Earth recorded its hottest year ever in 2024, with such a big jump that the planet temporarily passed a major climate threshold, several weather monitoring agencies announced Friday.

Last year’s global average temperature easily passed 2023’s record heat and kept pushing even higher. It surpassed the long-term warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit ) since the late 1800s that was called for by the 2015 Paris climate pact, according to the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Service, the United Kingdom’s Meteorology Office and Japan’s weather agency.

The European team calculated 1.6 degrees Celsius of warming. Japan found 1.57 degrees Celsius and the British 1.53 degrees Celsius in releases of data coordinated to early Friday morning European time.

American monitoring teams — NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the private Berkeley Earth — were to release their figures later Friday but all will likely show record heat for 2024, European scientists said. The six groups compensate for data gaps in observations that go back to 1850 — in different ways, which is why numbers vary slightly.

“The primary reason for these record temperatures is the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere” from the burning of coal, oil and gas, said Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead at Copernicus. “As greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere, temperatures continue to increase, including in the ocean, sea levels continue to rise, and glaciers and ice sheets continue to melt.”

Last year eclipsed 2023’s temperature in the European database by an eighth of a degree Celsius (more than a fifth of a degree Fahrenheit). That’s an unusually large jump; until the last couple of super-hot years, global temperature records were exceeded only by hundredths of a degree, scientists said.

The last 10 years are the 10 hottest on record and are likely the hottest in 125,000 years, Burgess said.

Appeals court halts 9/ 11 plea deal for now

An appeals court in Washington on Thursday temporarily halted a deal between the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — as well as other co-defendants — and the U.S. Department of Justice at the request of the Biden administration.

The court issued a temporary stay — a provisional suspension of the proceedings — which pauses all steps related to the proposed agreement until a final decision is made.

In its application to the appeals court, the Department of Defense had argued that the harm to the government and the public would be irreparable if the guilty pleas for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-accused were accepted, as it would deny a chance for a public trial and the opportunity to seek the death penalty.

In August, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had tried to withdraw the deals, which had initially been negotiated and approved by his department, but a military court ruled his move invalid. As a result, the agreement between the defendants and the judiciary had been back on track.

Report: Airstrike kills 40 in Myanmar village

An airstrike by Myanmar’s army on a village under the control of an armed ethnic minority group killed about 40 people and injured at least 20 others, officials of the group and a local charity said Thursday. They said hundreds of houses burned in a fire triggered by the bombing.

The attack occurred Wednesday in Kyauk Ni Maw village on Ramree island, an area controlled by the ethnic Arakan Army in western Rakhine state, they said. The military has not announced any attack in the area.

The situation in the village could not be independently confirmed, with access to the internet and cellphone service in the area mostly cut off.

Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the Arakan Army, said a jet fighter bombed the village on Wednesday afternoon.

Trump says meeting with Putin in the works

President-elect Donald Trump said a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is being set up.

At a meeting Thursday with Republican governors at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, the incoming president said Putin “wants to meet” and added, “we’re gonna — we’re setting it up.” Any such meeting, were it to happen, would come after the inauguration.

Trump has said he wants to bring about an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine even before he takes office for his second presidential term on Jan. 20, and his rhetoric has raised fears an armistice would be favorable to Russia. Putin last month said he’s ready to talk to Trump.

When asked about the prospect of Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping joining Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the Republican said, “to be determined, but President Putin wants to meet.

Democrat Fetterman to meet Trump in Florida

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman will become the chamber’s first Democrat to meet with President-elect Donald Trump since the election and plans to travel to Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The trip marks Fetterman’s continuing evolution from a leading surrogate for President Joe Biden into a Trump-friendly lawmaker since Trump won the premier battleground state of Pennsylvania in November.

Fetterman since has shown surprising warmth to Trump, complimenting his political appeal, agreeing with him on some policies and embracing some of Trump’s would-be Cabinet nominees.

Fetterman said in a statement Thursday that Trump invited him to meet and that he accepted.

“I’m the Senator for all Pennsylvanians — not just Democrats in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said. “I’ve been clear that no one is my gatekeeper. I will meet with and have a conversation with anyone if it helps me deliver for Pennsylvania and the nation.”

Willis seeks return to Trump elections case

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked Georgia’s highest court to review a lower appeals court’s ruling that removed her from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others.

The Georgia Court of Appeals last month ruled that Willis and her office could not continue to prosecute the case because of an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship she had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had hired to lead the case. In a petition filed late Wednesday, Willis asked the Georgia Supreme Court to review and reverse that decision.

The filing argues that the 2-1 ruling “overreached the Court of Appeals’ authority,” creating a new standard for disqualification of a prosecutor and disregarding decades of precedent.

Even if the high court eventually rules in Willis’ favor, it seems unlikely that she will be able to prosecute Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan. 20. But there are 14 other defendants who still face charges in the case.

Capitol riot fugitive arrested in Canada

An Indiana man who fled to avoid serving a nine-month prison sentence for storming the U.S. Capitol was arrested in Canada this week on the fourth anniversary of the mob’s attack.

Antony Vo was arrested “without incident” in Whistler, British Columbia, on Monday, said Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson Rebecca Purdy. Vo remained in custody on Thursday, according to an immigration lawyer who represents him.

Over 1,500 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. Vo is among more than 700 Jan. 6 defendants to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment. But he defied a court order to report to prison last year.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., sentenced Vo in April and ordered him to report to prison on June 14.

Vo hasn’t kept a low profile since he absconded. On social media, he frequently posts about his case and promotes conspiracy theories about Jan. 6. He has given several interviews to reporters, saying he expects to be pardoned by President-elect Donald Trump later this month.

Army commander to be Lebanese president

Lebanon’s parliament voted Thursday to elect army commander Joseph Aoun as head of state, filling a more than two-year-long presidential vacuum.

The vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking international assistance for reconstruction.

Aoun was widely seen as the preferred candidate of the United States and Saudi Arabia, whose assistance Lebanon will need as it seeks to rebuild.

Hezbollah previously backed another candidate, Suleiman Frangieh, the leader of a small Christian party in northern Lebanon with close ties to former Syrian President Bashar Assad.

— From news services