“My message here today is one of hope not of despair” said UN chief António Guterres addressing journalists at a press conference in the Spanish capital, after revealing the key takeaways from the World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate report, due to be published during COP25. 

Speaking at the Internet Governance Forum taking place in Berlin, Secretary-General António Guterres warned that unless countries work together to address gaps in digital access, as well as related social and political divisions, this generation will be remembered as the one that “ruined the early promise of the Internet”.

Improving understanding of the nexus between terrorism, transnational organized crime and drug trafficking is essential, said Secretary-General António Guterres in his address to a high-level meeting involving the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a leading player in diplomacy in Eurasia. “Breaking up trafficking organizations and addressing the criminal use of fixed routes is crucial to countering movements of foreign terrorist fighters and arms, including to and from Iraq and Syria”, he said.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the deliberations on a nuclear-weapon free Middle East, Secretary-General António Guterres said the zone would have significance beyond the region. “I therefore hope this Conference will serve as the start of an inclusive process in which all the States of the region can participate,” he said. 

Speaking at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York which was marking the 81st anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom carried out by the Nazi regime, Secretary-General António Guterres said that since nobody is born to hate, intolerance can be prevented and unlearned, underlining his continued fight to stamp out antisemitism, racism and other forms of hatred.