Summary
That’s all for our live coverage today, thanks for following along. Some key links and highlights from the day:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the UN general assembly that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine and urged world leaders to attend a peace summit to help stop the invasion and future wars of aggression.
Joe Biden accused Russia of “shredding longstanding arms control agreements” but pledged that the US would “lead by example” in limiting the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
Prince William stressed the need for optimism in the face of the climate crisis during a visit to New York City.
Turkey’s Erdoğan says the UN’s security council has ceased to be a guarantor of world security, instead becoming “a battleground for the political strategies” of its five permanent members.
The world is becoming “unhinged” as geopolitical tensions rise and the world seems incapable of coming together to respond to mounting global challenges, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said.
On the climate crisis, Guterres said: “Every continent, every region and every country is feeling the heat. But I’m not sure at all leaders are feeling that heat.”
As the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, began addressing the UN general assembly, Israel’s ambassador to the UN stood and held a sign that read, “Iranian women deserve freedom now!”
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Roughly 150 people protested on Tuesday evening against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories outside Manhattan’s Loews Regency Hotel, where the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is staying ahead of his Friday speech at the UN general assembly.
The Israeli @MistaclimEN in NYC together with American Jews protesting in front of Bibi’s hotel against the occupation, settler violence, home demolitions, annexation and apartheid. pic.twitter.com/bejgDqGVSY
— Gili Getz #SaveMasaferYatta (@giligetz) September 19, 2023
The demonstration was organized by the anti-occupation bloc of Israel’s pro-democracy protest movement. The faction aims to push the broader movement to incorporate Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians into its agenda, which is largely focused on the Netanyahu government’s judicial reforms.
A larger protest is planned for outside the UN on Friday morning, when Netanyahu will be speaking.
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In New York, the UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, was asked about the “UK’s continued support for Saudi Arabia” and the prime minister “rolling out the red carpet” for Mohammed bin Salman, with the questioner noting that it had been five years since the the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and dissident.
Cleverly said:
Saudi Arabia has been a bulwark against extremism and terrorism. And that’s not to suggest we always agree with the Saudi positions on things, and because we have a kind of mature and well-established relationship with Saudi when we have disagreements, we raise those directly.
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The Guardian has just published a major new report on carbon offsetting, finding that the vast majority of the environmental projects most frequently used to offset greenhouse gas emissions appear to have fundamental failings suggesting they cannot be relied upon to cut planet-heating emissions:
The investigation from senior Guardian US reporter Nina Lakhani and Corporate Accountability, a non-profit, transnational corporate watchdog, found:
A total of 39 of the top 50 emission offset projects, or 78% of them, were categorised as likely junk or worthless due to one or more fundamental failing that undermines its promised emission cuts.
Eight others (16%) look problematic, with evidence suggesting they may have at least one fundamental failing and are potentially junk, according to the classification system applied.
Overall, $1.16bn (£937m) of carbon credits have been traded so far from the projects classified by the investigation as likely junk or worthless; a further $400m of credits bought and sold were potentially junk.
Read the full investigation here:
Israeli ambassador protests as Iranian president speaks
As the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, began addressing the UN general assembly, Israel’s ambassador to the UN stood and held a sign that read, “Iranian women deserve freedom now!”
The sign held by Gilad Erdan included an image of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin who died in custody one year ago after she was arrested for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code for women.
שגריר ישראל באו"ם גלעד ארדן הניף כרזה עם תמונתה של מהסא אמיני במהלך נאומו של נשיא איראן ראיסי. לאחר מכן יצא ארדן מהאולם יחד עם הדיפלומטים הישראלים pic.twitter.com/6pBPHFF9mM
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) September 19, 2023
In his UN remarks, Raisi addressed the protests in Iran, calling reports about them “distorted” and “fake”, and claiming they were plots by western intelligence officials, the New York Times reported. He also said that Islamic teachings say men and women are “equal in the eyes of the creator” and spoke of
The Iranian regime has imposed an extraordinary crackdown on dissent and protests since Amini’s death.
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The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is addressing his recent meetings with senior Chinese government members, which he has previously defended, saying it would be a mistake to try to isolate China.
Speaking in New York about his trip, which was the first visit to Beijing in five years by a UK foreign secretary, he said:
If people think that looking at a Chinese government minister in the eye and explaining in clear and unambiguous terms why we deeply object to their persecution of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, their security laws and implementation of them in Hong Kong, their aggressive posture across the Taiwan strait, their sanctioning of British parliamentarians – face to face in the room, if that’s a softening of our posture, then that’s a surprise to me, because we are absolutely clear that one of the reasons why we engage is so that we can have those conversations directly without any ambiguity.”
UK foreign secretary says Putin running out of time and losing friends
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is now speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, about the war in Ukraine:
Putin believed that he could outlast Ukraine and outlast Ukraine’s friends around the world. He was wrong. Because time is not on Russia’s side … Cracks are appearing in the Russian system, and the longer this conflict persists, the more those cracks will work their way through the system. Putin is scared of a mass mobilization. His circle of friends, both within Russia and internationally, is shrinking.
We need to send the message loud and clear that we have the resolve, we have the strategic patience, that we will do the right thing until this is resolved, because if we do not, then we will invite further aggression … Ukraine will not give up, the UK will not abandon them … the UK’s position is resolute.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy has met with Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in their first in-person meeting since the start of the war. When a reporter asked Zelenskiy to comment on Israel’s position, he responded, “We’ll see after our meeting,” the New York Times reported.
Bibi and Zelensky pic.twitter.com/Nfjf6M4v3Y
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) September 19, 2023
Netanyahu is also set to meet with Joe Biden on Wednesday, nine months after he returned to office. The two have had a strained relationship due to the judicial overhaul pushed by the prime minister and his hardline coalition, which has prompted the largest protest movement in Israel’s history.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy also accused Russia of weaponising food and energy, noting “there are many conventions that restrict weapons but there are no real restrictions on weaponisation.”
He explained how Ukraine and its partners were trying to work around the Russian blockade of Black Sea ports, but he had bitter criticism for Ukraine’s neighbours who have periodically blocked the export of Ukrainian produce westwards for fear it would compete with domestic output and lower prices.
He said “some of our friends in Europe”, whose expressions of solidarity were “political theatre” were, by restricting imports from Ukraine, “helping set the stage for a Moscow actor”.
He said that Russia, having long used oil and gas as a weapon was now weaponising nuclear energy, pointing to the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which he said Moscow had turned into a potential “dirty bomb”.
The goal of the Russian military campaign, the president said, was to turn Ukraine, its people, land and resources “into a weapon against you, against the international rules based order”. If the Russians succeeded, he warned, “many seats in the general assembly hall may become empty”.
He said the Ukrainian peace blueprint, which involves Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory, accountability for war crimes and restitution for damages, represented “a real chance to end aggression on the terms of the nation which was attacked.” Zelenskiy added:
While Russia is pushing the world to a final war, Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after this Russian aggression, no one in the world will dare to attack any nation.
