world is experiencing troubling times. We have COVID-19 pandemic, global cost of living crisis, changing climate, and record heat waves. United Nations has warned of increasing danger - nuclear annihilation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that one small mistake could lead to nuclear war. Mr Guterres warned that international tensions were "reaching new highs". He pointed to Ukraine War, the Korean peninsula, and the Middle East as possible flashpoints. He said, "we have been extraordinarily lucky so far" to have avoided nuclear conflict. He said: "Luck is not strategy. Nor is it shield from geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict."
Guterres painted picture of world close to war. He said the danger level is at its highest since Cold War. He warned that: "Humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation." Guterres was speaking at conference for countries signed up to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This started in 1968. He said the conference was " chance to strengthen" the Treaty and "make it fit for the worrying world around us". He added: "Eliminating nuclear weapons is only guarantee that they will never be used." He said: "Almost 13,000 nuclear weapons are now being held in arsenals around world...at time when risks of proliferation are growing."
