Category Archives: United Nations

‘History will remember who showed up’: Keir Starmer faces call to attend Cop30 summit

Posted on by

Response from leaders and key climate figures comes after PM’s aides advised non-attendance over concerns Reform may attack him

Leading climate figures and Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to attend the crucial Cop30 climate summit this November, after aides advised him not to attend for fear of attracting the ire of the Reform party.

Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, said: “Cop30 is where leaders are expected to come and roll up their sleeves, make deals to help their nation’s economy transition faster, creating more jobs, and guide the world on what next steps we take together.”

Continue reading...

Iran snapback sanctions loom as UN security council set to vote on nuclear programme

Posted on by

Russian efforts to delay the return of sanctions is expected to fail during vote on Friday

A final Russian attempt to defer the snapback of large-scale UN sanctions on Iran is expected to fail at the UN security council on Friday after European countries rejected last-minute Iranian offers to give UN weapons inspectors limited access to its bombed nuclear sites.

Russia will call for the reimposition of the sanctions to be deferred for six months to give more time for diplomacy, but European diplomats are confident that Russia will not get the nine votes it needs on the security council for the snapback to be deferred. The last time Russia put the same issue to a vote it received only four votes.

Continue reading...

Washington backing plan for Tony Blair to head transitional Gaza authority

Posted on by

Reported proposal for international body to oversee Gaza for up to five years counters UN-backed plan for faster transition to Palestinian rule

The White House is backing a plan that would see Tony Blair head a temporary administration of the Gaza Strip – initially without the direct involvement of the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to Israeli media reports.

Under the proposal, Blair would lead a body called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (Gita) that would have a mandate to be Gaza’s “supreme political and legal authority” for as long as five years.

Continue reading...

Escalatorgate: Trump alleges ‘triple sabotage’ after technical mishaps at UN

Posted on by

Trump claims teleprompter and audio issues, and a stopped escalator that UN says may be due to US delegation staffer

Donald Trump alleged “triple sabotage” at the United Nations, after the US president was plagued by a series of unfortunate events surrounding his address to the global body.

“A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday,” Trump wrote Wednesday in a 357-word social media chronicle of “Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!”

Continue reading...

‘Science demands action’: world leaders and UN push climate agenda forward despite Trump’s attacks

Posted on by

Leaders unveil new targets to cut planet-heating pollution after Trump called climate crisis a ‘con job’

World leaders have unveiled new targets to cut planet-heating pollution at the United Nations, in a bid to spur fresh impetus to the beleaguered climate effort a day after Donald Trump called the crisis “the greatest con job ever perpetrated upon the world”.

A total of 120 countries and the European Union announced new goals to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in New York on Wednesday. The pledges most notably include one from China, the world’s leading emitter, which said it would cut emissions by 7-10% from its peak level by 2035.

Continue reading...

Colombia’s Petro urges ‘criminal process’ against Trump for Venezuelan strikes

Posted on by

At UN, Gustavo Petro says ‘poor young people’ died in US strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats off Caribbean coast

Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro addressed the UN general assembly Tuesday to call for a “criminal process” to be opened against counterpart Donald Trump for US strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean.

Petro said unarmed “poor young people” died in the strikes that Washington said were part of a US anti-drug operation off the coast of Venezuela, whose president Washington accuses of running a cartel.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Albanese heads to Trump reception in New York; number of regular gamblers rising

Posted on by

US president berates Australia and others for recognising Palestine, but agrees to Albanese meeting in October. Follow today’s news live

Albanese to make case for US capital to flow to Australian economy

Anthony Albanese and Australia’s ambassador to Washington, Kevin Rudd, are preparing to attend a major investment event in New York in the next few hours.

American capital and Australian manufacturing are a natural fit. And if we move now, we can make them an unbeatable combination. We can put our investment partnership at the centre of a defining global opportunity.

The world’s shift to clean energy represents the biggest change since the industrial revolution. We are looking at ever-increasing global demand for clean energy and the technology that generates and stores it.

Continue reading...

Trump’s address to world leaders at the UN was for a different audience: his base

Posted on by

Trump told the assembled European leaders that they were destroying their own countries in a move that was ‘basically Maga madlibs’

Donald Trump may have been speaking to the 192 other world leaders gathered in the United Nations, but the real target of his speech on Tuesday was Europe, which was hauled up repeatedly as the whipping boy for an antiliberal, blood-and-soil polemic that renewed an assault on the transatlantic relationship that has become a theme of his second administration.

In an hourlong address to the assembled world leaders and delegations, Trump told European leaders directly that they were destroying their own countries – and that they should be more like the US as he condemned their policies on immigration, green energy and political correctness.

Continue reading...

Trump says he believes Ukraine can regain all land lost to Russia since 2022 invasion

Posted on by

US president claims Russia is in ‘big economic trouble’ as he calls for Nato countries to stop imports of Russian oil

Donald Trump has said he believes Ukraine can regain all the land that it has lost since the 2022 Russian invasion in one of the strongest statements of support he has given Kyiv.

The US president delivered his upbeat assessment by claiming Russia was in big economic trouble in a post on Truth Social after meeting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in New York.

Continue reading...

Trump calls for nations to close borders and expel foreigners in UN speech: ‘Your countries are being ruined’

Posted on by

US president accuses European countries specifically of ‘destroying your heritage’ by allowing migration

Donald Trump took the stage at the United Nations general assembly hall for the first time in six years to launch a full-on assault on the world body, which he described as a feckless, corrupt and pernicious global force that should follow the example of his own leadership.

In an inflammatory speech on the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, Trump called for countries to close their borders and expel foreigners, accused the UN of leading a “globalist migration agenda”, and told national leaders that the world body was “funding an assault on your countries”.