Ukraine gave up its third largest nuclear arsenal. The world then decided Russia should become a keeper of such power. Yet, history shows it was Russia who deserved nuclear disarmament the most. And Russia deserves it now – terrorists have no right to hold nuclear weapons. pic.twitter.com/5gsz3iijTf
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 19, 2023
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, dressed in an olive green long sleeved polo shirt, used the word genocide to refer to the abduction of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children by Russian occupation authorities, who the Ukrainian president said were being brainwashed into hating their homeland.
“Never before has mass kidnapping and deportation become a part of the government policy. Not until now,” Zelenskiy said, saying that the Ukrainian government knew of the names of tens of thousands of abducted children and had “evidence of hundreds of thousands of others kidnapped by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine and later deported.”
The international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and a top aide for their involvement in ordering the child deportations.
“We are trying to get the children back home, but time goes by and what will happen to them? Those children in Russia are taught to hate Ukraine and all ties with their families are broken. And this is clearly a genocide,” Zelenskiy said, adding:
When hatred is weaponized against one nation, it never stops there.
The speech was watched from the Russian seats in the chamber by Moscow’s deputy permanent representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy, who wrote in a notebook from time to time and occasionally grinned.
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Zelenskiy calls on world leaders to attend peace summit to stop future wars
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told the UN general assembly that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine and urged world leaders to attend a peace summit to help stop the invasion and future wars of aggression.
Appearing in the assembly chamber in New York for the first time in person, the Ukrainian president used the opportunity to try to galvanise support for his country’s plight among many countries, especially in the Global South, many of whom have sought to sit on the fence in the face of the full-scale Russian invasion.
Zelenskiy said he would give further details of his peace plan, based on national sovereignty and territorial integrity, at a special session of the security council on Wednesday. He said all leaders “who do not tolerate any aggression” would be invited to a peace summit. He did not say when or where the meeting would be held, but he has previously expressed the hope it would happen by autumn this year.
Prince William: 'We've got to retain optimism' to help drive change
Prince William has stressed the need for optimism in the face of the climate crisis during a visit to New York City.
The heir to the British throne is in the US to unveil 15 finalists for the Earthshot Prize, an initiative he started in 2020 to reward people who have come up with new ways to address environmental problems.
“I think we’ve got to retain optimism because it’s the bigger driver of change, of innovation,” said the Prince of Wales.
We want to believe there is hope, that there are people doing incredible things.
Prince William said he had taken a morning jog around Central Park on Tuesday prior to the gathering in the salubrious surroundings of the nearby Plaza hotel. A large crowd of curious New Yorkers and tourists had gathered outside the hotel in the hope of catching a glimpse of him.
The Earthshot Prize’s message of upbeat breakthroughs, such as new substitutes for plastic and schemes to preserve forests and small-scale agriculture, was somewhat tempered by Michael Bloomberg, whose eponymous organization hosted the event.
“You just watch the television and there’s another disaster somewhere in the world,” said Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and presidential candidate.
We have to stop and find some way to make the future safer for our kids.
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The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, met with US president Joe Biden today during the UN general assembly, according to a White House statement.
The pair “reaffirmed the strong partnership” between the UN and the US, the statement reads.
They discussed pressing global challenges, including the need to tackle rising poverty and inequality and mobilize additional resources for sustainable development, combat climate change, and uphold the UN’s foundational principles – particularly in the face of Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.
Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will also meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in New York on Wednesday, the office of the Brazilian presidency said on Monday.
Lula has advocated the creation of a group of nations to mediate an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, but in May he stated that both Moscow and Kyiv were to blame for the conflict, angering the US and European states who back Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion.
Zelenskiy is expected to seek to convince Lula that the war in Ukraine is not an obstacle to progress for the world’s poor, and that Ukraine’s fate is a legitimate matter for the world, not just Europe.
Last month, the Brazilian leftist leader told reporters neither Zelenskiy nor Russian President Vladimir Putin were ready for peace.
Lula and Zelenskiy have never met, though they held a video call in March days after Brazil voted for a UN resolution that called for peace and demanded Moscow withdraw its troops.
The Ukrainian government asked for the meeting between Zelenskiy and Lula after the two men did not meet at the G7 summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima earlier this year.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Staten Island university hospital in New York on Monday ahead of his UN general assembly address today.
The Ukrainian president travelled straight to the hospital from the airport after landing in New York, and awarded medals to wounded Ukrainian soldiers and some hospital staff.
“Thank you for continuing to fight for our country and defend its borders. I also thank the doctors and all those who have been supporting Ukrainian soldiers since the beginning of the full-scale war,” he said, according to a statement from the presidential office.
We will be waiting for all of you. We need you – every warrior of Ukraine – to defeat the enemy. Thank you for your service! Everyone is proud of you! I wish you recovery, victory and return home!
Zelenskiy will also attend a UN security council meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday, but was unclear on whether he would remain seated at the 15-member body’s horseshoe-shaped table if Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, speaks.
Asked whether he’d stay in the room to listen, Zelenskiy said:
I don’t know how it will be, really.
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Zelenskiy says Ukraine preparing 'global peace summit' to discuss peace formula
Zelenskiy says he presented the outlines of a Ukrainian peace formula during his video address at last year’s UN general assembly.
He says he plans to present the details at tomorrow’s UN security council, and that more than 140 states and international organisations have either fully or partly supported the formula.
The Ukrainian peace formula is becoming global. It’s poised to offer solutions and steps that will solve all forms of weaponisation that Russia used against Ukraine and other countries.
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Zelenskiy on Russia's 'kidnap' of Ukrainian children: 'This is clearly a genocide'
Zelenskiy says the world has witnessed Russia using energy as a weapon. “Now this threat is even greater,” he says.
Russia is weaponising nuclear energy. Not only it is spreading its unreliable nuclear power plant construction technologies, but it is also turning other countries power plants into real dirty bombs.
He says there is no accountability for the “treacherous” actions by Russia, citing the example of the mass abduction of Ukrainian children.
We know the names of tens of thousands of children and have evidence on hundreds of thousands of others kidnapped by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine and later deported.
The international criminal court issued arrest warrants for these crimes and we are trying to get children back home. Fine. Time goes by what will happen with them?
Zelenskiy warns that those children will be taught to hate Ukraine and all ties with their families will be broken. He adds:
This is clearly a genocide.
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Zelenskiy calls on countries to support Ukraine in launching a temporary sea export corridor from its borders to ensure its food products are available on the global market, after Moscow undermined the Black Sea grain initiative.
He says it is “alarming” to see how some European countries “play out solidarity in political theatre”, referring to announcements by Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to impose their own restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports.
Zelenskiy: Russia 'using food prices as weapons'
Zelenskiy says Russia is weaponising many things not just against Ukraine, but also against other countries as well.
He says it is clear that Russia is attempting to weaponising the food shortage on the global market in exchange for recognition of its captured territories in Ukraine.
Russia is launching the food prices as weapons. The impact spans from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the south-east Asia.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, begins his speech to the UN general assembly by discussing the push for nuclear disarmament after the second world war, a strategy he describes as good “but should not be the only strategy”.
He says Ukraine gave away its nuclear arsenal, but the world then “decided Russia should become a keeper of such power”.
