When is the UN Summit starting? What's on the agenda? What are the highlights? Who is attending?

A career diplomat, Khalilur Rahman has served as Foreign Minister of Bangladesh since February 2026. Before that he held the posts of National Security Adviser and High Representative for the Rohingya Issue in Bangladesh's Interim Government.

He took the foreign minister role when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party won the country's first election since a student-led uprising ousted longtime leader Sheikh Hasina in 2024. So the government behind him is itself relatively new, which made his candidacy a statement of confidence in Bangladesh's fresh political direction.

How deep the diplomatic roots go

A career diplomat, he joined Bangladesh's foreign service in 1979 and also held senior UN positions in New York and Geneva. Those positions included serving as spokesperson for the Least Developed Countries and as special adviser to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, the UN body focused on trade and economic development for poorer nations). He has, in other words, been inside the UN system for decades.

Why he won

In a closely contested secret ballot, Rahman secured 99 votes out of 190, defeating Andreas Kakouris of Cyprus, who obtained 91. His election marks only the second time Bangladesh has held the UNGA presidency, with the country last holding it during the 41st session in 1986 to 1987.

The UNGA presidency rotates annually among five regional groups, and for the 81st session it was the Asia-Pacific Group's turn. That rotation opened the door; Rahman's decades of multilateral experience and his standing as a sitting foreign minister were what walked him through it.

The previous answer covered this in detail, but here is what is shaping the conversation right now.

António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, has described runaway AI as one of three existential threats facing the world, alongside the climate crisis and deepening inequality. He dedicated nearly half his pre-session remarks to AI, acknowledging its "enormous potential" on health, education and climate, while stressing that the world "cannot afford to ignore concerns" that development is outpacing human understanding of the risks.

With fears mounting of an AI arms race between the US and China, Guterres acknowledged "geopolitical divides" and warned that voluntary pauses on AI development will not work if they are limited to only a few countries.

There is an institutional dimension too. The 15-member UN Security Council is expected to hold high-level meetings on AI during the gathering. And the General Assembly has already moved beyond speeches: it appointed 40 members to the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, with the vote recorded at the request of the United States.

Where the real tension sits

The gap between what Guterres wants and what the major powers are willing to do is wide. Analysts note that the US and EU members are "not really engaging" with UN-led AI governance, with companies like Anthropic and OpenAI running their own parallel conversations about the technology's future. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has dismissed AI risks as a "hoax."

So the summit has the scaffolding for a serious AI conversation, a dedicated Security Council session, a new scientific panel, and a secretary-general willing to call it an existential threat. Whether the major powers actually coordinate is the open question, and that is precisely the kind of thing that never gets fully resolved in one week in New York.

Who opened and what they said

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, opened the high-level debate, followed by US President Donald Trump. Brazil goes first by tradition kept since 1955. Lula advocated for negotiations as the means of resolving disputes and for respect for international humanitarian law. He also arrived with a pointed personal message: at a rally held before the trip, Lula said he would tell Trump at the UN, "do not interfere in Brazil's elections," with Brazilian voters heading to the polls in October. On the Middle East, he said that "generations of Palestinians" will carry "the pain and trauma left by the genocide of women and children," criticizing the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Trump's address covered a lot of ground fast. He gave a wide-ranging speech covering the war in Iran, Greenland and Cuba. The sharpest moment came on Iran: he said "the United States and Iran will definitely get it done, one way or the other," framing it as a choice between a deal or destruction. He also accused Iran of stalling on a deal to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz and negotiate an endgame to the war until after the US midterm elections. On AI, the Trump administration announced it will convene a high-level event on AI on the sidelines of UNGA this week.

What Guterres framed for the whole week

Secretary-General Guterres warned the General Assembly that humanity faces four defining "tests of power," around war or peace, inequality, climate change and AI, that will determine whether the world moves toward a new era of cooperation or deeper division. This is also a personally significant moment for him: the 81st session is the final General Assembly session to begin under Guterres as Secretary-General, as his second and final term ends on December 31, 2026.

The diplomacy running beneath the speeches

More than 1,000 bilateral meetings between member states are taking place during this year's high-level debate. That number tells you something the cameras rarely capture: the speeches on the floor are often less consequential than what happens in the corridors and hotel suites around them. Middle Eastern nations are using the gathering for intensive diplomatic talks aimed at finding solutions to regional conflicts, particularly the Iran war. Trump is also expected to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, while an Iranian delegation is in New York.

