Images from Gaza circulating on social media Thursday showed a mass detention by the Israeli military of men who were made to strip to their underwear, kneel on the street, wear blindfolds, and pack into the cargo bed of a military vehicle.

The exact circumstances and dates of the detentions are unclear, but some of the detainees’ identities were confirmed by colleagues or family members.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor posted an image of one detainment and said in a statement on its website Thursday that “the Israeli army detained and severely abused dozens of Palestinian civilians.”

“Euro-Med Monitor received reports that Israeli forces launched random and arbitrary arrest campaigns against displaced people, including doctors, academics, journalists, and elderly men,” it said.

The Israeli media, without indicating a source, has portrayed the images as the surrender of Hamas members. A journalist asked IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari about the images during a news conference on Thursday, saying, “We’ve seen images of many captives, Hamas terrorists, that the IDF arrested during the ground maneuvering.”

Hagari said that, in fighting Hamas, “those left in the area gradually come out.”

“We investigate and check who has ties to Hamas, and who does not,” he said. “We arrest them all and question them. We will continue dismantling each one of those strongholds until we are done.”

In a statement Thursday, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed said that one of its correspondents and several members of his family were among those detained as part of the incident portrayed in the images.

“Today, Thursday, the Israeli occupation army arrested the journalist and the director of ‘The New Arab’ office in Gaza, our colleague Diaa Al-Kahlot, from Market Street in Beit Lahia, along with a group of his brothers, relatives, and other civilians,” Al-Araby Al-Jadeed wrote.

“The occupation deliberately forced Gazans to take off their clothes, searched them, and humiliated them when they were arrested before taking them to an unknown destination, according to what the people there told us. Pictures and video clips spread showing soldiers arresting dozens of Gazans using criminal and humiliating method.”

Hussam Kanafani, the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed editor-in-chief, said in the statement that Al-Kahlot and his family were still missing.

“We will make every effort possible, in cooperation with international institutions and organizations concerned with the rights and freedom of journalists in the world, to determine the whereabouts of our colleague Diaa and release him as soon as possible,” Kanafani said.

Al-Madhoun said he was in contact with his sister, who is in Gaza.

He said that he recognized his cousin Aboud in one of the photographs and saw his brother Mahmood in a video. He said that Mahmoud is a shopkeeper and Aboud “is not involved in any activities; he helps his father in construction.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Gal Meir Eisenkot, the son of Israeli government minister Gadi Eisenkot, has been killed in northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Thursday.

Master Sgt. (Res.) Gal Meir Eisenkot, 25, a combat soldier in the 551st reserve commando Brigade’s 699th Battalion, died in battle, the IDF said in a statement.

His father was chief of the general staff of the IDF from February 2015 to January 2019, and served in the military for more than four decades.

Gadi Eisenkot joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime cabinet as minister without portfolio in the wake of Hamas’ October 7 attack.

He was elected to the Knesset in 2022 and is a member of Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party.

Gantz paid tribute to Gal Meir Eisenkot, saying in a statement: “May the memory of Gal and the memory of all those who fell in the battle for the home of all of us be blessed. Also in his name, also in their name, we continue the mission.”

Netanyahu also expressed his condolences to Gadi Eisenkot.

“The government of Israel and the citizens of Israel mourn together with you. Our heroes did not fall in vain. We will continue to fight until victory,” Netanyahu wrote on X.

A total of 88 IDF soldiers have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Stakes are high as Chinese leader Xi Jinping hosts European Union leaders in Beijing for a closely watched summit Thursday, which could decide whether the two major economies will be able to resolve deep trade tensions – or see those spiral further.

The one-day gathering is the first in-person EU-China summit in four years and follows a terse and frosty virtual event early last year, later described by EU diplomat Josep Borell as a “dialogue of the deaf.”

Brussels arrived with a list of key economic grievances its leaders say they need to see addressed to smooth ties with their most important trade partner. Beijing, meanwhile, has been busy trying to shore up relations with its key trading counterparts and foreign companies as it struggles with mounting economic challenges at home.

