in the major powers these are going to be achievement of which member states can be brought and which we must all strive to preserve. the un's most powerful branch the security council though face heavy criticism its often power lies by vetoes and disagreements in a clear snob u.s. president donald trump did not show up or even record a video message instead the host country sent its acting deputy representative of the united nations has for too long been resistant to meaningful reform too often lucky in transparency and too vulnerable to the agenda of autocratic regimes and dictator so in a recorded message german chancellor angela merkel called for further multilateralism time for even an expansion of members to the security council to stay relevant if i'm not so in the united nations can only be as effective as its members only knighted the security council is all too often deadlocked when clear divisions are

required before we need reforms the u.n. must continue to develop in order to muster the global challenges of the 21st century. as the un faces questions whether it's still fit for purpose many feel it's the right time to assess its strengths and shortcomings. let's talk about those strengths and shortcomings we have our chief international editor richard walker with us here in the studio richard and we'll be following the u.n. general assembly we're expecting president trying to speak within the hour we'll be listening to that live but just hearing what we just saw there in that report where does the u.n. stand now 75 years then yeah well it's a mixed picture and i suppose as you would expect for any institution after such a long time. but i mean the overall picture and world affairs is obviously looking pretty battered at the moment and i think that applies to the u.n. especially. obviously the purpose of the u.n.

is a vehicle for international corporation is buzzword of multilateral is what does that mean it means it's a place where countries go and they try to work together to achieve a common good so not each country working for its own but to agree there are certain things that are common goods and we try to work towards those and that very idea the whole idea of doing that is being challenged incredibly strongly at the moment by this wave of right wing populism wave of nationalism essentially of various different stripes but it has kind of in common this idea that so well expressed by donald trump of kind of america 1st my country 1st is that compatible with the united nations for a movie scene an incredible kind of clash between the trump ideal and the united nations joining the trump presidency with him pulling out of the paris climate of course you know the deal to tackle climate change that was negotiated as part of the u.n.

system. that is kind of the signal moment that sort of showed this clash where he said well no america 1st matters more working with other countries on trying to tackle climate change doesn't matter so much so there's that on one side and many other things on the kind of negative side of the challenges facing the u.s. on the other side you have what we just saw the secretary general the terrorist say and. clip. for the longest time ever that has not been a clash between major powers and of course i think that can be an achievement that is at least partly down to the u.n. not only partly and i think almost everyone would agree that if the un didn't exist we would miss it we would want to invent it so so i think. it is a moment where there is call for reform for many sides i'm sure we'll talk about that we're going to hear that it's speeches as well. but. but yeah i think the overall picture mixed but it's slightly bassett shape at the moment where you mention one of the leaders who really has presented

a challenge to this concept of multilateralism within the u.n. and that's president donald trump and indeed yesterday as many world leaders were sending their messages of congratulations to the u.n. celebrating 75 years since its founding there was no message from president trump and he actually sent his deputy ambassador to the u.n. what does that tell us about how the trumpet ministration view is the role of the u.n. well yeah i mean it was of an extremely transparent snow but from everything that we know about donald trump we shouldn't have expected some great unity in the united states favor from him there may be some who were relieved that he didn't go and sent somebody of such a junior rank to make that statement but of course we are expecting to hear from him today he was asked yesterday and he was said yes i have taped something. and he kind of gave a teaser that he's going to be speaking out against china and i think that's also a kind of a glimpse of the problems the u.s. has to deal with things that you know the most powerful countries in the world of

the moment simply are not getting on and that hubble's us and we will hear from the chinese leader as well a little bit later today we've just been seeing some pictures there of the secretary general antonio terrace because the session has been getting underway one of the holders of this concept of multilateralism is the german chancellor angela merkel and she has really called for member. or is that the u.n. to act more united with that or direct targeted message to leaders like president trump or was it really a general appeal for more coordinated action well i think it's a bit of both but it's certainly not just singling out on the trump i think it's also aimed at the other members of the security council in particular russia and china i mean if we look and i think we'll probably talk quite a bit is a big issue at the moment has been for a long time as the the u.n. security council really not being fit for purpose in the expression. that this is a small unit with 5 permanent members 10 nonpermanent members but these 5 permanent members of the victim powers off the 2nd world war dominate world affairs through

