As the World Burns

September 24, 2026

As wars and humanitarian crises disrupt countless lives around the World, leaders of many nations gathered this week in New York. They were here for the annual General Assembly meetings at the United Nations. Midtown’s East Side was given over to the affair, with widespread street closures, endless gridlock, and a very heavy security presence. It felt like every few minutes another motorcade of shiny black SUVs would try to break through the traffic jams on their way to the UN on 1st Avenue, sometimes successfully, and sometimes not so much.

Earlier this week President Donald Trump addressed the Assembly, boasting about a deal with Greenland, predicting the collapse of Cuba’s government, and most notably, raising the prospect of annihilating the Islamic Republic of Iran. Saying he had a big decision to make, Trump asked, ‘do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations? But I believe we’ll make a deal right after the election because it doesn’t make sense for them not to. They’re waiting to see how I do in the midterm election.” Then, addressing reports that the war with Iran has depleted America’s weapon inventory, he declared, “We have more munitions than we could ever possibly even think of using, and we’re building them at levels that we have never done before.”

Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to a mostly empty chamber following a massive walkout by delegates as he took to the podium. He made the argument that Israel was not the bad guy, and was in fact once again, the victim. He recounted historical examples of Israel defending itself from aggressors and pushed back on charges of genocide. He took time to slam NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani who’d raised the possibility earlier this year of having Netanyahu arrested on a Warrant from International Criminal Court where he’s charged with War Crimes (using starvation as a weapon of war; intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population) and Crimes Against Humanity (murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts). Among other things, he claimed the Mayor’s wife “liked” a social media post that the Israeli leader said Mamdani should have condemned. He said Jews in New York have told him they don’t feel safe, implying that it was Mamdani’s fault and explicitly calling him “antisemitic.” The Mayor responded by saying, “As he has done time and again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians. Yet no lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity.” A few blocks away from the UN about a hundred activists were arrested by NYPD during their mobilization against Israel’s war in Gaza.

But the big International get together was also a time for street corner diplomacy, dinners at the finest restaurants, and maybe even a little partying with one’s fellow shot callers. Over on 1st Avenue there was a steady stream of dignitaries and their entourages coming and going. Some of them were only steps away from their embassy, like the Republic of Türkiye and Venezuela.

The Turkish Embassy is right across the street from the UN.

The Press was out in force too, with a couple of media pens set up just for TV cameras and reporters staking out the event. A Police dog sniffed everybody as they crossed the Avenue, seemingly needing no more than a second to signal “ALL CLEAR” as they passed by without even slowing down. With this very well behaved crowd, reward treats appeared to be very few and far between, if there were even any at all.