World leaders face global turmoil at the U.N.
World leaders gathered in New York to hear President Biden and other speakers address the 79th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. Calls to end the Middle East conflict and wars in Ukraine and Sudan were expected to dominate the weeklong conference, all goals that still look out of reach.
António Guterres, the secretary general, said in his opening remarks that “a powder keg risks engulfing the world.” Biden, who was addressing the General Assembly for the last time, warned that the world was facing an “inflection point.”
“Our task, our test, is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart,” Biden said. “For the choices we make today will determine our future for decades to come.”
Middle East: The newly elected president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, told the assembly that he aimed to usher his country into “a new era” of domestic reform and constructive engagement with the world. He slammed Israel for what he called “crimes against humanity” and presented Iran’s support of a network of proxy militia groups as support for freedom fighters.
Many speakers criticized Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip — which has killed more than 41,000 people, according to the local health authorities — as well as a steeply escalating conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was expected to arrive today and speak tomorrow.
Ukraine: The Security Council convened a last-minute session on Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the 15 members to continue supporting his country’s defense. “Russia can only be forced into peace,” Zelensky said.
He also claimed to have information that Russia was planning to attack Ukraine’s three nuclear plants. He said he had put together a new victory plan based on the principles and values of the U.N. charter, but did not elaborate on its details other than to say that he was organizing a peace conference.
Panicked by the intensity of two days of Israeli attacks, civilians streamed out of the country’s south. U.N. and Lebanese officials said on Tuesday that 27,000 displaced people had already been settled in temporary shelters.
Israel said it killed Ibrahim Mohammed Qobeisi, who the military claimed was in charge of the group’s missile apparatus. Hezbollah confirmed his death, but did not provide any details about his role. The group referred to him by an honorific title reserved only for its senior members.
Analysis: Some experts on Hezbollah suggested that Israel’s recent attacks had largely debilitated the group.
These voters are anti-Trump. Will they support Harris?
In a bitterly divided nation, relatively few Americans are genuinely torn between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Instead, some crucial undecided voters have ruled out Trump but are grappling with whether to support Harris, write in someone else or skip the election entirely.
In recent elections, center-right voters who have recoiled at the direction of the Republican Party have played significant roles in Democratic victories, helping propel President Biden in 2020 and shaping key 2022 midterm elections. Many of these voters told The Times that they were weighing their anxieties about a second Trump term against unease with Harris, who ran well to Biden’s left in the 2020 presidential primary before moderating some of her positions.
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