The U.S. is urging other nations to back a “trade over aid” initiative at the United Nations as part of the Trump administration’s broader shift away from donor-focused development assistance and toward greater private investment.

President Donald Trump’s recent statements of intent about his administration’s plans for Iran have raised questions about international law.

In his news conference on Monday, President Donald Trump threatened to blow up every bridge and power plant in Iran, a declaration so far-reaching that some experts in military law said it could constitute a war crime.

U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran have damaged at least four cultural and historical sites across Iran.

U.S. first lady Melania Trump is presiding over a U.N. Security Council meeting that will focus on children in conflict, one of her signature issues.

U.S. first lady Melania Trump will preside over a U.N. Security Council meeting in what the United Nations said Thursday would be a first.

The United Nations says it’s waiting to find out how much of the nearly $4 billion the United States owes the world organization the Trump administration intends to pay and when the money will arrive.

Desperate Palestinians at a garbage dump in a Gaza neighborhood are digging with their bare hands for plastic items to burn to keep warm in the cold and damp winter in the enclave, battered by two years of the Israel-Hamas war.

The top United Nations official says the United States has a “legal obligation” to keep paying its dues that fund U.N. agencies after the White House announced that it's withdrawing support from more than 30 initiatives operated by the world body.

It’s been a grim week at the end of a tough year for the United Nations: Six U.N. peacekeepers were killed in a drone attack in Sudan.

The United Nations chief is calling on Yemen’s Houthi rebels not to prosecute detained U.N. personnel and to work “in good faith” to immediately release all detained staff from the U.N. and foreign agencies and missions.

The United Nations says 170,000 metric tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid is ready to enter Gaza.

Peace talks between Israel and Hamas have resumed in Egypt.

President Donald Trump said on his social media site that he was the victim of “three very sinister events” during his time at the United Nations on Tuesday and that the Secret Service will be looking into the issues.

Israeli drones have dropped grenades near U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ office is urging the U.S. to reverse its decision to revoke his visa.

The future of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has split the United States and its European allies with implications for security in the Middle East.

An Italian hospital says a 20-year-old Palestinian woman has died after being transferred from Gaza for treatment.

The U.N. Security Council has rejected plans by Sudan’s paramilitary group to establish a rival government in areas it controls.

Health officials and witnesses say Israeli gunfire killed at least 25 people while seeking aid.

Israel called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to demand the release of its emaciated hostages including one seen digging his own grave.

The United Nations and experts say that Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of famine, with reports of increasing numbers of people dying from causes related to malnutrition.

Israel has refused to renew visas for the heads of at least three United Nations agencies in Gaza.

And Israeli-backed American organization in Gaza says 20 Palestinians died in a stampede at a food distribution center.

An independent U.N. investigator and outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza said “it was shocking” to learn that the Trump administration had imposed sanctions on her.

The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have signed a peace deal facilitated by the U.S. to help end the decades-long fighting in eastern Congo.

The U_N_ Security Council has scheduled a vote Wednesday on a resolution which demands “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties.”.

Hamas is seeking amendments to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal for Gaza.

More than 60 United Nations offices, agencies and operations have been ordered to submit proposals by mid-June to cut 20% of their staff.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least one Palestinian was killed and 48 were wounded when gunshots were fired on a crowd that overran a new aid distribution site in the war-battered enclave that was set up by an Israeli and U.S.-backed foundation.

Hamas says it has released an American-Israeli hostage held in Gaza.

United Nations officials have circulated proposals for a consolidation of its operations and other reforms to root out inefficiencies, overlaps and cost overruns.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has boasted that he's dismantling a program supporting women on security teams.

Several U.N. agencies that provide aid to children, refugees and other vulnerable people around the world are slashing jobs or cutting costs in other ways.

A notorious paramilitary group fighting against the Sudanese military says its forming a rival government, which will rule parts of the country controlled by the group including the western Darfur region.

The U.N. humanitarian agency says more than 300 civilians were killed in two days of intense fighting in Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region.

At least two people were killed and others were injured in renewed attacks by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on a camp in North Darfur that is sheltering around 450,000 people displaced by the war in the country.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas.

The Trump administration is demanding U.N. humanitarian agencies that receive or disburse U.S. funding to fill out a questionnaire disclosing any ties to communism, socialism or anti-American beliefs.

Trump administration freezes on U.S. foreign aid have led many United Nations organizations to cut staff, budgets and services in places as diverse as Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine and even the United States.

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama committed the United States to achieving newly adopted U.N. global goals by 2030.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres says he will request that the United Nations assumes funding for the structural and logistical expenses of a multinational force in Haiti that is struggling to fight violent gangs.

President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will withdraw from the U.N.’s top human rights body and will not resume funding for the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees.

