The world has never been more threatened or more divided, and is facing the “greatest cascade” of crises, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told global leaders on Tuesday, sounding an alarm over the Covid-19 pandemic, a climate crisis pummeling the planet and an upheaval in Afghanistan and other nations that is thwarting peace.
Guterres, in his address to the opening of the General Debate of the 76th Session of the General Assembly, said that human rights are under fire, science is under assault and economic lifelines for the most vulnerable are coming too little and too late, if they come at all, and solidarity is missing in action.
“I am here to sound the alarm: The world must wake up. We are on the edge of an abyss — and moving in the wrong direction. Our world has never been more threatened. Or more divided. We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes,” he said.
