The Latest: Trump returns to UN at moment of anxiety about Iran, AI and future of world body itself
President Donald Trump is set to address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday at a tumultuous moment for the world — and for his presidency. After his speech to the annual gathering of world leaders, Trump is expected to hold talks with new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and a more informal meeting with Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez, according to the White House.
Also, Trump is hosting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this week as economic and tech competition escalates between the two countries. Both leaders are aiming to stabilize fragile ties, though no major agreements are expected. The meeting itself is seen as significant given the deep differences and a lack of trust between the United States and China.
Here's the latest:
There’s still no question that the U.N. remains the key 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: President Trump and French President Emanuel Macron. Both will speak Tuesday after Secretary-General Antonio 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 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.
There’s 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.
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.”
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.
In last year’s address at the U.N., Trump claimed the U.S. had “demolished” Iran’s nuclear capabilities after he ordered the June 2025 bombardment of three key facilities.
He returns to the General Assembly nearing the seven-month mark of a new war against Iran he insists is necessary to address a nuclear threat posed by Iran.
The war has grown more complicated even though strikes by the United States and Israel have killed much of Iran’s top leadership and destroyed its air force and navy, while a U.S. blockade of Iranian oil has left Tehran in economic shambles.
It starts with Trump’s morning address to the U.N. General Assembly.
The president will meet with the U.K.’s new prime minister, the prime minister of Japan and the president of Ukraine.
He also participates in an event with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland to sign an agreement that’s set to give the United States a bigger military presence on the semiautonomous Danish territory of Greenland.
The president will pay attention to the Middle East by meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council members and will participate in a separate event focused on Latin America and the Western Hemisphere.
Trump is hosting a reception for UNGA leaders and will meet with Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president of Venezuela, before he returns to Washington.
State visits usually occur when two countries are on warm terms, but Trump is hosting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this week as their economic and tech competition is only escalating, especially through an artificial intelligence race.
Neither expects any grand bargain, but the leaders are expected to play nice in their third meeting since Trump returned to the White House to try to steady fragile ties. That is despite the world’s two largest economies seeking the upper hand on AI developments and trade, while pushing for leverage in persistent hot spots like Iran and Taiwan.
“The fact that they are meeting, and there’s dialogue occurring and building that relationship, is probably as important as outcomes from the meeting,” said Sen. Steve Daines, a Montana Republican who advises Trump on China and recently traveled there to lay groundwork for the summit.
Cui Tiankai, a former Chinese ambassador to the U.S., said at a recent forum in Beijing that there are “always problems, sometimes very big problems” between the two countries, but “we’ll make our best efforts to maintain overall stability.”
President Donald Trump is set to address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday at a tumultuous moment for the world — and for his presidency.
The global economy has been shaken by his decision to launch a war against Iran. Anxiety about the social impact being wrought by artificial intelligence is surging. And questions linger about the future of the United Nations itself with Trump’s scaling back U.S. financial support for the United Nations.
After his speech to the annual gathering of world leaders, Trump is expected to hold talks with new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and a more informal meeting with Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez, according to the White House.
He’s also set to meet with leaders and senior officials from Gulf Cooperation Council nations — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates — to discuss the way ahead with the war in Iran and growing concern about recent Iran-backed rebels attacks on Saudi Arabia.
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