Harry’s new sermon of doom!
How many of us feel battered, helpless, in the face of a seemingly endless stream of disasters and devastation. I understand, this has been a painful year in a painful decade
PRINCE Harry used a speech at the United Nations to deliver a despairing assessment of the state of the world yesterday.
He launched another intervention into US politics, hitting out at the ‘rolling back of constitutional rights’.
This was seen by many as a pointed attack on the Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn abortion laws.
Harry also referred – without any further explanation – to ‘the few weaponising lies and disinformation at the expense of the many’.
The 37-year-old prince had been invited to make the keynote speech to the UN General Assembly in New York at an informal event to mark International Nelson Mandela Day.
Harry arrived hand in hand with wife Meghan, 40, although the duchess had not been invited to speak.
She looked elegant in a black
Givenchy skirt and top – a duplicate of the green outfit she wore to Dublin when the couple were working royals in 2018 – and carrying a Mulberry handbag.
They ignored a question from a journalist as to whether a new book by investigative journalist Tom Bower about their rift with the Royal Family would exacerbate the situation.
Although the auditorium was barely half full, the prince’s 15minute speech appeared to be well received.
He said: ‘This has been a painful year in a painful decade. We are living through a pandemic that continues to ravage communities in every corner of the globe. Climate change wreaking havoc on our planet with the most vulnerable suffering most of all.
‘The few weaponising lies and disinformation at the expense of the many. And from the horrific war in Ukraine to the rolling back of constitutional rights in the US, we are witnessing a global assault on democracy and freedom – the cause of Mandela’s life.’ The prince said it is a ‘time of global uncertainty and division, when it’s all too easy to look around and feel anger or despair’. ‘How many of us feel battered, helpless in the face of the seemingly endless stream of disasters and devastation?’ he asked.
Harry, who has been accused of hypocrisy for preaching about climate change while using private jets, said: ‘As we sit here today, our world is on fire … again.’
The crisis will ‘grow worse unless our leaders lead, unless the countries represented by the seats in this hallowed hall make the decisions – the daring, transformative decisions – that our world needs to save humanity’, he added.
‘These decisions may not fit with the agendas of every political party.
‘They may invite resistance from powerful interests. But the right thing to do is not up for debate, and neither is the science.’
He revealed that one of his favourite possessions is a photograph of his mother, Princess Diana, meeting President Mandela. ‘When I first looked at the photo straight away what jumped out was the joy on my mother’s face: the playfulness, the cheekiness even – pure delight to be in communion with another soul so committed to serving humanity.
‘Then I looked at Mandela... the man who had endured the very worst of humanity... yet in that photo and so many others he is still beaming, still able to see the goodness in humanity.’
It was the first time that the Sussexes had been seen in public since flying to the UK briefly for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee last month.
‘Our world is on fire... again’