US will exit 66 international organizations as it further retreats from global cooperation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the U.N.'s population agency and the U.N. treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, as the U.S. further retreats from global cooperation.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending U.S. support for 66 organizations, agencies, and commissions, following his administration’s review of participation in and funding for all international organizations, including those affiliated with the United Nations, according to a White House release.

Many of the targets are U.N.-related agencies, commissions and advisory panels that focus on climate, labor, migration and other issues the Trump administration has categorized as catering to diversity and “woke” initiatives. Other non-U.N. organizations on the list include the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, and the Global Counterterrorism Forum.

“The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

Trump's decision to withdraw from organizations that foster cooperation among nations to address global challenges comes as his administration has launched military efforts or issued threats that have rattled allies and adversaries alike, including capturing autocratic Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and indicating an intention to take over Greenland.

The administration previously suspended support for agencies like the World Health Organization, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA, the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO. It has taken a larger, à la carte approach to paying dues to the world body, picking which operations and agencies it believes align with Trump’s agenda and those that no longer serve U.S. interests.

“I think what we’re seeing is the crystallization of the U.S. approach to multilateralism, which is ‘my way or the highway,’” said Daniel Forti, head of U.N. affairs at the International Crisis Group. “It's a very clear vision of wanting international cooperation on Washington’s own terms.”

It has marked a major shift from how previous administrations — both Republican and Democratic — have dealt with the U.N., and it has forced the world body, already undergoing its own internal reckoning, to respond with a series of staffing and program cuts.

Many independent nongovernmental agencies — some that work with the United Nations — have cited many project closures because of the U.S. administration’s decision last year to slash foreign assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

Despite the massive shift, Trump administration officials say they see the potential of the U.N. and want to instead focus taxpayer money on expanding American influence in many of the standard-setting U.N. initiatives where there is competition with China, like the International Telecommunications Union, the International Maritime Organization and the International Labor Organization.

The withdrawal from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, is the latest effort by Trump and his allies to distance the U.S. from international organizations focused on climate and addressing climate change.

UNFCCC, the 1992 agreement between 198 countries to financially support climate change activities in developing countries, is the underlying treaty for the landmark Paris climate agreement. Trump — who calls climate change a hoax — withdrew from that agreement soon after reclaiming the White House.

Gina McCarthy, former White House National Climate Adviser, said being the only country in the world not part of the treaty is “shortsighted, embarrassing, and a foolish decision.”

“This Administration is forfeiting our country’s ability to influence trillions of dollars in investments, policies, and decisions that would have advanced our economy and protected us from costly disasters wreaking havoc on our country,” McCarthy, who co-chairs America Is All In, a coalition of climate-concerned U.S. states and cities, said in a statement.

Mainstream scientists say climate change is behind increasing instances of deadly and costly extreme weather, including flooding, droughts, wildfires, intense rainfall events and dangerous heat.

The U.S. withdrawal could hinder global efforts to curb greenhouse gases because it “gives other nations the excuse to delay their own actions and commitments,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who chairs the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tracks countries’ carbon dioxide emissions.

It will also be difficult to achieve meaningful progress on climate change without cooperation from the U.S., one of the world’s largest emitters and economies, experts said.

The U.N. Population Fund, the agency providing sexual and reproductive health worldwide, has long been a lightning rod for Republican opposition, and Trump cut funding for it during his first term. He and other GOP officials have accused the agency of participating in “coercive abortion practices” in countries like China.

When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he restored funding for the agency. A State Department review conducted the following year found no evidence to support GOP claims.

Other organizations and agencies that the U.S. will quit include the Carbon Free Energy Compact, the United Nations University, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the International Tropical Timber Organization, the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the Pan-American Institute for Geography and History, the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies, and the International Lead and Zinc Study Group.

Amiri reported from the United Nations. Associated Press writer Tammy Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.

This story has been updated to correct Daniel Forti's title at the International Crisis Group. It is head of U.N. affairs, not senior U.N. analyst.

