Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 13 December.

Top stories

Brexit is in chaos after Tory MPs triggered a vote of no confidence against Britain’s embattled prime minister, Theresa May, who has said she will step away from leading the Conservative party into the 2022 election. Tory colleagues indicated they no longer had faith in her to deliver the Brexit deal. Voting is under way and, if she is effectively sacked after the ballot, a leadership contest could take up to six weeks to complete.

May will need the backing of at least 158 Tory MPs to see off the Brexiters’ challenge; her position would then be safe for 12 months. But the prime minister could decide to resign if votes against her were below the threshold to topple her, but significant enough in number. Follow live updates of the no-confidence vote here, and find out who could be next in line to lead a divided Britain.

The Morrison government has sent a clear signal that it is prepared to provide taxpayer support for new and existing coal plants, opening registrations of interest in its controversial new power generation underwriting program. With the government accelerating major announcements before the Christmas break, the energy minister, Angus Taylor, will on Thursday use an event at a hydro power station in Tasmania to outline the terms of the program and urge proponents to get their bids in before 23 January. The government is also expected to outline its response to the Ruddock review into religious freedom, and unveil its decision on Australian diplomatic facilities in Israel.

Regular visitors to a Melbourne immigration centre say Serco guards using overly sensitive detectors are making them jump through hoops or refusing them entry to see friends and family. Colin Elkington, a Salvation Army chaplain in Victoria, is a regular visitor to detainees, but earlier this year guards began drug-trace testing visitors before entry, and swabs of his clothes returned a positive reading. “I’m a minister of religion for 30 years, I don’t even drink alcohol and and I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life,” Elkington said. “To be told I had traces of a drug on me was humiliating. They said it was fentanyl – I had to look it up.” He was denied entry for his scheduled visit with detainees, which had taken at least a week to organise. The apparently highly sensitive machines installed at detention centres have been regularly detecting traces of the prescription drug fentanyl on the clothing of people who say they have never even heard of the drug, let alone used it.

Michael Cohen has been sentenced to jail for three years, telling the judge: “I have been living in a personal and mental incarceration ever since the day that I accepted the offer to work for [Trump].” Cohen was Trump’s personal fixer and will be jailed in March for crimes including lying to Congress and facilitating illegal payments to silence two women who alleged affairs with the US president. “I take full responsibility for each act that I pled guilty to,” Cohen told the judge. “It was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.” Cohen’s lawyers have said he intends to reveal more to the Mueller investigation. Follow rolling updates in the live blog here, and read analysis of who of Trump’s cronies could be the next to fall.

The Department of Home Affairs has confirmed it was the Australian bureau of Interpol that alerted Thailand to the arrival of Hakeem al-Araibi, but has not explained how it’s possible an Interpol red notice was issued against the refugee in the first place. Al-Araibi, a Bahraini refugee and professional footballer who lives in Australia as a permanent resident, was arrested on arrival at Bangkok on the evening of 27 November, on the basis of a red notice issued for an alleged act of vandalism, which he denies. Thai immigration said last week, and Australia confirmed on Wednesday, that Interpol’s Australian National Central Bureau had alerted Thailand – understood to be a largely automatic process – that an individual with a red notice against him was scheduled to depart Australia.

Sport

After decades of bounce and baking sun, the annual Test match will not be played at the Waca ground. Instead, Perth Stadium will host Australia’s second Test against India, starting on Friday. The new venue doesn’t embody Western Australia cricketing history but there’s plenty of WA focus within the team itself this year.

Cronulla are standing by Shane Flanagan, insisting he will be their 2019 coach amid a new controversy at the embattled NRL club. The Sharks boss is being investigated as part of a salary cap inquiry, and may face another ban.

Thinking time

The 10 best Australian films of 2018 feature zombies, ghosts and swingers, and highlight bold and distinctive voices with uncompromising visions, spanning many genres. “If I had to pick a common trait it would be a tremendous sense of authorship,” writes Luke Buckmaster. “It is hardly a coincidence that the majority of the films below were written or co-written by their directors.” Standouts from 2018 include Cargo, Gurrumul, Strange Colours and Upgrade. Warwick Thornton’s Australian western Sweet Country takes the top honour.

Native American tribes are rescuing the bison from the brink of extinction but the relationship is deeply reciprocal, with the continent’s largest land mammal playing a crucial role in the spiritual lives of the tribes. Three hundred and forty bison are now roaming on 5,000 hectares of unploughed prairie in north-eastern Montana – tribal lands – the largest conservation herd in restoration efforts. And as the animals begin to thrive, so too do the local people caring for them.

Housing is enough of a worry without warnings of rising interest rates, writes Greg Jericho, and worrying about rates that Australia hasn’t had since 1996 seems a bit odd right now. “To the surprise of no one, the latest residential house price data released by the Bureau of Statistics this week showed that house prices across the nation fell 1.9% on average over the past 12 months,” writes Jericho. “It continues worries that prices will keep falling and wreak havoc on our economy. At such times we should at least be able to console ourselves by knowing that fears about a sudden big increase in interest rates are unfounded.”

What’s he done now?

Donald Trump has hijacked the Strasbourg shooting to push his pet project, the border wall with Mexico, tweeting: “Another very bad terror attack in France. We are going to strengthen our borders even more. Chuck and Nancy must give us the votes to get additional Border Security!”

Media roundup

The West Australian reports Scott Morrison is pushing ahead with moves to legislate further protection for religious freedoms to ensure that Australians can practice their faith without discrimination. New figures show Australians are spending a record high proportion of their income to keep the lights and air conditioning on, the Age reports. And the ABC has an engaging interactive that looks at how life has changed for Australians since the 1980s.

Coming up

University of New South Wales researchers will present evidence showing that, in the years ahead, drought-like conditions will become more commonplace. They will also show evidence that global warming has caused storms to change behaviour, leading to more intense downpours that quickly overwhelm stormwater infrastructure and create flooding in urban areas.

A cyclone heading towards the Northern Territory’s east coast is expected to do a U-turn today and move back towards Queensland.

Supporting the Guardian

We’d like to acknowledge our generous supporters who enable us to keep reporting on the critical stories. If you value what we do and would like to help, please make a contribution or become a supporter today. Thank you.

Sign up

If you would like to receive the Guardian Australia morning mail to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here.