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Tag: global leader

  • Global leaders and businesses react to more U.S. tariff swings

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    SEOUL — Governments and companies around the world scrambled Saturday to determine the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down most of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs and his response with a new round of import taxes.

    The latest twist in the U.S. tariff roller-coaster ride, launched when Trump returned to office 13 months ago and upended dozens of trading relationships with the world’s biggest economy, roiled trade officials from Mexico to South Korea to South America and beyond.

    South Korea’s Trade Ministry called for an emergency meeting Saturday to understand the new landscape. Some specific exports to the U.S., like automobiles and steel, aren’t affected by the U.S. high court decision. Those that are affected will probably now be covered by a new tariff imposed by an executive order Trump signed Friday. Trump announced Saturday morning that he would raise that 10% tariff to 15%.

    In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the checks and balances in the United States, praising the “rule of law” during a visit to a Paris agricultural fair: “It’s a good thing to have powers and counter-powers in democracies. We should welcome that.”

    But he cautioned against any triumphalism.

    Officials were going over the language of bilateral or multilateral deals struck with the U.S. in recent months, even as they braced for new swings and Trump’s swift announcement of new tariffs.

    “I note that President Trump, a few hours ago, said he had reworked some measures to introduce new tariffs, more limited ones, but applying to everyone,” Macron said. “So we’ll look closely at the exact consequences, what can be done, and we will adapt.”

    Mexico braces, adapts

    Mexico’s secretary of the economy, Marcelo Ebrard, urged “prudence” Friday in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. “We have to see where this is going,” Ebrard told reporters. “We have to see what measures [Washington] is going to take to figure out how it is going to affect our country. “

    Amid widespread concern about tariffs in Mexico — the United States’ major commercial partner, with almost $1 trillion in annual two-way trade — Ebrard cautioned: “I tell you to put yourselves in zen mode. As tranquil as possible.”

    Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, when asked about the tariffs, said, “We’ll review the resolution carefully and then gladly give our opinion.”

    Ebrard said he plans to travel to the United States next week to clarify matters.

    Last year, Ebrard noted, Mexico managed to stave off Trump’s threats to impose a 25% across-the-board levy on all Mexican imports.

    However, Mexico has been pushing back against Trump administration tariffs on imports of vehicles, steel and aluminum, among other products.

    Among other impacts, the Supreme Court voided so-called fentanyl tariffs on Mexico, China and Canada. The Trump administration said it imposed those levies to force the three nations to crack down on trafficking of the deadly synthetic opioid.

    About 85% of Mexican exports to the United States are exempt from tariffs because of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The accord extended a mostly free-trade regimen among the three nations, replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement.

    The three-way pact is scheduled for joint review starting July 1. That date marks six years since the agreement was signed during the first Trump presidential term.

    In Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, along the Texas border, Sergio Bermúdez, head of an industrial parks company, discussed Trump’s plan for a new tariff. Trump, he said, “says a lot of things, and many of them aren’t true. All of the businesses I know are analyzing, trying to figure out how it’s going to affect them.”

    The impact could be felt especially in Juarez: Much of its economy depends on factories producing goods to export to consumers in the U.S., the result of decades of free trade between the U.S. and Mexico.

    The policy swoons in the United States over the last year have made many global business leaders cautious, as they struggle to forecast and see investment take a hit.

    CEO Alan Russell of Tecma, which helps American businesses set up operations in Mexico, has seen his job grow increasingly complicated over the last year — his company’s workload has surged as much as fourfold as it grapples with new import requirements. He worries the last U.S. moves will only make things more difficult.

    “We wake up every day with new challenges. That word ‘uncertainty’ has been the greatest enemy,” said Russell, who is American. “The difficult part has been not being clear what the rules are today or what they’re going to be tomorrow.”

    A ‘good decision’

    Swissmem, a top technology industry association in Switzerland, hailed the Supreme Court ruling as “good decision,” writing on X that its exports to the U.S. fell 18% in the fourth quarter alone — a period when Switzerland was facing much higher U.S. tariffs than most neighboring countries in Europe.

    “The high tariffs have severely damaged the tech industry,” Swissmem President Martin Hirzel said on X, while acknowledging the dust is far from settled. “However, today’s ruling doesn’t win anything yet.”

    Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell in Mexico City contributed to this report, as did Associated Press writers Tong-Hyung Kim in Seoul and Megan Janetsky in Mexico City. AP writers María Verza and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City, Samuel Petrequin in London and Jamey Keaten in Lyon, France, also contributed.

