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

Top stories

The sentencing of Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has been delayed during a live-wire court hearing filled with stunning reversals in which the judge accused him of having “sold your country out”. Flynn had faced sentencing on Tuesday for the crime of lying to federal investigators about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition period. A member of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team told the judge it was possible that Flynn, who has sat for 19 interviews with Mueller’s team, might not be done cooperating. In a lacerating lecture before the judge granted a request for a delay in sentencing, he told the retired three-star general: “Arguably, you sold your country out.” He said: “I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain, for this criminal offence.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s troubled charity, the Trump Foundation, will shut down after numerous allegations that Trump and his children illegally misused funds. The decision was announced by the attorney general of New York, Barbara Underwood, who said in a statement that Trump and three of his children had used the charity’s funds for illegal personal and political gain. There was “unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and wilful self-dealing, and much more”, Underwood said. In the lead-up to the 2016 election the foundation operated “as little more than a chequebook to serve Trump’s business and political interests”.

The federal government has been urged to immediately overhaul its controversial pre-employment scheme, Parents Next, with the providers contracted to administer the program revealing how parents are being referred to charities because their welfare payments have been wrongly suspended. The cases – which have prompted not-for-profit job services providers to ask the minister to intervene – include a woman who had her payments suspended because she was rushed to hospital while 33 weeks pregnant and could not report to Centrelink. Peak body Jobs Australia has told the jobs minister, Kelly O’Dwyer, that participants – who are predominantly single mothers – were being told to visit emergency relief on a Friday to get food for the weekend because their payments could not be restored until Monday.

A Hong Kong tabloid with links to China has farcically tailed an Australian academic around the city on a recent one-week visit, splashing the mundanities of his trip on their front page. Reporters for the paper Wen Wei Po, which is believed to have close ties to Beijing, tailed Macquarie University Chinese history lecturer Kevin Carrico all week, reporting details of who he met, where he went, even when he returned to his hotel to change his shirt. There were photographs of the US-Australian academic standing in the street, while another shows him at the airport about to leave the country. Carrico said he might have been targeted because he writes about Chinese power in Hong Kong, which inevitably sometimes leads to discussion of Hong Kong independence.

Emergency no-deal Brexit contingency plans must now be implemented across government, including reserving ferry space for supplies and putting 3,500 armed forces personnel on standby to deal with any disruption. Ministers would “ramp up” no-deal planning, No10 confirmed, and departments would be expected to make it their main priority. Downing Street said it would send advice on preparing for no deal to all UK businesses and suggested they should begin implementing their own contingency plans as they saw fit. Theresa May’s spokesman said the cabinet “agreed that delivering the deal that the prime minister agreed with Brussels remains the government’s top priority and our best no-deal mitigation”, but it was the government’s “continued duty to prepare for every eventuality, including a no-deal situation”.

Brisbane men’s only club Tattersall’s is set to announce whether women will finally be allowed to join, with club president Stuart Fraser saying a yes vote will restore the club “to a busy social space”. Twice in the past 12 years members have voted against a similar proposal. But this time the process has sparked a more serious existential crisis for patrons of the Queen Street establishment. Some think it might restore some status to a club now blacklisted by the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and her majority-female state cabinet. Many others seem to think it would amount to the admission of prying eyes. “The club is a good refuge for men from the bombardment of daily business life (and to some extent women),” one member, Nick, wrote on a website set up to campaign against female membership.

Sport

Lean back with a satisfied sigh, a post-schweppervesence exhalation. For those who care even a little about Australian cricket, that was exactly what was needed – a cracker of a Test match, following one in Adelaide that was excellent in a different way. A series full of interest and intrigue, set up at 1-1 heading into Boxing Day and the New Year.

José Mourinho has been sacked after the worst start by Manchester United in 28 years. The team will now appoint a caretaker manager before a permanent replacement is found. Who will replace him – Zidane, Pochettino? Or is favourite Ole Gunnar Solskjaer easing in already?

Thinking time

When it was first painted, John Everett Millais’s famous portrait of Ophelia was considered scandalous: not only was her hair loose and her body unrestricted by a corset, nature swarmed around her in obscene abundance. Now it’s one of the blockbuster drawcards in Love and Desire: Pre-Raphaelite Masterpieces from the Tate, which opened at the National Gallery of Australia last week. The exhibition touches on everything from nature to religion, but the nuanced depictions of women are what stand out – the Pre-Raphaelites showed women as sexual creatures, capable of sensuality, lust and carnal passion, even if in many stories they tell, such behaviour is punished.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and as a gas can be used in the same way natural gas is used. It produces zero carbon emissions when used for energy. The case for hydrogen as a fuel has been well made but there has been little investment to bring it to scale, writes Rose Amal. “Australia is ideally placed to lead the world in the supply of hydrogen and the technology to convert it and store it, without the expense and complications involved in batteries, such as the impacts from mining and the disposal of toxic materials.”

It’s the dilemma that divides conservationists and governments: should national parks be given over to nature-based activities? Those in charge say that facilities and activities like those in Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain make it easier for more people to enjoy the park; but conservationists say tourism is eroding the wilderness experience. In the latest instalment in our national parks investigation of Our Wide Brown Land series, Anne Davies looks at both sides of the argument. Plus we get an inside look at a day in the life of a national parks ranger.

Media roundup

Federal Labor has cleared the way for unions to pursue multi-employer bargaining if Bill Shorten wins the next election, the Australian reports. Shorten said yesterday that enterprise bargaining was not working for low or well-paid industries, and Australia needed a new system that would address stagnating pay rates for workers. The NSW government is at odds with the federal Coalition, the Australian Financial Review reports, with NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian saying the Morrison government was “out of touch” on energy and climate policy. A controversial water-bottling company that secured $10m in taxpayer funding has entered into voluntary administration, the ABC reports. The announcement came hours after the contentious company received its water-bottling licence for Northern Territory springs.

Coming up

The federal energy minister, Angus Taylor, will meet with his state counterparts at the Coag energy council meeting in Adelaide.

The new Victorian parliament will sit for the first time since Daniel Andrews was re-elected.

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