Read history · Notable stories

January 4, 2011

Mohamed Bouazizi

He stayed alive for eighteen days after setting himself alight. The famous story of the policewoman's slap later collapsed in court.

5:30 p.m. at Ben Arous

Mohamed Bouazizi died of severe burns at about 5:30 p.m. local time on 4 January 2011, in a hospital at Ben Arous outside Tunis. His brother Salem confirmed the death to AFP.

He was 26, and he had survived 18 days — not a month — since setting himself on fire outside a government building in Sidi Bouzid on 17 December 2010, after municipal officials confiscated his produce and scales and he failed to obtain redress.

The next day, more than 5,000 people reportedly joined his funeral procession from Sidi Bouzid toward his nearby home village.

His death did not start the protests

Demonstrations had already spread beyond Sidi Bouzid before 4 January. Amnesty International found that the movement gained particular momentum after his death and funeral, rather than beginning with them.

On 6 January, Tunisian lawyers staged a nationwide strike against police brutality.

His mother, Manoubia, said the decisive wound was repeated humiliation by officials rather than poverty alone.

The details that did not survive scrutiny

The celebrated account of a municipal inspector slapping Bouazizi is disputed. Fedia Hamdi denied it, four witnesses reportedly said no physical confrontation occurred, and the case was dismissed in April 2011.

Polished quotations attributed to him just before the act are retrospective, and his exact words are not securely documented; sources differ over whether the accelerant was petrol, paint thinner or another flammable liquid. He was not a university graduate — his family said he attended secondary school without finishing.

TIME's 2011 Person of the Year was not Bouazizi but a collective figure, “The Protester.”

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The death date, location and cause are well established, but several dramatic details of the 17 December confrontation remain disputed.
The allegation that Fedia Hamdi slapped Bouazizi was initially reported by his family and news organizations. Hamdi denied it, four witnesses reportedly said no physical confrontation occurred, and the court dismissed the case.
Sources variously identify the accelerant as petrol, paint thinner or another flammable liquid; an exact identification should not be asserted.
Direct quotations attributed to Bouazizi immediately before the act are retrospective and should be introduced as reported speech, not verified verbatim.

Checked against

January 14, 2011

Tunisian Revolution

The plane left at 5:47 p.m. Less than an hour later the prime minister was on television claiming the presidency — under a constitutional article that lasted one night.

A departure, not a resignation

A vast demonstration in central Tunis on 14 January 2011 demanded President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's departure; security forces eventually dispersed the crowd with tear gas. Protesters gathered outside the Interior Ministry carrying signs that read “Game Over.”

Ben Ali dismissed the government and called for legislative elections within six months, then left the country by air a few hours later. A peer-reviewed reconstruction based on interviews and court testimony puts the aircraft's departure for Saudi Arabia at 5:47 p.m.

He neither formally resigned nor executed a constitutional transfer before going. Later testimony indicates he believed he was taking his family to safety temporarily and had his pilot prepare a return flight.

Two acting presidents inside a day

At about 6:45 p.m., Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi appeared on television and invoked Article 56 of the constitution — the temporary-incapacity provision — to assume the interim presidency.

On 15 January the Constitutional Council treated the presidency as permanently vacant under Article 57, making parliamentary speaker Fouad Mebazaa interim president and returning Ghannouchi to the premiership. Its ruling stressed that Ben Ali had neither resigned nor properly transferred his authority.

A state of emergency and a nationwide curfew were announced, and the army deployed in several cities amid disorder and looting.

What did not fall that night

"The government falls" is defensible shorthand for the end of a 23-year presidency, but it hides the continuity: Ghannouchi and other figures from Ben Ali's administration held office in the first transitional government.

The governing party and former-regime officials were not swept out of state institutions on 14 January.

The unrest that followed elsewhere reached nearly a dozen countries by February 2011 and eventually more than a dozen — mostly republics, including Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria, rather than the long-standing monarchies the summaries tend to invoke.

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

Ben Ali’s physical departure and loss of power are certain, but his intention when boarding the aircraft is contested. Later testimony indicates he expected to leave only briefly and return after taking his family to safety.
Ben Ali did not formally resign or execute a constitutional transfer before departure. The Constitutional Council explicitly cited that absence when declaring the office permanently vacant on 15 January.
“The government fell” is defensible shorthand for regime collapse but obscures institutional continuity: Ghannouchi and other figures from Ben Ali’s administration remained in the first transitional government.

Checked against

March 6, 2011

Syrian civil uprising

The date is disputed, the number of children is disputed, and the march everyone remembers happened twelve days later.

