What we're watching
• Today at the UN: General debate at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly begins today amid ongoing global crises. US President Donald Trump is the second scheduled speaker of the day, following Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
• On the agenda: Trump is also expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this morning and will also take part in a trilateral signing ceremony to formalize a new Greenland security agreement, according to the White House. An engagement with Iran’s delegation is not scheduled, but the US is open to a meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
• Main areas of focus: Some of the biggest topics bound to be discussed during UNGA include the war with Iran and wider Middle East instability, the Russia-Ukraine war, climate change and the impacts of AI.
Ahead of trip to UN, feud between Netanyahu and Mamdani escalates
Ahead of his trip to the United Nations General Assembly, the feud between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has flared up once again.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu released a video on social media accusing Mamdani of supporting Hamas and “inciting riots against New York Jews.” Netanyahu said that he would come to the UN “to tell the truth about our heroic soldiers, and I’m going to tell the truth about you.” Netanyahu has already used Mamdani as part of his electoral campaign on a billboard that said, “They want Netanyahu to lose. Don’t let them win.”
One day earlier, Mamdani doubled down on his criticism of Netanyahu, calling him a war criminal, even as he acknowledged he did not have the authority to arrest the Israeli leader while he is in New York, something he had promised to do during his mayoral campaign. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in 2024, but the US is not a member of the court and had made clear it will not arrest Netanyahu.
Netanyahu and Mamdani have had a long-running and very public rivalry. Netanyahu’s arrival in New York for his UN General Assembly speech on Thursday is expected to draw protests.
Trump admin is open to meeting with the Iranians at UNGA, Rubio says
The Trump administration is open to meeting with the Iranians at the UN General Assembly, but such an engagement has not been scheduled, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in New York, and the Trump administration said it was allowing Tehran’s “core delegation,” which would include Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, to attend the global gathering.
Rubio said later Tuesday morning that a meeting with Pezeshkian could still be worthwhile even if he isn’t fully empowered as a decision maker.
“I think the president is open to meeting with him or anybody,” Rubio said on “Fox and Friends,” noting that “maybe nothing good will come of it, but nothing bad would come of it.”
Still, Rubio said “you never close the door to agreements or diplomacy because sometimes things change in the system.”
The public overtures by top administration officials about the US’ willingness to meet with the Iranians comes amid stalled diplomatic efforts and as representatives from both sides will be in New York.
The Palestinian Authority has been banned from entering the US again. Here's more about it
The US has, for a second consecutive year, banned officials from the Palestinian Authority (PA) from entering the country for the United Nations General Assembly. PA President Mahmoud Abbas will once again have to speak at this week’s event virtually.
The US State Department said last week that it would not be issuing visas to PA officials, citing “ongoing activities that undermine the prospects for peace” in what it called the “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”
Among these activities are attempts to “internationalize” the conflict, including through the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice, as well as “continuing to pay stipends to terrorists and to glorify acts of terrorism and terrorists in public pronouncements and school textbooks,” the State Department said.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called the US’ actions “unjustified,” saying that they undermine “efforts to rebuild trust, strengthen Palestinian-American relations, and advance the two-state solution.”
The Palestinian Authority was formed in 1993. Though it is supposed to govern over the West Bank and Gaza, in recent decades, the militant group Hamas has run the Gaza Strip, according to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
The PA is headquartered in the West Bank, operating from the city of Ramallah. It is comprised of several Palestinian factions, but excludes militant groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, CFR says.
Abbas is deeply unpopular among Palestinians. He has led the PA since the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 and has clung to power, despite being seen by critics as lacking democratic legitimacy.
In a 2025 letter, Abbas condemned the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and pledged to hold elections and reform the PA, according to excerpts shared with CNN.
CNN’s Ibrahim Dahman, Nadeen Ebrahim and Abeer Salman contributed to this reporting.
Ukraine's Zelensky says new drone deal ready to be signed
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a new drone agreement is ready to be signed as he arrived in New York for the first day of the United Nations General Assembly, underscoring Kyiv’s push to strengthen its defense capabilities as the war with Russia grinds on.
He did not specify which nations would be involved in the drone deal.
“Ukraine’s number one priority is bringing peace closer and protecting the lives of our people,” Zelensky said, adding that Kyiv would present “concrete security proposals” and de-escalation measures that could “bring the end of the war closer.”
He said Ukraine is also seeking to strengthen its air defenses and secure sufficient financing from partners.
