UNITED NATIONS (AP) — China and Russia got their turns to speak at the United Nations on Saturday, but that wasn't all.
Watchers from across the globe could find news that affected their lives at the U.N. General Assembly meetings. Here are a few moments:
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China's President Xi Jinping, left, speaks with President Donald Trump on the steps of the National Archives Museum, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, left, shakes hands with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand of Canada speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Foreign Minister Thorgerour Katrín Gunnarsdottir of Iceland speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
The foreign minister of Iceland, Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, used part of her time on the world stage Saturday to turn Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's words on Friday upside down.
Netanyahu, addressing people who were walking out on his remarks, called them “moral cowards.”
A day later, Gunnarsdóttir was having none of it. Speaking about Gaza, she said:
“We have heard the words ‘moral cowards’ from this podium. To me, moral cowards are those leaders around the world who refuse to sit down and negotiate a just and lasting peace. Those who deny access to humanitarian aid for people in desperate need. And moral cowards are those leaders who repeatedly go against and disrespect international law.”
In a stormy year for the usually calm U.S.-Canada relationship, Canada’s top diplomat stressed to the world that her country is looking elsewhere.
“We can no longer afford to be overly reliant on any one partner,” Foreign Minister Anita Anand told the assembly. She spotlighted the government’s efforts to bolster economic ties with Europe, India, China and African countries, and a roster of new security, defense and economic deals inked with various countries this year.
Canada is increasing its defense spending in line with NATO commitments, and it’s expanding its diplomatic footprint, recently opening a new consulate in Greenland to help foster connections around the Arctic, she noted.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has made a splash in diplomatic circles this year by arguing that “middle powers” need to look out for themselves and for the very concept of international order. He has held Canada out as a pathfinder.
Anand echoed that message, telling the assembly: “In a rapidly changing world, Canada is a reliable partner, and we are ready to work together.”
For a brief moment Friday afternoon, a rumor circulated that Chinese leader Xi Jinping would leave Washington and President Donald Trump and come to New York. Was that true? And if so, would he speak on behalf of China at the United Nations?
As reporters scrambled to meet contingencies, we checked around the United Nations and found a definitive answer. Someone inside the U.N. compound who would know, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were giving out information that would normally be issued by the Chinese, had heard nothing and confirmed there was no Chinese advance team on site — as there would always be if Xi was on the way.
That was definitive. After all, the someone said, “The Chinese don't improvise.”
And that's exactly the way it happened, or didn't. Vice President Han Zheng spoke Saturday, exactly as scheduled, and Xi headed home to Beijing.
Associated Press journalists Jennifer Peltz, Edith M. Lederer and Ted Anthony contributed to this report.
China's President Xi Jinping, left, speaks with President Donald Trump on the steps of the National Archives Museum, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, left, shakes hands with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand of Canada speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Foreign Minister Thorgerour Katrín Gunnarsdottir of Iceland speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
LOURDES, France (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is taking his opposition to euthanasia and medically assisted dying to Lourdes, the French Catholic shrine associated with miraculous cures and now also a place of healing for survivors of clergy sexual abuse.
Leo was to meet with French bishops on Sunday and then celebrate Mass on the prairie in front of Lourdes’ main basilica before an estimated 150,000 people. Later in the day, Leo was to meet with a group of survivors in what has become a regular appointment in papal trips.
Lourdes became a major pilgrimage destination after the Catholic Church officially recognized visions of the Virgin Mary reported here by a young girl in 1858.
The site near the Spanish border draws millions of pilgrims each year, especially sick and disabled believers hoping for a cure from the famed spring water in the Lourdes grotto where the visions purportedly occurred.
Leo arrived in Lourdes on Saturday night from Paris and immediately prayed inside the Grotto of Apparitions and drank from the spring.
During his four-day visit to France, Leo has repeatedly called for a renewed respect for life in keeping with Catholic teaching that all human life must be protected and defended from conception until natural death. The teaching translates into firm opposition to abortion and medically assisted dying.
France’s National Assembly in 2024 enshrined abortion as a constitutional right and recently gave final approval to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication.
In Lourdes, where the church has recognized as authentic 72 “miraculous” cures, the question of respecting even the most frail, sick and vulnerable is particularly acute.
More recently, Lourdes has also become a place of healing for survivors of clergy sexual abuse. Leo was to meet with seven victims on Sunday, including one who was abused as an adult, in recognition of the new frontier of the abuse crisis that the church faces.
The French church has endured a brutal reckoning with its legacy of abuse. An independent report in 2021 estimated 330,000 children had been abused over 70 years by some 3,000 priests and church workers.
Despite criticism of the report’s methodology and conclusions, French bishops put in place an independent system of compensation for victims that to date has recommended the church pay out more than 20 million euros ($22.7 million).
On the day Leo arrived in Paris, a group of victims wrote an open letter asking him to acknowledge the church’s responsibility and criticizing that the seven survivors were chosen by the church, not victims’ groups. “The Church must relinquish its position as both judge and party to the proceedings,” they wrote in the letter published by French newspaper Liberation.
In Lourdes, Leo will also be reminded of a prickly abuse case inherited from Pope Francis.
The façade of one of the Lourdes basilicas was designed by the Rev. Marko Rupnik, one of the Catholic Church’s most famous mosaic artists.
Rupnik is currently on trial in a Vatican court, accused by more than two dozen women of having psychologically, spiritually and sexually abused them starting in the 1990s, including during the creation of his artworks.
His case was covered up for three decades by his Jesuit superiors, and even Francis was suspected of having protected his fellow Jesuit. In response to a media outcry, Francis in 2024 ordered a canonical trial, which is ongoing.
The Rupnik case posed the question of what to do with his mosaics, which adorn basilicas around the world.
In 2024, Lourdes Bishop Jean-Marc Micas decided to no longer illuminate the façade of the Notre Dame du Rosaire Basilica at night. He subsequently ordered the decorated doors covered, and more recently decided to cover the façade’s mosaics entirely. He reasoned that abuse victims who come to Lourdes for healing shouldn’t be forced to see them.
As Leo approached the grotto on Saturday night, his popemobile drove by the basilica and its boarded up mosaics.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
In this handout photo provided by Vatican Media Pope Leo XIV prays at the Grotto of the Apparitions of Massabielle, in Lourdes, France, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (Vatican Media via AP)
The Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire Basilica is seen during the prayer of Pope Leo XIV in Lourdes, France, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
In this handout photo provided by Vatican Media Pope Leo XIV lights candels before praying at the Grotto of the Apparitions of Massabielle, in Lourdes, France, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (Vatican Media via AP)
In this handout photo provided by Vatican Media Pope Leo XIV leads a prayer at the Grotto of the Apparitions of Massabielle, in Lourdes, France, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (Vatican Media via AP)
In this handout photo provided by Vatican Media Pope Leo XIV prays at the Grotto of the Apparitions of Massabielle, in Lourdes, France, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (Vatican Media via AP)