“Standing at a new starting point for China-EU relations, we need to sum up historical experience … demonstrate wisdom and responsibility, and stay committed to the correct positioning of our comprehensive strategic partnership,” Xi told the leaders during a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse Thursday.

The two sides should “continuously enhance political mutual trust,” “build strategic consensus,” and “remove all kinds of interference,” he stressed.

His words echoed comments from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier in the week, which touted the visit as a chance to “push China-EU relations to a new level with new prospects.”

Li Mingjiang, an associate professor of international relations at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said the priority for Chinese leaders is to stabilize the domestic economy, and Beijing sees the EU as potentially playing a valuable role.

“China has strong incentive right now to further improve relations with European countries,” he said.

But expectations were low for major breakthroughs, given entrenched points of difference between the two sides, from economic relations to their starkly different positions on Russia’s war against Ukraine, which two years on China has yet to condemn.

On the table

The meeting comes amid Europe’s broad recalibration of its policy toward China. Earlier this year the bloc began its push to “de-risk” European supply chains from China and secure critical technologies amid rising concerns about Beijing’s global ambitions and economic practices.

Visiting leaders European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel and top EU diplomat Josep Borrell signaled ahead of their visit that they were ready to press Xi and Premier Li Qiang on a list of economic concerns.

“China is the EU’s most important trading partner. But there are clear imbalances and differences that we must address. We both recognize the importance of de-risking and strengthening the resilience of our economies,” von der Leyen told Xi as their meeting got underway Thursday.

In the lead up to the summit, European leaders spoke frankly about their sticking points – and implied that they would take a harder line if progress wasn’t made.

Key among those issues is the gaping trade deficit between the EU and China, which Brussels blames on Beijing’s subsidies for Chinese companies and barriers to entry into the Chinese market.

Borrell last month in an address to EU ambassadors warned that “if China continues to deny the reality and consequences of this imbalance, it runs the risk of seeing a rising demand in Europe for more protection.”

In September, the bloc announced it was launching an investigation into China’s state support for makers of electric vehicles as soaring imports of their cars stoked fears for the future of European auto manufacturers.

China has slammed the move as a “protectionist practice,” claiming the rapid growth of its electric vehicle industry is down to “technological innovation, free competition and a complete industrial supply chain.”

It’s also pushed back on Europe’s “de-risking,” launching a diplomatic campaign criticizing the policy as illogical and politically motivated, with state-backed media taking aim at von der Leyen in particular for spearheading it.

In comments Thursday reported by state media, Xi also made an apparent reference to the policy, telling the visiting leaders: “We should not regard each other as rivals just because we have different systems, reduce cooperation just because there is competition, or engage in confrontation just because we have differences.”

Ahead of Beijing’s Thursday’s closely watched summit, analysts said Beijing may be willing to make some gestures toward further opening its market for European investment or addressing the trade deficit, but there were low expectations in Europe for any major progress.

“Europeans have come to realize the concrete outcomes will be limited. European officials and corporate people feel that (China’s) ‘open-door’ policy is no longer,” said Philippe Le Corre, a Paris-based senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, referring to perceptions that China is no longer a hospitable place for foreign business.

The visiting leaders were expected to reiterate throughout their visit that the “de-risking” policy to diversify supply chains does not mean they wish to decouple their closely connected economies. And both sides are also expected look for areas of collaboration.

“Von der Leyen and Michel are keen to maintain (open) lines of communication,” said Le Corre.

“(That’s) especially with the unknown result of the 2024 US elections — what if a new Trump administration was to come back with a trade sanctions policy against the EU? What if he was to disengage with NATO?” he said.

‘Constructive relationship’

For Xi, the meeting comes on the heels of a largely friendly summit with American President Joe Biden, where despite tensions the two sides reached significant agreements including on military communication and environmental protection.

Improving ties with Europe may be “even more important” for Xi, according to Steve Tsang, director of SOAS China Institute at the University of London. Amid competition with the US, Beijing is keen to not see the EU “side with Washington,” he said.

Over the past year, Chinese officials have made multiple diplomatic efforts to repair relations with Europe.

