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Its a little past 10 a.m. and the heat is already blazing on the outskirts of the Western Indian city of Ahmedabad. Sapnaben Chunara, a 30-year-old mother of three, has just finished her morning chores. She seeks respite from the heat in the shade of a neem tree, a species that can withstand high temperatures and drought. Chunara spends most of the day outdoors in Vanzara Vas, a low-income neighborhood of about 800 families, because her tin-roofed house is even hotter. Indoor temperatures can be even higher, especially when outside they climb above 40 degrees Celsius (104 F). That was once rare but now happens regularly. And this year, high heat started three weeks earlier than in previous years, touching 43 degrees Celsius (109.40 F) in early April. Sometimes it gets so hot, I cant think straight, said Chunara, sporting a black smartwatch that contrasts sharply with her colorful bangles and sari. Chunara is one of 204 residents of Vanzara Vas given the smartwatches for a year-long study to find out how heat affects vulnerable communities around the world. The watches measure heart rate and pulse and track sleep, and participants get weekly blood pressure checks. Researchers also painted some roofs with reflective paint to reduce indoor heat and will compare them to homes without so-called cool roofs using indoor heat sensors. Along with the smartwatches, this will help them understand how much cool roofs can help poor households deal with Indias scorching summers. Chunara, whose home didn’t get a cool roof, said she’s happy to participate by wearing the watch, confident the results will help her family, too. “They might paint my roof as well and they might be able to do something that helps all of us in this area cope with the heat better, Chunara said. Killer heat is the new normal Cities like Ahmedabad have always had hot summers, but now they’re nearing the threshold beyond which exposure for more than a few hours can be fatal. In the summer of 2010, the city witnessed nearly 1,300 excess deaths how many more people died than would be expected which experts found were most likely due to high temperatures. An increasingly hot planet, due largely to burning fossil fuels such as coal and gas that release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, means already hot regions are getting even worse. A 2023 study estimated that if the global mean temperature continues to rise to just under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), there would be a 370% rise in heat-related deaths around the world and most would happen in South and Southeast Asia and Africa. This is a big concern, and it also shows the heat divide between the poor and wealthy, said Abhiyant Tiwari, a climate expert with NRDC India and part of the group conducting the research in Ahmedabad. Following the 2010 tragedy, city officials, with help from public health and heat experts, devised an action plan to warn citizens when the heat is at dangerous levels and prepare city hospitals to respond rapidly to heat-related illness. The plan has been replicated across India and other parts of South Asia. The last two years have been the worlds hottest ever, and researchers hope their work can provide an additional line of defense for those who bear the brunt of increasing heat. Finding solutions to deal with heat The Ahmedabad study is only one part of a global research project examining how heat is affecting poor, vulnerable communities in four cities across the world. Researchers also are measuring heat impacts using smartwatches and other devices in Africa’s Burkina Faso, the Pacific island of Niue near New Zealand and in the Sonoran desert region in Mexico. More than 1.1 billion people about one-eighth of the world’s population live in informal settlements and poor neighborhoods that are particularly vulnerable, said Aditi Bunker, environmental health researcher associated with the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and Heidelberg University, Germany, who is leading the global project. Climate change and heat are ravaging populations. And now the question comes, what are we doing to address this? she said, referring to the motivation behind the research. In Ahmedabad, Bunker, along with researchers at the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, is constantly collecting relevant health data. If they find that cool roofs effectively reduce indoor heat, they plan to paint the roofs of all the homes. Researchers hope their study leads to more use of solutions like cool roofs for poor, vulnerable populations around the world and that policymakers will factor in such solutions when deciding how their countries and communities can adapt to increasing heat exposure. For now, Vanzara Vas residents like Chunara and her