An agreement to "transition away" from fossil fuels may be a landmark moment but don't expect quick changes among the major producers of the Gulf, where the deal was hammered out.

After the UN's COP28 climate talks in Dubai, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman immediately played down the text, insisting it would have "no impact on exports" from the country that ships more oil than any other.

The deal "doesn't impose anything" on oil-producing countries and allows them to cut emissions "according to their means and their interests", the minister said.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Thursday he was open to toughening up his controversial plan to send migrants to Rwanda, which has divided his ruling Conservative party.

The plan is Sunak's answer to a unanimous Supreme Court ruling last month that deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda is illegal under international law.

Sunak, who has been in power for just over a year, has staked his political future on cutting record levels of regular and irregular migration, with the issue set to be a key battle ground in the next general election.

Slowing demand growth and rising US crude production will make it more difficult for OPEC+ to continue to prop up prices, the IEA said on Thursday.

The OPEC+ cartel, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, has been restraining production to maintain prices but the latter have recently slumped due to the weakening of the global economy and increases in output outside the bloc.

The number of journalists killed in the line of duty fell this year, despite reporter deaths in Gaza in the past two months, media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said Thursday.

In the first 11 months of 2023, 45 journalists were killed carrying out their work, down from 61 last year, according to the annual report by RSF.

It was the smallest number since 33 died in 2002, largely due to a major drop in Latin America.

Israel's defence minister warned Thursday the war with Hamas would last "more than several months" as he met a top US official amid a rift between the allies over the timeline and conduct of the campaign.

The war, now in its third month, began after the Palestinian group's unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel that Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

The administration of President Joe Biden has begun to publicly air its differences with the Israeli government over the conduct of the war in Gaza, expressing its exasperation even as it remains largely steady in its support.

Biden referred this week to "indiscriminate bombing" in Gaza, underscoring his frustration with conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government Biden agrees is starting to lose global support.

The United States has told Israel of its concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza, the White House said Wednesday, after President Joe Biden warned Israel it could lose support over "indiscriminate bombing."

Biden's comments on Tuesday were his strongest criticism yet after resolutely standing up for Israel's right to defend itself after the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

"We have had concerns," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said when asked about Biden's remarks to donors to his reelection campaign at an event in Washington.

An Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank that lasted more than a day left at least seven Palestinians dead, the Palestinian health ministry said Wednesday, raising an earlier toll.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medics treated multiple others wounded in the military raid on Jenin, including a 27-year-old woman shot in the chest in the city's refugee camp.

The Israeli military said forces "confiscated approximately 30 weapons, ammunition, military equipment and weapon parts", without commenting on those killed.

Students and professors at Harvard are feeling bruised but hoping for a return to calm after claims of anti-Semitism linked to fury over the war in Gaza ripped through the famous institution and other elite US universities.

The historic campus in the heart of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was roiled in October by pro-Palestinian marches. The anger mirrored widespread concern among young, liberal American students over the civilian costs of Israel's war against Hamas after the militant group launched a bloody, surprise attack on October 7.

Family members of American hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza said they had a "terrific" meeting Wednesday with US President Joe Biden and were still hoping for a "Christmas miracle."

Biden held his first in-person meeting at the White House with about a dozen family members. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also attended, the White House said.

US officials say an estimated eight US hostages are still being held since Hamas militants' October 7 attack on Israel and four have been released so far.