UN Chief: World ‘at the Breaking Point’ Due to Inequalities

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The U.N. secretary-general has made a sweeping call to end the global inequalities that sparked this year’s massive anti-racism protests and have been further exposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Antonio Guterres, who in delivered the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, says that “COVID-19 has been likened to an x-ray, revealing fractures in the fragile skeleton of the societies we have built."

The speech took aim at racism as well as the vast inequality of wealth.

Guterres said the world's 26 richest people hold as much wealth as half the global population.

He also says developing countries, and especially African nations, are under-represented at the levels of power at places like the World Bank and the U.N. Security Council.