History shows it was Russia who deserved nuclear disarmament back in the 1990s.
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Zelenskiy to deliver his in-person UN address since Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is set to address the UN general assembly in-person for the first time since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
In 2022, Zelenskiy sent a pre-recorded speech to the UN. In his speech today, the Ukrainian leader is expected to make his case to the world and to Washington for continued help in repelling Russia’s invasion, nearly 19 months into the war.
US president Joe Biden said Russia was seeking to “brutalise” Ukraine, “without consequence” during his speech to UN general assembly.
Biden held Russia solely accountable for the conflict saying:
Russia alone stands in the way of peace because Russia’s price for peace is Ukraine’s capitulation, Ukraine’s territory.
Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, was seen during Biden’s speech scrolling through his phone, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy, sat alongside a delegation of senior Ukrainian officials, applauded the US president’s remarks.
We have a clip of this key moment in his speech:
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The US, Ukraine and their allies will also emphasise the impact of Russian aggression on G77 countries, most importantly in the form of the Black Sea grain initiative, which was supposed to provide safe passage for Ukrainian cereal exports.
Vladimir Putin’s withdrawal from the initiative in July led to a spike in grain prices and had a direct impact on the World Food Programme’s capacity to feed populations threatened by famine in some of the world’s poorest countries.
Turkish-led attempts to persuade Putin to change his mind have failed, and Ukraine’s backers will point to that refusal to pile up pressure on Russia this week.
Caitlin Welsh, director of the global food and water security programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, believes Putin is highly unlikely to bow to that pressure.
Russia sees nearly all upside and very little downside in remaining outside of the agreement. The upside that Russia sees is that Russia benefits from the destruction of Ukraine’s agriculture sector.
The diversion of Ukrainian grain exports westwards has also aroused protectionist responses from European farmers. “Russia also sees upside in disunity within the EU with regard to trade disruptions,” Welsh said.
The launching of the Black Sea grain initiative in July last year was a highlight of António Guterres’ tenure as secretary general, and its collapse is a setback both for his leadership and for the UN as a whole. It comes at a time when the UN is struggling to justify its preeminence among a proliferation of international groups based on regional geography and common interests.
The greatest geopolitical drama of the week is expected to spring from the presence of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who will address the general assembly in person for the first time.
On Wednesday, Zelenskiy will address a security council meeting on the war in Ukraine, which is also due to be attended by the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
That does not necessarily mean there will be a personal confrontation. Last year, Lavrov entered the council chamber to deliver his remarks and then left. But an unplanned close encounter is always possible.
Richard Gowan, the UN director at the International Crisis Group, described Zelenskiy’s decision to attend the general assembly in the flesh as a gamble at a time when there is growing pressure, especially from G77 states, to agree a ceasefire while just under a fifth of Ukrainian territory is under occupation.
“We shouldn’t underestimate the element of risk,” Gowan said.
If Zelenskiy goes to the general assembly and to the security council, and insists that Ukraine has to fight on, and that this is not a moment for diplomacy, I think that he will get a lot of pushback.
Zelenskiy’s strategy in recent months, rather than allow his government to be portrayed as “against peace”, has been to launch his own initiative to pursue a settlement founded on the principles of the UN Charter, national sovereignty and territorial integrity that almost all UN member states claim to uphold.
The council on foreign relations thinktank in New York has denied reports that it cancelled its much criticised meeting for the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi to come to speak to an invited audience.
Criticism started when private invitations went out last week including some in the Iranian diaspora who thought Raisi was a human rights abuser and an inappropriate man to speak to an audience that believed in liberal values. No immediate official statement was given by the CFR, but protests were gathering outside the New York thinktank.
The event in common with sessions with world leaders visiting New York for the UN had not been advertised. Nearly 180 thinktanks and NGOs had written to the CFR asking for the invitation to be withdrawn on the basis of his human rights record.
The authors recognised the CFR role as a platform for dialogue but added:
There can be no justification for inviting a perpetrator of crimes against humanity to speak at your panel.
Nazanin Boniadi, the actress and human rights advocate, said on Twitter she had declined the invitation, citing his complicity in crimes against humanity. She said:
Some say that these meetings allow us to hold the feet of dictators to the fire, but the past 44 years have shown us that not only are these meetings futile, the Islamic Republic uses them to legitimize themselves on the global stage. Continuing the same practices and expecting tyrants to change their behavior seems completely irrational. Democratic institutions hold the key to tipping the balance of power in favour of those risking everything for freedom. If you afford your members the opportunity to meet dictators behind closed doors, then at least offer them the chance to also hear from their opponents in the open.
The CFR denied the reports that the meeting with Raisi had been cancelled, but said it had been postponed at the request of the Iranians until Wednesday and at a different location site.
Interim summary
As public and politicians wait for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address the UN general assembly, here’s where things stand so far today:
Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pledged to step up efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine “through diplomacy and dialogue”.
Joe Biden accused Russia of “shredding longstanding arms control agreements” but pledged that the US would “lead by example” in limiting the spread of weapons of mass destruction. He warned against allowing Russia to “brutalize” Ukraine without consequences.
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda used his address to say the “brutal” war in Ukraine must end and that it cannot be “converted into a frozen war”. He called for “restoring the full territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders.”
France called for an emergency meeting of the UN security council over the launch by Azerbaijan of a military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Biden pledged to ‘responsibly manage’ competition with China so it does not ‘slip into conflict’.
Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for more action to resist climate change and said there was progress on protecting the Amazon rainforest. He called for work “to create space for negotiations” on the war in Ukraine.
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A UN report calling on countries to consider financial reparations for transatlantic slavery has been hailed as a significant step forward by campaigners.
The report by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said no country had comprehensively accounted for the past and addressed the legacy of the mass enslavement of people of African descent for more than 400 years.
“Under international human rights law, compensation for any economically assessable damage, as appropriate and proportional to the gravity of the violation and the circumstances of each case, may also constitute a form of reparations,” the report said.
In the context of historical wrongs and harms suffered as a result of colonialism and enslavement, the assessment of the economic damage can be extremely difficult owing to the length of time passed and the difficulty of identifying the perpetrators and victims.
The report stressed, however, that the difficulty in making a legal claim to compensation “cannot be the basis for nullifying the existence of underlying legal obligations”.
Campaigners have described the report as an important step forward in the fight for reparative justice.
On the subject of Azerbaijan’s military operation in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Erdoğan says Turkey has supported negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia from the beginning.
Erdoğan says he expects a comprehensive peace agreement to be signed between the two countries as soon as possible, and promises to be quickly fulfilled. He says:
Nagorno-Karabakh is the territory of Azerbaijan. Any other status imposed will never be accepted.
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Turkey's Erdoğan pledges to step up efforts to end Ukraine war 'through diplomacy and dialogue'
Erdoğan says the UN’s security council has ceased to be a guarantor of world security, instead becoming “a battleground for the political strategies” of its five permanent members. “The world is bigger than five,” he says.
The Turkish leader says that Ankara has endeavored to keep Russia and Ukraine around the table since the beginning of the war, adding that “the war will have no winners”.
