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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Paul Gallagher

Morning Mail: Gina Rinehart’s culture of praise, Zelenskyy invites Putin to peace talks, drought hurts farmers

Gina Rinehart in composite illustration
Gina Rinehart gives out lucrative bonuses at Christmas to Hancock Prospecting staff as part of what is known as ‘the chairman’s profit scheme’. Composite: Victoria Hart/Getty Images/The Guardian

Morning everyone. We lead today with revelations from former staff at Hancock Prospecting about the mining company’s “bizarre” internal culture, including yearly corporate requests for workers to heap praise on owner Gina Rinehart.

We take a look at the devastating drought that is hitting farmers in South Australia and Victoria, with no sign of rain on the radar.

Overseas, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has challenged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to meet with him for direct peace talks – as Pope Leo used his first Sunday address to call for an end to hostilities.

Australia

World

Full Story

Gina episode 7: Mythmaking

Gina Rinehart’s father, Lang Hancock, is well known as a pioneer of the iron ore industry in Australia but few realise he started his mining career on a smaller scale and digging for a different substance – blue asbestos.

Hancock and his partner started the mining operation at Wittenoom in the 1940s before selling it to another company, CSR, which mined the area for 20 more years. Wittenoom has become synonymous with an immense tragedy that unfolded upon thousands of the people who lived and worked there due to exposure to asbestos fibres. In this episode of Gina, we interrogate some of the stories her family chooses to celebrate – and others they don’t.

In-depth

Our feature essay looks at freedom of choice in Trump’s America. Over the first four months of his administration, Trump has been eagerly promoting the expansion of choice in Americans’ economic lives. That’s especially the case when it comes to their role as consumers. In their political lives, though, it’s a different story: the president and his administration have been busy instituting new restrictions on both the possibilities on offer and the picking itself.

Not the news

Julian Kingma travelled Australia photographing the lives and deaths of people who accessed assisted dying, and those who care for them. To mark the release of his new book, The Power of Choice, he talks with Andrew Stafford about how a year of chronicling end-of-life stories made him think differently about death.

Sport

Media roundup

A new report has found that Victoria needs 80,000 new homes in the next decade to start fixing its social housing crisis, ABC News reports. Expectant mothers in NT have been left in limbo and are living with “real fear” amid private maternity ward closures, NT News reports. Fans of Australian acting legend Barry Humphries will have their chance to secure his art for themselves in an auction of pieces from his Sydney home, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

What’s happening today

  • Politics | Prime minister Anthony Albanese is expected to announce the Labor government’s new cabinet lineup, and the Nationals will vote on their leadership.

  • NSW | A hearing is scheduled in Sydney as a uranium miner challenges a government decision not to renew Jabiluka minerals lease.

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If you would like to receive this Morning Mail update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here, or finish your day with our Afternoon Update newsletter. You can follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland.

Brain teaser

And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.

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