UK PM Andy Burnham to hold high-stakes first meeting with Trump
Britain’s newly installed Prime Minister Andy Burnham will hold a high-stakes first meeting with US President Donald Trump today on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
While the two men have spoken on the phone previously, their first face-to-face meeting marks an important diplomatic test for the center-left Burnham, who roundly criticized Trump before he took office. That, combined with Trump’s notorious unpredictability and habit of wading into sensitive political issues like immigration, the prospect of Irish reunification or whether Britain should open new oil and gas fields in the North Sea, makes this a potentially tricky meeting.
Still, Burnham assured reporters Monday that he trusted Trump personally, adding that the “special relationship” between the US and UK remained strong.
“When you come into this job, you realize how deep this relationship is,” he said, according to Britain’s PA News Agency. “We trust our allies. Of course we do.”
Burnham was previously the mayor of Manchester, a city in northern England, and he has tempered his tone towards Trump since becoming prime minister two months ago. He even brushed off Trump belittling his previous job as “the mayor of a town.”
“Now the important thing is to focus on the moment you are in,” Burnham said. “And I did say to the president in our first phone call, I said, ‘Mr. President, Manchester isn’t some town,’ I said, ‘This is Manchester.’
“And so yes, the right thing to do is to have a laugh about it, isn’t it, and move beyond it.”
Before the meeting, Downing Street emphasized the defense cooperation between London and Washington, announcing that the UK successfully fired a US torpedo from a British-made undersea drone, the first time either country had fired a torpedo from an uncrewed, underwater vessel.
Trump to sign new security agreement in ceremony with Greenland and Denmark
President Donald Trump will participate in a trilateral signing ceremony with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland to formalize a new Greenland security agreement, according to a White House official.
“President Trump will meet with Prime Minister Frederiksen of Denmark and Prime Minister Nielsen of Greenland for a trilateral signing ceremony. The three leaders will formalize their new agreement that will secure and defend the security of Greenland and the United States,” the official told CNN.
The ceremony is the latest update in Trump’s efforts to exert control over the remote island.
Remember: The president floated the idea in January, suggesting that US control in Greenland would be for national security purposes while downplaying the territory’s vast natural resources.
At the time, many Greenlanders expressed opposition to an American takeover of their island, with thousands of demonstrators in Greenland and Denmark protesting against Trump’s calls to annex it.
As Trump repeatedly stated his goal of obtaining Greenland, diplomatic crisis arose within NATO, as the alliance scrambled to defuse the threat.
After a meeting between Danish and Greenlandic officials and Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the US, Denmark and Greenland formed a working group to find a “common way forward,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said.
The discourse then largely fell out of public view as the US turned its focus to the war with Iran.
The issue reemerged last Friday as Trump announced that the US reached an agreement with Denmark and Greenland that gives the US “permanent control” over Greenland’s security and bars adversaries from establishing military bases on the island.
Trump set to meet Gulf leaders at UN summit to discuss Iran war
President Donald Trump is scheduled to sit down with Gulf leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York today to discuss the next phase of the war with Iran, two US officials told CNN.
Trump last week again insisted that Iran wants to make a deal with the US to end the war.
“Well, hopefully we’re toward the end of the war. They want to make a deal. We’ll see how that works out,” Trump said then about the negotiations process. “Iran is very much wanting to make a deal.”
The president’s comments came after the House voted to approve a measure that would require Trump to end the war. Seven Republicans backed the measure, up from four GOP votes for the last two resolutions on the war.
Axios was first to report the planned meeting with Gulf leaders.
A closer look at what UNGA is and how it works
This week, dozens of world leaders are gathering at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, where the 81st session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) will take place.
UNGA was established in 1945, the same year that the UN was founded, and is the “chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ” of the organization, its website says.
The assembly is made up of all 193 United Nations members, who vote on important international issues and take part in high-level debates.
The UNGA also “makes recommendations to States on international issues within its competence,” including political, economic, humanitarian, social and legal matters, it says.
The theme for this year’s general debate at UNGA is “restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all,” according to the UN’s website.
Every year, an UNGA president is elected by the assembly’s members. The post rotates among the UN’s five regional groups: African States, Asia-Pacific States, Eastern European States, Latin American and Caribbean States and Western European and other States.
The president of this year’s UNGA session is Khalilur Rahman, the foreign minister of Bangladesh, whose program is designed around “six interlocking pillars.”
One of these “pillars” involves encouraging the peaceful resolution of conflicts, the protection of civilians, upholding international humanitarian law, and fighting against intolerance, hate speech, and disinformation.
