The Brief

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

If you’re part of the food allergy club — the group of people who can go from fine to anaphylactic after one wrong bite — eating at restaurants isn’t casual. It’s high stakes.

A miscommunication on the line, incomplete information from a server or a shared griddle can mean an EpiPen injection and a trip to the hospital.

Unlike intolerances, food allergies can be life-threatening. The immune system treats even trace amounts of an allergen as a threat.

And allergens are on the rise, with an estimated 7% of the U.S. population experiencing food allergies according to a 2024 CDC study.

That’s why The LA Local spoke with more than 20 restaurants and cafes about their allergen protocols and narrowed the list to seven local spots that take nut allergies seriously — and still deliver on flavor.

Please note that while we recommend these spots, this reporting is not a substitute for your own diligence. Be sure to disclose your allergy when dining and ask any questions specific to your situation.

At these spots, instead of feeling like your allergies are an inconvenience, we hope you’ll feel the warm hug of a safe and accommodating meal.

Noble Rotisserie

A typical allergen-free dish at Noble Rotisserie.

(

Isabella Kulkarni

/

The LA Local

)

Owner Sidney Price started Noble Rotisserie to serve families like hers.

She and her husband Steve raised two sons with a range of food allergies — including nuts, dairy, sesame and eggs — a list that was long and ever-evolving.

Sidney didn’t feel safe eating out in part because restaurants couldn’t even answer her basic question, “What is in this dish? So I can look it over and make sure my son can eat it.”

Years later, Steve and Sidney opened Noble Rotisserie, a place that prioritizes transparency by making everything from scratch and clearly communicating ingredients.

Noble Rotisserie was built for people with allergens.

The protocol goes something like this: if you come in and say you have an allergy, a manager will be called over to take your order. They will pull out a detailed allergy binder — also available online — listing ingredients down to spices and alliums like onions and shallots.

They source from vendors they know, like Pasturebird, which supplies the restaurant with hormone and antibiotic-free chicken. Inside the restaurant’s kitchen, they have a separate station where they prepare allergy orders to prevent cross contamination.

The food is also really good.

The chicken was perfectly seasoned, the potatoes crisped to perfection, and the dairy-free coconut soft serve was creamy, indulgent and full of toasty flavor. The accommodation was simply the cherry on top. It’s no wonder that most diners here, according to Sidney, have no idea the restaurant is allergen friendly.

The restaurant also partners with the Food Allergy Institute in Long Beach’s TIP program, which helps children and young people with allergies. Sidney said her two sons completed the program and are now both food allergy free thanks to treatment.

Cafe Tropical

A typical allergen-free dish at Cafe Tropical.

(

Isabella Kulkarni

/

The LA Local

)

Silverlake’s big purple landmark, Cafe Tropical — located where Sunset Boulevard and Silver Lake Boulevard meet — functions as a community hub. The cafe has been around since the 70’s according to owner Danny Khorunzhiy, who used to frequent it as a patron.

The space is bustling with goodwill reminiscent of a bygone era. During my time eating at the spot, there was a steady stream of regulars coming in to chat with the staff. The space also has a literal community center attached, which Khorunzhiy maintains to this day.

Most exceptional, however, is the food.

My plate was full of color — a strip of thick cut bacon, buttery lettuce from Roots Farms, slices of heirloom tomatoes and a bright purple slaw served alongside rich, creamy eggs.

As for the allergen protocol, they have labels on the menu, and nearly everything is made in house, which according to Khorunzhiy, is part of the reason the restaurant started to attract people with allergies.

Khorunzhiy has dealt with his own severe walnut allergy since he was a teen, so he understands the importance of taking precautions.

San & Wolves

A big part of the ethos behind San & Wolves is serving the greater Filipino community. Its founders, Kym Estrada and Arvin Torres, are both Filipino and vegan, and started the bakery to recreate the treats they grew up with — like ube halaya and pandan pudding — while maintaining their diet.

