Israeli ambassador protests as Iranian president speaks - as it happened

That’s all for our live coverage today, thanks for following along. Some key links and highlights from the day:

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the UN general assembly that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine and urged world leaders to attend a peace summit to help stop the invasion and future wars of aggression.

• Joe Biden accused Russia of “shredding longstanding arms control agreements” but pledged that the US would “lead by example” in limiting the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

• Prince William stressed the need for optimism in the face of the climate crisis during a visit to New York City.

• Turkey’s Erdoğan says the UN’s security council has ceased to be a guarantor of world security, instead becoming “a battleground for the political strategies” of its five permanent members.

• The world is becoming “unhinged” as geopolitical tensions rise and the world seems incapable of coming together to respond to mounting global challenges, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said.

• On the climate crisis, Guterres said: “Every continent, every region and every country is feeling the heat. But I’m not sure at all leaders are feeling that heat.”

• As the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, began addressing the UN general assembly, Israel’s ambassador to the UN stood and held a sign that read, “Iranian women deserve freedom now!”

19 Sept 202318.18 EDT

Noa Yachot

Roughly 150 people protested on Tuesday evening against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories outside Manhattan’s Loews Regency Hotel, where the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is staying ahead of his Friday speech at the UN general assembly.

The demonstration was organized by the anti-occupation bloc of Israel’s pro-democracy protest movement. The faction aims to push the broader movement to incorporate Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians into its agenda, which is largely focused on the Netanyahu government’s judicial reforms.

A larger protest is planned for outside the UN on Friday morning, when Netanyahu will be speaking.

In New York, the UK’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, was asked about the “UK’s continued support for Saudi Arabia” and the prime minister “rolling out the red carpet” for Mohammed bin Salman, with the questioner noting that it had been five years since the the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and dissident.

Cleverly said:

Saudi Arabia has been a bulwark against extremism and terrorism. And that’s not to suggest we always agree with the Saudi positions on things, and because we have a kind of mature and well-established relationship with Saudi when we have disagreements, we raise those directly.

The Guardian has just published a major new report on carbon offsetting, finding that the vast majority of the environmental projects most frequently used to offset greenhouse gas emissions appear to have fundamental failings suggesting they cannot be relied upon to cut planet-heating emissions:

The investigation from senior Guardian US reporter Nina Lakhani and Corporate Accountability, a non-profit, transnational corporate watchdog, found:

• A total of 39 of the top 50 emission offset projects, or 78% of them, were categorised as likely junk or worthless due to one or more fundamental failing that undermines its promised emission cuts.

• Eight others (16%) look problematic, with evidence suggesting they may have at least one fundamental failing and are potentially junk, according to the classification system applied.

• Overall, $1.16bn (£937m) of carbon credits have been traded so far from the projects classified by the investigation as likely junk or worthless; a further $400m of credits bought and sold were potentially junk.

Read the full investigation here:

As the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, began addressing the UN general assembly, Israel’s ambassador to the UN stood and held a sign that read, “Iranian women deserve freedom now!”

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The sign held by Gilad Erdan included an image of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin who died in custody one year ago after she was arrested for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code for women.

In his UN remarks, Raisi addressed the protests in Iran, calling reports about them “distorted” and “fake”, and claiming they were plots by western intelligence officials, the New York Times reported. He also said that Islamic teachings say men and women are “equal in the eyes of the creator” and spoke of

The Iranian regime has imposed an extraordinary crackdown on dissent and protests since Amini’s death.

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is addressing his recent meetings with senior Chinese government members, which he has previously defended, saying it would be a mistake to try to isolate China.

Speaking in New York about his trip, which was the first visit to Beijing in five years by a UK foreign secretary, he said:

If people think that looking at a Chinese government minister in the eye and explaining in clear and unambiguous terms why we deeply object to their persecution of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, their security laws and implementation of them in Hong Kong, their aggressive posture across the Taiwan strait, their sanctioning of British parliamentarians – face to face in the room, if that’s a softening of our posture, then that’s a surprise to me, because we are absolutely clear that one of the reasons why we engage is so that we can have those conversations directly without any ambiguity.”

