The entire planet sweltered to the unofficial hottest day in human recordkeeping July 3, according to University of Maine scientists at the Climate Reanalyzer project.

High temperature records were surpassed July 3 and 4 in Quebec and northwestern Canada and Peru. Cities across the U.S. from Medford, Oregon to Tampa, Florida have been hovering at all-time highs, said Zack Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Beijing reported 9 straight days last week when the temperature exceeded 35 C (95 F).

This global record is preliminary, pending approval from gold-standard climate measurement entities like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. But it is an indication that climate change is reaching into uncharted territory. It legitimately captures global-scale heating and NOAA will take these figures into consideration when it does its official record calculations, said Deke Arndt, director of the National Center for Environmental Information, a division of NOAA.

“In the climate assessment community, I don’t think we’d assign the kind of gravitas to a single day observation as we would a month or a year,’’ Arndt said. Scientists generally use much longer measurements — months, years, decades — to track the Earth’s warming. In addition, this preliminary record for the hottest day is based on data that only goes back to 1979, the start of satellite record-keeping, whereas NOAA’s data goes back to 1880.

But Arndt added that we wouldn’t be seeing anywhere near record-warm days unless we were in “a warm piece of what will likely be a very warm era” driven by greenhouse gas emissions and the onset of a “robust” El Nino. An El Nino is a temporary natural warming of parts of the central Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide and generally makes the planet hotter.

Human-caused climate change is like an upward escalator for global temperatures, and El Nino is like jumping up while standing on that escalator, Arndt said.

The global daily average temperature for July 3 came in at 17.01 degrees Celsius or 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a common tool often used by climate scientists for a good glimpse of the world’s condition. The reanalyzer is based on a NOAA computer simulation intended for forecasts that uses satellite data. It is not based on reported observations from the ground. So this unofficial record is effectively using a weather tool that is designed for forecasts, not record-keeping.

This average temperature may not seem that hot, but it’s the first time in the 44 years of this dataset that the temperature surpassed the 17-degree Celsius mark.

Hotter global average temperatures translate into brutal conditions for people all over the world. In the U.S., heat advisories are in effect this week for more than 30 million people in places including portions of western Oregon, inland far northern California, central New Mexico, Texas, Florida and the coastal Carolinas, according to the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center. Excessive heat warnings are continuing across southern Arizona and California, they said.

When the heat spikes, humans suffer health effects.

“Those hotter temperatures that happen when we get hotter than normal conditions? People aren’t used to that. Their bodies aren’t used to that,” said Erinanne Saffell, the Arizona state climatologist and an expert in extreme weather and climate events.

Saffell added that the risk is already high for the young and old, who are vulnerable to heat even under normal conditions.

“That’s important to understand who might be at risk, making sure people are hydrated, they’re staying cool, and they’re not exerting themselves outside and taking care of those folks around you who might be at risk as well,” she said.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Three progressive groups are spending more than $20 million in a new national ad campaign to promote President Joe Biden’s record as he begins his 2024 reelection race.

The ads from the groups Future Forward USA Action, Climate Power and Way to Win Action Fund, first shared with The Associated Press, aim to sell voters on Biden’s efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs, create clean energy jobs, and support the middle class as inflation takes a bite out of their take-home pay. The groups aim to remind Americans of what Biden has done in office, as many Democrats believe their party has not done enough to educate voters about what they have accomplished after 28 months in power.

“The Biden-Harris Administration has a good story to tell, and we’re making people aware of the real difference these policies will make in their everyday lives,” Chauncey McLean, the president of Future Forward USA Action, said in a statement. “This national advertising and marketing campaign will reach audiences on their TV and digital screens to highlight the Biden administration’s record of historic job growth and common-sense reforms that bring down costs for working people.”

The ads, which will air on national broadcast, cable and streaming platforms, were informed by Democratic research into what Americans knew about Biden’s accomplishments and which they responded to most positively when they heard about them, according to a person involved in the spending who was not authorized to speak publicly.

In an April poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Biden’s job approval rating stood at 42%, a slight improvement from 38% in March. The March poll came after a pair of bank failures rattled an already shaky confidence in the nation’s financial systems, and Biden’s approval rating then was near the lowest point of his presidency. The same poll showed just 47% of Democrats say they want him to seek a second term, up from 37% in February.

