WORLD

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who arrived in New Delhi on Friday to attend the two-day G20 Summit, said he was “not very hopeful” of a peace solution to the Russia-Ukraine war in the "immediate future", news agency PTI reported. He, however, said that the global peace organisation was thankful to all the nations that tried to do “everything possible” for the conflict to end.

Addressing a press conference a day ahead of the summit, Guterres said, “I am not very hopeful to have a peace solution in the immediate future. I believe the two parties are still decided to move on with the conflict. But, we need to pay tribute to all those that with good intention tried to do everything possible for this dramatic situation to find an end.”

A Russian missile tore through an outdoor market in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing 17 people and wounding dozens, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to the country with more than $1 billion in new American funding for Ukraine, including military and humanitarian aid.

Blinken's fourth visit to the country was overshadowed by the strike in the city of Kostiantynivka, near the front line in the Donetsk region, that turned the marketplace into an inferno. It was one of the deadliest bombardments of civilians in the 18-month-old war. In addition to the dead, at least 32 people were wounded.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday it is important to avoid a “new Cold War” when dealing with conflicts between countries as world leaders gathered in Indonesia amid sharpening geopolitical rivalries across the Indo-Pacific region.

Speaking at an annual summit involving members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan and South Korea, Li said countries needed to “appropriately handle differences and disputes”.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN Summit 2023 is scheduled to begin tomorrow - September 5, 2023, in Jakarta, Indonesia. During the final summit of this year, ASEAN leaders and allies are expected to discuss various issues in South East Asia such as the Myanmar crisis, escalating tensions between the US and China and the dispute in the South China Sea.

After confirming his absence from the G20 Summit 2023 in India, Chinese President Xi Jinping will also be skipping the ASEAN Summit in Indonesia. Along with Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin will also be skipping both G20 and ASEAN Summit. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be representing the Russian Federation and Chinese Premier Li Qiang will be representing Beijing at these summits.

Elon Musk-run X (formerly Twitter) went down for hours for thousands of users after Sudan-based hackers hit the platform in a bid to put pressure on Musk into launching his cheaper internet Starlink service in their country.

The hacking group, called Anonymous Sudan, attacked X and took it offline in more than a dozen countries, reports the BBC. X was down for more than two hours, with thousands of users affected.