Believe me when I tell you: I am full dairy all day, and I live very far from Long Beach, but I would make the trip any day. Every treat I tried was exceptional.

Chef Estrada didn’t start her vegan bakery with any plan to be soy or nut free. Two of the heaviest hitters in traditional vegan baking are soy and nuts, but Estrada said she was “tired of draining tofu.” She also started experimenting with fewer nuts because of the cost.

After they opened San & Wolves, Estrada and Torres started to notice a steady stream of kids with allergies who frequented the shop. This sealed their decision to stay nut free.

“We have to be committed to them,” Estrada told The LA Local. “If we include nuts and soy, they can’t eat here.”

San & Wolves puts an emphasis on whole foods instead of hyper processed ingredients which are common in vegan cooking. They make their “egg salad” with whole veggies and chickpeas rather than the vegan product Just Egg, for example. Even their sweetened condensed milk is made in house with coconut milk. “I’m not sure if it’s cost effective,” Estrada admitted with a laugh.

Woon

When Keegan Fong expanded his original Filipinotown spot, Woon, to Pasadena, he decided to make the new kitchen entirely nut-free. Why? “Why not?” he said. “Nowadays there are a lot of eating restrictions.”

So he and his team built out the kitchen in a way that avoided what Fong deemed the most common and sensitive allergen. Unlike traditional Chinese cooking, where shared woks and recycled cooking oil are the norm, Fong restructured his line to separate allergens as much as possible — cooking in dedicated woks and discarding used oils to prevent cross-contamination.

At Woon, staff are trained on allergens and have access to a binder listing cross-contamination risks and sauce recipes. Employees are also encouraged to check with a manager whenever a guest with allergies comes in, so the kitchen can confirm nothing was different that day.

Despite being a nut-free kitchen, the Pasadena location does post signage reading “made in a facility that contains peanuts,” but that refers only to a packaged Peanuts + Sea Moss snack produced at the original Filipinotown location.

Fong is also candid about the limits of any such guarantee: he can’t control whether a staff member brings trail mix to work.

The menu is largely vegan — Fong notes that much of traditional Chinese cooking lends itself naturally to plant-based preparation — and includes a small selection of gluten-free items. But beyond its dietary accommodations, the Pasadena location carries personal weight for Fong.

He grew up in Pasadena, and opened Woon there just 10 days before the wildfires swept through the region, making the expansion feel like a homecoming of sorts. The restaurant has since added a weekend brunch menu, giving Pasadena and Altadena residents — and anyone else looking for a satisfying weekend meal — more reasons to visit.

Hugo’s

A typical allergen-free dish at Hugo’s.

(

Isabella Kulkarni

/

The LA Local

)

The West Hollywood outpost of Hugo’s is the kind of place you could bring almost anyone and have a good time. The menu spans comfort food — turkey meatloaf, Cuban sandwiches — and healthier fare like pumpkin coconut curry and quinoa beet salad, plus a full wine list, an all-day brunch menu and fresh juices.

When I sat down on the patio to eat a caprese sandwich on house-made gluten-free bread, manager Kimberley walked me through the restaurant’s approach to dietary accommodations. More than 40 years in operation, Hugo’s has refined its allergen protocol considerably. “I don’t know of another restaurant in Los Angeles that takes allergies as seriously as we do,” she said.

The process begins the moment you walk in. If you mention an allergy upon arrival, you’ll receive a red coaster — a signal to your server and food runner that your table requires extra care. A binder listing every ingredient the restaurant carries, down to what’s inside a single chocolate chip, is brought to the table.

From there, the precautions continue into the kitchen. When you order, an allergy alert is placed at the top of the ticket sent to the kitchen, and the server verbally confirms with a runner that a guest with an allergy is seated — ensuring someone on the line is aware before cooking begins. Knives and counters are wiped down, and the dish is prepared in an individual sanitized pan. When the food comes out, the runner double-checks the plate and ensures it’s set in front of the red coaster.

