- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- India maintain Pakistan stranglehold as Windies cruise at Women's T20 World Cup
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- Maresca hails Chelsea's 'fighting' spirit after draw with 10-man Forest
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Israel pounds Lebanon ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Toddler among 4 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
Record fossil fuel lobbyists as climate talks face off hardens
Battle lines on coal, oil and gas hardened at the UN climate talks on Tuesday where activists said a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber nearly every delegation in Dubai.
The divide is so stark that a new draft agreement included options to phase out fossil fuels or not addressing the issue at all, setting the stage for tough negotiations due to end next week.
Saudi Arabia -- the world's biggest oil exporter -- took a hardline stance, saying it would "absolutely not" agree to phasing down fossil fuels, let alone phasing them out.
This came despite scientists warning Tuesday that global warming could breach the 1.5C limit within seven years.
The thorny debate over the future of fossil fuels, the largest contributor to global warming, is the key battleground at the COP28 meeting hosted by the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.
- Phase-out vs status quo -
The latest version of a potential agreement in Dubai included three options -- an "orderly and just" phase-out, faster efforts to phase out fossil fuel projects that do not capture and store emissions, or "no text" on the subject.
Red lines are already being drawn, with nations digging in on traditional positions that have dogged past COP negotiations.
Saudi Arabia's energy minister said he would "absolutely not" agree to a phase-down of fossil fuels in the COP28 agreement, questioning if such a transition was even possible.
But Germany's climate envoy Jennifer Morgan said transforming the global energy system was "the only option".
"Renewables are the future, the end of the fossil age must become tangible here at the COP," she said.
- 'Hypocrisy' -
Wealthy economies have been accused of hypocrisy for demanding an exit from fossil fuels while expanding their own hydrocarbon projects.
Pedro Luis Pedroso, a Cuban diplomat, said developing nations were being asked to make drastic economic changes without being provided adequate support.
"If an extremely poor country discovers oil, how can we tell them they can't touch it, if nobody helps them?" Pedroso, who heads a grouping of so-called Global South nations, told AFP.
Morgan said progress was being made but admitted that "sometimes it is sluggish, but that is normal at this stage," she said.
- 'Elephant in the room' -
Laurence Tubiana, the architect of the landmark Paris climate accord in 2015, said the negotiations are "difficult because we're at a stage where all options are on the table and we don't see a balancing point.
"It's normal at this stage but it seems particularly difficult because we're talking about the elephant in the room, which is fossil fuels," Tubiana told AFP.
However, US climate envoy John Kerry said he was sure negotiators would find a way forward.
"When you have 195 countries coming into the negotiation, it's hard," he told Singaporean broadcaster CNA.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is also visiting UAE on Wednesday but there was no word on whether the leader of one of the world's biggest fossil fuel producers would visit COP28.
- Record oil lobbyists -
Nearly 2,500 fossil fuel lobbyists -- a record -- have been accredited for UN climate talks in Dubai, campaign groups said.
The NGO umbrella group Kick Big Polluters Out said 2,456 people tied to fossil fuel interests were identified, roughly four times the number at COP27 last year.
If taken as a group they outnumber "every country delegation" apart from Brazil and the UAE, the coalition added.
Campaigners have worried about the influence of the fossil fuel lobby since Sultan Al Jaber, the head of the UAE's national oil company ADNOC, was named president of COP28.
Dozens of people protested inside the COP28 venue under blistering sun, holding up signs reading "Stop funding fossil fuels" and chanting "Kick big polluters out!"
"If the United Nations continues to allow the fossil fuel industry to lead COP... I have zero confidence that COP will be successful," Thomas Harmy Joseph, a member of the US-based Indigenous Environmental Network, told AFP.
Th.Berger--AMWN