https://p.dw.com/p/5N0mB
Skip next section What you need to know
What you need to know
- Artificial intelligence, the Iran war, and climate change set to dominate debate on Day 2 of UN General Assembly
- Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian were among the first speakers, to be followed later by Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Spain’s Pedro Sanchez and more
- US President Donald Trump was among the first speakers to take the stage on Tuesday and said he had a ‘big decision’ to make on Iran, to either make a deal or ‘annihilate’ the country
- Gathering of world leaders takes place against a backdrop of global conflicts, environmental crisis and massive technical disruption
Read below for all the top headlines, videos and analyses on the 81 UN General Assembly from September 22-28, 2026:
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Skip next section Venezuela’s Rodriguez, Trump hold brief but ‘important’ talks on sidelinesSeptember 23, 2026
Venezuela’s Rodriguez, Trump hold brief but ‘important’ talks on sidelines
Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodriguez — in office since the US abducted her predecessor at the start of the year — and US President Donald Trump met in person for the first time on the sidelines of the assembly.
Rodriguez first announced the meeting on social media, calling it “historic” and saying they discussed “strengthening the bilateral relationship” and enhancing cooperation in “strategic areas such as energy, mining and security and other matters of common interest.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday described the meeting as brief but important.
One issue the pair discussed was the South American country’s large debt load, Rubio said.
“There’s a lot that needs to be fixed in order for Venezuela to be successful,” Rubio told reporters. “Debt restructuring is key to that.”
He described the country as having “probably the world’s largest debt that has to be restructured,” and said the US wanted to help to ensure this is done “in the right way.”
Rodriguez also thanked Trump and his administration for their support following a pair of severe earthquakes at the end of June.
Venezuela’s former President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores are both being held in a New York prison a short distance from the UN building. They are set to face trial on charges of alleged involvement in drug trafficking.
Venezuelans want elections — but when will they get them?
https://p.dw.com/p/5NAOt
Skip next section Argentina’s Milei lambasts UN as ‘useless organization’September 23, 2026
Argentina’s Milei lambasts UN as ‘useless organization’
Argentina’s President Javier Milei issued a fiery rebuke not just against the UK, amid renewed tensions with the UK over the Falkland Islands, but also against another pet peeve of his — the UN itself.
He said he wanted to highlight the shortcomings he perceived in the UN “in a constructive spirit,” decades after it undertook to “uphold international law, defend the sovereignty of nations and provide a forum through which conflicts could be resolved through cooperation, rather than immediately through the force of arms.”
That, he said, was the original contract member states signed, but this “sacred covenant” had in practice been broken.
“That’s to say it’s become a useless organization whose only purpose is to sustain a cast of fatally arrogant parasites masquerading as well-intentioned bureaucrats,” Milei said.
He said they had failed in their task of ensuring collective global security and human rights: “Instead, they allowed chaos, violence and international terrorism to flourish.”
Milei accused these “alleged defenders of human rights” of sheltering “bloodthirsty dictators and regimes that stone women in the streets” and of “systematically” voting against Israel “while remaining silent in the face of Islamic terrorism and the genocide of Christians in Africa.”
From this point, he turned his gaze directly to the isolated Falkand Islands of some 2,000 residents, some 550 kilometers (350 miles) off Argentina’s coastline. He referred to them using their Spanish name, the Malvinas.
“And, as if that were not enough, an organization established to defend the territorial sovereignty of its members decided to look the other way with regard to the situation of the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia Islands and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas,” he said of the disputed British territory that Argentina’s defunct military dictatorship invaded in the 1980s, just a matter of months before it collapsed.
“For us, the Malvinas are a national cause,” he said, before repeating for emphasis. “They are also a test of the gulf that can exist between the words of international institutions and the reality upon which they purport to act.”
He complained, for instance, about UK oil extraction operations in waters that Argentina claims, saying this violated a past UN resolution designed to prevent further tensions in the dispute. Milei said that “for far too long” Argentina had opted for a “rhetorical” and “peaceful” defense in this dispute, and said his country again called on the UK “to resume negotiations with a view to finding a peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute, as required by international law.”
https://p.dw.com/p/5N9xv
Skip next section Pezeshkian say Iran can’t let others use Hormuz Strait to ‘impose their aggression on us’September 23, 2026
Pezeshkian say Iran can’t let others use Hormuz Strait to ‘impose their aggression on us’
Iran’s president also to defend his country’s moves to restrict commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz in his speech, in part by citing the US military’s attempt to blockade Iran’s ports.
“We cannot let some have free access and bolster their interests from the waterway, while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggression upon us,” Masoud Pezeshkian said.
He went on to mention efforts to close access to “our waterway” for Iran in his comments.
