Donald Trump has criticised other countries' migration and climate policies, during a scathing speech to the United Nations that also took aim at the body itself.
He told the UN's General Assembly in New York it was time to end the "failed experiment of open borders" and claimed UN predictions over climate change were wrong, prompting gasps from the assembly floor.
In a wide-ranging speech stretching to almost an hour, Trump also repeated claims to have stopped "seven wars" since returning to the White House, and accused the UN of failing to help him do so.
He queried the UN's purpose and said it was "not living up to its potential".
Though the reaction from delegates was largely muted, some were visibly squirming in their seats as the US president addressed the UN for the first time since he began his second term.
Several could be seen shaking their heads as he denied climate change, calling it the "greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world", and refuted the use of renewable energy.
"The entire globalist concept, asking successful industrialised nations to inflict main on themselves and radically disrupt their entire societies must be rejected completely and totally," he told his audience.
The overwhelming majority of scientists and experts agree that climate change is caused by humans, and is real.
Trump also levelled criticism at UN assistance for asylum seekers, saying the organisation was "funding an assault on western countries" by offering cash support.
He singled out Europe, saying it was in "serious trouble" over migration.
"We have a big heart for places that are struggling – we have to solve the problem in their countries," he said.
Trump falsely claimed that London wanted to move to follow Sharia law - an Islamic legal system - and singled out the city's mayor Sadiq Khan for criticism.
A spokesperson for Khan told the BBC: "We are not going to dignify his appalling and bigoted comments with a response."
Trump's speech also referenced the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. He said a ceasefire was needed in Gaza but criticised the move from some countries to recognise a Palestinian state, saying it "would be a reward" for Hamas.
Meanwhile he said it was "embarrassing" that some European nations were buying oil and gas from Russia even as they oppose its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The war was also "making Russia look bad", he said.
After the address, Trump said he believed the speech had been "very well received" in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He had a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres after the speech - the first of his second term - during which he said the US was "behind the United Nations 100%" even though he "may disagree with it sometimes".
Guterres told Trump he believed there were "many areas where we can cooperate in a positive way, and I would think that the most important is peace".
Later, Trump is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, who will be hoping to hear firm commitments from Trump on next steps by the US to support Kyiv.
He is also set to meet officials from several Middle Eastern countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, before hosting a reception for more than 100 world leaders on Tuesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to members of a bipartisan delegation of American legislators at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on September 15, 2025. File Photo: AFP/Debbie Hill
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the creation of a Palestinian state would endanger Israel's survival, pledging to oppose such efforts at the United Nations next week.
"We will also need to fight, both at the UN and in all other arenas, against the false propaganda directed at us and against calls for a Palestinian state, which would endanger our existence and serve as absurd reward for terrorism," Netanyahu told his cabinet.
"The international community will hear from us on this matter in the coming days."
The UK’s recognition of Palestinian statehood comes weeks after the government banned a pro-Palestinian activist group.
Palestine Action is an organization that aims to disrupt the operations of weapons manufacturers connected to the Israeli government. It was outlawed by the British government in June following a security breach at the UK’s largest airbase.
It was founded by Huda Ammori and climate activist Richard Barnard in 2020, when the group took its first action to shut down the UK operations of Elbit Systems – Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer – and stated its commitment to “ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime.”
Since it was founded, Palestine Action has also, among other actions, occupied, blockaded, spray painted and disrupted the Israeli-French drone company UAV Tactical Systems and the global arms giant Leonardo.
However, it was the group’s late June 2025 action – when activists broke into Britain’s largest airbase, RAF Brize Norton, and vandalized two Airbus Voyager refueling planes with paint and crowbars – that spurred serious government action.
Days later, then-UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper – who was made foreign secretary in a recent cabinet reshuffle – designated Palestine Action as a terror group, placing it on equal footing with organizations such as Hamas, al Qaeda and ISIS – sparking condemnation from United Nations experts, human rights groups, and politicians.
Hundreds have been arrested trying to protest the activist group’s ban.
Almost 900 demonstrators were arrested in London earlier this month, marking the largest mass arrest in the English capital in decades.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a press conference in Berlin on August 26.
Annegret Hilse/Reuters
Canada has announced that it recognizes the State of Palestine, in a move expected to be mirrored by the United Kingdom later today, and France and others at the UN General Assembly this week.
“Canada recognises the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the state of Palestine and the State of Israel,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a post on X.
Carney had said in July that his country intended to recognize the State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly. At the time the plan drew condemnation from Israeli officials, who painted the decision as a “reward to Hamas.”
“The Palestinian Authority has renounced violence, has recognized Israel and is committed to the two-state solution,” a senior Canadian government official told CNN shortly before Sunday’s announcement. “We are recognizing the State of Palestine in order to empower those who seek peaceful coexistence and marginalize Hamas.”
Ahead of Carney’s statement, senior Canadian officials pushed back on Israel’s negative reaction to the decision, telling CNN that recognizing Palestine is “not being done to confront or punish Israel.”
“Our sincere communication efforts are to explain this and do everything in our power to prevent the voices that are trying to make this a confrontational gesture from gaining the day,” one senior Canadian official said.
Canadian officials added that they believe recognition keeps a two-state solution in play despite Israel’s open opposition to the prospect of a Palestinian state.
Carney’s announcement in July also provoked criticism from US President Donald Trump, who promptly suggested that the move would hurt Canada in any trade talks with the United States.
• The UK is set to recognize a Palestinian state later today after Israel failed to meet conditions set out by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, including agreeing to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
• The announcement will come despite pressure from US politicians and the families of hostages held by Hamas. Israel says recognizing a Palestinian state is tantamount to rewarding terror.
