Good Morning Australia!! - A chemical plant explodes in the Texas flood zone - The US orders Russia to shut some consulates - You won't believe the racial comments that got a cop fired - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

A chemical plant in the middle of the flood zone outside Houston, Texas exploded twice.  Authorities warned people within a mile and half of the Arkema Plant in the town of Crosby to evacuate.  Flames and smoke shot up into the air, and the atmosphere in the area has a foul chemical odor.  At least 15 cops had to be hospitalized for breathing difficulties, although they were all eventually released.  "The plume is incredibly dangerous," Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Brock Long.  The company had warned authorities that there would be explosions after flooding from the Hurricane and later tropical storm Harvey knocked out power to chemical cooling systems.

The death toll in Texas is at least 38 lives lost, and very few problems are resolving themselves.  Flood waters remain very high in many areas, authorities continue to search for survivors, and perform rescues via flat-bottom boats and by helicopter from rooftops.  The hospital in Beaumont, Texas closed and evacuated patients because flooding inundated the city's water filtration plant, knocking out all potable water.  More than 100,000 homes have been swamped by floodwaters.

Canada's military has inexplicably reinstated five ignorant, vile racists who crashed an indigenous ceremony as members of a far-right group, which CareerSpot will not name because the pukes want the publicity.  On 1 July, Indigenous protesters in Halifax, Nova Scotia held a ceremony to decry atrocities against native people over the past 500 years, when the punk-ass twits stormed in with an old British colonial flag.  Although there was no significant violence, the group has taken in it at other demonstrations - most recently in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Rear-Admiral John Newton said the five scumbags had displayed "behavior inconsistent with the values and ethics expected of those in uniform" and that they would remain on probation.  "If they fail, they are gone," he said.  "This is not lightweight punishment."  Actually, yes it is.  It is a wimpy, un-serious response to gang activity on the part of five of your sailors.

In the southern US State of Georgia, a county cop was sacked after telling a woman at a traffic stop not to worry, because "we only kill black people".  The woman in the late night stop was nervous after seeing too many videos demonstrating US police brutality; "But you're not black," sniped Lieutenant Greg Abbott of Cobb County.  "Remember, we only kill black people.  Yeah.  We only kill black people, right?"  Although he didn't explain what he meant, it seemed apparent he was being a dank smart-ass  - but that's not how a freaking police lieutenant is supposed to act with people.  The Chief said Abbot's comments were "inexcusable and inappropriate".

The US ordered Russia to shut three diplomatic facilities - The consulate in San Francisco, and two consular annexes in New York and Washington, DC.  This comes in retaliation for Russia's order to the US to reduce its diplomatic staff in that country by 755 people, which State Department spokesman Heather Nauert described as "unwarranted and detrimental to the overall relationship between our countries".  Although the US allows Russia to operate more diplomatic and consular annexes in the US than the US does in Russia, the tit-for-tat reductions leaves the superpowers with just three consulates each in the other's country.

Russian cops detained two men for allegedly plotting attacks on civilians in Moscow on behalf of the so-called Islamic State.  The TASS news agency says one is suspected of planning to stab pedestrians; as for the other, "He confessed to planning a suicide attack," according to the FSB state security service.  The attacks were to coincide with the first day of school across the country.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over the so-called Islamic State militants in the far northern Tal Afar.  The military is holding out declaring victory until after they liberate the small town of al-'Ayadiya on Tal Afar's outskirts.  "We have to make sure that no more terrorists remain hiding inside the town’s houses," said Iraqi army Lieutenant Colonel Salah Kareem.  This pushes the withered Islamic State back practically to the Syrian border.

Pakistan labeled its former president Pervez Musharraf a fugitive from justice while sentencing two ex-police officers in the 2007 murder of two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.  Five Islamist militants have been cleared in the killing, which took place at a political rally while Musharraf ruled the country.  "Ten years later and we still await justice.  Abettors punished but those truly guilty of my mothers murder roam free," said Bhutto's daughter, Aseefa B. Zardari on Twitter.  "There will be no justice till Pervez Musharraf answers for his crimes!"  Musharraf saus he is innocent, and left the country last year to seek medical attention - he has not returned.