Yahoo's live news blog for Tuesday, September 17 has now concluded. A Qantas flight was forced into an emergency landing this morning with one terrified passenger sharing the moment the pilot informed those onboard. Read more below.
A licence plate in South Australia has smashed state records after it sold for a staggering $2.3m. The plate, which is simply the number 8, added an extra $1 million to its price in just a few hours on Monday as competition grew before the auction closed at 7pm.
The Royal Family cropped Meghan Markle out of a photo they used to wish Harry a happy 40th birthday. Read more below.
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Tom Flanagan
Passenger relives scary ordeal as Qantas flight makes emergency landing
“The pilot just said, ‘Emergency descent, emergency descent,’ so the stewards sat down, and then we heard nothing, and the plane just dropped really, really quick," passenger Naomi Lynch said, according to the Courier Mail.
The Brisbane bound flight was forced to divert to Rockhampton after departing Townsville at 6am.
Lynch said passengers' fear quickly turned to frustration after a lack of communication from Qantas once they landed.
"No one spoke to us. No one checked on us," she said.
Tom Flanagan
Australia Post gives second chance to disappointed Bluey fans
Did you miss out on the limited edition $1 Bluey coins? Well after insane demand, which saw the Australia Post website crash, the Royal Australian Mint has revealed post offices will be dishing them out randomly in stores as change when a customer pays in cash.
So you've probably seen this little ray of sunshine at some point on the internet over the last few days, and if you haven't, you're more than welcome.
Meet Moo Deng, the baby hippo in a Thai zoo that has taken the world by storm.
Moo Deng, which translates as "bouncing pig", is a huge draw at Khao Kheow Open Zoo and her insane popularity has seen the zoo struggle with an influx of visitors. She has millions of fans across the internet and we can see why. The zoo has hinted at extending opening hours to accomodate fr all the tourists arriving at the park.
Tom Flanagan
Former Seven host Andrew O'Keefe has bail overturned after reported overdose
Former television host Andrew O'Keefe will remain in custody, which a magistrate said is "the best thing to do" following his latest arrest.
The 52-year-old has had his bail revoked, days after a reported drug overdose.
He was arrested on Monday after emergency services responded to an incident at a home in Sydney's eastern suburbs on Saturday.
O'Keefe was charged with drug possession after police searched a nearby car and allegedly found methamphetamine.
Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge said O'Keefe was "lucky to be alive" as she read a police statement of facts on an application to detain the former Network Seven host in Waverley Local Court on Tuesday.
O'Keefe was on bail after allegedly breaching a court order, trespassing and intimidating a man in Sydney's eastern suburbs in July.
O'Keefe's lawyer did not argue against the application and the magistrate revoked his bail, keeping O'Keefe in custody to return to court in October.
"If he wants to stay alive that's the best thing to do," Ms Milledge said.
Well according to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) Reserve Bank of Australia Target Rate Tracker (yes, it's a mouthful I know), struggling mortgage holders are set for four rate cuts in seven months.
The first will come in February, it predicts, and will end in August, bringing the official cash rate down to 3.35 per cent. Fingers crossed.
A lifeline has been handed to some of Australia's biggest festivals including Bluesfest and Splendour in the Grass after NSW's government set aside funding to support the struggling festival scene.
The funds will allow organisers to obtain $500,000 in a much-needed cash boost to help with rising operational costs. It will be available next year and comes after both festivals were forced to cancel due to finances.
Minister for Music and the Night-Time Economy John Graham said the move should hopefully ease the "intense pressure" on the industry.
Tom Flanagan
Amazon scraps working from home
Well the return to the office push is gathering momentum, and if you're set on working from home, the following news doesn't bode well.
The change is necessary to "invent, collaborate and be connected" wrote CEO Andy Jassy in a letter to employees on Monday posted to its website. He said the experience of a three-day mandate "strengthened our conviction about the benefits" of in-office work.
Read more about the fate of working from home in Australia from Yahoo Finance's Tamika Seeto here.
Tom Flanagan
Sad question school kids face after Trump claim
It was the claim that left millions watching on stunned. During last week's US presidential debate, Donald Trump pushed the baseless conspiracy that Haitian migrants in an Ohio town were eating pet cats and dogs.
The wild claim was jumped on by Democratic voters, who mocked Trump online with a wave of memes, however the conspiracy has had more serious implications for the Haitian residents of Springfield.
Mia Perez, a Haitian immigration lawyer in Springfield, told the Associated Press that her 9-year-old daughter came face to face with the claims in school.
“Kids in school are being asked by other kids: ’How does the dog taste? How does the cat taste?” Perez said. “She’s asking, 'Are we the kind of Haitians who eat this kind of stuff? Is it true? What’s happening?' This is a conversation that I was not ready to have with my daughter,” she continued. “I felt disrespected of our culture.”
“I know a woman whose daughter hasn't gone to school since this happened because at the school the kids are asking her about eating cats and dogs,” Sophia Pierrelus, a Haitian American small business owner in Columbus, told the Columbus Dispatch. “They're afraid to go into the street because they feel they may be attacked.”