Hugo’s is not entirely nut-free, but it is a peanut-free facility, and its toasters and fryers are completely nut-free. For guests with nut allergies, staff recommend sticking to dishes prepared in individual pans rather than those made on the shared griddle — pancakes, for instance, fall into the latter category. Like many allergy-conscious restaurants, Hugo’s makes most items in-house, including sauces, juices, and its gluten-free and rye breads.

Twice Baked

A typical allergen-free dish at Twice Baked.

(

Isabella Kulkarni

/

The LA Local

)

If you order one thing at Twice Baked, make it the eclair.

Dahlia Villegas had been a home cook before she started experimenting with gluten-free recipes after her husband was diagnosed with celiac disease. That tinkering eventually became Twice Baked, a bakery now dedicated to serving customers with allergies and gluten or dairy intolerances.

Twice Baked is fully peanut-free and offers a wide range of nut-free, grain-free, sugar-free and dairy-free options. It’s a response, Villegas says, to a real gap in the community. The shop also partners with the Food Allergy Institute in Long Beach, which allows them to accommodate hyper-specific allergen requests. Vanilla extract, cinnamon — if it’s a concern, Twice Baked can work around it.

Villegas herself is something of a walking allergen binder. As I stood in front of the display case, transfixed by chocolate bundt cakes and chocolate eclairs, she rattled off the full ingredient list for each without missing a beat.

Though the desserts share display cases, they are prepared separately with separate ingredients, and any item can be pulled from the kitchen if a customer is worried about cross-contamination. The shop relies on a lot of shared equipment, but does maintain a dedicated nut-only food processor. In 11 years of operation, Villegas says, not a single customer has reported getting sick.

Kismet Rotisserie

A typical allergen-free dish at Kismet.

(

Isabella Kulkarni

/

The LA Local

)

With locations in Los Feliz and Pasadena, Kismet Rotisserie is hardly a secret in Los Angeles. What may be less known is that its chicken is remarkably allergen-friendly — marinated in nothing more than a house-made spice blend of turmeric, coriander and Aleppo pepper with salt and sugar, free of nuts, alliums, soy and gluten.

Walking into the bright, yellow-tiled Pasadena location is enough to put anyone in a good mood, helped along by staff who field nitpicky menu questions with patience and genuine curiosity. The restaurant sits right on the Altadena border, and just a block north, the neighborhood still bears the visible scars of last year’s devastating fires. Kismet has responded by hiring locally and participating in multiple relief efforts — donating meals to first responders and directing proceeds from cookie sales to affected residents.

The kitchen does contain nuts and soy, but their reach is limited. The only equipment that comes into contact with nuts is the robot coupe, used exclusively to prep the gluten-free peanut miso cookie and the muhammara sauce — both of which are kept separate from nearly every other ingredient in the restaurant. According to Neal, a sous chef at the Pasadena location, the inclusive approach is by design: one of the restaurant’s owners, Sarah, is gluten-free, and Kismet was built from the start to be accessible — in terms of both its food and its clientele. Both locations also offer a kids menu.

As for the chicken: it’s the most satisfying rotisserie leg you can find in this city, served with crispy potatoes and a garlic sauce that makes the whole thing sing.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

On a Friday evening in Boyle Heights, several dozen people gathered on Whittier Boulevard for a night out.

It was open mic night at InnerCity Struggle, but a crowd of about 60 got there an hour early. Elders, youth, Spanish and English speakers packed a room inside the community center with a larger mission in mind: They were training to become neighborhood vote protectors. 

Trainees were advised to encourage voters to stay in line. To observe, document and report any form of voter suppression. To know their First Amendment rights.

“These are your everyday community members … that came out for a common goal, which is to learn how to protect our community,” said Michelle Benavides, InnerCity Struggle’s director of civic engagement.