We will step up our efforts to end the war through diplomacy and dialogue on the basis of Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity.
Erdoğan warns that the failure to implement the Black Sea Grain initiative has “left the world facing new crisis”, but that Turkey has a new plan whereby another one million tonnes of grain will be released to countries in dire need.
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Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, warns that the world is facing “increasingly complex and dangerous challenges” on a global scale, and that it is not possible to draw a more optimistic picture of the future compared to last year.
There are conflicts, wars, humanitarian crises, political strife and social tensions to the south, north east and west of my own country.
He says terrorism, which is “used as an instrument of proxy wars” in Syria, north Africa, and the Sahel region, is causing “irreparable damage to the increasingly fragile international security climate”, while signs of xenophobia, racism and Islamophobia have reached “alarming” levels in the past year.
Erdoğan says that climate change and related natural disaster have become a reality of our daily lives no matter what corner of the world we are in, citing the February 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people. He thanks the international community for its support during the aftermath of the earthquake.
Biden pledges to 'lead by example' on nuclear arms control
Joe Biden has accused Russia of “shredding longstanding arms control agreements” but pledged that the US would “lead by example” in limiting the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
In his address to the UN general assembly, Biden castigated the Putin regime for its suspension, in February this year, of the 2010 New Start treaty, the last arms control agreement between the two countries.
That suspension, coupled with Russia’s withdrawal from the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty in 2007, was “irresponsible and makes the entire world less safe”, the president said.
However, Biden insisted that the US “is going to continue to pursue good faith efforts to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction and lead by example, no matter what else is happening in the world”.
The statement appeared to be a confirmation that the US would continue the policy it has pursued since Vladimir Putin’s suspension of New Start, by not going beyond the treaty’s limits of 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads, and 700 deployed delivery systems.
At the time of Moscow’s suspension of the New Start treaty, Russian officials said their government would continue to observe those limits, but there have been no inspections of Russian nuclear weapons facilities since the start of the Covid pandemic, and Russia has ceased to share data that was required by the agreement.
In his speech, Biden said the US also remained committed to diplomatic means to contain North Korean’s nuclear weapons programme and would “remain steadfast in our commitment that Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons”.
Daryl Kimball, the head of the Arms Control Association, welcomed Biden’s statement on the New Start limits.
“I’m glad that Biden said this to keep the flame going, if you think about how you don’t have much room in a UN speech,” Kimball said.
It’s a positive signal that the United States remains ready to engage in serious dialogue on nuclear weapons production and arms control despite whatever else has happened in the Russian relationship.
In his address, Biden urged the UN general assembly to uphold the UN charter in its approach to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, framing it as a matter of principle, national sovereignty and territorial integrity that was essential to all UN members.
“Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalise Ukraine without consequence,” Biden said.
But I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles … to appease an aggressor, can any member state in this body feel confident that they are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?
“I respectfully suggest the answer is no,” the president added.
We must stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow.
Much of the rest of Biden’s speech was dedicated to the principles of global cooperation to take on basic issues of poverty, human rights and the climate crisis. The US and other supporters of Ukraine are well aware that many countries at the UN, especially the developing nations in the Group of 77, are becoming restive at the focus on Ukraine, when the death toll from conflict, famine and climate change is so enormous in the global south. Biden stressed that he takes these concerns seriously.
“My country has to meet this critical moment to work with countries in every region, in common cause to join together with partners who share a common vision of the future of the world,” he said.
The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound up with yours … No nation can meet the challenges of today alone.
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Poland says US played 'pivotal role' in ensuring European security for more than a century
Duda warned that the world is about to “discover the scale of manipulation and disinformation” by Russia in its effort to “justify Russian crimes on the civilian population” and to shape international public opinion “by building a false vision of the reality”.
The international community must confront manipulation and disinformation and fight against the “hypocrisy of history”, he said.
What is evil should be called evil. A crime should be called a crime.
Duda said the US has played a “pivotal role” in ensuring security in Europe for more than a century, adding that the commitment of the US is essential for European security.
It is too often that Europe tends to forget that it owes its security and prosperity to the US commitment and presence.
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Poland's Duda warns world cannot allow Ukraine to become a 'frozen war'
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, used his speech to call on “courageous and visionary” leaders to stand against the “imperial policy” of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Russia’s full-scale aggression on Ukraine has led to “immense global problems” in its aftermath and tested the international world order, he said.
World peace has never been as threatened as it is today.
He cited Poland’s history of being invaded by Nazi Germany in September 1939 as why Warsaw “understands the tragedy of Ukraine better than any other country in the world”.
For the first time in a long time, Russians have shown the face we have known for hundreds of years. They believed that the nations around them should be subjected to them. We say no.
Russia believes that the old days of the empire that collapsed less than 20 years ago, that domination will again be a feature of our region. Well, it will not. Those days are over once and for all.
Duda said the “brutal” war in Ukraine must end and that it cannot be “converted into a frozen war … This can only be done by restoring the full territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders.”
He said Poland is engaged in initiatives to hold Russia accountable for violations of fundamental norms of international law, and that it “strongly” supports the work of the international criminal court and the international court of justice.
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Here’s a clip from UN secretary general António Guterres’ speech this morning, where he warned that the world is becoming “unhinged”.
Guterres told delegates the world was changing and it was increasingly important that global institutions reflect this. He added:
We cannot effectively address problems as they are if institutions don’t reflect the world as it is. Instead of solving problems, they risk becoming part of the problem.
Jordan’s King Abdullah, during his speech, received applause as he warned that the region would continue to suffer until the world helps to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – “the central issue in the Middle East”. He said:
No architecture for regional security and development can stand over the burning ashes of this conflict.
He questioned why the international community was not supporting Palestinians as Israel continues to expand its illegal settlements in the occupied territories.
Where is the global solidarity to make UN resolutions believable by people in need of our help?
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The issue of the US opioid crisis was brought home over the weekend in New York City when one-year-old Nicholas Dominici died from a toxic opioid exposure while attending a daycare center in the Bronx.
A package containing several thousand dollars’ worth of fentanyl was later discovered inside the center where a pair of two-year-old boys and an eight-month-old girl were poisoned by the drug.
Fentanyl residue was found underneath a mat where the children had napped, the New York police department’s chief of detectives, Joseph Kenny, said at a news conference. The operator of the home-based Divino Niño center and another man who lived there have pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
“We’re not going to allow this incident to take place and ignore this as just another day, another tragedy in the city,” New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, said at the news conference. Adams said that it was “just total madness” that a daycare was being used to process drugs.
At the UN, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, also referred to Dominici’s death.
This is the day-in, day-out story in the United States.
In an appeal for international cooperation, he warned his international listeners that the US experience was coming their way.
I just want to tell you, because we’ve lived it, we’re experiencing it here in this country, this is coming.
US diplomats at the UN general assembly in New York have unveiled steps aimed at tackling the proliferation of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs which the American secretary of state, Antony Blinken, described as a “global threat”.
At a meeting Monday, the most senior US diplomat announced the formation of an international coalition to address the crisis, saying that the US “may have been to some extent a canary in the coalmine when it comes to fentanyl, but alas, we are not alone”.
