Today we're talking about the Iran-Iraq War, but more and more countries are becoming involved, more civilians are falling victim, and more places on the world map have been marked by acts of war, making the conflict less regional and more global. And it's all likely to get worse, because Russia and China have, for the moment, remained in the declaration phase.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, is one of the voices that have most forcefully denounced the genocide in GazaHis reports have served to highlight not only the atrocities committed in recent years in the Gaza Strip, but also the complicity of third countries and companies that profit from the situation in the Middle East. He publishes When the world sleeps (Galaxia Gutenberg), a journey through 10 conversations that move between intimate and political discourse, and attempt to answer key questions about impunity, resistance, war, and peace.

In the midst of an open battle—currently a war of words—with his European and NATO allies over Greenland, Donald Trump took another step toward international isolation on Thursday, ordering the United States to withdraw from 66 international organizations and treaties, 31 of which are UN agencies. The list of entities in which Washington will cease to participate and contribute financially includes the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and UN Energy. The country is also withdrawing from the International Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the scientific platform of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and from organizations such as the Global Counterterrorism Forum, the International Energy Forum, the Atlantic Partnership for Cooperation, and the UN Science and Technology Centre. The White House announced this early this morning in a statement regarding the "withdrawal of the United States from organizations, conventions, and treaties that are contrary to the interests of the United States." After having already left UNESCO, the WHO, the UN Human Rights Council, and the Paris AgreementThis new step culminates the process of retreating from and dismantling multilateralism that he has championed since his first term. He breaks off dialogue with the international community at a moment of maximum confrontation, after launching a military operation against Venezuela to seize its oil and when he threatens to do the same to annex Greenland and its minerals.

"I will create two roadmaps, one to halt and reverse deforestation, and another for a just, orderly, and equitable transition away from fossil fuels." The president of the UN climate summit, COP30, Brazilian André Correa do Lago, drew a standing ovation during the summit's final plenary session when he made this announcement. But not everyone was happy. This was the solution Correa himself found to get the final COP30 text approved, the so-called Mutirão (collective effort in Brazilian Portuguese), without mentioning that 82 countries were demanding a "roadmap" to end the fossil fuels that have generated the climate crisis we are experiencing.

A group of protesters, many of them indigenous, invaded the restricted area of the convention center on Tuesday night (early morning in Catalonia) where the Brazil hosts the UN climate summit, COP30. for demanding a "tax on billionaires" to finance the fight against the climate crisis. Climate activists managed to breach the security checkpoints at the entrance to Parque da Cidade, which had been closed for the past few weeks for use as a summit venue, and entered the lobby of the large tent managed by the UN, where they clashed with police, who formed a cordon to prevent them from proceeding. Clashes and scenes of chaos ensued until the protesters were finally expelled.

Hugs, jumps of joy and applause greeted the ten years ago birth of the Paris AgreementIt had taken many years to bring it to fruition, and many hours of tense negotiations had been spent in the French capital during the COP21 climate summit. But on December 12, 2015, all the world's governments formally committed to preventing global warming from exceeding 2°C and preferably remaining below 1.5°C. The agreement was very imperfect—starting with the fact that it was not legally binding—but this historic milestone—getting 197 different governments to agree is a Herculean task—unleashed optimism: the fight against the climate crisis was finally an unavoidable global objective.

"That will be the COP of truth, where we will see if we heed the warnings of science and turn them into change." That is how he defined the COP30, the UN climate summit The summit, which kicks off next Monday in Belém, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, will be opened by Brazilian President and host Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. This year, the speeches by political leaders have been moved up a few days from the start of the summit due to the logistical challenges of accommodating so many government delegations in a small Amazonian town. In their speeches, both Lula and UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that this summit—which comes exactly ten years after the Paris Agreement—must finally launch the implementation of that agreement, after a decade of negotiating its rules and fine print. Lula acknowledged that the fight against the climate crisis is currently threatened by "an international scenario in which mutual distrust prevails and private interests take precedence over the common good of the world." A scenario, he said, in which "extremist forces fabricate fake news for political gain." The Brazilian president didn't mention Donald Trump by name, but it was clear who he was referring to. The next speaker, Chilean President Gabriel Boric, was more explicit and directly denounced Donald Trump's "lies" when he says the climate crisis is a hoax, as he did at the UN General Assembly in September. The intervention of Colombian President Gustavo Petro followed the same line, and he was the harshest critic of the US president. In fact, Petro used his climate speech to also denounceTrump administration's actions in the Caribbean and the Pacific "with extrajudicial killings" against alleged drug traffickers. "Donald Trump is against humanity, and his absence today is proof of that," he said. The Colombian president stressed that the world is on the verge of "climate collapse" and that part of the responsibility for this lies with "Trump's conduct," with his "denial of science, which is leading his society, with its eyes fixed on the abyss, and with it, all of humanity."