Voter education forums are being held across the state as California experiences a surge in immigration enforcement that community and labor organizations condemn as a coordinated campaign by the federal government to intimidate voters. That’s on top of the U.S. Department of Justice’s deployment of 1,000 federal election observers that State Attorney General Rob Bonta has labeled as “the source of interference.”

In Los Angeles, immigrant rights advocates and elected officials have urged residents to remain vigilant and to vote early, either by mail or by dropping their ballot off at an official ballot drop box as soon as possible.

“The timing of these actions, just weeks before the midterm elections, is no accident,” CHIRLA’s policy director Jeannette Zanipatin said at a convening with election leaders last Friday. “These tactics seek to silence immigrant communities, suppress civic participation and divide our neighborhoods.”

Commerce resident Martha Moya attended the training at InnerCity Struggle last Friday and shared an experience she had at a polling place some years ago when she was asked if she was a U.S. citizen as she prepared to drop off her mail-in ballot.

“It was ridiculous. If I wasn’t a citizen, then I wouldn’t have been there at all,” Moya recalled telling the worker. 

That experience emboldened her to fight for voter rights, she said.

A voter casts their ballot in the California Primary Election at Weingart East LA YMCA on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Los Angeles, Calif.

(

Dania Maxwell

/

The LA Local

)

The training on Friday was held in partnership with the nonprofit Catalyst California, through its coalition known as We Are California, which includes partners like CHIRLA and PICO California. The Can’t Stop California campaign is holding statewide vote protector trainings in Koreatown, the Inland Empire and the San Fernando Valley.

About 20 who attended the training signed up to monitor polls. Organizers said they can choose which poll locations they’d like to monitor. They’re encouraged to show up with a partner. Trainees will be provided with “NEIGHBORHOOD VOTE PROTECTOR” hats and T-shirts.

Residents were taught how to observe, document and report voter suppression at a training on Friday, Oct. 16 at InnerCity Struggle.

(

Alejandra Molina

/

Boyle Heights Beat

)

Attendees of the training in Boyle Heights learned that intimidation tactics can include voters being blocked from accessing polling locations, being threatened with criminal actions or being questioned about their citizenship. People holding signs reading “Only Citizens Can Vote – We’ll Be Checking” are a form of voter intimidation, they learned.

The training covered how election workers are also at risk of intimidation if they’re disrupted from opening or closing polling locations or from counting ballots, and offered a hotline number to call if they witness any kind of suppression happening at their local polling sites.

Trainees discussed their First Amendment right to photograph or film anything in plain view, including law enforcement. However, they were told, filming anyone within 100 feet of a polling place could be interpreted as intimidation. 

Directing focus to voters and encouraging them to stay in line is key, they learned.

Kaylanie Santos, an 18-year-old first-time voter, attended the training. “There’s a lot more intimidation tactics than I realized,” she said. 

Santos said she planned to monitor polling sites on Election Day from a safe distance, despite the fear of being profiled.

“There should be people there protecting other people, help out the village, be there for another person even if you don’t know them. That’s your people. … It’s important to look out and defend,” Santos said.

Garbed in purple and holding signs that read “Fair contracts now!” and “Here to serve, not to starve,” thousands of state workers rallied at government buildings across California Wednesday to protest what they describe as unfair labor practices by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration.

SEIU Local 1000’s first strike in its 44-year history unfolded in several cities including Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The union — which represents about 100,000 workers, nearly half the state workforce — has been in contentious labor talks with the Newsom administration since its latest contract expired in late June.

Its members want a better raise than Newsom has offered as well as more flexibility to work from home. Newsom just a year ago demanded wage reductions from the union to help shore up a budget crisis. State workers have accepted pay cuts in three of the eight years Newsmom led the state.

“The budget is balanced on state employees’ backs,” said Local 1000 President Anica Walls. “It’s just showing how frustrated employees are with the lack of prioritizing us as people who really help California remain the fourth largest economy in the world,” she said.