What is still ahead this week

The UN has scheduled high-level meetings on climate action and a just transition and on the 40th anniversary of the Durban Declaration on the Right to Development on September 23, on sea level rise on September 24, on pandemic preparedness on September 25, on the 25th anniversary of the Durban Declaration against racism on September 28, and on eliminating nuclear weapons on September 29. Each of those is a focused session where leaders sign statements, make pledges or push specific negotiations forward, not just speechmaking.

Speaking before nearly 130 heads of state at the UN General Assembly in New York, Donald Trump said he faces a "big decision": to strike a deal with Iran to end the war, or to "annihilate the Islamic Republic" and "drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness."

The language was not abstract. An Iranian delegation is attending the General Assembly this year, and since the war began nearly seven months ago, Trump has made repeated threats to launch devastating attacks on Iran, only to pull back in hopes of a deal, backing off large threats on at least eight occasions.

What he said about timing

Trump said he does not believe there will be an agreement before the midterm elections, but predicted a deal would come right after, saying it "doesn't make sense" for Iran not to deal, and adding that Iran is "waiting to see how I do on the midterm election" while noting, "What they don't realize is that I'm not running."

What happened right after the speech

The threat landed alongside a diplomatic signal. After the speech, Trump said members of his administration met with the Iranian delegation for about three hours in what he described vaguely as a "very good meeting." So the annihilation language and the back-channel conversation happened on the same afternoon, which tells you something about how this administration uses the podium.

The wider backdrop

Trump's remarks came as the UN's Human Rights Council found in a report last week "reasonable grounds to believe" that the US had committed war crimes during "indiscriminate attacks" against an Iranian school and a residential area in February. That finding was not addressed in the speech.

The high-level session is unfolding as the US-Iran war is causing oil prices to surge worldwide, Ukraine is trying to hold off a Russian invasion, and Palestinians are facing the repercussions of Israel's war with Hamas. Iran is not a subplot here. It is the center of gravity for the whole week.

Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in New York this Thursday morning and address the General Assembly at 2 p.m., before returning to Israel the same day. His visit was originally planned to stretch several days and include a stop in Texas and a meeting with President Donald Trump, but it has been shortened to a single in-and-out: arrive Thursday, speak at 2 p.m., leave.

Netanyahu had reportedly considered skipping this year's gathering but ultimately decided to attend, viewing the speech as an opportunity to bolster his campaign ahead of Israeli elections.

The Mamdani standoff

Zohran Mamdani is the 112th Mayor of New York City, the city's first Muslim and first Asian American to hold that office. He has been mayor since January 1, 2026, elected as a Democrat and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

The tension between the two men goes back to a core legal question. The International Criminal Court, or ICC, the international body set up to prosecute individuals for war crimes and crimes against humanity, issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in 2024 over alleged war crimes in Gaza. Mamdani made honoring that warrant a campaign promise.

On Monday, Mamdani again called for the ICC warrant to be honored, telling CNN he believes Netanyahu to be "a war criminal and an architect of a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people." He acknowledged he does not have the authority to carry out the warrant himself, but said it should still be "honored" to protect accountability to international law.

Back in July, Mamdani had investigated the possibility of arresting Netanyahu based on the ICC warrant, concluded after a few days that he could not legally do so, but still warned that Netanyahu was "not welcome" in New York City.

Netanyahu fired back on video today. In a video shared on X, he wrote "Shame on you, Mr. Mamdani," accusing the mayor of "supporting the Hamas terrorist monsters who butchered our people" and "inciting riots against New York Jews." He added: "I'm coming to the U.N., I'm going to tell the truth about our heroic soldiers, and I'm going to tell the truth about you."

Mamdani responded that "what the prime minister said in that video is not true," and pointed out that Netanyahu "is the subject of an International Criminal Court warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity."

The broader backdrop

Netanyahu's Likud party has also pulled Mamdani into Israel's domestic political fight, with a campaign billboard in September placing the New York mayor alongside Iran's Supreme Leader and other figures it said wanted Netanyahu to lose the election.

Few details have emerged regarding the content of Netanyahu's actual speech, and considerable attention is focused on the atmosphere inside the hall. Last year, numerous delegates staged a coordinated walkout the moment he began speaking. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon predicted "another show" might unfold this year, but stressed that Netanyahu will deliver his message regardless.

President Trump has separately said Netanyahu will not be arrested in the United States. So the mayor's legal leverage was always limited, but the political argument it has sparked is playing out on the biggest diplomatic stage in the world.