Continue reading...

Brazil’s president says in UN speech that democracy can prevail over ‘would-be autocrats’

Posted on by

South American leftist Lula takes indirect swipes at Trump in speech and warns that global threat of ‘anti-democratic forces’ persists

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, has launched an impassioned defence of his country’s democracy, claiming the recent conviction of his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, had shown the world how “would-be autocrats” could be brought to heel.

Speaking at the opening of the United Nations general assembly in New York, Lula hailed Brazil’s successful effort to repel “an unprecedented attack” from Bolsonaro’s extreme right movement. On 11 September, the former paratrooper was sentenced to 27 years in jail for trying to stage a military coup after he lost the 2022 election to Lula.

Continue reading...

‘Guess what?’ Macron phones Trump after US president’s motorcade blocks his car

Posted on by

Bemused French president forced to take unscheduled 30-minute trek through the streets of New York

Emmanuel Macron had to walk half an hour by foot through New York after his speech to the United Nations on recognising Palestine as a state.

Video footage shows him getting out of his car to talk to police officers after they stop his vehicle to make way for the expected arrival of the motorcade of Donald Trump, the US president.

Continue reading...

Iran’s foreign minister meets with UN nuclear watchdog in bid to avert sanctions

Posted on by

Abbas Araghchi will likely also meet with European officials, as window for reaching an agreement narrows

Iran’s foreign minister has met the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog at the start of a frantic round of diplomatic meetings in New York in a bid to avert the reimposition of a wave of UN sanctions on Iran starting on Sunday.

The crisis could rapidly spiral into fresh Israeli calls to attack Iran for failing to cooperate over its nuclear programme. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned on Monday: “We must destroy the axis of evil Iran and we have the power to do so. This is what lies ahead of us in the coming year, a year that could be a historic one for Israel’s security.”

Continue reading...

UK and Poland vow to confront Russian aircraft violating Nato airspace

Posted on by

Russia shrugs off criticism as Poland and Estonia speak about incursions at emergency meeting of UN security council

European allies have vowed to shoot down any Russian aircraft violating their airspace after Nato members accused Moscow of repeated incursions into the alliance’s territory in recent weeks.

“If another missile or aircraft enters our space without permission, deliberately or by mistake, and gets shot down and the wreckage falls on Nato territory, please don’t come here to whine about it,” Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, told an emergency meeting of the UN security council in New York on Monday that was called to discuss a Russian airspace incursion over Estonia.

Continue reading...

German jets scrambled after Russian military plane flies over Baltic Sea

Posted on by

Russian Il-20M reconnaissance plane ignored requests to make contact, in latest of what are seen as provocative acts by Kremlin

Two German Eurofighter jets were scrambled on Sunday to intercept a Russian military aircraft above the Baltic Sea, as Estonia said it would call an emergency meeting of the UN security council after Russian planes violated its airspace.

Germany’s air force said the Russian Il-20M reconnaissance plane had switched off its transponders and ignored requests to make contact. The Eurofighters took off from the Rostock-Laage airbase to head off the aircraft as it flew in international airspace.

Continue reading...

UN security council fails to prevent ‘snapback’ nuclear sanctions on Iran

Posted on by

Iranian foreign ministry urges further diplomacy and says return to pre-2015 measures are unlawful and unfounded

The UN security council failed to pass a resolution on Friday that would have prevented the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme before the deadline for the “snapping back” of punitive measures.

UN sanctions on Iran will be re-established at the end of the month unless the nine-member security council agrees to further extend sanctions relief. Friday’s resolution, put forth by South Korea, received support from only four countries – China, Russia, Pakistan and Algeria.

Continue reading...

UN votes to allow Palestinian president to address annual gathering via video link

Posted on by

Trump had refused to grant visas for Palestinian delegation due to attend conference and UN general assembly

The United Nations general assembly has voted to allow the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to address next week’s annual gathering of world leaders next week in New York via video link after Donald Trump said he would not give him a US visa.

The resolution received 145 votes in favour and five votes against, while six countries abstained.

Continue reading...

More than 250,000 displaced from Gaza City in past month, UN figures show

Posted on by

Tens of thousands more forced to flee makeshift homes and shelters daily in face of new Israeli offensive

More than a quarter of a million people have been displaced from Gaza City in the last month, according to figures from the UN, with tens of thousands more forced to flee makeshift homes and shelters daily in the face of a new Israeli offensive.

Strikes by Israeli artillery, tanks and warplanes hit Gaza City again on Thursday as a UN official said “new waves of mass displacement” were under way, after about 60,000 fled the new assault in 72 hours earlier this week.

Continue reading...

UK preparing to recognise Palestinian state as early as Friday

Posted on by

Move comes after Israel fails to meet UK conditions that would have postponed step

The UK is preparing to recognise the state of Palestine as early as Friday, after Israel failed to meet conditions that would have postponed the historic step, including a ceasefire in Gaza.

Keir Starmer insisted the timing of the UK announcement had nothing to do with Donald Trump’s visit, even though the US president said at a press conference that he disagreed with Britain’s decision, without elaborating.

Continue reading...

UN condemns reported Haitian village massacre by armed gangs

Posted on by

Fishing village of Labodrie reportedly set on fire after killing of a gang leader in sign of rising violence outside capital

The UN secretary-general has condemned the reported killing of at least 40 people during an attack by armed gangs in a fishing village north of Haiti’s capital.

Media in Haiti widely reported that the attack took place on Thursday night in Labodrie. It is another sign of escalating gang violence that has spread outside the capital.

Continue reading...