging the results of last weekend's presidential election to favor the conservative incumbent.  The Honduran Round Table for Human Rights (HRHR) says security forces have killed two protesters with rubber bullets so far, and several people have been injured.  Opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla was ahead in an early update, when the election authority - which is allied with President Juan Orlando Hernandez - suddenly slowed down and became erratic in its pronouncements.  Protests and violence increased as it became apparent that the fix was in.

German cops clashed with good guy anti-fascists protesting a meeting of the racist, far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) in Hanover.  Police used water cannon, batons, and pepper spray to clear a path for the 600 delegates, breaking the leg of one protesters.  At least two cops were hurt.  AfD won 94 Bundestag seats in the recent election, mainly in the former East Germany where 20 years of capitalism have failed to lift the economy and created a sense of abandonment and paranoia of immigrants.

Egypt has sentenced a prominent far-right alwyer to three years in prison for saying that women who wear fashionably ripped jeans ought to be raped as punishment.  Nabih al-Wahsh said this on a TV panel show, charactetizing the despicable crime as a "national duty".  The National Council for Women's Rights condemned the remarks, saying they were in violation of "everything in the Egyptian constitution".

India is considering jail terms for men who attempt the "Triple Talaq" divorce.  Earlier this year, the Supreme Court banned the traditional practice among some Muslims, even though it appears no where in the Quran; it involves a husband saying "talaq" (divorce) three times - in any form, including email or text message.  Men who try to pull this stunt would be subject to three years in prison, plus fines.  When it comes up for a vote this month, the law might also contain assistance for women who've been "divorced" in this way.