“America’s clean energy boom isn’t an accident. Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s clean energy plan, Big Oil is paying their fair share, and nearly 150,000 good-paying clean energy jobs are being created,” said Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power. “We’re excited to tell that story, and show Americans how President Biden’s clean energy plan is making a difference in their day-to-day lives.”

“The accomplishments of the Biden-Harris Administration are historic, and they’ve made life better for all people. We’re going to tell that story to the multi-racial, multi-generational majority who made these changes happen,” said Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Way to Win Action Fund. “Americans are coming together to defend our freedoms and rebuild our communities after a challenging period of history. These policy victories give us a chance to keep building a better future that works for all.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set on Tuesday to formally announce his plans to run for reelection in 2024, asking voters to give him more time to “finish the job” he began when he was sworn into office and to set aside their concerns about extending the run of America’s oldest president for another four years.

Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is betting his first-term legislative achievements and more than 50 years of experience in Washington will count for more than concerns over his age. He faces a smooth path to winning his party’s nomination, with no serious Democratic rivals. But he’s still set to face a hard-fought struggle to retain the presidency in a bitterly divided nation.

The announcement will come on the four-year anniversary of when Biden declared for the White House in 2019, promising to heal the “soul of the nation” amid the turbulent presidency of Donald Trump — a goal that has remained elusive.

While the question of seeking reelection has been a given for most modern presidents, that’s not always been the case for Biden. A notable swath of Democratic voters have indicated they would prefer he not run, in part because of his age — concerns Biden himself has called “ totally legitimate.”

Yet few things have unified Democratic voters like the prospect of Trump returning to power. And Biden’s political standing within his party stabilized after Democrats notched a stronger-than-expected performance in last year’s midterm elections.

For now, the 76-year-old Trump is the favorite to emerge as the Republican nominee, creating the potential of a historic sequel to the tumultuous 2020 campaign. But Trump faces significant hurdles of his own, including the designation of being the first former president to face criminal charges.

The remaining GOP field is volatile, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emerging as an early alternative to Trump. His stature is also in question, however, amid questions about his readiness to campaign outside of his increasingly Republican-leaning state.

As the contours of the campaign begin to take shape, Biden plans to campaign on his record. He spent his first two years as president combating the coronavirus pandemic and pushing through major bills such as the bipartisan infrastructure package and legislation to promote high-tech manufacturing and climate measures. With Republicans now in control of the House, Biden has shifted his focus to implementing those massive laws and making sure voters credit him for the improvements, while sharpening the contrast with the GOP ahead of an expected showdown over raising the nation’s borrowing limit that could have debilitating consequences for the country’s economy.

But the president also has multiple policy goals and unmet promises from his first campaign that he’s pitching voters on giving him another chance to fulfill.

“Let’s finish the job,” Biden said a dozen times during his State of the Union address in February, listing everything from passing a ban on assault-style weapons and lowering the cost of prescription drugs to codifying a national right to abortion after the Supreme Court’s ruling last year overturning Roe v. Wade.

Buoyed by the midterm results, Biden plans to continue to cast all Republicans as embracing what he calls “ultra-MAGA” politics — a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan — regardless of whether his predecessor ends up on the 2024 ballot. He’s spent the last several months road-testing campaign themes, including painting Republicans as fighting for tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy while trying to cut social safety net benefits relied on by everyday Americans.

The president also can point to his work over the past two years shoring up American alliances, leading a global coalition to support Ukraine’s defenses against Russia’s invasion and returning the U.S. to the Paris climate accord. But public support in the U.S. for Ukraine has softened in recent months, and some voters question the tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance flowing to Kyiv.

Biden also faces lingering criticism over his administration’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of war, which undercut the image of competence he aimed to portray to the world, and he finds himself the target of GOP attacks over his immigration and economic policies.

As a candidate in 2020, Biden pitched voters on his familiarity with the halls of power in Washington and his relationships around the world as he promised to return a sense of normalcy to the country amid Trump’s tumultuous presidency and the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

But even back then, Biden was acutely aware of voters’ concerns about his age.

“Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else,” Biden said in March 2020, as he campaigned in Michigan with younger Democrats, including now-Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “There’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.”

