Russia has clashed with the United States and other Western nations over the Kremlin’s call for a U.N. investigation of the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Western Europe.

A climate change conference will underscore to policymakers in the Middle East and the east Mediterranean that the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is needed urgently because greenhouse gas emissions are helping to drive up regional temperatures faster than in many other inhabited parts of the world.

As the World Health Organization draws up plans for the next phase of its probe into how the coronavirus pandemic started, an increasing number of scientists say it isn’t up to the task and that the U.N. health agency shouldn’t even be the one to investigate.