World News in Brief: Time for climate justice urges UN chief, Ukraine war update, call for ‘free and fair’ elections

With the annual average global temperature fast approaching the critical threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, last year officially smashed the global temperature record, the UN weather agency (WMO) confirmed on Friday.

Last year joined the list of the seven warmest years on record, the UN weather agency said on Wednesday, and was also the seventh consecutive year when the global temperature has been more than 1°C above pre-industrial levels; edging closer to the limit laid out under the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

There is a 50:50 chance of average global temperature reaching 1.5 degrees Celcius above pre-industrial levels in the next five years, and the likelihood is increasing with time, according to a new report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), published on Tuesday in Geneva.