Good Morning Australia!! - The Trump White House plows ahead despite the fetid stench of corruption and conflict, and probably some Borsht - Students boo one Trump cabinet member while a reporter is arrested for asking questions of another - An LGBT couple in Indonesia finds themselves hauled before a Sharia Law court - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

In the days before he was sacked as director of the FBI, James Comey asked the Justice Department for more staff and money for the investigation into links between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign.  Although the Justice Department denies it, the New York Times confirmed the account with four congressional sources including influential Illinois Senator Dick Durbin.  The Trump administration actually wants the world to believe that Comey was fired over his handling of the Clinton email investigation.  At a photo-op with 1970s undead war criminal Henry Kissinger, a defensive and cornered Trump snapped at reporters and claimed Comey "didn't do his job".

As protesters gathered outside, Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to the White House.  Just to show Americans who is in charge of their White House, the event was covered and live-tweeted by the Kremlin and Russian news services while US reporters were locked out.  Before the meeting, Lavrov hilariously feigned ignorance about the firing of James Comey, what a funny guy.  Kislyak's contact with people in Trump's inner circle is a major part of the FBI investigation.

In a stunning display of indifference to the fact that everyone in the world can see the corruption and conflict of interest, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy Rod Rosenstein are interviewing four candidates to serve as interim FBI director - in effect choosing who will continue the investigation into their boss Doald Trump's ties with Russia.  Under the normal line of succession, Comey's deputy Andrew McCabe became acting FBI director and should serve until congress approves Comey's replacement.  The other ethical problem:  Two months ago, Sessions agreed to recuse himself from any and all investigations into the Trump campaign, in which he played a major role.  By trying to choose who will lead in investigation that could involve him, Sessions is throwing ethics into the toilet.

A reporter has been arrested and charged for shouting a question at a Trump cabinet member.  Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was visiting the capital of West Virginia when Dan Heyman, a reporter for the Public News Service, asked Price if domestic violence would qualify as a pre-existing condition under the Republican health care bill.  Cops claimed he tried to "breach" the secret service, arrested him, and charged him with the extremely nebulous "willful disruption of governmental processes".  Heyman is free on US$5,000 bond.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is backing the journalist:  "Mr. Heyman's arrest is a blatant attempt to chill an independent, free press.  The charges against him are outrageous, and they must be dropped immediately," the group said in a statement.

Students booed and turned their backed on Trump's Education Secretary when she tried to deliver the commencement address at a traditionally black university in Florida.  Bethune-Cookman University's President Edison Jackson defended inviting Betsy DeVos to speak, but most of the students oppose DeVos' and the Trump administration's plans to gut education spending at all levels, and push privatized so-called "charter schools" which siphon off public money while failing to return better results.  Prior to joining Trump's administration, the billionaire DeVos had no experience in education or teaching; she's the wife of Amway's right-wing heir Dick DeVos and the brother of Blackwater mercenary founder Erik Prince.

Although things look bleak and dangerous in America, not everything is embarrassing:  The US Senate rejected an attempted to roll back an Obama administration rule limiting methane emissions from oil and natural gas drilling.  It's the first time Republicans have rejected a resolution to repeal an Obama administration regulation since President Trump took office.  

Anyway...

Indonesian prosecutors are demanding two young gay men be caned.  A neighborhood mob stormed their home in Banda Aceh province last month, apparently catching them in bed.  The two were held for weeks until being hauled before a Sharia Law court, where sentence will be pronounced next week.  The men, aged 20 and 23, are the first couple to go to trial under Banda Aceh's draconian anti-LGBT laws, which also ban other so-called moral offenses such as gambling and drinking.

Somalian President Mohamed Abdullahi "Farmajo" Mohamed says the terrorist group Al Shabaab can be defeated within two years - as long the international community supports him and equips and trains Somalian soldiers.  Al Shabaab has been beaten back over the past couple of years, but continues to controls swaths of the country while inflicting casualties on the military and civilian population.

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appeared in a federal court to answer charges he helped a major construction company get lucrative government contracts in exchange for a posh beach apartment.  Lula denies the allegations, and calls them a political witch-hunt.  Lula's supporters believe the conservative coup government is attempting to knee-cap his political future, just as it did to his protege and the last legally-elected President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff.  Lula is expected to run for President again.