World AM News Briefs For Thursday, 31 August 2017

Good Morning Australia!! - Who is in charge in the US?  The picture has just become as murky as the flood water in Texas - Sad and angering stories are coming out of the massive flood zone surrounding Houston - Another Aussie lawmaker trips over Section 44 - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

US Defense Secretary James Mattis has publicly refuted his boss Donald Trump on North Korea.  Minutes after Trump declared via Twitter that "talking is not the answer" to solving the nuclear impasse with North Korea, Mattis flatly contradicted the president's blanket statement, telling reporters, "We're never out of diplomatic solutions." 

Of all of the times that Trump's cabinet has contradicted his idiotic Tweets and off-the-cuff pronouncements made to please rabid, right-wing crowds, this is probably the strongest and tersest. 

It's the latest in a series of incidents in which senior cabinet members are brushing aside Trump's embarrassing and childish excesses, and going off on their own. 

Mattis is the star of this:  Just yesterday, he announced the military is kicking the can down the road on Trump's ill-reasoned idea to ban transgender membership - the implication being no decision would be made until Trump possibly loses interest, or is driven from office.  Earlier this week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, "The president speaks for himself," when he makes divisive statements supporting white supremacists.  And before that, Mattis acknowledged before troops in the Ukraine that the US is divided along many, not stating the obvious cause:  "You just hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other and showing it," he told them. 

Meanwhile, North Korea's state media announced that the launch of a missile that passed over Japan - the incident that set off Trump's latest dumb tweet - was a prelude to more military operations directed at the American territory of Guam.  The US conducted a test intercept of a medium range ballistic missile off the coast of Hawaii, to demonstrate that it could stop any missile from Pyongyang.

Back in Australia - Crossbench Senator Derryn Hinch confirms he still has a United States Social Security card from his time in the US during the 1960s and 1970s, which could make him yet another double-secret foreigner in violation of Section 44 of the Australian Constitution which bars dual nationals from Parliament.  But, "I have never held US citizenship.  I have never held a Green Card," Senator Hinch said.  Yeah, but does he prefer baseball to footy?  He'll seek legal counsel.

Guatemala's Constitutional Court has now thrown out President Jimmy Morales' order of expulsion against a United Nations official investigating corruption in his 2015 campaign.  Ex-TV comedian Morales, who ran on an anti-corruption platform, claimed the investigation was interfering in national affairs.  The Constitutional Court initially suspended the order but now has given its complete backing to the UN mission.  This sets up a constitutional crisis in the Central American country, one that is increasingly likely to be solved with Morales losing his immunity from prosecution.

A South African university is investigating why a student was given a US$1 Million student loan.  The student promptly went on a lavish spending spree, which officials say she will be responsible for repaying.  Just like everywhere else, SA student loans are to be used for books, tuition, and that sort of thing.  Also just like everywhere else, if someone hands you a check for a million dollars, and you did not do anything to earn a million dollars, it is probably not really your million dollars.

A hospital in India has benched two doctors who were caught on video getting into an argument while standing above a pregnant woman on an operating table.  Contrary to earlier reports, the woman and her newborn did survive.  The two dumbass doctors are heard trading loud insults in Hindi, instead of doing their jobs.  They've been "released" from their duties in Rajasthan pending an investigation.

India's financial capital Mumbai has come to a halt because of flooding, waist-deep in some places.  Officially, five people have died in Mumbai but more than 1,800 have died in flooding linked to heavy monsoon rains across South Asia. 

The death toll from widespread flooding in Texas is now at least 28 lives lost, although estimates vary depending on the source.  What is clear is that authorities expect it to get much worse as the waters recede and reveal the true extent of the disaster.  More than 8,500 people required rescue and more than 32,000 are in emergency shelters - and that's a low estimate.  Texas Governor Greg Abbott said, "The worst is not yet over."

Instead of evacuating for shelters, higher ground, or even their roofs, there are reports of people who tried to escape the flooding by fleeing into their attics - often nothing more than windowless crawlspaces.  It is not clear how many of them might have drowned or asphyxiated.  But as flooding recedes in the south and rises in the north, some of the tragedies are already becoming apparent:  Searchers found that family of six that was swept away in their van as they tried to escape the flooding near Houston. 

Heading northeast to Beaumont, white-capped waves covered Interstate Highway 10, cutting off America's southernmost conduit from Florida to California.  Here's a before/after:

Also in Beaumont, authorities found a three-year old girl clinging to the floating body of her mother who had the presence of mind to put a floating backpack on the girl before trying to get to safety.  Their car got stuck on a service road, and the mother tried to walk but they were swept away.  Rescuers in flat-bottom boats got to them just before they were almost sucked underneath a bridge; the toddler is in hospital with hypothermia, but the mother was declared dead.  "A true testament of a mother who put her own life at risk and sacrificed her life to save her child" said Haley Morrow, spokeswoman for the Beaumont Emergency Management Office.  "That was devastating."

Keep in mind that Beaumont is 365 kilometers northeast of Rockport - where Harvey first came ashore in Texas as a category 4 cyclone, illustrating how absolutely massive the disaster is for Texas and the United States.  Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Brock Long said, "While we've focused a lot of effort on Houston, we have to understand there are over 50 counties impacted right now."  Down the road in Port Arthur, flood victims had to evacuate again as the water inundated the emergency shelter.

Nursing homes had to be evacuated as well.  "Our whole city is underwater right now but we are coming!" Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Freeman posted Wednesday morning on Facebook, reassuring residents that officials will do all that they can.

A Houston store is being condemned for predatory price-gouging, charging up to US$42 for a case of bottled drinking water. 

Best Buy (which I do not believe is related to the Australian store of the same name so please don't go blaming them) said, "This was a big mistake on the part of a few employees at one store on Friday," and, "As a company we are focused on helping, not hurting affected people.  We're sorry and it won't happen again."  No, it probably won't.. because the fine for gouging in Texas is US$25,000 - $250,000 if the victim is a senior.