The Overnight News Digest is nightly series dedicated to chronicling the day’s news of import or interest. Everyone is welcome to add their own news items in the comments. Tonight’s ad hoc OND collects news from around the world.
NYT - In Climate Move, Obama to Halt New Coal Mining Leases on Public Lands
🇺🇸 The Obama administration will announce on Friday a halt to new coal mining leases on public lands as it considers an overhaul of the program that could lead to increased costs for energy companies and a slowdown in extraction, according to an administration official.
The move would represent a significant setback for the coal industry, effectively freezing new coal production on federal lands and sending a signal to energy markets that could turn investors away from an already flailing industry. President Obama telegraphed the step in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, saying, “I’m going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet.”
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“It appears that they’re going after the federal coal leasing program with the intention of keeping coal in the ground,” said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association.
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WaPo - Anglican Communion suspends the Episcopal Church after years of gay rights debates
🇬🇧 🇺🇸 For the first time, the global organizing body of Anglicans has punished the Episcopal Church, following years of heated debate with the American church over homosexuality, same-sex marriage and the role of women.
The Anglican Communion’s announcement Thursday that it would suspend its U.S. branch for three years from key voting positions was seen as a blow to the Episcopal Church, which allows its clergy to perform same-sex marriages and this summer voted to include the rite in its church laws.
It was also seen as a victory for conservative Anglicans, especially those in Africa,, who for years have been pressing the Anglican Communion to discipline the U.S. body.
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Guardian - Jakarta bombings: Indonesian police arrest three suspects over links to attack
🇮🇩 Indonesian police have arrested three men on suspicion of links to multiple bomb and gun attacks that turned downtown Jakarta into a conflict zone for three hours on Thursday, leaving seven people dead.
The assault was claimed by Islamic State, an al-Qaida faction that splintered in Iraq and has since spread worldwide. It was the first time the extremist organisation has successfully targeted the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Police chief Colonel Dwiyono, from the Depok area south of the capital, told Indonesia’s MetroTV the men were arrested at dawn at their homes while they were sleeping. The channel broadcast footage of the handcuffed men being escorted out by police to be questioned.
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LAT - How U.S. sailors almost started a crisis with Iran
🇺🇸 🇮🇷 It was nearly nightfall Tuesday and the two camouflaged U.S. Navy speedboats were off course in the Persian Gulf, possibly taking a shortcut through Iranian waters and apparently running out of gas on their more than 300-mile journey back to base.
When Iranian naval vessels approached, the 10 U.S. sailors aboard the two 50-foot-long riverine boats tried to make a run for it. But one boat developed engine trouble that slowed its escape, and the crew and both craft were quickly seized.
To complicate matters, U.S. officials said Thursday, the Navy crew inexplicably lost all radio and other communications with the 5th Fleet's operations and command center during the tense encounter, leaving the Pentagon in the dark.
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Telegraph - Russia poised to slash oil output to boost prices
🇷🇺 The first signs of a thaw are emerging for the battered oil market after Russia signalled a sharp fall in exports this year, a move that may offset the long-feared surge of supply from Iran.
The oil-pipeline monopoly Transneft said Russian companies are likely to cut crude shipments by 6.4pc over the course of 2016, based on applications submitted so far by Lukoil, Rosneft, Gazprom and other producers.
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Transneft told journalists in Moscow that tax changes account for some of the fall but economic sanctions are also beginning to inflict serious damage. External credit is frozen and drillers cannot easily import equipment and supplies.
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SMH - Confidence in renewable energy sector 'evaporated' after Abbott cut: Bloomberg
🇦🇺 Investment in large-scale renewable energy in Australia remains stagnant almost two years after the Abbott government began a review of the sector, according to an annual survey by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The Abbott government's repeal of the carbon tax in July 2014 – which removed long-term price support – and a mishandled review that led ultimately to a cut of about one-fifth in the 2020 Renewable Energy Target (RET) meant "confidence evaporated" in the sector, said Kobad Bhavnagri, head of Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Australia.
"It can't be understated that the actions of the Abbott government have destroyed confidence in the renewable energy market," Mr Bhavnagri said. "Lenders in the market are almost all of the view that the political risks in the RET … have made it too risky to invest in."
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Atlantic - China’s Widening Crackdown on Lawyers
🇨🇳 The Chinese government escalated its crackdown on the country’s burgeoning community of human-rights lawyers this week, filing subversion charges against some of its most prominent members Tuesday and arresting a Swedish legal-aid activist on Wednesday.
Among those formally arrested were Zhou Shifeng, the director of Beijing’s Fengrui Law Firm, as well as Wang Quanzhang, a lawyer with the firm, and Li Shuyun, an intern, The New York Times reported. They were charged with “subverting the state order,” a serious crime in the Chinese criminal-justice system that can potentially carry a life sentence.
The full scope of the crackdown is hard to ascertain. Amnesty International estimates that 248 “rights-defense” lawyers and activists have been arrested since the crackdown began July 9. Twenty-three of them are still in custody as of Thursday; nine have been formally charged. China’s opaque criminal-justice system makes verification difficult.
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WSJ - Brazil Alleges Environmental Crimes in Response to Fundão Dam Collapse
🇧🇷 Brazil’s Federal Police have accused seven people and three companies, including mining giant Vale SA and its joint-venture Samarco Mineração SA, of environmental crimes in response to a major dam collapse in November.
The move, which has no exact equivalent in the U.S. legal system, will trigger the beginning of a deeper investigation by police. It typically represents a step toward formal charges, which in Brazil can only be filed by prosecutors, often after police have presented their findings.
The accusations mark the latest response by Brazilian authorities to what some have called the country’s worst-ever environmental disaster. On Nov. 5, Samarco’s Fundão tailings dam suddenly collapsed, releasing a flood of sludge that buried rural villages, killed 19 people and polluted more than 400 miles of the Rio Doce basin.
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ProPublica - The U.S. Spent a Half Billion on Mining in Afghanistan With ‘Limited Progress’
🇦🇫 The United States has spent nearly half a billion dollars and five years developing Afghanistan’s oil, gas and minerals industries — and has little to show for it, a government watchdog reported today.
The project’s failings are the result of poorly planned programs, inadequate infrastructure and a challenging partnership with the Afghan government, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction wrote in its newest damning assessment of U.S. efforts in the war-torn country. The finding comes after some 200 SIGAR reports have detailed inefficient, unsuccessful or downright wasteful reconstruction projects. A recent ProPublica analysis of the reports found that there has been at least $17 billion in questionable spending.
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Phys.org - India's smog-choked capital ends car ban trial
🇮🇳 New Delhi wrapped up Friday a controversial trial of driving restrictions that took about a million cars off its roads, with arguments still raging about whether it is the right approach to cutting smog in the world's most polluted capital.
The 15-day experiment, which started January 1, allowed private cars on the roads only on every alternate day and slapped violators with a hefty fine of 2,000 rupees ($30) in a bid to reduce air pollution.
It took more than a third of the city's nearly three million private cars off the roads, visibly lessening the traffic on usually clogged routes. In a city where road rules are routinely flouted, most drivers appeared to be obeying the restrictions and many said they viewed the scheme positively.
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BBC - Ebola virus: New case emerges in Sierra Leone
🇸🇱 Health officials in Sierra Leone have confirmed a death from Ebola, hours after the World Health Organization declared the West Africa outbreak over.
The country was declared free of the virus on 7 November, and the region as a whole was cleared when Liberia was pronounced Ebola-free on Thursday.
But two tests conducted on a person who died in northern Sierra Leone proved positive for the virus, an Ebola test centre spokesman told the BBC.
The death occurred earlier this week.
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