AP: U.N. chief appeals for cease-fires, warns pandemic wins wars
“The United Nations chief is appealing for cease-fires in the world’s major conflicts, from Yemen and Libya to Afghanistan and Nagorno-Karabakh, warning that if fighting continues ‘the only winner is the pandemic.’ Secretary-General António Guterres said in an interview with the Associated Press that he was renewing his March 23 call for an immediate halt to all conflicts to tackle the coronavirus crisis and to spotlight the most serious global hotspots ahead of Saturday’s 75th anniversary of the entry into force of the U.N. Charter, which officially established the United Nations and is celebrated as U.N. Day…” (Lederer, 10/22).

U.N. News: Classroom crisis: Avert a ‘generational catastrophe,’ urges U.N. chief
“The world is at risk of suffering ‘a generational catastrophe’ as COVID-19 wreaks havoc on the education of students globally, the U.N. chief said on Thursday. In a video message to the U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Global Education Meeting (GEM), Secretary-General António Guterres reminded delegates that the pandemic had had a ‘disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable and marginalized children and youth’…” (10/22).

Additional coverage of Guterres’s comments and the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks among schoolchildren is available from AP, New York Times, and VOA News.