• Canada and France also plan to recognize a Palestinian state at next week’s UN General Assembly as international pressure builds on Israel over the ongoing war and starvation crisis in Gaza.
• Elsewhere today on the ground, dozens of people have been reported killed as the Israeli military presses on with operations in the Gaza City area.
As British Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks set to recognize a Palestinian state later today, Brits in London appeared split over the move.
Peter, a 70-year-old retired police officer, said the recognition is “rewarding Hamas.”
Michael Angus, a 55-year-old charity director, disagreed. “I think it’s acknowledging that there’s a people here who are suffering the most awful genocide. And actually, it’s time for the rest of the world to say enough is enough and give them a place to call home,” he said.
This marks the first time a UN body has reached such a conclusion, and is “the strongest and most authoritative UN finding to date”, its authors have said.
In the wake of the report, Keir Starmer is now facing calls to “do all he can” to make Donald Trump act over Gaza when the President arrives in the UK later.
The Israeli foreign ministry dismissed the publication as an “antisemitic ... distorted and false report”, adding that Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, which sparked this conflict, was itself “attempted genocide”.
In its 72-page report, the UN Commission found that since October 2023 Israel has committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention.
The commission also concluded that Israeli president Isaac Herzog, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant have incited the commission of genocide.
It warned that UN member states could face legal consequences if they fail to act.
Starving Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, wait to receive food (AFP/Getty)
“It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention,” said Navi Pillay, the chair of the commission and a South African jurist who served as the UN high commissioner for human rights until 2014.
“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons, who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza,” Pillay added.
“The commission finds that the Israeli authorities had no intention to change their course of action. On the contrary, Israeli authorities have persisted and continued with their genocidal campaign in Gaza for almost two years.”
She urged Israel to end the genocide in Gaza and comply fully with the orders for provisional measures of the International Court of Justice and for UN members state to also act.
”The ongoing genocide is a moral outright and legal emergency member states must act now,” she said at a press conference after the release of the investigation. “There is no need to wait for the ICJ to declare it a genocide, all states are obligated to use whatever means are in its power to prevent the commission of genocide”
Palestinian children go through rubbish as they look for plastic to burn in Gaza City (AP)
The Commission said its findings are based on some 16,000 pieces of evidential material pointing to systematic and unprecedented killings, the destruction of homes and cultural sites, deliberate starvation, denial and destruction of the healthcare system, sexual and gender-based violence, and the direct targeting of children.
In response to Tuesday’s report, the Israeli foreign ministry called for the commission to be abolished, accused the authors of anti-semitism and claimed the report relied on Hamas falsehoods, “laundered and repeated by others”.
Chris Sidoti, an Australian human lawyer who is also in the Commission sharply dismissed the criticisms at a press conference on Tuesday saying “the Israeli responses are becoming so boring” that it is almost as if “they are producing the responses by Chat GPT”.
In August, Mr Netanyahu rejected the accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. At a meeting with Israeli reporters, he was reported as saying: “If we had wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon.”
Genocide was codified in a 1948 convention drawn up after the horrors of the Holocaust. It defines genocide as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
Displaced Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza on foot and in vehicles on Monday (AP)
It outlines five genocidal acts as: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The UN Commission’s report concludes that since October 2023, Israel has committed four of the five.
They cite the massive bombardment of Gaza that has killed over 64,000 people according to Palestinian health authorities, the forced displacement of most of the two million-strong population, the destruction of the healthcare system, as well as the blocking of essential aid, food, water, and electricity that has led to famine.
The aftermath of an Israeli air raid in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, in February (AP)
The report is the first time a UN body addresses the issue of intention to prevent births which is part of the Genocide Convention, citing the December 2023 bombing of the Al Basma IVF Centre, Gaza’s largest fertility clinic. The attack reportedly destroyed 4,000 embryos, as well as 1,000 sperm samples and unfertilised eggs.
Many western countries, including the UK – an arms supplier to Israel – have said that only a court can rule on whether genocide has been committed. A case against Israel is currently before the UN’s highest court, the International Court of Justice.
David Lammy, now deputy prime minister, set this out the UK government’s position in a 1 September letter to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, where he stated that the government “has carefully considered the risk of genocide, including when permitting exports to the F-35 [fighter jet] global programme”.
He acknowledged that the high civilian casualties, particularly among women and children, and the extensive destruction in Gaza are “utterly appalling”, and said Israel must do much more to prevent and alleviate the suffering caused by the conflict. However, he stopped short of declaring genocide.
“As per the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide occurs only where there is specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
David Lammy has called the high civilian casualties ‘utterly appalling’, but has stopped short of declaring genocide (PA Wire)
“The government has not concluded that Israel is acting with that intent,” he wrote, adding that the UK is waiting for the findings from the ICJ.
The Commission’s chair Pillay said at the Tuesday press conference waiting for the ICJ to rule - which could take as long as a decade - was too late.
“The Genocide Convention imposes an obligation on states to prevent and prevent genocide. How will they do that if we all sit and wait for some court - if ever - to determine genocide has occurred?” she added.
The Independent also contacted the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to ask whether the new UN Commission report might change the UK’s position, but has yet to receive a response.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said: "The horrors in Gaza must stop. And when the one man with the power to make it stop – Donald Trump – arrives in the UK today, Keir Starmer must do all he can to make the President act."
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell told the Independent: “In the light of this report what more evidence does the government need to introduce comprehensive sanctions on Israel, end all arms sales and expel the Israeli ambassador the mouthpiece of the regime committing these war crimes.”
The UN body urges Israel to end the commission of genocide and implement a complete permanent ceasefire in Gaza, as well as allowing unfettered access of aid to Gaza.
It urged foreign states to employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza, and to cease the transfer of arms to Israel.