United States' Ambassador to the United Nations Michael Waltz addresses the Security Council Monday, Jan. 5, 2026 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

President Donald Trump listens to a question during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain's government and the country's Catholic bishops agreed Thursday to a joint plan to compensate victims of sexual abuse by clergy members who have died or whose possible crimes have been proscribed.

The agreement aimed to resolve discrepancies between the left-wing government and church authorities over the question of reparations for abuse victims in the once staunchly Catholic country, which has secularized in recent decades.

The Spanish Episcopal Conference, run by the bishops, said in a statement that the new agreement will allow victims who don’t want to seek help directly from the church to turn to the government and the state’s ombudsman, who has taken a lead role in shedding light on abuse.

Spain’s Justice Minister Félix Bolaños said in a press conference in Madrid that “hundreds” of victims whose aggressors had passed away or were now very old could finally receive recognition of the abuse and receive economic reparations paid by the church.

“Today, we have paid a debt to the victims,” Bolaños said. “It is true that the State has acted late, but we are acting now. Yesterday, the victims couldn’t do anything because these crimes had proscribed.”

Only in the past decade has Spain begun to face the question of sexual abuse by the priesthood and other church members, mainly thanks to the initial reporting by newspaper El País.

In 2023, Spain’s ombudsman delivered a damning 800-page report that investigated 487 known cases of sexual abuse and included a survey that calculated the number of possible victims could reach the hundreds of thousands.

Spain’s bishops strongly refuted that estimate by the ombudsman, saying its own investigation had uncovered 728 sexual abusers within the church since 1945. It said that most of the crimes had occurred before 1990 and that 60% of the aggressors were now dead.

In 2024, the government announced its intention to force the church to compensate victims. That was followed a few months later by the bishops saying they were creating a special committee to hear from victims, assess their claims and ensure their “economic, spiritual and psychological” reparation.

But victims' groups were critical of the bishops' plan since it relied on them approaching the church and had no outside oversight.

On Thursday, Archbishop Luis Argüello, the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, acknowledged that some victims did not feel comfortable approaching the church offices.

Now, victims can turn to the government instead.

Under the new agreement, victims can approach Spain's Justice Ministry with their initial petition. The ministry will pass it on to the ombudsman, who will study it and propose a compensation package that the church’s committee will then assess. If no agreement can be reached with the church and the victim, the case will go to a joint committee with representatives of the church, the ombudsman's office and victims' associations. If that committee can’t agree, the ombudsman's decision will stand, Bolaños said.

The window for filing claims will be open for one year. After that, the agreement can be extended for an additional year if needed, according to Bolaños.

In addition to victims' groups and the Spanish bishops, Bolaños thanked the work of late Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV in uncovering abuse in the church.

Argüello said the church had already paid out 2 million euros ($2.3 million) in compensation after taking up petitions by more than a hundred victims since its special committee opened in 2024.

Payments to victims will be free of taxes in the new deal.

Only a handful of countries have had government-initiated or parliamentary inquiries into clergy sex abuse, although some independent groups have carried out their own investigations.

The issue of compensating victims of abuse has long vexed the church, with wide disparities in programs and payouts around the world. In the United States, where the abuse scandal erupted in 2002, litigation, settlements and abuse compensation programs have cost the church billions of dollars and led several dioceses to seek bankruptcy protection.

Elsewhere, church-run compensation programs have awarded smaller amounts to victims and paired financial reparations with services offering therapy and spiritual assistance. The French church, for example, paid out an average of about 35,000 euros ($41,000) to each of the 358 victims whose claims were received in 2023. Compensation awards were approved in 2024 for another 489 people, 88 of whom were given the maximum 60,000 euro ($70,000) claim, the church reported.

The Vatican’s child protection advisory board said in its report last year that the Catholic Church had a moral obligation to help victims heal, and that financial reparations for the abused, and tougher sanctions for the abusers and their enablers were essential remedies.

AP writer Nicole Winfield contributed to this report from Rome.

FILE - The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Luis Arguello, centre and Jesus Diaz Sariego, President of Spain's Conference of Religious Orders, left, take part in a press conference in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)