the exercise of the veto so that they could each block each other from doing it and that has meant that the u.n. security council is hopeful to. a great many things including the major crises that the world has experience in recent years you know the war in syria is the worst humanitarian crisis that we've seen in years. though the u.s. on one side and russia and china on the other side simply don't agree on that and that has prevented any meaningful attempts for them to work together on on ending that conflict so i think i'm going medical's message is aimed at these kind of bickering big powers. that they have to kind of put aside kind of geo political power game sometimes and find agreement is there some consensus behind the idea that the u.n. needs to see some sort of reform to remain relevant going forward i mean chancellor merkel herself is also it made it that that is needed yeah germany along with

a number of other sort of similar a mid-sized power as has been calling for a long time for reform of the united of the u.n. security council saying that it needs to be big needs to be more diverse it needs to reflect the era that we're in today not the era of just off of the 2nd world war . but of course any reforms to an institution that powerful will come up against resistance from those outlaw institutions those powerful countries. people don't like giving up powers these countries are not going to want to give up their veto and i think that is something i mean this move to try to reform the u.n. security council. the german foreign office was kind of briefing about this recently and they noticed that it's just like the toughest nut to crack in the entire system because the vested interests section that weighs answer powerfully what we're seeing as we mentioned terrorists there opening the u.n. g.a.

and while we're waiting for donald trump to address the general assembly let's take a look at the history of the united nations and at some of the challenges that it's faced along the way fulfilling its mission. born out of the ravages of world war 2. the u.n. charter was signed in 1945 by 50 founding members and aim to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war a global organization to help build a better weld. world the probability of the terminator to find our way through rar i 75 years on every country in the world is represented in the un's general assembly. the organization has lost none of its relevance but it also faces unprecedented challenges in the 75th anniversary ear we face our own 945 moments we must meet

that moment and we must show unity like never before to overcome to those emergency get the world moving and working and prospering again and up all the vision of the job. that vision is to work together to bolster international peace and security of a humanitarian assistance and protect chairman rights. the un and its affiliated agencies have become indispensable in crisis situations. they have but the work of the un's most powerful body the security council has come in for heavy criticism. the council's 5 permanent members of the 2nd world was principal victor is accusing china. russia and the u.s. . it manages 13 peacekeeping missions around the world but the council is often paralyzed by disagreement and features. on syria

the most lethal and destabilizing conflict today it has failed to take any decisive action. many have argued that these old structures need to be urgently reformed. and there are other big challenges the corona crisis has exacerbated geo political rivalries and put the un's health body the w.h.o. under enormous pressure not least since the us pulled out of the world health organization in the midst of the pandemic. and there is fear that with growing nationalism in some countries support for the un and its mission may be fading donald trump's america 1st policy has seen the us conditionally the un's main driver turn its back on multilateralism the very principle the un was founded on.

yes the rich are precisely the point we were talking about earlier this challenge to multilateralism what do you think saying president trump in that report there are going to be some of these geopolitical fault lines that we'll see highlighted at the general assembly for example the u.s. facing off against china yeah i mean. the sort of prospect of near kind of cold war relations between the u.s. and china is really great is had this year but that's been something that's kind of coming down the line for a long time you know the rise of china as a new superpower in east asia rivaling the power of the united states. is a major change in the geopolitics of the world in and so we've gone. the end of the cold war there was this long spell where some people called the uni polar world where you have the united states really dominating people talking about there's going to be an end of history the liberal democracy is going to kind of where no. every country around the world that was inexorable process what we see with the

rise of china is not necessarily going to happen. all forest area. resolutely and he democratic country. can become an extremely powerful. force on the world stage and donald trump and we have to leave nationalists in charge of those 2 different countries so that that that clash has become particularly pronounced with them in charge so don't try to has forewarned that in his speech he's going to be talking about china and he has many complaints against china some of which the rest of the world shares some of which the rest of the world thinks he is exaggerating for his own election year but it's going to be interesting to watch and i think one particular kind of case which is very interesting because it kind of rejects the usual alliances with the in the united nations is talking about the iran nuclear deal. this deal was.

