Good Morning Australia!! - Republicans are showing signs of abandoning Trump as scandal after scandal piles up - US police seek Erdogan bodyguards in a bloody brawl in Washington, DC - Chelsea Manning is free from prison (thanks a lot, Obama!) - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

I promise there is other news in the world besides the idiocy in Washington, just scroll down if you want to avoid the clown show...

The heads of the US Senate intelligence and Judiciary Committees are asking the FBI to turn over all of James Comey's internal memos pertaining to the investigation into Russian connections to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.  And the chairman of the House Oversight Committee Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah is inviting former FBI director Comey to testify in both open and closed session next week.  All three committee heads are Republicans, and the Republican party controls Congress - any action on Trump is pretty much going to require their support.  Trump fired Comey last week amid the FBI's investigation.

This comes after last night's bombshell report in the New York Times that the FBI's former director had thoroughly documented his conversations with Donald Trump.  Comey's memos detail how Trump tried to get him to drop the investigation into failed National Security Advisor Michael Flynn - which critics believe is potential obstruction of justice - and how the orange fascist demagogue tried to persuade Comey to jail journalists who didn't reveal their sources - a clear and blatant violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.  Trump denies the conversation took place that way. 

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is the first major Republican to support having an independent Special Prosecutor investigate potential wrongdoing in the Trump campaign and subsequent administration.  "Like many Alaskans, I’m concerned about the continuous and often conflicting reports about President Trump, the FBI and Russia," Murkowski tweeted, "It's imperative that we - Congress, the FBI, the administration - work to restore the public's trust.  In order to grain that credibility, it may be that we need to look to an independent commission or special prosecutor."  Some others in the House not beholden to the party's far right wing are also expressing openness to a Special Prosecutor.

While Republicans in Washington were considering ways to save themselves if the Trump presidency were to go down in flames, the orange clown was in New London, Connecticut speaking at the US Coast Guard Academy graduation ceremony.  Instead of giving them advice for the future, Trump talked about himself:  "No politician in history - and I say this with great surety - has been treated worse or more unfairly," Trump said while congratulating himself for an imaginary "tremendous amount" of accomplishments from his earliest months in office.  The Trump administration wants to carve US$1.3 Billion out of the Coast Guard budget.

Trump's flaming hypocrisy was on display earlier when he renewed the Obama Administration's economic sanctions relief on Iran; during last year's presidential campaign the tangerine twit described the landmark agreement as the "worst deal ever".  In exchange for the easing of sanctions, Tehran pledged to restrict its nuclear activities, reducing its uranium enrichment, plutonium production plans, and allowing inspectors access to facilities.  At one point Trump mouth-farted that his "number one priority" if elected would be "to dismantle the disastrous deal". 

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to the White House yesterday seemed to slide under the radar of Trump's scandals:  That was until video of Erodgan's bodyguards abusing protesters in Washington, DC got out.  DC Police are trying to identify two of Erdogan thugs who instigated a melee outside the Turkish ambassador's residence.  Video shows chaos as outnumbered DC police tried to regain order when a large group of Erdogan thugs viciously attacked a bunch of Kurdish old men picketing outside the Turkish Ambassador's residence.  Cops already arrested two people, and nine people were injured.  "What we saw yesterday - a violent attack on a peaceful demonstration - is an affront to DC values and our rights as Americans," said DC Mayor Muriel Bowser.

ANYWAY..

Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenney is stepping down as leader of the center-right Fine Gael party, and will stay on as Prime Minister until the Dail picks a successor in June. 

France's new President Emmanuel Macron is fulfilling a key campaign promise and naming women to fill half of his cabinet (which makes sense since women hold up half of the sky). 

Brazil's unelected conservative government is threatening to dismantle the country's Indigenous Rights agency Funai, at the urging of powerful agricultural interests which really love stealing Indigenous land and killing people.  A congressional committee is also recommending punitive prosecutions against Funai agents who support Indigenous groups trying to stop ranchers from burning down the rainforests for more grazing land.

Another one of the Chibok Schoolgirls has escaped from the terrorist group Boko Haram.  Nigerian presidential aide Femi Adesina said, "The details are yet to fully unravel.  But in terms of is it true - yes, it is true."  Troops found the girl after she managed to break free, and are transporting her back to the capital Abuja.  Mr. Adesina says reports that Boko Haram is regrouping in its former stronghold in the Sambisa Forest are not true (we'll see).

Former US Army Private Chelsea Manning is out of prison.  Before he left office in January, then-President Barack Obama granted her clemency from her 35-year sentence for giving embarrassing classified military secrets to WikiLeaks, including accounts of US forces killing Iraqi civilians.  The Army will consider Manning to be on unpaid "excess leave" while her court-martial conviction is under appellate review.  That means she'll have to maintain the military code of conduct, but can live anywhere or dress anyway she wants.