4 months ago
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The United Nations main lashed retired Thursday (January 15, 2026) astatine countries that interruption planetary instrumentality and called the attraction of powerfulness and wealthiness by the world’s richest 1% “morally indefensible.”
At the commencement of his last twelvemonth astatine the helm of the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the U.N. General Assembly that its 193 subordinate nations are facing “a satellite marked by self-defeating geopolitical divides, brazen violations of planetary law, and wholesale cuts successful improvement and humanitarian aid.”
All these forces are shaking the foundations of planetary practice astatine a clip erstwhile it is needed most, said Mr. Guterres, whose 2nd five-year word ends connected December 31.
“Some question to enactment planetary practice connected deathwatch,” the secretary-general said. “I tin guarantee you: We volition not springiness up.”
Mr. Guterres has repeatedly criticised Russia for violating the U.N. Charter, which requires that each state respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each nations, by invading Ukraine successful February 2022. He besides has criticised the United States for its military cognition successful Venezuela to seizure President Nicolás Maduro and its deadly attacks connected boats successful the Caribbean and Pacific that the U.S. says are carrying drugs.
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“When leaders tally roughshod implicit planetary instrumentality — erstwhile they prime and take which rules to travel — they are not lone undermining planetary order, they are mounting a perilous precedent,” Mr. Guterres said.
The U.N. main said radical astir the satellite are watching the erosion of planetary instrumentality and the consequences of impunity. He pointed to “the amerciable usage and menace of force; attacks connected civilians, humanitarian workers and U.N. personnel; unconstitutional changes of government; the trampling of quality rights; the silencing of dissent; the plundering of resources.”
He besides criticised countries that don’t wage their U.N. dues connected clip — different jab astatine the Trump administration, which did not wage its mandatory dues to the U.N.’s budgets successful 2025.
Mr. Guterres warned of the dangers of a attraction of powerfulness and wealthiness successful the world’s richest 1%, who clasp 43% of planetary fiscal assets.
“Increasingly, we spot a satellite wherever the ultra-wealthiest and the companies they power are calling the shots similar ne'er earlier — wielding outsized power implicit economies, accusation and adjacent the rules that govern america all,” helium said.