neighbor, Shantaben Vanzara, said they will take any help they can get. Shantaben Vanzara said the heat has made her diabetes worse, but being part of the study has provided her family some respite. We dont get to sleep because of the heat,” she said. “After the roof got painted, we can sleep for a few hours a night at least. Chunara said temperatures used to be predictable. Now we dont know when or what will happen, she said. The only thing that we know for sure is that the heat is getting worse every year. This report has been edited to correct the name of NRDC India, previously incorrectly given as the Natural Resources Defense Council. ___ The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Sibi Arasu, Associated Press
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Shares in video game giant Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: TTWO) are plummeting in early morning trading today after the companys subsidiary, Rockstar Games, announced that it is delaying the release of its next flagship title, Grand Theft Auto VI, from fall 2025 until May 2026. Heres what you need to know about the delay and how investors are reacting. Grand Theft Auto VI delayed until May 2026 In December 2023, Rockstar announced that GTA6perhaps the most anticipated game of all timewould launch in the fall of 2025. Now, the studio has announced the games release is being pushed back until May 26, 2026. Rockstars announcement was brief. In a short statement posted on its website, Rockstar apologized for the delay, suggesting that quality issues with GTA6 were the main driver for the later-than-planned release. With every game we have released, the goal has always been to try and exceed your expectations, and Grand Theft Auto VI is no exception, the company said. We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve. It’s hard to understate the impact Rockstar Games and, in particular, its Grand Theft Auto franchise have had on the video game industryespecially the open-world genre, which allows players to roam nearly anywhere they want in a games virtual world. The Grand Theft Auto series began in 1997 as a 2D game, but the release of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in 2002, with their 3D worlds, catapulted the franchise to its iconic status in the industry. Rockstar released the most recent version of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, in 2013. It has since sold over 200 million copies and is the second-best-selling video game ever after Microsoft’s Minecraft. Rockstar has not released a video game since 2018s Red Dead Redemption 2, an open-world game set in the Wild West. So when the studio announced another sequel to the Grand Theft Auto franchise in late 2023, investors in Rockstar’s owner, Take-Two Interactive Software, saw the game as a major driver of profits in 2025. Thats why its unsurprising that Take-Two Interactive Softwares stock price is now falling. TTWO shares take a GTA6 beating As of this writing, the price of shares in Take-Two Interactive Software is down around 7% to $218.49 per share. However, that 7% dip signifies a bit of a recovery since markets opened this morning. Shares had been trading down around 9% earlier in the day. Despite Rockstar Games issuing a public announcement about GTA6s delay, Take-Two Interactive Software decided to as well. In a press release, Take-Two Interactives CEO Strauss Zelnick, said, We support fully Rockstar Games taking additional time to realize their creative vision for Grand Theft Auto VI, which promises to be a groundbreaking, blockbuster entertainment experience that exceeds audience expectations. He continued: While we take the movement of our titles seriously and appreciate the vast and deep global anticipation for Grand Theft Auto VI, we remain steadfast in our commitment to excellence. As we continue to release our phenomenal pipeline, we expect to deliver a multi-year period of growth in our business and enhanced value for our shareholders. Take-Two Interactive also said that it was reiterating that it would still achieve sequential increases in, and record levels of, Net Bookings in Fiscal 2026 and 2027. Grand Theft Auto VI was originally set to be released during Take-Two Interactives fiscal year 2026. Now with the game’s delay to late May 2026, Grand Theft Auto VI wont impact Take-Two Interactives numbers until the companys fiscal year 2027, and it appears investors are punishing the company for that in early morning trading today. Despite todays GTA6-fueled drop, TTWO shares are still up a respectable amount since the year begantheyve climbed by about 17.5% since January. Shares in the company are also up a very healthy 51% over the past 12 months. Take-Two Interactive Software also confirmed today that it will announce its Q4 results for fiscal year 2025 on May 15.