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is now speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, about the war in Ukraine:

Putin believed that he could outlast Ukraine and outlast Ukraine’s friends around the world. He was wrong. Because time is not on Russia’s side … Cracks are appearing in the Russian system, and the longer this conflict persists, the more those cracks will work their way through the system. Putin is scared of a mass mobilization. His circle of friends, both within Russia and internationally, is shrinking.

We need to send the message loud and clear that we have the resolve, we have the strategic patience, that we will do the right thing until this is resolved, because if we do not, then we will invite further aggression … Ukraine will not give up, the UK will not abandon them … the UK’s position is resolute.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has met with Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in their first in-person meeting since the start of the war. When a reporter asked Zelenskiy to comment on Israel’s position, he responded, “We’ll see after our meeting,” the New York Times reported.

Netanyahu is also set to meet with Joe Biden on Wednesday, nine months after he returned to office. The two have had a strained relationship due to the judicial overhaul pushed by the prime minister and his hardline coalition, which has prompted the largest protest movement in Israel’s history.

19 Sept 202315.45 EDT

Julian Borger

Volodymyr Zelenskiy also accused Russia of weaponising food and energy, noting “there are many conventions that restrict weapons but there are no real restrictions on weaponisation.”

He explained how Ukraine and its partners were trying to work around the Russian blockade of Black Sea ports, but he had bitter criticism for Ukraine’s neighbours who have periodically blocked the export of Ukrainian produce westwards for fear it would compete with domestic output and lower prices.

He said “some of our friends in Europe”, whose expressions of solidarity were “political theatre” were, by restricting imports from Ukraine, “helping set the stage for a Moscow actor”.

He said that Russia, having long used oil and gas as a weapon was now weaponising nuclear energy, pointing to the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which he said Moscow had turned into a potential “dirty bomb”.

The goal of the Russian military campaign, the president said, was to turn Ukraine, its people, land and resources “into a weapon against you, against the international rules based order”. If the Russians succeeded, he warned, “many seats in the general assembly hall may become empty”.

He said the Ukrainian peace blueprint, which involves Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory, accountability for war crimes and restitution for damages, represented “a real chance to end aggression on the terms of the nation which was attacked.” Zelenskiy added:

While Russia is pushing the world to a final war, Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after this Russian aggression, no one in the world will dare to attack any nation.

19 Sept 202315.39 EDT

Julian Borger

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, dressed in an olive green long sleeved polo shirt, used the word genocide to refer to the abduction of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children by Russian occupation authorities, who the Ukrainian president said were being brainwashed into hating their homeland.

“Never before has mass kidnapping and deportation become a part of the government policy. Not until now,” Zelenskiy said, saying that the Ukrainian government knew of the names of tens of thousands of abducted children and had “evidence of hundreds of thousands of others kidnapped by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine and later deported.”

The international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and a top aide for their involvement in ordering the child deportations.

“We are trying to get the children back home, but time goes by and what will happen to them? Those children in Russia are taught to hate Ukraine and all ties with their families are broken. And this is clearly a genocide,” Zelenskiy said, adding:

When hatred is weaponized against one nation, it never stops there.

The speech was watched from the Russian seats in the chamber by Moscow’s deputy permanent representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy, who wrote in a notebook from time to time and occasionally grinned.

19 Sept 202315.26 EDT

Zelenskiy calls on world leaders to attend peace summit to stop future wars

Julian Borger

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told the UN general assembly that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine and urged world leaders to attend a peace summit to help stop the invasion and future wars of aggression.

Appearing in the assembly chamber in New York for the first time in person, the Ukrainian president used the opportunity to try to galvanise support for his country’s plight among many countries, especially in the Global South, many of whom have sought to sit on the fence in the face of the full-scale Russian invasion.

Zelenskiy said he would give further details of his peace plan, based on national sovereignty and territorial integrity, at a special session of the security council on Wednesday. He said all leaders “who do not tolerate any aggression” would be invited to a peace summit. He did not say when or where the meeting would be held, but he has previously expressed the hope it would happen by autumn this year.

19 Sept 202315.17 EDT

Prince William: 'We've got to retain optimism' to help drive change

Oliver Milman

Prince William has stressed the need for optimism in the face of the climate crisis during a visit to New York City.

