A Palestinian-Australian academic, whose removal from a prestigious writers’ festival sparked a national furore, has said her words continue to be mischaracterised and used against her despite being invited back to the event.

The board overseeing the Adelaide Writers’ Week unreservedly apologised to Randa Abdel-Fattah on Thursday after her dumping on January 8 sparked a mass boycott by speakers and authors and the event’s cancellation.

She was subsequently the first name announced for the 2027 line-up.

But South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has refused to back the apology, sticking to his position that Dr Abdel-Fattah had advocated against the cultural safety of Zionists, including Jewish people.

“I have never, ever called for Jewish people to not have cultural safety,” she said in reply on ABC radio on Friday.

“But political ideologies cannot use cultural safety as a shield from criticism.

“I’m really fed up with the way that my words are being deliberately and maliciously and mendaciously mischaracterised to paint me as an anti-Semite when I have never, ever expressed any anti-Semitism.”

Dr Abdel-Fattah, who has flagged a defamation lawsuit against Mr Malinauskas over comments comparing her to a terrorist sympathiser, said she stood in solidarity with anti-Zionist Jews “as a Palestinian who was feeling the real-life impacts of a genocide in the name of Zionist ideology”.

Mr Malinauskas has alleged Dr Abdel-Fattah “advocated against the cultural safety of those people who believe in Zionism,” including Jewish people, and had a responsibility to call her out.

That included her role in a successful campaign to have columnist Thomas Friedman dumped from the 2024 event for a New York Times blog post comparing Middle East nations to various insects and spiders.

The column dubbed the United States an old lion and Israel’s leader a lemur.

“You can’t protest about it (your removal) and then seek to deny others the ability to be able to express their views which is the problem with Ms (sic) Abdel-Fattah’s position,” Mr Malinauskas told the ABC on Wednesday.

But the Palestinian-Australian author said no comparison should be drawn.

“I really reject the equivalence between Thomas Friedman and our principled response to his outrageously racist article in which he used racial tropes of animals to describe people in the Middle East,” she said.

“It’s also the question of not equating racist, harmful inciting speech with the speech of me, a Palestinian, simply calling out against a genocide.”

The industry is meanwhile mourning the loss of the 2026 Writers Week – one arm of the Adelaide Festival and what is seen as the nation’s largest and most respected literary festival.

“The flow-on effect of having all of those people in town and Adelaide being the centre of the book universe for a week, all of that is gone – I think it’s devastating for the book industry,” bookshop owner Angus Dillon told AAP.

English indie rock band Pulp announced overnight they had planned to join the boycott of the Adelaide Festival over Dr Abdel-Fattah’s sacking.

But the replacement of the festival board and Thursday’s apology and invitation to Dr Abdel-Fattah triggered the “Common People” group to honour their original plans to play on February 27.

“We want to make it absolutely clear that Pulp refuse to condone the silencing of voices,” the band wrote on Instagram.

“We hope that our free concert will be an opportunity for different communities to come together in peace and harmony.”

Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, British novelist Zadie Smith and popular Australian author Trent Dalton were among those who pulled out of Writers’ Week in solidarity with the academic.⁠

The spectacular implosion of Adelaide Writers’ Week has sent shockwaves through the literary community as it grapples with the far-reaching consequences of losing one of its flagship events. 

Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah has accepted an apology from the Adelaide Festival board for removing her from the writers’ week program, saying she would consider its invitation to attend the 2026 event.

But there are no happy endings for the thousands of other people and businesses impacted by their very public feud, which triggered a boycott of the event by 180 speakers and the resignation of its renowned director and several board members.

The writers’ week had been due to start in February but was cancelled after its program collapsed, with a new board and chair installed.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas had publicly proclaimed his approval of the board’s decision to dump the Palestinian-Australian writer because of “cultural sensitivity” over the Bondi massacre.

