Adelaide University cancels literary festival event with UN Gaza investigator Francesca Albanese

Festival organisers criticise the university for last-minute booking cancellation of event headlined by special rapporteur for Palestinian territories

Another free speech row at a literary festival has erupted, with Adelaide University abruptly cancelling a high-profile event featuring UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese.

The move has prompted the festival’s organisers and speakers to accuse the 152 year-old institution of “crumbling in fear”.

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Cold front to dump ‘decent dose’ of rain on drought-affected parts of south-east Australia

Parched areas of South Australia, northern Victoria and south-western NSW to receive relief later this week

Drought-affected areas in south-eastern Australia can expect a “decent dose” of rain when a cold front arrives later this week, with some places likely to see the best rain of the year so far.

With one low-pressure system already delivering windy and wet conditions to the south-east on Tuesday, a second front – currently sitting off Western Australia – was expected to sweep across the country from Wednesday to Sunday, bringing a welcome band of rain to parched areas of South Australia, northern Victoria and south-western New South Wales.

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Albanese will need to resolve the standoff with Turkey if Australia is to host Cop31

Hosting the climate summit is a major political and logistical exercise. The prime minister is being urged to turbocharge the diplomatic effort

The Australian government’s bid to host a major global climate conference in Adelaide next year wasn’t supposed to go like this.

A two-week meeting of diplomats at the UN climate headquarters in Bonn, Germany, failed to resolve what has become a long-running issue: whether the summit known as Cop31 would be held in Australia or Turkey, the only other nation vying for the rights.

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Deadly algal bloom in South Australia’s Coorong an environmental ‘eye opener’, ecologist says

Among the dead in the internationally significant wetland are estuarine snails, shore crabs, baby flounder and ‘a thick stew of polychaete worms’

When South Australia’s algal bloom arrived in the Coorong, it stained the water like strong tea before turning it into a slurry of dead worms.

Many had hoped the storm in late May would break up the bloom of Karenia mikimotoi algae, which has killed more than 200 different marine species. Instead, high tides swept the algae into the Coorong, an internationally significant Ramsar wetland at the mouth of the Murray River.

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Tesla wins council approval for new factory in South Australia despite vocal anti-Musk sentiment

Marion council votes to seek state government approval for battery factory in Adelaide despite hundreds of submissions opposing it

Elon Musk’s Tesla is one step closer to opening a factory in an Adelaide suburb despite overwhelming community opposition from “anti-Tesla and anti-Elon Musk sentiment”.

On Tuesday night the City of Marion council voted to seek state government approval to sell the site to a developer who will build the factory.

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Adelaide’s first skyscraper criticised as ‘profound mistake’ and ‘hugely questionable’ by opponents

Critics say ‘phallic’ 38-storey commercial tower next to state parliament is ‘the wrong building in the wrong place’

Adelaide’s first skyscraper will be a “phallic” construction overshadowing the birthplace of women’s suffrage, critics say.

The Walker Corporation has begun work on a 38-storey commercial building next to Parliament House on North Terrace, which is known as the city’s cultural boulevard.

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Adelaide becomes fifth Australian capital where median house value exceeds $1m

Across Australia, home prices grew at slowest rate in two years and unit prices fell in March, Domain says

Million-dollar houses are now more common than homes costing less than seven figures in five of Australia’s capital cities.

Adelaide’s median house value passed $1m in March, even as unaffordable costs and high interest rates saw home prices grow at their slowest rate in two years and unit prices fall.

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Wong calls ‘reprehensible’ letter targeting Hong Kong activist in Australia a ‘threat to national sovereignty’

Ted Hui received letter offering reward for information about his family after China accused Australia of interfering with its internal affairs

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has described another threatening letter sent to an exiled Hong Kong dissident in Australia as “reprehensible”, a “threat to our national sovereignty” and “the safety and security of Australians”.

The anonymous letter, mailed from Hong Kong and sent to Ted Hui’s Adelaide office, offered his colleagues $203,000 for information on his whereabouts and his family. It arrived just days after China’s foreign ministry accused the Albanese government of interfering with its internal affairs.

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‘Disgusting’ antisemitic tactics used to threaten exiled Hong Kong man in Adelaide, Jewish group says

Exclusive: Ted Hui and Melbourne resident Kevin Yam are both subjects of anonymous letters and pamphlets mailed from Chinese-controlled territories

A prominent Jewish group has condemned a “disgusting” attempt to intimidate an exiled pro-democracy campaigner who fled to Adelaide from Hong Kong, with the federal opposition accusing a foreign actor of weaponising antisemitism.

Human Rights Watch said a separate attempt that encouraged people to inform on another dissident, Kevin Yam in Melbourne, was designed to make critics of the Hong Kong government feel “unsafe and hunted, no matter where they are in the world”.

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New evidence expected in dig for missing Beaumont children

Decades-long search to find any trace of three young children, who disappeared from an Adelaide beach in 1966, restarts

Fresh evidence is expected to be made public when a decades-long search to find any trace of three young children who disappeared restarts.

