UN General Assembly: Day 2 Focuses on AI, Iran War, and Climate Change

As the UN General Assembly starts its second day, much attention will turn to the war in Iran, artificial intelligence and climate change. Follow live.

Artificial intelligence, the Iran war, and climate change set to dominate debate on Day 2 of UN General Assembly. Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa was the first speaker on Wednesday, and is set to be followed by Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Spain's Pedro Sanchez and more. US President Donald Trump was among the first speakers to take the stage on Tuesday and said he had a 'big decision' to make on Iran, to either make a deal or 'annihilate' the country. Gathering of world leaders takes place against a backdrop of global conflicts, environmental crisis and massive technical disruption.

Syria's relatively new President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in his second appearance at the assembly since toppling Bashar Assad that the civil war-torn country's reconstruction was gathering pace. 'Last year I mentioned that Syria had come back, today I say to you that Syria is rising,' he told the audience, before listing a series on achievements in what he termed 'our journey in the struggle between good and evil.'

'The country was united. We controlled arms. We rebuilt military and civilian institutions, sanctions were lifted, projects for reconstruction have continued,' al-Sharaa said, also hailing moves to combat drug trafficking, bring 'transitional justice' to Assad regime members and reach out to the international community diplomatically. He paid special tribute to the initiative dubbed 'the Breath of Freedom' his administration launched with six regional partners to dispose of chemical weapons stores in conjunction with international bodies like the OPCW and IAEA.

'The world is overjoyed about our return but Israel is launching attacks against Syria,' he said. 'There have been 500 airstrikes, more than 1,200 incursions and 300 detentions.' He said that 'any attempts that violate our sovereignty, violate international law will be stopped,' adding that the 'will remain Syrian territories,' in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 497 from 1981.

The foreign ministers of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan on Wednesday called for the reform of the UN Security Council (UNSC), saying it was more urgent than ever. 'Given the increasingly challenging geopolitical environment, UNSC reform is more necessary than ever before,' the four foreign ministers said in a joint statement issued after the diplomats met on Tuesday.

Beyond speeches by the presidents of Syria, Iran and Ukraine, artificial intelligence (AI), the US-Israeli war in Iran and the still-pressing issue of climate change are set to dominate the agenda at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday. On day 2 of this 81st UNGA session, tech industry leaders Sam Altman (OpenAI), Dario Amodei (Anthropic) and Clement Delangue (Hugging Face) will brief an emergency meeting of the 15-member UN Security Council.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York City on Wednesday morning, the US State Department said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly debate. In a post on X, Zelenskyy characterized the meeting with Trump as 'positive and productive.' 'Both the US and Ukraine want to see this senseless Russian war ended before winter. We discussed potential de-escalatory steps that can open up the way to diplomacy,' Zelenskyy said.