Asked if he was worried about the event cancellation’s impact on the state’s economy, he replied: “Well, no, because the Adelaide Writers’ Week is a free event, a no-ticket event, it generates zero revenue.”

But literary community members have told AAP the impact of losing this year’s event is seismic for a sector that is already struggling.  

Writer and critic Beejay Silcox, who was scheduled to appear at six writers’ week events, said she was angered by the premier’s assertion.

“There’s a huge economy, and the blast radius is massive, and that is absolute bullshit,” she said.

“I’m so angry about (his comment), and it shows such a lack of understanding about how basic economies work.

“Economies of opportunity are massive, and it’s never been harder to carve out a sustainable life on the page as a writer now.”

She had read 19 books and lost up to $6000 in work in preparation for the event.

Adelaide Festival’s 2025 Impact Report said the event – the third under director Louise Adler, who quit this week – had attracted a record-breaking 160,000 attendances across 166 sessions, spanning live and virtual formats, and with programming for schools, families and young adults.

The event was live-streamed into 70 libraries, schools, retirement villages and community centres, and its podcasts attracted more than 160,000 streams and downloads. 

Angus Dillon – co-owner of Dillons Bookshop, which hosts the highly successful book tent on behalf of writers’ week – said it was Australia’s largest, most respected, longest-running literary festival and “hugely important” to authors, publishers and the event industry.

“The government, when they do their economic impacts on other events, they would surely know that it’s not measured only by ticket sales,” he said.

“It’s measured by room nights and tourism and visitation, and often it’s those things that are used as justification for investment in events.”

He noted the controversy had generated international headlines.

“We normally celebrate stories about South Australia in the New York Times,” he said. 

“But this means global attention on the festival state not holding one of its most important events.

“The flow-on effect of having all of those people in town and Adelaide being the centre of the book universe for a week, all of that is gone – I think it’s devastating for the book industry.”

Wakefield Press publisher Michael Bollen said for those labouring on the front line of literature – publishers, authors, booksellers and subcontractors – the premier’s comments “seem a bit dismissive”.

“To say there’s zero impact because it generates zero revenue is certainly not the case for authors, publishers and associated people and of course, there are actually ticketed events,” he said.

“There’s deals made behind the tents, there’s publishing arrangements, there’s interstate publishers meeting SA authors – all of that is important.

“Who knows how many souls from outside SA will cancel their visits, which means hotels, restaurants, pubs take a hit, and perhaps even other festival events.”

Pink Shorts Press co-director Emily Hart said the loss of the festival was “heartbreaking, devastating”.

“I think there’s been quite a lot of rage in the community, as well as sadness,” she said.

“The number of books sold at Adelaide Writers’ Week is huge.

“We had books already ordered from our supplier that are now going to be returned, and for a small publisher like us, actually does represent quite a significant bit of income.”

Australian Society of Authors chair Jennifer Mills said she had heard the writers’ week book tent “takes easily half a million dollars a year”.

“Book sales at Adelaide Writers’ Week are hugely significant for writers,” she said.

“And then there’s also the more indirect economic loss from lost publicity, marketing, networking, all of the things that happen at festivals that you can’t really measure the economic impact of.

“I would say that the recent attacks on freedom of expression threaten our literary culture and more broadly, authors already are struggling.”

The average annual income of authors in Australia was $18,200 and “the opportunities for publication for debut authors are narrowing”, she said.

“It’s impoverishing literature in Australia and Australian culture as a whole.”

With a state election just over two months away, both sides of politics expressed frustration with the intense publicity surrounding the event’s cancellation.

“It’s not my focus, right?” Mr Malinauskas said at a Port Augusta campaign event.

“I know plenty of people are obsessing about this at the moment … but what I’m obsessing about is the sort of things that we’re doing here.”

Ms Silcox said festivals were where “work and opportunity and collaboration is made, when talent is spotted”.

“The debut authors that were going to see a big free crowd, they’ve lost that chance,” she said.