Angela Musallam, a spokesperson for the California Department of Human Resources, which handles labor negotiations on behalf of the administration, said the department “remains focused on achieving a fair and responsible agreement and continues to be available at the bargaining table.” Both parties are scheduled to resume mediation talks on Oct. 30

In anticipation of the strike, operations at some state departments have been modified or limited, including at DMV offices and parks. Outside the Elihu M. Harris State Office Building in downtown Oakland, workers marched outside chanting “No contract, no peace.” They played drums, snacked on muffins and Little Caesar pizzas and cheered as cars honked along Clay Street in solidarity.

Amy Dickinson, an information technology associate at California Department of Industrial Relations’ Office of Information Systems, said she was striking “because the state has decided that we are not worth even bargaining with.”

“They have done nothing but say ‘no’ all this time. They won’t even give any counteroffers — that’s not bargaining, that’s a maximalist position,” said the San Leandro resident.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon, who represents the East Bay Area,, spoke to the crowd in Oakland before joining them briefly in marching.

“Nothing happens without the workers,” said Simon. “For anyone to say that you don’t deserve wage justice, they haven’t looked at the rates of rent … at grocery prices.”

“There is enough for everything that you’re asking for. But the floor is respect.”

Unions, including Local 1000, traditionally are Newsom’s allies. They contributed to his campaigns and helped him defeat Republican opponents. But the Local 1000 strike is the second state worker walkout to occur on his watch. Previously, the California Association of Professional Scientists held a three-day strike in 2023.

Besides pay boosts, Local 1000 members are pushing for higher state contributions for healthcare coverage, and changes to Newsom’s four-day-a-week in-office mandate, which they argue costs workers and taxpayers money and increases traffic and pollution.

In Sacramento, Don Chaddock, a longtime analyst for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, wore a Santa costume and held a sign reading “Newsom + CalHR = Naughty List.” Chaddock, who volunteers as Santa during the holidays for rural schools in his foothills area, said he is frustrated by the state’s in-office policy, which has him commuting to a suburb south of Sacramento.

“I don't mind in-person if we’re actually doing something in-person,” he said. “Right now, I drive to Elk Grove to sit in a cubicle.”

State workers represented by SEIU Local 1000 strike outside the CalHR building in Sacramento on Oct. 21, 2026.

(

Fred Greaves

/

CalMatters

)

Rebecca Bean, another employee who is against the return-to-office mandate, put it even more bluntly: “We’re not asking for stupid sh—.”

Bean commutes three hours a day by public transportation to Oakland as an analyst at the industrial relations’ office. She said the policy has made it more difficult to take care of her ailing mother who is in her seventies.

“Every time she has an emergency, I have to run all the way home. She won’t go to any medical appointments without me,” Bean said. Before the policy took effect in July, Bean scheduled appointments at the end or beginning of the day and was out only a few hours.

“Whereas here I have to schedule at least four hours to do something,” she said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

After 32 years in uniform and a career punctuated by declining murders, spiking traffic deaths and challenges retaining officers, Long Beach Police Chief Wally Hebeish announced Wednesday that he will retire in December.

Hebeish, who began his career in 1994 with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and joined the Long Beach Police Department a year later, stepped into the limelight in 2021 when he replaced then-Chief Robert Luna, who went on to become the LA County Sheriff.

Hebeish declined a request to comment on Wednesday. In a characteristically terse and formal statement, he thanked the department that he described leading through “some of the most challenging times we have faced in modern law enforcement.”

In a separate statement sent by department spokesperson Allison Gallagher, Hebeish said he had been “contemplating and planning my retirement for some time,” and wanted to see through the department’s newest round of academy cadets and a tough budget year before leaving. “It’s been a rewarding [five] years as Chief and I’m proud of everything the Department has accomplished,” the statement said.

