NEWS OF THE DAY
1 Climate summit: Negotiators at the U.N. climate talks in Katowice, Poland got down to the nittygritty task Tuesday of finalizing the rules for the Paris accord, a landmark agreement by countries three years ago to curb global warming. The 2015 accord set a goal of keeping average global temperature increases well below 3.6 Fahrenheit by the end of the century. Scientists say the deal’s most ambitious goal — limiting the rise to 1.5 degrees is still feasible, but increasingly challenging. The two-week meeting brings together diplomats from almost 200 countries. The U.S. is also taking part, despite announcing last year that it’s pulling out of the Paris accord.
2 Peace talks: Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington’s special envoy tasked with finding a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s bloody 17-year-old war, met Tuesday with Pakistani officials and four members of the Taliban’s political office in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. The resurgent Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan before U.S. forces invaded in 2001, carry out near-daily attacks on Afghan army and police forces. They view the U.S.-backed government in Kabul as a dysfunctional Western puppet and have refused repeated offers to negotiate with it. The war has already cost Washington nearly $1 trillion.
3 Mafia arrests: Italian authorities said Tuesday they had dismantled the rebuilt upper echelons of the Mafia in the Sicilian capital by arresting 46 people, including the man presumed to have taken over as provincial kingpin after the death of “boss of bosses” Salvatore “Toto” Riina. Based on wiretaps, police determined that Settimo Mineo was elected head of the provincial mob commission during a May 29 meeting in Palermo. It was the first time clan leaders had gathered in such a forum for years, and followed Riina’s 2017 death, prosecutors said. Italy’s chief anti-Mafia prosecutor, Federico Cafiero de Raho, said the election of Mineo, 80, was significant because it showed that the center of power of Cosa Nostra had shifted to Palermo. Under Riina, its longtime base was Corleone, the Sicilian town made famous by writer Mario Puzo when he used Corleone as the main character’s name in his 1969 novel “The Godfather.”
4 Cow slaughter rumors: Authorities in northern India have arrested four people for their alleged involvement in an attack on police over rumors of cow slaughter that left two people dead, including a police official. A case was filed against 28 people who allegedly set a police outpost on fire and killed a local police inspector, senior police officer Pravin Kumar said Tuesday. Another man also died in the violence. The incident took place Monday near the city of Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh state.
5 Clam die-off: With rapid efficiency, a mysterious parasite is killing a giant species of clam found only in the Mediterranean Sea. Unless scientists can find a way of stopping it soon, they say the mollusk could go extinct. For thousands of years, the emblematic noble pen shell has been intrinsically connected to human civilization. The largest bivalve in the Mediterranean can grow to more than three feet long and has provided food and one of the world’s rarest materials: sea silk spun from fibers it uses to secure itself to the seabed. The mollusk also contributes to clear water by filtering out organic particulates. Pinna nobilis, has been on the European Union’s protected species list for decades because of overfishing, pollution and the destruction of its natural habitat.