was could together trumps previous as barack obama the europeans were heavily involved with the russians and the chinese were also involved in this was a very unusual moment of cooperation between these different powers to forge an agreement with iran to limit its nuclear program. and donald trump pulled out of that deal just like he did out of paris climate agreement. and that his slightly unusual bedfellows on this side who favor the deal so the europeans and the russians and the chinese are on one side you have the united states or have it and this argument been coming to a head recently we don't need to go massively into the details but the united states is saying that. wants to re-impose sanctions because it sees iran is breaking the deal itself now the other side the europeans and the russians of the chinese are saying well you can sanction support of this deal because you walked out of this deal yourself so it really is it does kind of crystallize this this

issue about multilateralism if if the america goes its own way and says our way 1st . but we still want to reimpose sanctions as part of a deal that we've walked away from now does the rest of the world have to accept that so be insincere see what he says about that and richard we should also say that among the many challenges that will be addressed one of the biggest will be the coronavirus and i'm a great i mean how much you expect that to dominate what we hear from our leaders well of course i mean it's a major issue with everyone but different leaders have different approaches to you know donald trump is someone who. has tended to talk it down and we saw him only yesterday saying in a speech in a rally in the united states that it affects hardly anybody. which seems to be him returning to the kind of extreme approach of talking it down that happened at the beginning of the pandemic you have other leaders saying no this is a major global challenge and the classic example of where countries need to work together to fight is. donald trump just like he left the iran deal just like he

left the climate agreement he's worked out of the world health organization which is the health already attached to the united nations so. yeah a real clash of of approaches to the world being played out. and of course if this u.n. general assembly was happening for real in new york it would have even more drama obviously what we're witnessing now is many of the speeches just being given as video i suppose which of course takes some of that kind of drama out of the situation. but still we're witnessing a major clash at the moment what will be. definitely keeping our eyes on this while we waiting for president trump to speak in a little bit the picture there on the right hand side of your screen that is the secretary general antonio guterres as this general assembly has gotten kicked off and we will dip into president trumps a video message as you mentioned richard when that comes and richard will be coming

back with us a little bit later to analyze that speech for us as we keep our eye on the u.n. celebrating its 75 years since its founding richard we'll have you back then in just a little bit. for now though let's move on to some other news countries across europe are scrambling to contain the coronavirus pandemic after a surge in new infections a british prime minister boris johnson said that the u.k. has reached a perilous turning point as he laid out new restrictions today people across the continent will be forced to curtail their activities in hopes of reopening later in the fall. he's waited 6 months for this pair for the 1st time since march pops in islander again pulling pints but the industry remains wary of a virus that hasn't gone away because we didn't believe until this morning we turn to the door that we're actually getting to open because because so many people start to they only have to look at the capital dublin where bars have been told to

stay shot amid a spike in cases there it's a stark contrast to the u.k. the only way to go where the government relaxed restrictions much earlier and is now warning of a 2nd wave prime minister boris johnson who himself almost died from covert 19 back in march morning that the country has reached a perilous turning point he says if we fail to act together. we will not only place our those roots would jeopardize our own futures with the more drastic action that we would inevitably be forced to take a new restrictions on pump opening time social gatherings and to mask wearing will now come into force painful for any government trying to open up its economy

meanwhile hospitals in spain are battling western europe's highest kovac 19 caseload health officials are considering whether to expand a lockdown light to include the whole of madrid. some of the families confined to their homes are confused by the mixed messages. so i can't quote but i can go to drink in munich germany the annual beer field october fest was cancelled but the drinking holes are still packed the good cheer belies the worrying surging coronavirus cases in the city officials have now set masks a mandatory in some school as physical hit there so how to control it and those who don't abide by the rules must be punished not a new rules but 100 or one so sent to munich like much of europe is now wrestling with coronavirus all over again and hoping to defeat it without shutting down public life entirely. as we mentioned british prime minister boris johnson has just

announced new restrictions to tackle rising infection numbers and shell out of what is joining us from london i should out there good to see you so walk us through these a new restrictions for the u k. hospitality industry will be hard hit again under these new restrictions from day onwards restaurants and pops will have to close said door after 10 pm so a new curfew in place there the biggest change is from home again that is what the prime minister has set so whoever can should remain at home and not go to the offices that is a huge turn from what he has said all summer long and the rule of 6 so people are not allowed to socialize with more than 6 of the 5 other people at a time and that is especially hard for families of 6 for example who face a winter where they are not allowed to socialize or mingle at all with other people

