World leaders gather ‘at time of great peril’ at UN

CNN News:

It took a Queen to shake up this year’s high-level week at the United Nations General Assembly — an annual whirlwind shindig known as UNGA that will begin on Tuesday.

The UN gang is finally getting back together in person, after three years of leaders speaking by video due to the global pandemic. But many leaders from the 193 UN member countries were in the United Kingdom for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday, forcing their missions to the UN to scramble to reschedule speeches and rendezvous.

Perhaps most prominent among the changes, US President Joe Biden will speak on Wednesday morning instead of taking America’s traditional second speaking slot after Brazil on Tuesday. Biden has also built in time for chats with country leaders in London, which may limit some discussions in Manhattan.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky will be the only world leader to speak by video, occupied as he is by the war in his country. The Assembly on Friday overrode Russian objections to permit Zelensky to speak virtually.