But even still, Xi “will not make major concessions to the EU without getting something big in return,” according to Tsang.

This month Beijing has appeared to make a goodwill gesture by allowing visa-free travel to passport holders from a handful of European countries including France and Germany. And in comments Thursday, Xi was quoted by state media as saying China was pursuing “high-level opening-up” and was “ready to regard the EU as a key partner in economic and trade cooperation,” though no further details were included.

Beijing’s crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong, alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic had already strained ties long before China refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

On Thursday, visiting European leaders had been expected to push Xi to ensure that Chinese firms are not supporting the Russian war effort. Unlike the US, Europe so far has refrained from blacklisting Chinese companies believed to be providing goods that could be used on the battlefield.

The two sides were also expected to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.

Beijing has not condemned Hamas for the October 7 attack on Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people and sparked the latest conflict – setting its stance at odds with Europe and the US. It’s instead focused criticism of Israel’s strikes on the enclave which have killed more than 15,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

Speaking to Xi and other leaders as the meeting began, von der Leyen called for an “end to the Russian aggression against Ukraine” and for all possible efforts to “work for a two-state solution in the Middle East.”

“As major powers in the world, the European Union and China have global responsibilities. We have a shared interest in peace and security,” the EU chief said.

Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan issued a state of emergency Thursday after a blast at an explosives store injured scores of people and brought the country to a standstill.

It is unclear if there were any casualties following the explosion.

Schools are closed and only essential workers are permitted free movement after the explosion caused “massive damage” in the Providence industrial area and surrounding areas, according to a statement from the president’s office.

The country has also recently experienced heavy rains and flooding that has caused “major destruction,” the statement said.

“Following an explosion at the CCCL explosives store that has caused massive damage to the Providence Industrial area and the surrounding areas and major destruction caused by flooding due to heavy rains, the President has declared a State of Emergency for today the 7th December,” the statement outlined.

According to local media, at least 100 people were injured in the blast and another two were killed by floods.

The Providence Industrial area is located in Mahé, the largest of 115 islands in the Seychelles archipelago.

Officials in Providence said the rubble-strewn area was akin to a “war zone” as nearly every building in the area sustained significant damage, according to local reports.

Ramkalawan’s office asked the public to cooperate with the police and stay home.

Seychelles, a former British colony, is situated in the Indian Ocean, off the East African sub-region. It is also the least populated African nation with just over 100,000 people.

A 44-year-old American visiting the Bahamas from Boston was killed in a shark attack while paddleboarding near a beach resort Monday, according to local authorities.

The woman had traveled to the Bahamas with a male relative, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a news release.

“Preliminary reports indicate that the victim, along with a male relative, was paddle boarding away from the shoreline in waters at the rear of a resort in western New Providence when she was bitten by a shark,” the release said.

A lifeguard at the resort noticed the attack and went into the water on a boat to try and rescue the victim along with the relative.

The lifeguard administered CPR to the woman, police said.

“The victim suffered significant trauma to the right side of her body. She was examined on scene by emergency medical technicians, who concluded that she showed no vital signs of life,” the police said in a release.

Authorities haven’t released the woman’s identity.

The incident comes days after a woman was killed in an apparent shark attack at a Mexican resort. The woman was found dead by emergency services at the scene in Melaque Bay in the Cihuatlán municipality.

Despite their rarity, the attacks still happen on occasion. Last year, a cruise ship passenger was killed by a shark while snorkeling in the Bahamas. And in 2019, an American woman was also killed while snorkeling in the Bahamas after three different sharks attacked her.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said relations with the United Arab Emirates were at an all-time high during his first visit to the Middle East since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

Putin praised cooperation between the two countries as he met President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi Wednesday, describing the UAE as “Russia’s main trading partner in the Arab world.”

He is later scheduled to visit Riyadh to meet Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), as part of a whistlestop tour in which Moscow hopes to flaunt and continue to foster its close ties with Gulf states as wars rage in the Middle East and Europe.