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  • ‘This will be an interesting trip’: President Trump to speak in Switzerland amid Greenland uproar

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    President Donald Trump will deliver a speech today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, focusing on a plan to make housing more affordable, while his comments about acquiring Greenland continue to stir tensions with European allies.”This will be an interesting trip. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but you are well represented,” Trump told reporters before departing the White House for Switzerland.The speech comes shortly after he threatened to impose tariffs on Denmark and seven other allies due to their opposition to his interest in acquiring Greenland. Trump announced that the tariffs would start at 10% next month and increase to 25% by June. The tensions over the U.S. interest in the Danish territory have already affected Wall Street, with stocks rattled on Tuesday.In Davos, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney warned global leaders that the world is “facing a rupture,” emphasizing the risks of countries trying to avoid conflict by compliance. “There is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along, to accommodate to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety. Well, it won’t,” Carney said.Carney also added that Canada opposes tariffs over Greenland. Trump’s speech is expected to focus largely on housing, and following his address, he will meet with leaders at the forum, according to the White House.Home sales in the U.S. are at a 30-year low with rising prices. Reports show elevated mortgage rates are keeping prospective home buyers out of the market. Rent, for several years, has been the largest contributor to inflation.This comes as Trump announced his plan to buy $200 billion in mortgage securities to help lower interest rates on home loans. He’s also called for a ban on large financial companies buying houses. Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:s

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump will deliver a speech today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, focusing on a plan to make housing more affordable, while his comments about acquiring Greenland continue to stir tensions with European allies.

    “This will be an interesting trip. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but you are well represented,” Trump told reporters before departing the White House for Switzerland.

    The speech comes shortly after he threatened to impose tariffs on Denmark and seven other allies due to their opposition to his interest in acquiring Greenland.

    Trump announced that the tariffs would start at 10% next month and increase to 25% by June.

    The tensions over the U.S. interest in the Danish territory have already affected Wall Street, with stocks rattled on Tuesday.

    In Davos, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney warned global leaders that the world is “facing a rupture,” emphasizing the risks of countries trying to avoid conflict by compliance.

    “There is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along, to accommodate to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety. Well, it won’t,” Carney said.

    Carney also added that Canada opposes tariffs over Greenland.

    Trump’s speech is expected to focus largely on housing, and following his address, he will meet with leaders at the forum, according to the White House.

    Home sales in the U.S. are at a 30-year low with rising prices. Reports show elevated mortgage rates are keeping prospective home buyers out of the market. Rent, for several years, has been the largest contributor to inflation.

    This comes as Trump announced his plan to buy $200 billion in mortgage securities to help lower interest rates on home loans. He’s also called for a ban on large financial companies buying houses.

    Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:

    s

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  • Trump in speech to UN says world body ‘not even coming close to living up’ to its potential

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    President Donald Trump returned to the United Nations on Tuesday to boast of his second-term foreign policy achievements and lash out at the world body as a feckless institution, while warning Europe it would be ruined if it doesn’t turn away from a “double-tailed monster” of ill-conceived migration and green energy policies.His roughly hour-long speech was both grievance-filled and self-congratulatory as he used the platform to praise himself and lament that some of his fellow world leaders’ countries were “going to hell.”The address was also just the latest reminder for U.S. allies and foes that the United States — after a four-year interim under the more internationalist President Joe Biden — has returned to the unapologetically “America First” posture under Trump.“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump said. “The U.N. has such tremendous potential. I’ve always said it. It has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential.”World leaders listened closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.Trump escalated that criticism on Tuesday, saying the international body’s “empty words don’t solve wars.”Trump offered a weave of jarring juxtapositions in his address to the assembly.He trumpeted himself as a peacemaker and enumerated successes of his administration’s efforts in several hotspots around the globe. At the same, Trump heralded his decisions to order the U.S. military to carry out strikes on Iran and more recently against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela and argued that globalists are on the verge of destroying successful nations.The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.Warnings about ‘green scam’ and migrationTrump touted his administration’s policies allowing for expanded drilling for oil and natural gas in the United States, and aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration, implicitly suggesting more countries should follow suit.He sharply warned that European nations that have more welcoming migration policies and commit to expensive energy projects aimed at reducing their carbon footprint were causing irreparable harm to their economies and cultures.“I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from the ‘green energy’ scam, your country is going to fail,” Trump said. “If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before that you have nothing in common with your country is going to fail.”Trump added, “I love the people of Europe, and I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration. This double-tailed monster destroys everything in its wake, and they cannot let that happen any longer.”The passage of the wide-ranging address elicited some groans and uncomfortable laughter from delegates.Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leadersTrump touted “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars. He peppered his speech with criticism of global institutions doing too little to end war and solve the world’s biggest problems.General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said that despite all the internal and external challenges facing the organization, it is not the time to walk away.“Sometimes we could’ve done more, but we cannot let this dishearten us. If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail,” Baerbock said in her opening remarks.Following his speech, Trump met with Secretary-General António Guterres, telling the top U.N. official that the U.S. is behind the global body “100%” amid fears among members that he’s edging toward a full retreat.The White House says Trump will also meet on Tuesday with the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speechTrump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.Trump sharply criticized the statehood recognition push.“The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists,” Trump said. “This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities, including Oct. 7.”Trump also addressed Russia’s war in Ukraine.It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.Trump said a “very strong round of powerful tariffs” would “stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly.” He repeated his calls on Europe to “step it up” and stop buying Russian oil.Trump has Oslo dreamsDespite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the spurious claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.“Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Prize — but for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless wars,” Trump offered.He again highlighted his administration’s efforts to end conflicts, including between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.“It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” Trump said. “Sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them.”Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.___AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