Congo’s government has described the unilateral ceasefire declared by Rwanda-backed rebels in eastern Congo as “false communication,” while the United Nations on Tuesday noted reports of heavy fighting with Congolese forces in the region.

The United Nations says that the U.S. has given notice that it is halting some funding to a U.N.-backed mission in Haiti tasked with fighting gangs trying to seize full control of the country’s capital.

The families of hostages freed from Gaza over the weekend described difficult conditions — including rarely seeing the sun — during their captivity.

The U.N. says Rwanda-backed rebels were quickly expanding their presence in eastern Congo after capturing the region’s major city.

Rebels backed by Rwanda have captured more towns in eastern Congo as fighters moved beyond the key city of Goma in an apparent attempt to expand their control in the conflict-battered region.

The United Nations says it’s ready to ramp up the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza after a ceasefire agreement and urged the removal of major security and political obstacles so it can reach all those in need.

The Israeli military said a rocket fired from Yemen hit an area of Tel Aviv injuring 16 people on Saturday, and Houthi rebels later reported airstrikes in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa.

Thousands of Syrians gathered in Damascus’ historic main mosque for the first Muslim Friday prayers since former President Bashar Assad was overthrown.

Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes across Syria as its troops advanced deeper into the country.

A U.S. envoy has held talks in Beirut with Lebanese officials about a possible cease-fire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Israel’s new foreign minister says there has been “certain progress” in efforts to end the fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Iran has fired dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel.

Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes in the occupied West Bank killed six people, including the son of a prominent jailed militant.

The Israeli military says it has killed five more militants in a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank, including a well-known local commander.

The top United Nations humanitarian official for Gaza says that successive Israeli evacuation orders have displaced 90% of the Palestinian territory's 2.1 million residents since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.

Several U.S. officials say the pier built by the American military to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza will be reinstalled on the beach to be used for several days, but then the plan is to pull it out permanently.

The United Nations has told Israel it will suspend aid operations across Gaza unless urgent steps are taken to better protect humanitarian workers.

U.N. investigators are looking into allegations against 14 of the 19 staffers from the U.N. relief agency for Palestinians who Israel claims were involved in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that spurred the latest war in Gaza.

Human Rights Watch says military forces in Burkina Faso killed 223 civilians, including babies and many children, in attacks on two villages accused of cooperating with militants.

The United Nations is calling for “a clear, transparent and credible investigation” of mass graves uncovered at two major hospitals in war-torn Gaza that were raided by Israeli troops.

More than 53,000 people have fled Haiti’s capital in less than three weeks as deadly gang violence continues.

The Israeli military has rescued two hostages from the Gaza Strip early in a dramatic operation that Palestinian hospital officials say also killed at least 67 Palestinians in airstrikes.

The Palestinians are hoping that a vote in the U.N. General Assembly on a nonbinding resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire will demonstrate widespread global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has used a rarely exercised power to warn the Security Council of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and urged its members to demand an immediate cease-fire.

Hundreds of foreign nationals and several seriously injured Palestinians are being allowed to leave Gaza for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war began more than three weeks ago.

The Ukrainian government is seeking to extend a wartime deal that allowed the country’s grain to get to nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

A U.N. resolution that calls on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to swiftly reverse their increasingly harsh restrictions on women and girls and condemns their ban on Afghan women working for the United Nations is set to be voted on Thursday by the Security Council.

The United Nations says the 3,330 Afghan men and women it employs stayed home for a second day to protest the Taliban’s ban on U.N. female staff working in the country, as it continued to press for the decision to be reversed.

U.N. officials say that female Afghan employees of the United Nations have been banned from working by Taliban authorities.

The United Nations says at least 32 civilians were killed by rebel groups in eastern Congo’s Ituri province.

The United Nations says Syria’s president has agreed to open two new crossing points from Turkey to the country’s rebel-held northwest to deliver desperately needed aid and equipment for millions of earthquake victims.

Turkey's state-run news agency says Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has sent a letter to the United Nations formally requesting that his country be referred to as “Türkiye.”.

New Zealand and Australia have sent military surveillance flights to assess the damage caused by a huge undersea volcanic eruption in Tonga.

The U.N. humanitarian chief is urging Myanmar’s military leaders to provide unimpeded access to the more than 3 million people in need of “life-saving" humanitarian assistance since government forces seized power on Feb. 1.

The part-virtual, partly in-person U.N. General Assembly meeting is again drawing people to the world body’s headquarters a year after going remote because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The United Nations is calling the Myanmar military’s extension of the state of emergency and election delay moves in the wrong direction from international calls for the restoration of democracy.

