A most violent year

The UN Charter’s call for people to “live together in peace” has rarely looked shakier. [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Welcome to Balance of Power, bringing you the latest in global politics. If you haven’t yet, sign up [here](. The United Nations General Assembly’s annual meeting in New York is often mocked as a farce for the endless speeches and the traffic snarling the city. This year’s gathering feels more like tragedy. As world leaders meet for the session’s third day today, the US, France and Arab nations are racing to negotiate a [three-week halt]( to fighting that has seen Israeli air-strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon kill at least 600 people and threatens to trigger a full-blown war. An Israeli air strike on Lebanon yesterday. Photographer: Rabih Daher/AFP/Getty Images President Vladimir Putin of Russia, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, said Moscow will consider [responding with nuclear weapons]( if attacked by the type of Western long-range high-precision arms that Ukraine is seeking to use to halt his invasion. In Sudan, conflict fueled by Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates has [killed tens of thousands of people]( and displaced 10 million. The violence and chaos engulfing the globe put questions around the UN mandate — “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” — in stark relief. Antonio Guterres is the first to admit that the secretary-general of the UN has no power, just a voice. It’s one he uses time and time again like a modern-day Cassandra to lament that the world is currently experiencing the most conflicts since the organization was founded in 1945. The past three years were the most violent in three decades, according to one think tank. The UN has come under attack, too, with more than 200 staff killed in an Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza that has killed more than 41,000 people. “We are edging towards the unimaginable — a powder keg that risks engulfing the world,” Guterres said. At an election rally yesterday, US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accused President Joe Biden of failing to do enough to stop an Iranian plot to assassinate him. He said if he were in the White House he would threaten to blow the country “to smithereens.” The UN Charter’s call for people to “practice tolerance and live together in peace” has rarely looked more forlorn.— [Augusta Saraiva]( Guterres speaks during the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg Global Must Reads President Xi Jinping and China’s top leaders signaled a growing urgency to [arrest the slowdown]( in the world’s second-biggest economy by calling for sufficient fiscal spending, measures to stabilize the beleaguered property sector and “forceful” interest-rate cuts. The Communist Party Politburo meeting comes two days after the People’s Bank of China unleashed the nation’s most daring policy package in decades. The US announced a new $375 million weapons package for Kyiv, coinciding with a visit by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that’s been [overshadowed by Trump’s refusal]( to meet him and his criticism of the Ukrainian leader for not making a deal to end Russia’s invasion. Trump accused Zelenskiy of casting “little nasty aspersions” about him in some of the [harshest public language]( he’s used about the conflict. US Vice President Kamala Harris vowed to make capitalism work better for both corporate executives and their employees as she outlined her vision of an “opportunity economy” that funds new industry investments and [builds the middle class](. The Democratic presidential nominee also called for tax benefits for families and subsidies for childcare. WATCH: Harris vowed to be an ally to both corporate executives and the employees who work for them during an economic address in Pittsburgh. Source: Bloomberg When Anwar Ibrahim became Malaysia’s prime minister, he faced a choice: target political opponents who oppressed him for years or usher in his long-promised era of democratic reforms. Roughly two years into his term, it’s increasingly looking like [he’s opted for revenge]( and, his critics say, is using the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to probe his adversaries. Senior aides to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and lawmakers are urging him to get a grip [after a shaky start]( to his premiership. At his Labour Party’s annual conference, Starmer sought to reassure members about his “calm, determined” leadership, while acknowledging in a speech yesterday the early setbacks, which include a controversy over donations, feuding staff and a backlash over his decision to cut winter support for pensioners. Biden celebrated “a new era of relations” with Vietnam as he met with Communist Party General Secretary To Lam amid US efforts to [counter Chinese economic]( and security influence across Asia. Tunisian presidential hopeful Ayachi Zammel, one of two men squaring off against President Kais Saied in Oct. 6 elections, [was given another jail term]( on charges of falsifying records. Sri Lanka’s new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, pledged to bring relief to citizens still burdened by the remnants of the [country’s worst economic crisis](. Now he must get lenders such as the International Monetary Fund to play along. Three US allies — Japan, New Zealand and Australia — sent warships through the Taiwan Strait [in a rare defiance of China]( in those waters, the same day Beijing fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean in 44 years. Washington Dispatch Senators and congressional representatives can turn their full attention to the November elections today [after approving]( a temporary measure that averted a US government shutdown — at least until Dec. 20. House Speaker Mike Johnson relied on Democratic votes to help his narrow Republican majority get the bill approved. The opposition came solely from his own party. Johnson initially had proposed a six-month funding extension, tied to new requirements to prove citizenship before registering to vote in federal elections, a plan favored by Trump. But the speaker couldn’t attract enough Republican support for the measure, and it would’ve gone nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Johnson called a shutdown this close to an election “political malpractice.” Yet when lawmakers return in November, they’ll confront a new deadline days before Christmas and about a month before a new president takes office. One thing to watch today: Biden and Harris are due to meet with Zelenskiy at the White House. [Sign up for the Washington Edition newsletter]( for more from the US capital and watch Balance of Power at 1 and 5 p.m. ET weekdays on Bloomberg Television. Chart of the Day America’s struggle to curb emissions from natural gas [threatens to undermine]( the US goal of having 100% carbon-free power generation by 2035, according to BloombergNEF. US energy-related emissions peaked in 2007 and have since fallen at an average rate of 1.8% per year. But BNEF predicts that the annual pace of decarbonization will slow to 1.6% from now until 2050 in its base-case scenario — meaning only 40% of today’s emissions are cut by mid-century. And Finally In the southwestern Amazon, [a fight is underway]( to protect ancient archaeological finds from Brazil’s unstoppable $523 billion agribusiness industry. At least nine of the area’s historic geometric earth carvings — sites known as geoglyphs which can span as many as 1,260 feet (385 meters) — have been plowed over in the past few years. This is erasing evidence of a civilization that took off around the time of Christ and flourished for some 1,000 years, about as long as ancient Greece. WATCH: A fight is underway to protect historic geometric earth carvings known as geoglyphs. 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