130 leaders convene at UN amid wars, AI stakes — SkimNews
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- Nearly 130 heads of state gather in New York for the UN General Assembly, with the 15-member Security Council planning high-level meetings on Ukraine, AI, and the Middle East including talks with Arab leaders
- Trump returns to the UN rostrum for a second consecutive year after slashing US contributions and withdrawing from dozens of UN bodies; the US paid $725 million this week to avoid losing its General Assembly vote but still owes the organization over $1 billion
- Xi Jinping will skip New York in favor of one-on-one talks with Trump in Washington on Thursday, his first UN appearance of any kind since a 2021 video address — fueling debate about the UN's relevance
- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian addresses the assembly Wednesday and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu speaks Thursday, while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was again denied a US visa but will appear via video after a General Assembly vote
- Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned AI development needs 'common guardrails,' putting him at odds with Trump, who dismissed AI risks as a 'hoax' driven by a 'sick conspiracy' that benefits China
- Guterres also flagged the 'effective blockade' of the Black Sea as creating 'enormous problems' for Ukrainian and Russian food, fertilizer, and energy exports, urging safe passage corridors
- Houthi gains threatening the Bab el-Mandeb Strait could further spike energy prices, while diplomats expect a high-level Sudan meeting on the sidelines though 'a diplomatic breakthrough is unlikely'
Why it matters: The US-UN funding standoff — $725M paid against $1B+ still owed — and Xi's choice of bilateral Trump talks over the multilateral stage illustrate that the most consequential diplomacy this week may unfold outside the UNGA halls, while the open succession race for Guterres, whose term ends in 2026, leaves the institution leaderless just as its relevance is being tested by simultaneous great-power conflicts.
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