Good Morning Australia!! - Trump's damaging attempt at damage control - Are US authorities doing enough to prevent another election hack? - Spain is closing a loophole that criminals have exploited for too long - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Donald Trump tried to walk back the entirety of his disastrous news conference in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin by adding a negative contraction to a sentence.  Saying he "realized there is some need for clarification", Trump called reporters into a White House conference room for the following statement:  "In a key sentence in my remarks I said the word 'would' instead of 'wouldn't'," Trump proclaimed, "The sentence should have been:  'I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia'," referring to which party would have a motive for meddling in the 2016 presidential election. 

But in the context of the Helsinki news conference, this barely matters:  Before Putin, reporters, and the entire world, Trump said he rejected the word of 17 US intelligence agencies that said Russia and only Russia hacked the election, and believed Putin's "extremely strong and powerful" denials, words he repeated verbatim when he appeared on Fox News later on.  And even as Trump said on Tuesday, "I have full faith and support for America's great intelligence agencies - always have," he was leaving himself wiggle room to deny their conclusions on Russia: "I accept our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia's meddling in the 2016 election took place," adding, "Could be other people also, there's a lot of people out there."  The final, mumbled aside completely undid the correction the White House attempt to stop the bleeding.

Republicans, criticized for largely keeping silent as much of the rest of the Washington, DC Beltway crowd wondered aloud if he was guilty of treason, tried to circle the wagons.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday the chamber could consider new sanctions against Russia and warned Russia not to meddle in the upcoming mid-term elections in November.  House Speaker Paul Ryan railed against Russia for interfering in American elections, saying Tuesday that he's "more than happy" to consider additional sanctions against the country.  But these were criticized for being weak and ineffectual because neither McConnell nor Ryan would consider passing legislation that puts limits on the president's power to change US policy on issues such as Ukraine or Syria, or to block Trump from firing special counsel Robert Mueller and ending the Russia collusion probe. 

As for Democrats, Senator Minority leader Chuck Schumer is demanding hearings on Trump's meeting with Putin.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said "Trump's weakness in front of Putin was embarrassing, and proves that the Russians have something on the President, personally, financially or politically".

Former US President Barack Obama, in Johannesburg for the Centennial of Nelson Mandela's birthday, delivered a rebuke of Trumpian politics without mentioning the current White House resident by name.  "The politics of fear and resentment and retrenchment began to appear.  And that kind of politics is now on the move.  It's on the move at a pace that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago," he told the crowd of around 15,000 people, "I can't find common ground if somebody says that climate change just isn't happening, when almost all the world's scientists tell us it is.  I don't know where to start talking to you about this. If you say it's an elaborate hoax, where do we start?"  

But Obama offered hope, describing the choice between two visions of humanity's future that the world must choose between:  "Let me tell you what I believe.  I believe in Nelson Mandela's vision, I believe in a vision shared by Gandhi and King, and Abraham Lincoln, I believe in a vision of equality and justice and freedom and multi-racial democracy built on the premise that all people are created equal and are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights."

Anyway..

The European Union and Japan have signed their free trade deal that will inoculate their economies against at least some of the protectionism displayed by the Trump administration in Washington.  It covers nearly a third of the world's GDP and 600 million people.  EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said the deal is a "win-win", while Japan's representative Toshimitsu Motegi said it shows "the world once again our unwavering political will to promote free trade".

Spain's new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says his center-Left government will introduce a new law on sexual consent to remove ambiguities in rape cases.  Similar to one that came into force in Sweden this month, the law will make clear that that sex without explicit consent would be considered rape.  "To be clear, ladies and gentlemen, if they say no it means no, and if they don't say yes, it means no," PM Sanchez told parliament.  It comes after outrage over the gang rape of a woman at last year's running of the bulls in Pamplona - the suspects were found guilty of sexual assault but not rape and are free while appealing their nine year prison sentences.

India is expanding its investigation into Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity amid allegations that it has been selling babies.  Earlier this month, police arrested a nun and a mission worker for allegedly stealing a baby in the eastern state of Jharkhand and trying to sell it.  The couple who were adopting the baby told police they thought they were paying for the mother's hospital expenses.

The Mexican airline pilots' union ASPA says an airline leasing company is "irresponsible" for blaming the crew of a crashed airliner in Cuba two months ago.  112 people died in the disaster outside Havana.  Damojh Airlines of Mexico leased the aging Boeing 737 to Cubana Airlines and provided the flight crew.  The company claims the flight data recorders show the plane took off at too steep of an angle.  But the Cuban investigative commission says the company's conclusion is "premature" and that it is "continuing its work".