21/04/2026

TUESDAY | APR 21, 2026

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SYDNEY: Australian actor Rebel Wilson (pic) appeared in a court here yesterday at the start of a defamation case brought by Charlotte MacInnes, the lead actor in Wilson’s directorial debut The Deb , over allegations linked to social media posts. M a c I n n e s claims Wilson Actor sued over social media posts Court filings allege Wilson, the star of three Pitch Perfect movies and Bridesmaids , failed to seek verification from MacInnes and made the claims despite knowing no complaint had been made. The posts on Wilson’s Instagram account, with more than 11 million followers, allegedly implied that MacInnes had lied when she denied discussing harassment or inappropriate behaviour by producers. Wilson has denied the claims. MacInnes, who was also in court for the hearing, is seeking aggravated damages and a court order preventing Wilson from repeating the allegations online or elsewhere. Wilson also alleged in the July 2024 posts that executive producer Vince Holden, along with producers Amanda Ghost and Gregor Cameron, attempted to block the film’s premiere in retaliation for her raising concerns about the alleged misconduct, according to reports. – Reuters Machado urges swift elections MADRID: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado expects to be back in her home country before the end of the year and is urging the United States to accelerate plans for elections. The Nobel Peace Prize winner said she “absolutely” saw herself back in Venezuela soon, warning that the longer it took for the country to hold elections the greater the risk of civil unrest. “We believe that to (manage) the anxiety and expectations and the urgency of the Venezuelan people in an orderly, civic way, it is very important to start taking steps towards what the whole country requires and demands, which is free and fair elections,” she said. The US kidnapped President Nicolas Maduro in January, raising hopes among some of his opponents that Machado, 58, would play a central role in running the country. President Donald Trump instead put Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy, in charge, saying Machado didn’t have the support needed to run the country in the short term. – Reuters falsely suggested in Instagram posts she had confided in her about being sexually harassed by one of the film’s producers.

HK residents return to ravaged homes

HONG KONG: Residents who lost their homes in a massive fire at an apartment complex last year began returning yesterday for the first time to collect what is left of their belongings. The city’s deadliest fire in decades killed 168 people when it ripped through seven of the eight apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court complex in November. For the first time since then, around 6,000 residents are being given three-hour windows to enter their homes from yesterday and get their belongings. Officials have advised residents to prepare mentally, and required them to wear face masks, hard hats and gloves before entering their apartments. Steven Chong, 50, who retrieved a computer uploaded with family photos from his flat, told reporters he had used the time to bid farewell to his cat, who died in the fire. “I don’t know where he died, but I went to the spot where he usually liked to sleep and told him to reincarnate soon,” Chong said. “It was strange, there were many things that I stopped noticing while living there, going back now, it was like, oh so that’s how I had decorated it, I forgot,” he said. Another resident, who did not give his name, said his house had burned down after the fire entered through an open window. “There is nothing to go back to,” he said, after visiting his flat. “We hung around to take a look, commemorated it, and left.” More than 920 homes were damaged and some destroyed by the blaze, according to the fire department. Images released by government officials show the ceilings and walls of some flats have collapsed or been charred black, and the interiors littered with debris. Damaged areas of the residential complex in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district have been cordoned off as “danger zones”, while reinforcement works have been carried out where the building structure was compromised. With 1,700 flats to pick through, authorities hope the belongings retrieval process will be completed by early next month.

o Former tenants of Wang Fuk Court given three-hour windows to retrieve belongings

wants most to retrieve are the photo albums of her childhood. Her family’s “entire life’s possessions are inside that building”, Ho said. After the fire – the world’s deadliest residential building blaze since 1980 – Ho relocated to temporary housing set up for Wang Fuk Court residents near the estate. For now, she is allowed to stay there until the end of the year, but she said she felt anxious and powerless when faced with the uncertainty of her future accommodation. “Will we be evicted?” she asked. “Where will I find somewhere to live?” – AFP

Survivor Harry Leung, one of the last residents to leave the complex on the day of the blaze, said he had mixed emotions about his return. While keen to see the flat where he had spent most of his life, the three-hour slot, Leung said, was not enough time. Hong Kong officials have offered to buy the apartments back around the pre-fire market price, despite the damage, but said that rebuilding the

complex on the same site was “not feasible”. “I believe there are actually quite a few people who don’t want to accept (the government’s offer), but have no other options. They’ve been forced to accept it,” Leung said. “If I had a choice, I really wouldn’t want to leave,” he said. Betty Ho, who plans to return next month to the flat she lived in for more than 30 years, said what she

Chong shows the media items that he retrieved from his flat. – AFPPIC

Stranded humpback swims free

SCHWERIN: A humpback whale stuck off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast for almost three weeks has started swimming, livestream footage showed yesterday. The male humpback whale, nicknamed Timmy, could be seen changing direction several times. The whale had been stranded in Wismar Bay since March 31, after becoming stuck multiple times in the preceding weeks at various points on the Baltic coast. Janine Bahr-van Gemmert, the lead veterinarian for a private rescue mission, told dpa news agency that the team was on its way to the harbour and that boats were ready to assist the marine mammal. Rescuers had not ruled out that the roughly 12m whale could free itself under its own power after showing “great reactions” and a lot of energy on Sunday. If so, rescue boats from Germany’s DLRG life-saving association were on

standby to guide the whale towards the North Sea and then across it into the Atlantic, lawyer Constanze von der Meden from the initiative said. The original plan was to slide a tarpaulin attached between floating pontoons under the whale, lift it out of the shallow area and later move it towards the North Sea. Authorities in the northeastern region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern had authorised a last-ditch private rescue mission on Wednesday after several attempts by government backed rescuers failed to free the animal and hopes for its survival began to fade. Among those behind the latest initiative is businessman Walter Gunz, co-founder of MediaMarkt, a popular consumer electronics chain. The saga to free Timmy has garnered massive media attention in Germany, with several media outlets streaming 24/7 live video of the animal’s whereabouts. – Bernama

The whale near Wismar, Germany, yesterday. – REUTERSPIC