Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, European Council President António Costa, Kenyan President William Ruto and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney all start from the same observation: a paradox. Never has the international community been so interdependent, and never has it appeared so fragmented and polarised. Economies are intertwined, technology connects billions of people, and capital, goods, data and ideas circulate at a speed that would have been unimaginable in 1945, when the United Nations was founded. Global trade reached a record high of 35,000 billion dollars last year, and six billion people – nearly three-quarters of humanity – have access to the internet.
Geopolitics, however, is moving in the opposite direction. The four leaders note that there will be 65 armed conflicts involving states in 2025, spread across 35 countries – the highest number recorded since 1946 – and that global military spending will have risen to $2,900 billion. International law is being put to the test; the vocabulary of spheres of influence and power politics is resurfacing; economic ties are being used as instruments of pressure and coercion; and inequalities are growing both within and between countries.
Does this mean the multilateral system has failed? The authors consider the criticism partly understandable; a system that did not reflect today’s realities would not stand the test of time, but they believe that the rationale for cooperation remains clearer than ever. The climate emergency is exceeding even the most alarming predictions; artificial intelligence is advancing faster than our ability to control it; pandemics spread across continents in a matter of weeks; financial shocks destabilise markets in a matter of hours; and a maritime chokepoint such as the Strait of Hormuz can paralyse supply chains worldwide. No country, however powerful, can tackle these challenges alone.
Hence their initiative, “Partners for Multilateralism”, conceived not as a closed bloc or yet another bureaucracy, but as a flexible framework open to countries with different political traditions, ready to build reform-minded coalitions. The project aims to reform the UN and other multilateral institutions, foster better cooperation between regional organisations, address global economic governance, and develop common approaches to AI, climate change, health and digital issues, based on principles they describe as non-negotiable: sovereign equality, territorial integrity, the peaceful settlement of disputes, humanitarian law and fundamental freedoms.
António Guterres recently observed that “superpowers are discovering their limits”. For the four signatories, competition only becomes confrontation in the absence of channels for dialogue, and sovereignty is strengthened through working together. The real choice, they write, is not between preserving the order that emerged from the Second World War and abandoning it, but between renewing cooperation and allowing polarisation to define the era ahead. La tribune dans le Financial Times
Europe
🇩🇪 Germany • The far-right AfD came top in Sunday’s regional elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with around 38 per cent of the vote, ahead of the Social Democrats on 35.4 per cent, whilst Friedrich Merz’s CDU, with 4.9 per cent, has been excluded from the regional parliament – a first since 1945. In Berlin, the radical left party Die Linke won with a quarter of the vote, and its lead candidate, the lawyer Elif Eralp, could become the capital’s first mayor of migrant background, following a campaign centred on rent controls and the expropriation of large property firms. The AfD also made significant gains there, securing over 16 per cent. The Chancellor described the result as a “disaster”, whilst dismissing speculation about his resignation and promising to see through his tax and pension reforms, which he presented as “the antidote to the poison of authoritarianism”. He gave assurances that his coalition with the Social Democrats would hold, in the name of the country’s “democratic future”. The outgoing Minister-President, Manuela Schwesig, attributes the far right’s success to local opposition to aid for Ukraine and a desire to see Russian gas flowing again.
🇷🇺 Russia • United Russia won the parliamentary elections held from Friday to Sunday with 57.8 per cent of the vote and 355 seats out of 450, a constitutional majority that allows it to amend the Basic Law on its own. The Communist Party secured 40 seats, the LDPR 25 and New People 20; all these parties support the continuation of the war, whilst the only party opposed to the conflict, Yabloko, has been banned. The Electoral Commission reported a record turnout of over 56 per cent. The final day of voting was marked by a Ukrainian attack involving more than a thousand drones, which killed two people near Moscow and damaged an oil refinery in the capital. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, described the election as nothing more than a “veneer of democracy”.
