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UNITED NATIONS — <\/span>Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, world leaders meet at the United Nations this week facing new fears that runaway artificial intelligence<\/a> could threaten humanity even as climate shocks<\/a> and escalating prices<\/a> are already making life much tougher for hundreds of millions of people.<\/p>\n The annual high-level gathering at the U.N. General Assembly will also be consumed with major wars in Iran<\/a>, Gaza<\/a>, Ukraine,<\/a>Sudan<\/a>, Congo<\/a> and Myanmar<\/a> and a persisting question: Can the leaders do anything to end them?<\/p>\n And what can they do about the relentless rise of global warming threatening the future of the planet, the growing inequalities within and among nations, and shocks to the global economy as blocked shipping routes and supply chains increase the cost of living and slow growth?<\/p>\n The future of the United Nations will also definitely be on the agenda. At 81, its powers are still the victorious nations from World War II, not the 21st century\u2019s major global players. The U.N.\u2019s 193 member nations have agreed to a wide-ranging reform package that includes updating key institutions such as the powerful U.N. Security Council, where the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France hold inordinate sway because of their veto power. Reform, however, is easier said than implemented.<\/p>\n Behind the scenes, there will be speculation about who will lead the United Nations next. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres\u2019 second five-year term ends Dec. 31 and no clear successor has emerged. <\/p>\n There is still no question that the U.N. remains THE gathering place for its 193 member nations and their leaders. Some 130 heads of state and government are expected to speak at the General Assembly starting Tuesday along with dozens of ministers.<\/p>\n Among the headliners will be U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emanuel Macron. Both will speak Tuesday after Guterres\u2019 opening \u201cstate of the world\u201d address. Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Iran\u2019s President Masoud Pezeshkian speak Wednesday.<\/p>\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u2014 whom New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani wanted arrested for his treatment of Palestinians in Gaza until he learned he has no such authority \u2014 will address the assembly on Thursday. For a second year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won\u2019t be coming to the U.N. because the U.S. has refused to give him a visa. He will nonetheless address the assembly by video the same day. <\/p>\n The United States, under its agreement with the U.N. to host the organization, is required to allow diplomats from all member nations to attend meetings.<\/p>\n Equally telling is who else isn\u2019t coming. China\u2019s President Xi Jinping is meeting Trump in Washington on Wednesday, yet he is skipping \u2014 some diplomats say snubbing \u2014 the U.N. gathering and sending a vice president instead. Russian President Vladimir Putin isn\u2019t coming either, and Indian President Narendra Modi has backed out.<\/p>\n France’s U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said it is \u201cextremely critical\u201d for world leaders this week to support the U.N. as the place where the world\u2019s nations meet \u2014 especially at a time of such polarization.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe in multilateralism,” he said, “and we believe that the high-level week is the occasion for countries in the world to reaffirm that they prefer cooperation and dialogue to confrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no doubt it\u2019s been a tough year for the world body. It has been pushed to the sidelines when it comes to its key responsibility of ensuring international peace and security and trying to end major conflicts in the Mideast and Ukraine. The U.S. failure to pay billions of dollars in outstanding arrears has left the organization\u2019s finances in rocky shape.<\/p>\n But veteran U.N. watcher Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group\u2019s global issues and institutions program director, says 2025 was even worse.<\/p>\n A year ago, he said, people were contemplating that Trump would use his U.N. speech to announce that the United States would leave the world organization. Trump didn\u2019t announce a pullout last September and the U.N. muddled through the past 12 months with financial troubles that forced cutbacks to its peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n In recent days, the U.S. paid $725 million of its dues to the U.N.\u2019s regular operating budget for this year, enough to keep the Trump administration from losing its vote in the General Assembly. The payment was a strong indication Trump will keep the U.S. in the United Nations.<\/p>\n The U.N. is no longer \u201cin freefall,\u201d Gowan said, but it \u201cis stuck in an open-ended or permanent crisis.\u201d Put more graphically, he said, \u201cThe U.N. may not be in emergency care like it was last year, but it does seem to be trapped in a trauma center for the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n Former U.N. deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch-Brown, a United Nations Foundation board member, said, \u201cWhile the world still trusts the U.N., the global public is eager for change.”<\/p>\n The future of artificial intelligence has pushed to the forefront of global concerns, with its speeding advances and the dawning recognition that there are no industry controls, let alone any global guardrails for a technology that has many advantages but also many disadvantages and unknowns. <\/p>\n Days before the global gathering, leaders of three major AI companies warned about the technology<\/a> getting out of human control and called for a pause, but Trump dismissed their concerns as \u201ca hoax,\u201d<\/a> and urged continued advances to keep the U.S. ahead of China.<\/p>\n The U.N. Security Council added a high-level meeting on AI to its agenda on Wednesday afternoon, a sign of the growing apprehension and need to address the issue. It was already slated to hold a high-level meeting on Ukraine with Zelenskyy on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n For the U.N. chief, this will be his last assembly meeting with global leaders. He previewed his speech last week, telling U.N. reporters that power is shifting in \u201can era of deep uncertainty.”<\/p>\n \u201cAt a time when the world faces three existential threats,” he said, \u201cinternational cooperation is more necessary than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Others will be vying for the spotlight on issues from rising sea levels and funding education to the fight for gender equality. Hundreds of private meetings will also convene in U.N. cubicles, hotels, diplomatic missions and restaurants.<\/p>\n Esther Brimmer, a senior fellow in global governance at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs in the Obama administration, said in-person meetings can help countries hash out ideas that get implemented months later.<\/p>\n She called the situation in 2026 \u201cmuch more serious and complex than in decades past.”<\/p>\n \u201cWith that said, I\u2019m also not without hope as well,\u201d Brimmer said. \u201cOver the past decades we\u2019ve learned a lot about international cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Edith M. Lederer has covered international affairs for The Associated Press for more than a half century.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n