U.N. CHIEF DELIVERS GRIM STATE OF WORLD SPEECH

Secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned the U.N.’S first-ever virtual meeting of global leaders Tuesday that the world is facing an “epochal” health crisis, the biggest economic calamity and job losses since the Great Depression, threats to human rights and worries of a new Cold War between the U.S. and China.

In his grim state of the world speech to the U.N. General Assembly’s annual highlevel meeting, the U.N. chief said the coronavirus that “brought the world to its knees” was but “a dress rehearsal for the world of challenges to come.”

He called for global unity, first and foremost to fight the pandemic, and sharply criticized populism and nationalism for failing to contain the virus.

But the prerecorded speeches from world leaders at the opening of the six-day session reflected deep global divisions.

President Donald Trump assailed China as the coronavirus villain, extolling his own actions in the pandemic and demanding that the global organization hold accountable “the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world.”

Trump’s speech was followed by a recorded speech from President Xi Jinping of China, who called the coronavirus a crisis shared by everyone. Offering no hint of contrition, Xi portrayed his nation of 1.4 billion people as having acted responsibly to combat COVID-19.

“Any attempt of politicizing the issue or stigmatization must be rejected,” Xi said.

Taken together, the speeches by the American and Chinese presidents punctuated the growing schism between the two superpowers during Trump’s first term, which has raised alarms about a new cold war.