The speech did not make any solid proposal or suggestion for how to resolve the impasse in the key commercial shipping lane — where Iran is trying to restrict international shipping and the US Navy is trying to restrict access to Iranian ports in an uneasy and costly standoff.
Pezeshkian concluded by saying that Iran was not and never had been averse to negotiating, but at the same time said that President Donald Trump should have learned that it would not “bend the knee” when faced with “bullying” and military pressure.
https://p.dw.com/p/5N9xq
Skip next section Iran stands by desires for ‘peaceful nuclear technology’September 23, 2026
Iran stands by desires for ‘peaceful nuclear technology’
Iranian President Madoud Pezeshkian said during his speech that Iran was not prepared to give up its nuclear program, which it says is for peaceful power generation purposes.
This follows the US government and Donald Trump repeatedly insisting that one of its terms for a potential peace deal with Iran is that the country “can never have a nuclear weapon.”
“For our country, peaceful nuclear technology is part of our inherent progress,” Pezeshkian said. “For our sick people, it’s cure and treatment. For our agricultural sector, it’s food security. For industry’s advancement and progress and supply of electrical energy. Iran does not accept for nuclear technology to be at the exclusive disposal of some, of a handful.”
He said that the country would not “bow our head and give up the right that is inherently ours.”
Pezeshkian summed up his country’s position on the nuclear question as: “no nuclear weapons and no limitations to peaceful nuclear technology.”
This has been Iran’s public position for years. However, various US governments have been at least somewhat skeptical of the stated stance, while Israel has openly labeled it dishonest — Benjamin Netanyahu famously brought visual aids of his own to the UN General Assembly in 2012, as Pezeshkian did on Tuesday, showing how close to attaining a nuclear bomb he thought Iran was at the time.
https://p.dw.com/p/5N9nU
Skip next section Iran’s Pezeshkian: ‘We have been the victims of terrorism’September 23, 2026
Iran’s Pezeshkian: ‘We have been the victims of terrorism’
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian took the stage at just after 10 a.m. local time in New York, wearing an Iranian flag pin on his lapel.
“Yesterday, the United States president described us as terrorists,” Pezeshkian told the chamber. “We have been the victims of terrorism.”
Holding up a portrait of Ali Khamenei, killed in US-Israeli airstrikes at the start of the war, he said, “I come from an Iran in which our esteemed supreme leader was assassinated without any legal framework or reason.”
He then mentioned the bomb attack that struck a school early in the attacks on Iran, again holding up various images he said showed “innocent children who in truth had committed no crimes.”
Only one member of the US delegation was in the chamber amid the speech, and he stood up and left after these opening statements, as Pezeshkian was accusing the US and Israel of being “terrorists” and of training and protecting terrorists, only to describe Iran as such. However, both governments reject these accusations.
“We have only defended ourselves, we are not terrorists,” he asserted. “Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed on our country. And we defended ourselves with utmost strength.”
Pezeskhian said Iranian people “stood steadfast” in response to the attacks, claiming that Iran retaliated but did not hit “civilian populations,” accusing Iran’s attackers of targeting “our universities, our healthcare centers, our schools, our hospitals, our infrastructure, all of it against international law.”
Later in his speech, Pezeshkian claimed that “in the past seven months our people have been in the streets every night demonstrating in support of their land, of their homeland.” He made no mention of the Iranian regime’s violent suppression of major public protests in the weeks prior to the attacks on the country.
https://p.dw.com/p/5N9Uu
Skip next section Latvia’s Rinkevics: Different threats, 1 lesson — ‘none of us can face them alone’September 23, 2026
Latvia’s Rinkevics: Different threats, 1 lesson — ‘none of us can face them alone’
Latvia’s President Edgar Rinkevics sought to stress the value of the UN and its charter in his speech, alluding to the much-trodden warnings that “the world order is breaking down” and that “the rules-based order is under growing strain.”
“The world has changed. International trade, mobility, technology — what happens far away is no longer far away. Instability travels. Conflicts cross borders. What happens in Ukraine does not stay in Ukraine. What happens in the Middle East, in the Red Sea, in Sudan, does not stay there.”
Similarly, Rinkevics said, technology was also making “distance matter even less.”
“And nature respects no borders either. Heat waves do not stop at checkpoints,” he said after a record-breaking summer in Europe. Rising sea levels, he said, were another climate change threat, but not the only one: “In the mountains, a river may turn into a deadly flood. It can happen in seconds,” he warned, referring to the flooding in Nepal in which 33 Latvian citizens died.
“Different threats, the same lesson: none of us can face them alone. We are in the same boat. Perhaps Noah’s Ark is no longer just a biblical story,” Rinkevics said. “And when we share the same boat, we need something that holds us together. And we already have it: the United Nations charter and its principles.”
