☕️ The latest on Victoria's fires

The first event of the major Hollywood awards calendar, the Golden Globes, is here - and there are four Australian actors to keep an eye on when it all kicks off from 12pm AEDT.

Jacob Elordi is up for two trophies for Frankenstein and The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Sarah Snook has been nominated for All Her Fault, Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and Joel Edgerton for Train Dreams.

That’s all very exciting - but I’m most excited for some zingers from comedian Nikki Glaser, who is hosting the ceremony. Bring it on.

“Winning and losing doesn’t know any age. Once you walk on court, you’re there to compete. It’s a beautiful sport. I love what I do, and it’s a blessing and an honour to still be playing.”
Tennis legend Venus Williams, speaking to media in Hobart yesterday ahead of the Hobart International, one of the lead-in tournaments to the Australian Open Grand Slam. The 45-year-old American is set to become the oldest woman ever to feature in the main singles draw at the Australian Open, which starts next Sunday.

1.42
The expected total fertility rate (number of children to be born per woman) in 2025-26, according to the 2025 Australian Population Statement. The replacement level (the point where a population can sustain itself without decline) is 2.1.

2010
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, killing about 220,000 people and injuring 300,000. According to the UN, about 1.5 million people became homeless after the 35-second quake.

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At least one person has been killed in Victoria's bushfires, as more than 30 blazes continue to tear through the state.

More than 350,000 hectares have burned, and over 300 properties have been destroyed across Victoria. A state of emergency has been declared for 18 local government areas.

Forest Fire Management Victoria's Chief Fire Officer, Chris Hardman, said it's expected to take weeks to get the blazes under control, with hot and dry weather forecast to return.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan announced a $19.5 million disaster recovery package on Sunday.

From Wednesday, residents in affected areas, including Barkers Creek, Harcourt, Longwood, and Ravenswood South, will be eligible for a one-off payment of $1,000 per adult and $400 per child.

"My message to Victorians is pretty simple: we've got your back," Albanese said in Bendigo. "Not just during this crisis, but through the recovery as well."

Premier Allan warned: "We are not through the worst of this, by a long way."

Palestinian-Australian author and advocate Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah has been removed from the Adelaide Festival Writers’ Week event.

Abdel-Fattah was slated to speak at next month’s event. However, the festival board said her previous comments mean it would “not be culturally sensitive” to include her in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.

The writer said the decision is a “blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism”.

Abdel-Fattah has been a vocal critic of Israel and has been accused of antisemitism.

Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah is a Palestinian-Australian lawyer, author, and advocate. She has published 12 books and is a researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney, specialising in areas including Islamophobia and Palestine.

At the end of 2024, she wrote on social media: “May 2025 be the end of Israel”. She also wrote, “if you are a Zionist, you have no claim or right to cultural safety”.

Macquarie University vice-chancellor Bruce Dowton told a 2025 parliamentary hearing into antisemitism at universities that some of Abdel-Fattah's comments could be “construed as antisemitic”, but the definition wasn't clear enough for disciplinary action.

He noted her salary comes from an Australian Research Council (ARC) grant and that she doesn't regularly teach or interact with students. Following that, ARC conducted a 10-month review and temporarily suspended her research grant. She was cleared of wrongdoing last month.

The Adelaide Festival is an annual arts event that has been running since 1960. Adelaide Writers’ Week is part of the event, which runs from 28 February to 5 March.

This week, festival organisers announced the removal of Palestinian-Australian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the 2026 program.

In a statement, the festival board said: “Given [Abdel-Fattah’s] past statements, we have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program... so soon after Bondi,” (referring to the 14 December terror attack). The board said it does “not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah’s or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi.”

Abdel-Fattah called her removal from the festival “a despicable attempt to associate [her] with the Bondi massacre.” She said: “The Board’s reasoning suggests that my mere presence is ‘culturally insensitive’.”

“I remain confident the writing community... will ultimately respond with principle and integrity, as they did when I was singled out in the same racist way during the Bendigo Writers Festival,” Abdel-Fattah added.

Readers and Writers Against Genocide (RWAG) confirmed more than 45 authors have withdrawn from the Adelaide Writers’ Week due to the removal of Abdel-Fattah. Among them are English writer Zadie Smith, Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis, and Miles Franklin Award winner Michelle de Kretser.

The festival has “temporarily unpublished” the list of panellists and events on its website.

Over the weekend, it was reported that the festival’s Chair and several board members had resigned. There has been no formal statement from the board published publicly.

When asked about the matter, SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said that while he is “prevented” from directing the board, he “was happy to make it clear that the state government did not support the inclusion of Dr Abdel-Fattah on the Adelaide writers’ week program.”

Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

We asked, you answered:

In an Instagram poll we ran with TDA, we asked what’s putting the most pressure on your finances right now. Everyday costs dominated the replies. Rent topped the list, with mortgages, groceries and bills all close behind.

In other words, it’s not the extras you’re calling out - it’s keeping up with the essentials.

Read the full poll and analysis at CommBank Newsroom and stick around as we roll out explainers with TDA on the topics you’ve told us you want to know more about.

Croft is best known for playing Rachel Roth, also known as Raven, on the HBO Max series Titans, which ran from 2018 to 2023. Before that, she was on Home and Away. In Tangled, Croft will be appearing alongside Milo Manheim, who will be playing the role of Flynn Rider. The movie's release date is not yet known.

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We’re all preparing for a few weeks of being distracted by the on-court action at the Australian Open while we’re meant to be studying or working. If we’re particularly inspired, we may duck out at lunchtime for a hit at our local court.

But let this story be a warning to us all - in the midst of a city-wide blackout caused by an arson attack, Berlin mayor Kai Wegner played a quick match.

According to German outlet RBB24, Wegner had initially claimed that he was locked in his home office “trying to coordinate” a response to the outage, which saw thousands of workers and emergency personnel manage the longest power outage in the city since WWII.

However, sustained media reports that he was in fact playing tennis at midday were soon confirmed by Wegner, who said he took to the court “because he simply wanted to clear [his] head.” 

He is currently facing calls to resign.

Reporting by Anju Dhanushkodi.

Tensions around U.S. immigration enforcement have escalated after a woman was shot and killed by a federal agent during a raid in the state of Minnesota. The shooting has sparked widespread protests and divided state and federal leaders. As protests intensify, today we'll explore what we know about the shooting that prompted the demonstrations, the government response, and the growing controversy around U.S. immigration enforcement operations.