By SYLVIA HUI, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Voters in Ireland went to the polls Friday to elect one of two women as their new president for the next seven years, a largely ceremonial role in the European Union member country.

Catherine Connolly, a left-wing independent lawmaker who has the backing of Sinn Féin and is known for her strong stance against Israel, is widely seen as the leading candidate to become the head of state. The latest polls show she holds a significant lead with about 40% of support from voters, ahead of the 20% to 25% for her rival Heather Humphreys, representing center-right party Fine Gael.

Early voters arrive at Scoil Mhichil Naofa (St Michael’s National School) in Athy, Co Kildare, as voting beings in Ireland’s presidential election, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (Niall Carson/PA via AP)

The two are the only contenders after Jim Gavin, the candidate for Prime Minister Micheál Martin’sFianna Fail party, quit the race earlier this month over a long-ago financial dispute. Others — including musician Bob Geldof and the former mixed martial arts champion Conor McGregor — failed to receive enough backing for a nomination.

The winner will succeed Michael D. Higgins, who has been president since 2011, having served the maximum two seven-year terms. Connolly or Humphreys will be Ireland’s 10th president and the third woman to hold the post.

Here’s what to know about the election:

Parties on the left back Connolly

Connolly, 68, is a former barrister who has been an independent lawmaker since 2016. She has drawn criticism for her views on Palestinians and the militant group Hamas, among other issues.

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She was previously seen as an unlikely presidential candidate, but became the front-runner after Gavin dropped out. Though Gavin stopped campaigning, his name remains on the ballot paper.

In September, Martin criticized Connolly’s comments that called Hamas “part of the fabric of the Palestinian people,” saying she appeared reluctant to condemn the group’s actions in the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel that ignited the two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. She later maintained that she “utterly condemned” Hamas’ actions, while also criticizing Israel for carrying out what she said was a genocide in Gaza.

Opponents have said she risked alienating Ireland’s allies after she warned about the EU’s growing “militarization.” Some have also questioned her past role as a lawyer representing banks that repossessed people’s homes.

Connolly has garnered endorsements from left-leaning parties, including Sinn Féin, the Labour Party and the Social Democrats.

She said this week she “will be an absolutely independent president with an independent mind.” Her campaign website says she “wants to be a president for all the people, especially for those often excluded and silenced” and a “voice for equality and justice.”

Connolly began her political career when she was elected as a local political representative on the Galway City Council in 1999. Five years later, she was elected mayor of the city of Galway.

Humphreys stresses centrist approach

Humphreys, 64, has been in government for more than a decade, formerly serving in several Cabinet positions where she oversaw arts and heritage, business and rural development.

She was first elected as a local politician in 2004 and was a member of parliament from 2011 until 2024. She has stressed that she is a pro-business, pro-EU candidate.

Raised a Presbyterian in the mostly Catholic country, she said she would strive for unity and “build bridges” with communities in Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K. and has a large Protestant population.

“I’m a center-ground person. I’m a middle-of-the-road person, like most Irish people,” she said in this week’s final presidential debate.

While Humphreys underlined her years of experience in government, Connolly criticized her as a representation of “more of the same,” saying she is aligned with the outlook of recent governments.

The president’s role

Ireland’s president plays an important ceremonial and constitutional role and represents the Irish state on the world stage.

The president appoints the prime minister, called the Taoiseach, after a vote in parliament, as well as other government officials and judges on the government’s advice.

The president also signs into law bills passed by lawmakers, and can call fresh elections if the prime minister no longer has the support of lawmakers.

While the role does not have the power to shape laws or policies, past presidents have been known to air their views on important issues. Higgins has spoken out on the war in Gaza and NATO spending, among other things.

When results will be known

Polls close at 10 p.m. local time Friday. Counting begins Saturday, and the result is likely to be known by late Saturday.

The new president will be inaugurated at a ceremony in Dublin Castle the day after.

By JOSH FUNK, Associated Press

The ongoing government shutdown continues to disrupt flights at times and put pressure on air traffic controllers who are working without pay.

Flights were delayed Thursday at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, New Jersey’s Newark airport and Washington’s Reagan National Airport because of air traffic controller shortages. The number of flight delays for any reason nationwide spiked to 6,158 Thursday after hovering around 4,000 a day earlier in the week, according to FlightAware.com.

Many Federal Aviation Administration facilities are so critically short on controllers that just a few absences can cause disruptions, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said that more air traffic controllers have been calling in sick since the shutdown began. Early on in the shutdown, there were a number of disruptions at airports across the country, but for the past couple of weeks, there haven’t been as many problems.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, left, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., walk through Statuary Hall at the Capitol to a news conference on day 23 of the government shutdown, in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Duffy plans to hold a news conference later on Friday at the Philadelphia airport with the head of the air traffic controllers union, Nick Daniels, to highlight the added stress the shutdown is putting on controllers. Already, some controllers have taken on second jobs to earn some cash to help them pay their bills while the shutdown drags on.

Daniels said in a message to union members Friday that controllers should be focused on keeping flights safe — not worrying about how to pay their bills. He said it’s not fair that controllers are facing impossible choices about whether to pay for rent or childcare or groceries. The union and some airports have offered to help connect controllers with food banks or other assistance to help them get through the shutdown.

“You are carrying the weight of the national airspace system and now doing it without a paycheck. This is not acceptable and it is not sustainable. No American worker should ever be put in this position,” Daniels said.

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Duffy has said that air traffic controllers who abuse their sick time during the shutdown could be fired.

Republicans and Democrats have been unable to reach an agreement to end the shutdown that began on Oct. 1. The airlines and major unions across the industry have urged Congress to reach an agreement to end the shutdown.

“Our aviation system has operated safely throughout the shutdown, but it’s putting an incredible and unnecessary strain on the system, and on our air traffic controllers, flight crews, and many other aviation professionals,” said Rep. Sam Graves, who is Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The Missouri Republican urged Democrats to support the GOP bill to fund the government.

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.