🇹🇷 Turkey • The crackdown launched on 12 September against the LGBT+ community – involving raids on bars, hundreds of arrests and the blocking of social media accounts – marks the start of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s presidential campaign, according to activist Yildiz Tar of the Kaos GL association. The date of the election has been set for 16 April 2028, one month before the theoretical end of the head of state’s term of office. A series of demonstrations have taken place in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
🇩🇰 Denmark – 🇺🇸 United States • Copenhagen has expressed relief at the agreement announced regarding Greenland, which, according to Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, respects Denmark’s “red lines” and the kingdom’s sovereignty, following Donald Trump’s threats of annexation. The text, which has not been published, would prevent China and Russia from establishing bases or making sensitive investments on the territory, and paves the way for three new US bases in the south. Emmanuel Macron saw this as a compromise that “helps to calm things down”.
Asia-Pacific
🇦🇫 Afghanistan – 🇵🇰 Pakistan • Pakistani air strikes killed three civilians – a man, a woman and a young girl – in the Afghan province of Kunar, a death toll confirmed by the UN mission, which called for civilian populations to be spared. Islamabad, for its part, claims to have targeted “terrorist hubs” and killed 28 fighters, a claim denied by the Taliban government. These air strikes took place three days after an attack on a police headquarters in northern Pakistan, claimed by a faction linked to the TTP, which left at least 31 people dead.
🇰🇷 South Korea • Three soldiers were injured when an anti-personnel mine exploded during a mine-clearing operation on a patrol route in the western sector of the demilitarised zone. Two of them were evacuated by helicopter, and President Lee Jae Myung confirmed the cause of the accident. It is estimated that more than 800,000 mines are scattered across this four-kilometre-wide strip, where the North resumed fortification work in March.
🇰🇵 North Korea • Pyongyang fired two short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan region towards the Sea of Japan yesterday, three hours apart; the first travelled approximately 450 kilometres and the second more than 600. Seoul convened an emergency meeting and denounced the launch as a violation of Security Council resolutions; Tokyo lodged a diplomatic protest; and the US Pacific Command identified no immediate threat. These tests, the second in a week, followed North Korea’s rejection of an IAEA resolution on its nuclear programme.
🇨🇳 China – 🇺🇸 United States • Beijing has confirmed Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States, from Wednesday to Friday, for a second summit with Donald Trump this year. The Chinese Foreign Ministry says it is seeking “strategic stability”, with an agenda covering trade, tariffs, artificial intelligence, Taiwan and the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine. Scott Bessent has also announced a new meeting on AI security in Shenzhen in around two months’ time, as well as a hotline between the two countries in the event of an incident.
🇮🇩 Indonesia – 🇲🇾 Malaysia • The forest fires that have been ravaging Sumatra and Borneo for several weeks continue to outpace the 54,000 personnel and 64 aircraft deployed by Jakarta, and their smoke is now affecting Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. Kuala Lumpur has launched cloud-seeding operations in three southern states. Indigenous residents of West Kalimantan have brought a class action against the authorities, whom they accuse of neglecting prevention measures.
🇦🇺 Australia • Canberra forecasts that deaths will outnumber births in the 2060s – a first for the country – with population growth falling to 0.9 per cent a year from 1.4 per cent over the last four decades. Treasurer Jim Chalmers points out that the number of Australians aged over 85 will triple by 2066, placing a heavy strain on care services. The Labor government has just tightened its immigration rules.
🇵🇰 Pakistan • UNICEF estimates that around 1.5 million children are victims of online sexual abuse each year in the country, according to a report published in early September. In 85 per cent of cases, victims aged between 12 and 17 know their abuser, and 71 per cent do not tell anyone, out of shame or fear of their family’s reaction. The provincial government of Punjab has called for a ban on social media for under-16s.
Middle East
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia – 🇾🇪 Yemen • Riyadh was targeted for the first time in months by a Houthi missile, which was intercepted according to the Saudi-led coalition, whilst powerful explosions rocked the capital and an Aramco-branded fuel tank burned near the airport. Pro-Iranian fighters claimed responsibility for two attacks, one on “sensitive sites” in Riyadh and the other on Aramco facilities in Yanbu. The US State Department warned that the conflict could see a “rapid escalation” and restricted travel by its officials to Taif and Yanbu, whilst Donald Trump cut short his weekend at Camp David. According to the New York Times, he changed his mind twice in three days regarding possible strikes in Yemen, torn between Saudi demands and the risk of opening a new front. Fighting in Yemen has claimed 48 lives in 24 hours and displaced more than 112,000 people since the start of September, whilst the price of oil has settled above $100 a barrel.
