President Trump attending the United Nations lunch for world leaders at last year’s annual opening debate of the General Assembly, in the pre-Covid-19 universe. It is unclear if he is physically attending this year’s session; if not, he will likely deliver his remarks by video, like other leaders. Some UN-watchers are expecting more harsh criticism, or worse, from him on the UN. LI MUZI/XINHUA POOL PHOTO
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump meeting at the 2017 G-20 Hamburg summit. After Trump’s nearly four years as president, there is still no obvious reason he defers to Putin on major issues. It is a chief question that the United States faces as a country, but there are clues, the essayist writes. CREATIVE COMMONS
Zuzana Caputova, the president of Slovakia, addressing the General Assembly’s 74th session, Sept. 24, 2019. This year, she is the first woman to speak at the opening session, No. 53 on the UN’s provisional list of speakers, reflecting the abysmally low number of female heads of state, 22. CIA PAK/UN PHOTO
In Minsk, Belarus, the state apparatus prepares for yet another public protest, on Sept. 6, 2020, against the dictatorship of Aleksandr Lukashenko. Nine experts are to be voted on for the UN Human Rights Committee, which ensures such universal privileges as peaceful assembly. CREATIVE COMMONS
President Zuzana Caputova of Slovakia spoke at last year’s opening session of the General Assembly, and is the first woman to speak at this year’s, albeit 53rd on the list. RICK BAJORNAS/UN PHOTO
Secretary-General António Guterres and Dr. Denis Mukwege, founder and head of Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Feb. 1, 2019. The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo has been providing security to Dr. Mukwege, as he has been receiving death threats for years, but the UN also waffled recently on ensuring such protection. EVAN SCHNEIDER/UN PHOTO
California endured a slew of fires caused by more than 12,000 dry-lightning strikes in August, and experts say such wildfires will become normal if major steps are not taken soon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The United States’ “dynamic society,” rather than government policy, is driving more “climate action” measures, says the UN secretary-general.
The first lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton, addressing the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, Sept. 5, 1995. Twenty-five years later, a prominent American feminist asks in an essay, where do women stand now? (Hint: She’s optimistic.) MILTON GRANT/UN PHOTO
The 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing; the United States sanctions the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court; dissecting the failed ambitions of the US effort to force the UN mission in Lebanon to be more aggressive.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland, June 15, 2020, in Helsinki. One major gain for women since the 1995 Beijing conference on gender equality has been a rise in female representation in national legislatures. Only 21 countries, however, have female national executives, the author notes. LAURI HEIKKINEN/GOVERNMENT OF FINLAND
Abdou Abbary, Niger’s envoy to the UN, assumes the Security Council presidency for September 2020. It is the first time the nation has been in the Council for almost 40 years. JOHN PENNEY
Niger hasn’t been a member of the Security Council for almost 40 years, and now that it has a voice on one of the world’s most visible platforms, it intends to use it to build more alliances with influential world powers while furthering a regional agenda.