Other “pillars” are focused on topics including sustainability, protecting human rights, digital governance and multilateralism.
Key issues global leaders will discuss this week at UNGA
World leaders are set to gather in New York to discuss an array of global issues for the annual United Nations General Assembly.
Here’s a look at the state of affairs on some topics that are likely to be mentioned this week:
- War in the Middle East: Pauses in hostilities between the US and Iran have not proved lasting, with the sides exchanging on-and-off attacks in the months since they first agreed to a temporary ceasefire in early April. In July, US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire was “over” but negotiations would continue. Traffic remains suppressed in the Strait of Hormuz, hampering the global oil market. Meanwhile, conflicts involving Iranian proxies have raged around the region, and Trump’s Board of Peace has yet to produce a path forward for a lasting end to Israel’s war in Gaza. Trump has claimed many times that Iran is desperate to cut a deal, but has said recently that he expects Tehran to wait until after the November midterm elections because it wants to hurt him politically.
- Russia and Ukraine: Years after Russia’s multi-pronged invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European continent remains roiled by the conflict and a humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Ukraine, which is running critically low on air defenses. Russia continues to hit Kyiv and other cities with drones and missiles, as Ukraine hammers Russian fuel infrastructure. The US sent a high-level delegation to Moscow and Kyiv this month as Washington renews a push to end the conflict, but the visit did not yield any major announcements.
- Artificial intelligence: The Trump administration will convene a high-level event on AI on the sidelines of the UNGA Wednesday, sources told CNN. The issue will loom large over the global gathering. Questions about the fast-developing technology have taken on new urgency amid dire warnings about the potential existential threat posed by artificial intelligence. Trump has raged against the idea of government regulation on AI, alleging concerns about the technology are a “hoax,” though he announced plans last week to create an “AI force” and appoint a US czar to oversee the matter.
Trump is set to speak today. Here’s a look at the president’s past UNGA speeches
President Donald Trump is set to deliver his sixth address to the United Nations General Assembly.
Take a look at key moments from his past speeches to the global gathering:
- 2017: In his first speech, Trump sought to encapsulate his worldview through the theme of “sovereignty,” suggesting that nations acting in their own self-interest would create a more stable world. He centered the address on reforming UN practices and was optimistic about its ability to improve global security. Trump also brought frank assessments to a range of sticky global flashpoints. He delivered a doomsday warning to North Korea and suggested Kim Jong Un could not survive an American attack. He directed similar ire toward Iran, which he accused of supporting terrorists and destabilizing the Mideast.
- 2018: Trump’s second address served to reaffirm his commitment to signature policies and convictions. He boasted that his administration “has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country,” which was received with laughter from many attendees. The president also defended his hardline position on Iran and his trade war with China, touted his diplomatic engagement with North Korea, and reaffirmed his rejection of globalism and the prominence of international institutions.
- 2019: The president spelled out a staunchly nationalistic platform as he opened his third address. Trump slammed China, accusing the nation of breaking promises to the international community to adopt reforms. He took a shot at Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and also called Iran’s regime one of the “greatest security threats facing peace-loving nations.”
- 2020: World leaders gathered virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump praised his own handling of the global health emergency and touted his role in facilitating peace agreements between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel. He attacked China, calling Covid-19 the “China virus” and urging the UN to hold Beijing accountable for the pandemic.
- 2025: Trump used last year’s address to castigate foreign allies for supposedly ruining their countries with unchecked migration, fueling foreign conflicts with purchases of Russian energy, and ignoring his own peacemaking efforts. He addressed the most pressing foreign conflicts — the wars in Ukraine and Gaza — only in passing, reserving most of his speech to bemoan efforts to combat climate change, tout his administration and take swipes at former President Joe Biden.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Jeremy Diamond and Zamira Rahim contributed reporting.
How this morning will unfold at the UNGA
Welcome to our coverage.
Dozens of world leaders are set to speak at the UN General Assembly this morning, including US President Donald Trump.
Here’s a look at how this morning’s speaking schedule is set to unfold:
- Prior to Trump’s remarks to the General Assembly, Secretary-General António Guterres will present his report before the start of general debate.
- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will then speak first, followed by Trump.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to speak later on in the morning, as is Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
- French President Emmanuel Macron will also speak at the assembly, being the 10th of 13 leaders to do so this morning.
Other speakers include the leaders of Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Peru and Chile. The heads of state from Finland, Luxembourg and Angola are also set to address the assembly in this session.
We’ll keep you across the main headlines from their speeches. Stay with us.