“I’ve spoken to a couple of publishers this week who were devastated that people they championed and really care about, really, their career is toast.”

One book, at least, has enjoyed a sales surge.

Dr Abdel-Fattah’s publisher, University of Queensland Press, has warned of extended wait times for copies of her book Discipline “due to an influx of orders”.

US President Donald Trump has unveiled ​a healthcare ⁠plan that promises to lower drug prices and insurance ‌premiums, ​make prices more ‍transparent and hold insurance companies accountable.

In its release of details ​of “The ‌Great Healthcare Plan,” the administration ​also called on ‍Congress to pass a ​law codifying ​his ​most-favoured-nation drug ​price policy.

The White House said Trump’s plan would codify his efforts to lower drug prices by tying prices to the lowest price paid by other countries.

The cornerstone is his proposal to send money directly to individuals for health savings accounts so they can bypass the federal government and handle insurance on their own. 

Some Democrats have rejected the idea as a paltry substitute for covering the high costs of health care.

“The government is going to pay the money directly to you,” Trump said in a taped video the White House released to announce the plan.

“It goes to you and then you take the money and buy your own health care.”

It was not immediately clear if any lawmakers in Congress were working to introduce the Republican president’s plan.

The idea mirrors one floated among Republican senators last year.

Democrats have largely rejected this idea, saying the accounts would not be enough to cover costs for most consumers.

Enhanced tax credits that helped reduce the cost of insurance for the vast majority of Affordable Care Act enrollees expired at the end of 2025 even though Democrats had forced a 43-day government shutdown over the issue.

Republican senator Bernie Moreno has been leading a bipartisan group of 12 senators trying to devise a compromise that would extend those subsidies for two years while adding new limits on who can receive them. 

That proposal would create the option, in the second year, of a health savings account that Trump and Republicans prefer.

Trump said on Thursday his plan will seek to bring down premiums by fully funding cost-sharing reductions, or CSRs, a type of financial help that insurers give to low-income “Obamacare” enrollees on silver-level, or mid-tier plans.

with AP

Almost five million social media accounts have been deactivated or restricted since Australia’s world-first age restrictions took effect.

Figures released by the federal government on Friday show the scale of the crackdown, aimed at better protecting children younger than 16 from online harms.

The eSafety commission has been closely monitoring social media platforms since the laws took effect on December 10.

It says more than 4.7 million accounts were deactivated, removed or restricted by December 12.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the mass exodus of children from social media was a positive step.

“It’s encouraging that social media companies are making meaningful effort to comply with laws and keep kids off their platforms,” he said in a statement.

“Change doesn’t happen overnight but these early signs show it’s important we’ve acted to make this change.”

Under the laws, social media platforms are required to take reasonable steps to prevent children younger than 16 from accessing their apps.

Australia is the first country to take such a step, inspiring other nations – including the UK, Malaysia and New Zealand – to consider similar age restrictions.

While some teenagers have managed to bypass the age limits, which include digital ID, face scans and sophisticated algorithms, the data shows a large number have already been booted off platforms.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said eSafety would dig into the data to determine which platforms were performing well and which ones needed to improve.

“We know there’s more work to do and the eSafety Commissioner is looking closely at this data to determine what it shows in terms of individual platforms’ compliance,” she said in a statement.

“While it’s early, every account deactivated could mean one extra young person with more free time to build their community and identity offline.”

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, this week said it had taken down more than half a million Australian user accounts before the ban.

Meta said between December 4 and 11, it had taken down 330,639 Instagram accounts, 173,497 Facebook accounts and 39,916 Threads accounts it believed belonged to people younger than 16.

Ongoing windy conditions and lack of rain will complicate efforts for fire crews tackling nearly a dozen bushfires.

More than 410,000 hectares have burned across Victoria after strong winds and high temperatures last week sparked widespread blazes, destroying almost 900 structures, including 259 homes.

