Howdy Australia!! - A very rough ride for a Sydney-bound flight - Prosecutors probe Russia and the far-right - New Orleans is reliving some traumatic memories - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Air Canada Flight AC33 was en route from Vancouver, BC to Sydney, but ran into terrible turbulence about halfway over the Pacific - the captain turned around and put it down at Honolulu.  The Boeing 777-200 was carrying 269 passengers and 15 crew, and about 35 of them sustained minor injuries.  They described it as some minor rumbling followed by a sudden plunge.  Passenger Luke Wheeldon said the Flight Attendants were passing out snacks and the passengers weren't wearing seatbelts:  "There was no warning and then half of them, their head hit the roof all at once," he said. "And I went, 'Oh, this is a bad day."  But luckily it could have been much worse.  Video has emerged purporting to show oxygen masks deployed in the passenger cabin after the incident.  Air Canada is now working on getting those passengers off to Sydney.

Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into allegations the far-right League party illegally sought funds through a oil deal with Russia.  The scheme reported by L'Espresso and The Guardian said two figures close to League leader Matteo Salvini - now Interior Minister - tried to strike a deal with Russians officials linked with President Vladimir Putin to import 3 million tons of diesel fuel to an Italian oil company.  Buzzfeed news obtained an audio recording of the meeting and published it earlier this week.  The reports found no evidence the deal was ever consummated, but it fits with long-standing suspicions that Putin has had a hand in the rise of the European far right.

Germany changed the diplomatic protocol for greeting the visiting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, allowing Chancellor Angela Merkel to sit through the two countries' national anthems.  This is after Merkel was seen shaking uncontrollably during three previous official functions; not so on Thursday.  She has not disclosed what the problem might be and insists she is capable of fulfilling her responsibilities:  "I am aware of the responsibility of my office," Merkel said, "I behave appropriately as far as my health is concerned; I look after my health."  The three incidents have members of her governor CDU party starting to ask if she should step aside earlier than when her term ends in 2021.

The US House Judiciary Committee approved subpoenas for a dozen current and former members of the Trump administration, including Donald Trump's son in law Jared Kushner.  It greatly broadens the investigation into Donald Trump's possible obstruction of justice - the investigation started with probes into Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election, and with the new round of subpoenas will cover the "zero-tolerance" immigration policy that led to the separation last year of migrant families who crossed the southern border without the proper documentation.  Others getting subpoenas are former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly, and former Trump campaign manager Cory Lewandowski.

New Orleans is already flooded in several places as the first Tropical Storm of the season, "Barry", approaches.  "There are three ways that Louisiana can flood: storm surge, high rivers and rain," said Governor John Bel Edwards, "We're going to have all three."  Much of New Orleans sits beneath a pair of six meter tall levees holding back the Mississippi River and a lake, and one of those levees already infamously failed once in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina killing more than 1,800 people.