Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 19 February.

Top stories

Donald Trump has criticised the FBI for missing the “many signals” about the Florida school shooter, saying the agency was spending “too much time” trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. His statement drew swift criticism, with John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio, calling it “absurd”. Trump, whom the National Rifle Association spent more than $30m helping elect, made the comments as he faced emotional demands for action on gun control.

Thousands of protesters at state rallies demanded an immediate response from lawmakers in the wake of Wednesday’s attack, which left 17 people dead at a high school in Parkland, Florida. The demonstrators included teenage survivors of the massacre.

Nearly 60 Australian industrial sites have been given the green light to increase greenhouse gas pollution, potentially cancelling out hundreds of millions of dollars of public spending on emissions cuts under the Coalition’s Direct Action climate policy. The increases have been quietly approved under the “safeguard mechanism”, which was introduced to ensure cuts that paid for using the main part of the policy – the emission reduction fund – were not undone by emissions increasing in other parts of the economy. Under the safeguard mechanism, government agency the Clean Energy Regulator sets an emissions limit for each large industrial site based on its highest level of emissions over the previous five years. But companies can apply to have the limit recalculated.

A refugee on Nauru who is at “high and imminent risk” of “heart attack or sudden death” has refused treatment because the Australian Border Force won’t let her 16-year-old son travel out of the country with her. On five separate occasions since September 2016, and with increasing urgency, doctors have requested that Fatemeh, an Iranian refugee, be moved off Nauru for advanced heart checks that cannot be performed on the island. “She is at extremely high and imminent risk of having a catastrophic cardiac event,” said the latest doctor’s report on 20 January, written by Dr Maria Fiatarone Singh, a professor at the Sydney Medical School.

Progress made on Indigenous retention rates masks growing racial divide at schools, a new report has found, with Indigenous students disproportionately represented in Australia’s most disadvantaged schools, and the divide between rich and poor developing an “unhappy racial dimension”. It suggests that while improvements in enrolment and graduation rates among Indigenous students are good news, they may be masking a growing race and class divide in Australian schools. Published by the leftwing Centre of Policy Development, the report found that while most schools across sectors have increased their enrolment of Indigenous students in real as well as percentage terms, the most disadvantaged students were being concentrated in the poorest schools.

Australia’s official university structures are lagging behind student awareness and understanding of sexual assault and consent, survivor advocacy groups have said. A survey of university residential colleges, released on Monday as first-year university students arrive on campus for orientation week, found that while a majority of colleges had implemented online consent and sexual assault prevention training since the release of a damning report by the Australian Human Rights Commission last year, just over a third have involved a sexual assault support service in the design or implementation of that training.

Sport

Erin Phillips’ stunning return coincided with a round where upset results blew the 2018 competition wide open, writes Guardian Australia’s Kate O’Halloran. But the AFL’s ill-conceived and soulless experiment, AFLX, took valuable limelight (including the coveted Friday night slot) – and marketing money – off the competition, in a further blow to the burgeoning code.

In its 10th season, the W-League has hit new heights on and off the field, but change is required to be competitive against rival codes. This applies especially to the experience of fans, who are once again being left in the cold with lack of TV coverage, poor scheduling and increased ticket prices.

Thinking time

“Art history taught me I have no place in history,” Hannah Gadsby says in her furious, hilarious, devastating signature style. “Women didn’t have time to think thoughts; they were too busy taking naps naked in the forest.” Gadsby’s new two-part ABC series Nakedy Nudes delights in taking the highbrow mantle off art history. Current ideals of beautiful bodies and strict gender norms have a long past, inherited from the ancient Greeks and their Renaissance relatives. But do these painting still have a place?

Ever wondered about the environmental impact of the coffee you drink? Australians gulp down 16.3m cups a day, but how much do we think about whether our morning heart-starter hails from the world’s poorest countries, where plantations are sometimes linked to rainforest clearing, cheap labour or even child labour? There’s plenty of ways to ensure you drink an ethical latte – Buy Fair Trade coffee, avoid plastic coffee pods or recycle coffee beans. Find out how as you drink your morning brew.

The writer Kate Rossmanith looks at the surprising ways in which bereaved relatives view the forensic images associated with the sudden death of loved ones. Unnatural Deaths, the second in our Present Traces series, combines Australian crime-and-accident scene photos with the experiences of police photographers, coroners, social workers, and, most importantly, victims’ families, to explore the strange effects of grief and remorse.

What’s he done now?

Donald Trump has urged his country to “get smart” about the Russians, in a Twitter post that is almost impossible to believe is penned by a president of the United States. “If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!”

Media roundup

The Canberra Times reports inmates are smuggling heavy-duty prescription drugs into prison to get high as they are easier to obtain than illicit drugs. The drug include pregabalin, designed to treat epilepsy and nerve pain, and quetiapine, an antipsychotic medication for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The former treasurer Joe Hockey has listed his $8m Sydney mansion on a Chinese website, the Daily Telegraph reports, though as a politician he “crusaded” against against foreign buyers entering the Australian housing market. The AFP is considering investigating the LNP MP George Christensen, the ABC reports, over a photo he posted to Facebook showing him holding a gun and seeming to threaten “greenie punks”.

Coming up

Geoffrey Rush’s defamation case against the Daily Telegraph will be heard in the federal court in Sydney today.

Hearings start today in a class action launched by more than 200 sailors against the Royal Australian Navy, who allege they were tricked into signing up for four years under false promises they would leave with a trade.

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