UN General Assembly Week, Trump's Triumphal Arch, Air Traffic Control AI

Up First from NPR

The episode covers the gathering of world leaders at the UN General News Assembly amidst ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Iran. It details P

Key takeaways

• President Trump has pivoted the purpose of his proposed Washington arch to include housing drones, snipers, and ammunition.
• The UN General Assembly faces scrutiny over its relevance during major global conflicts like the war in Ukraine and tensions in the Persian Gulf.

Main topics

• UN General Assembly
• Trump's Triumphal Arch

Notable quotes

The way we manage traffic today is chaotic, and we can do better.

Conclusion

The episode highlights how technological shifts and changing political

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:02) World leaders gather in New York for the U.N. General Assembly this week. Wars in Ukraine and Iran hang over the meeting. President Trump and Iran's president will attend. So what does that mean for a world body that has not been relevant to their war? I'm Speaker 3 (0:14) Michelle Martin. That's Steve Inskeep. And this is Up First from NPR News. Speaker 3 (0:20) President Trump has a new rationale for one of his construction projects that faces legal problems. He wants to build a giant arch between Arlington Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial. First, he said the nation's capital needs one. Now he says it will be a base for drones, snipers and ammunition. Does that make it easier to keep going without asking Congress? Speaker 1 (0:37) Also, the FAA plans to use AI to manage airspace. They say it will not replace human controllers, though it's deployed when the agency is thousands of controllers short. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. Speaker 8 (0:56) This message comes from WISE, the smart way to manage your money around the world. With WISE, you can send, spend, and receive money in over 40 currencies at the mid-market rate. Learn more at WISE.com. T's and C's apply. This is Ira Glass. On This American Life, we tell stories about when things change. Like for this guy, David, whose entire life took a sharp, unexpected, and very unpleasant turn. And it did take me a while to realize it. It's basically because the monkey pressed the button. That's right. Because the monkey pressed the button. Surprising stories every week, wherever you get your podcasts. This week on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, we talk with Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Hernan Diaz about how he's used the same fountain pen for the last 30 years. What would happen if you lost it? Do you guys know those big pens with four colors? Oh, yeah. I grew up with that. Don't miss our full conversation and the rest of our games. Listen to the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (1:59) It's the time of year when world leaders gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. This meeting Speaker 3 (2:05) is the last for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Speaker 7 (2:08) For me, this is not a moment to look back. It is a time to look ahead. Speaker 3 (2:13) Which makes sense, since the world body cannot look back on much relevance lately. World powers are fractured over climate change, AI, and wars in Ukraine and the Persian Gulf. Speaker 1 (2:22) NPR's Michelle Kellerman is in New York all week and joins us. Michelle, good morning. Good morning, Steve. What are you going to be watching for? Speaker 2 (2:28) Well, first will be President Trump's address to the world body. That's tomorrow morning. And while he's been trying to pitch himself to the world as a peacemaker, the war he launched against Iran really overshadows this gathering. President Trump promised it wouldn't take long. But here we are many months in and there's no sign the conflict is ending. And, you know, Steve, it's really disrupted not just energy markets, but also the supply of fertilizers. And that has a big impact around the globe. So many countries are looking to the U.S. They're looking to Gulf countries, to Iran, to find some ways to restore those shipping routes. Iran's president will be here. So that's another big thing I'm watching. He'll be speaking a day after Trump. It's not clear if there'll be any kind of interaction between lower level U.S. and Iranian officials. But U.S. officials haven't ruled that out. Speaker 1 (3:16) OK. I don't know. They'll be in this giant building that is designed for diplomacy at a meeting that is supposed to be about diplomacy. Is there any chance of any diplomacy? Speaker 2 (3:26) Well, there could be on the sideline meetings, but, you know, the U.N. itself has really been sidelined. It offered to set up a system to monitor