The visit marked a rare foreign trip for Putin since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest for alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have not ratified the ICC’s Rome Statute and so are not obliged to arrest the Russian president.

The ICC’s arrest warrant has placed significant restrictions on Putin’s ability to travel internationally. He did not attend in person the BRICS summit in Johannesburg in August, since South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute.

Putin enjoys good relations with both Gulf states, which have remained neutral over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, despite Western pressure for them to join sanctions against Russia.

A cavalry escort accompanied Putin to the main entrance of the Qasr al-Watan Palace where he was received by his UAE counterpart, Russian state media TASS reported. The palace played the anthems of both countries before the presidents walked along a guard of honor.

Stressing the historical ties between Russia and the UAE, Putin said the Soviet Union was one of the first countries to recognize the UAE as a sovereign state in 1971.

The two leaders would use the visit to discuss issues ranging from oil and trade to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the Israel-Hamas war, Putin said ahead of the talks.

After the Abu Dhabi delegation, Putin will travel to Riyadh, Moscow’s main partner in OPEC+, a group of the world’s major oil producers to whose ranks Russia was admitted in 2016.

The two Gulf states have also helped Russia to facilitate recent prisoner swaps.

Saudi Arabia’s MBS played a key role in brokering a deal last September that helped release nearly 300 people, including 10 foreigners and commanders who led the Ukrainian defense of Mariupol.

Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also involved in the agreement which saw US basketball star Brittney Griner swapped for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout at Abu Dhabi airport almost exactly a year ago, the two countries said at the time.

Responding to the report on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti: “We do not discuss this topic publicly.”

Despite the Biden administration’s continuous efforts to bring home Whelan and Gershkovich, both of whom have been officially recognized as wrongfully detained by the State Department, there has been no success.

Monday marked the 250th day of Gershkovich’s imprisonment, while Whelan is entering his fifth year in Russian detention this month.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has attempted to apologize for the thousands of lives lost to Covid-19 while he was in power, but was interrupted by protesters as he tried to do so.

Johnson was giving evidence on Wednesday morning at the United Kingdom’s public Covid inquiry, which the former leader set up in May 2021.

During his opening statement, Johnson was heckled by demonstrators believed to be from a group of families who lost loved ones during the pandemic.

Four people stood up when Johnson began to say he was sorry, holding signs reading “the dead can’t hear your apologies,” the UK’s PA Media news agency reported. The protesters were then ejected from the hearing by the inquiry chair Heather Hallet.

One of them, 59-year-old Kathryn Butcher, later told the agency: “We didn’t want his apology. When he tried to apologize we stood up. We didn’t block anybody. We were told to sit down.”

Butcher, who is from London, told PA Media that her 56-year-old sister-in-law, Myrna Saunders, died from Covid-19 in March 2020, adding that Johnson saw the demonstrators’ signs during the protest.

More than 200,000 people were killed by the coronavirus during the pandemic in the UK, one of the highest death tolls in Europe, and Johnson’s government was widely criticized for its response.

“I understand the feelings of these victims and their families, and I am deeply sorry for the pain and the loss and suffering of those victims and their families,” Johnson said.

“I do hope that this inquiry will help to get the answers to the very difficult questions that those victims in those families are rightly asking,” the former prime minister continued in his opening remarks.

Despite opening with an apology, Johnson would not be drawn on specific errors that he considered himself or his government to have made.

He went on to defend his actions during the pandemic by saying: “I think we were doing our best at the time, given what we knew, given the information I had available to me at the time.” He continued: “Were there things that we should have done differently? Unquestionably.”

Johnson’s conduct during this period has been under intense scrutiny due to the evidence given by others to the inquiry, suggesting that his government permitted a culture that prohibited the right decisions being made.

The inquiry is currently examining how Johnson and his senior team reached decisions such as implementing lockdowns and why specific choices were taken at specific times. Johnson’s evidence to the inquiry has already attracted negative headlines as WhatsApp messages requested from his personal phone could not be given to the inquiry due to what he claims is a technical issue.

