World Leaders Meet at UN Amid Crises   09/21 06:21

   Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, world leaders meet at the 
United Nations this week facing new fears that runaway artificial intelligence 
could threaten humanity even as climate shocks and escalating prices are 
already making life much tougher for hundreds of millions of people.

   UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, 
world leaders meet at the United Nations this week facing new fears that 
runaway artificial intelligence could threaten humanity even as climate shocks 
and escalating prices are already making life much tougher for hundreds of 
millions of people.

   The annual high-level gathering at the U.N. General Assembly will also be 
consumed with major wars in Iran, Gaza, Ukraine,Sudan, Congo and Myanmar and a 
persisting question: Can the leaders do anything to end them?

   And what can they do about the relentless rise of global warming threatening 
the future of the planet, the growing inequalities within and among nations, 
and shocks to the global economy as blocked shipping routes and supply chains 
increase the cost of living and slow growth?

   The future of the United Nations will also definitely be on the agenda. At 
81, its powers are still the victorious nations from World War II, not the 21st 
century's major global players. The U.N.'s 193 member nations have agreed to a 
wide-ranging reform package that includes updating key institutions such as the 
powerful U.N. Security Council, where the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and 
France hold inordinate sway because of their veto power. Reform, however, is 
easier said than implemented.

   Behind the scenes, there will be speculation about who will lead the United 
Nations next. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' second five-year term ends 
Dec. 31 and no clear successor has emerged.

   This meeting is still pivotal

   There is still no question that the U.N. remains THE gathering place for its 
193 member nations and their leaders. Some 130 heads of state and government 
are expected to speak at the General Assembly starting Tuesday along with 
dozens of ministers.

   Among the headliners will be U.S. President Donald Trump and French 
President Emanuel Macron. Both will speak Tuesday after Guterres' opening 
"state of the world" address. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and 
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian speak Wednesday.

   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- whom New York Mayor Zoran 
Mamdani wanted arrested for his treatment of Palestinians in Gaza until he 
learned he has no such authority -- will address the assembly on Thursday. For 
a second year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won't be coming to the U.N. 
because the U.S. has refused to give him a visa. He will nonetheless address 
the assembly by video the same day.

   The United States, under its agreement with the U.N. to host the 
organization, is required to allow diplomats from all member nations to attend 
meetings.

   Equally telling is who else isn't coming. China's President Xi Jinping is 
meeting Trump in Washington on Wednesday, yet he is skipping -- some diplomats 
say snubbing -- the U.N. gathering and sending a vice president instead. 
Russian President Vladimir Putin isn't coming either, and Indian President 
Narendra Modi has backed out.

   France's U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said it is "extremely critical" 
for world leaders this week to support the U.N. as the place where the world's 
nations meet -- especially at a time of such polarization.

   "We believe in multilateralism," he said, "and we believe that the 
high-level week is the occasion for countries in the world to reaffirm that 
they prefer cooperation and dialogue to confrontation."

   United Nations has not had a great year

   There is no doubt it's been a tough year for the world body. It has been 
pushed to the sidelines when it comes to its key responsibility of ensuring 
international peace and security and trying to end major conflicts in the 
Mideast and Ukraine. The U.S. failure to pay billions of dollars in outstanding 
arrears has left the organization's finances in rocky shape.

   But veteran U.N. watcher Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group's 
global issues and institutions program director, says 2025 was even worse.

   A year ago, he said, people were contemplating that Trump would use his U.N. 
speech to announce that the United States would leave the world organization. 
Trump didn't announce a pullout last September and the U.N. muddled through the 
past 12 months with financial troubles that forced cutbacks to its peacekeeping 
operations and humanitarian aid.

   In recent days, the U.S. paid $725 million of its dues to the U.N.'s regular 
operating budget for this year, enough to keep the Trump administration from 
losing its vote in the General Assembly. The payment was a strong indication 
Trump will keep the U.S. in the United Nations.

   The U.N. is no longer "in freefall," Gowan said, but it "is stuck in an 
open-ended or permanent crisis." Put more graphically, he said, "The U.N. may 
not be in emergency care like it was last year, but it does seem to be trapped 
in a trauma center for the foreseeable future."

   Former U.N. deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch-Brown, a United Nations 
Foundation board member, said, "While the world still trusts the U.N., the 
global public is eager for change."

   AI is pushing toward the center of the agenda

   The future of artificial intelligence has pushed to the forefront of global 
concerns, with its speeding advances and the dawning recognition that there are 
no industry controls, let alone any global guardrails for a technology that has 
many advantages but also many disadvantages and unknowns.

   Days before the global gathering, leaders of three major AI companies warned 
about the technology getting out of human control and called for a pause, but 
Trump dismissed their concerns as "a hoax," and urged continued advances to 
keep the U.S. ahead of China.

   The U.N. Security Council added a high-level meeting on AI to its agenda on 
Wednesday afternoon, a sign of the growing apprehension and need to address the 
issue. It was already slated to hold a high-level meeting on Ukraine with 
Zelenskyy on Wednesday morning.

   For the U.N. chief, this will be his last assembly meeting with global 
leaders. He previewed his speech last week, telling U.N. reporters that power 
is shifting in "an era of deep uncertainty."

   "At a time when the world faces three existential threats," he said, 
"international cooperation is more necessary than ever."

   Others will be vying for the spotlight on issues from rising sea levels and 
funding education to the fight for gender equality. Hundreds of private 
meetings will also convene in U.N. cubicles, hotels, diplomatic missions and 
restaurants.

   Esther Brimmer, a senior fellow in global governance at the Council on 
Foreign Relations and former U.S. assistant secretary of state for 
international organization affairs in the Obama administration, said in-person 
meetings can help countries hash out ideas that get implemented months later.

   She called the situation in 2026 "much more serious and complex than in 
decades past."

   "With that said, I'm also not without hope as well," Brimmer said. "Over the 
past decades we've learned a lot about international cooperation."