UNITED NATIONS (AP) 鈥 Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, world leaders meet at the United Nations this week facing new fears that could threaten humanity even as and 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 , , , and 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鈥檚 major global players. The U.N.鈥檚 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鈥 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鈥 opening 鈥渟tate of the world鈥 address. Ukraine鈥檚 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Iran鈥檚 President Masoud Pezeshkian speak Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 鈥 whom New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani wanted arrested for his treatment of Palestinians in Gaza until he learned he has no such authority 鈥 will address the assembly on Thursday. For a second year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won鈥檛 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鈥檛 coming. China鈥檚 President Xi Jinping is meeting Trump in Washington on Wednesday, yet he is skipping 鈥 some diplomats say snubbing 鈥 the U.N. gathering and sending a vice president instead. Russian President Vladimir Putin isn鈥檛 coming either, and Indian President Narendra Modi has backed out.
France's U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said it is 鈥渆xtremely critical鈥 for world leaders this week to support the U.N. as the place where the world鈥檚 nations meet 鈥 especially at a time of such polarization.
鈥淲e 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.鈥
United Nations has not had a great year
There is no doubt it鈥檚 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鈥檚 finances in rocky shape.
But veteran U.N. watcher Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group鈥檚 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鈥檛 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.鈥檚 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 鈥渋n freefall,鈥 Gowan said, but it 鈥渋s stuck in an open-ended or permanent crisis.鈥 Put more graphically, he said, 鈥淭he 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.鈥
Former U.N. deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch-Brown, a United Nations Foundation board member, said, 鈥淲hile 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 getting out of human control and called for a pause, but 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 鈥渁n era of deep uncertainty."
鈥淎t a time when the world faces three existential threats," he said, 鈥渋nternational cooperation is more necessary than ever.鈥
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 鈥渕uch more serious and complex than in decades past."
鈥淲ith that said, I鈥檓 also not without hope as well,鈥 Brimmer said. 鈥淥ver the past decades we鈥檝e learned a lot about international cooperation.鈥
Edith M. Lederer has covered international affairs for The Associated Press for more than a half century.