KEY POINTS
- UN chief warned that global aid cuts are “wreaking havoc” and costing lives.
- He said development aid reductions amount to a “death sentence” for many and a “stolen future” for others.
- Guterres painted a bleak world order, citing unchecked crises and rising nuclear risks.
- The “pillars of peace” are collapsing under impunity, inequality, and indifference, he warned.
- He cited Sudan’s civilian suffering and Gaza’s prolonged conflict as urgent examples.
UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that cuts to aid budgets were “wreaking havoc” as he opened the organisation’s annual meeting of world leaders, painting a dark picture of the world order.
“But development aid cuts are wreaking havoc. They are a death sentence for many. A stolen future for many more,” he said without mentioning the United States, responsible for many of the cuts.
“This is the paradox of our time: we know what we need — yet we are pulling away the very lifeline that makes it possible.”
In a doom-laden speech, Guterres pointed to worsening crises in a growing number of countries and warned of the risk of nuclear proliferation.
“Far too many crises continue unchecked. Impunity prevails. Lawlessness is a contagion. It invites mayhem, accelerates terror, and risks a nuclear free-for-all,” he said.
He did hold out a glimmer of hope, pointing to the ceasefire brokered between Cambodia and Thailand, and the agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, “brokered by the United States.”
But the UN chief warned that the “pillars of peace” were “buckling under the weight of impunity, inequality, and indifference.”
“Sovereign nations, invaded. Hunger, weaponized. Truth, silenced. Rising smoke from bombed-out cities. Rising anger in fractured societies. Rising seas swallowing coastlines,” he said.
The UN’s leader said that “around the world, we see countries acting as if the rules don’t apply to them. We see humans treated as less than human.”
He pointed to Sudan where he said “civilians are being slaughtered, starved, and silenced” and Gaza where “the horrors are approaching a third monstrous year.”
‘Anti-democratic forces’ targeting institutions
Meanwhile, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned that “anti-democratic forces” were seeking to subjugate institutions after he was targeted by an alleged coup plot orchestrated by his predecessor.
Former president Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment earlier this month for his role in a botched coup bid after his 2022 election loss to leftist Lula.
US President Donald Trump, who spoke after Lula, has viciously attacked Brazil for pursuing far-right Bolsonaro and his son, ramping up economic sanctions and visa bans in retaliation.
But Trump said he had embraced Lula when they ran into each other at the UN headquarters Tuesday, and that they agreed to meet next week.
“Throughout the world, anti-democratic forces are trying to subjugate institutions and stifle freedoms,” Lula said at the UN’s signature diplomatic week, minutes before the encounter with Trump.
“Brazil sent a message to all aspiring autocrats and those who support them — our democracy, our sovereignty, are non-negotiable,” Lula told the UN General Assembly.