Three years later, the president now 80, Biden allies say his time in office has demonstrated that he saw himself as more of a transformational than a transitional leader.

Still, many Democrats would prefer that Biden didn’t run again. A recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows just 47% of Democrats say they want him to seek a second term, up from 37% in February. And Biden’s verbal — and occasional physical — stumbles have become fodder among the GOP, which has sought to cast him as unfit for office.

Biden, on multiple occasions, has brushed back concerns about his age, saying simply, “Watch me.”

During a routine physical in February, his physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, declared him “healthy, vigorous” and “fit” to handle his White House responsibilities.

Aides acknowledge that while some in his party might prefer an alternative to Biden, there is anything but consensus within their diverse coalition on who that might be. And they insist that when Biden is compared to whomever the GOP nominates, Democrats and independents will rally around Biden.

To prevail again, Biden will need to revive the alliance of young voters and Black voters — particularly women — along with blue-collar Midwesterners, moderates and disaffected Republicans who helped him win in 2020. He’ll have to again carry the so-called “blue wall” in the Upper Midwest, while protecting his position in Georgia and Arizona, longtime GOP strongholds that he narrowly won in his last campaign.

Biden’s reelection bid comes as the nation weathers uncertain economic crosscurrents. Inflation is ticking down after hitting the highest rate in a generation, driving up the price of goods and services, but unemployment is at a 50-year low, and the economy is showing signs of resilience despite Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

Presidents typically try to delay their reelection announcements to maintain the advantages of incumbency and skate above the political fray for as long as possible while their rivals trade jabs. But the leg up offered by being in the White House can be rickety — three of the last seven presidents have lost reelection, most recently Trump in 2020.

Biden’s announcement is roughly consistent with the timeline followed by former President Barack Obama, who waited until April 2011 to declare for a second term. Trump launched his reelection bid on the day he was sworn in in 2017.

Biden is not expected to dramatically alter his day-to-day schedule as a candidate — at least not immediately — with aides believing his strongest political asset is showing the American people that he is governing. And if he follows the Obama playbook, he may not hold any formal campaign rallies until well into 2024. Obama didn’t hold a reelection rally until May 2012.

On the heels of the announcement Tuesday, Biden was set to deliver remarks to union members before hosting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for a state visit at the White House. He plans to meet with party donors in Washington later this week.

Biden’s formal go-ahead comes after months of public incredulity that the president would seek another term despite plentiful signs that he was intent on doing so.

Ahead of the president’s announcement, first lady Jill Biden expressed disbelief herself at the persistent questions about her husband’s intent to run.

“How many times does he have to say it for you to believe it?” she told The Associated Press in late February. “He says he’s not done.”

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Sales of luxury homes fell 38.1% year over year during the three months ending November 30, 2022, the biggest decline on record, according to a new report from Redfin, a technology-powered real estate brokerage. That outpaced the record 31.4% decline in sales of non-luxury homes. Redfin’s data goes back to 2012.

The luxury market and the overall housing market lost momentum in 2022 due to many of the same factors: inflation, relatively high interest rates, a sagging stock market and recession fears. But the high-end market has slowed at a sharper clip for a handful of reasons, including:

• Luxury homes are often among the first to get cut from budgets during times of economic stress.

• Luxury properties are frequently used as investment properties, and with home values and rents poised to fall in 2023, investment prospects are lackluster.

• High-end home sales saw outsized growth during the pandemic, so they have more room to fall.

• Affluent buyers often have significant funds stored in the stock market, which has been losing value.

Expensive coastal markets led the decline in high-end home sales. In Nassau County, New York (Long Island), luxury-home sales plummeted 65.6% year over year during the three months ending November 30, the largest decline among the most populous metropolitan areas. Next came four California metros: San Diego (-60.4%), San Jose (-58.7%), Riverside (-55.6%) and Anaheim (-55.5%). These markets are prohibitively expensive for most buyers even when the economy is thriving, so it’s not surprising more buyers would back off during a downturn.

There are early signs that overall home buyer demand is starting to creep back as interest rates decline, which may ultimately cause the decline in luxury sales to ease. Mortgage applications and Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index—a measure of requests for tours and other buying services—have both been on the rise, and Redfin real estate agents say they are seeing more buyers move off of the sidelines.

