Man who grabbed Ariana Grande at Wicked sequel premiere charged

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Footage shows the man jumping the red carpet barricade of the Singapore premiere of Wicked: For Good, then rushing towards and embracing the star

A court in Singapore has charged a man who grabbed Ariana Grande at a premiere of Wicked: For Good on Thursday night with being a public nuisance.

Video footage shows Johnson Wen jumping over a barricade at Universal Studios Singapore and rushing at Grande on the red carpet. Grande’s co-star Cynthia Erivo immediately jumped in to help protect her and Wen was moved away.

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Guardian’s former Gaza correspondent named young journalist of the year in UK awards

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Malak A Tantesh, 20, ‘showed immense talent and bravery’, said judges at Media Freedom awards in London

The UK’s Society of Editors has named Malak A Tantesh, the Guardian’s former Gaza correspondent, as young journalist of the year in the national press category at this year’s Media Freedom awards.

The judges said Tantesh “showed immense talent and bravery in some of the hardest conditions ever faced by a journalist, she continued to report while having to forage for food and facing the constant risk of bombing and the threat of targeted killing”.

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Carney’s ‘nation-building’ programme misses mark to be truly transformative for Canada

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The $C56bn plan focused on investing in a resource economy falls short of changing Canadians’ day-to-day lives

Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney likes to say that when he was young, “we used to build big things in this country, and we used to build them quickly.”

That idea – of sprawling projects that transform nations, has influenced both his narrative as an economist-turned politician and his government’s multibillion dollar investment spree. “It’s time to get back at it, and get on with it,” he said in September.

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Epstein sought to restore his reputation after guilty plea, documents reveal

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Documents include emails depicting coordinated effort to influence online search results and journalists

Jeffrey Epstein and his associates worked to suppress negative press and rebuild his image in the years after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges in Florida of solicitation of prostitution and of solicitation of prostitution with a minor, newly released documents reveal.

The documents, among 20,000 pages released on Wednesday by Republican members of the House oversight committee, include emails and memos that depict a coordinated effort to influence online search results and journalists, and restore Epstein’s reputation.

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Bus chaperone kept working at school during months-long police investigation into alleged child sexual abuse

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Exclusive: Victorian education department apologises to mother who alleged her nonverbal child was sexually assaulted by the man. He denied the allegations and no charges were laid

A school bus chaperone who allegedly sexually assaulted a nonverbal child continued working with students for months during the subsequent Victorian police investigation, prompting an apology to the girl’s mother from the state’s education department.

The allegation was denied by the chaperone and did not lead to charges. But Victoria’s education department apologised to the mother last year for failing to implement risk mitigation strategies during the police investigation.

In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helpline International

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National parks facing ‘nightmare’ under Trump, warns ex-director of service

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Jonathan Jarvis, who led the agency from 2009 to 2017, laid out the dire consequences of not closing parks in shutdown

Americans should “raise hell” to protect US national parks through the “nightmare” of Donald Trump’s presidency, according to a former National Park Service director, amid alarm over the impact of the federal government shutdown.

Jonathan Jarvis claimed the agency is now in the hands of a “bunch of ideologues” who would have no issue watching it “go down in flames” – and see parks from Yellowstone to Yosemite as potential “cash cows”, ripe for privatization.

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Witness gives chilling account of ‘human safari’ where rich tourists allegedly paid $90K to shoot – thetab.com

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  1. Witness gives chilling account of ‘human safari’ where rich tourists allegedly paid $90K to shoot  thetab.com
  2. Italy probes claim that tourists paid to go to Bosnia to kill besieged civilians  BBC
  3. Italy probes Sarajevo ‘sniper safaris’: What were they, who was involved?  Al Jazeera
  4. Milan prosecutors investigate alleged ‘sniper tourism’ during Bosnian war | Bosnia and Herzegovina  The Guardian
  5. War tourist foreigners ‘paid £80k to shoot at civilians’ during Siege of Sarajevo  The Independent
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Venezuela’s Maduro urges Trump to avoid Afghanistan-style ‘forever war’

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Authoritarian leader calls for US to make peace amid military buildup and strikes against alleged drug smugglers

Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, has urged Donald Trump not to lead the US into an Afghanistan-style “forever war”, as the American military buildup in the region intensified and Trump’s defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, vowed to purge the Americas of “narco-terrorists”.

Speaking to CNN outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, Maduro called on Trump to make peace, not war, after the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R Ford, arrived in the region.

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London judge rules BHP Group liable for Brazil’s 2015 Samarco dam collapse

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About 600,000 people seeking compensation a decade on from disaster that killed 19 and devastated villages

The global mining company BHP Group has been found liable for the deadly 2015 collapse of a Brazilian dam, in a landmark ruling that could pave the way for a multibillion-dollar payout.

The high court in London on Friday, Mrs Justice O’Farrell ruled that BHP was responsible for the collapse of the Fundão dam in Mariana despite not owing the dam at the time.

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South Africa to investigate ‘mysterious’ arrival of 153 Palestinians on plane

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Passengers held on runway for 12 hours after landing in Johannesburg without travel documents

South Africa will investigate the “mysterious” arrival of scores of Palestinians who were kept on a charter plane at Johannesburg for 12 hours by border police because they did not have travel papers, the president has said.

A group of 153 Palestinians arrived at OR Tambo international iarport in Johannesburg on a chartered Global Airways flight from Kenya on Thursday without departure stamps, return tickets or details of accommodation, according to the border authorities.

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