NAIROBI, January 15 (IPS) - President Donald Trump has escalated efforts to further distance the United States from international organizations and entities focused on climate, the environment, and energy. This strategy is in step with his administration’s established approach to undermine and redirect funds and international cooperation away from climate and clean energy programs.

The past 11 years have been the warmest in the modern era, while oceans continue to heat up, too, says the UN weather agency.

With the multilateral system under pressure and under attack, Member States must fight for the United Nations, the President of the General Assembly said on Wednesday, laying out her priorities for its resumed 80th session.

A fragile political calm in Yemen is fraying, with renewed instability and aid restrictions deepening hunger, illness and displacement for millions of civilians, senior UN officials warned the Security Council on Wednesday.

The temporary closure of a UN-run health centre in East Jerusalem is the latest phase in “a pattern of deliberate disregard” for international law, the head of the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said on Wednesday.

BRATISLAVA, January 14 (IPS) - Israel must lift all restrictions on medicine, food and aid coming into Gaza, rights groups have demanded, as two reports released today (Jan 14) document how maternal and reproductive healthcare have been all but destroyed in the country.

BANGKOK, Thailand, January 14 (IPS) - Take a deep breath. Did you know that in many countries in Asia and the Pacific, the air we breathe falls short of the safety standards for air quality set by the World Health Organization? While the start of a new year signals new beginnings, it also marks the continuation of the recurring air quality crisis across many countries in the region.

Global unemployment remains stable, but progress toward decent work has stalled, according to a new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO), which warns that young people continue to struggle in a job market which risks being further undermined by AI and trade policy uncertainty.

Standing outside a colourfully painted building in southeastern Haiti, at the entrance to a bustling shop called Gods Will Depot where bags of food are stacked to the ceiling, Ketia surveys the large pile of groceries she has selected for her family: a big sack of flour, packages of spaghetti, boxed milk, some bars of soap.

More civilians in Sudan continue to be killed and displaced as fighting escalates in multiple parts of the country, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday.

Conflict-related sexual violence in Sri Lanka remains largely unaddressed more than 15 years after the end of the civil war, with survivors still denied justice, recognition and reparations, according to a new report by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Tuesday.

Beverages like sugary drinks and alcohol are too accessible and cost too little in most of the world – helping fuel obesity, diabetes, cancer and injury, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.

As anti-government demonstrations continue across Iran, the UN human rights chief said on Tuesday that he was horrified at the mounting violence directed by security forces against protestors, with reports of hundreds killed and thousands arrested.

Nomadic Jamaican-American writer Claude McKay probably never dreamed that 21st-century readers would be delving into his private correspondence some 77 years after his death. But that’s probably part of the professional hazard (luck?) of being a literary luminary, or, as Yale University Press describes him, “one of the Harlem Renaissance’s brightest and most radical voices”.

LONDON, January 13 (IPS) - The richest 1% have exhausted their annual carbon budget – the amount of CO2 that can be emitted while staying within 1.5 degrees of warming – only ten days into the year, according to new analysis from Oxfam. The richest 0.1% already used up their carbon limit on the 3rd January.

UNITED NATIONS, January 13 (IPS) - Judging by the mass US withdrawal from 66 UN entities, including UN conventions and international treaties*, is it remotely possible that the unpredictable Trump administration may one day decide to pull out of the UN, and force the Secretariat out of New York– despite the 1947 UN-US headquarters agreement?

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, January 13 (IPS) - At the moment, ICE’s advancement in the U.S. is apparently dividing the nation’s population into desired and undesirable elements. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was born after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers and intended to be a response to terrorism. However, with Donald Trump’s return to the White House, federal immigration agents have become the president’s praetorian guard, implementing his immigration politics.

Airstrikes, drone attacks and hypothermia continue in Gaza despite the ceasefire, with more than 100 youngsters killed since early October, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.

Amid ongoing and intensifying Russian attacks across Ukraine, the UN on Tuesday launched a $2.3 billion humanitarian appeal for 2026 to support 4.1 million of the country’s most vulnerable people.

Ukraine has entered the new year under intensifying and deadly Russian attacks which have crippled energy systems and left millions without heating, electricity or water amid freezing temperatures, senior UN officials told the Security Council on Monday.

The humanitarian crisis across the Gaza Strip remains extremely serious, with harsh winter weather threatening to reverse recent gains in aid delivery, the United Nations said on Monday.

Public hearings opened on Monday at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a landmark case brought by the Gambia against Myanmar, alleging violations of the Genocide Convention over the military’s treatment of the Rohingya minority.

More than 100 political prisoners have been released in Venezuela, the Government announced on Monday, just over a week after the seizure and rendition of President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas by the United States.

The head of the UN’s emergency food agency has urged world leaders on Monday to end “man-made famines” and conflicts that “drive hunger and desperation”.

The UN Security Council is meeting in emergency session in New York over Russia’s ongoing deadly missile and drone strikes targeting Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure, as frigid winter conditions grip the war-torn country. Millions have been deprived of electricity, heating and water. The UN Secretary-General has called the stepped up attacks an unacceptable violation of international humanitarian law. Follow live below and find all our in-depth meetings coverage here. UN News app users can go here.