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The world's leaders gathered in New York for the beginning of their annual meeting at the UN General Assembly. Let's just say the vibe was pretty grim.
Leader after leader spoke of the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, climate problems, exclusion from UN decision making, poor nations struggling to feed their populations. I cannot recall a time of greater peril than this, said King Abdullah II of Jordan.
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A few speakers, including US President Joe Biden, tried to push a message of hope for the future. "We are stronger than we think. We are stronger together than alone," Biden said. "And what the people call impossible is just an illusion.
But the US was the target of much veiled criticism for acting unilaterally on the response to the Gaza war: Impunity was the word of the day.
Here's your daily guide to what's going on at the United Nations this week, day by day:
From the podium
War in Gaza: Many delegates focused their speeches on the war in Gaza. Jordan's Abdullah said Israel's campaigns are undermining a key part of the international system protecting human rights. He listed as examples: the bombing of UN shelters and schools; inability for UN workers to assist; and humanitarian workers being subsumed by the conflict. As for the idea of Palestinians finding new homes in Jordan, he said, forced displacement is a war crime and that will never happen.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the UN a dysfunctional, unwieldy and inert structure, and told delegates that international peace and security are too important to be left to the arbitrariness of the privileged five permanent members of the Security Council. He called for the Security Council to impose sanctions on Israel and said the general assembly should recommend the use of force to achieve an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, the exchange of prisoners, and the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid.
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Dasilva said: The right to self defence became a right for vengeance, which prevents a deal for the release of hostages and delays a ceasefire.
Biden repeated his calls for a cease-fire and the return of hostages: Full-scale war is not in anyone's interest."
LGBTQ+ Rights: Erdogan criticised the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in July, which featured drag queens and was widely misinterpreted as a representation of Christ's last supper with his disciplines. He called it a disgrace that revealed the dimensions of the threat we face as humanity. Erdogan, whose government has clamped down on LGBTQ+ events in recent years, added: Anyone who raises a voice against this destruction project and shows the slightest reaction is silenced and becomes the target of lynching campaigns," he said. Turkey is determined to break this siege and resist this climate of fear at all cost.
On the sidelines
Israel's envoy to the UN says his country doesn't want to send troops into Lebanon but will do whatever necessary to halt the Hezbollah rocket fire that has driven tens of thousands of Israelis from their country's north. We prefer a diplomatic solution. But if it's not working, we are using other methods to show the other side that we mean business, said Ambassador Danny Danon.
White House Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer said that Biden administration officials were in talks with allies to help find an off-ramp to the escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
We're working on that it real time right here in New York and in capitals around the world, Finer said. He sidestepped questions about whether the fighting has already become the all-out war that the US had been pressing Israel to avoid with Lebanon as it continues its nearly year-long conflict in Gaza. But he underscored that a big war, a wider war is neither in Israel or Lebanon's interest.
Voices you might have missed
Several leaders from Africa complained again this year about the lack of permanent representation on the UN Security Council. Africa and its 1.4 billion people remain excluded from its key decision-making structures, said Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa. The UN Security Council must be reformed as a matter of urgency. It must become more inclusive so that the voices of all nations are heard and considered.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele boasted of his country's security turnaround, moving the tiny Central American nation from one of the world's most dangerous countries to one of its safest.
Bukele was reelected by a landslide to an unprecedented second term in February largely on his security record of crippling the country's once-powerful street gangs. The media-savvy millennial leader has locked up more than 81,000 people under a state of emergency now in place for more than two and a half years that suspends some fundamental rights. Some say that we have jailed thousands, but the reality is that we have freed millions, Bukele said. Now it's the good (people) who live free, without fear, with their freedoms and human rights totally respected.
"Security is not only about having strong armies and weapons of mass destruction. True security will only be achieved with trust, equality and prosperity for all peoples," Sadyr Zhaparov, president of Kyrgyzstan
Something you probably don't know
Of all the United Nations' 193 countries, Brazil had the first word at the General Assembly's big annual debate Tuesday as it has since the early days of the UN. Why? Because back then, Brazil volunteered to speak first when no other nation would. A tradition was born. The United States typically goes second because it hosts the UN headquarters in New York. Everyone else's speaking slot is determined by multiple variables, including how high-level the speaker is (a head of state versus a cabinet member, for instance), countries' own preferences and geographic balance.
One notable number
Number of times UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the word impunity in his opening speech Tuesday: 5
Quotable
My fellow leaders, let us never forget some things are more important than staying in power. It's your people that matter the most. Never forget, we are here to serve the people, not the other way around.
Biden, who won applause when he used his decision not to run for re-election as fuel for calling all leaders -- particularly autocrats in the room -- to focus on democracy ahead of personal power
Not only children are dying in Gaza; the United Nations system is also dying, the truth is dying, the values that the West claims to defend are dying, the hopes of humanity to live in a fairer world are dying one by one."
Erdogan, speaking about the nations he says blindly support Israel, at the cost of tens of thousands of Palestinian lives.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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