Guterres pleads for 'world built on interdependence' in final General Assembly address

In a no-nonsense farewell speech, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged global leaders Tuesday to respond to the defining challenge today: Will the world continue on its path to fragmentation, or cooperate to tackle the existential threats from climate crisis, runaway artificial intelligence and intensifying inequalities? Read more'No peace without justice,' Macron tells UN General Assembly The UN leader has long implored leaders not to give up on cooperation and shared decision-making in the face of accelerating global challenges and increasing great-powers competition. Tuesday’s message at the UN General Assembly took on additional urgency because he leaves office at the end of this year. “The fault lines in our world are widening,” he said, citing raging wars, rising temperatures and artificial intelligence, among other matters. Instead of letting the future continue to veer toward fragmentation, transactionalism and mistrust, he called for “a world built on interdependence – and sustained by a dense web of economic, political, social and technological connections”. His speech opened the main portion of the world's biggest diplomatic meeting of the year. Leaders from the U...