Secretary-General António Guterres giving a toast at the annual heads of state luncheon during the opening session of the UN General Assembly, Sept. 25, 2018. This year, the session will include conferences on climate change, universal health care and the Sustainable Development Goals. And, of course, there will be the parade of speeches by global leaders. LI MUZI/UNCA POOL PHOTO
Hours before the crash that killed UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold (with sunglasses) waiting to board the DC-6 Albertina, Ndjili airport, Léopoldville (now Kinshasa, Congo), Sept. 17, 1961. TARA BURGETT/LONDON DAILY EXPRESS
Fifty-eight years ago, Dag Hammarskjold, the United Nations secretary-general at the time, set off on a perilous journey across the African heartland.
The “Chernobyl” tapestry by a Belarusian artist was gifted in 1991 to the United Nations in New York, five years after the cataclysmic nuclear explosion in Ukraine, which also affected Belarus and Russia. Decades later, the world is still unable to fully turn its back on nuclear power in all its forms.
The third floor of the United Nations headquarters in New York is coveted real estate for member states that have donated art to the organization.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, the deputy permanent representative of Russia to the UN, photographed at the Russian mission, in Manhattan. Polyanskiy was interviewed in August on how his country would lead the UN Security Council in September and on Russian-US relations. STEPHANIE FILLION
President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil with President Donald Trump of the United States, March 19, 2019, in the White House. Both men are scheduled to attend the annual opening session of the UN General Assembly, which will feature not only the parade of leaders but also a climate-change conference. ALAN SANTOS/PR
Donald Trump will shake hands with Emmanuel Macron, Jair Bolsonaro and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. But will Benjamin Netanyahu; Boris Johnson and Angela Merkel be there, too?
Secretary-General António Guterres, right, greets Mary Robinson, chair of The Elders and a former high commissioner for human rights, before a Security Council meeting on preventing conflict. Ban Ki-moon, a former UN secretary-general and deputy chair of The Elders, is in the center, June 12, 2019. The UN marks the 75th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter in 2020 with a world leaders conference. LOEY FELIPE/UN PHOTO
Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a Costa Rican and current UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity. The expert’s role was loudly protested by countries in the Middle East-North Africa region and elsewhere when it was established in 2016. Yet some nations in that area are now progressing on LGBTQ rights, the writer says.
Vice President Pence suddenly showed up at the UN on April 10, 2019, to demand that the Security Council strip the current Venezuelan ambassador’s UN credentials. That has not happened. The US mission to the UN lacks a permanent representative amid an outflow of a range of personnel. Some UN diplomats say, “There is no one left.” MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO
President Trump with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, May 2017. From the start of his presidency, Trump’s Middle East policies have amounted to a “bromance” with the Israeli leader, the author writes, but where is the mysterious peace plan for Israel and Palestine, and who will gain from it the most?
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s not really “America First.”
It’s “Donald Trump First.”
United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, left, was the guest of honor at an official reception in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), Congo, on Sept. 13, 1961, with Cyrille Adoula, the head of the country, right, and his deputy, Antoine Gizenga (with glasses). Five days later, the secretary-general, the author’s father and others were dead in a mysterious plane crash in the region. UN PHOTO
My clock radio clicked on. The morning news bulletin announced that United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane was missing.
It was Sept. 18, 1961. I was 16.
