Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 5 September.

Top stories

The family of the Australian film-maker James Ricketson have expressed grave concerns about his health, with almost 100,000 people signing a petition calling for his release from a Cambodian prison. Ricketson has been sentenced to six years in jail for espionage, despite a trial in which no evidence was presented against the 69-year-old.

Ricketson’s daughter, Roxanne Holmes, has pleaded with the federal government to take action: “Unless the Australian government responds quickly, my innocent dad could die in jail,” she said. “I’m petrified – every day matters now as he gets sicker.” The formerly jailed journalist Peter Greste has also expressed the concern that the government “clearly needed to do more” in an interview with the ABC.

A controversial $443.8m grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation could be returned, with Labor informing the organisation it will force a return of the funding if elected. A clause in the grant agreement mandates a return of unspent funds if there is “a material change in Australian government policy”. The opposition environment spokesman, Tony Burke, outlined his concerns in a letter to the foundation’s chair, writing that it would be “grossly inappropriate for the foundation to be making spending decisions … given the appropriateness of this grant will be determined by the Australian people at the election”. Labor has also called for a “covenant” with defence personnel to ensure veterans are better looked after, and will announce the policy on Wednesday in Townsville.

An attempt by the ABC boss, Michelle Guthrie, to improve morale at the corporation with cheesy thank you cards to workers has been ridiculed by angry staff. If one of Aunty’s 5,000-odd staff has been an “awesome” employee they may receive one of a range of bespoke cards: a People Focused Larry card, an Open & Transparent Larry card, a Straight Talking Larry card or an Accountable Larry card. While Guthrie said it was an opportunity to thank people for their outstanding work, unions said the Utopia-style idea was “appalling judgment” at a time when staff were dealing with budget cuts.

The veteran Watergate reporter Bob Woodward has released a new insider account of the Trump White House, with the 448-page volume presenting a less than flattering insight. The defence secretary, Jim Mattis, is reported as expressing concern after a high-stakes meeting about the North Korean missile threat that the president had the understanding of a 10-year-old schoolchild, and an exasperated chief of staff, John Kelly, is alleged to have called Trump an “idiot” and considered his role “the worst job I’ve ever had”.

Amazon has become the second $1tn company a matter of weeks after Apple, with shares floated at $18 each in 1997 hitting $2,050 on Tuesday. It makes Jeff Bezos the world’s richest man, with a personal net worth of more than $167bn, but the founder and his company still face fierce criticism over worker’s rights and tax mitigation strategies. More than half of the share price rise has occurred in the past year, with the online bookseller moving into grocery stores and cloud-based services including Airbnb and Netflix.

Sport

The defending US Open champion Sloane Stephens has crashed outin a 2-6, 3-6 loss to Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova, who showed great tenacity amid searing temperatures. John Millman, the Queenslander who defeated Roger Federer yesterday, goes again tomorrow in a quarter-final against Novak Djokovic. Follow our live blog for the rest of today’s quarter-final action.

After the furore last month surrounding the release of very different men’s and women’s Olympic road race routes, it’s worth asking how can women’s cycling leverage the men’s sport to build its own brand, writes Stephanie Constand. “What the female peloton needs is not necessarily equal course distances, but rather equal opportunities to showcase its talent.”

Thinking time

For the next two weeks we’re asking you to vote for the best song to come out of or be written about Brisbane, and who better to talk about the influence of Brisbane music than Brisbane musicians themselves? We asked Lindy Morrison from the Go-Betweens, Ben Ely from Regurgitator, Katie Noonan, Screamfeeder, Megan Washington and others to tell us what their favourite Brisbane songs are and why.

Nicola Gunn has long been considered one of the finest artists to come out of Melbourne’s independent theatre community, but her new show at Melbourne Theatre Company may just be the work that brings her a much wider audience, writes Jana Perkovic. “It has always been hard to box Gunn, a UK-born, Melbourne-raised artist who has spent long stretches of her professional life on the international fringe circuit. Her work is shaped by a variety of very disparate disciplines: physical theatre, devised performance, clowning, standup and – as of late – dance.”

An update to sexual misconduct rules proposed by the US secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, could further disadvantage victims, writes Jill Filipovic. “The new rules reportedly define sexual harassment according to such a high bar that it will be nearly impossible to bring a case: sexual harassment, in the DeVos rules, is based on a very restrictive US supreme court case that defines harassment as ‘unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a person access to the school’s education program or activity’”.

Media roundup

The South Australian treasurer Rob Lucas’s state budget will lead to seven Tafe campuses being closed and 4,000 fewer public servants employed, states the Advertiser, although an extra $800m will be spent on health over the next five years. Internal party polling shown to cabinet just days before the Dutton leadership challenge indicated no solid basis for a change of leadership, writes the Sydney Morning Herald, instead suggesting that a stronger “ground game” and the removal of certain “policy barnacles” were the party’s key priorities. And the Courier-Mail leads with a feature on Brisbane’s John Millman after his triumph over the 20-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer at the US Open, with the 29-year-old set to crack the world’s top 40.

Coming up

The Senate inquiry into Peter Dutton’s use of ministerial powers to grant visas for au pairs will sit in Canberra, with the AFL boss, Gillon McLachlan, to give evidence by teleconference.

Uber drivers across Australia will strike for four hours from 6am in protest over pay and conditions.

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