{"id":225299,"date":"2026-09-24T02:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T02:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/guterres-cracks-have-become-canyons-as-world-faces-four-tests-of-power-un-news\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T02:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T02:50:13","slug":"guterres-cracks-have-become-canyons-as-world-faces-four-tests-of-power-un-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/guterres-cracks-have-become-canyons-as-world-faces-four-tests-of-power-un-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Guterres: \u2018Cracks have become canyons\u2019 as world faces four tests of power – UN News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Humanity faces four defining \u201ctests of power\u201d \u2013 around war or peace, inequality, climate change and AI \u2013 that will determine whether the world moves towards a new era of cooperation or deeper division, the UN chief warned the General Assembly on Tuesday.<\/span>
With roughly 100 days remaining in his term as UN Secretary-General, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres delivered a wide-ranging speech that framed the world\u2019s most pressing crises not as isolated problems, but as different expressions of the same underlying struggle over how power is exercised and by whom.
\u201cThe greatest power is not the power to dominate. It is the power to build a future that works for everyone<\/strong>,\u201d he said, presenting his annual report of the Organization.
Describing a decade of eroding international norms \u2013 from civilians targeted in war, and humanitarian workers killed, to international law \u201ccast aside\u201d and fraying trust between nations \u2013 he said power itself is being fundamentally reshaped in three ways:
\u201cThe faultlines in our world are widening,\u201d he said. \u201cCracks have become canyons.\u201d
Rather than accepting fragmentation as inevitable, he called for galvanizing cooperation and a truly global network built on interdependence and shared rules while warning against sliding into rival blocs with separate economic and security systems, a scenario he has termed in recent years the Great Fracture.
Pointing to cascading crises across the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan and Myanmar, Mr. Guterres argued that so-called ceasefires have often amounted to little more than \u201clesser fires\u201d, with civilians continuing to pay the price.
He renewed calls for compliance with International Court of Justice<\/a> (ICJ<\/a>) orders regarding Gaza<\/strong> and warned that settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank threatens to extinguish the two-State solution.
He also condemned Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine as a clear violation of the UN Charter<\/a>.
Renewing longstanding calls for Security Council<\/a> reform, he singled out the continued absence of permanent African representation as \u201cunjust and indefensible\u201d<\/strong> given the 15-member organ\u2019s founding in a starkly different geopolitical era.
Highlighting the gap between record global wealth and the billions still lacking access to food, clean water, education and healthcare, he said inequality is not merely an economic issue but a question of power over opportunity, resources and self-determination.
He reiterated his long-held view that the international financial system leaves developing nations crushed by debt while facing climate disasters they did little to cause. 
In this vein, he called for faster debt relief, bolder multilateral development banks and fairer access to Special Drawing Rights created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF<\/a>).
Devoting particular attention to gender inequality, he announced that the UN has achieved full gender parity across senior leadership, headquarters staff, and professional roles for the first time<\/strong> in its history.
\u201cEquality is not a dream; it is a decision,\u201d he said, citing progress at the UN as proof that entrenched power structures can change.
On climate change, Mr. Guterres said the crisis is the \u201cmost profound intergenerational power imbalance<\/strong>\u201d, warning of a near-certain breach of the 1.5\u00b0C threshold.
Calling for polluters to \u201cpay\u201d and for developed nations to triple adaptation funding, he pointed out that major oil companies are reaping substantial profits since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine while global adaptation finance for developing countries remains a fraction of that sum.
Turning to AI, the Secretary-General warned that power is increasingly concentrated in data, computing capacity and algorithms, advancing faster than humanity\u2019s capacity to govern it.
\u201cThe danger is not technology,\u201d he said. \u201cThe danger is technology without accountability<\/strong>.\u201d
Guard rails on AI must be built, the UN chief said, adding that children must never become the test-subjects for unregulated systems.
\u201cLife-and-death decisions must never be surrendered to machines,\u201d he warned. \u201cKiller robots must have no place in our future.\u201d
To address this, he called for a multilateral AI risk management framework with independent oversight<\/strong>, stating firmly that children must never become test subjects for unregulated systems and that life-and-death decisions must never be surrendered to machines.
Mr. Guterres reaffirmed that peace, development and human rights are inseparable pillars of the UN Charter, rejecting any notion that dignity and rights can be divorced from security and opportunity<\/strong>.
In the face of global catastrophe more than 80 years ago on the battlefields of World War Two, the United Nations was created as an act of defiance of hope, of people who refuse to surrender the future to fear and of countries that know their futures are bound together.
Pledging to carry the \u201cspirit of resolve\u201d through his remaining time in office, he vowed to continue championing the UN Charter\u2019s values, even after leaving his post as Secretary-General.
\u201cThe world does not need a weaker United Nations<\/strong>,\u201d he said. \u201cIt needs a UN strong enough to face the world as it is and determined enough to build the world as it should be<\/strong>.\u201d
More than eight decades on from its founding, the UN General Assembly remains the place where the UN\u2019s 193 Member States come together to debate the defining challenges of the day, from war and peace \u2013 to development, climate change and human rights.
Each September, New York becomes the centre of global diplomacy as presidents, prime ministers, ministers and diplomats from around the world gather at United Nations Headquarters.
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Facebook Twitter Print Email Humanity faces four defining \u201ctests of power\u201d \u2013 around war or peace, inequality, climate change and AI \u2013 that will determine whether the world moves towards a new era of cooperation or deeper division, the UN chief warned the General Assembly on Tuesday.With roughly 100 days remaining in his term as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}