Howdy Australia!! - Iran shoots down a US Drone - Malaysia throws a curve ball in the MH17 investigation - The UK is nearing finally choosing a new PM - And much more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Donald Trump appeared to be taking a step backwards from the US headlong rush into war with Iran, after Tehran announced and the US military confirmed that Iran shot down an America drone aircraft.  The two sides split over exactly "where" it happened:  Iran insists the surveillance aircraft was in its airspace, the US claims it was over international waters in the Gulf of Oman.  But rather than bite at the daily excuse to go to war with Iran, Trump in the White House suggested that a "loose and stupid" rogue element within Iran's Revolutionary Guard "made a mistake in shooting that drone down".  With Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sitting next to him wearing an absolute world champion poker face, Trump then explained to reporters: "We didn’t have a man or woman in the drone.  It would have made a big, big difference."  Reporters asked how the US will respond to the loss of the US$180 Million drone, he said, "You'll find out."

Russian President Vladimir Putin is dismissing the evidence put forward by the Joint Investigative Team (JIT) looking into the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, of which Australia is an active member.  "What we've seen as evidence of Russia's guilt absolutely does not suit us," Putin told reporters, "We believe that there is no proof there."  Yesterday, the JIT said it would issue international arrest warrants for four suspects, identified as Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy, and Oleg Pulatov, as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko.  Prosecutors claim the four helped Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists obtain the BuK missile that took the plane out of the sky in July 2014, killing all 298 people on board including 38 Australians.

Also unimpressed, and this is something of a surprise, is Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.  "From the very beginning it became a political issue on how to accuse Russia of wrongdoing," said the 93-year-old Malaysian leader, describing the arrest warrants for the three Russians and one Ukrainian as "ridiculous".  Malaysia is part of the JIT, and his comments have riled Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte whose nation led the investigation.  "I can imagine the relatives will be naturally very disappointed by it and it also causes confusion," said Rutte.  

Michael Gove has been eliminated from the UK Conservative Party's leadership battle, leaving only Jeremy Hunt standing in between Boris Johnson and 10 Downing Street.  It's revenge for Johnson,  who felt backstabbed by Gove when the two last battled for Tory leadership in 2016.  Labour, meanwhile, is demanding the UK people be allowed decide their next leader:  "What a choice: the man who broke the NHS (National Health Service) or the man who wants to sell it to Donald Trump," said Labour's national campaigns co-ordinator Andrew Gwynne.  "A handful of unrepresentative Conservative members should not be choosing our next prime minister.  People should decide through a general election."

Thousands of people tried to storm Georgia's Parliament to protest Russian MP Sergei Gavrilov's visit to the capital, Tbilisi.  The protesters were mostly westward-looking reformers who favor relations with the European Union and the West, who still hold grudges over the Soviet years, as well as the 2008 border war between Georgia and Russia over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.  The Russian Duma member is in Georgia for a regional meeting of an Orthodox Christian group.

Chennai, India - a city with four million people - is out of water.  The four reservoirs ran dry this week and people are totally dependent on government water shipments from a fleet of tanker trucks.   People are being told to conserve anyway they can as the monsoon season is late in arriving.

The mayor of Venice is trying to get his city put on the UN world heritage agency UNESCO's blacklist after a giant cruise ship crashed into a smaller vessel earlier this month.  "Venice is in danger and we feel in danger," said Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, who is angry with the federal government in Rome for denying his request to ban cruise ships.  Residents of the City of Water have long complained about the destructive wake churned up by large ships, and the huge number of tourists they deposit in the city center in single drops - getting on the UNESCO blacklist might convince the amateur government in Rome that the character of the historic city is actually in danger, they say.