Fifteen boys, by the best-supported account

According to Reinoud Leenders's peer-reviewed reconstruction, Syrian security forces arrested 15 schoolchildren aged 10 to 15 in Daraa on 6 March 2011, after anti-regime slogans appeared on their school walls.

The date is not settled. Leenders, FIDH and several retrospective chronologies use 6 March; other witness-based reports place the graffiti and initial arrests in mid-to-late February, and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child says only “March 2011.”

Nor is the number. Sources variously report 12, 15, 18 or 23 detainees, and accounts differ over whether every arrested child helped write the graffiti — some describe a broader sweep after one boy gave names under interrogation.

What the walls said, and where the boys went

Accounts associate the graffiti with slogans adapted from the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings, including “The people want the fall of the regime.” Others emphasize “Your turn, Doctor,” an allusion to Bashar al-Assad's medical training; the single word “freedom” is also reported.

The children were reportedly moved from Daraa's Political Security branch to Military Security in Sweida and then to the Palestine Branch intelligence prison in Damascus.

Human Rights Watch later documented that the boys were tortured in detention and that their families repeatedly petitioned local authorities and General Atef Najeeb, the Assad relative heading Daraa's Political Security branch, for their release.

No uprising began on the arrest date

The arrests were a catalyst, not a street uprising. Families went to officials first, and what they asked for was the return of their children.

The large Daraa demonstration came on 18 March, when several thousand people marched from the al-Omari Mosque demanding the children's release and greater political freedom. Documented live-fire responses belong to 18 and 20 March, not to the arrest date.

Syria severely restricted independent access in 2011, so early reconstructions leaned on witnesses, activists and refugees — but the claim that this incident's specific details are unavailable does not hold: HRW, FIDH, UN bodies and scholarly research document the arrests, the detention, the alleged torture, the family petitions and the March march in detail.

Researched 24 Aug 2026 8 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.

What the sources leave uncertain

The exact date is genuinely disputed. Leenders, FIDH and several retrospective chronologies use 6 March; other witness-based reports place the graffiti and initial arrests in mid-to-late February, while the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child states only “March 2011.”
Sources variously report 12, 15, 18 or 23 detainees. Fifteen boys aged 10–15 is the best-supported figure in the HRW and Leenders accounts, but it should not be treated as beyond dispute.
Accounts differ over whether every arrested child helped write the graffiti. Some reports describe a broader security sweep after one boy gave names under interrogation.
The exact graffiti also varies by account: “The people want the fall of the regime,” “Your turn, Doctor,” and the word “freedom” are all reported.

Checked against

July 9, 2011

South Sudan

Sudan — the state losing roughly a quarter of its territory — was the first country in the world to recognize its new southern neighbour.

A constitution signed, an oath taken

At a ceremony at the John Garang Mausoleum in Juba on 9 July 2011, the Republic of South Sudan was formally proclaimed independent and its national flag was raised.

James Wani Igga, speaker of the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly, read the declaration. Salva Kiir Mayardit signed the Transitional Constitution, lifted the document for the crowd, and then took the oath as the republic's first president.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attended and welcomed South Sudan as the newest independent nation in Africa and the world.

How the date got fixed

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement provided for a self-determination referendum and set an interim period that expired on 9 July 2011.

The vote itself was held in January and the final result announced on 7 February: 98.83% for separation, on a turnout of 97.58%. Eligible Southern Sudanese also voted in northern Sudan and in eight diaspora countries, not only inside the south.

Sudan accepted the result and was the first country to recognize the new state; the United States formally recognized it as sovereign and independent the same day.

What the flag-raising left open

South Sudan did not join the United Nations on 9 July. It was admitted on 14 July as the 193rd member state, and the African Union dates its membership to 27 July, with the formal admission ceremony on 15 August.

The mandate of the United Nations Mission in Sudan ended with independence, and the new United Nations Mission in South Sudan took over.

Abyei, the border, oil transit and revenue all remained unresolved — the new country was landlocked, and its oil still had to travel through pipelines and export facilities in Sudan.

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Checked against

November 15, 2012

Xi Jinping

Hu Jintao surrendered military command on the same day he gave up the party leadership — a sharper break than his own predecessor had made.

A plenum, not the congress

At the first plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party's 18th Central Committee in Beijing on 15 November 2012, Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the Central Committee.

The Party Congress that met from 8 to 14 November had not elected him. It elected the Central Committee, and that body's first plenum — attended by 205 full members and 171 alternates — made the choice the next morning.

