canceled

Jan. 13 (UPI) — Adelaide Writers’ Week, a premier literary event in Australia, was canceled after most of the writers dropped out in protest of the festival’s decision to disinvite a Palestinian-Australian author.

Last week, the Adelaide Festival board announced that Randa Abdel-Fattah, a critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, was disinvited “given her past statements.”

“Whilst we do not suggest in any way that Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah’s or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, given her past statements we have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi,” the Jan. 8 statement said.

On Dec. 14, two men shot and killed 15 people at Bondi Beach in Sydney during a Hanukkah celebration. One of the shooters was killed on the scene. The surviving shooter was arrested and charged. Since then, Australia has been cracking down on anti-Semitism and hate speech.

Following Abdel-Fattah’s ousting, 180 writers and four board members quit the festival, which was scheduled for Feb. 27-March 15. Writers’ Week is part of the broader Adelaide Festival. The three remaining board members, the chair and Writers’ Week director Louise Adler resigned. Adler announced her resignation in Guardian Australia. “I cannot be party to silencing writers,” The Guardian reported she wrote.

Some prominent writers who dropped out were American Pulitzer-prize winning author Percival Everett, British novelist Zadie Smith, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australian authors Helen Garner and Trent Dalton.

The Jewish Council of Australia also condemned the cancellation of Abdel-Fattah’s appearance. In a message on Instagram on Jan. 9, it said the council condemned the decision “and the board’s cynical and deplorable reference to the Dec. 14 Bondi massacre. The fact that yet another institution has caved to a relentless campaign waged against Dr. Abdel-Fatah and supporters of Palestinians should be deeply concerning to all who value a plural and open society.”

After growing backlash, the board released a statement apologizing for the distress the decision caused.

“As a Board we took this action out of respect for a community experiencing the pain from a devastating event. Instead, this decision has created more division, and for that we express our sincere apologies,” it said.

“We recognize and deeply regret the distress this decision has caused to our audience, artists and writers, donors, corporate partners, the government and our own staff and people. We also apologize to Dr. Randa Abdel-Fattah for how the decision was represented and reiterate this is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history.

“We acknowledge and are committed to rebuilding trust with our artistic community and audience to enable open and respectful discussions at future Adelaide Writers’ Week events.”

Abdel-Fattah, a fellow in the sociology department at Sydney’s Macquarie University with expertise in Islamophobia, said on X that she rejects the apology.

“It is clear that the board’s regret extends to how the message of my cancellation was conveyed, not the decision itself,” she wrote.

“Once again the board, citing the ‘national discourse’ for an action that specifically targets me, a Palestinian Australian Muslim woman, is explicitly articulating that I cannot be part of the national discourse, which is insulting and racist in the extreme.

“The board again reiterates the link to a terror attack I had nothing to do with, nor did any Palestinian. The Bondi shooting does not mean I or anyone else has to stop advocating for an end to the illegal occupation and systematic extermination of my people — this is an obscene and absurd demand.”

Adler said the cancellation of the event was inevitable.

“It was untenable,” she said. “There were 165 sessions and as of yesterday at about 4 p.m., only 12 events had a full complement of writers left. Seventy percent of all the writers had withdrawn. You can’t stitch that back together. All those Australian writers, the internationals, people like Zadie Smith, M. Gessen, Jonathan Coe — all of that hard work, gone.

“I am so sorry that this masterclass in poor governance has landed us in this position,” she added.

Dec. 29 (UPI) — A winter storm is hitting the Midwest with strong winds, snow, ice and canceled flights expected.

A winter rainstorm is happening in the northeast and the south. In Massachusetts and Maine, that rain could turn to freezing rain.

As of 3 p.m. EST Monday, about 1,231 flights had been canceled in the United States, and more than 23,393 others were delayed, according to FlightAware.

Delta Air Lines showed the highest number of affected flights, with 3% (128 flights) canceled, and 15% (507) flights delayed.

Buffalo Niagara International Airport had the highest number of outbound flights canceled at 48% (47 flights). The Buffalo, N.Y., area could see 1 to 3 feet of snow this week, and wind gusts up to 65 mph could create whiteout conditions.

Storms capable of creating blizzard conditions with near-hurricane-force winds in the Great Lakes will hit Monday night and bring cold temperatures to the Midwest and Northeast, Accuweather reported. The storms will also bring colder temps to the southern states.

In Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, wind gusts of up to 45 mph are predicted, ABC News reported.

Gusts up to 65 mph are possible in Ohio, Michigan and parts of Pennsylvania.

There will also be lake-effect snow and clipper storms, which could make travel dangerous in the Midwest and Northeast.

Parts of Iowa, Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan are under a blizzard warning, and the areas are facing whiteout conditions. Minneapolis had a winter weather advisory Monday morning due to blowing snow.

East Champion, Mich., in the upper peninsula, has seen 24 inches of snow in the past 24 hours, the National Weather Service reported.

In the Northeast, the main danger Monday morning was ice. There is an ice storm warning in effect in New York and Vermont, where forecasters expect 0.4 to 0.7 inches of ice. That amount can bring down trees and powerlines, as well as make roads extremely dangerous. Rain, including possible freezing rain, will be affecting Boston and Maine on Monday afternoon.

Lake-effect snow is expected to continue around the Great Lakes throughout the week.

NEW YORK — A planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the Kennedy Center, a holiday tradition dating back more than 20 years, has been canceled. The show’s host, musician Chuck Redd, says that he called off the performance in the wake of the White House announcing last week that President Trump’s name would be added to the facility.

As of Friday, the building’s facade reads The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. According to the White House, the president’s handpicked board approved the decision, which scholars have said violates the law. Trump had been suggesting for months he was open to changing the center’s name.

“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd told the Associated Press in an email Wednesday. Redd, a drummer and vibraphone player who has toured with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Brown, has been presiding over holiday “Jazz Jams” at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William “Keter” Betts.

The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to email seeking comment. The center’s website lists the show as canceled.

President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Congress passed a law the following year naming the center as a living memorial to him. Kennedy niece Kerry Kennedy has vowed to remove Trump’s name from the building once he leaves office and former House historian Ray Smock is among those who say any changes would have to be approved by Congress.

The law explicitly prohibits the board of trustees from making the center into a memorial to anyone else, and from putting another person’s name on the building’s exterior.

Trump, a Republican, has been deeply involved with the center named for an iconic Democrat after mostly ignoring it during his first term. He has forced out its leadership, overhauled the board while arranging for himself to head it and hosted this year’s Kennedy Center honors, breaking a long tradition of presidents mostly serving as spectators. The changes at the Kennedy Center are part of the president’s larger mission to fight “woke” culture at federal cultural institutions.

Numerous artists have called off Kennedy Center performances since Trump returned to office, including Issa Rae and Peter Wolf. Lin-Manuel Miranda canceled a planned production of “Hamilton.”

Italie writes for the Associated Press.