Overnight News Digest: Europe poised to protect bees with neonicotinoids ban

The Overnight News Digest is a nightly series dedicated to chronicling the eschaton. Please recommend and add stories or items of import or interest.

The Guardian Europe poised for total ban on bee-harming pesticides

The world’s most widely used insecticides would be banned from all fields across Europe under draft regulations from the European commission, seen by the Guardian.

The documents are the first indication that the powerful commission wants a complete ban and cite “high acute risks to bees”. A ban could be in place this year if the proposals are approved by a majority of EU member states.

Bees and other pollinators are vital for many food crops but have been declining for decades due to habitat loss, disease and pesticide use. The insecticides, called neonicotinoids, have been in use for over 20 years and have been linked to serious harm in bees.

Denis Voronenkov: ex-Russian MP who fled to Ukraine killed in Kiev

A former Russian MP who had fled to Ukraine was shot dead on a busy street in central Kiev on Thursday.

Denis Voronenkov, who had spoken out against Vladimir Putin and Kremlin policies, was shot three times outside the upmarket Premier Palace hotel.

Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, quickly pointed the finger at Russian authorities, calling the killing an act of “state terrorism”.

Trump's commerce secretary oversaw Russia deal while at Bank of Cyprus

Wilbur Ross, the Trump administration’s new commerce secretary, presided over a deal with a Russian businessman with ties to Vladimir Putin while serving in his previous role as vice-chairman of the Bank of Cyprus.

The transaction raises questions about Ross’s tenure at the Cypriot bank and his ties to politically connected Russian oligarchs. It comes amid confirmation by the FBI that it is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow to influence the outcome of the presidential election.

In 2015, while he served as vice-chairman of the Bank of Cyprus, the bank’s Russia-based businesses were sold to a Russian banker and consultant, Artem Avetisyan, who had ties to both the Russian president and Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank. At the time, Sberbank was under US and EU sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Avetisyan had earlier been selected by Putin to head a new business branch of the Russian president’s strategic initiative agency, which was tasked with improving business and government ties.

Washington Post Schumer: Democrats will filibuster Gorsuch nomination

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he will vote no on President Trump’s nominee and asked other Democrats to join him in blocking an up-or-down vote on Gorsuch. […]

Democrats may not have the votes to block Gorsuch, 49, who has been on the Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the last decade and was nominated to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant since Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly in February 2016.

Several Democrats, especially those facing upcoming reelection battles in states that Trump won, are facing opposition from conservative organizations bankrolling a multimillion-dollar ad campaign designed to bolster Gorsuch.

Afghan forces withdraw from key district in embattled Helmand province

The capital of a strategic southern district — where Western troops once spent months fighting to dislodge Taliban forces in the most famous clash of the 16-year Afghan war — has passed quietly into the hands of Taliban insurgents without a shot being fired.    

In a flurry of events Wednesday, Afghan army and police units withdrew from the center of the Sangin district in Helmand province, taking their equipment with them and potentially allowing Taliban forces to enter, according to tribal leaders, military officials and a Taliban spokesman.

Afghan and U.S. military officials denied news reports that Sangin had fallen to Taliban insurgents, as did provincial officials. Instead, they characterized the events as a preplanned relocation of government and military facilities outside the town to avoid civilian casualties.

Japanese Prime Minister Abe accused of giving secret donation to far-right school

A political controversy swirling around the Japanese prime minister shows no sign of abating, with the head of a nationalist school swearing under oath Thursday that Shinzo Abe sent him a $9,000 donation.

The allegation, which Abe strongly denies, is hurting the previously unassailable prime minister, causing his approval ratings to plummet and sparking talk of a snap election as soon as next month.

Scottish Parliament to vote on calls for a second independence referendum

The Scottish Parliament will vote Wednesday evening on whether to back calls for a second independence referendum, potentially setting the stage for a clash between the British prime minister and the first minister of Scotland.

If the semi-autonomous Scottish Parliament does vote in favor of a referendum — as is widely expected — it will mean that advocates for Scottish independence will be able to say they have a parliamentary mandate for a referendum. But they will still need to get the green light from Westminster in order to hold a binding referendum.