A spokesperson for Mayor Rex Richardson did not respond to a request for comment. In a social media post Wednesday, Richardson praised Hebeish, saying his legacy is one of “leadership, progress, and a deep commitment to our community and the men and women who serve it.”

“Wally Hebeish has always been a public servant focused on keeping people safe and a person of high integrity,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, who served as mayor when Hebeish first became chief. “Long Beach has been lucky to have had him as Chief, and I’m thankful to have worked with him.”

City Manager Tom Modica said the outgoing chief led the department through a “transformative period in modern policing” and did so with “integrity, compassion and an unwavering commitment” to the public. “We thank Chief Hebeish for his decades of public service and wish him the best in his retirement,” Modica said. “As we begin the search for our next Chief of Police, we will build on the strong foundation he leaves behind.”

Modica said the city plans to hire a recruitment firm in the next two weeks to begin a national search he hopes to finish by early next year. Candidates will be screened through the city’s human resources department and undergo interviews with a community panel, a technical panel and city department directors. The final choice will ultimately be made by Modica.

The city manager will also be creating a “community input process;” the city will announce something in the next couple of weeks.

Gerrit DeJongh of the Long Beach Police Officers Association said the union wants a chief with experience at a department of similar size who is “level-headed and fair-minded.”

The union supports a nationwide search, he said, but believes the department has “phenomenal internal candidates as well.” “If the city manager wants to have a discussion or wants the [union’s] opinion on it, I’d be happy to offer it,” DeJongh added.

Born in Cairo and raised in North Long Beach, Hebeish became the city’s first Arab American and Muslim to lead the department. After joining in 1995, he worked in criminal intelligence, investigations, patrol and internal affairs, and later served as chief of staff, deputy chief of the Support and Patrol bureaus and assistant chief, a post he took in 2019.

He became acting chief in 2021 while Luna, then the chief, recovered after being struck by a truck while crossing a street. Hebeish was appointed to the top job in December of that year.

Commanding a department of 800 sworn officers and another 1,200 employees, Hebeish took over the post amid intense pressure on police departments nationwide following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Meanwhile, the instability of the pandemic led to a spike in murders around the country. Like many departments, Long Beach grappled with new expectations of its police leaders and a need to rebuild public trust against challenges to retain officers.

In Long Beach, it was a balancing act with some success. Hebeish touts a citywide decline in murders, particularly fatal shootings, during his tenure. He said the city saw year-over-year reductions in shootings and, in 2025, its first recorded year without an officer-involved shooting.

He credited a High Crime Focus Team, created in 2024, which directs patrols to the places where violent crime, illegal firearms and quality-of-life complaints occur most often, with helping to reduce gun violence. He also lobbied for funding for a Real Time Crime Center, established a program for drones that back up police, launched a public online crime dashboard and instituted a yearly accountability report.

City officials and the department also point to its largest academy class on record, the opening of a new police academy, creation of a Neighborhood Safety Bike Team and expansion of its team that handles nonemergency calls.

DeJongh is especially proud of the department’s Wellness Division and its Community Services Bureau, which Hebeish helped lead while assistant chief. The program, he explained, watches for traumatic officer-involved incidents and refers them to counseling. It came about shortly after a string of officer suicides rocked the department.

“I cannot help but to think or believe that the experiences and the trauma they experienced on this job played into their decision to take their own lives,” he said. “You can only help but wonder, you know, could we even save just one of them if we had something like this in place at the time?”

But Hebeish leaves a department that has long suffered high vacancy rates, which has slowed response times. An August 2024 analysis of city data by the Post found 155 vacancies, about one in five officers. For all but the highest-priority calls, officers were taking more than 20 minutes longer to respond than they had three years earlier, the analysis found.

While dealing with a shortage of officers, the department announced it would stop responding to many minor noninjury crashes to focus on priority calls. Questions remain over how the department has handled traffic safety enforcement, as the city recorded 53 fatal traffic collisions in 2025 — the most in over a decade and surpassing the city’s homicide count that year.