Some of Johnson’s most senior former aides have suggested that Johnson was “bamboozled” by the science as it was presented to him, while his former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, has been vocally critical of Johnson’s management style, comparing him to an out-of-control shopping trolley.

When asked if he thought it was unusual for advisers and officials to be as critical of a leader as they were of Johnson during the pandemic – including on the question of his own competence – the former PM replied: “No I think this is wholly to be expected”

While still in office, Johnson became the first sitting prime minister to receive a fine from the police, for breaking his own Covid lockdown rules. The “Partygate” scandal, during which members of his team – and the then-prime minister himself – attended events that breached the national Covid rules played a large part in Johnson losing the support of his governing Conservative Party and ending his time in office.

Editor’s Note: The following story includes graphic material. Audience discretion is advised.

Simchat Greyman had to pause several times when describing the evidence of sexual violence he saw when recovering bodies of victims of the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel.

One body was so severely brutalized that he and his colleagues from ZAKA, the ultra-orthodox Jewish human remains recovery organization, couldn’t tell whether it was a man or a woman.

Greyman described finding a woman who was shot in the back of her head, lying on her bed, naked from her waist down. A live grenade was planted in her hand.

And then there was the body with the nails.

“I was called into a house, I was told there are few bodies over there. I saw in front of my eyes a woman, laying (down). She was naked and she had nails …,” Greyman managed to say before pausing for a long time, struggling to get the words out.

“She had nails and different objects in her female organs. Her body was brutalized in a way that we could not identify her,” he added, the trauma clearly visible on his face.

Greyman was testifying at a United Nations session on sexual and gender-based violence in the October 7 Hamas terror attack, hosted by Israel at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday.

He was one of several eyewitnesses invited to address the meeting, providing evidence that sexual violence and rape occurred and were weaponized by Hamas during the attacks.

Mounting evidence

The evidence of sexual violence presented during the session at the UN was ample and overwhelming and came from different sources.

While Greyman spoke about his experience from the search and rescue operations, Yael Richert, a superintendent with the Israel Police, shared information gathered during the investigation so far.

She said survivors of the terror attack told investigators they witnessed Hamas terrorists perpetrating sexual violence against the victims. She quoted testimonies of several individuals all of whom either directly witnessed sexual violence or saw clear evidence of it.

“There were girls with broken pelvis due to repetitive rapes, their legs were split wide apart in a split,” Richert quoted one survivor of the Nova music festival massacre as saying.

We heard girls that were pulled out from the shelters. Girls that shouted. They raped girls. Burnt them just after that. All the bodies outside were burnt

Yael Richert, superintendent, Israel Police

“We heard girls that were pulled out from the shelters. Girls that shouted. They raped girls. Burnt them just after that. All the bodies outside were burnt,” Richert said, reading from another testimony.

Shari Mendes, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservist who looked after the bodies of female soldiers killed during the attack, also described the evidence she saw, saying many of the bodies arrived in “bloody shredded rags or just an underwear and their underwear was often very bloody.”

“Our team commander saw several female soldiers who were shot in their crotch, intimate parts, vagina, or shot in the breast. There seem to be a systematic genital mutilation of a group of victims,” she added.

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, held a separate session on sexual violence last week. One Knesset member, Yulia Malinovsky, accused Hamas of “raping women in order to humiliate” Israel as a nation.

Hamas has repeatedly denied allegations that its fighters committed sexual violence during the attack — despite the evidence.

Israeli and US officials believe that Hamas continues to hold hostage a number of civilian women in their twenties and thirties, despite agreeing it would release all women and children as part of the truce agreement last week. US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that Hamas’ refusal to release them was “what broke this deal and ended the pause in the fighting.”

Difficult investigations

The Israel Police said previously that they had been interrogating suspects, compiling evidence from the scenes of the terror attack and interviewing witnesses as part of their investigation into sexual crimes and other atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7.

While the evidence of sexual violence found on victims’ bodies appeared overwhelming, the police said last month that its investigators did not have firsthand testimony from survivors and that it was not even clear whether any victims survived.

Since then, dozens of hostages have been released from Gaza as part of a truce between Israel and Hamas and some have also mentioned sexual abuse during their testimonies.

