The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivered an unexpected moment of levity at the COP27 climate conference on Wednesday, reading the beginning of the wrong speech before realising, chuckling and starting again with a different opening line.
Speaking in the main plenary hall of the Sharm el-Sheikh conference on Wednesday, Guterres was due to give the opening address at a session with former US Vice President Al Gore on tracking carbon emissions.
"The world is losing the race against the climate crisis, but I am hopeful because of you. You have been relentless in holding decision makers to account," Guterres began before pausing in confusion and shuffling through his written speech.
Laughing to himself, he said: "I think that I was given the wrong speech."
The delegates assembled in the hall then applauded as the correct document was brought to him.
Guterres explained that he was due to speak to a group of young people after his address, and had begun reading the speech aimed at them instead.
The Utah trade school student jailed on suspicion of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk faces formal charges next week, according to the governor, from an act of violence widely seen as a foreboding inflection point in US politics.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for peace on Saturday in Manipur state, the scene of two years of deadly ethnic violence, as he unveiled a package of development projects there worth nearly $1 billion.
European Union countries have shelved plans to approve a new climate change target next week, after pushback from governments including France and Germany over plans to quickly land a deal, three EU diplomats said on Friday.
Nepal's President Ramchandra Paudel dissolved parliament and called for fresh elections on March 5, his office said late on Friday, following a week of deadly violence that culminated in the appointment of the country's first woman Prime Minister in the interim.