These principles, he said, “were not written for an easy world, quite the opposite.” Rinkevics said they had emerged from the devastation of the second World War and from the determination not to repeat it.
“Peace was its purpose then. Peace remains our responsibility today. And peace will be relevant tomorrow,” he said.
https://p.dw.com/p/5N9Bl
Skip next section Rubio meets with Lavrov to discuss Ukraine warSeptember 23, 2026
Rubio meets with Lavrov to discuss Ukraine war
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
Lavrov had previously indicated that the war in Ukraine would be a major topic of discussion with Rubio
Ahead of the meeting, the Kremlin said that its stance on Ukraine peace talks had not changed.
“For now, there are no prerequisites for moving onto a peaceful negotiating track, although we, as the Russian side, remain open to peace talks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
He reiterated Russia’s position that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would need to travel to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kyiv has suggested that talks place in a neutral country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to address the United Nations later on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy met with US President Donald Trump the previous day, saying that both Kyiv and Washington want to end the war with Russia “before winter.”
https://p.dw.com/p/5N9OX
Skip next section Al-Sharaa hails Syria’s reconstruction, criticizes Israeli ‘aggressions’September 23, 2026
Al-Sharaa hails Syria’s reconstruction, criticizes Israeli ‘aggressions’
Syria’s relatively new President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in his second appearance at the assembly since toppling Bashar Assad that the civil war-torn country’s reconstruction was gathering pace.
“Last year I mentioned that Syria had come back, today I say to you that Syria is rising,” he told the audience, before listing a series on achievements in what he termed “our journey in the struggle between good and evil.”
“The country was united. We controlled arms. We rebuilt military and civilian institutions, sanctions were lifted, projects for reconstruction have continued,” al-Sharaa said, also hailing moves to combat drug trafficking, bring “transitional justice” to Assad regime members and reach out to the international community diplomatically.
He paid special tribute to the initiative dubbed “the Breath of Freedom” his administration launched with six regional partners to dispose of chemical weapons stores in conjunction with international bodies like the OPCW and IAEA.
The Syrian president, formerly the founder of the Islamist terror group known as the al Nusra Front, said this outreach with the international community stood in stark contrast to his administration’s ties with Israel since taking over in December 2024.
“The world is overjoyed about our return but Israel is launching attacks against Syria,” he said. “There have been 500 airstrikes, more than 1,200 incursions and 300 detentions.”
He said that “any attempts that violate our sovereignty, violate international law will be stopped,” adding that the “will remain Syrian territories,” in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 497 from 1981, which deemed Syria’s occupation of the Golan Heights to contravene international law.
Israel retained de facto control of the area despite the resolution and has taken up more advanced positions in the aftermath of al-Sharaa’s forces seizing power, citing security concerns.
“It is reminiscent of an era that we thought was long gone,” al-Sharaa said. “We call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the lines of December 8, 2024 [when the Assad regime fell]. We reject Israeli attempts to impose a fait accompli, we reject their aggressions.”
https://p.dw.com/p/5N8pe
Skip next section Brazil, Germany, India and Japan renew calls for Security Council reformSeptember 23, 2026
Brazil, Germany, India and Japan renew calls for Security Council reform
The foreign ministers of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan on Wednesday called for the reform of the UN Security Council (UNSC), saying it was more urgent than ever.
“Given the increasingly challenging geopolitical environment, UNSC reform is more necessary than ever before,” the four foreign ministers said in a joint statement issued after the diplomats met on Tuesday.
The Security Council is a 15-member body with five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the UK and US — known as the P5 and 10 rotating members elected to two-year terms by the General Assembly.
Permanent members enjoy veto powers, which often means the body is kept from carrying out resolutions due to conflicts with the interests of one or more of them.
https://p.dw.com/p/5N60A
Skip next section UNGA day 2: AI, Iran war, climate to dominate debateSeptember 23, 2026
UNGA day 2: AI, Iran war, climate to dominate debate
Beyond speeches by the presidents of Syria, Iran and Ukraine, artificial intelligence (AI), the US-Israeli war in Iran and the still-pressing issue of climate change are set to dominate the agenda at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday.
On day 2 of this 81st UNGA session, tech industry leaders Sam Altman (OpenAI), Dario Amodei (Anthropic) and Clement Delangue (Hugging Face) will brief an emergency meeting of the 15-member UN Security Council. Their attendance comes as international concerns — raised from within the industry — prompt debate over slowing AI development before the new technology potentially spins out of control with unknown consequences.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted calls to slow the technology as part of a “globalist scheme,” brushing aside warnings that it could wipe out humanity within years if left unchecked.