Speaking after a private meeting with some of the released hostages and relatives of those still being held in Gaza on Tuesday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had heard stories of sexual abuse.

“I heard, and you also heard, about sexual abuse and incidents of brutal rape like nothing else,” he told a news conference.

Israeli’s public broadcaster, Channel 11, has obtained and released an audio from the meeting on Tuesday, in which former hostages described their time in captivity.

“They’re touching the girls and everyone knows it,” one of them said.

As well as Israel, several international organizations have vowed to investigate the sexual crimes committed by Hamas. Last week, the chair of a UN commission of inquiry investigating potential war crimes on both sides of the Israel-Hamas war said it will probe accounts of sexual violence allegedly carried out on October 7.

International response

Israel has accused international organizations and the media of ignoring the issue.

Netanyahu called out the UN for what he said was a delay in acknowledging the allegations of sexual violence committed by Hamas.

“I heard stories which broke my heart on the torture, both mental and physical,” Netanyahu said at a news conference following his Tuesday meeting with former hostages in Tel Aviv.

The Israeli prime minister added that until a “few days ago” he had not heard the UN or human rights organizations decry the claims of sexual violence.

The UN agency UN Women found itself the primary target of the criticism, with activists calling it out for remaining silent on the issue of Hamas sex crimes and choosing instead to focus on the plight of women in Gaza. UN Women put out a statement on Monday condemning the attacks and saying it was “alarmed by the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence during those attacks.”

“I say to the women’s rights organizations. I say to the human rights organizations, you have heard of the rape of Israeli women. Horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation. Where the hell are you?” Netanyahu said.

Biden also addressed the issue at a fundraiser in Boston on Tuesday, calling “on all of us — government, international organizations, civil society and businesses — to forcefully condemn the sexual violence of Hamas terrorists without equivocation. Without equivocation, without exception.”

He said that testimonies and reports that have been shared over the past few weeks showed “unimaginable cruelty.”

“Reports of women raped — repeatedly raped — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of women’s corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them. It is appalling,” Biden said.

The thorniest issue at the global climate summit in Dubai is clear: Fossil fuels. More precisely, the role they should play in our rapidly warming future.

As negotiators thrash out the terms of core agreements that will emerge from COP28, the big question is whether countries will ultimately agree to a phase-out of oil, gas and coal, a phase-down — or neither.

The difference between phase-out and phase-down sounds like semantics, but the ability of the world to hold back catastrophic climate change may hinge on it.

While concrete definitions are hard to pin down, a phase-out generally means the world will at some point stop burning oil, gas and coal altogether and bring levels of planet-heating pollution down to zero.

A phase-down, however, leaves the door open for countries to continue burning fossil fuels.

Tensions around the terms were heightened this week in the wake of newly surfaced comments made by COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, in which he claimed there was “no science” saying a phase-out of fossil fuels is necessary to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

He told reporters Monday that his comments were misinterpreted, and a fossil fuel phase-out was “inevitable” and “essential,” but the comments sent shockwaves through the summit.

More than 100 countries have pushed for the phase-out language, and dozens of scientists signed an open letter Wednesday stating that “the link between climate science and fossil fuel phase out is unequivocal.”

So, if the agreement lands on phase down, will that make it even harder to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius?

“In isolation, yes,” Rogelj said, “but words and context matter and it’s not black or white.” A text that agreed on a phase-down of all fossil fuels by 2050, for example, with specific targets for the decline of coal, oil and gas could be very positive, he said.

The devil will be in the detail, and even if the more ambitious phase down terminology is agreed, there’s another important word to account for: “unabated.”

The EU and the US, for example, have both called for a phase-out of “unabated fossil fuels.” This would mean an end to burning oil, gas or coal without capturing the planet-heating pollution before it escapes into the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming.

The “abatement” refers to carbon capture and removal — a set of techniques that are being developed to remove carbon pollution from the air and to capture what’s being produced from power plants and other polluting facilities, then storing it or reusing it. Many scientists have expressed concern that carbon capture is expensive, unproven at scale and a distraction from policies to cut fossil fuel use.

