United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview at the United Nations headquarters, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024 [Pamela Smith/AP] United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview at the United Nations headquarters, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024 [Pamela Smith/AP] Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Guterres called President Bill Clinton from Lisbon on August 30 and September 8, 1999, to discuss the growing crisis in East Timor. The small Southeast Asian territory, which had endured a brutal Indonesian occupation since 1975, was again engulfed in violence after voters overwhelmingly chose independence in a referendum. Pro-Indonesian militias responded to the vote for independence by unleashing a so-called scorched-earth campaign, destroying infrastructure, displacing up to half a million people and killing thousands. The crisis resonated in Portugal, where linguistic, Catholic, and historical ties to its former colony helped fuel a solidarity movement. An estimated 10,000 demonstrators, dressed in white, formed human chains through Lisbon's city streets. Guterres had raised the issue before. At a 1996 summit in Bangkok, he met Indonesia's President Suharto and broached the politically sensitive topic of East Timor, offering to restore diplomatic relations (severed since the 1975 invasion) in exchange for the release of Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao. The proposal was met with an awkward silence. This time, Guterres was asking the United States to support a UN mission in East Timor, but Washington was reluctant to confront Indonesia. Guterres recalled in his 2022 biography, "Honest Broker", that he warned Clinton during the second call that Portugal could reconsider its Balkan deployments if the international community failed to intervene. Portugal's contribution to NATO was small but politically well-placed, with its troops serving in the alliance's prominent post-Cold War missions in Bosnia and Kosovo. Guterres offered Clinton a choice: risk a public falling-out with a founding NATO ally, or use Washington's influence to make Indonesia accept an international force in East Timor. The next day, amid growing international pressure, the White House stated that Indonesia "must" allow international assistance.

The 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) concluded on Monday with artificial intelligence (AI), the Israel-Palestine conflict and the US-Israel war on Iran dominating world leaders' addresses during the general debate. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in his final address before his term ends, warned that the future of the world would be shaped by four tests: AI, climate change, wars and inequality. That is why the UN Charter - and the work of the United Nations - matter more than ever," Guterres said. Speeches ranged from calls to reform the UN to appeals for upholding international law, as the global body has been undermined by the unilateral foreign policy pushed by United States President Donald Trump. Here are the biggest takeaways from this year's summit: The situation in Palestine was a key issue among members amid Israel's ongoing genocidal war on Gaza despite the so-called "ceasefire" and escalating settler pogroms in the occupied West Bank.

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Guterres said there needed to be'a recognition, especially by superpowers, that their power isn't so super. Guterres said there needed to be'a recognition, especially by superpowers, that their power isn't so super. Superpowers cannot solve world's problems, UN chief says in final general assembly address The world's fault lines have turned from cracks into canyons as superpowers show that they alone do not have the military, economic and technological power to guarantee security or solve the world's problems, the outgoing secretary general of the United Nations has said in his final address to the general assembly. In a speech laced with despair but also glimpses of defiant hope, António Guterres said that over the last decade, largely spanning his 10-year period in office, "wars erupted with devastating consequences and dragged on with despicable cruelty. He continued: "Geopolitical divides have deepened.

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On Wednesday, officials and diplomats sounded the alarm on A.I.'s ability to undermine the integrity of information and fabricate fake voice and video tapes. They also warned that it posed a threat to cybersecurity and would enable the rise of autonomous weapons. Still, some argued that, if used responsibly and with guardrails, A.I. potentially could also help foster peace and stability. Secretary General António Guterres, who for the past year has championed efforts to regulate A.I., said that the Council had a responsibility to ensure the military use of artificial intelligence complies with international law and the U.N. Charter. "From design to deployment to decommissioning, A.I. systems must always comply with international law; military uses must be clearly regulated," Mr. Guterres said, before ending his speech with a warning and a call to action.

Major tech firms should commit to fully powering data centers with renewable energy by 2030, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said. Big tech also must be responsible in its use of water for cooling, Guterres said Tuesday in New York City as he presented the U.N.'s new report on the energy transition, Seizing the Moment of Opportunity, together with the International Renewable Energy Agency. "AI can boost efficiency, innovation and resilience in energy systems, but it is also energy hungry," Guterres said in prepared remarks. "This is not sustainable -- unless we make it so."

The global switch to renewable energy has passed a "positive tipping point", and solar and wind power will become even cheaper and more widespread, according to two reports. Last year, 74 percent of the growth in electricity generated worldwide was from wind, solar and other green sources, according to a report compiled by multiple United Nations agencies called Seizing the Moment of Opportunity. It was published on Tuesday. It found that 92.5 percent of all new electricity capacity added to the grid worldwide in 2024 came from renewables. Meanwhile, sales of electric vehicles were up from 500,000 in 2015 to more than 17 million in 2024.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned a Russian drone and missile attack against Ukraine this week that has been described as the largest such assault in the three-year war. In a statement on Saturday, Guterres's spokesperson said the Russian strikes "disrupted the power supply to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, once again underlining the ongoing risks to nuclear safety". "The secretary-general is alarmed by this dangerous escalation and the growing number of civilian casualties," the statement read. Ukrainian officials said Moscow fired more than 500 drones and 11 missiles at the capital Kyiv overnight into Friday in an attack that killed one person, injured at least 23 others and damaged buildings across the city. The sounds of air raid sirens, kamikaze drones and booming detonations reverberated until dawn.

The CyberGuy Kurt Knutsson joins'Fox & Friends' to discuss the U.S.-Saudi investment summit and the debate over regulation as artificial intelligence continues to advance. Several nations met at the United Nations (U.N.) on Monday to revisit a topic that the international body has been discussing for over a decade: the lack of regulations on lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), often referred to as "killer robots." This latest round of talks comes as wars rage in Ukraine and Gaza. While the meeting was held behind closed doors, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres released a statement doubling down on his 2026 deadline for a legally binding solution to threats posed by LAWS. "Machines that have the power and discretion to take human lives without human control are politically unacceptable, morally repugnant and should be banned by international law," Guterres said in a statement.