hello, i'm helen humphries. good to have you with us.al assembly — which kicks off on monday. this year's summit takes place against the backdrop of russia's war in ukraine and amid growing tensions between the us and china. despite that, leaders of four of the five countries that hold permanent seats on the un security council are expected to skip the event, including russian president putin and china's president xi, who also missed a recent gathering of the g20 in india, as well as two surprising no—shows, uk prime minister rishi sunak and french president emmanuel macron, who cited scheduling conflicts for missing this week's summit. in spite of those notable absences, the un says that it wants to get global leaders back on track with targets, like ending extreme poverty and tacking climate change.

hello, i'm helen humphries. good to have you with us. world leaders have started arriving in new york for the annual united nations general assembly — which kicks off on monday. this year's summit takes place against the backdrop of russia's war in ukraine and amid growing tensions between the us and china. despite that, leaders of four of the five countries that hold permanent seats on the un security council are expected to skip the event, including russian president putin and china's president xi, who also missed a recent gathering of the 620 in india, as well as two surprising no—shows, uk prime minister rishi sunak and french president emmanuel macron, who cited scheduling conflicts for missing this week's summit. in spite of those notable absences, the un says that it wants to get global leaders back on track with targets, like ending extreme poverty and tacking climate change. and presidents and prime ministers will take the opportunity to seize the global spotlight, including us presidentjoe biden who arrived on sunday evening in