Deutsche Welle Belarus arrests dozens in crackdown, claims weapons found

Authorities in Belarus arrested people who were preparing "mass unrest" after discovering a weapons cache in a separate raid, according to state television. Activists in the ex-Soviet state dispute the official account.

At least 26 people were arrested ahead of a large anti-government protest planned for the weekend, Belarusian state television reported on Thursday, citing the state security service.

The officials said the suspects were preparing mass unrest. However, Belarus NGO Vyasna, a group that defends the rights of political prisoners, said that those preparations "never happened." Earlier on Thursday, the EU said that the prisoners arrested in the last two days "must be immediately released."

EU summons Turkish envoy over Erdogan warning for Europeans' safety

The EU has called on Turkey's envoy in Brussels to explain President Erdogan's warning about Europeans being unsafe on the world's streets. The German foreign minister has advised keeping channels with Ankara open.

Erdogan's remarks were made just hours ahead of the deadly attack outside the British parliament on Wednesday.

The Sydney Morning Herald 'Just crazy': Twin blasts for Turnbull government over energy and climate policy

The Turnbull government has exacerbated the nation's energy crisis, making it "as frightening as it gets" for investors and locking consumers into much higher power and gas prices, according to Danny Price, a former advisor. […]

In a second blow to the authority, John Quiggin, a University of Queensland professor, also quit the board on Thursday, saying the government had "chosen to treat the vital issues of climate change and energy security as an opportunity for political point-scoring and culture war rhetoric". […]

Professor Quiggin said the immediate reason for his resignation was the government's failure to respond as required by legislation to the Third Report of the authority's Special Review by the end of February. That report outlined the "tool kit" of policies Australia should adopt to meeting its international climate change commitments.

New Zealand Herald Death rates up for white working class in the United States

A sobering portrait of less-educated middle-age white Americans emerged Thursday with new research showing them dying disproportionately from what one expert calls "deaths of despair" - suicides, drug overdoses and alcohol-related diseases.

The new paper by two Princeton University economists, Anne Case and Angus Deaton, concludes that the trend is driven by the loss of steady middle-income jobs for those with a high school diploma or less.

The economists also argue that dwindling job opportunities have triggered broader problems for this group. They are more likely than their college-educated counterparts, for example, to be unemployed, unmarried or suffering from poor health.

The Globe and Mail Energy firms decry tax clampdown in federal budget

Ottawa's plan to end tax allowances for oil firms seeking to drill new wells is riling the energy sector – especially small and medium-sized producers who have already been hit hard by the oil-price drop and increasing competition from the United States.

Canadian firms say the push to eliminate any preferential tax treatment for oil and natural gas development, in large part to honour federal environmental commitments, adds to their list of problems as they try to distinguish themselves in the global hunt for energy investors.

They argue the federal Liberals' removal of tax incentives, as laid out in this week's federal budget, is another knock against the Canadian energy sector as the Trump administration begins to enact policies and tax changes that could unleash more U.S. oil and natural gas on the North American market.

Tensions rising as Chinese no longer willing to hold their breath on pollution problems

Cracking down on dissent has been a hallmark of Chinese public life. But a population once ignorant of the toxic cost of pollution is speaking out against a government intent on growing the economy. The war on pollution has increased tensions across China.

In the village dubbed the birthplace of Beijing’s smog, anger is rising into a sky that seems permanently darkened by pollution. At least three times over the past two years, local residents in Songting have gathered to protest at the gates of the steelworks that surround the place generations have called home. […]

Now the villagers are fed up. One of the recent steel-mill protests lasted more than a week. “Every day, more than 30 people gathered there,” said Zhao Xiuying, 54, who lives in an old village home that backs out onto a vista of metalworks.

The villagers demanded pollution compensation, but received nothing. So they tried again. “We blocked the coking plant, too,” Ms. Zhao said. “But no one fixed our problem.”

Toronto Star Donald Trump said 14 false things in an interview about how he says false things

U.S. President Donald Trump did an interview with TIME magazine on Wednesday to discuss the subject of his untruthfulness. In the interview, he vigorously denied that he is untruthful — and said at least 14 false things. (We’ll allow him some rhetorical license on a few others. For the Star’s complete list of his false claims as president, visit thestar.com/trumpcheck.)