The same plenum selected the 25-member Politburo and its seven-member Standing Committee: Xi, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.

The military chair moved with the job

The plenum also made Xi chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission, so Hu Jintao relinquished the party and military posts together instead of keeping military command after leaving the general secretaryship.

That was a cleaner handover than Jiang Zemin's, who had held the military chair for two more years after his own succession.

Xi then led the other six Standing Committee members onto a stage at the Great Hall of the People to meet Chinese and foreign journalists, and introduced the new central leadership.

Party leader, not yet president

Xi did not become president of the People's Republic that day. He remained vice president until the National People's Congress elected him president on 14 March 2013.

General secretary, PRC president and the chairmanships of the two Central Military Commissions are distinct offices, so “dual assumption of party and state power” does not describe 15 November 2012.

Xi became China's top political leader four months before he became China's president.

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Checked against

March 13, 2013

2013 papal conclave

White smoke came at 7:06 p.m. The crowd waited another 66 minutes to hear the name — and then heard a papal name nobody had used before.

7:06, 8:12, 8:22

The 115 cardinal electors meeting in the Sistine Chapel elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, on 13 March 2013. White smoke emerged at 7:06 p.m. Rome time.

At 8:12 p.m., Cardinal Protodeacon Jean-Louis Tauran announced the election from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica and disclosed that Bergoglio had taken the name Francis.

Francis appeared on the loggia at 8:22 p.m., opened with an informal “Brothers and sisters, good evening,” and joked that the cardinals had gone almost to the end of the earth to find Rome's bishop.

A blessing he asked for before giving

He led prayers for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose resignation had taken effect at 8:00 p.m. on 28 February and left the See of Rome vacant.

Then he bowed his head and asked tens of thousands of strangers to pray silently for a blessing upon him, before he blessed them.

He later explained the name: Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, seated beside him, had embraced him after the decisive vote and told him not to forget the poor, which set him thinking of Francis of Assisi while the final ballots were still being counted.

What the numbers and the name mean

He was the 266th pope and the 265th successor of St. Peter — compatible counts, because Peter is counted as the first pope but not as his own successor.

His name is Francis, not Francis I; a numeral would ordinarily be added only if a later pope chose the same name. The election and his acceptance made him pope that evening, while the Mass of 19 March inaugurated his public ministry rather than conferring the office.

He was the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas, though not the first non-European: several early popes came from North Africa or the eastern Mediterranean. The ballot totals remain secret.

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Checked against

2013

United States v. Windsor

The case that dismantled the federal definition of marriage started with an estate-tax bill for $363,053 — and the government appealed a judgment it agreed was right.

Five to four, on 26 June 2013

The U.S. Supreme Court decided United States v. Windsor on 26 June 2013, affirming the Second Circuit by five votes to four.

Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan, held Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty protected by the Fifth Amendment.

The decision affirmed the lower-court order requiring the Treasury to refund the $363,053 in estate tax paid by Edith Windsor's estate, with interest.

How a tax refund reached the Supreme Court

Windsor had married Thea Clara Spyer in Ontario in 2007. New York recognized the marriage before Spyer's death in 2009, but the federal government refused to treat Windsor as a surviving spouse.

The Justice Department told Congress it would stop defending Section 3 while the executive continued enforcing the statute and pursued review so the courts could rule definitively; the House's Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group intervened to defend it.

The Court held that the United States retained a sufficient stake because it had not paid the refund, even though the executive agreed with Windsor that Section 3 was unconstitutional.

What Windsor did not decide

It did not establish a nationwide constitutional right to marry — that came in Obergefell v. Hodges two years later — and it left DOMA Section 2 and state marriage bans standing.

Federal benefits did not all change that morning either. DOMA's definitions reached more than 1,000 federal laws; Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department would coordinate implementation across executive agencies, and the rules followed over ensuing months, generally on a place-of-celebration basis.

The majority's language is often sharpened in retelling. What it said was that no legitimate purpose overcame the statute's purpose and effect of disparaging and injuring couples whom states had protected.

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Date corrected

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date corrected. The research places this at 2013-06-26.

Checked against

March 21, 2014

Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

Putin did not sign the accession treaty that day; he signed the two laws ratifying it. Russia's own text said Crimea counted as admitted three days earlier.

Two laws at the Kremlin

On 21 March 2014, after Russia's Federation Council approved the measures, President Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law No. 36-FZ ratifying the accession treaty of 18 March and Federal Constitutional Law No. 6-FKZ purporting to admit Crimea and Sevastopol as Russian federal subjects.

