UN meeting produces sense that a ‘new epoch’ is arriving

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The war in Ukraine and its global fallout transfixed the meeting of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly this year. When it wasn’t out front, it lurked in the background of virtually every speech. There were near-unanimous calls for an end to the seven-month war, with rich and poor countries decrying the fallout from the conflict. They referred to widespread shortages and rising prices not only for food but for energy, inflation hitting the cost of living everywhere, and growing global inequality. The speeches and side meetings produced no breakthroughs toward peace, but they did put the top diplomats from Russia and Ukraine in the same room for the first time in many months.