These are troubling times. We have the COVID-19 pandemic, a global cost of living crisis, and a changing climate. The U.N. has warned of another danger – nuclear annihilation. The UN's Antonio Guterres warned that one small mistake could lead to a nuclear war. He said international tensions were "reaching new highs". He said Ukraine, the Korean peninsula, and the Middle East were possible flashpoints. He said we are "lucky" so far to have avoided nuclear conflict. However, he said luck was neither a strategy nor a shield to stop global tensions "boiling over into nuclear conflict".

Guterres painted a worrying picture. He said the world is in danger at a level not seen in decades. He warned that: "Humanity is just one misunderstanding…away from nuclear annihilation." Guterres was speaking at a conference for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He said now was the time to get the Treaty to "help the worrying world around us". He added: "Eliminating nuclear weapons is the only guarantee that they will never be used." There are almost 13,000 nuclear weapons around the world. The risks of nuclear proliferation are growing."