    UNITED NATIONS —

    President Donald Trump returned to the United Nations on Tuesday to boast of his second-term foreign policy achievements and lash out at the world body as a feckless institution, while warning Europe it would be ruined if it doesn’t turn away from a “double-tailed monster” of ill-conceived migration and green energy policies.

    His roughly hour-long speech was both grievance-filled and self-congratulatory as he used the platform to praise himself and lament that some of his fellow world leaders’ countries were “going to hell.”

    The address was also just the latest reminder for U.S. allies and foes that the United States — after a four-year interim under the more internationalist President Joe Biden — has returned to the unapologetically “America First” posture under Trump.

    “What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump said. “The U.N. has such tremendous potential. I’ve always said it. It has such tremendous, tremendous potential. But it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential.”

    World leaders listened closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.

    After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.

    Trump escalated that criticism on Tuesday, saying the international body’s “empty words don’t solve wars.”

    Trump offered a weave of jarring juxtapositions in his address to the assembly.

    He trumpeted himself as a peacemaker and enumerated successes of his administration’s efforts in several hotspots around the globe. At the same, Trump heralded his decisions to order the U.S. military to carry out strikes on Iran and more recently against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela and argued that globalists are on the verge of destroying successful nations.

    The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.

    Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.

    The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

    Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.

    Warnings about ‘green scam’ and migration

    Trump touted his administration’s policies allowing for expanded drilling for oil and natural gas in the United States, and aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration, implicitly suggesting more countries should follow suit.

    He sharply warned that European nations that have more welcoming migration policies and commit to expensive energy projects aimed at reducing their carbon footprint were causing irreparable harm to their economies and cultures.

    “I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from the ‘green energy’ scam, your country is going to fail,” Trump said. “If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before that you have nothing in common with your country is going to fail.”

    Trump added, “I love the people of Europe, and I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration. This double-tailed monster destroys everything in its wake, and they cannot let that happen any longer.”

    The passage of the wide-ranging address elicited some groans and uncomfortable laughter from delegates.

    Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leaders

    Trump touted “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars. He peppered his speech with criticism of global institutions doing too little to end war and solve the world’s biggest problems.

    General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said that despite all the internal and external challenges facing the organization, it is not the time to walk away.

    “Sometimes we could’ve done more, but we cannot let this dishearten us. If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail,” Baerbock said in her opening remarks.

    Following his speech, Trump met with Secretary-General António Guterres, telling the top U.N. official that the U.S. is behind the global body “100%” amid fears among members that he’s edging toward a full retreat.

    The White House says Trump will also meet on Tuesday with the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

    He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.

    Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speech

    Trump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.

    France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.

    Trump sharply criticized the statehood recognition push.

    “The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists,” Trump said. “This would be a reward for these horrible atrocities, including Oct. 7.”

    Trump also addressed Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.

    European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.

    Trump said a “very strong round of powerful tariffs” would “stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly.” He repeated his calls on Europe to “step it up” and stop buying Russian oil.

    Trump has Oslo dreams

    Despite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the spurious claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.

    “Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Prize — but for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless wars,” Trump offered.

    He again highlighted his administration’s efforts to end conflicts, including between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.

    “It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them,” Trump said. “Sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them.”

    Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.

