UN@S80: Leaders gather in NY as challenges pile up

World leaders begin convening Monday at one of the most volatile moments in the United Nations’ 80-year history, and the challenges they face are as dire as ever if not more so: unyielding wars in Gaza and Ukraine, escalating changes in the US approach to the world, hungry people everywhere and technologies that are advancing faster than the understanding of how to manage them.

- ASSOCIATED PRESS

As Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week: “International cooperation is straining under pressures unseen in our lifetimes.”

‘The secretary-general says it is an opportunity that can't be missed — even in the most challenging of moments.

“We are gathering in turbulent — even uncharted — waters,” Guterres said. He pointed to, among other spectres, “our planet overheating, new technologies racing ahead without guardrails, inequalities widening by the hour.”

Guterres said he will use the more than 150 one-on-one meetings he has with leaders and ministers to urge that they speak to each other, bridge divides, reduce risks and find solutions.

But UN watchers say that in a deeply polarised world, with no prospects of ceasefires in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, whether the high-level meeting makes any progress remains a big question mark.