Blinken pointed to fentanyl and other synthetic drugs as the number-one killer of Americans aged 18 to 49. The US recorded 110,000 overdose deaths last year, with more than two-thirds linked to the synthetic opioid.
He noted that the issue of synthetic drugs – which can be created in a room no larger the stage he was on – was different from the plant-based drug trade that preceded it. That’s because the plant-based trade took “a pretty large-scale enterprise in order to cultivate the crops, bring them to market”.
Blinken said the problem was global in reach, with criminal organizations “exploiting gaps in interconnected systems to bring new drugs to new places in new ways”. Blinken pointed to tramadol in Africa, to fake Captagon pills in the Middle East and to ketamine as well as amphetamines in Asia.
“This crisis has an immeasurable cost,” Blinken said.
It has devastated families. It’s devastated communities. It’s also been overwhelming to our public health and criminal justice systems.
The diplomat said the US will name an envoy on the issue, introduce a resolution highlighting the global health and security threat of synthetic drugs, and – alongside the UN office on drugs and crime – partner with tech companies to deny traffickers access to online platforms used to market synthetic drugs. He said:
I have to tell you that as the parent of young children, I’m terrified – terrified at the prospect that they will encounter what seems to be an innocent little pill and that in its small size, has death written all over it.
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The Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva staked his claim to be the true leader of the Global South, telling the UN that market liberalism has plagued democracy and disenfranchised millions, leaving them in poverty and prey to nationalist totalitarianism.
He said “the 10 richest billionaires have more wealth than the poorest 40% of humanity,” adding there’s a lack of political will from those who govern the world “in order to overcome inequality”.
He made no direct criticism of the Russian president Vladimir Putin but said the UN was losing credibility and blamed this frailty on “the specific result of actions from its permanent members who wage unauthorised wars aimed at territorial expansion or regime change. Its paralysis is the most eloquent proof of the urgent need to reform it.”
Although he did not draw the explicit comparison, his remarks left open the assumption that the Russian invasion of Ukraine bore comparison to the US invasion of Iraq. He also questioned why so much was being spent on arms and so little on climate change.
Lula’s leadership has come under criticism for saying he would welcome Putin to Brazil, questioning the role of the international criminal court and also failing to meet the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an omission he is due to rectify in New York on Wednesday.
Setting out what he said would be Brazil’s agenda for its upcoming G20 presidency, he offered a vision that was explicitly more socialist than the one provided by Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister and current G20 chair. He said hunger today affected 735 million human beings, who go to sleep without knowing what they will eat tomorrow. The world was becoming more unequal every day.
He said governments needed to break away from the increasing dissonance between the voice of the markets and the voice of the streets. “Neoliberalism has aggravated the economic and political inequality that plagues democracies today. Its legacy is a mass of disenfranchised and excluded people”. He said:
Rich countries grew based on a model with high rates of climate damaging gas emissions. The climate emergency makes it urgent to correct course and implement what has already been agreed. There is no other reason why we speak of common but differentiated responsibilities. It is the vulnerable populations in the global south who are most affected by the loss and damage caused by climate change. The richest 10% of the world’s population are responsible for almost half of all carbon released into the atmosphere. We developing countries do not want to repeat this model.
Amid reports that Brazil will tighten its own green house gas emissions, he said already the Amazon was speaking for itself, and over the past eight months had been cut deforestation by 48%.
He defended the recent expansion of the Brics group saying it was the result of multilateral paralysis. He predicted the expanded grouping would be a force that works towards fairer global trade challenging rich countries’ protectionism.
He complained that last year the IMF made available $160bn in special drawing rights to European countries, and just $34bn to African countries. The unequal and distributed representation of the management of the IMF and the World Bank was unacceptable, he said.
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US only permanent security council member to attend UN general assembly
For the first time in years, US president Joe Biden is the sole leader of the UN security council’s five permanent members to attend the UN general assembly this week. The leaders of China, Russia, India, France, and the UK have all decided to skip the gathering.
The UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is the first British leader in a decade to avoid attending the gathering. The reason given was his busy schedule, but the Guardian has previously reported that turning up risked severe embarrassment for the prime minister.
French president Emmanuel Macron, who attended last year, opted out to host Britain’s King Charles in Paris.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has an arrest warrant issued by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. China’s president Xi Jinping rarely attends the UN general assembly gathering in person.
In addition, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi, who led a recent regional summit and travelled recently to China, is also not attending.
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During his speech US president Joe Biden also called on the UN to authorise an intervention in Haiti.
“I call on the Security council to authorise this mission now. The people of Haiti cannot wait much longer,” Biden said.
He also thanked Kenyan president William Ruto, who offered to lead a multinational force in Haiti to restore order.
The island nation has been struggling with escalating gang violence and turf wars across the capital Port-au-Prince since the assassination of former President Jovenel Moïse in 2021.
Over 160,000 people have been displaced due to gang violence, according to the International Organization for Migration.
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Away from the conference the UK foreign secretary James Cleverly confirmed the UK had invited China to attend its novel AI summit in November despite reports that China had managed to insert spies into the UK parliament.
He said:
We cannot keep the UK public safe from the risks of AI if we exclude one of the leading nations in AI tech. That’s why China has been invited to our AI Safety Summit in November. The UK’s approach to China is to protect our institutions and infrastructure, align with partners and engage where it is in the UK’s national interest.
The Foreign Office said China is a global AI power and home to several major AI labs, including the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI). The primary goal of the Summit is to generate international consensus on the safety risks posed by frontier AI, and a common desire to address them. The AI Summit are engaging with a range of countries including China to determine the precise nature of their participation in the Summit.
It is expected the UN secretary general António Guterres will also attend. He is launching an initiative of his own to see if the UN can act as some kind of global regulator or adviser.
France calls for emergency UN security council meeting over Azerbaijani military operation
France called for an emergency meeting of the UN security council over the launch by Azerbaijan of a military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
It said:
No pretext can justify such unilateral action, which threatens thousands of civilians already affected by months of illegal blockade and goes against the efforts of the international community to reach a negotiated settlement”.
It condemned “the use of heavy weapons, including against inhabited areas”.
Calling on Azerbaijan to immediately cease its offensive and return to respect for international law France said it “will hold Azerbaijan solely responsible for the fate of the civilian populations of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
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Biden warns against allowing Russia to 'brutalize' Ukraine without consequences
Biden says the UN gathering this week is “darkened by the shadow of war”, which he describes as an “illegal war of conquest without provocation by Russia” against Ukraine.
No nation wants the war to end more than Ukraine, he says, reiterating US support for Kyiv and its efforst to bring about “a diplomatic resolution to a just and lasting peace”.
He says Russia along bears the responsibility of the war in Ukraine, and that it alone has the power to end the war immediately.
Russia alone stands in the way of peace because Russia’s price for peace is Ukraine’s capitulation, Ukraine’s territory. Russia will grow weary, allowed to brutalize Ukraine without consequence.