Johnson Salomon, a Haitian immigrant who moved to Springfield in 2020, told the Guardian that he has notice of the sparse presence of Haitians in places in the city where they used to frequent.
“Normally, when I drive through south Springfield, where a lot of Haitians live, you see people walking on the streets, at the Haitian markets and restaurants,” Salmon said. “For the past few days, I have seen far fewer people.”
Man wins $1 million three years after another big win
We bring you another lottery update now, as a Brisbane man has won big for the second time in three years.
In 2021, he claimed $150,000 on an Instant Scratch-Its ticket, and he's not won $1 million in Monday night's Weekday Windfall draw.
He said his latest win was "next level". It sure is buddy.
Tom Flanagan
Adelaide records coldest September morning ever
It was Canberra yesterday and now it's Adelaide today. The South Australian capital has set its coldest September morning ever.
The West Terrace weather station plunged to 1.3C. And it was even colder in other parts of the state, with Cummins airport, north of Port Lincoln, dropping to -1.8C.
Tom Flanagan
Qantas flight's urgent landing after 'unsettling' problem onboard
A Qantas flight has been forced to divert course and make a sudden landing following a “depressurisation issue”.
QF1871 from Townsville to Brisbane diverted and landed safely in the Central Queensland town of Rockhampton on Tuesday morning, with pilots bringing the plane down after making a squawk 7700 – or a general emergency – call.
FlightRadar data, posted to Central Queensland Plane Spotting page, shows a rapid decrease in altitude within minutes.
The flight left Townsville at 6am and was scheduled to land in Brisbane at 7.50am but touched down in Rockhampton about 7.15am.
A Qantas spokeswoman told NewsWire the flight was safely diverted to Rockhampton after experiencing a depressurisation issue.
“The flight landed normally and we’ll get passengers on their way to Brisbane on other flights this morning,” the spokeswoman said. “We understand this would have been an unsettling experience for our customers and want to thank them for their patience and understanding.”
- NCA NewsWire
Tom Flanagan
Wife's $660k wedding anniversary gift
Well this is a pretty special wedding anniversary gift. A TattsLotto ticket bought by a wife for her husband on their special day has won them an impressive $660,000 in Saturday's draw.
“We’re actually on holiday at the moment. We’re having a nice time, but this is the icing on the cake," the Warrnambool woman told lottery officials.
Tom Flanagan
Aussies not happy with TimTam prices
It's no surprise that everything in our day-to-day lives is now suffering as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. But it really hurts when an Aussie staple is impacted.
That's why there was plenty of fury when the price of TimTams in our supermarkets were flagged online this week.
The price for the Aussie treat on the shelves of Coles and Woolworths is now $6.
"A disgrace," one person said, summing up the sentiment of hundreds of other disgruntled customers.
One person even suggested we could soon see a $10 packet. Let's hope not.
The auction closed last night at 7pm and the final sale price ended up being well beyond where the bidding was earlier in the day. The plate sold for a huge new record of $2.3 million, eclipsing the previous record of $593,000. Wow.
But it's not a record for the country, with NSW's number 1 plate going for over $10 million earlier in the year.
Tom Flanagan
Royal Family crop Meghan Markle from photo
The Royal Family looked like it was providing an olive branch to Harry after they wished him a happy 40th birthday on their socials, the first such post in three years. However eagle-eyed Royals followers have picked up on the fact it was no coincidence Meghan was missing from the post.
That's because she was cropped out of the picture they used from 2018 when the pair were visiting Dublin in an official royal capacity. See the post and actual picture below.
Richard Osman is best-known for his House of Games series and Pointless, but the presenter and author isn't the only star in his family – meet his wife, a Doctor Who star, and his musical brother
After wearing prosthetics to age herself up for her finally Harry Potter scene, Emma Watson said, "I'm going to avoid doing a movie with prosthetics, like my life depends on it."
A naked gay man changed American culture as we know it. That’s not cheeky (heh), but very real: Twenty-four years ago, Richard Hatch was the first winner of Survivor. The CBS competition series birthed the reality TV craze with its blockbuster premiere season in 2000, seizing the zeitgeist, turning its Average Joe (and Joanne) contestants into the biggest celebrities of the summer, and bushwhacking the path for countless reality series and stars to follow.Hatch was 39 when he outwitted, outplaye
Memo to CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil: Looks like the boss has your back (at least for now). Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global, in some of her last days in that role, reprimanded executives at CBS News for telling staffers earlier this week that a sharp exchange on “CBS Mornings” between Dokoupil …
Fox News Media will this month launch a new daily one-hour Spanish-language program titled “Fox Noticias” focusing on issues impacting the Hispanic community, the company announced Tuesday. “Fox Noticias” will be anchored by “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy and air weekdays at 4 p.m. EDT on the company’s Spanish-language sports network, Fox Deportes. It will also be available…
With less than a month until the 2024 presidential election, Jon Stewart has one movie on his mind. On Monday’s episode of The Daily Show, the comedian called out Donald Trump‘s hypocrisy for standing on a platform of free speech while attempting to have the upcoming film The Apprentice shut down, calling it election interference. …