Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 18 December.

Top stories

Britain’s political crisis has moved into new territory after the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, tabled a motion of no confidence in Theresa May for failing to hold a meaningful Brexit vote immediately. The prime minister had earlier announced that the House of Commons would not get to vote on her withdrawal plan until mid-January. Corbyn’s move was not a motion of no confidence in the government as a whole, but Labour argued that if the government did not allow time to debate the motion, it would show it was scared of losing and therefore that May did not have the confidence of the House.

As the EU announced further contingency plans for a no-deal Brexit, Corbyn said the debacle was an unprecedented national crisis. Both the EU and May said their deal would not be renegotiated. Peter Walker analyses what may (or may not) happen before 14 January.

Yael Stone has said there were “some really dark nights of the soul” before her decision to speak publicly about alleged inappropriate behaviour by Geoffrey Rush. Speaking to the ABC’s 7.30 program, the Orange Is the New Black star repeated allegations first published in the New York Times on Monday about Rush’s behaviour when the two actors were co-stars in a 2010 theatre production of The Diary of a Madman. Stone alleges that Rush held a mirror above her while she showered, danced naked in front of her and touched her back in an “unwanted” and “very sensual manner”. In a statement issued through his lawyers on Monday, Rush said Stone’s allegations were “incorrect and in some instances have been taken completely out of context”. “However, clearly Yael has been upset on occasion by the spirited enthusiasm I generally bring to my work,” he said. “I sincerely and deeply regret if I have caused her any distress. This, most certainly, has never been my intention.”

Russian online propagandists aggressively targeted African Americans during the 2016 US election campaign to suppress votes for Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump, according to new research. Analysts found that Russian operatives used social media to “confuse, distract, and ultimately discourage” black people and other pro-Clinton blocs from voting, using bogus claims such as Clinton receiving money from the Ku Klux Klan. Black turnout declined in 2016 for the first presidential election in 20 years, falling to less than 60% from a record high of 66.6% in 2012. The findings on the secret activities of the Internet Research Agency, known as the Russian government’s “troll factory”, were revealed on Monday in reports to the US Senate’s intelligence committee.

It may seem an impossible notion on a margin of 19.8%, but the scandal that forced Andrew Broad to step aside from the ministry on Monday means one of the National party’s safest seats is in play, writes Gabrielle Chan. Mallee in western Victoria has been “owned” by the National/Country party since 1949. It should be a shoo-in for a future candidate, but results in the Victorian election suggest the old rules of bush politics no longer apply. Broad has not said he is retiring from the seat after allegations were published in New Idea that he had engaged in inappropriate behaviour on an overseas trip, but already a local independent is considering his options.

Conservationists want bays and estuaries along the Great Barrier Reef tested for contaminants after a five-year study found “alarming” levels of some chemicals in unhealthy turtles on the reef. The researchers have also recommended expanded monitoring of turtle-population health on the reef “as an indicator of the health of the reef itself”. The research was launched after a mass stranding in 2012, when more than 100 green turtles washed up dead or dying in Upstart Bay, south of Townsville.

Sport

Australia will be pressing to wrap up a quick victory in the second Test against India in Perth, after a brutal fourth day in which both the pitch and the two captains showed signs of uneven temperament. Follow our live blog from 9am local time (noon AEDT) as India resume on 112-5, chasing an unlikely 287 to win.

With the World Cup in Japan less than 12 months away, Rugby Australia had to do something to restore the Wallabies’ flagging fortunes and fans’ waning faith in the team. Having balked at sacking besieged head coach, Michael Cheika, RA is now banking on Scott Johnson to do in Australia what he did in Scotland.

Thinking time

Australia has the most extraordinary national parks, home to unique wildlife, deserts, mountains, forests and sacred icons such as Uluru. We are rightly proud of them. Yet despite everything parks give us in recreation and tourism, the sad fact is we’re no longer showing them much care in return, with Australia leading the world in extinction rates and many protected habitats at risk.

Why did a little Guatemalan girl die after crossing the US border? The circumstances of Jakelin Caal Maquin’s death are being seized upon as evidence both for and against the Trump administration’s hardline approach to immigration. Trump’s supporters lay the blame on a parent who would put their child’s safety at risk on a perilous journey. Critics of the president’s fear-mongering talk of an “invasion” at the Mexican border blame his policies for driving people to increasingly desperate measures.

As crime syndicates lose their attraction in Japan, membership is falling and some are choosing to make a new life for themselves on the right side of the law.

Takashi Nakamoto is a former yakuza gangster who has ditched the gun for a set of chopsticks and set up a popular noodle restuarant. “Being a yakuza is not like working for a company or having a career – it’s a way of life,” he tells the Guardian, adding: “I’m not starting from zero … I’m starting from minus.”

What’s he done now?

Donald Trump is back to venting about his favourite subject on Twitter – the Mexican border wall – just two days after a Guatemalan child died there. “Time for us to save billions of dollars a year and have, at the same time, far greater safety and control!,” he wrote.

Media roundup

Scott Morrison will unveil more than $10bn in tax cuts before next year’s election in a “last-ditch” effort to woo voters, the Australian reports. The NT News reports that economists have warned the NT government needs to “cull the fat” to address the ballooning costs of a bloated and inefficient public service. And the Australian astronaut Andy Thomas has slammed Sir Richard Branson’s plan to send tourists into space as “dead-end technology”, the ABC reports.

Coming up

Sarah Hanson-Young’s defamation case against David Leyonhjelm returns to court in Sydney.

It’s the final day of Labor’s national conference in Adelaide.

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