The UN has analyzed all the political commitments it has received from governments before the start of the climate summit next week in Brazil, COP30With the new climate plans officially presented, the world is heading towards global warming of between 2.3°C and 2.5°C, still above the Paris Agreement target, but 0.1°C below what was projected last year with the commitments then on the table. Climate diplomacy is progressing, but very slowly. The report also calculates the warming that would result from current climate policies (if these commitments are not ultimately met), which would amount to an additional 2.8°C, also an improvement compared to the 3.1°C projected last year.

Ten years ago in France, the world celebrated one of the most hopeful moments in recent diplomacy: the approval of theParis Agreementthe great global pact to curb planet warmingToday, however, optimism has faded, and reality imposes itself with the starkness of the data. The global average temperature is dangerously approaching the threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and the national climate commitments—Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)—that each country submits to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions remain insufficient. Wars and geopolitical tensions between the major global powers, along with instability and a lack of funding, have diminished the ambition of an international community that seems to have abandoned multilateralism. Besides the United States, which has yet to decide whether or not to send a delegation to Brazil, a notable absence at COP30 will be that of Israel, which has already announced its withdrawal due to its ongoing conflict with the UN.

"We, the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save future generations from the scourge of war." Thus begins the text signed by 50 countries in the summer of 1945, still amidst the smoke from the bombs of World War II. Four months later, on October 24, 1945, the United Nations Charter came into force. The text committed the world's governments to resolve conflicts without the use of weapons, to promote peace and respect for human rights, cooperation among nations on equal terms, and economic and social development throughout the world. These principles—currently so much in question—have been adhered to so far by 193 states, almost all of those in existence.

The bombing has stopped in Gaza, and the Israeli hostage crisis is already on the way to a solution with the return of the living and soon also the dead. It seems that for now, at least while the celebrations presided over by Donald Trump last, the war will not resume. There are a thousand unknowns about the future, but for the first time in a long time, there is hope that the ceasefire will hold. But what hasn't changed is hunger. People in Gaza are still starving. That's why the arrival yesterday of the first trucks of humanitarian aid from Egypt is one of the best news stories of recent days. Despite the constant difficulty in reporting on the Strip—it is urgent that the ceasefire allow the international press to enter the area—it is estimated that some 400 trucks will have been able to enter throughout the day, and the expected arrival rate is 600 per day from now on. The UN and other humanitarian organizations have hundreds waiting to gain access, but they complain that the pace is slow due to Israel's tight border controls, and are calling for more crossing points to be opened.

After the First World War, and given the carnage that conflict entailed, the belligerent countries, among others, founded the League of Nations as a multilateral organization with the goal of ensuring global peace and prosperity. Fine words that failed to halt either the rise of fascism in Europe or the Second World War. However, it became clear that in the post-colonial world, at least in appearance, that followed the new conflict, even bloodier than the previous one, a multilateral organization was needed in which all countries of the world would have the right to speak. The headquarters ceased to be in Geneva and was moved to New York, in the United States. Thus, the victorious power of the war, which held and still holds global military and economic hegemony, welcomed everyone to this headquarters. However, the Security Council was composed only of the powers that possessed nuclear weapons, the only ones with veto power.

