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World leaders have spoken, and the UN listened. Climate, development, and peace emerged as universal areas of concern, according to a new study driven by artificial intelligence (AI).

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) wrapped up its high-level week, world leaders flew home, and the security barricades outside UN Headquarters were stored away for next year. UN News spoke with some first-time participants, celebrities, activists, and journalists about their experiences and whether they felt their messages reached the global stage.

Ending the war in Ukraine, promoting climate action and ramping up efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) topped the agenda of the High Level Week of the UN General Assembly, the man at the helm of the global platform for dialogue said on Thursday. 

The health of our planet, its people, institutions, and the global economy are at serious risk, and such deep challenges cannot be tackled in isolation, Robert Rae, Ambassador of Canada to the United Nations, told the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate on Tuesday. 

The “west-led irrational structure” of the UN Security Council must be reformed to prevent the “high-handedness and arbitrariness” of forces within the body, including the United States, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) told the General Assembly on Tuesday.

The General Assembly’s annual debate concluded on Tuesday, with global leaders stating that while the United Nations faces institutional challenges, it remains the paramount platform for crafting collective solutions to humanity’s challenges.

In remarks on Tuesday to the UN General Assembly, Syrian Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Bassam Sabbagh underscored the need to build a multipolar world order that achieves sustainable development for all and balance in international relations, including through reforming institutions such as the Security Council.

The international community must maintain the universality of global multilateral forums and not turn them into “clubs reserved for a few elites...where some are tolerated” if they stay to themselves, a senior Holy See official told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

The days when a few nations set the global agenda and “expected others to fall in line” are over, India’s foreign minister told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

Despite pouring rain, around 60,000 advocates, artists, influencers and concerned citizens were in New York’s iconic Central Park on Saturday night, where they heard the deputy UN chief issue a clarion call to mobilize for change.