Morning mail: Texas storm turns freeways into rivers Monday: Several deaths have been reported in Houston as residents are forced on to their roofs to escape the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Plus: renewables now provide 70% of Australia's home electricity consumption People walk through the flooded waters of Telephone Road in Houston. Photograph: Thomas B. Shea/AFP/Getty Images Mike Ticher Good morning, this is Mike Ticher, standing in for Eleanor Ainge Roy, bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 28 August. Top stories Several deaths have been reported in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Texas, where Houston residents have been forced to climb on to the roofs of their houses in desperate attempts to escape "historic" flooding. Intense rainfall, predicted to last for several more days, has turned freeways into rivers. People trapped in their houses were advised not to take refuge in attics unless they had "an axe or means to break through" to the roof. The Harris County sheriff, Ed Gonzalez, reported on Twitter that a woman and child had died in a submerged vehicle on Interstate 10 – the deaths were not confirmed, because the location was unreachable. The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, told CBS he was "not capable at this time of confirming" the number of fatalities caused by the hurricane. Images from Houston show abandoned cars and water surging through the streets and the National Weather Service has issued an emergency warning for "catastrophic flooding" in the Houston metropolitan area. With emergency services stretched to capacity, stranded residents went on Twitter to call for assistance. "We need help it's like 12 adults and 10 toddlers," one said. Australia's renewable energy sector is within striking distance of matching national household power consumption, cranking out enough electricity to run 70% of homes last financial year, new figures show. The first Australian Renewable Energy Index, produced by Green Energy Markets, has found the sector will generate enough power to run 90% of homes once wind and solar projects under construction in 2016-17 are completed. A three-year-old girl is dead after she was shot at her home in western Sydney. Paramedics found the girl dead with a gunshot wound to her neck at the Lalor Park home about 8pm on Sunday. Police have released few details about how the tragedy unfolded and detectives from Quakers Hill local area command are investigating and talking to the family. Forensic officers were still examining the scene at the house on Monday. Malcolm Turnbull has suggested political disillusionment is no more extreme now than in the past. A jovial prime minister went on the The Project on the Ten Network on Sunday night and reminded viewers that Australians had never been ecstatic about the political class. Recalling his days as a journalist in the state parliamentary press gallery in the mid-1970s, the PM said: "I don't think Australians have ever been wandering around ecstatically saying: 'I can't believe how fabulous our politicians are; why do we have such amazing politicians? They are practically perfect!' They don't say that." Australian health experts are divided over the value of vaping, with some arguing it may help some people give up smoking and others maintaining it's just another way for tobacco companies to keep their profits up. Billions of dollars are at stake in this hotly contested debate, Melissa Davey reports. Becky Freeman, a tobacco control expert at the University of Sydney, says supporting e-cigarettes on the current evidence amounts to treating smokers as guinea pigs. "The threshold for whether these products are safe is always about how they fare in comparison to cigarettes. But I can't think of anything more harmful to human health than cigarettes, so that's a pretty low bar." Sport Australia are in a fight after a gripping first day of the first Test against Bangladesh in Dhaka. The home side recovered from losing their first three wickets for 10 runs to post 260, before reducing Steve Smith's men to 18-3 at the close. Nathan Lyon's three wickets took him past Richie Benaud as the second-best spinner in Australia's history. Follow our live coverage of day two from 1.30pm AEST (2pm start). West Coast Eagles secured the last spot in the AFL top eight by a sliver of a percentage from Melbourne, after a thrilling win over Adelaide in the final match at Subiaco Oval on Sunday night. All fans live in a constant state of powerlessness, Craig Little writes, but the lot of Demons followers at the weekend was again to play the role of "hand-wringing pessimists beaten down by years of incompetence and always expecting the worst". Which is what they got. The NRL, by contrast, could just do with some fans, writes Matt Cleary. Thinking time In an era when real news often has to come with the disclaimer that it is #nottheonion, what space is left for the much-loved satirical publication? Like everyone else, the Onion has been wrestling with the challenge of fake news, but with a very immediate threat to its content. It has to make sure readers know the difference between fake news intended to deceive, and satirical headlines using humour to make a point. Before a visit to Australia for Sydney's Antidote festival, the Onion's managing editor, Marnie Shure, tells Amanda Meade: "The world right now is farcical, not satirical. The satire comes in when you can speak truth to that reigning circus sideshow." Australian comedians Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney, the creators of The Katering Show, on the set of their new show, Get Krack!n Photograph: Supplied Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, the stars of the Katering Show, have developed a grudging respect for the morning TV genre in the process of lampooning it. It started the minute they first stepped into their regulation TV-host high heels and on to the blisteringly bright set of their new TV show, Get Krack!n, which skewers the culture of dumbing-down women in the breakfast timeslot. Their new roles meant, among other things, adapting to the regulation morning TV outfits. "Shapewear made me so angry all the time," McLennan says. The debate over the government's marriage survey has brought new challenges for those raising children as a same-sex couple. Anna Liddy argues that while it would be easy to let her young children believe there are only two sides, that supporters are "nice" and opponents are "bad", ultimately that would hurt them. "We believe in compassion, mutual respect and kindness. Critical thinking and emotional intelligence. We want to raise our kids to be decent human beings, who choose complexity and nuance over the black-and-white thinking that seems to have gripped the world." What's he done now? Donald Trump has been busy overnight, tweeting excitedly about Hurricane Harvey: "Even experts have said they've never seen one like this!" But he also found time to mention that he will shortly be visiting Missouri ("that I won by a lot in '16"), promised Mexico would pay for the wall in a roundabout way and promoted a book by the controversial sheriff David Clarke, who had been considered for a senior position in the homeland security department. Media roundup The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a private school, Rissalah College in Lakemba, has had to pay back $4.3m in government funds after it was found to have illicitly operated for profit for seven years. The Australian says the Chinese consulate general has intervened in a row at the University of Newcastle over a reference to the status of Taiwan. It is the fourth prominent case since May where academic staff or teaching material at Australian universities have been attacked on Chinese ­social media, the paper says. And the Courier-Mail has an unintentionally hilarious take from the demographer Bernard Salt adorning its front page on why Brisbane is "no longer a big country town". Salt (who introduces us to the word "apartmentification") says he changed his view on Brisbane when he read an interview with the band Savage Garden, "who unassumingly said that not only did they come from Brisbane but they still lived there". The horror. Coming up Malcolm Turnbull visits Cooma in NSW today, where he is expected to announce funding for a feasibility study on the Snowy 2.0 development. The 11 remaining countries participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership are meeting in Sydney. Opponents of the deal will rally outside the meeting urging Australian negotiators not to revive the TPP after Donald Trump pulled the US out in January. Supporting the Guardian We'd like to acknowledge our generous supporters who enable us to keep reporting on the critical stories. If you value what we do and would like to help, please make a contribution or become a supporter today. Thank you. Guardian News & Media Limited - a member of Guardian Media Group PLC. Registered Office: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU. Registered in England No. 908396