This world is cruel. It's even lost the instruction manual. At the United Nations headquarters, the supposed temple of international law, a historic first took place on Monday: Melania Trump, wife of Donald Trump, presiding over a special Security Council meeting. So special! While bombs are flying, words are flying thick and fast.

The First Lady pleaded for "all children who are victims of war." The United States, she said, "stands with all children around the world." All of them? Even those learning geography through surgical strikes? Even those Iranian schoolgirls killed by training missiles? Two days after the start of the Israeli-American offensive against Iran, this display of empathy resembled a press conference, PowerPoint presentation included, tears optional.

Thousands of kilometers away, her husband, hand in hand with Benjamin Netanyahu, is redrawing the map with explosive force. Without a UN mandate, but with the quiet confidence of the powerful. When you have the power, you often have the official version. At the Security Council, they mourn the "heroes who fell for freedom." On the ground, they bury children who weren't even old enough to vote for peace.

So this is the new formula of multilateralism. A platform for compassion, a tarmac for bombers. History may well remember this surreal image: the wife presides, the husband presides in a different way.

Meanwhile, Macky Sall, a candidate for UN Secretary-General, certainly has a campaign slogan. Simply repainting the image of a diplomatic "Congolese" won't be enough. He'll have to rewrite the rules of a world where peace is proclaimed at the microphone and contradicted in the sky.