The world has taken so long to cut emissions that scientific bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say a limited amount of carbon capture will be needed. It is likely to be required for certain sectors, such as agriculture and aviation, for which “zero emissions does not seem possible in the coming decades,” said Pierre Friedlingstein, a climate professor at the University of Exeter in the UK.

The question is, how much would be used and how effective would it need to be: If a fossil fuel plant captured 51% of its emissions, for example, would that be considered abatement?

The word “is meaningless without clear quality standards,” said Lisa Fischer, a program lead at climate think tank E3G.

The summit’s final agreement is expected around December 12, and experts are pushing for language to be precise, given the stakes.

Clarity is essential, Fischer said. “Ambiguity now doesn’t help anyone but the fossil fuel industry.”

Venezuela’s president ordered the creation of a new state called “Guayana Esequiba” on Tuesday, following a controversial Sunday referendum which saw Venezuelan voters approving the annexation of land from neighboring Guyana.

The area in question, the densely forested and oil-rich Essequibo region, amounts to about two-thirds of Guyana’s national territory. Venezuela has long claimed the land and dismisses an 1899 ruling by international arbitrators that set the current boundaries.

Guyana has called the move a step towards annexation and an “existential threat.”

Talking to legislators on Tuesday, President Nicolás Maduro showed a “new map” of Venezuela including the disputed territory and said all residents from the area would be granted Venezuelan nationality. He said the map would be distributed throughout all schools and public buildings in the country.

Maduro also signed a “presidential decree” creating the “High Commission for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba.

The measures announced include the approval of oil, gas and mining exploration licences. Maduro ordered the state oil company PDVSA to create a special department, “PDVSA-Esequibo,” to manage the activities in the region which are to start immediately.

The president also asked legislators to draw up a law banning the hiring of any companies that have worked with Guyana in areas of disputed water, and giving companies currently in the region three months to leave the area.

The measures also include a census among residents of that territory in order to facilitate the attribution of the Venezuelan nationality.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Washington continues to “a peaceful resolution of the border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana”.

“The 1899 award determined the land boundary between Venezuela and Guyana should be respected unless or until the parties come to a new agreement or a competent legal body decides otherwise. So we would urge Venezuela and Guyana to continue to seek a peaceful resolution of their dispute. This is not something that will be settled by a referendum,” he said.

Sparsely-populated and with high rates of poverty, Guyana has seen rapid transformation since the 2015 discovery of oil off the coast of the Essequibo region by ExxonMobil, with over $1 billion in annual government oil revenue fueling massive infrastructure projects. The country is set to surpass the oil production of Venezuela, long dependent on its own oil reserves, and is on track to become the world’s highest per capita oil producer.

Writing for Foreign Policy last year, ahead of the announcement of the referendum, Paul J. Angelo of the Council on Foreign Relations and Wazim Mowla, the assistant director for the Caribbean Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, called the border dispute a “powder keg,” arguing that Russian President Vladmir Putin’s “defiance of international norms” with the invasion of Ukraine “could give new wings to Maduro’s territorial ambitions.”

Guyanese Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo echoed the comparison at a recent news conference.

“I don’t know if they are miscalculating based on what happened in Crimea and other places, but it would be a grave miscalculation on their part,” Jagdeo said.

“We can’t just think that this is internal politics (in Venezuela) without taking all possible measures to protect our country, including working with others,” he added, citing a visit in late November by US military officials to discuss ongoing joint training exercises.

Maduro stands to gain politically from Sunday’s referendum amid a challenging re-election campaign. In October, the Venezuelan opposition showed rare momentum after rallying around Maria Corina Machado, a center-right former legislator who has attacked Maduro for overseeing soaring inflation and food shortages, in the country’s first primary in 11 years.

“An authoritarian government facing a difficult political situation is always tempted to look around for a patriotic issue so it can wrap itself in the flag and rally support, and I think that’s a large part of what Maduro is doing,” said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst with the International Crisis Group.