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Nearly four months after wildfires reduced thousands of Los Angeles-area homes to rubble and ash, some residents are starting to rebuild.In the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, construction workers recently began placing wooden beams to frame a house on a lot where only a charred fireplace remains standing. In the seaside city of Malibu and foothills neighborhood of Altadena, many land parcels where homes once stood are being cleared of debris.Hundreds of homeowners have sought city or county approval for new home designs and other permits to eventually rebuild or repair damaged homes, though few have gotten the green light to break ground.Some 17,000 homes, businesses and other structures burned to the ground in the Jan. 7 fires. It’s uncertain how much will be rebuilt.Many homeowners will not be able to afford it, even those with insurance. Some are still trying to figure out whether it’s safe to return to their properties, given limited data on the degree to which toxins from the fires, including lead and asbestos, may have permeated their land. Roughly 400 land parcels are already for sale in the fire-ravaged areas.Facing overwhelming loss and the chaos that comes with sudden displacement, those looking to rebuild must navigate an often confusing and time-consuming process. In most cases, it will take years for them to rebuild.LA issued its first building permit nearly two months after the fires started. It took more than seven months before the first building permit was issued following the Woolsey Fire in 2018.“Putting this in context of other disasters, the speed is actually probably faster than expected,” said Sara McTarnaghan, a researcher at the Urban Institute who studied the aftermath of urban wildfires in recent years in Colorado, Hawaii and California. Resolving to rebuild in Altadena Kathryn Frazier, a music publicist and life coach, had lived in her four-bedroom, three-bath house in Altadena for 10 years and raised her two children there. After her home burned to the ground, she was in shock and questioned whether it made sense to come back.But after conversations with neighbors, she became determined to rebuild.“I’m not leaving,” Frazier said. “That’s what kept coming up for everybody, and the more we all talked to each other the more we were all like ‘hell yes.'”She is making progress. Frazier hired a crew to clear the property of debris and she is nearly through the first phase of permitting, which involves getting county review and approval for her new home’s design. The next phase before receiving approval to begin construction includes reviews of electrical, plumbing and other aspects of the design.Frazier, 55, is rebuilding her home without major changes to its size or location in order to qualify for an expedited building permit approval process.“We are hoping to be building by June or July, latest,” she said. “I’ve been told that maybe by February or March of 2026 we could be back in our home.”For now, Frazier is getting quotes on windows, skylights and other home fixtures in hopes of locking in prices before they go up as more construction projects ramp up, or in response to the Trump administration’s ongoing trade war.“I’m doing things like scouring Home Depot, finding slate tiles that look modern and beautiful, but they’re actually really cheap,” she said. Recreating a home in the Palisades DeAnn Heline, a TV showrunner, knows what it’s like to build her dream house from the ground up.She waited more than two years for construction to be completed on the five-bedroom, eight-bath home with ocean views. Once the project was done, her husband vowed to never build another house. The family lived there for six years before it was destroyed in the Palisades Fire.“It was ash. There was nothing,” Heline said.The couple, who have two daughters, have lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years. They couldn’t imagine giving up and not rebuilding.“Not only are we building another house, we’re building the exact same house again,” Heline said, noting the new home will have some upgrades including fire-resistant materials and sprinklers for the exterior of the house.Recently, they cleared debris from the land where the house once stood, a particularly onerous task because the home featured a large basement into which much of the structure collapsed as it burned.Heline isn’t sure when construction will begin, but figures it could be two or three years. She wonders, however, what the neighborhood will look like by then.“What are you going back to? You’re going back to a moonscape? Are you there and no one else is on your block, or are you going back to a construction zone for many more years?” she said. Banding together as a community The Eaton wildfire destroyed many of the more than 270 historic Janes Cottages in Altadena, including the three-bedroom home Tim Vordtriede shared with his wife and two young children.The family had only lived in the roughly 100-year-old house for three years.“We just loved the storybook cottage and the vibe, and of course the grander vibe of Altadena,” he said. “It was perfect.”Vordtriede, 44, has decided to rebuild, but not just yet. For now, he is using his experience as a construction project manager to help others who also lost their homes.He co-founded Altadena Collective, a group providing assistance with home designs and guidance on how to navigate the complex and lengthy approval process for rebuilding permits. Of the roughly two dozen clients that the group is serving, at reduced cost, three are in the early stages of the permitting process.Even after projects reach shovel-ready status, homeowners will have to wait perhaps more than a year before they can move in, he said.“My first statement when anyone walks in the door is: We’re not here to help you design your dream home,” Vordtriede said. “This isn’t a dream time. This is a nightmare, and our job is to get you out of the nightmare as soon as possible.” Alex Veiga, AP Business Writer
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