After Trump used his General Assembly speech on Tuesday to threaten the annihilation of Iran and to drive its people “into hell,” the Islamic Republic’s President Masoud Pezeshkian will directly address world leaders for the first time since the start of the war against Iran in February.
The conflict in Iran has settled into a hot stalemate, directly impacting neighboring states militarily and the entire globe economically.
Iranian and US representatives have met on the sidelines of the General Assembly in New York, but, as has been the case for months, a peace deal remains elusive and the flow of oil through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz stunted.
Russia’s more than four-and-a-half-year full-scale assault on Ukraine will also be the topic of diplomatic debate on Wednesday, with a Security Council session scheduled for the morning and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy set to address the General Assembly in the afternoon.
Lastly, climate urgency is on the slate, with outgoing UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres blasting fossil fuel giants for treating the Earth’s atmosphere like an “open sewer” for emissions.
He further chided “big oil” for its greed as the world grapples with armed conflict.
“Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, five major Western oil companies have pocketed nearly half a trillion dollars in profits,” he said, noting that at the same time just $34 billion (€29.8 billion) had been invested in helping developing countries adapt to a warming world.
https://p.dw.com/p/5N5gz
Skip next section Thanks for reading — we’ll be back with more soonSeptember 23, 2026
Thanks for reading — we’ll be back with more soon
Thanks for following this blog for on the first day of the UN General Assembly debate. We’ll restart coverage later on Wednesday for day 2 of the event.
What’s expected on Wednesday?
On day 2 of the debate, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to take the stage as his country fends off Russia for another winter. US top diplomat Marco Rubio is also expected to meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines on Wednesday.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is slated to speak Wednesday, as the US continues its war with Iran.
The UN Security Council will also hold a meeting on AI. Open AI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are expected to attend the session.
https://p.dw.com/p/5N4xR
Skip next section US top diplomat Rubio to meet Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on WednesdaySeptember 23, 2026
US top diplomat Rubio to meet Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on Wednesday
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York City on Wednesday morning, the US State Department said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Donald Trump at the UN headquarters on Tuesday to discuss an end to the 4-year-old war with Russia, including a potential bilateral ceasefire on energy-related targets.
https://p.dw.com/p/5N4xS
Skip next section UK’s Andy Burnham: ‘Britain is back’September 23, 2026
UK’s Andy Burnham: ‘Britain is back’
In his debut as UK prime minister at the UNGA debate, Andy Burnham declared “Britain is back” 10 years after the country dealt with the turbulence caused by Brexit.
Burnham said the UK is “restoring our stability” and “building a more dynamic economy” while seeking trade and working together with other countries to tackle shared problems.
However, he said the UK needs to deal with forces of division and instability. He said this begins with Britain boosting its defense expenditures as a NATO member state and strengthening European capabilities.
Another issue Burnham addressed was disinformation being sowed online by Russia-aligned actors.
“Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people’s fear,” Burnham said. “They’ve used bots and fake websites. Falsified newspaper articles. Forged the branding of 28 British organizations — including universities and the BBC. They’ve amplified far-right narratives.”
The UK prime minister said there is evidence that Russia tried to interfere in the 2019 UK general election. He said the Kremlin spends around £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion, €1.5 billion) annually to sow disinformation.
As a solution, Burnham announced the National Centre for Information Defence to fight disinformation which hurts British interests.
Burnham also addressed the issue of AI, saying global standards are needed because “fundamental decisions on this technology are too important to be left to chance.” Burnham said the UK will work on convincing other countries regarding rules on AI transparency and access to AI models.
https://p.dw.com/p/5N4ul
Skip next section Japan’s mission is to lead efforts towards world without nuclear weapons, Takaichi saysSeptember 23, 2026
Japan’s mission is to lead efforts towards world without nuclear weapons, Takaichi says
Japan’s conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said it her country’s “mission” to lead efforts towards a “world without nuclear weapons.”
She said this is because Japan is the “the only country to have ever suffered atomic bombings during war.” The US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II in 1945 killed and maimed hundreds of thousands people, with the radiation causing illnesses in survivors in the years after.
Takaichi urged a stronger Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime. She also warned that North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs along with other activities are a “serious threat to international peace and security.”
In regards to technology, Takaichi said Japan intends to host an AI safety summit in the future.
The Japanese prime minister also called for a reform of the UN Security Council by expanding both the number of permanent and non-permanent members.
https://p.dw.com/p/5N4t6
Skip next section IN PICTURES: Mongolia, Vietnam, Dominica among afternoon speakersSeptember 23, 2026
IN PICTURES: Mongolia, Vietnam, Dominica among afternoon speakers
Here are some photos of leaders who spoke during this afternoon’s session of the UNGA:
https://p.dw.com/p/5N4pV
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