World News Briefs For Sunday, 1 October 2017

Hello Australia!! - Trump finds a way to go even lower and actually picks a fight with Puerto Rico - A passenger plane engine blows out at 35,000 feet - Thousands march for choice in Dublin - It's D-Day in Barcelona - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Unfortunately, the top story is the orange clown doing something vile:  From the safety of his cushy golf resort in New Jersey, Donald Trump lashed out at the Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, who had earlier criticized the slow and pathetic federal response to the Hurricanes that ravaged the US territory in the Caribbean Sea.  "Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help," Trump tweeted.  In fact, Carmen Yulin Cruz has been working hard for her constituents every waking hour, sometimes in waist-deep flood water.


Trump also insulted first responders in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, "They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.  10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job."  Among other things, Yulin Cruz said, "I cannot fathom the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out the logistics for a small island of 100 miles by 35 miles. So, mayday, we are in trouble."

In the ten days since Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico as a Category Five Cyclone, Trump has been distracted by: a racially-charged twitter war with professional athletes in the NBA and NFL; two trips to his golf resort; an abortive and failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare; a tax reform bill that raises taxes on people taking home less than US$100,000 per year while rewarding his cabinet with as much as $1.5 Billion in tax breaks.

Trump has maintained that it's more difficult to rescue Puerto Rico than states like Florida and Texas because it's surrounded by "big water, ocean water".  But even the three-star general Trump personally put in charge of the recovery said the White House hasn't sent enough personnel and equipment.  And the hero of New Orleans, retired General Russ Honore who unf*cked the Bush Administration response to Hurricane Katrina a decade ago rose to the defense of Mayor Yulin Cruz.

Critics have warned that this seemingly willful neglect of more than three million US citizens will be known as "Trump's Katrina".  He's scheduled to visit Puerto Rico on Tuesday.  We'll see how that goes.  We'll see if the orange clown has anything to say to anyone's face, because he has rarely shown the courage to do that.

A crowded Air France passenger jet made an emergency landing in Canada after one of its engines blew out over the Atlantic Ocean, two hours away from the nearest airport.  Flight AF 66 left Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris for Los Angeles around 11:30 AM local time; but passengers said there was a loud explosion at 35,000 feet, and the plane shook violently for ten to 20 minutes.



The plane dipped slightly "but the pilots recovered beautifully" said passenger Pamela Adams to the CBC.  "There wasn't the panic that I would've expected," she added, again crediting the flight crew for keeping the passenger calm.  The damaged Airbus A380 was diverted to the remote Happy Valley-Goose Bay airport in Canada's Newfoundland-Labrador province, where firefighters were waiting but luckily weren't needed.  Ultimately, no one killed or hurt, thanks to the design of the world's largest passenger plane and the skill of the pilots.

Thousands of marchers filled Dublin's city center to protest Ireland's ban on abortion.  They chanted, "Hey, hey Leo, the eighth amendment has got to go," referring to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the antiquated law which prevents women and doctors from practicing safe and sane healthcare; and they carried placards and banners reading, "Keep your rosaries off my ovaries", and "Parent by choice for choice".  Outside Ireland's embassy in London, campaigners chalk-marked the sidewalk to represent each of the 205,704 women who had to travel from the Republic of Ireland and North Ireland to Britain to get an abortion.  Ireland will hold a referendum next year on whether to repeal its ban on abortion in almost all circumstances.  

A portrait of Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is no longer hanging in the halls of a college at Oxford University.  The governing body of St. Hugh's college removed it before students were to arrive for the start of the university term.  Suu Kyi, the de facto ruler of Myanmar, has been widely criticized for her silence and inaction as the Myanmar military and nationalist mobs carry out what the UN has described as "textbook ethnic cleaning" of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state, driving more than 400,000 into refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh.

Spanish citizens are occupying several schools in Barcelona that have been identified as polling places in the banned Catalan Independence Referendum, to take place today.  Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy seems intent on making sure the vote doesn't happen, rather than rely on court rulings declaring it illegal and therefore unenforceable.  He sent police to take over the regional communications hub, and previously confiscated election materials and polling booths.

Cameroon has outlawed pro-independence rallies and public meetings in the English-speaking southwest, where some are calling for secession from the French-speaking majority over perceived discrimination.  Today is the 56th anniversary of the small west African country's post-colonial "unification".

Police in Sweden arrested dozens of nazi scum and counter protesters after a bunch of smelly, disgusting miscreants calling themselves the "Nordic Resistance Movement" marched through Gothenburg in a clear provocation scheduled at the start of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.  Authorities had called in reinforcements from outside the city and added extra temporary jail accommodation for up to 350 people in anticipation of violence.