Good morning. We’re covering President Biden and President Volodymyr Zelensky at the U.N. today and the release of five Americans from Iran. |
Plus lessons from Singapore on cooling down a city. |
 | | The annual meeting of world leaders at the U.N. begins today, but many heads of state are skipping the event.Bryan Woolston/Associated Press |
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The U.N. convenes amid growing divisions |
The U.N. General Assembly convenes today, but of the leaders of the five permanent members of the Security Council — the U. S., Russia, China, France and Britain — only President Biden will attend. The absences highlight increasing global divisions. |
This year’s gathering was planned with an eye toward the growing demands of the global south. These developing countries have been frustrated by the world’s focus on the conflict in Ukraine while their crises have received minimal attention. Discussions have been scheduled on climate change, sovereign debt relief and ways to help struggling countries reach the U.N.’s development goals. |
Analysts said that by skipping the annual gathering, world leaders risked weakening the U.N. when the institution was struggling to remain relevant. The U.N.’s agencies are still at the forefront of providing humanitarian aid, but during the war in Ukraine and a series of military coups in Africa, the world body has been marginalized as a negotiator and mediator. |
Similar cycles of crisis and bailout have plagued dozens of poor and middle-income countries for decades, threatening to unravel painstaking gains in education, health care and incomes. These pitiless loops are expected to be discussed at the U.N. gathering. |
A face of change: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Iraq’s prime minister, will address the U.N., hoping to persuade the world that he can finally solve his country’s problems of corruption and instability — and make it a reliable partner for the region. |
 | | From left, Emad Sharghi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi arrived in Doha, Qatar, on Monday.Lujain Jo/Associated Press |
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Iran releases 5 detained Americans |
The U.S. agreed to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue and dismiss federal charges against five Iranians accused of violating U.S. sanctions. Republicans accused Biden of helping to finance Iran’s terrorist activities. |
 | | Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada in the House of Commons yesterday.Blair Gable/Reuters |
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Trudeau accuses India of a killing in Canada |
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said yesterday that “agents of the Indian government” carried out the fatal shooting of a Sikh community leader in British Columbia in June, making the accusation based on intelligence gathered by the Canadian government. |
Speaking in the House of Commons, Trudeau said that he raised the issue directly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India at the Group of 20 summit this month. |
The community leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was shot near a Sikh temple. He had advocated turning part of India into an independent Sikh nation, and India had declared him a wanted terrorist. |
The allegation is likely to further strain relations between the two countries. This month, Canada suspended negotiations on a trade deal with India. |
 | | A Chinese fighter jet took off from an aircraft carrier near Taiwan in August, in a photo released by Chinese state media.An Ni/Xinhua, via Associated Press |
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 | | Luca Sola/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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A herd of 2,000 white rhinoceroses in South Africa, thought to be the largest single population of their kind, has been urgently in need of a new home since April. Now they’ve found one. |
Lives lived: Raymond Moriyama, an iconoclastic Japanese Canadian architect whose internment during World War II inspired him to create humane public spaces, died at 93. |
 | | Pockets of downtown Singapore can be more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than rural areas outside the city. |
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As the world warms, every way we build cities amplifies the problem of extreme heat. |
Singapore, which has warmed at twice the global average over the past six decades, is trying to arrest that slide. Many of its strategies are straightforward and cheaper than flood or hurricane planning: Singapore is encouraging the integration of greenery directly into buildings by offering financial incentives for rooftop gardens and vertical green facades. This is the most efficient way to reduce a city’s temperature, researchers say, but it has to be treated as infrastructure. |
 | | Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. |
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Read the latest book by the 91-year-old journalism legend Gay Talese. |
That’s it for today’s briefing. See you tomorrow. — Justin |
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