A U.N. spokesman said the world body has been left with no international staff in North Korea and its North Korean employees are working remotely. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File)SEOUL – A U.N. spokesman said the world body in North Korea has been left with no international staff, who are now working remotely. AdDujarric said that WFP operations will be handled by local staff in Pyongyang and international staff working remotely. Several U.N. agencies including WFP, WHO and UNICEF have offices in North Korea. North Korea has about 26 million people.

(UNTV via AP)CAMEROON – Myanmar’s U.N. ambassador, who strongly opposed the military coup in his country, insists he remains the permanent representative to the United Nations, but the foreign ministry has informed the U.N. that the ambassador has been terminated and his deputy is now in charge. The dispute over who is recognized as Myanmar’s ambassador -- the representative of the generals who carried out the Feb. 1 coup or of the ousted democratically elected government -- is under discussion and could end up in the General Assembly, where all 193 U.N. members have seats. “I wish therefore to confirm to you that I remain Myanmar’s permanent representative to the United Nations.”The second letter to the secretary-general from Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which Dujarric said was received Tuesday, makes no mention of the coup. AdThe ministry said Myanmar’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Tin Maung Naing, has been assigned as the charge d’affaires of the U.N. mission. The General Assembly meeting was called to hear a briefing from the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, who said it is time to “sound the alarm” about the coup.

The Iranian-supported Houthi rebels rule the capital and Yemen’s north where the majority of the population lives, forcing international aid groups to work with them. Most of Yemen's 30 million people rely on international aid to survive. Some aid agencies said they were considering pulling out foreign staff. Saudi Arabia has advocated the terror designation, hoping it would pressure the rebels to reach a peace deal. The Saudi Foreign Ministry welcomed the U.S. decision, expressing hope the designation would force the rebels to “seriously” return to negotiating table.

FILE - In this May 20 2008 file photo, pro-independence Polisario Front rebel soldiers prepare tea in the Western Sahara region of Tifariti. The Moroccan military has intervened in a U.N.-patrolled border zone in the disputed Western Sahara to clear a key road it said was being blockaded for weeks by supporters of the pro-independence Polisario Front. A Polisario envoy accused the Moroccan military of firing at innocent protesters and said that led to clashes Friday between Moroccan and Polisario forces. Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony believed to have considerable offshore oil deposits and mineral resources, in 1975. Morocco has proposed wide-ranging autonomy for Western Sahara.

-- Maryland will reduce indoor operations for bars and restaurants from 75% to 50% in response to rising coronavirus cases and increased hospitalizations. Maryland also reported 1,338 new coronavirus cases Tuesday — the seventh straight day of at least 1,000 cases. ___WASHINGTON — The U.S. has surpassed 1 million new confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of November. The El Paso County sheriff’s office says two of the employees were hospitalized over the weekend as coronavirus cases surged at the facility. Officials first reported the outbreak on Oct. 26 when eight inmates tested positive for COVID-19.

“The United Nations was formed to promote peace with a goal of the abolition of nuclear weapons,” Fihn said. It says the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, known as the TPNW, “turns back the clock on verification and disarmament and is dangerous” to the half-century-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, considered the cornerstone of global nonproliferation efforts. “It would be unfortunate if the TPNW were allowed to derail our ability to work together to address pressing proliferation.”Fihn has stressed that “the nonproliferation Treaty is about preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eliminating nuclear weapons, and this treaty implements that. There’s no way you can undermine the Nonproliferation Treaty by banning nuclear weapons. Secretary-General Guterres said in an Associated Press interview on Wednesday: “It is clear for me that we will only be entirely safe in relation to nuclear weapons the day where nuclear weapons no longer exist.

File-This June 4, 2020, file photo shows Women and children walk in a makeshift site for displaced people in Kongoussi, Burkina Faso. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the funds will help some 10 million people in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger for the remainder of this year and through next year with nutrition, food, health services, water and sanitation, shelter, education, protection and support to survivors of gender-based violence. Both Guterres and Lowcock appealed for $2.4 billion to cover the remaining months of 2020 and 2021. U.N. spokesman Dujarric said donors pledged $985 million for this year and $704 million for 2021 and beyond. The United States was next pledging $274.8 million followed by Denmark with $183.1 million, the European Union with $122.8 million and Germany with $118.2 million.

TANZANIA U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep shock late Friday at the discovery of mass graves in Libyan territory recently recaptured from forces commanded by Khalifa Hifter, and called for a transparent investigation. The U.N. chief also called on Libyas U.N.-supported government to secure the mass graves, identify the victims, establish the causes of death and return the bodies to next of kin. The discoveries have raised fears about the extent of human rights violations in territories controlled by Hifters forces, given the difficulties of documentation in an active war zone. Philippe Nassif, Amnesty Internationals director for the Middle East and North Africa, said the group was working to verify the mass killings. Libya has been in turmoil since 2011 when a civil war toppled long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed.