As leaders reconvene at UN, climate and COVID top the list

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Despite the still raging COVID-19 pandemic, more than 100 world leaders are heading to New York for the annual high-level U.N. gathering. The challenges on the global agenda are daunting, from an escalating climate crisis and vaccine inequities to Afghanistan’s uncertain future under its new Taliban rulers and worsening conflicts in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and Myanmar. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres keeps repeating that the world is at “a pivotal moment” and can’t continue business as usual. He says it must shift gears to “a greener and safer world.”