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Welcome back to Foreign Policy<\/em>\u2019s Situation Report. We\u2019re just a few days away from the 80th United Nations General Assembly. Remember to keep an eye out for pop-up editions of SitRep! Rishi and John will be running around Turtle Bay all week to offer you the most important (and juiciest) details on what\u2019s happening. FP will also be hosting several public events alongside the gathering, including the Her Power summit and forums on energy, health, and technology, which you can sign up for here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alright, here\u2019s what\u2019s on tap for the day: We explain what we\u2019re watching for at UNGA<\/strong>, the United States <\/strong>and United Kingdom<\/strong> sign a tech cooperation<\/strong> deal, and Pakistan <\/strong>and Saudi Arabia<\/strong> make a mutual defense pact<\/strong>.<\/p>\n World leaders and diplomats will flood into New York City in the coming days for the annual high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which kicks off on Monday. This year marks the 80th session of UNGA\u2014and it comes at a challenging moment for the world and the U.N. itself.<\/p>\n Though the U.N. is celebrating its 80th birthday this year, it\u2019s not an entirely happy one. The intergovernmental body\u2019s utility has increasingly been called into question in recent years as it has struggled to prevent and halt conflicts across the globe, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine\u2014issues that will be at the top of the agenda at UNGA next week.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has been among the U.N.\u2019s most outspoken critics<\/a>. The fact that he\u2019s the leader of the nation that both hosts the U.N.\u2019s headquarters and provides a major source of its funding makes Trump a significant source of uncertainty for the global body. He will be the elephant in the room at UNGA\u2014and he doesn\u2019t even have a Senate-confirmed ambassador in place at the U.N., with Mike Waltz\u2019s nomination held up<\/a>.<\/p>\n Better together? <\/strong>Trump, whose \u201cAmerica First\u201d foreign policy is a direct rebuke of multilateralism, has often accused the U.N. of being ineffective and taking advantage of the United States. He slashed funding to the U.N.<\/a> as part of broader cuts on foreign aid and pulled the United States out of several U.N. agencies, including the World Health Organization<\/a> and UNESCO<\/a> as well as the U.N. Human Rights Council<\/a>, and the U.N.-orchestrated Paris climate accords<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a sign that the U.N. is eager to demonstrate its usefulness as an important forum for dialogue between countries on geopolitical problems, the theme of UNGA this year is \u201cBetter together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet U.N. chief Ant\u00f3nio Guterres acknowledged the uphill battle that the organization faces in comments<\/a> at a press conference earlier this week. \u201cSome call it the World Cup of diplomacy,\u201d Guterres said of UNGA. \u201cBut this cannot be about scoring points\u2014it must be about solving problems. There is too much at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that \u201c[w]e are gathering in turbulent\u2014even uncharted\u2014waters,\u201d warning of widening geopolitical divides in the face of an array of global problems that are placing strains on international cooperation.<\/p>\n About those divides\u2026 <\/strong>Speaking of issues straining global cooperation and driving divisions\u2014the war in Gaza will be at the center of discussions during high-level week, which is set to begin just days after an independent commission set up by the U.N. Human Rights Council concluded<\/a> that Israel is committing genocide<\/a> in the enclave.<\/p>\n Multiple countries, including France and the United Kingdom, are expected to formally recognize Palestine as a state<\/a> at UNGA. Though these moves will be mostly symbolic, they\u2019re a sign of growing global opposition to Israel\u2019s prosecution of the war in Gaza\u2014including from Western countries.<\/p>\n The United States has blocked<\/a> the entire traveling Palestinian delegation from gaining visas to attend UNGA\u2014a move that applies to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and approximately 80 other Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization officials. The broad visa ban is unprecedented and seen by experts<\/a> as a violation of a 1947 U.N. agreement<\/a> that requires the United States to provide representatives of U.N. members and other officially invited people unimpeded access to U.N. headquarters in New York City. (Palestine is not a U.N. member but has been granted nonmember observer status.) However, the U.S. State Department said<\/a> in its announcement that the Palestinian Authority\u2019s mission to the U.N. \u201cwill receive waivers per the UN Headquarters Agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n The war in Ukraine will also be a big topic of discussion at UNGA. Since reentering the White House, Trump has unsuccessfully pushed for a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that Trump is likely to meet<\/a> with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of UNGA for further talks.