ugc_banner

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says a 'malady of mistrust' is spreading as he talks about private space ventures

WION Web Team
NEW DELHIUpdated: Sep 21, 2021, 11:03 PM IST
main img
Photograph:(Twitter)

Story highlights

The statement was made in reference to the private space trips by three billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson as they are vying to usher in a new era of private commercial space travelUN General Assembly 2021 | 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, while addressing the United Nation General Assembly said that a 'malady of mistrust' is spreading in the world when people see their fundamental rights and freedoms curtailed, when they see corruption, when they see billionaires joyriding to space while millions go hungry on Earth, and when young people see no future at all.

The statement was made in reference to the private space trips by three billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson as they are vying to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel.

Musk, Bezos and Branson have been investing billions of dollars into their space startups as they promised to ferry paying customers on rides to space.

Guterres also warned global leaders that the world has never been more threatened or more divided, and is facing the "greatest cascade" of crises, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, a global climate crisis, and unrest in Afghanistan and other countries as examples.

In his address to the General Debate of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Guterres stated that human rights are under attack, science is under attack, and economic lifelines for the most vulnerable are arriving too late and too little, if at all, and solidarity is lacking in action just when the world needs it most.