Morning mail: EU rejects Brexit plan, octopuses on ecstasy and finals fever

Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 21 September.

Top stories

Theresa May was left fighting to save her Chequers Brexit plan and with it her authority as prime minister after EU leaders at an summit in Salzburg unexpectedly declared that her proposals would not work. Donald Tusk and Emmanuel Macron rejected her Chequers plan as it stood, prompting hard-Brexit Conservatives to demand it be abandoned. A clearly nervous and angry May told reporters that EU leaders were engaged in “negotiating tactics” designed to throw her off course.

Tusk, the EU council president, declared that Chequers “would not work” while French president Macron said it was “not acceptable”. A combative Macron broke with diplomatic niceties and accused Brexiters of lying. “Those who explain that we can easily live without Europe, that everything is going to be all right, and that it’s going to bring a lot of money home are liars,” he said.

Labor has said there is “no reason” misconduct in the lobbying sector would not be covered by its proposed federal integrity commission, but has stopped short of saying it would actively police lobbying rules. The national integrity commission proposed by Labor is still being designed, but a spokeswoman for the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said its remit could extend to lobbying. Experts largely agree that the current oversight of lobbying is compromised by the lack of any independent enforcement agency to investigate breaches of the lobbying rules and mete out significant punishment. Guardian Australia revealed earlier this week that agencies across the country have comprehensively failed to enforce lobbying rules in their jurisdictions, including at a federal level.

More than 200 people are feared dead after a ferry sank in Lake Victoria in Tanzania, according to officials. Forty-two people have already been confirmed dead after the MV Nyerere went down on Thursday afternoon just a few metres from the dock near Ukara Island in Ukerewe district. Local commissioner Col Lucas Magembe told Reuters the rescue mission to find survivors had been halted until dawn. Initial estimates showed that the vessel was carrying more than 300 people.

Tumut hospital should have had an alert for staff if the pregnant Indigenous woman Naomi Williams presented to its emergency department because of her health history, her doctor has told an inquest. Williams, 27, was six months pregnant when she and her baby died at Tumut hospital on 1 January 2016, from what a court has heard was a treatable sepsis infection. She had presented 15 hours earlier but was sent home after 34 minutes, having been given two paracetamol. No physical exam was conducted and no doctor was called. In the seven months preceding her death, Williams had been to Tumut hospital on 18 separate occasions. She was frequently referred to mental health or drug and alcohol services despite those services saying she had no dependance issues.

The pro-coal Monash Forum is attempting to convene a private dinner with Trevor St Baker, the part-owner of the Vales Point coal generator, when federal parliament resumes. According to an invitation circulated among members of the Monash Forum, seen by Guardian Australia, Coalition MPs will meet for dinner on 16 October and discuss “Australia’s energy future”. St Baker has previously signalled interest in pursuing a replacement for the Hazelwood power station if the federal government settles on a favourable energy policy. It comes as the energy minister Angus Taylor is working up options for cabinet to lower power prices by expanding existing plants, upgrading ageing generators and making new investments.

Scientists have dosed octopuses with the drug MDMA and say their subsequent friendly and tactile behaviour show a link between the social behaviours of humans. Gül Dölen, a neuroscientist at the Johns Hopkins University school of medicine, said: “People are like, ‘Have you got any pictures of octopuses holding glow sticks?’ which I kind of ignore because that wasn’t really our objective. MDMA is a great tool for investigating whether or not an octopus can become social.” The answer was a definitive yes: the creatures’ normal hostility towards each other vanished and they became touchy-feely. The findings suggest that the brain chemical serotonin, which floods the brain after a dose of MDMA, has been a trigger for social behaviour since very early in evolutionary history.

Sport

Finals fever goes coast-to-coast; shirtfront-to-shirtfront, with gripping contests in rugby league and the AFL. Sydney hosts a grudge match between the Rabbitohs and the Roosters; Melbourne’s Demons travel to Perth to battle the Eagles, and its standing room only for 100,000 punters at the MCG as last year’s AFL premiers Richmond take on the team everyone loves to hate, Collingwood.

The third season of AFLW could see an influx of Gaelic football stars, as an “Emerald armada” arrives to fight for contracts. Since 1982, more than 25 Irish expats have played Aussie Rules and now the AFLW is pushing for a slice of Gaelic magic too.

Thinking time

In the second installment of a Guardian Australia series on News Corp, Anne Davies looks at its distinctive culture – tribal, aggressive and centred around powerful editors – and how it wields its influence at the state level. In state politics, News Corp’s style of journalism can have an even greater distorting effect on policy and politics than anywhere else. In Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin, News Corp owns the only metropolitan title. And in New South Wales and Victoria, its tabloids have competition but are far more willing than other publications to use their clout. Advisers who have worked for state premiers describe how successive premiers were constantly trying to appease the News-owned tabloids and avoid drawing fire.

With the weekend just hours away, the Guardian ranks the 20 best music documentaries ever made. Blur and Amy Winehouse get a look in, as do Nick Cave, The Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols. But who comes out on top? You’ll never guess.

Danish-born Carl Feilberg just had his long overdue posthumous moments of national recognition with an induction into the Australian Media Hall of Fame. During his short life Feilberg exposed the brutality against Indigenous people on the violent Queensland colonial frontier of the late 19th century. “Nothing short of a book (or perhaps a movie) will do justice to the times of this jackaroo-cum-editor who, while eulogised by poets and politicians in death, had so much of his most daring and controversial work swept under a carpet of historical amnesia for several generations,” writes Paul Daley.

What’s he done now?

It has been more than two years since the US president’s infamous wall with Mexico was first touted, and in a series of tweets overnight Donald Trump urged Republicans to “get tough” and find the money for it. “I want to know, where is the money for Border Security and the WALL in this ridiculous Spending Bill, and where will it come from after the Midterms? Dems are obstructing Law Enforcement and Border Security. REPUBLICANS MUST FINALLY GET TOUGH!” Trump tweeted, loudly.

Media roundup

The Hobart Mercury splashes with the state’s record growth spurt, with interstate migration driving a 30-year high in population. Tasmania’s population increased by 1,837 people, or 0.35%, to 526,663 in the March quarter. The Courier-Mail devotes its entire front page to two shark attacks in less than 24 hours off the coast of QLD. “Predator in Paradise” the paper shouts. Coverage includes an interview with the doctor who attended one of the victims, and the police’s plan to hunt the “rogue beast”. And the Australian leads with the prime minister offering $4.3bn in funding to avert the closure of 350 Catholic schools around the country.

Coming up

A Senate inquiry into the government’s $440m grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation begins.

The banking royal commission hearings wrap up in Melbourne.

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