National Public Radio Obama: 'America Is Stronger Because Of The Affordable Care Act'

Former President Obama took a victory lap Thursday on seventh anniversary of his signature health care law even as Republicans had planned to formally begin the process of gutting it in celebration.

But now, it's the GOP replacement plan that remains on life support. Republicans postponed a planned evening vote in the House, denying them a symbolic chance to make good on their years-long promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Obama ticked off the law's successes in a statement released Thursday morning: 20 million more people insured, preexisting conditions covered, young people staying on their parents' plans until 26, lowered costs for women's health care and free preventive care. And while he acknowledged the law could get better, he charged that Republicans' plan would be moving backward.

GOP Health Bill Changes Could Kill Protections For Those With Pre-Existing Conditions

When House Speaker Paul Ryan says he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act so that people can buy insurance that's right for them, and not something created in Washington, part of what he's saying is that he wants to get rid of so-called essential health benefits.

That's a list of 10 general categories of medical care that all insurance policies are required to cover under the Affordable Care Act.

Getting rid of that requirement, or trimming it, is central to the Republican strategy, because they say those benefits drive up insurance premiums so much that healthy people won't buy coverage.

But if Republicans repeal that list, they essentially renege on a promise they've repeated over and over to voters, that they will protect people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Who Will Listen To The Suffering Syrians?

Dr. Hussam Jefee-Bahloul, a Syrian psychiatrist, writes poetry that reflects his deep longing for a lost homeland.

"Poetry and art is another way to cope," he says, "we are all grieving in our own ways. The country is no longer the one that I left and it still haunts me in my dreams." (Click here to read one of his poems.)

He has turned his grief into an action plan. From the United States, where he's lived since he arrived for a medical residency in 2009, he's using his mental health expertise to help Syrians traumatized by years of violence and displacement. McClatchy DC Bureau Senate Republicans vote to let internet service companies collect your browsing habits

On a party line vote, the Senate Thursday overturned privacy rules that barred companies that provide internet service from gathering and profiting from consumers’ personal information without their consent.

If the measure passes another vote in the House, internet providers such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, will be empowered to monitor where consumers browse online, what they buy, what they watch on television, as well as any health and financial information that you divulge through internet use.

The repeal, part of a Republican effort to unwind regulations imposed under President Barack Obama, passed with 50 Republican votes. Forty-six Democratic senators and two independents voted against.

Native Americans prepare to battle Trump over Utah national monument

When word came down on Dec. 28 that President Barack Obama had created a 1.35 million-acre national monument called Bears Ears, Jonah Yellowman celebrated. So did leaders of his Navajo people and other tribes that rarely have much to cheer about, such as the Hopi, Ute and Zuni.

Yet the festivities did not last long. Angered at Obama, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and other Republicans quickly lobbied President Donald Trump to rescind or scale back the monument. For Yellowman, such a reversal would represent a historic betrayal. He and other activists have spent years trying to protect Bears Ears and its cliff dwellings and other antiquities.

“People are target shooting at our rock carvings,” said Yellowman, a Navajo elder. “They are cutting out our pictographs, our stories, and taking them away and selling them.”

Miami Herald Climate change driving away Florida Bay's iconic spoonbills

Of the many ways used to diagnosis the health of the Everglades, the most bizarrely beautiful by far, with red beady eyes and bald greenish head, is the scarlet-plumed roseate spoonbill nearly wiped off the planet by feather hunters a century ago. […] 

Audubon Florida’s Jerry Lorenz ... considers the spoonbills Florida’s most telling canary in a coal mine, and the song they’re singing is pretty telling: changing water patterns linked to Everglades flood control compounded by rising sea levels are driving the birds away. It’s also likely propelling an overall decline in other wading bird species in the Everglades that last year reached a decade-long low. Lorenz worries if changes aren’t made soon, the sight of spoonbills in Florida Bay might be doomed. […]

By 1990, the area that had once provided the best place to breed and raise chicks produced just over 200 nests. Accelerating sea rise only made things worse. Since 2000, water levels have risen around the bay by five inches, Lorenz said, essentially eliminating the season when subsiding waters pool and collect prey like fish in a barrel, perfect for parents feeding young chicks.

