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U.N. meets amid state of 'permanent' emergency

U.N. leaders summoned heads of state and government to the General Assembly's annual high-level meeting with unmasked alarm and consternation.

A woman points to flooded areas of Bangladesh's Gaibandha district in August 2020
A woman points to flooded areas of Bangladesh's Gaibandha district in August 2020 (AN/U.S. Embassy Dhaka)

United Nations leaders summoned heads of state and government officials to the General Assembly's annual high-level meeting with unmasked alarm and consternation over the war in Ukraine, widespread hunger, climate change and economic woes, saying hope remains but unity is desperately needed to overcome a world of dysfunction and paralysis.

“We gather today at the most consequential moment of the last four decades," the 77th General Assembly's president, Csaba Kőrösi, said after gaveling the meeting open on Tuesday. "We live, it seems, in a permanent state of humanitarian emergency. The world needs solutions through solidarity, sustainability and science.”

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