“There has been a small shift in the market that’s not fully showing up in the data yet. With mortgage rates falling, a lot of house hunters see this as their moment to come back and compete,” said Seattle Redfin agent Shoshana Godwin. “Many of my buyers are taking out jumbo loans—mortgages typically used for purchases of high-end homes. While some data shows jumbo mortgage rates above 6%, some of my buyers are getting rates in the low 5% range.”

Luxury home supply rises most in six years

The number of luxury homes for sale rose 5.2% year over year to roughly 163,000 during the three months ending November 30, the largest increase since 2016. By comparison, the supply of non-luxury homes declined 5.7% to about 552,000.

The large decline in luxury home sales is contributing to the rise in supply, but new listings are also a factor. New listings of luxury homes fell just 2.9% year over year during the three months ending November 30, compared with a 19.8% drop in listings of non-luxury homes.

Home price growth slows across the board

Home price growth has slowed across the housing market due to ebbing demand. Prices of both luxury and non-luxury homes rose 10% year over year during the three months ending November 30, compared with 17% growth one year earlier. The median sale price was $1.1 million for luxury homes and $325,000 for non-luxury homes.

Metro-level highlights: three months ending November 30

• Home sales: Luxury home sales fell in every metro. The biggest declines were in Nassau County (-65.6% YoY), San Diego (-60.4%), San Jose (-58.7%), Riverside (-55.6%) and Anaheim, California (-55.5%). The smallest decreases were in Kansas City, Missouri (-20.2%), Cleveland (-21.5%), Virginia Beach, Virginia (-26.2%) Milwaukee (-26.4%) and Charlotte, North Carolina (-28.3%).

• Supply: Active listings of luxury homes rose in 21 metros, with the biggest increases in Austin, Texas (51% YoY), Denver (50.1%), Nashville (35.7%), Warren, Michigan (29.8%) and Atlanta (25.9%). The largest declines were in San Jose (-32.2%), Anaheim (-22.5%), Los Angeles (-19.4%), St. Louis (-18.5%) and Miami (-16.6%).

• New listings: New listings of luxury homes fell in 39 metros. The biggest declines were in San Jose (-39.2% YoY), Oakland, California (-37.1%), Anaheim (-29.8%), San Diego (-26.2%) and Orlando, Florida (-25.9%) The largest gains were in Denver (44%), Warren, Michigan (32.4%), Austin, Texas (20.2%), Detroit (16.3%) and Atlanta (15%).

• Prices: The median sale price of luxury homes rose in all but one metro—San Jose (-0.3% YoY). The biggest jumps were in Miami (28.1%), Tampa (27.7%), Charlotte, North Carolina (25%), West Palm Beach, Florida (25%) and Orlando (23.7%). The smallest increases were in San Francisco (0.1%), Nassau County (2.1%), Oakland (3.1%) and Portland, Oregon (5.8%).

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CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline shot up a whopping 79 cents over the past two weeks to a record-setting $4.43 per gallon (3.8 liters) as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is contributing to already-high prices at the pump.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday the new price exceeds by 32 cents the prior all-time high of $4.11 set in July 2008.

In today’s dollars, the previous record would be equal to $5.30 a gallon, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator.

The price at the pump is $1.54 higher than it was a year ago.

Lundberg said gas prices are likely to remain high in the short term as crude oil costs soar amid global supply concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Prices at the pump were rising long before Russia invaded Ukraine as post-lockdown demand has pushed prices higher. Crude prices plummeted in early 2020 as economies around the world shut down because of COVID-19 — the price of futures even turned negative, meaning some sellers were paying buyers to take oil. Prices rebounded, however, as demand recovered faster than producers pulled oil out of the ground and inventories dried up.

Then, the price increase accelerated after war began.

Energy prices are also contributing to the worst inflation that Americans have seen in 40 years, far outpacing higher wages.

Nationwide, the highest average price for regular-grade gas is in the San Francisco Bay Area, at $5.79 per gallon. The lowest average is in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at $3.80 per gallon.

According to the survey, the average price of diesel also spiked, up $1.18 over two weeks, to $5.20 a gallon. Diesel costs $2.11 more than it did one year ago.

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This story has been corrected to show that the inflation-adjusted dollar figure came from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, not Lundberg, and updates that figure from $5.24 to $5.30.

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