Reuters Russia may be helping supply Taliban insurgents: U.S. general

The top U.S. general in Europe said on Thursday that he had seen Russian influence on Afghan Taliban insurgents growing and raised the possibility that Moscow was helping supply the militants, whose reach is expanding in southern Afghanistan.

"I've seen the influence of Russia of late - increased influence in terms of association and perhaps even supply to the Taliban," Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, who is also NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

He did not elaborate on what kinds of supplies might be headed to the Taliban or how direct Russia's role might be.

Dozens killed, buried in rubble after Mosul air raid - Iraqi officials, residents

Dozens of residents were buried in collapsed buildings in the Iraqi city of Mosul after an air strike against Islamic State triggered a massive explosion last week and rescuers are still recovering bodies, civil defense agency officials and locals said on Thursday.

The exact cause of the collapses was not clear, but a local lawmaker and two local residents said air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition targeting Islamic State militants may have detonated a truck filled with explosives, destroying buildings in a heavily populated area.

Trump demands do-or-die Friday vote on healthcare plan

Donald Trump will get a second chance to try to close the deal with Republican lawmakers on dismantling Obamacare in a high-stakes vote on a new healthcare bill rescheduled for Friday. […]

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told House Republicans at a Thursday night meeting that Trump was finished negotiating and wanted a vote, said Representative Chris Collins of New York, a top Trump ally.

"The president has said he wants a vote tomorrow, up or down," Collins said.

x

This is outrageous: Not a single woman in the room as @Mike_Pence and @HouseGOP propose removing maternity coverage in #Trumpcare. pic.twitter.com/wwY6WsN206

— Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) March 23, 2017

CNN Mexico ready to 'step away from NAFTA' if new deal isn't good

"If what is on the table is something that is not good for Mexico, Mexico will step away from NAFTA," Mexico's foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, told Bloomberg TV Thursday in Acapulco, Mexico, referring to the trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Videgaray emphasized he believes trade talks will be constructive and the countries will be able to work out an updated agreement that benefits each of them. Pulling out isn't a first step but a last resort, he said. But it's a last resort Mexico is willing to take.

London mayor shuts down Trump Jr. tweet

A day after a terror attack in his city left three people dead and as many as 40 wounded, London Mayor Sadiq Khan says he has more important things to do than respond to a tweet from Donald Trump Jr.

Wednesday, President Trump's son tweeted, "You have to be kidding me?!" in response Khan's assertion in 2016 to The Independent newspaper that terror attacks are "part and parcel" of living in a major city. "I'm not going to respond to a tweet from Donald Trump Jr.," Khan told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday. "I've been doing far more important things over the last 24 hours." ICE is targeting 'sanctuary cities' with raids

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been targeting so-called "sanctuary cities" with increased enforcement operations in an effort to pressure those jurisdictions to cooperate with federal immigration agents, a senior US immigration official with direct knowledge of ongoing ICE actions told CNN.

A sanctuary city is a broad term applied to states, cities and/or counties that have policies in place designed to limit cooperation or involvement in the enforcement of federal immigration operations. More than 100 US jurisdictions -- among them New York, Los Angeles and Chicago -- identify as such.

High-ranking ICE officials have discussed in internal meetings carrying out more raids on those locations, said the source.

Los Angeles Times ‘Bad luck’ with random DNA errors is responsible for two-thirds of cancer mutations, study says

In research published Thursday in the journal Science, geneticist Bert Vogelstein and biostatistician Cristian Tomasetti demonstrate that most cancer risk stems not from bad genes, environmental toxins or poor lifestyle choices, but from simple random mutations.

Every time a normal cell divides, about three mutations occur. The body has ingenious DNA-repair mechanisms to limit the damage, and not all mutations occur in parts of the genome that are active. So sometimes our luck is good, Vogelstein said.

But, he added, “we cannot stop ourselves from making mistakes.”