By DORANY PINEDA and JAE C. HONG, Associated Press

In the summers, the sky is jet black when Raul Cruz arrives at this Imperial Valley sugarcane field to start his day. He chops, cleans and bundles the crop, taking heed as the sun rises. It’s hard work, but so is starting at 4 a.m., even though he knows it’s the safest thing when temperatures in this California desert frequently soar into the triple digits.

“We just have to because we need to beat the heat,” said Cruz, who’s worked here for 15 years. They finish work by 9 or 10 a.m. to avoid the risk of heat stroke, he added, but when heat starts creeping up around 8 a.m., “mentally, it’s stressful.”

The hot climate that makes this Southern California region a farming powerhouse is also what makes it dangerous for farmworkers, who are increasingly vulnerable to rising temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and natural gas. Researchers from San Diego State University are working to understand the health consequences of heat stress on farmworkers and where heat is most extreme in this rural landscape. They hope their findings can lead to a better understanding of rural heat islands, identify gaps in research and help develop interventions that better protect them in the face of climate change.

“Workers could potentially be dying or having some serious issues,” said project leader Nicolas Lopez-Galvez, assistant professor in the School of Public Health at SDSU. “It’s better to start acting sooner.”

Mapping rural heat, understanding heat stress

Since the start of the 20th century, California temperatures have increased almost 3 F (about 1.7 C), according to state and federal data. Warming has accelerated, and seven of the state’s last eight years through 2024 were the warmest on record. While all areas of the state have warmed, Southern California is heating up about twice as fast as Northern California.

Ana Solorio, an organizer with the farmworker advocacy group Líderes Campesinas that is working with researchers, remembered feeling “suffocated” in the Coachella Valley summer heat when she was a farmworker. “With the humidity, it felt awful,” said Solorio, who’s lived in the Imperial Valley for more than 30 years. The heat was so intense she didn’t return for another season, preferring instead the cooler winter harvesting months of lettuce in the Imperial Valley.

“This (heat) can cause a lot of harm to their health,” she said.

Researchers are trying to understand how farmworkers’ heat stress might vary depending on the crops, the season and the number of breaks they take.

Over the past two years, they’ve collected year-round data from some 300 farmworkers. Body sensors measure things like core body temperature and heart rate while they work. Elsewhere in the fields, environmental monitors measure the day’s temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud cover, also known as the wet-bulb globe temperature, considered the best metric to understanding heat stress. Using satellite imagery along with historical and current wet-bulb globe temperature data, researchers are mapping areas of extreme heat, particularly in the Imperial and Coachella valleys.

Researchers are learning that ground level crops can expose workers to higher heat levels compared to tree crops, for example, but it also depends on their harvesting months. In the summers, farmworkers who prepare fields for planting or help maintain irrigation systems are also more exposed.

Rural heat can vary based on things like tree cover, proximity to a body of water and empty fields, which may be hotter. “It creates this island where people might be living or working that are higher in terms of heat stress compared to other places,” said Lopez-Galvez.

Extreme heat in major agricultural regions

Bordered by the Colorado River to the east, the Salton Sea to the northwest and Mexico to the south, the Imperial Valley is home to hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland and produces billions of dollars in agricultural production. It grows two-thirds of winter vegetables consumed nationally and provides thousands of jobs. From 2023 to 2024 alone, about 17,579 migrant and seasonal farmworkers were employed in Imperial County, according to the state.

It’s also extremely hot. In a given year, there are about 123 days with temperatures over 95 F (35 C), often exceeding 110 F (43 C) in August and early September, according to calculations by Sagar Parajuli, research scientist and adjunct faculty with SDSU’s geography department. The county has one of the largest Latino populations and the highest number of heat-related illnesses among workers than anywhere else in the state.

What researchers hope their work can do

Some of their data analysis has already been published.

One study found that irrigating crop fields in the Imperial Valley reduced the wet-bulb globe temperature on summer days, thanks to the cooling effect of evaporating water. But on summer nights, the opposite occurred: irrigation increased the wet-bulb globe temperature as humidity spiked. Irrigation also heightened heat in nearby urban and fallow areas adjacent to crop fields due to moisture transport.

“It is a concern because an elevated nighttime temperature restricts the ability of farmworkers to cool down,” said Parajuli, the study’s lead author. “So they can’t recover from the heat stress they could be accumulating from the daytime.”

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Through this research, the authors were able to recommend how frequently farmworkers should take rest breaks to protect themselves from heat stress, based on how often wet-bulb globe temperatures exceed safety thresholds across seasons and work shifts. While California has heat rules, they’re not strictly enforced, he added.

“We realized that farmworkers are not getting enough rest breaks, and also there are no clear policy guidelines in terms of heat-related rest breaks,” he said.

Lopez-Galvez said they plan to continue their research in California’s Central Valley and hope to expand it into Yuma, Ariz. and other parts of the Southwest.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

By SAM McNEIL, Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Friday said Meta and TitTok had breached their transparency obligations after an investigation that could result in billions of dollars in fines.

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The inquiry found both companies had violated the Digital Services Act, the EU’s trailblazing digital rule book that imposes a set of strict requirements designed to keep internet users safe online, including making it easier to report counterfeit or unsafe goods or flag harmful or illegal content like hate speech, as well as a ban on ads targeted at children.

