Guterres opens UN Assembly accusing countries of 'flouting international law'
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 September 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has opened the eightieth General Assembly in New York with a warning that some countries are flouting international law. Donald Trump used his address to dismiss the UN as an organisation that had lost its purpose. We also break down the US President and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr's unsubstantiated claims linking the use of paracetamol during pregnancy to an increased risk of autism in children. Denmark's prime minister says she's not ruling out Russian involvement after Copenhagen and Oslo airports were closed by drones flying nearby. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, at the same time as increasing ties with Russia. Hong Kong and southern China are bracing for 'super typhoon Ragasa', with schools and businesses closed and shelves reportedly stripped of goods. NASA has announced 10 new astronaut candidates - selected from a pool of eight thousand, and the curious case of a man in South Korea who was prosecuted for taking a snack from an office fridge without permission.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:11.1 | I'm Nick Mars, and at 17 hours GMT on Tuesday the 23rd of September, these are our main stories. |
| 0:17.5 | The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has opened the 80th General Assembly in New York |
| 0:23.2 | with a warning that some countries are flouting international law. Denmark's prime minister says |
| 0:29.2 | she's not ruling out Russian involvement after Copenhagen and Oslo airports were closed by drones flying by. |
| 0:38.8 | Also in this podcast. |
| 0:40.4 | As a mother of two autistic children and a former labor and delivery nurse, I know how dangerous |
| 0:46.7 | that retort can be if it's just made as a sweeping statement and not backed by science. |
| 0:51.5 | We hear from the families affected by Donald Trump's claims about autism. |
| 0:58.9 | We begin this podcast in New York, |
| 1:01.4 | where the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has opened the 80th General Assembly |
| 1:07.0 | with a warning that some countries are not adhering to international law. |
| 1:11.7 | We have our work cut out for us as our ability to carry out that work is being cut from us. |
| 1:19.4 | We have entered in an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering. |
| 1:25.0 | Look around. The principles of the United Nations that you have established |
| 1:29.3 | are in the siege. Listen, the pillars of peace and progress are buckling under the weight of |
| 1:36.3 | impunity, inequality and indifference. Sovereign nations invaded, hunger, weaponized, truce, silence, rising smoke from bombed out cities, |
| 1:51.2 | rising anger in fractured societies, rising seas, swalling coastlines. |
| 1:58.2 | Shortly afterwards, the US President Donald Trump took to the stage. During his |
| 2:03.0 | speech, he highlighted American power and success and his diplomatic efforts worldwide, listing |
| 2:09.2 | the seven wars he said that he'd helped to end. He proceeded to tell world leaders that his |
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