Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 26 October.

Top stories

More prominent US Democratic party figures have been sent pipe bombs in the mail, including actor Robert De Niro and former vice president Joe Biden, the FBI has confirmed, taking the total number of bombs sent to 10. Although the president, Donald Trump, initially condemned the attacks, he has now used the wave of unrest to lash out at the media. The media, he said, have “a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories”. Later, Trump tweeted: “A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting… Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”

Authorities have said the 10 pipe bombs were sent to prominent critics of Trump, and have spread terror in the US less than two weeks before the midterm elections. Follow live updates here, where investigators are now focusing their attentions on Florida.

“The minute my teammates knew Malcolm was gone, they left.” Liberal MP Craig Laundy opens up to Katharine Murphy about being on the winning, and more recently losing, side of leadership spills. He also talks about his unorthodox journey from the private sector and the way he now sees the TV commentariat whip politicians into a frenzy out of proportion with the reality outside Canberra. Laundy talks about the reality of contemporary political life in the hope of explaining the inexplicable, possibly to himself, and certainly to voters watching from the outside; and he wants to talk about it while he’s still in the job in the hope of starting a conversation about how things could change. Listen to the podcast of the interview here.

The eldest son of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi has left Saudi Arabia as the Saudi public prosecutor’s office suggested for the first time that the writer’s killing was premeditated. Salah Khashoggi’s ashen face struck a chord with millions worldwide earlier this week after he was summoned to receive condolences from the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman – the man many believe ordered the assassination of his father. Saudi Arabia’s shifting story has been met with scepticism by Ankara and much of the rest of the international community. The new admission raises further questions as to who in the Saudi establishment had the authority to order an international assassination operation.

A woman who suffered anaphylaxis and was put into an induced coma after routine surgery in a Melbourne hospital alleges staff gave her medicines they had been told would lead to an allergic reaction. More than two and a half years after the woman attended the Royal Women’s hospital, she says she is still suffering from health problems and struggling to receive answers from medical authorities. She has said pre-operative consent forms listing her medical allergies were dismissed and ignored by doctors. She also alleged that one of her medical forms was changed to state that she had consented to the use of drugs she had listed on multiple forms as ones she had reactions to. The chief executive of the Royal Women’s hospital, Dr Sue Matthews, said the incident was investigated at the time and through review processes.

Labor senator Pat Dodson has described a government audit of deaths in custody reform as “pretty abysmal”, saying the lack of progress on reducing the Indigenous incarceration rate was “totally unsatisfactory”. The government tabled the review on Thursday, after the Senate moved an order to produce the document, in response to reporting by Guardian Australia’s Deaths Inside project. It found that only 64% of the 339 recommendations of the royal commission into aboriginal deaths in custody had been fully implemented, almost 30 years after its final report, but that a further 30% had been mostly or partially implemented. “If I was minister for Indigenous affairs, I wouldn’t be happy with that as a report card,” Dodson told Guardian Australia.

Sport

It often gets forgotten amid the noise and glare of professional sport, but for the vast majority of people the appeal of sport has little to do with winning. Few understand this better than Curtis McGrath, who first embraced sport as a means of rehabilitation after nearly losing his life in Afghanistan in 2012.

The route of the 2019 Tour de France has been unveiled and will feature 30 categorised climbs and five mountain finishes in what the organisers are promising will be “the highest Tour in history” – three of the mountain-top finishes will be above 2,000 metres and there will be back-to-back Alpine stages to take in Col d’Izoard, the Col du Galibier and the 2,770 metre-high Col d’Iseran – the highest paved road in Europe.

Thinking time

The Magic Pudding’s author Norman Lindsay might seem an unlikely person to pen a treasured book for children. The government censor repeatedly banned his work for obscenity, and his bohemian lifestyle was the source of much consternation. Yet the Magic Pudding has endured to celebrate a century in print this year. A longtime fan of Lindsay’s work, Jeff Sparrow reflects on the Pudding’s delightfully nasty characters and its enjoyment of the simple pleasures – eating, singing and fighting.

Anne Summers draws on over 40 years of feminist anger to explore her recent feelings as she watched the Brett Kavanaugh hearings about historical allegations of sexual abuse. In an essay that brings in her own experience with assault, harassment and the recent subversion of the #MeToo movement, Summers examines the nuanced difference between impotent rage and useful anger.

Brigid Delaney once went two weeks without eating – she was fasting. There were a lot of gross side effects but she also grappled with the question of why we use daft measures as opposed to good science to try to change how our body looks or how we feel about it. “I remember going out to buy teabags (I was allowed to drink black tea) and instead following a man home who was carrying a box of pizza,” writes Delaney. “God it smelt good. I went right up to his door.”

What’s he done now?

Trump is notoriously lax with his personal cellphone security, and the New York Times have published a report detailing how the Russians and the Chinese have been listening to the president’s personal iPhone calls to gain an insight into his thinking. Trump has denied the security breach and called the article “fake news”.

Media roundup

The Greens will introduce a motion calling for a federal anti-corruption body, the ABC reports, in a move that could test the Coalition’s control as it prepares to lead a minority government.

Australian super savings are heading for their worst performance in seven years, the Australian reports, with super shares dropping $50bn in one day. And in her weekly column at the Conversation, Michelle Grattan delves into the political legacy of Australia’s most recent prime ministers and wonders if Scott Morrison will be remembered “as the fireman who arrived late armed only with leaky buckets to confront a building ablaze and collapsing”.

Coming up

Scott Morrison will host a national drought summit in Canberra today with the coordinator general for drought, Stephen Day, and the special envoy for drought assistance and recovery, Barnaby Joyce. The government has promised a $4bn future drought fund.

Gaming event Pax Australia kicks off in Melbourne at 9am today and runs across the weekend, featuring competitions and demonstrations of the latest games.

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