World Leaders Gather at the U.N.

Kusha Navadar (0:10)

It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kusha Navadar filling in for Brian today. First, we hope everyone observing Yom Kippur has a meaningful day and fast. Coming up on today's show, we'll talk about New York State's plan to eliminate the regents exam as a requirement for a diploma. Some teachers and administrators say what will replace the tests is unclear, and people are also worried about this as lowering standards and expectations for students.

Chalkbeat New York reporter Michael Elson Rooney will be my guest on this. Plus, it's climate week here in New York City, which every year coincides with the UN General Assembly. My guest to talk about this will be Amy Westervelt. She is an investigative journalist and hosts the podcast Drilled. We'll talk about her expectations for the week and some of her recent work that exposes how fossil fuel companies have funded climate research at top universities.

We'll wrap today's show with, I think, a fun call-in for anyone who remembers learning to drive or maybe is currently teaching a teenager or a young adult how to drive. We're talking about this because, guess what, a new study came out that found New York and New Jersey were some of the safest states for teenage drivers. Now, since I grew up in New York as a teen driver, my first thought reading the study was like, yeah, obviously. But what's the reason? We'll take your calls on this at the end of the show.

But first, today is the first gridlock alert day relating to the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations. So, beware, everyone out in the road. President Trump is in town today, meeting with Mayor Mamdani at Gracie Mansion and others, and speaking at the UN tomorrow. And speeches by world leaders and protests all continue this week. It's also Climate Week, which we mentioned, which we'll have more on that later in the show. But to talk about what to watch at the UN and its role at this time of realignment of the world order, we're joined by journalist Mark Leon Goldberg, who writes the sub stack and hosts the podcast Global Dispatches and also co-hosts its UN specific podcast, To Save Us From Hell. Welcome back to the show, Mark.

Mark Leon Goldberg (2:29)

Hey, thanks for having me.

Kusha Navadar (2:30)

Totally. So I know this is a busy week for you. We appreciate you coming on. But first, can you tell us a little bit about the title of your UN podcast, To Save Us From Hell? Where did that come from?

Mark Leon Goldberg (2:42)

Sure. So it's drawn from a quote from the second UN Secretary General, Doug Hammershould, who said famously that the United Nations was not created to deliver us to heaven, but to save us from hell.

Kusha Navadar (2:55)

I also want to ask about how to refer to what's going on at the UN this week. New Yorkers know about the traffic problems on the East Side, especially for what's called UNGA, which stands for the UN General Assembly. And all the speeches by heads of state that start tomorrow are called the General Debate. That's a lot of generalities, but is that all right?

Mark Leon Goldberg (3:16)

Yeah, that's a good way to think of it. UNGA is the entire week of meetings at the United Nations, also elsewhere in New York. But the General Debate is the parade of presidents and prime ministers who speak from the General Assembly dais.

Kusha Navadar (3:31)

So the General Debate kicks off tomorrow with an opening speech by the UN Secretary General. Do you think he will tackle the issues like the Iran War or the disarray in the post-World War II order directly, or will the speech be more of a welcome? What's the vibe generally with these kinds of speeches?

Mark Leon Goldberg (3:54)

So the vibe with the current Secretary General, António Guterres, is very much not a generalized welcome, but a reflection of the dire state of the world as he sees it. He is like a glass half empty kind of guy when it comes to assessing the role of multilateralism in the world today and how so many world leaders are sort of removing themselves from their obligations under international law, violating international law, runaway climate change. He kind of tells it as it is. Plus, this is going to be his last speech at the United Nations. His term expires at the end of the year. So honestly, he has nothing left to lose. I would expect a very direct and frankly very harsh assessment of the state of the world today.