The United Nations will turn 80 on October 24th, immersed in its worst crisis. Not only because of the frontal attack staged on Tuesday by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, with a speech at the General Assembly where he accused him of all the evils and where it certified the distancing of the world's leading power from the multilateral system created after the Second World War. The crisis is also financial and one of resources, because Trump's drastic cuts have forced the Secretary General, António Guterres, to propose a 20% reduction in next year's budget, which will entail thousands of layoffs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again challenged the United NationsHe did so yesterday, Friday, at the assembly of this institution, where he spoke for the second consecutive year. "We have to finish the job," he declared, referring to Gaza. "We want to finish it as soon as possible," he insisted. He argued that Hamas has sworn to repeat the atrocities of October 7 and that, therefore, "it doesn't matter how depleted its forces are." According to Gaza authorities, at least 63,000 Palestinians have died as a result of the Israeli invasion, which has now lasted nearly two years. But Netanyahu, who showed no intention of stopping the massacre—on the contrary—denied the accusations of genocide. "If we wanted to commit genocide, we wouldn't tell them to leave; it's Hamas who's trying to keep them inside," he argued. He said nothing about where they could go or how they could leave.

It's been the speech of the week, and it's going to last for years. I'm referring to Trump's speech at the UN, and I don't say this just because of the egotism, the lies, and the threats, which we could have taken for granted, but because of what it enshrines and what it announces.

On Tuesday, Donald Trump delivered an unacceptable and disgraceful speech before the United Nations General Assembly. In keeping with the MAGA doctrine he delivered, he insisted on an idea that seems minor, but isn't, because it is a prime example of Trumpist rhetoric: he once again boasted of having ended seven wars since becoming president, something that is also evidently a lie, like almost everything the figure says. Trump is referring to the conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Cambodia and Thailand, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo. In some cases, these are events that occurred during his first term; in others, no peace agreement has been reached, but rather fragile and dubious truces have been established in conflicts that are still ongoing. In still other cases, both sides explicitly deny that Trump's mediation has had any impact on the development of their conflicts. All of this is the triumphalist delirium of someone his sycophants call "sheriff" and "chief peacemaker," while campaigning for the whim that has recently taken hold of him: to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It must be part of the strategy to achieve this: constantly changing his mind and allies on a whim: if a month ago Trump presented himself as Putin's best friend, this time he encouraged Ukraine to recover the territories lost during the war, "and even," after having scorned Zelensky with the unusual scene a few months ago.

Volodymyr Zelensky is the president of a country partially occupied by Russia, fighting every day to defend its territory at a high price in human lives. And this nightmare has been going on for more than three years. Therefore, when Zelensky takes the stage at the United Nations, he knows exactly what he's talking about, and his message this morning was crystal clear. "We told you, Ukraine is just the beginning. And now Russian drones are already flying across Europe, and Russian operations are already expanding to other countries. Putin wants to continue this war by expanding it, and no one can feel safe," the Ukrainian leader said. "This 21st century is not so different from the past. If a nation wants peace, it still has to use weapons. It's sickening, but it's the reality," he emphasized.

Yesterday in Congress, Miriam Nogueras used an expression that we will hear about, when she said that "The survival of the Catalan identity is not guaranteed."It was during the plenary session of Congress that, as we have been explaining, the delegation of immigration powers to the Generalitat was defeated, as agreed by the PSOE and Junts, with the combined votes of the PP, Vox, and Podemos.

US President Donald Trump's address to the UN General Assembly certifies the end of an era in which the United States led a multilateral governance system, with the UN as its main exponent, which was born precisely to avoid repeating the mistakes that led to the outbreaks of fascism at the time. With an arrogant tone and armed with an arsenal of false data, Trump has shown absolute contempt for the United Nations and also for Europe, and has fueled conspiracy theories surrounding immigration.

Accustomed to walking—or driving—along with a red carpet and always escorted by the police, French President Emmanuel Macron experienced an unprecedented moment this Monday when he was in New York, after participating in the high-level session on Palestine that he himself convened at the UN, and in which he officially recognized the State of Palestine. Upon leaving the UN headquarters, Macron's vehicles and all his team were blocked. The New York police had blocked the street because the convoy of United States President Donald Trump was about to pass.