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll be watching to see how conversations on Gaza and Ukraine play out, what leaders say when they address the assembly (particularly Trump), and whether UNGA concludes without any fireworks amid a contentious era in recent history.<\/p>\n Other issues expected to be front and center at UNGA include Iran and its nuclear program (and related sanctions<\/a>), where Syria goes from here, challenges presented by artificial intelligence, climate change, and more.<\/p>\n The killing of right-wing media personality Charlie Kirk<\/a> could have some wide-ranging consequences on the Pentagon\u2019s rank and file. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the department to monitor social media posts of service members that are deemed to be critical of Kirk or to \u201ccelebrate\u201d his death in any way. \u201cWe are tracking all these very closely \u2014 and will address, immediately. Completely unacceptable,\u201d Hegseth wrote in a post<\/a> on X. At least a half dozen service members have reportedly<\/a> been suspended as their social media posts are being investigated.<\/p>\n Hegseth is also going after military troops\u2019 grooming habits. In a memo<\/a> sent last month but made public<\/a> this week, he wrote that the \u201cgrooming standard set by the U.S. military is to be clean shaven and neat,\u201d and any service members not adhering to that standard will require a medical exemption.\u00a0Those who obtain a medical waiver to keep their facial hair will submit to a treatment plan; if, after a year of treatment, they still require a medical waiver, they will be made to undergo \u201cseparation\u201d from the military, he added.<\/p>\n What should be high on your radar, if it isn\u2019t already.<\/em><\/p>\n London deals.<\/strong> Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u00a0on Thursday signed<\/a> an agreement to increase cooperation on technology.<\/p>\n Dubbed the Technology Prosperity Deal<\/a>, the agreement includes pledges for the two countries to cooperate on artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, and quantum computing, with the United Kingdom also committing to \u201c\u200b\u200bachieve full independence from Russian nuclear fuel\u201d by the end of 2028.<\/p>\n Starmer also touted 250 billion pounds ($338.8 billion) \u201cflowing both ways across the Atlantic\u201d in a press conference with Trump, calling it a \u201crecord.\u201d That includes<\/a> a 100 billion pound ($135.5) pledge from U.S. investment company Blackstone and 1.5 billion pounds ($2 billion) from U.S. defense tech company Palantir to invest in the United Kingdom. There\u2019s also plenty of money flowing the other way, with U.K. pharmaceutical giant GSK investing $30 billion in the United States and energy company BP committing to invest $5 billion per year in its U.S. business over the next five years.<\/p>\n Pakistan-Saudi pact. <\/strong>Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday signed a mutual defense pact during Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif\u2019s visit to Riyadh. The deal, which Sharif signed with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, deepens defense cooperation between the two countries and commits them to defending each other in the event of an attack.<\/p>\n \u201cThe agreement states that any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both,\u201d the Pakistani government said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pakistan is a nuclear power, though, while Saudi Arabia is not. Asked whether Pakistan would now be obliged to provide Saudi Arabia with a nuclear umbrella, a senior Saudi official told Reuters<\/a>: \u201cThis is a comprehensive defensive agreement that encompasses all military means.\u201d<\/p>\n Gaza blackout. <\/strong>Israeli forces pushed farther into Gaza City on Thursday as part of their latest military offensive, with residents of the territory reportedly<\/a> facing a temporary internet and telephone blackout as Israeli tanks moved closer to the city center. The Israeli military, which ordered the city\u2019s occupants to relocate to what it calls a \u201chumanitarian zone<\/a>\u201d in southern Gaza ahead of the expanded offensive, said that more than 350,000 people had already fled<\/a> the city by Tuesday evening, with roughly half a million others still remaining.<\/p>\n The renewed assault in a conflict that has killed<\/a> more than 65,000 Palestinians comes despite mounting global pressure on Israel. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a statement<\/a> on Wednesday titled \u201cIt Is Genocide\u201d in which he became the first sitting U.S. senator to characterize Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza using that term. \u201cIf there is no accountability for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals, other demagogues will do the same,\u201d Sanders warned.<\/p>\n