But ask you this: if we abandon the core principles of United States to appease an aggressor, can any member state in this body feel confident that there are protected if you allow Ukraine to be carved up? Is the independence of any nation security?
Biden says the US will continue to stand with the people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity and freedom.
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Biden: US to 'responsibly manage' competition with China so it does not 'slip into conflict'
Biden vows to defend democracy around the world, but he emphasises that US partnerships with countries are not about “containing any country”. He says:
On a common set, China, I want to be clear and consistent. We seek to responsibly manage the competition between our countries so does not slip into conflict.
I’ve said we are for de-risking not decoupling in China.
He says the US will push back on aggression and intimidation, but that it stands ready to work together with Beijing on issues that include the climate crisis, which “we see everywhere”.
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Biden says the US is committed to sustaining the institutions built at the end of the second world war that are “an enduring bedrock” of the world’s progress.
He says the US is undertaking “serious consultations” with many member states over expanding the UN security council, adding that “we need more voices, more perspectives at the table”.
The UN must “continue to preserve peace, prevent conflict and alleviate human suffering”, Biden says.
He says the US is working to make global institutions such as the World Bank to become more responsive, effective and inclusive. The US will also continue its efforts to reform the World Trade Organization to preserve competition, openness, transparency and the rule of law while also protecting workers, driving the clean energy transition, and promoting inclusive and sustainable growth.
Biden says the G20 has been strengthened as a “vital forum”, citing welcoming the African Union as a permanent member.
Biden: 'Our future is bound up with yours'
Biden says the US seeks “a more secure, more prosperous and equitable world for all people” because its future is bound with the rest of the world.
No country can meet the challenges of today alone.
He describes that vision as one where “our children do not go hungry and everyone has access to quality health care, where workers are empowered and our environment is protected, where entrepreneurs and innovators everywhere can access opportunity everywhere”.
Joe Biden addresses general assembly
Joe Biden is addressing the general assembly, where he begins by discussing his visit to Vietnam last week, where he stood “on soil once bloody with war”.
The US president says his visit would have been “unthinkable” decades ago, and that it is a “powerful reminder that our history need not dictate our future”.
Let us never forget that we choose to stand together and recognize the common hopes to bind all humanity.
He says leaders gather today at “an inflection point in world history” while holding the power to “bend that arc of history” with “the eyes of the world upon all of you”.
Biden says the US “has to lead this critical moment to work with countries in every region, linking them in common cause, joined together with partners who share a common vision of the future of the world”.
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Lula calls for work 'to create space for negotiations' on Ukraine war
Lula says the war in Ukraine “exposes our collective inability” to enforce the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
The Brazilian president says:
We do not underestimate the difficulties in achieving peace, but no solution will be lasting if it is not based on dialogue.
I have reiterated that work needs to be done to create space for negotiations.
Lula says Amazon is 'speaking for itself' as he urges more to fight climate change
Lula says he returned as Brazil’s president with a mission to rebuild the nation as a “sovereign, fair, sustainable, supportive” country.
He says Brazil is committed to implementing all 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), and that it has launched a plan to bring together a series of initiatives to reduce poverty and food insecurity.
Lula vows to fight femicide and all forms of violence against women, and to advocate for the rights of the LGBTQI groups and people of disabilities.
On the issue of climate change, the Brazilian leader says it is vulnerable populations in the global south who are most affected.
The richest 10% of the world’s population are responsible for almost half of all carbon released into the atmosphere. We developing countries do not want to repeat this model.
He says Brazil is the forefront of the energy transition, and that 87% of the country’s electrical power comes from clean and renewable sources.
He says deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been reduced by 48%, adding that there are 50 million South Americans living in the Amazon.
The whole world has always talked about the Amazon – now the Amazon is speaking for itself.
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Lula begins his speech by saying that he first stood on the UN’s general assembly debate podium exactly 20 years, where he expressed confidence “in the human capacity to overcome challenges and evolve toward superior forms of coexistence”. He says he maintains that “unshakable trust in humanity”, 20 years on.
In 2003, the world had not yet realised the severity of the climate crisis which “knocks on our doors, destroys our homes, our cities, our countries, kills and imposes losses and suffering on our brothers, especially the poorest”, he says.
Lula says hunger was the central theme of his speech 20 years ago, and the world now is increasingly unequal where the 10 richest billionaires have more wealth than the poorest 40% of humanity.
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The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will make the first speech at the general debate, as is tradition.
AP reports that early on, Brazil ventured forward when no other country would volunteer to speak first. Decades later, the South American country retains the pole position at the debate.
As the host country, the US president Joe Biden will speak after Lula.
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Biden to warn of Russia's ability to 'brutalize Ukraine without consequence' if UN doesn't uphold charter
According to excerpts from his speech released by the White House, Joe Biden will urge the UN general assembly to uphold the UN Charter in its approach to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The US and other supporters of Ukraine are very conscious that many countries at the UN, especially the developing nations in the Group of 77, are becoming restive at the focus on Ukraine at the UN, when the death toll from conflict, famine and climate change is so enormous in the Global South. Biden will make clear in his remarks he takes these concerns seriously.
Biden will say:
The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound up with yours. And no nation can meet the challenges of today alone.
He will frame the Ukraine war as a matter of principle, a matter of national sovereignty and territorial integrity that is essential to all UN members.
“Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalise Ukraine without consequence,” Biden will say.
But I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the UN Charter to appease an aggressor, can any member state feel confident that they are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?
The answer is no. We must stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow,” the president will say.
That is why the United States together with our Allies and partners around the world will continue to stand with the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity – and their freedom.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has arrived for the opening of the UN’s general assembly general debate. He is scheduled to take the podium later this morning.
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UN chief warns ‘our world is becoming unhinged' in general assembly opening speech
The world is becoming unhinged as geopolitical tensions rise and the world seems incapable of coming together to respond to mounting global challenges, the UN secretary general António Guterres said in his speech opening of the UN general assembly in New York.
He warned global governance was “stuck in time” at a point when strong modern multilateral institutions are in greater need than ever before.
Reflecting on a year in which the UN has seemed paralysed by the divisions over the war in Ukraine., Guterres put those divisions in a broader context saying:
We cannot effectively address problems as they are if institutions don’t reflect the world as it is. Instead of solving problems, they risk becoming part of the problem.
He said “divides were deepening among economic and military powers, and between North and South, East and West”.
Returning to a theme that has appeared in many of his speeches for three or more years he said:
We are inching ever closer to a Great Fracture in economic and financial systems and trade relations; one that threatens a single, open internet; with diverging strategies on technology and artificial intelligence; and potentially clashing security frameworks.
The world’s response to climate change was still falling “abysmally short”, he said.
Guterres has been criticised for issuing a series of arresting but increasingly dark warnings about the plight of the world that are not achieving the impact, so his aides stressed that his speech, while candid about the challenges, was one of his most “solution heavy”.
He called for deep reforms to the “dysfunctional, outdated and unjust” international financial architecture, including a $500bn a year rescue package for those countries most heavily in debt.
On climate he demanded a Climate Solidarity Pact, in which all big emitters make extra efforts to cut emissions; and wealthier countries support emerging economies with finance and technology to do so. He pointed out: “Africa has 60%of the world’s solar capacity – but just 2% of renewable investments”.
