Good Morning Australia!! - Comey gives damning testimony against Trump - Two top US officials may have been damaged by the former FBI leaders appearance before congress - Unexpected results in the UK election - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Former US FBI Director James Comey testified before the Senate that he believed Donald Trump fired him to silence the investigation into Russian influence over Trump's election campaign.  On several occasions, Trump would pressure Comey to drop the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn's meetings with Russian officials - and and Flynn's attempt to do his job and enforce law and order ran against Trump's plan.  "I know I was fired because of something about the way I was conducting the Russia investigation was in some way putting pressure on him, in some way irritating him, and he decided to fire me because of that," Comey testified.  He also said he took notes on his discussions with Trump which he did not feel necessary to do with other presidents, because of Trump's dishonesty.  Comey said Trump's trash-talking after he left was nothing but a basket of lies. 

Although most of that which Comey spoke of in the open session was already out there in various reports over the past several weeks, there was one interesting confirmation:  By refusing to talk about the Michael Steele Dossier because it "goes into the details of the investigation", he confirmed it exists and it is being taken very seriously.  The dossier prepared by British intelligence contractor Michael Steel reportedly contains potentially damaging details on information gathered on Trump by Russian intelligence - including the so-called "pee tape" showing Trump doing some icky stuff with Russian prostitutes.

But the two biggest losers in Comey's testimony may be Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  Democratic Senators asked him if Pence - who oversaw the presidential transition process - was aware of Michael Flynn's questionable Russian contacts before he became national security adviser.  "My understanding is that he was," Comey said, "I think from acting attorney general (Sally) Yates."  Ms. Yates was fired by the Trump administration three days after informing them of her concerns.  Flynn was forced to resign 18 days after that.  As for Sessions, Comey couldn't be sure if his former immediate supervisor knew about Flynn, but the Senators made it clear that thy were interested in what he knew and when he knew it.  Given Sessions' reported estrangement from Trump over his recusal from the Russia investigation, it's leaving him with very few friends left in Washington.

Meanwhile in the UK..

Exit polls indicate that the Conservatives will be the largest party in Parliament when the counting in Thursday's election is over - but it will fall about twelve seats short of a governing majority.  That is a stunning failure for Prime Minister Theresa May, who called for the snap election intending to increase her Tory party's presence and give her a stronger hand in the upcoming Brexit negotiations which start in just a couple of weeks.  Instead, she is losing 17 seats, as is the Scottish National Party with a -22; Labour remains the largest opposition party, picking up 34 seats; the Lib-Dems pick up six more.  This is just an exit poll, and they've been wrong before - especially in the UK.

Qatar is refusing to back down in the Gulf States Crisis in which many of the other Arab countries have cut off diplomatic and trade relations.  Which makes sense in light of reports that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the others acted rashly because of false news stories planted by Russian hackers.  Qatar is rejecting claims it finances terrorism and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani says diplomatic negotiations is the only way to settle this dispute.  Meanwhile, the US cable news operation MSNBC is reporting that orange clown Donald Trump may not have realized that the US has more than 10,000 military personnel based in Qatar when he briefly took Saudi Arabia's side in the dispute among his allies.  The US has since tried to get the parties to the negotiating table to solve the crisis.