Morning mail: US attorney general questioned over Russian meddling Wednesday: Jeff Sessions has faced special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in 2016 election. Plus: Trans-Pacific Partnership revived Jeff Sessions was interviewed last week by special counsel Robert Mueller. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA Eleanor Ainge Roy @EleanorAingeRoy Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 24 January. Top stories The US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has been interviewed by Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The meeting lasted several hours and took place last week, and was the first time the special counsel's office has interviewed a sitting member of Donald Trump's cabinet. Sessions announced in March 2017 that he would recuse himself from any role in the Russia investigation after it was revealed that he had two meetings with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the US, during the 2016 election campaign. The attorney general's decision to recuse himself angered Trump, who has since repeatedly criticised Sessions, calling him "very weak". The special counsel's office is also investigating potential obstruction of justice by the Trump administration. Last May the president fired the FBI director, James Comey, then in charge of the investigation, telling NBC he did so because "I said to myself, I said you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story". Comey later testified that Trump had privately demanded loyalty from him, and that he had only promised "honesty". The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, which had been on life support since Donald Trump's withdrawal of the US, has finally been resuscitated. The 11 remaining countries are expected to sign an amended agreement on March 8 in Chile. Canada threw a spanner in the works at the Apec summit in Vietnam last year, derailing efforts to finalise the deal, but Ottawa has since been coaxed back to the fold following lobbying efforts from Tokyo and Canberra. A scathing audit has questioned the tender process for Sydney's $2bn container terminal. A second investigation by Australia's auditor general into the government-owned Moorebank Intermodal Company will now examine its contracting practices and staff credit card use. The first, highly critical audit covers several years during which MIC selected the logistics firm Qube, run by the waterfront union-busting businessman Chris Corrigan, as its private sector partner, saying it failed to deliver a sufficiently competitive tender process. The Oscar nominations are out and is largely a cautious, comfort-food list in Trumpian times, writes the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. With a record 13 nominations The Shape of Water leads a list that offers up exotic fantasy and imagined past but is missing something truly ferocious and polarising. Next up was Christopher Nolan's colossal cine-installation Dunkirk (eight nominations), and Martin McDonagh's fierce tragicomedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (seven). "Hollywood feels on the back foot right now. The movie establishment might in other circumstances feel moved to let rip with rage at the hated pussy-grabber. But the Weinstein fallout is clearly making the tuxed throng of awards season feel they're living in too a fragile a glass house from which to be throwing stones." Read the full nominations list here. A retreat from globalism is eroding the rules-based international order, Penny Wong will say in a speech in Singapore today, citing Brexit and Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership as examples of it. Labor's foreign affairs spokeswoman also addresses the rise of China, and questions whether its Belt and Road Initiative will enhance regional stability. Wong says there is "no disputing the international rules-based order is under its greatest period of stress since the end of the second world war" and blames the "breakdown in the global order" for inequality, the re-emergence of nationalism and racism, and refugee flows causing ethnic tension. Sport Rafael Nadal has been forced to retire owing to an ongoing hip problem which flared up in the final set; clearing the way for Marin Cilic to advance to the Australian Open semi-final. Cilic will face the rising British tennis star Kyle Edmund in the semi-finals. Hyeon Chung's path to this afternoon's Australian Open semi-final against Tennys Sandgren has captured the imagination of tennis fans but it all might have been different had he not been given some sound advice from the family doctor as a youngster. Kate O'Halloran speaks to the South Korean's coach and finds out how the 23-year-old ticks. Thinking time A still from Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo "It's a classic tale," the Australian director Warwick Thornton says of his neo-western Sweet Country, which is winning plaudits around the world. "It's about land grabs. It's about taking over the country. It's a basic western that people relate to on a range of different levels, based in a place they don't have access to: 1920s central Australia." Thornton and son, his second unit director Dylan River, tell Guardian Australia's Luke Buckmaster about the challenges of the 22-day shoot in the Northern Territory's MacDonnell Ranges – including multiple floods. The movie opens tomorrow in Australian cinemas (read Peter Bradshaw's review here). "The film is completely truthful about history, even though it's fiction," the Indigenous film-maker says. "I think Australia is really ready for films like this." Half of all cancers are diagnosed in people over 70 and more than half of cancer deaths occur in those over 75. The oncologist and Guardian columnist Ranjana Srivastava says this means patients and doctors must have difficult conversations about the patient's life goals, and the benefits of treatments offered. "For patients who are diagnosed with cancer when they are elderly or already have significant other health problems, this means understanding the crucial importance of truly shared decision-making," she writes. "This starts with understanding the implications of a cancer diagnosis and asking for all treatment options, ranging from the most aggressive to the least. Counterintuitive as it might sound, a routine question should be: 'What happens if I do nothing?'" Developers of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have admitted their creations were designed to be addictive, and in this long read tell the Guardian why they avoid the sites themselves. Should regular folks be following their example, or is it impossible for mere mortals? "At Twitter, the story is the same. Of the company's nine most senior executives, only four tweet more than once a day on average. Ned Segal, its chief financial officer, has been on the site for more than six years and has sent fewer than two tweets a month." What's he done now? Donald Trump continues to attack his country's intelligence institutions, tweeting that the FBI has lost text messages from two employees who displayed bias against the president. "In one of the biggest stories in a long time, the FBI now says it is missing five months worth of lovers Strzok-Page texts, perhaps 50,000, and all in prime time. Wow!," the president tweeted overnight. Media roundup The Australian Financial Review reports that Turnbull's budget is set to get a "Trump bump", as the US president's tax revolution ramps up global forecasts, which are making Australia a more attractive destination for companies to invest in and hire. The Herald Sun reports that the government is attempting to deport a 17-year-old who is described as a "leader" of the Apex gang in Victoria. The boy is only the fifth person aged under 18 to have his visa cancelled in the last decade, the paper reports. The ABC Science team has a "beginners guide" to the wide variety of moons, including what they mean and how to spot them. Pencil in the "red blood moon" which will be visible over Australian skies at the end of the month, the first total lunar eclipse since 2015. Coming up NSW Rail, Tram and Bus Union members have until lunchtime to decide whether to accept an offer by Sydney Trains and cancel a ban on overtime on Thursday and a 24-hour strike on Monday over pay and conditions. 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