Mahomes and Walker shine, Butker hits winning 40-yarder as Chiefs beat Colts 33-30 in OT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Harrison Butker kicked two field goals in overtime, the second a 40-yarder as time expired that Patrick Mahomes and Kenneth Walker III set up, giving the Kansas City Chiefs a 33-30 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night.

Mahomes finished with 382 yards passing and three touchdowns, Walker ran for 117 yards, and Travis Kelce looked like a younger version of himself with nine catches for 101 yards and a score as the Chiefs improved to 2-0.

Daniel Jones had 210 yards passing with a touchdown and a pick for the Colts. Jonathan Taylor had 92 yards rushing and two TDs.

The Chiefs thought they had won the game earlier in overtime on a bizarre sequence of events.

Butker kicked a 31-yard field goal to give them the lead, and the Colts (0-2) responded on their possession by having Jones throw deep to Laquon Treadwell, who had beaten L'Jarius Snead. Treadwell appeared to be bobbling the ball as he hit the ground, got up after he had completed the catch, had the ball popped loose and watched as the Chiefs pounced on it.

The play was ruled a fumble on the field, but the officials reviewed it and determined Treadwell was down by contact. That gave the Colts a chance to score a go-ahead touchdown, but they ended up having to settle for Spencer Shrader's tying 38-yard field goal.

The Chiefs took over once more with 3:11 left in the extra session, and they handed off to Walker on three straight plays to reach midfield. But the backbreaker for Indianapolis was a 22-yard pass to the running back, which set up Butker's winning kick.

The Colts had chalked up a disastrous defensive performance against Baltimore in Week 1 to communication problems, and they hoped to solve them by having linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither relay the play calls rather than safety Cam Bynum. But the tweak didn’t seem to make much difference as Kansas City was marched up and down the field throughout the game.

Each of the Chiefs’ first four drives would have produced points had Butker not missed a 51-yard field goal try.

Yet the Colts were able to match Mahomes and Co. blow-for-blow over the first 30 minutes. Tyler Warren had three catches and a touchdown, Josh Downs picked apart a Chiefs secondary missing safety Chamarri Conner for a second straight game, and Taylor had 75 of his rushing yards — the highlight a 24-yard touchdown scamper that gave Indianapolis a 20-17 lead at the break.

The Chiefs allowed Denver to run for just 61 yards total in their 31-10 win last week.

Kansas City finally slowed the Colts’ offense by refusing to give them the ball. The Chiefs held it for all but 2:22 of the third quarter, getting a go-ahead TD pass to Jalen Royals and setting up Butker’s field goal to start the fourth.

Indianapolis answered with an 8 1/2-minute drive that Taylor finished with his second TD run to tie it at 27l with 5:37 to go.

Neither offense could produce points down the stretch, though, leaving the game to be decided in overtime.

Colts: WR Alex Pierce was carted to the locker room with a left heel injury early in the second quarter. ... DE Michael Clemons left late in the first half with a toe injury. ... CB Charvarius Ward hurt his groin early in the second half.

Chiefs: RT Jaylon Moore left briefly in the third quarter but was able to finish the game.

Colts: Host the Texans next Sunday.

Chiefs: Visit the Dolphins next Sunday.

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Kansas City Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III (9) is upended by Indianapolis Colts safety Cam Bynum (0) as Colts linebacker Jaylon Carlies (57) watches during overtime of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

Kansas City Chiefs place kicker Harrison Butker (7) is congratulated by teammates after making a field goal to defeat the Indianapolis Colts in overtime of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. during overtime of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce heads to the locker room following an NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) runs for a first down as Indianapolis Colts safety Hunter Wohler (30) defends during overtime of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

Kansas City Chiefs place kicker Harrison Butker makes a field goal to defeat the Indianapolis Colts in overtime of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Under a global cloud of wars and bitter divisions, world leaders meet at the United Nations this week facing new fears that runaway artificial intelligence could threaten humanity even as climate shocks and escalating prices are already making life much tougher for hundreds of millions of people.

The annual high-level gathering at the U.N. General Assembly will also be consumed with major wars in Iran, Gaza, Ukraine,Sudan, Congo and Myanmar and a persisting question: Can the leaders do anything to end them?

And what can they do about the relentless rise of global warming threatening the future of the planet, the growing inequalities within and among nations, and shocks to the global economy as blocked shipping routes and supply chains increase the cost of living and slow growth?