“We are making sure platforms are accountable for their services, as ensured by EU law, towards users and society,” said Henna Virkunnen, the EU’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy in a post on X. ““Our democracies depend on trust. That means platforms must empower users, respect their rights, and open their systems to scrutiny. The DSA makes this a duty, not a choice.”

The 27-nation bloc launched investigations in 2024 into both Meta and TikTok. They found that the companies did not allow easy access to data for researchers. They also found that Meta’s Instagram and Facebook did not make it easy for users to flag illegal content and effectively challenge moderation decisions. “Allowing researchers access to platforms’ data is an essential transparency obligation under the DSA, as it provides public scrutiny into the potential impact of platforms on our physical and mental health,” according to a statement by the European Commission, the EU’s executive body. The inquiry found both Facebook and Instagram deployed “dark patterns” or deceptive interface designs for its protocol for flagging malicious content like child sex abuse or terrorist content. That led to a kind of obfuscation, with the Commission saying it was “confusing and dissuading” and “may therefore be ineffective.”

Meta spokesperson Ben Walters said the company disagrees with the findings but would continue to negotiate with the EU over compliance. “We have introduced changes to our content reporting options, appeals process, and data access tools since the DSA came into force and are confident that these solutions match what is required under the law in the EU,” he said. TikTok said Friday that it would review the findings but said that the transparency obligations of the DSA conflict with the EU’s strict privacy rules, the General Data Protection Regulation. “If it is not possible to fully comply with both, we urge regulators to provide clarity on how these obligations should be reconciled,” said Paolo Ganino, a spokesperson for TikTok.

Meta and TikTok can now file a response to the inquiry. Ultimately, the EU could fine the companies up to 6% of their annual profits — which could be in the billions.

By OLEG CETINIC, Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — A vividly hued Picasso portrait of longtime muse and partner Dora Maar that had remained out of view for more than eight decades is being auctioned Friday in Paris.

Painted in July 1943, “Bust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat (Dora Maar)” depicts Maar in a brightly colored floral hat. Maar, an artist and photographer herself, had been Picasso’s partner and muse for about seven years, and the relationship was coming to a painful close. The work was purchased in 1944 and had not been on the market since, remaining in the family collection.

The painting is being auctioned at the Drouot auction house, which called the reappearance of the work, part of Picasso’s “Woman in a Hat” series, “a moment of rare significance, revealing for the first time the full radiance of a work long kept secret.”

At a preview this week, Picasso specialist Agnes Sevestre-Barbé marveled at how vivid the portrait has remained.

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“We have a painting that is exactly as it was when it left the studio,” she said. “It wasn’t varnished, which means we have all its raw material, all of it. It’s a painting where you can feel all the colors, the entire chromatic range.”

“It’s a painting that speaks for itself,” she added. “You just have to look at it — it’s full of expression, and you can see all of Picasso’s genius.”

Previously, Sevestre-Barbé noted, the work had only been seen in a black-and-white photograph. “We couldn’t imagine from this photo that this painting was so colorful, so amazing, really.”

Auctioneer Christophe Lucien said the work was of huge interest across the globe.

“It’s being talked about in all the world capitals with a strong art market, from the United States to Asia, and of course through all the major European markets,” he said, declining to give an estimate of an ultimate sale.

By SOPHENG CHEANG

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet on Monday inaugurated a major new airport to serve the capital Phnom Penh and boost tourism and foreign investment.

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Techo International Airport is a three-runway facility that replaces the nearly 70-year-old Phnom Penh International Airport, which had only one runway.

The new $2 billion airport, in Kandal province about 19 miles south of Phnom Penh. began operating in September. It is a joint venture between the Cambodian government and the Overseas Cambodian Investment Corp.

Hun Manet said he hoped the new airport will be a driving forces in attracting more tourists and investors to Cambodia, “more than before the arrival of COVID-19.”

A statue of Buddha is displayed at Techo International Airport in Kandal province, Cambodia, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

The new airport is initially expected to be able to accommodate 13 million passengers, but its capacity will increase to 30 million after 2030, and up to 50 million by 2050.

The immediate prospects for a rise in foreign tourists have been overshadowed by the highly publicized death of a young South Korean man who reportedly was tricked into working in one of Cambodia’s online scam centers.

Many of the workers there are kept as virtual slaves to conduct online fraud in what is a multi-billion dollar organized crime activity. The illegal industry was highlighted last week when the United States and Britain enacted sanctions against organizers of a major Cambodian gang, and its alleged ringleader was indicted by a federal court in New York.

Tourism suffered another blow in July, when Cambodia fought a five-day conflict with neighboring Thailand. It was halted by a ceasefire but tensions remain high.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, front left, prays together with his wife Pich Chanmony to inaugurate Techo International Airport in Kandal province, Cambodia, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodia received about 4 million foreign tourists from January through August this year, Hun Manet said in September. Last year, it received 6.7 million, a 23% increase from 2023.

It is Cambodia’s second new major airport in two years. In October 2023, Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport was opened to help serve Cambodia’s most popular tourist attraction, the centuries-old Angkor Wat temple complex.