Morning mail: drug company payments to doctors revealed Tuesday: Healthcare professionals were paid almost $12m in six months by drug companies. Plus: massive cleanup begins in the wake of Hurricane Irma New analysis shows drug companies gave almost $12m to healthcare professionals in just six months. Photograph: Paul Miller/AAP Eleanor Ainge Roy @EleanorAingeRoy Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 12 September. Top stories Pharmaceutical companies gave Australian doctors, nurses and pharmacists almost $12m in fees and expenses to attend conferences and give talks between November 2016 and April 2017. The payments, compiled exclusively for Guardian Australia, comprised more than $6.5m for travel expenses and accommodation; more than $4.2m in speaking and consultancy fees; and more than $700,000 to cover registration at medical conferences and events. One doctor received more than $39,000 in the six-month period. Dr Martin Tattersall, a Sydney cancer specialist known for rejecting visits from pharmaceutical companies, told Guardian Australia: "I'm rather critical of some of my colleagues who take advantage of sponsorship in a major way," he said. "For me, I pay my own way and never accept sponsorship. But I find that going to specialist conferences of my choosing is a better use of time than going to big pharmaceutical-sponsored jamborees." Ten people have died in Cuba following Hurricane Irma, and record flooding has hit northern Florida. Irma has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it heads towards Georgia, leaving 6.5 million people without power and flash-flood warnings issued for large parts of Florida. About 100,000 people remain in shelters, unable to get home due to flooding, contaminated water and debris blocking roads. Military efforts have been launched to rescue people trapped on the Florida Keys, which are cut off from the mainland. However, many still doubt the catastrophic hurricane season has anything to do with climate change. In the Caribbean, the premier of the British Virgin Islands, Orlando Smith, has asked for immediate aid from the British government, saying the situation is "critical". Follow the Guardian's live blog as cleanup efforts begin in Florida and across the devastated islands. Yesterday's talks between the AGL boss Andy Vesey and Malcolm Turnbull left the fate of the Liddell power plant not that much clearer. AGL has agreed to give the government a plan within 90 days detailing how it will supply the electricity market with reliable power when the ageing coal plant is retired in 2022. Vesey has reluctantly agreed to take a proposal to his board to either sell the plant or keep it open for another five years. As the energy policy debate disintegrates into a partisan blame game, the latest Guardian Essential poll shows a clear majority of Australian voters want governments to step in and regulate electricity and gas prices, and also boost investment in renewable energy. The prime minister spoke to the president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, on Monday evening, reassuring him of Australia's support in the face of the security threat posed by North Korea. The South Korean president thanked Australia for its support in pursuing tough sanctions against North Korea, which the two leaders agreed was critical to isolate and contain the regime in Pyongyang. New rules governing the same-sex marriage postal survey, including a ban on material that incites hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule of protected groups, will go to the Coalition party room today after negotiations with Labor and the Greens. A bill to set ground rules for the postal survey will be introduced into parliament as the Australian Bureau of Statistics begins mailing out survey forms on Tuesday. The survey form, released on Monday, asks: "Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry?" It urges Australians to return their forms "straight away ... today if you can!" Sport Sloane Stephens celebrates after winning the US Open. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock The US Open showed black women have made American tennis great again, writes Bryan Armen Graham, saying the game in the States is infused with vitality because of African American players such as the Williams sisters and Sloane Stephens. "For the first time, the demographics of the women's game reflect America as it truly is. That it was Stephens, who is black, defeated Keys, whose mother is white and whose father is black, is not insignificant in a sport predominantly owned, played and watched by affluent white people." Australia's Aaron Mooy has made a disappointing return to his Premier League club Huddersfield, who went down 2-0 to West Ham overnight. The midfielder was below par as the Terriers suffered their first defeat of the season and conceded their first goals. Thinking time The author and journalist Benjamin Law reflects on the suicide of 13-year-old gay schoolboy Tyrone Unsworth in his home state of Queensland. Law asks whether Tyrone – who was the victim of homophobic bullying – could have been saved by the Safe Schools program. Why, asks Law in this extract from his Quarterly Essay, did the anti-bullying program became a political football subjected to sustained attacks by News Corp? In the lead-up to the postal survey on same-sex marriage, Law says: "Every push for the protection of queers in Australia has been accompanied by a jeering soundtrack of loathing." What did books mean to you as a child? For the bestselling author Monica McInerney, who grew up in an Australian country town, books were her way of travelling the world, of experiencing snow for the first time, of solving crimes in Dorset and of living through the American civil war. Ahead of Australian reading hour on Thursday, McInerney reflects on a lifetime of reading, saying: "It doesn't just take us out of the everyday. It also calms us, feeds our minds, our hearts, our inner lives ... It helps us be whoever we want to be." 'I was told to throw ethics out the window', a former employee of an online bookmakers reveals. The job demanded taking advantage of people, discouraging punters who knew what they were doing and tempting "mugs" with free bets before bleeding them dry. The online casino industry rakes in billions from punters' losses, with little concern for their wellbeing, the anonymous whistleblower writes. "Even though we referred to our user base as 'members', it wasn't a particularly caring club. We never considered or cared about the consequences of our actions." Media roundup The Herald Sun splashes with premier Daniel Andrews' $280,000 spending on Facebook advertising in an effort to get Victorians to "like him". The Australian highlights Victorian Liberal MP Tim Wilson's use of his parliamentary communications budget to print 10,000 colouring-in books for primary school children, which feature him and his partner, Ryan, walking their pugs. As the bushfire season approaches, the ABC has a report on new satellite technology which is being developed to help predict and mitigate their impact, as well as using the moisture content of eucalyptus leaves to get a head-start on bushfire preparation. Coming up A landmark federal court case begins in Melbourne today in which the poker machine company Aristocrat and Crown casino are accused of deceiving pokies players about their chances of winning. The legal firm Maurice Blackburn has launched the legal action on behalf of Shonica Guy, a former pokies addict. Christiana Figueres, one of the lead negotiators of the Paris climate agreement, is in Sydney to discuss the role cities can play in tackling climate change. Supporting the Guardian We'd like to acknowledge our generous supporters who enable us to keep reporting on the critical stories. If you value what we do and would like to help, please make a contribution or become a supporter today. Thank you. Guardian News & Media Limited - a member of Guardian Media Group PLC. Registered Office: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU. Registered in England No. 908396