Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 14 December.

Top stories

Shark numbers along the Queensland coast have declined by more than 90% for some species in the past five decades, according to new research that calls for better protections for sharks in Australian waters. The shark control program has used drumlines and nets since 1962 to try to reduce the risk of shark attacks. Scientists found the number of hammerheads and white sharks caught in nets had each declined by 92% since 1962, whaler sharks by 82% and tiger sharks by 74%.

Shark attacks off Australian beaches have led to calls for more measures to control their numbers. But Dr Chris Brown, from Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute, said: “It would be a great tragedy if we lost these species because of preventable human causes … Sharks play important roles in ecosystems as scavengers and predators, and they are indicators of healthy ecosystems. These declines are concerning because they suggest the health of coastal ecosystems is also declining.”

Donald Trump has denied directing Michael Cohen to break the law, a day after his former lawyer and fixer was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes committed while working for Trump. “I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law,” the president said in a tweet on Thursday morning. Cohen, who spent years as one of Trump’s right-hand men, pleaded guilty to federal crimes including making illegal payments to two women who say they had sexual encounters with Trump, in order to keep them quiet about the alleged affairs. In a separate case, Maria Butina has pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy after being accused of acting as a Russian agent to infiltrate the NRA and influence US policy towards Moscow. She is the first Russian citizen to be convicted of working to shape US policy in the period spanning the 2016 election campaign.

Google and Facebook are expected to push back hard against proposals to set up an authority in Australia to monitor the placement of news and advertising content on their sites. The two digital multinationals say that they are studying the nearly 400-page report released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Monday. But behind the scenes there is consternation about the ACCC’s proposal to set up a regulatory body that would have the specific job of monitoring large digital platforms. Australia’s consumer watchdog is among the first in the world to grapple with a response to the market power of Google and Facebook.

People who frequently play violent video games are less affected by violent or distressing images, a new study has found. The research from the University of New South Wales did not find that video game players were more violent or aggressive, but that violent images had less of an effect in distracting their vision when they were searching for something else. They found that people who frequently played violent video games were less distracted by confronting images, and could more easily ignore them to pick out the target image. The lead author, Dr Steve Most, said this was due to a phenomenon known as “emotion-induced blindness”.

Yemen’s warring parties have agreed to an immediate ceasefire in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, the UN secretary general has said, raising hopes of getting humanitarian aid to millions of starving people. Antonio Guterres said the agreement included the future deployment of UN-supervised neutral forces and the establishment of humanitarian corridors. Troops from both sides in the civil war will withdraw from the Hodeidah area within 21 days. The port is the gateway for the bulk of humanitarian aid coming into the country, and has been the subject of intense fighting. An estimated 22 million Yemenis are in need of aid and up to 14 million face starvation as a result of the war.

Sport

A green pitch for the second Test between Australia and India has ensured the 22 yards in the middle are a major point of fascination, with Virat Kohli excited by the need for speed on a lively Perth wicket. Join our team of livebloggers from 9.20am local time (12.20pm AEDT) for the build-up to the game, which starts an hour later.

With the announcement of Western Melbourne and Macarthur-South West Sydney as the two A-League expansion clubs, we got our first real glimpse of the new-look Football Federation Australia board and the chairman, Chris Nikou, in action. Like pets that resemble their owners, Thursday’s outcome was one that mirrors the decision-makers themselves – a touch cautious, explicitly political but eminently sensible, writes Richard Parkin.

Thinking time

Cate Blanchett has describes the works of Japanese-born Australian designer Akira Isogawa as “precious works of art”. As a major retrospective opens at Sydney’s Museum of Applied Arts and Science, the designer reveals the secret to his longevity in the cut-throat fashion industry, why he believes in buying less, and the silk top that went from garbage bag to museum piece. “I do not believe in success which happens within six months or three months or when you start your label,” Isogawa says. “I think it’s good to spend the time and then persevere and stay focused until you find your own voice.”

The stars of Beautiful Boy, Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet, discuss drug addiction, family dynamics and playing a father and son. “It’s a real lens into a lot of the disillusionment young people feel, not only in America but all over the world, and how they’re dealing with it by numbing, with opiates and Xanax,” says Chalamet, who has been nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance as a meth-addicted teen. “It felt like there was integrity to this story because it’s really, like, an anti-glorification.”

In this week’s diary, Brigid Delaney sets off on a mysterious retreat and confronts her fears about the future. Should she be worried about being too intellectual? But things take a turn for the worst when she shows up at a fancy publishing party with a small pink towel. “Trying to tell people why I am behaving so strangely makes little sense (‘I went hiking without water to get to the beach to talk about the future and didn’t eat the vegan wrap’). But then that is the great irony of sunstroke – it robs you of your ability to properly account for yourself.”

Media roundup

The prime minister’s new anti-corruption watchdog is being slammed as “toothless” by critics, the Age reports, with calls to strengthen its powers, including giving it the right to hold public hearings. The Australian says Bill Shorten is on a collision course with multicultural voters, unless he follows the lead of the prime minister and strengthens protections for religious freedom. And at the Conversation, Michelle Grattan argues the unions will prove the biggest challenge for a Labor government, but on the central tenet of border protection policy – turning back the boats – Liberal and Labor are “at one”.

Coming up

State and federal environment ministers meet in Melbourne today to discuss the implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin plan.

Tanya Plibersek is due to announce that Labor would invest $20m for a new Indigenous residential college, part of a groundbreaking initiative on Indigenous higher education at the University of Technology Sydney.

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