The Guardian: U.N. chief slams ‘myths, delusions and falsehoods’ around inequality
“The U.N. secretary general [on Saturday delivered] one of his most stinging speeches to date, attacking the ‘myths, delusions, and falsehoods’ around international progress on equality. In an unusually strongly worded speech, António Guterres urged major reform to the U.N. Security Council, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank, to address systemic inequalities exposed by the coronavirus pandemic. The health crisis had revealed the world’s fragility and ‘laid bare risks we have ignored for decades: inadequate health systems; gaps in social protection; structural inequalities; environmental degradation; the climate crisis,’ he said. He said the pandemic was exposing ‘fallacies and falsehoods everywhere: the lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all. The fiction that unpaid care work is not work, the delusion that we live in a post-racist world, the myth that we are all in the same boat’…” (McVeigh, 7/18).

AP: U.N. chief: World ‘at the breaking point’ due to inequalities (Anna, 7/18).

CNBC: U.N. official warns of decades of tragedies if wealthy nations don’t help in global coronavirus fight (Lovelace/Kim, 7/17).

Devex: Navigating through the U.N. COVID-19 response and procurement priorities (Coralde/Tamonan, 7/17).

Euronews: Human tragedies more brutal than COVID-19 if poor not helped with coronavirus fallout, says U.N. (Hurst, 7/18).

Fox News: U.N.’s António Guterres: As coronavirus rages, developed countries have ‘failed’ to help nations in need (Miles, 7/19).

Reuters: G20 should start talks on reducing debts of poorest countries: World Bank chief (Shalal, 7/18).

Reuters: UPDATE 2-At G20, Germany pledges 3 bln euros for poor countries (7/18).

U.N. News: ‘Inequality defines our time’: U.N. chief delivers hard-hitting Mandela day message (7/18).

U.N. News: World’s poorest being pushed ‘closer to the abyss’ of famine, warns WFP chief (7/17).