Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 25 January.

Top stories

Proposed changes to Australia’s national security laws will “criminalise” reporting and undermine the media’s ability to act in the public interest, the nation’s major news outlets have warned. In a joint submission, 14 major media outlets including the ABC, Fairfax Media and News Corp said sweeping changes to national security laws proposed by the federal government would place journalists at “significant risk of jail time” for doing their jobs. The reforms would increase tenfold the maximum penalty for anyone who communicates or “deals with” information that could potentially “cause harm to Australia’s interests”, where that information is obtained via a government official without authorisation.

Those interests include information which prejudices international relations “in any way” or damages relations between the federal government and a state. Penalties for breaching the laws would range from five to 15 years’ imprisonment for standard offences, stretching to 20 years for aggravated offences. Media organisations warn the bill “criminalises all steps of news reporting” and applies “criminal risk” to journalists and other editorial staff. “The result is that fair scrutiny and public interest reporting is increasingly difficult and there is a real risk that journalists could go to jail for doing their jobs,” the submission states.

Labor has urged the Turnbull government to submit the revived Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement to economic analysis, saying the public ought to know if it will actually benefit Australia. The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has lauded the resuscitation of the agreement, which had been on life support since Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the US from the deal a year ago. But the shadow trade minister, Jason Clare, said the deal was radically different without US involvement and voters ought to be told how it would affect Australia’s farmers and manufacturers. “The original TTP was made up of countries that represented 40% of the world economy,” Clare said. “This represents about 13% of the world economy. It’s also struck out or suspended about 20 different clauses, so it’s a different agreement.”

Two doctors have written in the Guardian about their conclusion that Julian Assange’s ongoing stay in the Ecuadorian embassy is “dangerous” to his health. Sondra Crosby, a doctor and associate professor at Boston University’s school of medicine and public health, and Brock Chisholm, a London-based consultant clinical psychologist, examined Assange for 20 hours over three days in October. They write: “While the results of the evaluation are protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, it is our professional opinion that his continued confinement is dangerous physically and mentally to him and a clear infringement of his human right to healthcare.” Although the two did not go into details, Assange’s health appears to be deteriorating significantly after more than five years holed up in the embassy.

The Coalition’s proposed foreign donation ban goes too far and would still not bar two high-profile Chinese donors who were the subject of claims of foreign interference, a leading academic has said. Only donations from foreign governments should be banned, rather than all donations from people who are not Australian citizens or residents, Melbourne University professor Joo-Cheong Tham said. The Turnbull government bill was introduced following controversy over the then Labor senator Sam Dastyari’s dealings with the Sydney-based Chinese businessman Huang Xiangmo. ABC’s Four Corners program investigated more than $4m of donations to the major parties by an Australian Chinese citizen, Chau Chak Wing, a member of a Communist party advisory group. Tham argued the foreign donation ban was “not justified” by those cases because neither would be banned since Huang is an Australian resident and Chau an Australian citizen.

Two baby macaque monkeys have become the first primate clones to be produced using the same approach that gave rise to Dolly the sheep, researchers have revealed. Scientists say the development of Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua will allow them to compare macaques to others that are genetically identical except for particular genes that have been deliberately tinkered with. That, they add, will not only help researchers probe the mechanisms behind human diseases, but aid drug screening and the development of other therapeutics. “There is now no barrier for cloning primate species, thus cloning humans is closer to reality,” Dr Mu-ming Poo, co-author of the research, said. “However … we absolutely have no intention, and society will not permit, this work to be extended to humans.”

Sport

Rafael Nadal is expected to return to the game next month following his hip injury at the Australian Open. The injured world number one has called on the ATP to investigate the spate of injuries suffered by top players. “Somebody who is running the tour should think a little bit about what’s going on,” he said. “Too many people are getting injured.

Rising British tennis star Kyle Edmund must unleash his monster forehand and attack if he has a hope of beating veteran Marin Cilic in the Australian Open semi-final, writes Tim Hensman, who has compiled a list of the weapons Edmund must deploy to path his way to grand slam victory.

Thinking time

If you’ve ever wanted to party with priceless art, this may be your moment. Galleries right across Australia are embracing the idea of daring after-hours events, complete (in some cases) with food, wine and a chance to get closer than usual to unfathomably expensive artworks. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it makes for a cultural experience that is less hushed, more immersive and able to provide a deeper appreciation of the art on show. Adding rhythm and wine to an otherwise static exhibition space can make for a breathtaking experience, and one that is not easily forgotten, as Steph Harmon has discovered.

The era of the electric car is coming but, by global standards, Australia is lagging far behind. Only 0.1% of all new car sales in 2016 in Australia were electric and that was actually down 23% on the year before. Other nations are powering ahead – Norway on 29%, the Netherlands on 6% and China, France and the UK on 1.5% of new cars in the same year. So what should be done? Behyad Jafari, the chief executive of the Electric Vehicle Council, says the future of the industry hinges on government intervention and the Coalition should introduce a temporary tax, stamp duty or rego-fee exemption for electric cars – to “kickstart” the industry – and a national plan of action.

Australians are rightly proud of the Snowy Hydro scheme, which is an icon of Australian and engineering history. An extention to the scheme announced by the prime minister was a cause for celebration, and the hard figures behind it are even more encouraging, writes Tristan Edis. “This achievement opens our eyes to what might be possible in addressing what is the most carbon emission-intensive electricity supply in the developed world. If we simply kept up the level of construction commitments seen in 2017 for another decade it would produce almost two-thirds of Australia’s entire electricity consumption.”

What’s he done now?

Donald Trump’s hatred of sharks has led to an unexpected boon for shark conservation groups, with donations to their causes rising since Trump allegedly said: “I hope all sharks die.” One anonymous donor has even adopted a shark in the wild – naming it Donald J Trump.

Media roundup

The Age has a red-hot front page, reporting that extreme sunburn is landing an increasing number of Victorians in hospital. In the past decade more than 2,500 people attended public hospital emergency departments with severe burns, including a record 355 cases in 2017, the paper reports.

The Courier Mail splashes with police allegations a Queensland mother poisoned her disabled children to claim welfare cash. Gold Coast Detective Inspector Mark Thompson said the case was “extremely traumatic” to investigate. The woman “intends to vigorously defend the charges”, her lawyer Emily Lewsey said outside court.

The ABC has crunched the numbers and designed a comprehensive graph that charts every single road death in Australia since 1989 – with nearly 6,000 riding motorbikes, nearly 17,000 under the age of 26, and more than 20,000 who weren’t driving when they died.

Coming up

The Fair Work Commission will hear the NSW government’s last-ditch legal proceedings to stop a 24-hour rail network strike scheduled for Monday. Regardless of whether the strike goes ahead, services today and Friday – Australia Day – are being cut back. If the strike takes place, no trains will run across NSW on Monday and all stations will be closed.

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