The heir to the British throne is in the US to unveil 15 finalists for the Earthshot Prize, an initiative he started in 2020 to reward people who have come up with new ways to address environmental problems.

“I think we’ve got to retain optimism because it’s the bigger driver of change, of innovation,” said the Prince of Wales.

We want to believe there is hope, that there are people doing incredible things.

Prince William said he had taken a morning jog around Central Park on Tuesday prior to the gathering in the salubrious surroundings of the nearby Plaza hotel. A large crowd of curious New Yorkers and tourists had gathered outside the hotel in the hope of catching a glimpse of him.

The Earthshot Prize’s message of upbeat breakthroughs, such as new substitutes for plastic and schemes to preserve forests and small-scale agriculture, was somewhat tempered by Michael Bloomberg, whose eponymous organization hosted the event.

“You just watch the television and there’s another disaster somewhere in the world,” said Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and presidential candidate.

We have to stop and find some way to make the future safer for our kids.

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The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, met with US president Joe Biden today during the UN general assembly, according to a White House statement.

The pair “reaffirmed the strong partnership” between the UN and the US, the statement reads.

They discussed pressing global challenges, including the need to tackle rising poverty and inequality and mobilize additional resources for sustainable development, combat climate change, and uphold the UN’s foundational principles – particularly in the face of Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will also meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in New York on Wednesday, the office of the Brazilian presidency said on Monday.

Lula has advocated the creation of a group of nations to mediate an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, but in May he stated that both Moscow and Kyiv were to blame for the conflict, angering the US and European states who back Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion.

Zelenskiy is expected to seek to convince Lula that the war in Ukraine is not an obstacle to progress for the world’s poor, and that Ukraine’s fate is a legitimate matter for the world, not just Europe.

Last month, the Brazilian leftist leader told reporters neither Zelenskiy nor Russian President Vladimir Putin were ready for peace.

Lula and Zelenskiy have never met, though they held a video call in March days after Brazil voted for a UN resolution that called for peace and demanded Moscow withdraw its troops.

The Ukrainian government asked for the meeting between Zelenskiy and Lula after the two men did not meet at the G7 summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima earlier this year.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Staten Island university hospital in New York on Monday ahead of his UN general assembly address today.

The Ukrainian president travelled straight to the hospital from the airport after landing in New York, and awarded medals to wounded Ukrainian soldiers and some hospital staff.

“Thank you for continuing to fight for our country and defend its borders. I also thank the doctors and all those who have been supporting Ukrainian soldiers since the beginning of the full-scale war,” he said, according to a statement from the presidential office.

We will be waiting for all of you. We need you – every warrior of Ukraine – to defeat the enemy. Thank you for your service! Everyone is proud of you! I wish you recovery, victory and return home!

Zelenskiy will also attend a UN security council meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday, but was unclear on whether he would remain seated at the 15-member body’s horseshoe-shaped table if Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, speaks.

Asked whether he’d stay in the room to listen, Zelenskiy said:

I don’t know how it will be, really.

Zelenskiy says he presented the outlines of a Ukrainian peace formula during his video address at last year’s UN general assembly.

He says he plans to present the details at tomorrow’s UN security council, and that more than 140 states and international organisations have either fully or partly supported the formula.

The Ukrainian peace formula is becoming global. It’s poised to offer solutions and steps that will solve all forms of weaponisation that Russia used against Ukraine and other countries.

Zelenskiy says the world has witnessed Russia using energy as a weapon. “Now this threat is even greater,” he says.

Russia is weaponising nuclear energy. Not only it is spreading its unreliable nuclear power plant construction technologies, but it is also turning other countries power plants into real dirty bombs.

He says there is no accountability for the “treacherous” actions by Russia, citing the example of the mass abduction of Ukrainian children.

We know the names of tens of thousands of children and have evidence on hundreds of thousands of others kidnapped by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine and later deported.

The international criminal court issued arrest warrants for these crimes and we are trying to get children back home. Fine. Time goes by what will happen with them?

Zelenskiy warns that those children will be taught to hate Ukraine and all ties with their families will be broken. He adds:

This is clearly a genocide.