Fatalities continue to climb into 2026, reaching more than 40 traffic deaths as of mid-October.

Public trust in the city police department continues to be an issue, as well, as criticisms are regularly slung at the department during city council meetings over the department’s handling of homelessness and the federal immigration raids that have continued throughout Long Beach over the past year.

The city’s Office of Police Oversight, established in 2022, has also urged the department to improve how it deals with the families of those killed by police and witnesses to shootings, following the 2024 killing of Brandon Boyd. The oversight commission has previously questioned whether internal investigations are handled in a timely manner and asked the department to review policies for when officers respond to domestic violence calls.

Countries are not doing enough to cut emissions that cause climate change, according to a new report from United Nations scientists. And the United States is a big part of the problem.

The U.S. sticks out as the only major economy where planet-warming pollution increased dramatically last year, the report notes.

Among the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases, the U.S. was tied last year with Russia for the most emissions per capita. China emits significantly more total greenhouse gases each year than the U.S., but has more than four times the population.

Overall, global emissions were basically the same last year as they were the previous year.

U.S. emissions grew because of increased electricity demand, as well as Trump administration policies that support the burning of fossil fuels. The Trump administration has ordered coal-fired power plants in the U.S. to stay open longer than planned, rolled back fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles and ended tax credits for solar and wind projects.

Those policies have made the U.S. an outlier when it comes to escalating greenhouse gas emissions, says Inger Andersen, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme.

"Right now, everybody is scrambling a little bit regarding energy security," Andersen says, pointing to global oil and gas disruptions stemming from the wars in Ukraine and Iran.

Despite the geopolitical upheaval, "several G20 members have shown sustained emissions reduction," she notes.

That includes the European Union, which has invested heavily in energy-efficient appliances and renewable electricity sources such as wind and solar, partly in reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. is pulling out of U.N. climate work

The Trump administration has withdrawn from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, and is working to remove the U.S. from all U.N. climate work, arguing the international system imposes unfair burdens on Americans. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency now says greenhouse gases do not pose a threat to human health and welfare, reversing its previous position.

The new report includes a statement from the U.S. government, saying the U.S. "does not endorse or agree with its analysis or conclusions, and has not provided comments to this report." The U.S. State Department did not respond to NPR's questions.

The new report, which is compiled annually by an international group of scientists, comes less than a month before global climate talks kick off in Turkey. World leaders will gather to discuss how to speed investments in clean energy and how to pay for the costs of dealing with climate change. The Trump administration will not participate in those talks.

Still, whether or not American leaders formally participate in international climate efforts, the effects of America's reliance on oil, gas and coal are being felt around the world, the U.N. warns. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping extra heat that warms the entire planet. The effects of all that pollution are felt globally.

The Earth is about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) warmer on average than it was in the mid-1800s, according to the World Meteorological Organization. That warming is driving widespread disasters, from deadly heat waves and floods to more intense storms and wildfires.

"All countries, especially the big emitters, must do more," says U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "Every fraction of a degree matters."

The Earth is on track for 5 degrees Fahrenheit of warming this century

Right now, the planet is on track for upwards of 5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.8 degrees Celsius) of warming this century, which would cause catastrophic impacts, such as massive sea level rise and the mass extinction of plants and animals, the report warns.

The U.N. Paris Climate agreement sets a goal of limiting warming to well below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius), in the hopes of avoiding such cataclysms.

This is the first year the annual report has acknowledged that even lower targets are now out of reach. However, it finds it is still possible to keep warming below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, if global greenhouse gas emissions fall by about 25% in the next decade.

But countries are currently lagging far behind that goal.

Under the Paris agreement, about two thirds of countries have submitted formal, up-to-date plans for cutting their greenhouse gas emissions. If they all follow through on those plans, it would reduce emissions by about 15% in the next decade — far less than the 25% needed.

Copyright 2026 NPR