U.S. alone against Paris deal as Syria joins in
President Donald Trump has put America at odds with the rest of the world when it comes to the goal of combating climate change.
At an international climate conference in Bonn, Germany, on Tuesday, Syria announced its plans to join the Paris climate accord — an agreement forged in 2015 for nations to ban together to slash global carbon emissions. That now leaves the United States as the only country to disavow the deal, after Trump this year announced intentions to withdraw from the agreement.
The move comes after the only other remaining holdout, Nicaragua, announced its plans to join the Paris agreement in September.
In June, Mr. Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement, an extraordinary move that baffled American allies and threatened to undermine global efforts to slow the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere.
Afghan station attacked
KABUL, Afghanistan — Gunmen disguised as police officers stormed the headquarters of a television station in Kabul on Tuesday, killing at least two employees, wounding 20 and forcing the station off the air for nearly four hours in another audacious attack in the Afghan capital.
When Shamshad TV resumed broadcasting, Parwiz Safi sat at the anchor’s desk, his hands bandaged from injuries he suffered in the attack.
“We’re not sure who was behind the attack. That is for security forces to find out,” Mr. Safi said, his voice defiant. “We will continue our broadcast.”
He said that 20 of his colleagues had been wounded, some seriously, and were being treated at hospitals. Mr. Safi himself was treated and released before returning to the air.
Islamic State’s affiliate in South Asia claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to reporters. It was the group’s second significant strike in Kabul in weeks, coming after a suicide bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque last month that killed more than 50 people.
26 found dead at sea
ROME — The bodies of 26 young Nigerian women and girls were retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea over the weekend and taken to Italy, where officials said on Tuesday they were investigating how the women died.
The young women were estimated to be between the ages of 14 and 18, said Marco Rotunno, the communications officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy. Their bodies were found floating in the water by the Spanish Navy on Friday, and survivors on nearby rubber dinghies, which had partly capsized, told the authorities that they were Nigerian and had departed from Libya.
When such groups of young women and girls are alone, the probability is high that they are victims of sex trafficking rings, he said.
“It is a tragedy for mankind,” said Salvatore Malfi, the prefect in the port city of Salerno, where the bodies arrived along with 400 migrants who were rescued in the central Mediterranean in recent days.
Also in the world ...
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday that it was unable to get clearance to ship chlorine tablets used to prevent cholera from Saudi Arabia into Yemen, where a massive outbreak of the disease has affected more than 900,000 people. ... Stunned Lebanese fear that Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s surprise resignation last weekend — announced from Saudi Arabia in a prerecorded message — was a power play by the kingdom aimed at wrecking a delicate compromise with Hezbollah and taking a swipe at regional rival Iran.