World AM News Briefs for Monday, 12 June 2017

Good Morning Australia!! - Theresa May reaches for a lifeline while circling the tank - Corbyn sees Number Ten drawing closer - A prosecutor says there is a case against Trump - Beijing figures out the problem, now can it be the solution? - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

British Prime Minister Theresa May's decision to seek an alliance with Northern Irish protestant extremists in order to keep her job is causing concern across all 32 counties of the Emerald Island - the Republic and the North.  In Dublin, Taoiseach Enda Kenney telephoned Ms. May to seek assurances the deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) wouldn't impact the Good Friday Accords that brought peace to Northern Ireland, because of the DUP's associations with protestant paramilitaries during The Troubles. 

(Okay, it's a photoshopped parody.  Come on, you know that, right?)  ANYWAY, May and Kenny "confirmed their joint commitment to restoring" the power-sharing agreement that was left stalled earlier this year when the far-right DUP botched a green energy scheme, wasting millions of dollars.

In Belfast, Sinn Fein blasted the DUP for negotiating with the UK Conservatives to get a majority of seats in London while leaving Stormont vacant for three months:  "They have once again betrayed the interests of the people of the north by supporting a Tory party which has cut funding to our public services year on year to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds," said Sinn Fein Northern Ireland leader Michelle O'Neill. 

"Experience shows us that unionists have minimal influence on any British government," she added, predicting that the Tory-DUP alliance will "end in tears". 

While 10 Downing Street says the UK Conservatives' deal with the DUP to reach a 326-seat majority in Parliament is on, the DUP itself is being coy: "Discussions will continue next week to work on the details and to reach agreement on arrangements for the new Parliament," said Arlene Foster, DUP leader.  And only tepid support from her cabinet, Ms. May's Tory rivals are stirring up the pot as best they can.  "Theresa May is a dead woman walking," said former Chancellor George Osborne, "It's just how long she's going to remain on death row."  Conservative MP Anna Soubry said, "I think her position is, in the long term, untenable," adding, "I just don't see how she can continue in any long-term way."  Foreign Minister and walking sight-gag Boris Johnson hasn't been seen in public much since last week's botched election, and issued a half-arsed denial that he is moving behind the scenes to usurp Ms. May.  

Jeremy Corbyn says he is ready to fight a second election, the likelihood of which gets larger with each passing day.  "I can still be Prime Minister," he told The Mirror, outlining plans to use the Queen's Speech to rally opposition to Theresa May.  "We have got a mandate to deal with issues of poverty, justice and inequality in Britain.  We want to end austerity and invest in this country and that's what we’re going to do," Mr. Corbyn said.  "Nearly 13 million people voted for us to do it. That’s why I'm here."  The Labour leader who defied expectations in last week's election is hitting May in her new, self-inflicted weak spot, warning the PM not to abandon LGBT rights to appease her homophobic coalition partners in the DUP. 

Mr. Corbyn is also tightening the screws on PM May's association with the orange clown in Washington.  Commenting on The Guardian's report that Donald Trump is putting off his UK state visit over expectations of mass protests.  "Cancellation of President Trump's State Visit is welcome, especially after his attack on London's mayor & withdrawal from #ParisClimateDeal," Corbyn tweeted.  Trump engendered widespread contempt for his idiotic and flagrantly Islamophobic criticism of London Mayor Sadiq Khan's exemplary handling of the London Bridge terrorist attack.  Others are weighing in as well:  Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said Trump was "clearly terrified of the British public".  Downing Street is denying the Guardian story, but the White House won't confirm any dates.

A prominent and well-respected former US prosecutor says "there's absolutely evidence to begin a case" for obstruction of justice against Donald Trump. 

Preet Bharara made his reputation by prosecuting several high-profile corruption cases in the Southern Manhattan district of New York City, and was believed to be looking into Russian influence on the US presidential election. 

Trump fired him earlier this year without giving a reason, following a series of "highly inappropriate" attempts at contact by going around the back of Mr. Bharara's supervisors in the Justice Department.  

The party of French President Emmanuel Macron didn't exist a few months ago, and today is poised to win a crushing victory in the first round of parliamentary elections.  It's another bruising defeat for the traditional right and Left parties that have dominated French politics for decades, as well as the xenophobic far-right that got a lot of publicity but may be presiding over the beginning of the end for European fringe politics.

The crazies are still in charge in Poland, however, with police arresting people for obstructing a memorial observance for the late President Lech Kaczynski, whose bitter twin brother Jaroslaw now runs the country through the ruling ultra-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.  Jaroslaw blames Russia for the plane crash that killed his brother and despises internal rivals who stand in the way of that vendetta.  Among those arrested is 63-year old Wladyslaw Frasyniuk - a prominent member of the 1980s Solidarity movement that toppled Soviet rule over Warsaw.  They literally carried him off.  In typically vindictive PiS fashion, the Interior Ministry claims the near-pensioner roughed up a cop. 

Iran sent five planeloads of food to Qatar, almost a week after Saudi Arabia and other Arab states imposed an economic and diplomatic blockade.  This will ease the rush on supermarkets, although its not clear if this is food aid or a purchase.  Kuwait, which didn't take sides and is trying to moderate the Gulf States Crisis, says Qatar is willing to discuss the other countries' accusation that it is funding terrorism.

The United Nations is warning that Ethiopia will run out of emergency food aid for 7.8 million people.  A vast regional drought is threatening famine in Nigeria, Yemen, and Somalia, and has already been declared in South Sudan.

As China ties to deal with its filthy air, inspectors have found that more than 70 percent of firms in and around Beijing regularly violate air pollution regulations.  The state-run Xinhua news agency reports companies churn out more emissions than allowed, operate without licenses, and/or had insufficient pollution control equipment. 

The environmental ministry wants to reverse the situation, but with endemic flouting of the rules and law oversight the solution is about as clear as the air in Beijing.