Hello Australia!! - One reason for Julian Assange's incarceration is dropped - More US officials confirm Trump's quid pro quo in Ukraine - Russia prepares a sweeping crackdown on dissent - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Sweden has dropped the rape investigation of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.  Deputy Chief Prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson made "the assessment that the evidence is not strong enough to form the basis for filing an indictment" because "nine years have passed".  Assange avoided extradition to Sweden for several years by skipping out on his bail in the UK and hiding out in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London.  He was booted out in April of this year and is currently being held at Belmarsh prison in London.  In February, Assange will face extradition to the US to answer 18 criminal counts including espionage and conspiring to hack government computers.

At least 106 people have been killed in civil unrest in Iran since Friday, according to Amnesty International, and other estimates fear the death toll is actually double that.  Friday was when when the government announced a petrol rationing scheme that caused prices to go up by 50 percent.  At least three security personnel are among the dead.  The Iranian government is blaming a US-backed plot to enable "thugs" to commit and incite violence.

Meanwhile, In Washington..

At the US House Intelligence Committee hearings into Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine, former US Ambassador to Ukraine Kurt Volker reversed his earlier testimony to make it decidedly less Trump-friendly.  Volker now says he knew of Trump threatening to withhold pre-approved military aid to Ukraine in exchange for Kiev opening an investigation into Trump's political foe former Vice President Joe Biden.  Volker said such talk was "inappropriate".  In closed-door testimony, he said he did not hear of it.

Earlier, the Pentagon's Ukraine expert in the White House Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman blew holes in the Republicans claim that Trump was actually withholding the military aid - which was eventually sent - because he was concerned about corruption in Ukraine.  Lt. Col. Vindman told lawmakers that Trump never brought it up during his two calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.  Unable to offer any proof of Trump's claim against the torrent of military and diplomatic officials who have gone on record against Trump's version of events, Republicans have sought to diminish witnesses.  At one point, the top Republican in the committee Devin Nunes referred to Vindman as "Mister", only to draw a quick rebuke: "Ranking member, it's Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, please."  After that, the hashtag #DevinNunesIsAnIdiot began trending on Twitter.

Anyway..

The United Nations is condemning the United States for having the world's highest rate of children in detention.  The Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty notes that in 2015, more than 100,000 children were being held in immigration-related detention; the US government claims that now the number is around 70,000, but there are fears it could be much higher because of the Trump administration's draconian immigration policies.  "I would call it inhuman treatment for both the parents and the children," said Manfred Nowak, the study's author.  "And there are still quite a number of children that are separated from their parents and where neither the children know where their parents are nor the parents know where their children are," he explained.

Rights activists are sounding the alarm as Russia moves to label bloggers and independent journalists as "foreign agents".  That would force critics of the Vladimir Putin government to register with the justice ministry, label publications with the tag "Foreign Agent", and submit detailed paperwork or face fines.  Amnesty International and Journalists Without Borders jointly decried this as "a further step to restrict free and independent media", and "a strong tool to silence opposition voices".

A US Company is looking to hire someone to smoke weed all day.  And me without an updated CV, shucks.  New York-based company American Marijuana will pay US$3,000 a month to some lucky individual to test and review a variety of cannabis and cannabis related products.  "But DO NOT expect us to hire you just because you can smoke, because we're looking for a guy who also has extensive knowledge of marijuana to educate our readers," the company said, oddly ignoring Women who might partake.  Candidates must live in a US state where it's legal and - among other things - be able to list at least six street names for cannabis, such as (in no particular order):  Weed, smoke, grass, ganja, bhang, reefer, maryjane, wacky tobacky, charas, dope, pot, gage (or gauge), boo, herbage, doobie, kush, loco, forage, the devil's lettuce, dagga, chronic, green goddess, or other synonyms.