and prime minister boris johnson made clear that these new restrictions will most likely be in place at least for the next 6 months so all throughout the winter and that this might be just the beginning of the next locked on charlotta we should say that the prime minister himself has been under fire for his handling of the pandemic so tell us more about the criticism and how he's been responding. oh and he's absolutely still on the fire from all sides right now at the moment people are saying that these new restrictions just don't go far enough to the spread of the virus those on the one signed on the other side he has people criticizing him for closing down ponce of the economy already big need of course to keep it open because a recession is threatening to hit the united kingdom so really criticism from all sides there and especially on his mixed messages people saying that he has confused

the british public by with his u. turns and for example as i mentioned the working from home rule that he has changed his mind on that again so a lot of criticism also on the track and trace people are saying this is an incompetent prime minister who hasn't used to some of months to really put in place a good testing system where cases new cases can now be tracked and traced throughout the winter given that backdrop are people there are welcoming you know stricter measures and do they support the government's approach. i think a lot of people are very worried about the upcoming winter tens of thousands are bound to lose their jobs when the economic package from the government are running out in a few weeks others fear that the virus will spread again like it did in the spring when the u.k. was europe's worst hit country so a lot of fear about the virus itself and then just the fear of being able to face

a very lonely and long winter without being able to contain this virus throughout the country did at your correspondent shut up that's reporting from london thank you very much. well earlier we spoke to the chair of the global outbreak alert and response network at the w.h.o. dale fisher and we asked him how prepared countries were for a possible winter spike in $1000.00 cases it's a funny question to be asking in september. it's really quite disappointing i guess to have these sort of numbers going into the colder months and as you just pointed out that there really need to be some things done to bring these numbers down or else you're going to be right back where where you were. in march and. there's nothing fancy it's all the same things that we've known about for a long time of. oscillation of cases and strict quarantining of of contacts

we should be able to do much more efficient contact try saying different mechanisms and the other thing which we didn't know at the beginning of this outbreak was the effectiveness of mosques and across asia across asia you really don't see people not wearing masks people still money immune most people are still vulnerable to this so you we know what happens if a we mustn't have short memories we must remember those those horrible months what happened what happened in the north of italy what happened. and i'm sure many parts of germany. dale fisher from the world health organization speaking to us there earlier now to france which reported a record high over the weekend with more than 13000 new cold cases in 24 hours the

government wants to avoid returning to full lock down and instead is banking on physical distancing and other measures to keep public life going for students returning to university the restrictions come with their own challenges lisa lewis reports. it's a start of term like no other at this university in a suburb north of paris. despite the strict anti covert measures these economic students are happy to be here. 2 weeks of it it's nice to be back at university this just shows that despite the virus life continues. our university has done what's needed to adapt to the situation we have split into 2 groups and have them online classes every 2nd week and every 2nd seat is off limits and we have to wear masks although that's a bit of a nuisance. quite a contrast to a holiday season during which many people lowered their guard most of francis' recent code cases are amongst young people these companies diplomacy believe. many

of us travel jane in the summer after all the virus is less severe for us young and if many need to get it to herd immunity the young should get it in the fridge. illusion the government has only given basic guidelines to the universities each institution has had to come up with its own detail plan. hours in grids masks for distancing online classes and we have to. because of these measures we won't have to shut down if students test positive for covert because there are no contact persons at least at university reading. part but the number of infections has been rising across. it's more than half of the country has now been declared a red zone with at least 50 new daily infections from 100000 people compared to just a dozen in neighboring germany local governments can impose additional measures in

these like temporarily closing paths and restaurants and yet social distancing and locally adapted strategies won't be enough to prevent another lockdown says these biologists. france doesn't even have a testing strategy for example to test those who work with vulnerable people such as the elderly the only way to control the epidemic is to systematically travel down and isolate infected people for that we need to come up with a national strategy is the most simple testing methods such as self testing and group testing and we need to test massively it all suited for this must see what despite the challenge the country faces these students hope the economy will stay open they'd like to continue to enjoy parisian cafe terraces where the risk of infection is the local body this is like a little patch of paradise we can meet our friends here without masks and have

a drink. that we need to stay united in these hard times it's important to stay in touch and form social bonds even if it's just to meeting up in groups. it's not certain this pleasure will last for very long though the country's strategy does allow for local lock downs and paris has one of the highest infection rates in the country. let's check in now on some of the other developments in the pandemic of the us public health body the c.d.c. has withdrawn guidance saying that fine aerosol particles floating in the air might spread the virus and the retraction has sparked concerns of political interference mexico as past 700000 confirmed coronavirus cases but officials say the overall and .