The State Duma had approved the constitutional law on 20 March and the Federation Council on 21 March. The ceremony ended with the Russian anthem.

Russia's law treated Crimea as admitted from 18 March, even though the legislation completing that procedure was signed three days later.

Two entities, and one domestic procedure

Russian law designated two constituent entities rather than one administrative district: the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol.

The signing completed Russia's internal legal procedure. It did not produce an internationally recognized transfer of sovereignty from Ukraine, which did not consent to it.

Ukraine's Constitutional Court had ruled the Crimean declaration of independence unconstitutional on 20 March, and Ukraine's parliament publicized that ruling on 21 March.

The word "accession" takes a side

Describing this as a lawful territorial accession adopts Russia's framing. Six days later the UN General Assembly affirmed Ukraine's territorial integrity, deemed the 16 March referendum incapable of altering Crimea's status, and called on states not to recognize the change.

By the end of 21 March, Russia was treating Crimea and Sevastopol as federal subjects under its domestic law and beginning their administrative and legal integration.

The corpus article filed under this date describes none of that: it is an account of Ukraine's accession to the European Union, an unrelated subject.

Researched 24 Aug 2026 10 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The signing date is certain. The event’s legal framing requires care: Russia’s treaty purported to make admission effective on 18 March, while Putin’s signatures on 21 March completed the domestic legislative procedure.
Calling this a lawful territorial “accession” adopts Russia’s position. The UN General Assembly affirmed Ukraine’s territorial integrity and deemed the referendum incapable of altering Crimea’s status.

Checked against

June 29, 2014

Islamic State

The caliphate was not proclaimed from a palace or a mosque. It arrived as an audio file, released online by the group's spokesman.

An audio statement called “This Is God's Promise”

On 29 June 2014 the ISIL spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani released an online audio statement proclaiming a caliphate over the territory the organization controlled in Iraq and Syria.

Al-Adnani announced that the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been selected as caliph, and presented him under the regnal name “Caliph Ibrahim.”

Al-Baghdadi did not make the announcement himself. He appeared publicly at Mosul's al-Nuri Mosque on 4 July to reinforce the claim.

A name shortened, an authority extended

The declaration dropped “Iraq and the Levant” from the organization's name; it styled itself simply the Islamic State thereafter.

It demanded allegiance from Muslims and asserted that other jihadist emirates, groups and organizations lost legitimacy wherever the new caliphate's authority extended.

The proclamation coincided with the opening of Ramadan, after the capture of Mosul and other territorial gains in Iraq were added to the group's Syrian holdings.

Self-declared, and widely rejected

A later UN investigative account confirms the 29 June announcement, at a point when ISIL controlled substantial territory in Syria and Iraq under a command structure headed by al-Baghdadi.

What is contested is not whether the proclamation happened but whether it carried authority: the claim was self-declared, and Muslim scholars, governments and rival jihadist organizations rejected its legitimacy.

The organization did not come into being that day either — the declaration followed years of organizational evolution and recent military conquests.

Researched 24 Aug 2026 8 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The date and contents of the declaration are well documented. The uncertainty lies not in whether ISIL made the proclamation, but in its validity: its claim to be a caliphate was self-declared and broadly rejected.
The original declaration was an audio release. Reports sometimes conflate it with al-Baghdadi’s filmed Mosul sermon several days later.

Checked against

November 12, 2014

Philae (spacecraft)

Philae fell for seven hours with no engine and no steering, and the harpoons meant to pin it down never fired. One landing turned into three.

Released at 08:35, down at 15:34

Rosetta released the Philae lander at 08:35 GMT on 12 November 2014, 22.5 kilometres from the centre of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko; confirmation reached Earth at 09:03.

Philae descended for about seven hours without propulsion or guidance and first touched the comet at 15:34 GMT, at the chosen Agilkia site. The signal reached ESA's control centre at 16:03, because the one-way radio delay was 28 minutes 20 seconds.

It was the first soft landing on a comet — made by Philae, the detachable lander, not by Rosetta itself.

Three contacts, not one

The anchoring harpoons did not fire and the lander rebounded. Telemetry later showed three surface contacts: 15:34, 17:25 and 17:32 GMT.

After the first impact Philae stayed off the surface for about 1 hour 50 minutes and travelled roughly a kilometre, made a smaller second hop, and finally stopped at a poorly illuminated site later named Abydos.

ESA announced a single successful touchdown that afternoon; the three-contact trajectory was reconstructed from telemetry over the following days.

