Emirates still close to Meek Mill’s heart

Plus: Obama to honour Sally Field and Stephen King; Tyler Perry pays tribute at Bobbi Kristina funeral; and Aretha Franklin happy at block on gig film.

Meek Mill performs at the Made in America festival, on Saturday, September 5 in Philadelphia. Jeff Lombardo / Invision / AP Photo

Rapper Meek Mill wasn’t putting his feet up after last week’s visit to Dubai with girlfriend Nicki Minaj. He performed at People by Crystal on Tuesday night and the couple were spotted out and about in the city over the coming days, bringing The Dubai Mall to a standstill when they shopped there. But there was no rest for Mill after the couple left the country – he was back on stage in the United States on Saturday in Philadelphia at the Made in America festival, where he wore an Arsenal FC away shirt – just days after posting photos on social media of himself wearing an Arsenal home shirt with his name printed on the back – with the Fly Emirates sponsorship logo plastered across the front. No word on whether this was an indication of his team allegiance or a thank you to the airline. – The National staff

Obama to honour Sally Field and Stephen King

Actress Sally Field and horror author Stephen King are among the luminaries set to receive a National Medal of Arts or a National Humanities Medal from Barack Obama this week. The US president will bestow the honours on 18 people and three institutions during a ceremony at the White House on Thursday. Field, from Los Angeles, will receiving an arts medal for performances that have touched audiences worldwide, her off-screen campaigning for women and public health. King, from Bangor in Maine, will also receive an arts medal for his decades of work. The awards were created in 1965 to provide grants to support artistic excellence and creativity, and to advance the understanding and appreciation of history, literature, philosophy and language. – AP

Tyler Perry pays tribute at Bobbi Kristina funeral

Filmmaker Tyler Perry paid homage to the late Bobbi Kristina Brown in a tribute video that was shown during her funeral in August. Perry revealed in a Facebook post on Friday that the Houston estate had asked him to share the three-minute-plus video in honour of the 22-year-old daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. She died in a hospice on July 26, almost six months after she was found facedown in a bathtub in her Atlanta home. The video shows photos of Bobbi Kristina as a baby, posing alongside her parents and as an adult. As each picture flashes across the screen, her mother's song You Were Loved plays. – AP

Aretha Franklin happy at block on gig film

Veteran singer Aretha Franklin says she is relieved that a judge has blocked the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado from screening a documentary about a 1972 concert without her consent. She said: "Justice, respect and what is right prevailed and one's right to own their own self-image." US District Judge John L Kane issued his order in Denver about three hours before a planned Friday-night screening of Amazing Grace. Franklin testified by telephone from Detroit that she has objected to use of the concert footage in the documentary for years. — AP