UN chief warns world is one step from `nuclear annihilation’

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief is warning that “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gave the dire warning at the opening of the long-delayed high-level meeting to review the landmark 50-year-old treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and achieving a nuclear-free world. He cited the war in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear weapons to conflicts in the Mideast and Asia, two regions “edging towards catastrophe.” Guterres said the meeting is taking place “at a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War.”