Specifically he called for “an end to coal – by 2030 for OECD countries and 2040 for the rest of the world. An end to fossil fuel subsidies and price on carbon. Developed countries must finally deliver the $100bn for developing country climate action, as well as double adaptation finance by 2025,”
He also broke newer policy ground by putting artificial intelligence – something he described as a subject of awe and fear – at the heart of the UN agenda confirming he was appointing a high level panel to report to him on its implications by the end of the year. He suggested a new global entity on AI that could provide a source of information and expertise for Member States, equivalent to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
He also was more unequivocal than sometimes in his condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and its wider damaging ramifications. He said:
If every country fulfilled its obligations under the UN Charter, the right to peace would be guaranteed. When countries break those pledges, they create a world of insecurity for everyone. Exhibit A: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The war, in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law, has unleashed a nexus of horror: lives destroyed; human rights abused; families torn apart; children traumatized; hopes and dreams shattered. Beyond Ukraine, the war has serious implications for us all. Nuclear threats put us all at risk. Ignoring global treaties and conventions makes us all less safe. And the poisoning of global diplomacy obstructs progress across the board.
Guterres also used his speech to present the disastrous recent floods in Derna, Libya, as “a snapshot of the state of our world” and sign of what happens when climate change meets poor governance. He said those who died in Derna were “victims of years of conflict, victims of climate chaos, victims of leaders – near and far – who failed to find a way to peace. The people of Derna lived and died in the epicentre of that indifference – as the skies unleashed 100 times the monthly rainfall in 24 hours … as dams broke after years of war and neglect”.
UN chief Guterres: Not all leaders 'feeling the heat' of climate change
Guterres moves on to the climate crisis, which he says is “killing people and devastating communities”. He says:
Climate change is not just a change in the weather. Climate change is changing life on our planet. It is affecting every aspect of our world.
This is only the beginning, he says.
We have just survived the hottest days, the hottest months and the hottest days on the books. Every continent, every region and every country is feeling the heat. But I’m not sure at all leaders are feeling that heat.
He says there is still time to keep rising temperatures within the 1.5 degree celsius limits and the Paris agreement, but that will require “drastic” steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
We have the receipts. G20 countries are responsible for 80% of greenhouse emissions. They must break their addiction to fossil fuels and stop new coal.
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Guterres says countries such as Russia are creating a “world of insecurity” for everyone following its invasion of Ukraine, which he says has “unleashed the next phase of our lives: historic human rights abuse, families torn apart, children traumatised, hopes and dreams shattered.”
The war in Ukraine has “serious implications” for the world beyond Kyiv, he says, pointing to the collapse of the Black Sea grain initiative.
The world badly needs Ukrainian food and Russian food and fertilisers to stabilise markets and guarantee food security.
Around the world, new risks emerge as countries develop new weapons and nuclear disarmament is “at a standstill”, Guterres says.
Sudan is descending into full scale civil war. Millions have fled and the country risks splitting apart.
In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, millions are displaced and gender based violence is a horrific daily reality in a country that suffered centuries of colonial exploitation, is today overwhelmed by gang violence and still awaits international support.
In Afghanistan, the staggering 70% of the population needs humanitarian assistance with the rights of women and girls systematically denied in Myanmar, brutal violence, worsening poverty and repression and crushing hopes for a return to democracy.
UN chief Guterres: 'Democracy is under threat'
Guterres warns that divides are widening within countries. “Democracy is under threat,” he says.
Authoritarianism is on the march, inequalities are growing, and hate speech is on the rise.
Our world “needs statesmanship, not gamesmanship and gridlock”, he says.
He says world leaders have a “social responsibility” to achieve compromise in building a common future, and says it is “time for a global compromise'”.
What we need is determination and determination which is in the DNA of our United Nations, summoning gods with the first words of the charter.
We the peoples of the United Nations, determined, determined to end the scourge of war, determined to reaffirm faith in human rights, determined to uphold justice and respect international law and determined to promote social progress and better lives for all people.
Guterres says there are many positive ways that the world is moving, bringing new opportunities for justice and balance in international relations. But “multipolarity alone cannot guarantee peace”, he says.
The world is “inching ever closer to a great fracture in economic and financial systems and trade relations”, he says, urging that it is time to “renew multilateral institutions based on 21st-century economic and political realities rooted in equity, solidarity and universality”.
Guterres calls for redesigning international financial architecture so that it serves a “global safety net for developing countries”. “I have no illusions,” he says. “Reforms are a question of power.”
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UN chief Guterres: 'Our world is becoming unhinged' as it confronts 'existential threats'
António Guterres, the UN’s secretary general, begins his remarks with the catastrophic flooding in Libya which left thousands of people dead.
They were “victims many times over”, he said. “Victims of years of conflict, victims of climate chaos, victims of leaders near and far, who failed to find a way to peace”.
Guterres links the victims of these climate catastrophes to the superyachts of billionaires where he describes a “sad snapshot of the state of the world”.
“Our world is becoming unhinged,” he says.
Geopolitical tensions are rising. Global challenges are mounting. And we seem incapable of coming together to respond. We confront a host of existential threats from the climate crisis to disruptive technologies, and they do so at the time of chaotic transition.
UN chief António Guterres to deliver state-of-world address
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, will deliver his state-of-world address to open Tuesday opening of the general debate
We will be following his speech live on the blog.
Western leaders have gone on a charm offensive on the opening day of the UN general assembly as they were forced to defend their record in meeting the organisation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), and insist that the war in Ukraine had not distracted them from this commitment to end global inequality.
At a special summit in New York amounting to a halfway stocktake on progress towards meeting the goals by the target date of 2030, all sides acknowledged there was little chance that the ambitious set of commitments set in 2015, including ending extreme poverty and safeguarding the environment, will be met on schedule.
A plea by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, for all sides to avoid recriminations about the cause of the failure and instead to use the two-day summit as a chance to make a global rescue plan was only partially met on the opening day.
The list of 17 SDGs, which includes 169 specific targets, was first adopted at the UN sustainable development summit in September 2015, and most assessments say only 15% of the targets are on track. The leaders adopted a 43-paragraph political declaration, brokered by Ireland and Qatar, that warned years of sustainable development gains were being reversed. It said:
Millions of people have fallen into poverty, hunger and malnutrition are becoming more prevalent, humanitarian needs are rising, and the impacts of climate change are more pronounced. This has led to increased inequality exacerbated by weakened international solidarity and a shortfall of trust to jointly overcome these crises.
“Instead of leaving no one behind, we risk leaving the SDGs behind … the SDGs need a global rescue plan,” Guterres told the summit.
Human rights abuses are still being committed in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region more than 10 months after a ceasefire formally ended the bloody civil war, according to a group of UN experts.
The latest report by the UN’s International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia said the nation’s government was failing to protect its citizens from “grave and ongoing” human rights abuses being committed by militias and Eritrean troops, who fought alongside Ethiopia’s federal military and remain in border areas of Tigray.