The future of the United Nations will also definitely be on the agenda. At 81, its powers are still the victorious nations from World War II, not the 21st century’s major global players. The U.N.’s 193 member nations have agreed to a wide-ranging reform package that includes updating key institutions such as the powerful U.N. Security Council, where the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France hold inordinate sway because of their veto power. Reform, however, is easier said than implemented.

Behind the scenes, there will be speculation about who will lead the United Nations next. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ second five-year term ends Dec. 31 and no clear successor has emerged.

There is still no question that the U.N. remains THE gathering place for its 193 member nations and their leaders. Some 130 heads of state and government are expected to speak at the General Assembly starting Tuesday along with dozens of ministers.

Among the headliners will be U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emanuel Macron. Both will speak Tuesday after Guterres’ opening “state of the world” address. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian speak Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whom New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani wanted arrested for his treatment of Palestinians in Gaza until he learned he has no such authority — will address the assembly on Thursday. For a second year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won’t be coming to the U.N. because the U.S. has refused to give him a visa. He will nonetheless address the assembly by video the same day.

The United States, under its agreement with the U.N. to host the organization, is required to allow diplomats from all member nations to attend meetings.

Equally telling is who else isn’t coming. China’s President Xi Jinping is meeting Trump in Washington on Wednesday, yet he is skipping — some diplomats say snubbing — the U.N. gathering and sending a vice president instead. Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t coming either, and Indian President Narendra Modi has backed out.

France's U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said it is “extremely critical” for world leaders this week to support the U.N. as the place where the world’s nations meet — especially at a time of such polarization.

“We believe in multilateralism," he said, "and we believe that the high-level week is the occasion for countries in the world to reaffirm that they prefer cooperation and dialogue to confrontation.”

There is no doubt it’s been a tough year for the world body. It has been pushed to the sidelines when it comes to its key responsibility of ensuring international peace and security and trying to end major conflicts in the Mideast and Ukraine. The U.S. failure to pay billions of dollars in outstanding arrears has left the organization’s finances in rocky shape.

But veteran U.N. watcher Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group’s global issues and institutions program director, says 2025 was even worse.

A year ago, he said, people were contemplating that Trump would use his U.N. speech to announce that the United States would leave the world organization. Trump didn’t announce a pullout last September and the U.N. muddled through the past 12 months with financial troubles that forced cutbacks to its peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid.

In recent days, the U.S. paid $725 million of its dues to the U.N.’s regular operating budget for this year, enough to keep the Trump administration from losing its vote in the General Assembly. The payment was a strong indication Trump will keep the U.S. in the United Nations.

The U.N. is no longer “in freefall,” Gowan said, but it “is stuck in an open-ended or permanent crisis.” Put more graphically, he said, “The U.N. may not be in emergency care like it was last year, but it does seem to be trapped in a trauma center for the foreseeable future.”

Former U.N. deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch-Brown, a United Nations Foundation board member, said, “While the world still trusts the U.N., the global public is eager for change."

The future of artificial intelligence has pushed to the forefront of global concerns, with its speeding advances and the dawning recognition that there are no industry controls, let alone any global guardrails for a technology that has many advantages but also many disadvantages and unknowns.

Days before the global gathering, leaders of three major AI companies warned about the technology getting out of human control and called for a pause, but Trump dismissed their concerns as “a hoax,” and urged continued advances to keep the U.S. ahead of China.

The U.N. Security Council added a high-level meeting on AI to its agenda on Wednesday afternoon, a sign of the growing apprehension and need to address the issue. It was already slated to hold a high-level meeting on Ukraine with Zelenskyy on Wednesday morning.

For the U.N. chief, this will be his last assembly meeting with global leaders. He previewed his speech last week, telling U.N. reporters that power is shifting in “an era of deep uncertainty."

“At a time when the world faces three existential threats," he said, “international cooperation is more necessary than ever.”

Others will be vying for the spotlight on issues from rising sea levels and funding education to the fight for gender equality. Hundreds of private meetings will also convene in U.N. cubicles, hotels, diplomatic missions and restaurants.

Esther Brimmer, a senior fellow in global governance at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs in the Obama administration, said in-person meetings can help countries hash out ideas that get implemented months later.

She called the situation in 2026 “much more serious and complex than in decades past."

“With that said, I’m also not without hope as well,” Brimmer said. “Over the past decades we’ve learned a lot about international cooperation.”

Edith M. Lederer has covered international affairs for The Associated Press for more than a half century.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/David R Martin)