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Ructions within festival board over Palestinian-Australian academic’s inclusion began in October, email revealsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastFormer New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has become the latest international headline act to pull out of the 2026 Adelaide writers’ week in protest over the Adelaide festival board’s decision to rescind its invitation to Palestinian-Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah.Ardern had been scheduled to discuss her memoir A Different Kind of Power with the ABC’s host of 7.30, Sarah Ferguson, on 3 March. Continue reading... Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/jan/12/jacinda-ardern-pulls-out-of-adelaide-writers-week-as-fallout-over-randa-abdel-fattahs-axing-continues-ntwnfb Author : Kelly Burke Publish date : 2026-01-12 22:54:00

Prime minister speaks to the media this morning after recalling parliament for two days next week. Follow updates liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastKevin Rudd will step down from his role as Australian ambassador to the US at the end of March, Albanese just announced.On behalf of our nation, we thank Kevin for his service to Australia, and for taking forward Australia’s interests with our closest security ally.That community will be grieving today, and I say to those people in Victoria but also those in the flood-affected areas of Queensland: this is not over.Please stay

Senator condemned president’s bid to weaken central bank’s independence and examined Democrats’ futureFed chair investigation - live updatesDemocratic senator Elizabeth Warren said on Monday that Donald Trump’s attempts to control the Federal Reserve “undermines America all around the world” as she laid out a path for the future of the Democratic party focused on economic policies.In remarks at the National Press Club in Washington DC, the Massachusetts senator, who chairs the Senate banking committee, decried the US president’s latest attempt to weaken the central bank’s independence after the Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into its chair, Jerome Powell.

‘Given he was sacked for his dodgy tax affairs, this was never going to happen,’ says sourceZahawi says he accepts that the Conservatives are to blame for some of the problems facinng the country.Since leaving parliament, I have been reflecting on the successes and failures of my old party’s time in government, and I rue the timidity, even at times the weakness, with which we try to deal with the problems of the country.My analysis is that a huge culprit is the over-mighty bureaucratic inertia that now dominates and runs the country, that has taken control of swathes of the