These human rights abuses include sexual and gender-based violence “abetted or tolerated” by the Ethiopian government, according to the report, which was released on Monday.
It said a “transitional justice” process initiated by Ethiopia’s government did not meet international standards and expressed alarm over recent increases in violence in Oromia and Amhara, Ethiopia’s two most populous regions.
The failure to implement a meaningful justice process was fostering a culture of impunity and heightening the risk of future atrocities, said the experts, who noted rising online hate speech in Ethiopia against ethnic and political groups and LGBT people.
“The conflict in Tigray, still not resolved in any comprehensive peace, continues to produce misery,” the report said.
Equally alarming, hostilities in Ethiopia are now at a national scale, with significant violations particularly in [the] Amhara region, but also ongoing in Oromia and elsewhere.
The risk to the state, as well as regional stability and the enjoyment of human rights in east Africa, cannot be overstated.
The conflict in Tigray, which erupted in November 2020 and spilled over into other regions of Ethiopia, was one of the bloodiest of recent times. It is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people and was characterised by massacres and rape.
About 5.4 million of Tigray’s population of 6 million still rely on humanitarian assistance, although food aid to the war-battered region has been paused since mid-March, after the uncovering of a huge, nationwide scheme by officials to steal donated grain. Food aid to the whole of Ethiopia has been on hold since June.
Rifts over Ukraine disrupt UN summit on crises in the global south
This year’s UN general assembly is supposed to be about the global south, addressing the social and economic development issues that many of the world’s poorer countries felt were forgotten last year in the uproar over Ukraine.
That was the intention at least, but the global rifts caused by Russia’s invasion still threaten to take centre stage. The US and its western allies have acknowledged that they cannot take the broad support of the bulk of UN members for granted in opposing Moscow’s war without paying greater attention to the priorities of the UN’s Group of 77 (G77), a loose coalition of developing countries.
The coming “high-level week” at the general assembly began with a two-day meeting on sustainable development goals (SDGs). These 17 goals – such as the eradication of poverty and hunger, and the universal provision of good healthcare and education – were set out by UN member states in 2015, with a goal for their achievement by 2030.
This general assembly marks the halfway point in their progress, and the world is on track to meet only 12% of the targets. Half a billion people are likely still to be living in poverty in 2030. Nearly 100 million children will not be in school. In some areas, progress has gone into reverse. This week’s summit on Monday and Tuesday is intended to refocus concerted international effort on them.
The half-time show in the US is normally associated with the football Super Bowl, superstars and adverts, but the UN in the form of the film director Richard Curtis put on its own version on Monday night in New York and blew the place away.
Curtis is of course in the optimism business – his glass is so permanently half full, it overflows – and the one hour show he helped put on at the Es Devlin designed UN Sustainable Development Goals pavillion included Orlando Bloom, Al Pacino, Dia Mirza, Forest Whitaker, Sabrina Elba, singers, poet laureates, football stars, Ecuadorian activists, UN goodwill ambassadors and inspirational politicians such as Mia Mottley, the Barbados prime minister.
It was determinedly upbeat that at the halfway point the UN could still meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Those goals set 15 years and due to be met in another 15 years are way off track, but the theme of the UN show, as Anima Mohammed, the UN deputy general secretary said was that games are won or lost in the second half.
Al Pacino gave permission for the adaptation of his legendary inspirational speech in Any Given Time in which an elderly manager tries to inspire his losing team together inch by inch “to claw themselves out of hell”.
More modestly Patrice Evra, introduced as the world’s greatest left back, said recovering from a half-time deficit was all about discipline and believing in yourself. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the Game of Thrones star, pleaded for both optimism and urgency about climate change since “every indicator indicates we are heading in the wrong direction. It is not winter that is coming, I am sorry. It is a terrible summer of suffering for too many people and places”.
He said:
Choices we make will have impact for thousands of years ahead. The time for excuses and baby steps are over.
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma accompanied by the pianist and astro physist Amir Siraj led the audience on a musical journey through the mysteries of the universe.
Mottley took her audience away from her specialism, the intricacies of development finance and leveraging private capital. She said
It is hearts that move people and not always logic. Artists and musicians had a duty to communicate the need for change or else we will all have to look for a different planet to live on.
She said : “This world has perfected the art of the movement of global capital, but it does not see people to perfect the protection of migrants. Every religion says we must honour the dignity of every human life. How do we forget it when we walk into the corridors of power”. Don’t leave it to government those in power you have the agency of change.
On a night to recharge worn out if renewable batteries perhaps two young women injected the greatest charge, Salome Agbaroji, the Nigerian American youth poet and US youth poet laureate, drove the audience on a journey to an environmental paradise to what she called “the end zone, the beautiful place on our earth we call oasis”.
Finally: Helena Gualinga, a 22-year-old activist from the Kichwa Sarayaku community in the Amazon. She was intrinsic to a victory in a referendum in August to ban oil companies from continuing to drill in one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, the Yasuní national park. She said: “many people ask her what she will do next. All I can say is we will not stop here and neither should you”.
Some people say the UN does not have pulling power any more – and it is true some world leaders gave the general assembly a miss this year, but at this halfway point for the SDGs, those who showed up are definitely not giving up.
Zelenskiy to address world leaders at 78th UN general assembly
Good morning and welcome to our live blog covering the 78th session of the United Nations general assembly, where world leaders convene in New York amid a backdrop of the war in Ukraine, high food prices, a series of climate-related catastrophes, new political crises in west Africa and Latin America and economic instability.
Heads of state and government from at least 145 countries are expected to take the dais at this year’s general assembly, presided over by Trinidad and Tobago’s Dennis Francis. Among those scheduled to speak on Tuesday are Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the US president Joe Biden, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy – who is appearing at the UN in person for the first time since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of his country.
But there are some notable absences. The leaders of the UK, France, China and Russia will not be attending, meaning Biden will the sole leader of the UN security council’s five permanent members to appear at the UN. Leaders from major countries such as India and Mexico are also slated to send ministers in their steads.
Last year’s UN general assembly session was dominated by the war in Ukraine, and representatives from Africa, Asia and Latin America – often called the global south – hope this year’s meeting will focus on their concerns about development instead. The 2023 general assembly marks a halfway point after the UN’s adoption of a collection of “sustainable development goals” (SDGs) aimed at tackling some of the most pressing global challenges – poverty, access to clean water, environmental protection, gender inequalities, and quality education. At current rates, not a single one will be achieved.
Here’s what we’ll be paying particularly close attention to today:
9am Eastern time. António Guterres, the UN’s secretary general, will deliver his state-of-the-world address at Tuesday’s opening of what is called the general debate.
Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be the first world leader to address the general assembly, in a tradition dating to 1955.
US president Joe Biden will address the assembly next, in a speech that is likely to repeat his criticisms of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and emphasise the US’s desire to address challenges in the developing world.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy will also speak at the general assembly on Tuesday, where he will aim to convince leaders from the global south to back Kyiv against Russia. Zelenskiy is also scheduled to speak at the UN security council meeting on Wednesday.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to use his speech to push for a deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea to be revived, after Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin withdrew from the UN-backed initiative.
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