Working from a cliff shadow

Philae began its programmed experiments and sent images and scientific data to Earth through Rosetta while sitting unanchored in an uncertain orientation.

At its final site it received about 1.5 hours of sunlight during each 12.4-hour comet day; the site originally chosen would have given it nearly seven.

It completed most of its first science sequence and returned data for nearly 57 hours before entering hibernation as its battery depleted.

Researched 24 Aug 2026 9 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The date and first-touchdown achievement are certain. “Successfully lands” needs qualification because Philae failed to anchor, bounced twice and stopped far from the intended site.
ESA initially announced a single successful touchdown; the three-contact trajectory was reconstructed from telemetry over the following days.
The first touchdown occurred at 15:34 GMT on the comet, while Earth received confirmation at 16:03 GMT because of the radio delay.

Checked against

September 28, 2015

Recurring slope lineae

Nobody photographed flowing water. The decisive observation was an orbital spectrometer's chemical fingerprint of hydrated salts — and two years later the reading shifted.

What was actually announced

On 28 September 2015 NASA announced findings from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that it described as the strongest evidence yet for intermittent liquid-water activity on present-day Mars.

A team led by Lujendra Ojha published CRISM spectrometer observations showing hydrated-salt signatures at four recurring slope lineae locations, taken in seasons when the dark streaks were most extensive.

The signatures were interpreted as magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate and sodium perchlorate — salts that can help water stay liquid in cold Martian conditions.

Streaks that grow and fade

Recurring slope lineae are dark streaks that lengthen down steep slopes during warmer seasons and fade when conditions cool. NASA highlighted typical lengths of about 100 metres, some extending a few hundred, with activity associated with temperatures above roughly −23°C.

Neither the orbiter nor the study directly photographed or sampled flowing liquid. What was measured was hydrated minerals, used to support a hypothesis of contemporary water activity.

Hydrated salts hold water bound inside their crystal structure, and detecting them does not by itself demonstrate macroscopic flowing liquid.

The interpretation did not hold

The listing's phrasing overstates the result. The announcement concerned possible present-day seasonal brine — not a lake, a stream, a usable water supply, or evidence of life.

A 2017 topographic study found that the streaks end at slopes characteristic of dry granular flows and concluded that liquid water probably has a limited role. NASA now presents them as better matched to dry sand or dust movement, while allowing that small amounts of water may help trigger them.

That later work did not erase the salt detection. What it weakened was the claim that the streaks themselves are liquid flows.

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.

What the sources leave uncertain

The announcement date is certain, but the listed title overstates the result. NASA announced indirect spectral evidence supporting contemporary briny water activity, not direct detection of liquid water.
A 2017 topographic study found that RSL end at slopes characteristic of dry granular flows and concluded that liquid water probably has a limited role. NASA now presents the streaks as better matched to dry sand or dust movement, while allowing that small amounts of water may help trigger them.
Hydrated salts contain water bound within their crystal structure; detecting them does not by itself demonstrate macroscopic flowing liquid.

Checked against

November 30, 2015

2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference

Before anyone discussed planetary warming, more than 150 heads of state and government stood for a minute of silence for the people killed in the Paris attacks.

Opening day at Le Bourget

COP21 formally opened at Le Bourget, outside central Paris, on 30 November 2015. France immediately convened a Leaders Event for heads of state and government, presided over by President François Hollande.

More than 150 heads of state and government attended on opening day and delivered statements intended to give political impetus to the negotiations.

The conference observed a minute of silence for the victims of the recent Paris terrorist attacks before the leaders' speeches began.

Leaders first, deliberately

France had invited national leaders for the opening rather than a closing segment, so that they could hand negotiators an early political mandate.

Hollande, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and COP21 president Laurent Fabius addressed the event; UN General Assembly president Mogens Lykketoft chaired the end of the session.

More than 180 national climate action plans had been submitted before the conference opened.

Nothing was agreed that day

The Paris Agreement was not concluded on 30 November. Leaders left the detailed bargaining to negotiators, who worked nearly two more weeks; the agreement was adopted on 12 December.

Official records distinguish the scheduled dates, 30 November to 11 December, from the formal proceedings report, which runs through 13 December because the work went into overtime.

Describing the resulting nationally determined contributions as simply voluntary misses their hybrid character: countries choose their own targets, but the treaty requires parties to prepare, communicate and maintain successive NDCs.

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

Official materials distinguish scheduled dates from actual proceedings: the event was scheduled for November 30–December 11, the Paris Agreement was adopted December 12, and the formal conference report records the session as lasting through December 13 because work ran overtime.