🇮🇱 Israel – 🇵🇸 Palestine • An Israeli settler was shot dead yesterday near the settlement of Neve Tzouf in the occupied West Bank, and the suspected perpetrator was arrested a few hours later at a hospital in Ramallah. The army also killed a Palestinian motorist who, according to the army, was attempting to ram into soldiers near Jenin.
🇸🇾 Syria • A series of explosions left four people injured at a military site in al-Eis, south of Aleppo, in what the Ministry of Emergency Situations described as an ammunition depot. The governor has asked residents to stay at home and access roads have been closed. This is the fourth such incident in less than a month, following 11 deaths in Deir Ezzor on Friday and 14 in Idlib province on 9 September.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia - 🇹🇷 Turkey • Hakan Fidan stated that Turkey was ready to meet Saudi Arabia’s military needs in the face of Houthi attacks, under the tripartite defence pact signed last month with Riyadh and Islamabad, which treats an attack on any one of the three countries as an attack on all of them. The Turkish Foreign Minister considers it unacceptable for the Kingdom to be drawn into the war between the United States and Iran, and says he has put forward proposals to all parties.
Americas
🇺🇸 United States • A 28-year-old Venezuelan delivery driver was shot in the chest by an immigration police officer on Sunday in Austin, Texas, during a foot chase. The Department of Homeland Security has launched an investigation in conjunction with the FBI, whilst noting that the man was the subject of a final deportation order. The city’s mayor and the Democratic MP for the constituency are calling for the local police to be involved in the investigations and for the injured man not to be deported.
🇺🇳 UN • Some 130 heads of state and government are gathering in New York this week for the General Assembly, which is dominated by the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as the rise of artificial intelligence. Antonio Guterres, whose term is coming to an end with no successor appointed, is calling for “common safeguards”. Washington has paid $725 million to retain its voting rights, but still owes the organisation more than a billion. Xi Jinping will not be attending, and Mahmoud Abbas will address the assembly via videoconference as he has been denied a US visa.
🇺🇸 United States • CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed a complaint on Monday following Donald Trump’s ban on access to the White House, with Trump accusing these media outlets of spreading false information. Their journalists had their press passes confiscated on Saturday – an unprecedented move. The four other networks in the television ‘pool’ – CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox – have suspended their participation in a show of solidarity, meaning that no major network is now broadcasting the President’s appearances at the White House.
🇺🇸 United States • The US administration is preparing to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court, reports the Wall Street Journal. Most dealings with the court are set to be banned within six to seven months.
🇨🇳 China – 🇺🇸 United States • The US Coast Guard is monitoring the Chinese presence in the Arctic “very closely”, where four research vessels have been operating off the coast of Alaska since January, compared with five throughout the whole of 2025. Rear Admiral Bob Little fears that the work is geared towards seabed mining and could provide a military advantage for Beijing, which presents itself as a “quasi-Arctic” state.
Africa
🇪🇹 Ethiopia • Seven armed groups, including the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Amhara Fano – despite having been adversaries during the 2020–2022 civil war – announced last night an alliance aimed at overthrowing Abiy Ahmed’s government. The coalition brings together groups from Tigray, Oromia, Afar, Benishangul-Gumuz and the Somali region, despite persistent territorial disputes. An adviser to the Prime Minister had stated last month that such a coalition would remain incapable of overthrowing the federal government.
🇲🇦 Morocco • With two days to go before the general election, some young Moroccans are expressing their disillusionment and their intention to abstain, with 18–34-year-olds accounting for less than a fifth of registered voters. Nearly 16 million voters are set to elect the 395 members of the House of Representatives. Despite 5 per cent growth in 2025, unemployment stands at 13 per cent, and employment and housing are the main concerns expressed by voters.
