Norway hits pause on controversial deep-sea mining

Norway has shelved plans to open a vast ocean area at the bottom of the Arctic for commercial-scale deep-sea mining. The decision, which was confirmed late Sunday, comes after the country’s Socialist Left Party said it would not support the minority government’s budget unless it dropped the first licensing round, initially scheduled for the first half of next year. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said the move was a “postponement,” while environmental campaigners hailed what they described as a “huge win”.