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A young boy in Malawi has his height measured.

A little girl waits to fill her water container in the village of Kikonka, Bas-Congo province, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2011.

A Palestine Red Crescent Society responder tends to the wounded during a Bethlehem skirmish. Clashes with the Israeli army in the West Bank have left many injured by rubber bullets and tear gas.

A young boy from Burundi, forced to flee his home due to violence, looks at his new surroundings in the Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania.

The sheer number of explosive crises around the globe makes previous pre-world-war situations look calm by comparison. The recent downing of the Russian fighter jet by Turkey, which qualified American sources say Turkey would never have done without tacit support from the White House, and the subsequent support given by both President Obama and NATO to the Turkish action, demonstrate how close we are to the present, new Cold War becoming a hot war. This is underscored by the launch-on-warning-readiness of the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia, which have a decision time of mere minutes.

UK Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood called for unity on 13 December at a meeting in Rome to demonstrate unified international support for the UN-led effort to establish a Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya. He urged parties to the process to come together in support of an inclusive deal.

The European Union has played a key role in brokering today's historic agreement in Paris, where 195 countries adopted a new universal, legally binding global climate deal.

The United Nations is marking Universal Health Coverage Day with a strong call on countries to invest substantially in achieving affordable health care access worldwide to improve the lives of millions of people and contribute significantly towards achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

On December 11 in Washington, D.C., the FBI took part in a briefing announcing the U.S. State Department’s launch of a publication that outlines the emerging negative impacts of the illicit tobacco trade and the whole-of-government approach to combating it. According to The Global Illicit Trade in Tobacco: A Threat to National Security, this low-risk, high-reward, often transnational criminal activity is a lucrative crime for some terrorist groups and a potential revenue source to finance acts of terror. It also provides funding for other criminal activities—including money laundering and trafficking in humans, weapons, drugs, antiquities, diamonds, and counterfeit goods—and it can encourage organized criminal enterprises, terrorist organizations, and other threat networks to work together. Additionally, the illicit tobacco trade deprives governments of tax revenues, causing billions of dollars in losses annually.