On October 17, UN Secretary-General Guterres, when presenting the proposed budget for 2026 to the Fifth Committee (Executive and Budget Committee) of the UN General Assembly, warned that the United Nations would face a bankruptcy crisis if member states failed to pay contributions on time.

Guterres warns that the United Nations is facing bankruptcy (data map)

Guterres said that as of the end of September this year, the United Nations had only received 66.2% of the annual assessed contributions, compared with 78.1% in the same period last year. Given the revenue uncertainty, even if budget spending is cut by nearly $600 million, the deficit level of the United Nations may still exceed $450 million by the end of this year. "This will drain almost all of our liquidity reserves" and "we must also refund $300 million in credits to Member States in early 2026". He said that the United Nations will make further spending cuts, and in 2026, the United Nations will spend less than budgeted again.

Guterres said the current liquidity crisis will not only affect next year, but could also affect 2027.The United Nations could face $600 million in mortgage refunds to member states by 2027, about 20% of the budget, he warned that this meant the United Nations would go to bankruptcy.The United Nations must significantly reduce member state debts or suspend the repayment of mortgages.

Guterres referred to a report on the improvement of the financial situation on the same day.The report suggests suspending the repayment of unused loans to member states when a funding shortage threatens the implementation of the next annual budget.He stressed that key UN work programmes will be seriously threatened if no agreement is reached on the worsening liquidity issue.

In the coming weeks, the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly will discuss the budget with the heads of various departments and programme managers of the United Nations Secretariat. Subsequently, relevant reports and recommendations will be submitted to the plenary session of the General Assembly for consideration. It is expected that the budget will be approved before the end of December.

The regular budget of the United Nations is funded by mandatory assessments of Member States. According to the data provided by the United Nations, as of October 15 this year, a total of 141 Member States have paid their regular budget assessments for 2025 in full. At present, the United States is the largest "arrears" among United Nations Member States.

Extended reading

Trump at the United Nations General Assembly, an hour "blaspheme" around the world

On September 23, local time, U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a speech at the United Nations headquarters in New York, "Golden words" and "laughs" continued.

¡°Under my leadership, the United States has entered the golden age, and the United States is hot.¡±

¡°The United Nations does not help, I alone end the seven wars.¡±

"What is the purpose of the United Nations' existence";

¡°Everyone says I deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, but I only care about saving lives.¡±

"The United Nations is too broken, there is no teleprompter, the elevator is broken, and my wife almost fell. I should have won the bid for repairs at the beginning";

¡°Al more than 150 countries recognize the State of Palestine, I say you are a minority.¡±

"Still opening the border? going to hell with your country";

¡°Global warming doesn¡¯t exist.Many people in the U.S. and Europe die from high temperatures every year because they can¡¯t afford air conditioning.¡±

¡°In the White House, everyone doesn¡¯t say ¡®coal¡¯, but ¡®clean, beautiful coal.¡¯¡±

According to the White House press release, Trump delivered a speech at the United Nations General Assembly for an hour, ¡°unhiddenly proclaiming America¡¯s power, strongly condemning destructive globalism, and calling on countries to join forces against threats such as terrorism, migration, biological warfare and loss of cultural identity.¡±

During this period, Trump mentioned China when talking about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, saying that China and India are still buying Russian energy. He also threatened to take drastic measures against Russia, urging the EU to follow suit, but did not elaborate.

But the U.S. Cable News Network (CNN) said in a speech that Trump repeatedly insulted the United Nations. He mocked the UN headquarters building, questioned the organization's entire purpose, praised his achievements, and called the concept of climate change "a scam."

¡°Trump delivered a fighting and broad speech,¡± Reuters said, opposing immigration policy, urging countries to abandon climate change policies, harshly criticizing world leaders, while spreading a lot of false and misleading statements, according to reports, the speech was a reproach to the United Nations and a reflection of Trump¡¯s return to his first term style.

On the 23rd, Trump ¡°blasted¡± the world at the UN General Assembly.

¡°Fuck your country.¡±

At the beginning of the speech, Trump began to blast himself, saying that the United States under his leadership has entered the ¡°golden age.¡±

¡°Only eight months after I ruled, we became the hottest country in the world, and no other country can compare with us... During my first term, I built the greatest economy in the history of the world.

In this regard, CNN made a "hot comment" in the report: Trump suddenly became a "Boasts galore".

According to a recording of the public speech, Trump has expressed his dissatisfaction with two main issues: immigration and climate change.