    ___

    AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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  • Trump to take aim at ‘globalist institutions,’ make case for his foreign policy record in UN speech

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    Watched by the world, President Donald Trump returns to the United Nations on Tuesday to deliver a wide-ranging address on his second-term foreign policy achievements and lament that “globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order,” according to the White House.Watch live video from the United Nations in the video player aboveWorld leaders will be listening closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.“There are great hopes for it, but it’s not being well run, to be honest,” Trump said of the U.N. last week.The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.“This is by far the most stressed the U.N. system has ever been in its 80 years,” said Anjali K. Dayal, a professor of international politics at Fordham University in New York.Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leadersWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars.“The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” Leavitt said.Following his speech, Trump will hold one-on-one meetings with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speechTrump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.Leavitt said Trump sees the push as “just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies.”Trump, for his part, in the lead-up to Tuesday’s address has tried to keep focus on getting agreement on a ceasefire that leads Hamas to releasing its remaining 48 hostages, including 20 still believed be alive.“I’d like to see a diplomatic solution,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening. “There’s a lot of anger and a lot of hatred, you know that, and there has been for a lot of years … but hopefully we’ll get something done.”Leaders in the room will also be eager to hear what Trump has to say about Russia’s war in Ukraine.It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.Trump has Oslo dreamsDespite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.He points to his administration’s efforts to end conflicts between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.Still, Trump’s Nobel ambitions could have impact on the tenor of his address, said Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.“His speech is going to be driven by how much he really believes he has a chance of getting a Nobel Peace Prize,” Montgomery said. “If he thinks that’s still something he can do, then I think he knows you don’t go into the U.N. and drop a grenade down the tank hatch and shut it, right?”___AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

    NEW YORK —

    Watched by the world, President Donald Trump returns to the United Nations on Tuesday to deliver a wide-ranging address on his second-term foreign policy achievements and lament that “globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order,” according to the White House.

    Watch live video from the United Nations in the video player above

    World leaders will be listening closely to his remarks at the U.N. General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish U.S. support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavor of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.

    After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. That was followed by his move to end U.S. participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of U.S. membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organizations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda.

    “There are great hopes for it, but it’s not being well run, to be honest,” Trump said of the U.N. last week.

    The U.S. president’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history. Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.

    Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.

    The latter strikes, including at least two fatal attacks on boats that originated from Venezuela, has raised speculation in Caracas that Trump is looking to set the stage for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

    Some U.S. lawmakers and human rights advocates say that Trump is effectively carrying out extrajudicial killings by using U.S. forces to lethally target alleged drug smugglers instead of interdicting the suspected vessels, seizing any drugs and prosecuting the suspects in U.S. courts.

    “This is by far the most stressed the U.N. system has ever been in its 80 years,” said Anjali K. Dayal, a professor of international politics at Fordham University in New York.

    Trump to hold one-on-one talks with world leaders

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars.

    “The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” Leavitt said.

    Following his speech, Trump will hold one-on-one meetings with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union. He will also hold a group meeting with officials from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

    He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 invited world leaders.

    Gaza and Ukraine cast shadow over Trump speech

    Trump has struggled to deliver on his 2024 campaign promises to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His response has been also relatively muted as some longtime American allies are using this year’s General Assembly to spotlight the growing international campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, a move that the U.S. and Israel vehemently oppose.

    France became the latest nation to recognize Palestinian statehood on Monday at the start of a high-profile meeting at the U.N. aimed at galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict. More nations are expected to follow.

    Leavitt said Trump sees the push as “just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies.”

    Trump, for his part, in the lead-up to Tuesday’s address has tried to keep focus on getting agreement on a ceasefire that leads Hamas to releasing its remaining 48 hostages, including 20 still believed be alive.

    “I’d like to see a diplomatic solution,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening. “There’s a lot of anger and a lot of hatred, you know that, and there has been for a lot of years … but hopefully we’ll get something done.”

    Leaders in the room will also be eager to hear what Trump has to say about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    It’s been more than a month since Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders. Following those meetings, Trump announced that he was arranging for direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy. But Putin hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine since the Alaska summit.

    European leaders as well as American lawmakers, including some key Republican allies of Trump, have urged the president to dial up stronger sanctions on Russia. Trump, meanwhile, has pressed Europe to stop buying Russian oil, the engine feeding Putin’s war machine.

    Trump has Oslo dreams

    Despite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.

    He points to his administration’s efforts to end conflicts between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.

    Although Trump helped mediate relations among many of these nations, experts say his impact isn’t as clear cut as he claims.

    Still, Trump’s Nobel ambitions could have impact on the tenor of his address, said Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.

    “His speech is going to be driven by how much he really believes he has a chance of getting a Nobel Peace Prize,” Montgomery said. “If he thinks that’s still something he can do, then I think he knows you don’t go into the U.N. and drop a grenade down the tank hatch and shut it, right?”

    ___

    AP journalists Tracy Brown and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

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