The Sydney Morning Herald
· collected 2026-09-27 · by Nicholas Kristof
The article discusses how the United States under the Trump administration has become delinquent on UN dues, falling behind even conflict-ridden nations like Haiti, Somalia, and Congo in terms of financial responsibility. It highlights the increasing number of global conflicts and challenges that require international cooperation but are instead being sidelined by major powers, rendering the UN less effective than ever before. Despite its inefficiencies, the article argues that the UN remains crucial for addressing issues such as climate change, war, famine, and human trafficking, citing examples of on-the-ground work by UN staff in dangerous regions worldwide.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-27,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
US President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, where Xi pressed Trump to adopt Beijing's stance against Taiwan independence, which Taiwan rejected outright. Meanwhile, Taiwan is crucial for global tech and economy due to its leading semiconductor production; TSMC alone produces the majority of advanced chips that power smartphones, AI systems, and more. As Stanford Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann noted, economic disruption from a conflict over Taiwan would be severe.
In unrelated developments, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met with US media at the UN General Assembly, where he denied Iran's nuclear ambitions while offering to dilute its enriched uranium and allow inspections under international law. He also blamed Washington for ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates that Iran has over 440 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60%, raising concerns despite Pezeshkian's denials.
Taiwan's representative, Ambassador Alexander Yui, clarified during an interview on CBS’s "Face the Nation" that while Taiwan was discussed between Trump and Xi, it wasn't a major focus. He emphasized there has been no change in US policy towards Taiwan amid recent tensions with China.
Written for “Taiwan Iran Us Relations Midterms” on 2026-10-05,
grounded in this article and the 386 other(s) covering the same event.
Quiz question: What country surpasses Haiti, Somalia and Congo as a deadbeat and rogue nation?
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country → surpass → nation
Answer: In the halls of the United Nations, it’s the good old USA.
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it → ’ → Nations
The Trump administration is delinquent on UN dues, while 141 countries – including those mentioned above – are fully paid up.
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countries → include → those
And while other countries at least pretend to advance peace in the spirit of the UN, President Donald Trump used his UN speech to threaten to “annihilate” Iran and “drive them into hell”.
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Trump → pretend → hell
It was a rare instance of a world leader taking to the UN podium to muse about whether to commit what sounds like genocide.
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what → take → genocide
All of this underscores a tragedy of our era: some 130 armed conflicts are under way around the globe, more than double the number in 2009, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and a growing share of the challenges afflicting us are international and require multilateral solutions, yet the major powers are marginalising the UN and rendering it even less effective than usual.
uncertain
it → underscore → UN
Fuel prices are surging.
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prices → surge → ?
Trump’s Iran war has spread to Yemen and the Red Sea.
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war → spread → Yemen
Russia is engaging in so-called grey-zone attacks in Europe.
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Russia → engage → Europe
Drugs, epidemics, artificial intelligence, computer hacking, terrorism, human trafficking, climate change, looming famine in Somalia, the toll of war in Ukraine, Sudan and the Gaza Strip – all of these challenges demand co-operative responses, and the UN is an obvious forum to develop them.
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UN → loom → them
For many of these problems, the UN is becoming almost irrelevant.
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UN → become → problems
Trump last year derided the UN as full of “empty words”, and he had a point.
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he → deride → point
The organisation is a timid Tower of Babel that is more effective at issuing paper than at solving conflicts; hell is a UN meeting.
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hell → issue → conflicts
“The cost is measured in lives,” said Nadia Murad, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose Yazidi region in Iraq was surrounded by Islamic State fighters in 2014 for nearly two weeks.
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region → measure → weeks
“No one came to help us,” she told me, and she ended up kidnapped by IS and was raped for months.
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she → come → months
Her mother and six brothers were killed.
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mother → kill → ?
Yet if the United Nations is periodically paralysed, it’s also vital and sometimes a godsend.
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it → paralyse → ?
“I have also seen UN staff members remain in places after everyone else has left, doing work no one else is willing to do,” Murad said.
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Murad → see → work
That is precisely why the UN must do it better.
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UN → do → it
Critics can denounce UN workers as “fatally arrogant parasites”, as President Javier Milei of Argentina put it a few days ago, but I’ve been held at gunpoint alongside courageous UN humanitarians in the Central African Republic who were trying to bring assistance to a desperate area after other aid workers had fled.
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workers → denounce → area
I’ve seen front-line UN workers living out of cargo containers in Somalia, sleeping in tents in South Sudan, driving down perilous roads in Congo and standing up to gunmen in Yemen – risking their lives to save children from war, rape and disease.
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workers → see → war
One of the heroes of the 20th century was James Grant, who led UNICEF and in 1982 engineered the child survival revolution.
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who → lead → revolution
He and his team employed vaccines and better treatment of diarrhoea to save 25 million lives in his lifetime, and countless millions since.
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He → employ → lifetime
When have critics of the UN done anything half so noble?
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critics → do → anything
When have critics of the UN put their lives on the line for others, like the 136 UN employees who died in the line of duty last year?
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who → put → duty
Today in Congo, UN workers are combating the Ebola outbreak.
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workers → combat → outbreak
In Somalia, they are feeding starving children.
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they → feed → children
In Gaza, they are distributing aid.
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they → distribute → aid
If the United States was distinguished during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza by providing 2000-pound bombs that Israel used to destroy neighbourhoods, the UN stood out for trying to achieve peace and get aid through Israeli checkpoints.
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UN → distinguish → checkpoints
It’s Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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It → ’ → Ukraine
It’s Trump’s attack on Iran.
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It → ’ → Iran
It’s Elon Musk “feeding USAID into the wood chipper”, as he put it, by one count costing more than 750,000 lives.
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he → ’ → lives
So for all my impatience with plodding UN bureaucracy, I’ll take the United Nations any day over great-power jingoism and caprice.
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I → take → jingoism
Sure, bash the United Nations; it often deserves it.
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it → bash → it
But my guess is that millions more children would die every year if it weren’t for UNICEF, the World Food Program, the UN Refugee Agency and the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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it → die → Affairs
Understand also that the UN is a crumbling pillar of what is left of this geopolitical global order that the United States helped create after World War II and that has so benefited us and the world.
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that → understand → us
And note that one reason for the infuriating UN paralysis and timorousness is that great powers throw their weight around, often vetoing constructive action and, in the case of the United States, slashing budgets as well.
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powers → note → budgets
I fear that the paralysis may get worse.
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paralysis → fear → ?
The United Nations is supposed to choose a new secretary-general this year, and this is a moment when the world needs a charismatic, outspoken leader who could use the bully pulpit and tackle the globe’s security and humanitarian crises.
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who → suppose → security
Sadly, that seems exactly what the United States, China and Russia are determined to avoid.
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States → seem → what
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