Trump, who is proud of the recent achievements of the United States in combating illegal immigration, has called on other world leaders to take similar measures to curb what he calls ¡°the immigration flows that are changing national structures.¡± he said: ¡°The world is so beautiful because every country is unique ¨C but to maintain this state, every sovereign country must have the right to control its borders.¡±

¡°I¡¯m very good at this [fighting illegal immigration],¡± Trump blasphemed, ¡°and your country¡¯s ghost.¡±

During the speech, Trump repeated the unfounded assertion that ¡°climate change is a ¡®trick¡¯,¡± referring specifically to Europe, claiming that ¡°immigrants and their suicidal energy ideas will lead to the death of Western Europe.¡±

Immediately afterwards, Trump spread a lot of rumors about climate change, claiming that renewable energy is ¡°inutile¡± ¡°and expensive and bad.¡± He declared, ¡°In my opinion, this (climate change) is the biggest scam ever done to the world. There is no longer global warming, no longer global cooling...If you don¡¯t get rid of this green scam, your country will fail.¡±

He mentions that a large number of people die every year from heat in the United States and Europe.He denies that this is because of climate change, but because ¡°electricity is too expensive to use air conditioning.¡±He also says that he has a small rule in the White House ¨C never use the word ¡°coal¡± and only use the word ¡°clean, beautiful coal¡± and it sounds a lot better, isn¡¯t it?¡±

Trump tossed United Nations vocabulary, elevator, purpose...

In this speech, Trump spent a lot of time belittling and insulting the United Nations, including its purposes, and the United Nations building.

¡°Doesn¡¯t the United Nations have a vocabulary?¡± Trump said, ¡°I don¡¯t mind speaking without a vocabulary, because the vocabulary doesn¡¯t work... I can only say that no matter who operates this vocabulary, there¡¯s a lot of trouble.¡±

Trump has repeatedly complained about UN infrastructure issues. After complaining about the vocabulary, he also mentioned the elevator in the headquarters building. He said that the building's automatic ladder failed, he and First Lady Melania were briefly stuck, and Melania fell down because the ladder suddenly stopped.

"These are two things I got from the UN-bad escalators and bad teleprompters," Trump said.

A live video showed that Trump and his wife just walked up the automatic ladder and the ladder stopped working.

"Many years ago, a very successful real estate developer in new york, known as Donald Trump, was me. I bid for the renovation and reconstruction of this building ¡­" Trump turned up old scores, saying that the United Nations rejected his bid at that time. "It turns out that I was right. They overspent their costs and didn't even get the marble floor I promised them. Everyone walked on terrazzo. Did you notice?"

Trump then continued to complain that the United Nations did not support its efforts to end the global conflict, saying he ended ¡°seven endless wars¡± in just seven months without the help of the United Nations.

He questioned the purpose of the United Nations, claiming that the United Nations "only talks empty words" but does not act when faced with international problems.

¡°Everyone is saying I should win the Nobel Peace Prize for each of these achievements,¡± Trump continued, adding, ¡°I don¡¯t care about winning the prize, it¡¯s saving lives.¡±

CNN mentioned that Trump wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize very much, hoping to become the fifth American president to win the prize after woodrow wilson, teddy roosevelt, jimmy carter and Obama.

After demeaning the UN, Trump meets with Guterres

Trump framed China again

In his speech, Trump also talked about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the Gaza conflict.He rejected allies in succession announcing recognition of the initiative of the Palestinian State and urged European countries to adopt his economic measures against Russia to end the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Trump repeated the so-called ¡°reward,¡± saying the recognition of the Palestinian state was ¡°a tremendous reward for Hamas,¡± saying the United States hoped to reach a ¡°armistice in exchange for hostages¡± agreement, but did not give further explanation about it.

On the 22nd, French President Emmanuel Macron announced at the United Nations headquarters in New York that he officially recognized the State of Palestine. During the United Nations General Assembly, Western countries took action, and Britain, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Luxembourg and other countries announced that they recognized the State of Palestine, and more countries are expected to follow.

Since then, of the five permanent members of the Security Council, only the United States has refused to recognize the State of Palestine. So far, more than three-quarters of the 193 UN members and more than 80 percent of the international community have joined the ranks of recognizing the State of Palestine and defending the ¡°two-state solution.¡±

At the meeting on the 22nd, UN Secretary-General Guterres refuted the "reward" of the United States and Israel. He stressed: "For the Palestinian people, statehood is a right, not a reward."

Guterres said: ¡°There is no reason to defend the terrorist attacks or hostage taking by Hamas on October 7; there is no reason to justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people; and there is no reason to justify the developments in the West Bank that pose a survival threat to the two-state solution.¡±

Trump mocked NATO¡¯s European allies for not stopping buying Russian oil and said they would impose tough economic measures on Russia.

"They are funding wars against themselves, who has ever heard of that?" Trump said. "If Russia is unwilling to reach an agreement to end the war, the United States is fully prepared to implement a round of powerful tariffs. But for those tariffs to be effective, the European countries here must join us and adopt exactly the same measures." But he did not elaborate on measures.

It is worth mentioning that Trump mentioned China here, saying that China and India continue to buy Russian energy.

The Trump administration has repeatedly threatened sanctions against China¡¯s energy trade indicators.

The Chinese side has repeatedly stressed that China and other countries in the world, including Russia, conduct normal economic and trade and energy cooperation, which is legitimate and lawful.The US approach is typical of unilateral bullying and economic coercion, seriously undermining international economic and trade rules, threatening the security and stability of the global industrial supply chain.