Leaders speaking at the UN and a shooting involving children in Turkey – daily digest

Leaders speaking at the UN and a shooting involving children in Turkey – daily digest

On September 22, high-level general debates began in New York within the framework of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly. The debates, which will last for 6 working days, will conclude next Monday.

The first day was remembered for the clash of two different worldviews. António Guterres delivered his final speech to the Assembly as UN Secretary-General. He said that in recent years, the world's fissures have turned into chasms. He emphasized that superpowers alone do not possess enough power to guarantee security or solve the world's problems.

Without mentioning Israel by name, he called the situation in Gaza a slaughter and destruction on a scale he had not seen during his tenure. He also warned that violence and settler expansion in the West Bank are undermining the two-state solution.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva said that the UN's authority has been weakened due to the use of the veto power in the Security Council and geopolitical tensions.

Speaking as the representative of the host country, US President Donald Trump delivered a rather long speech. He stated that he is deciding between making a deal with Iran or destroying it completely. He rejected the idea of global regulation of artificial intelligence. Trump predicted that the Cuban government would collapse soon and called on member states of the International Criminal Court to withdraw from it. He also renamed artificial intelligence as "superintelligence" and compared drug cartels to ISIS.

While Trump was speaking about the pressure campaign against Cuba, the Cuban delegation left the hall. After the speech, he announced that US officials had held a three-hour "very good" meeting with Iranian representatives on the sidelines of the Assembly.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused his speech mainly on the Palestinian issue. He called on the international community to take more decisive measures regarding Gaza and to recognize the state of Palestine. During his speech, the Israeli delegation left the hall.

Delivering his final speech at the UN as President of France, Emmanuel Macron said that the world faces a choice: either return to the "law of the jungle" or live in a civilized international society. He supported a mutual cessation of strikes on energy and civilian infrastructure by Russia and Ukraine. While Trump rejected global artificial intelligence regulation, Macron called on states to jointly create an open-source advanced artificial intelligence model independent of China and the US.