Jane, Arnna and Grant Beaumont vanished without a trace during an outing to an Adelaide beach on Australia Day in 1966, triggering multiple searches, some based on as little as a psychic’s vision.

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‘Intensely hot’ weather continues in south-eastern states as Victoria battles bushfires

Heatwave not expected to end until Tuesday or Wednesday as fires burn in multiple national parks

South-eastern states sweltering in a heatwave may be waiting until late Tuesday or Wednesday for a cool change to bring some relief.

On Monday, temperatures in Melbourne peaked at 37.8C just before 4pm, after a high of 38C on Sunday.

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New Year’s Eve fireworks 2024: the best places to watch NYE celebrations around Australia

Night skies will light up on New Year’s Eve to welcome in 2025. Here’s your guide to child-friendly shows plus what time and where to see the fireworks in Sydney, Melbourne and across the country

Night skies across Australia will light up on New Year’s Eve to herald the beginning of 2025.

Whether you are in a capital city or regional town, there are fireworks displays scheduled early in the night – for children, and those wishing to hit the hay early – and at midnight, for people counting down to the new year.

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Man charged with murder after stabbing death in Adelaide

Lewis Parkin, 23, was found with life-threatening injuries and taken to hospital after an incident at a unit complex in the CBD

A man who allegedly stabbed another man to death in central Adelaide has been charged with murder.

Police say they responded to reports a 23-year-old man had been stabbed at an accommodation complex on Hindley Street in the Adelaide CBD just before 8pm on Friday.

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Tears and triumph as George the cat reunited with owner years after going missing

The cat had lived through thunderstorms, hail and icy cold in Adelaide but it only took him a moment to warm back up to his relieved owner

“Good news, George is alive.”

Adelaide woman Jessica van Niekerk was teaching her class of bright-eyed Year 2 students when she received an unexpected text message from her mother.

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China’s panda promise to Adelaide put in black and white as human rights protesters bear witness

Wang Wang and Fu Ni have lived at the city’s zoo for 15 years but are due to head home by the end of 2024

Li Qiang has announced a panda swap for Adelaide zoo, a diplomatic move long anticipated but timed to coincide with the first visit of a Chinese premier to Australia since 2017.

Making the announcement at the zoo, Li said two new giant pandas would replace Wang Wang and Fu Ni, who have lived at the zoo for 15 years as the only specimens of their kind in the southern hemisphere.

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Australia news live: Minns ‘really sorry’ final Vivid drone show cancelled with 20 minutes notice; Malinauskas welcomes ‘exciting’ panda news

The current pair, Wang Wang and Fu Ni, will return to China this year. Follow the day’s news headlines

Labor ‘continuing to consult’ on Makarrata commission, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese says he will attend Arnhem Land’s Garma festival in August to “talk about a way forward” on Indigenous policy after the defeat of the voice referendum, keeping open the prospect of setting up a Makarrata commission to advance truth and treaty processes.

Treaty process is undergoing at the various states and that’s appropriate. With regard to Makarrata, we’re continuing to consult on those issues. said.

Indigenous leaders, of course, were very disappointed by the referendum result. I’ll attend Garma once again this year and sit down with people and talk about a way forward.

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‘Twists and turns’ in Australia-China ties are over, Li Qiang says – but Penny Wong highlights tensions

Coalition blunders have left countries locked in ‘permanent contest’ over Pacific, minister says

China’s second-most powerful leader has announced that the “twists and turns” in Australia-China relations are over – and invited Australian officials to pick a new pair of pandas for Adelaide’s zoo.

But Penny Wong chose to highlight the tensions that remain in the relationship before a series of talks with Premier Li Qiang, who arrived in Australia on Saturday evening and was met by protesters outside the zoo on Sunday.

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Fine weather forecast for most of Australia’s capitals across the Easter long weekend

A weather system moving in from the south-west will bring rain across southern regions from Monday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology

The long weekend has brought fine weather to Australia’s capitals – but most cities will see a soggy return to work on Tuesday.

Despite a foggy start to Saturday morning in Melbourne and rain across Brisbane and Darwin, sunshine is forecast for Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide with similar conditions to continue through Saturday and Sunday.

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Penny Wong wedding: Australian foreign minister weds long-time partner Sophie Allouache

Couple married in Adelaide after nearly two decades together, with prime minister Anthony Albanese in attendance

Australia’s foreign affairs minister Penny Wong and Sophie Allouache have tied the knot after nearly two decades together.

The couple were married in Adelaide on Saturday in a ceremony attended by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and senior ministers.

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Weather tracker: Much of southern Australia on heatwave alert

Adelaide region expected to be worst affected with average temperatures forecast to be up by 10C

Southern parts of Australia are expected to suffer a short heatwave starting on Friday and lasting until next Tuesday. The Adelaide region will be worst affected, with highs of about 36C anticipated in the city on Friday, which is 10C above the seasonal norm.

Daytime maximums are then set to remain above 35C until Tuesday, while minimum temperatures are not forecast to drop below 25C. This will be the longest March run of high temperatures in Adelaide in four years, with only one March day above 35C being recorded over this period.

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