Howdy Australia!! - Trump writes a weird poison pen letter - Strikes bring France to a standstill - Pope Francis breaks with long-standing Vatican practice to deal with clergy sexual abuse - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

On the eve of the US House of Representatives historic impeachment vote, Donald Trump has sent a preemptive letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that pundits and journalists are describing as "unhinged" and "unstable".  In the six page screed on White House stationary, Trump lambasts Congressional Democrats using most of the phrases that have been said about him in recent months; but with the random capitalizations and odd punctuation seen on Trump's twitter feed, so it appears he is the author of at least part of it.  Words and phrases like "perversion" and "attack on American democracy" are peppered throughout - as are conspiracy theories, paranoid insinuations, dramatic though false legal interpretations, and flat-out lies.  Observers say the letter appears to be proof that the impeachment is getting under his skin.

Late on Tuesday, Nancy Pelosi reacted to Trump's letter, calling it "ridiculous" and "really sick".

Workers are stepping up their actions against President Emmanuel Macron's proposed pension and retirement reforms - utility workers carried out "targeted blackouts" on electricity networks around Lyon and Bordeaux, and the Eiffel Tower remained shut as were universities, hospitals, and public transportation.  Eight out of the capital's 14 metro lines were closed, while others offered bare-minimum services.  Around 80 percent of trains in the capital region were not operating.  The cross-sector strike begins its 14th day when Wednesday rolls around to France.  So far, Macron is not budging.

Protests against India's new citizenship law have spread to college campuses across the South Asian country, with students joining in solidarity after police attempts to stop protests at two campuses over the weekend.  Dozens were injured and hundreds were arrested or detained.  The contentious law seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from neighboring countries, which critics say is a step towards officially marginalizing Muslims in majority Hindu India - illegal, they say, under India's secular constitution.

A court in Pakistan sentenced former president and military ruler Pervez Musharraf to death for high treason following a six-year legal case.  He's living in exile in Dubai, so the sentenced was passed in absentia.  

Pope Francis has declared that the rule of "pontifical secrecy" no longer applies to the sexual abuse of minors, and instructed Roman Catholic officials to comply with civil laws and assist civil judicial authorities in investigating such cases.  It's a bid to improve transparency in such cases, after centuries of shrouding sexual abuse cases in secrecy.  Francis also expanded the Church's definition of child pornography, increasing the age of the subject from 14 or under to 18 or under - and if you're like me, you read that last sentence and said, "Wait.. it wasn't that way before?"  

Australia has dropped five places on the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report (.pdf link), regressing to 44th place behind such nations as Laos, Jamaica, Poland, and beautiful Slovenia.  Northern Europe's Nordic countries topped the list in terms of political empowerment, economic participation, educational attainment, and health; New Zealand, Nicaragua, Ireland, Rwanda, and Germany were also in the top ten.  Unfortunately, "None of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes, and nor likely will many of our children," the researchers concluded - "Gender parity will not be attained for 99.5 years."