Hello Australia!! - Theresa May reaches out to ultra-nationalists with links to terrorism - Trump backstabs his own Secretary of State and makes the Gulf States crisis even worse - Japan finally figures out a way to let the Emperor retire - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

The UK's Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May is - for now - hanging on to her job following Thursday's stunning election failure.  Ms. May struck struck a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland to get her over the necessary 326 Parliament seats to form a government.  And what a partner she chose!  The DUP is led by climate change-denying zealots who have called for creationism to be taught in schools; didn't just block marriage equality in Northern Ireland in recent years, but actively campaigned on a platform called "Save Ulster from Sodomy" to oppose decriminalization of LGBT relationships in 1977.  The DUP also has prevented reproductive choice in NI, making it the last place in the UK to ban the terminations. 

But it gets worse - Although a key partner in the North Ireland peace process, prior to that the DUP had long-standing ties to loyalist terrorist groups and death squads.  Sort of an odd choice of friends after the Tory campaign tried to paint Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as soft on terrorism.  As recently as 2001, the DUP refused to condemn a loyalist pipe bomb attack on Catholic school children.  And during the election campaign, the DUP's Emma Little-Pengelly was endorsed by the three biggest loyalist paramilitary organizations. 

Already Ms. May's decision to form a "government of certainty" with the regressive DUP is causing unease.  May has been forced to assure Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson that the deal with the DUP will not affect LGBTI rights across the UK.  A large crowd formed outside Number 10 to protest the alliance with the nationalists from another nation.  Tories are already mumbling behind the scenes that she cannot continue, and a second Conservative MP has said it publicly:  Heidi Allen said, "I don't believe that Theresa May will stay as our Prime Minister indefinitely," adding, "Maybe in my view it may well be just a period of transition."  She followed Tory MP Anna Soubry said Ms. May must "consider her position".

Certain races showed the depth of Theresa May's failure:  The Conservatives didn't just lose constituencies, they lost the ones that Theresa May personally visited.  They lost the Ipswich seat held by Cabinet Office Minister Ben Gummer, the man who wrote the Conservative Manifesto.  And they lost Kensington which was held by MP Victoria Borwick, an antique dealer who personally lobbied Theresa May to adopt a policy of loosening restrictions on the ivory trade and repealing the fox hunting ban.  After three counts, Borwick lost to Labour's Emma Dent Coad who plans to represent all of Kensington, not just the wealthiest people.

Meanwhile, Labour's Jeremy Corbyn?  Doing well today, basking in the glow of ending the Tony Blair era of centrism and taking the party back to the people.  His American counterpart Sen. Bernie Sanders said he's "delighted" with the UK election results.

ANYWAY...

The jackass in the White House Donald Trump denied former FBI director James Comey's sworn testimony that the orange clown forced Comey out because of his handling of the investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia.  Trump then claimed he would swear to that under oath as well, although it's doubtful he'll ever make good on it.  Trump has a history of making statements and walking them back, while Comey is known for contemporaneous note-taking to back-up his memory.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spent hours on the phone trying to cool down the Gulf States Crisis in which Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Arab countries cut off trade and diplomatic relations with Qatar over unproven allegations of funding terrorism.  All are partners with the US in the war on terrorism.  But within hours, Trump cut Tillerson's legs off by publicly siding with Saudi Arabia for a second time, contradicting his chief of foreign policy.  This also undercuts the US military, which has more than 10,000 service members on duty in Qatar and really doesn't want allies to be fighting one another.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Saudi Arabia and Egypt to lift the blockade on Qatar - and quickly approved legislation on deploying Turkish troops, warplanes, and navy ships there.  "There are those who are uncomfortable with us standing by our Qatari brothers, providing them with food," said Erdogan in speech at a Ramadan gathering.  "I'm sorry, we will continue to give Qatar every kind of support," he added. 

Japan's Parliament passed a one-time law to allow Emperor Akihito to abdicate because of his advanced age.  Should Akihito get his wish to step down in 2018 and allow his first-born son Naruhito to ascend to the Chrysanthemum Throne, it will be the first such transfer in around 200 years.  Japan's nationalist and conservative government is wrestling with preserving the Imperial traditions in a world when they are increasingly irrelevant, resisting pressure from the family itself to modernize.