Some relief is on its way, with widespread rainfall forecast for the coming days alongside less-extreme fire conditions and easing winds.

But crucially, the key firegrounds of Walwa and Longwood in the state’s northeast are expected to receive up to only 10mm of rain.

Meteorologist Angus Hines said it was more likely the regions would experience just single-digit rainfall totals.

“In fact, gusty winds could cause those fires to flare up once again,” he said.

The Longwood fire has burned about 137,000 hectares, while the Walwa fire has burned 100,000 ha.

Alistair Drayton from the State Emergency Service said the easing conditions would help firefighters access the firegrounds.

“There’s no guarantee that these rains will put the fires out (but) the conditions will allow firefighters to build containers around the fires,” he told AAP.

While rainfall will be welcomed by authorities fighting fires, State Control Centre spokesman David Nugent cautioned it also posed a hazard due to the increased possibility of trees falling from strong wind and storm activity.

Conversely, other parts of the state are only just beginning to recover after “off the charts” rainfall swelled a river to unexpectedly burst its banks, sweeping dozens of cars out to sea and forcing hundreds to seek shelter.

Mr Drayton described the conflicting conditions as “extraordinary,” telling AAP: “I’ve come from a fire to a flood zone in one day.” 

A record-breaking 180mm fell across the Wye, Kennett and Cumberland rivers in the Lorne area of Victoria’s southwest coast on Thursday afternoon.

Dramatic video showed cars taken by raging currents at the popular tourist spot.

Wye River Country Fire Authority captain Andrew Hack told ABC Radio there was “very little warning” things would escalate after the region experienced only moderate rain in the morning. 

Rescue crews were deployed to assist people trapped in floodwaters, including a man stranded on a roof at Cumberland River who was winched to safety by police. 

As of early Thursday evening, some people remain trapped in their caravans.

Communities remain on high alert as more rain is expected in coming days.

The wild weather has stretched emergency services thin, prompting volunteer firefighters to demand an inquiry into bushfire preparedness. 

The government has agreed to request a formal review, though maintains its focus is on recovery and support, with high-risk fire danger still days ahead.

“Once the risk is reduced, we will request a formal review into this bushfire season led by the Inspector General for Emergency Management, not politicians,” a Victorian government spokesperson said on Thursday.

The Victorian and federal governments have also announced $82 million in funding to restore and repair state roads and public transport infrastructure damaged by fires.

Britain’s economy grew more strongly than expected in November, boosted ‍by the return to normal production at Jaguar Land Rover after ​a cyberattack that hit the car maker and its suppliers.

Gross domestic ⁠product expanded by 0.3 per cent on the month after an unrevised drop of 0.1 per cent in October, official data showed on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast that GDP would expand by 0.1 per cent ‌on a month-on-month ​basis.

Just under half of November’s growth was accounted ‍for by a 1.1 per cent rise in industrial output, which in turn was driven by a 25 per cent rise in car production after JLR’s plants reopened – the biggest monthly increase in car production ​since July 2020.

Output in Britain’s ‌dominant services sector also grew by more than expected in November, rising by ​0.3 per cent from October when it fell by 0.3 per cent.

Previous surveys of ‍Britain’s economy had shown some signs of stumbling before finance minister Rachel Reeves’ annual budget statement on ​November ​26 as speculation about ​possible tax increases weighed on the ​economy.

The Bank of England expects Britain’s economy to have shown zero growth in the October-to-December period of 2025, although it thinks underlying growth is running about 0.2 per cent a quarter.

In the three months to November, the economy grew by 0.1 per cent, the ‍Office for National Statistics said.

A Palestinian-Australian author controversially removed from a major literary festival has accepted an apology from its new board and will consider returning next year.

Randa Abdel-Fattah was last week dumped from Adelaide Writers’ Week in a decision that triggered a mass boycott by 180 speakers and the resignation of its renowned director and several board members.

