1/ Earth’s on track to warm above 2 degrees Celsius and global reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are “nowhere near the scale” needed, according to a new report from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Under the current, combined climate pledges from the 193 Parties under the Paris Agreement, global temperatures are on track to rise to 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages by the end of the century – a full degree higher than the goal set out in the climate pact, which aimed to limit warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius. The U.N. said that while countries are “bending the curve of global greenhouse gas emissions downward,” the efforts “remain insufficient” and “to keep this goal alive, national governments need to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them in the next eight years.” (NBC News / New York Times / Bloomberg / CNBC)

2/ The World Meteorological Organization warned that atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide levels are accelerating and that 2020 and 2021 were the largest increases since record keeping began in 1983. “More bad news for the planet,” the WMO said in a statement. (Washington Post / NPR)

3/ A South Carolina judge ordered Mark Meadows to testify before the Georgia grand jury investigating Trump and his allies efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said her inquiry is examining “the multistate, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.” Willis had to petition a judge in South Carolina to compel Meadows to comply with the subpoena because he doesn’t live in Georgia. Willis noted that Meadows traveled to Georgia where an audit of the state’s election was underway and participated in the telephone call Trump made on Jan. 2, 2021 to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to “find” 11,780 votes that would enable Trump to defeat Biden in the state. South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Edward Miller ruled that Meadows must comply with a subpoena as his testimony is “material and necessary to the investigation and that the state of Georgia is assuring not to cause undue hardship to him.” Meadows plans to appeal the ruling. (Washington Post / CNN / New York Times / Associated Press)

4/ Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said the leak of his draft opinion eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after almost 50 years made some justices “targets for assassination,” complaining that the leak was a “grave betrayal of trust.” In his majority opinion to end Roe v. Wade, Alito wrote that the 1973 ruling was “egregiously wrong” and that there is no constitutional right to seek an abortion for a...