Australia news LIVE: One dead, 30 injured after severe turbulence on Singapore Airlines flight; Ozempic dupes banned

One passenger has died and 30 others are injured, some severely, after a Singapore Airlines flight hit severe turbulence on Tuesday, flinging passengers and crew around the cabin and forcing the plane to land in Bangkok, officials and the airline said.

Flight SQ321, from London to Singapore, fell into an air pocket while cabin crew were serving breakfast before it encountered turbulence, prompting the pilots to request an emergency landing, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport general manager Kittipong Kittikachorn told a press conference.

The sudden turbulence occurred over the Irrawaddy Basin in Myanmar about 10 hours into the flight, the airline said. The pilot declared a medical emergency and diverted the aircraft – a Boeing 777-300ER – to Bangkok, it said without giving further details.

A 73-year-old British man died during the incident, likely due to a heart attack, Kittikachorn said. Seven people were critically injured, some with head injuries. Fifty-six Australians were among the 211 passengers and 18 crew on board the flight at the time.

Read the full story here.

Reuters, AP, Bloomberg

A video posted to Donald Trump’s account on his social media network included references to a “unified Reich” among hypothetical news headlines if he wins the election in November.

The headline appears among messages flashing across the screen such as “Trump wins!!” and “Economy booms!” Other headlines appear to be references to World War I.

The word “Reich” is often largely associated with Nazi Germany’s Third Reich, though the references in the video Trump shared appear to be a reference to the formation of the modern pan-German nation, unifying smaller states into a single Reich, or empire, in 1871.

US President Joe Biden responded to the use of the term ‘reich’ saying, “This is Hitler’s language, not America’s”.

The 30-second video appeared Monday on Trump’s account at a time when the presumptive Republican nominee for president, while seeking to portray President Joe Biden as soft on antisemitism, has himself repeatedly faced criticism for using language and rhetoric associated with Nazi Germany.

It was posted and shared on the former president’s Truth Social account while he was on a lunch break from his Manhattan hush money trial Monday afternoon. On Tuesday morning, the post of the video had been deleted.

“This was not a campaign video, it was created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word, while the President was in court,” Karoline Leavitt, the campaign press secretary, said in a statement.

AP

Good morning, and welcome to the live national news blog from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

It’s Wednesday, May 22. I’m Josefine Ganko, and I’ll be steering our coverage for the first half of the day.

Here’s what’s making news this morning:

• One passenger has died and 30 others injured, some severely, after a Singapore Airlines flight hit intense turbulence on Tuesday. Fifty-six Australians were among the 211 passengers and 18 crew on board the flight, which made an emergency landing in Bangkok.
• Relieved Australians have arrived home from New Caledonia after two RAF planes were cleared to bring citizens back amid deadly riots in the French Territory.
• Australia will ban replicas of blockbuster weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro.
• Yesterday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refused to comment on the ICC prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, diverging from US President Joe Biden’s attack on The Hague.