The writers’ week had been due to start in February but was cancelled after its program collapsed, with a new board and chair installed.

The board on Thursday issued an apology to Dr Abdel-Fattah.

The former board had cited “cultural sensitivity” over the Bondi terror attack and made reference to past statements made by the author – a vocal critic of Israel – when it cancelled her appearance.

“We retract that statement. We have reversed the decision and will reinstate Dr Abdel-Fattah’s invitation to speak at the next Adelaide Writers’ Week in 2027,” said the new board led by former festival chair Judy Potter.

“We apologise to Dr Abdel-Fattah unreservedly for the harm the Adelaide Festival Corporation has caused her.

“Intellectual and artistic freedom is a powerful human right. Our goal is to uphold it, and in this instance Adelaide Festival Corporation fell well short.”

The board also apologised to Louise Adler, who quit as the event’s director on Tuesday saying she “cannot be party to silencing writers”.

“We acknowledge the principled stand she took in the extremely difficult decision to resign from her role as director,” the board said of Ms Adler in a separate statement.

The board has rescinded its decision to establish a subcommittee to review writers’ week operational decisions, saying it “commits to the curatorial independence of the Director of Adelaide Writers Week”.

Dr Abdel-Fattah told AAP she would consider accepting the invitation to next year’s festival and would attend in a “heartbeat” if Ms Adler was at the helm again.

“I accept this apology as acknowledgement of our right to speak publicly and truthfully about the atrocities that have been committed against the Palestinian people,” she said in a statement to AAP.

“I accept this apology as a vindication of our collective solidarity and mobilisation against anti-Palestinian racism, bullying and censorship.”

The academic and novelist had faced scrutiny over her social media posts, including one in which she declared Zionists “have no claim or right to cultural safety”.

Her axing was supported by South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, who maintains his position on the matter despite criticism of political interference.

“I have a responsibility to call out those who expressly commit themselves to deny other people a voice as (Dr) Abdel-Fattah has done,” he told ABC’s 7.30 program on Wednesday.

Dr Abdel-Fattah has accused him of unleashing a “vicious personal assault” at a press conference that suggested she was an extremist terrorist sympathiser.

She has flagged defamation proceedings against Mr Malinauskas over the comments.

Readers and Writers Against Genocide has started a legal fund for Dr Abdel-Fattah on online social justice fundraising platform Chuffed, which has raised more than $40,000 towards a $100,000 target.

Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, British novelist Zadie Smith and popular Australian author Trent Dalton were among those who pulled out of Writers’ Week in solidarity with the academic.

On Thursday, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Mr Malinauskas must apologise to Dr Abdel-Fattah, Ms Adler and the people of South Australia.

“It’s now time to admit his mistake and help reassure the state’s artist community that in the future he will have their backs.

“This whole incident has done enormous damage to our state and artistic freedom more broadly. Indeed, Australia’s international arts reputation has been hurt.”

Oil prices retreated from multi-month highs on Thursday and safe-haven ‍gold eased back from a record peak after US President Donald Trump calmed market anxiety about potential US military action against Iran.

A selloff in tech stocks ​extended into Asian trading, after further declines on Wall Street as investors rotated out of high-flying chip- and artificial intelligence-related names, looking for bargains in other ⁠parts of the market.

Currencies paused for breath after the yen dropped to its weakest since July 2024 against the US dollar overnight and then bounced back sharply amid warnings of possible intervention by Japanese authorities.

Japanese bond yields eased back from record peaks following a spike driven by speculation – which was later confirmed – that the government will call snap elections, a scenario expected to lead to bigger fiscal stimulus.

Brent crude futures dropped 2.4 per cent to $US64.94 ($A97.19), and Nymex futures ‌also sank 2.4 per cent ​to $US60.51 ($A90.56), from as high as $US66.82 ($A100.00) and $US62.36 ($A93.33), respectively, in the previous session.

Trump on Wednesday said he had ‍been told that killings in Iran’s crackdown on nationwide protests were subsiding and he believed there was currently no plan for large-scale executions.

Gold fell 0.5 per cent to around $US4,598 ($A6,881) per ounce. On Wednesday, it reached an unprecedented $US4,642.72 ($A6,948.10).

Stocks in Asia were mixed, but tech shares encountered more selling.

In Japan, the tech-heavy Nikkei eased 0.9 per cent after hitting an all-time peak in the previous session, but the broader Topix extended its own record high on Thursday with a 0.4 per cent advance.

Taiwan’s TAIEX sank 0.5 per cent, ​and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.4 per cent, with tech shares weighing.

Mainland Chinese blue ‌chips were flat, while South Korea’s KOSPI added 0.3 per cent to a fresh record high. The Bank of Korea left interest rates unchanged on Thursday, as economists had predicted, and signalled ​an end to its current easing cycle.

S&P 500 E-mini futures were off 0.1 per cent, after the cash index sank 0.5 per cent overnight. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite ‍dropped 1.0 per cent.

“There’s a rotation playing out on Wall Street that’s ultimately weighing on indices but indicates that the internals of the market are holding up reasonably well,” said Kyle Rodda, an analyst at Capital.com.

“The strength in cyclicals, in no small part due to the positive ​outlook ​for the US economy, is propping up stocks and providing ​constructive signals to market participants of broadening market strength.”

The US dollar was ​steady against its major peers on Thursday, with the dollar index flat at 99.107.

It eased slightly to 158.32 yen after surging as high as 159.45 yen on Wednesday before pulling back sharply.

Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama issued another verbal warning on Wednesday, saying officials would take “appropriate action against excessive FX moves without excluding any options.”

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi plans to dissolve parliament’s lower house next week and call a snap parliamentary election as early as February 8.

Expectations of bigger fiscal stimulus on an improved mandate have spurred investors to sell the yen and government bonds, sending longer-dated yields to record highs in recent days.

Japan’s ‍20-year yield eased two basis points on Thursday to 3.14 per cent, after vaulting to an unprecedented 3.165 per cent ​in the prior session.

Parts of Australia’s longest river have been listed as critically endangered.

The federal government has listed the Lower River Murray under national environmental law following a recommendation from the Threatened Species Scientific Committee.

The environmental listing will cover the region downstream from where the Murray meets the Darling River in NSW, and will include waterways, floodplains, wetlands and vegetation.

Environment Minister Murray Watt said the listing would allow for a coordinated response from all levels to government to protect the area.

“Despite the efforts of governments and communities, the Lower Murray remains under great stress and that we need to do more to protect it and restore it,” Senator Watt told reporters in South Australia on Thursday.

“A healthy Murray River is crucial for our environment, for agriculture, tourism, and communities – both here in South Australia and right across the nation.”

The committee’s recommendation for the endangered listing said the area had faced pressures from changes in water flow, invasive species and the loss of native vegetation.

Senator Watt said the listing would not affect farmers from carrying out regular tasks on properties in the region.

Major developments proposed for the Lower Murray would require a greater assessment for their impact on the environment.

“Impacts from upstream river management decisions taken last century, along with the devastating impacts of natural events like the millennium drought, have placed enormous pressure on ecological communities in this section of the southern basin,” Senator Watt said.

The region was listed as endangered under the Rudd government in 2013, but that was later repealed under prime minister Tony Abbott.

The Murray-Darling Conservation Alliance welcomed the decision to list the region as endangered.

“This listing is long overdue, and it is enormously significant with the public phase of the 10-year review into the basin plan about to kick off,” the alliance’s co-national director Craig Wilkins said.

“It recognises the River Murray is not just a water supply or economic resource, but a living ecosystem whose health underpins public health, regional livelihoods, cultural connection and community wellbeing.”

The federal government also unveiled a $20 million grants programs for communities in South Australia along the Murray.