The Brief

During a summer that has already shattered temperature records, the 340,000 drivers, dispatchers, and warehouse workers currently in contract negotiations with UPS — the United States’ largest unionized employer — have made climate change and extreme heat a headline labor issue. And if they don’t secure a contract by July 31, they are poised to initiate the largest single-employer strike in U.S. history.

On summer days, the back of a delivery truck can exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit. When Viviana Gonzalez, a package delivery driver for United Postal Service in Los Angeles, pulls open the back of her truck, she often thinks: “Am I going to pass out back here? Will anybody find out that I’m here in the back of the truck?”

Gonzalez is all too aware of how dangerous her job can be. Since 2015, UPS has reported at least 143 heat-related injuries to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Last year, one of her co-workers, Esteban Chavez, died of heat stroke in his delivery truck after delivering his last parcel. “I’m a single mom,” said Gonzalez, “and being able to provide for my son means I have to suck it up.”

While climate change is making summers hotter and even more dangerous for delivery workers, Moe Nouhaili, a UPS driver in Las Vegas, told the Guardian that it’s the working conditions that make the heat so deadly. “It’s how they’re making us work, expecting us to meet these unrealistic productivity numbers even through the weather,” he said.

UPS often requires drivers and warehouse employees to work six days a week and more than 12 hours a day in the heat, and the company measures worker productivity by surveillance cameras and sensors inside trucks. Drivers say these tactics make it harder to take breaks. “The same amount of work that would be done in, say, 30 routes is now being forced to be done in 20 or 25,” said Nouhaili. “Less people get more work done.”

An increasing portion of the work is also done by part-time drivers who are paid less than full-time employees, as well as gig workers who often need to take on multiple jobs to make ends meet.

That’s why the UPS workers, who are part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union, have tied their heat-safety demands to other key issues: higher wages for all workers; more full-time jobs with full benefits; an end to forced overtime, surveillance, and harassment from management; and elimination of a two-tier wage system that pays part-time workers and newer employees differently for the same work.

According to Anastasia Christman, a senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, many of these benefits and protections form the basis of climate justice at work and can better protect workers from the heat.

“Workers who are fighting for better health care benefits are going to be more physically able to deal with excessive heat, because they can address other underlying health problems,” she said. “An increase in pay might mean workers can spend time at home without having to take on a second job to support their family, eat healthy food, or afford to get an air conditioner in their house and really cool down and recover from the heat during their off-hours.”

She also argues that part-time employment, piece-wage and contract pay structures, and low-grade wage tiers can affect workers on the margins to a greater extent than others.

“These workers, who are overwhelmingly Black workers, immigrant workers, and women, literally can’t afford to take breaks or lose time to take care of their health,” she explained. By pushing for more full-time direct employees and fewer contractors, Christman said, workers build solidarity and make sure that certain job classes don’t disproportionately face environmental harms like extreme heat.

UPS workers negotiate a new contract once every five years, and the strike authorization in June was the result of a yearlong campaign on behalf of the union to build leverage at the bargaining table. The strategy appears to be working: In the last month, with the strike threat looming, UPS agreed to install air-conditioning systems in each of their delivery trucks, end the secondary wage tier that allows them to pay newer drivers less, and do away with mandatory overtime.

“UPS Teamsters have strategically navigated this process for maximum leverage against this multibillion-dollar corporation,” said Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. “At every step, we are forcing them to do what they don’t want to do, which is give our members more money and better protections at work.”

UPS drivers practice picketing outside a warehouse in preparation for a potential strike at the end of the month.

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While air-conditioning will indeed offer welcome relief to UPS drivers in the heat, experts argue that at a global scale, energy-intensive cooling systems pale as a long-term climate-justice solution. Air-conditioning units burn more fossil fuels, increase ambient temperatures in cities, and are inaccessible to most outdoor workers — and most of the global population.

On its own, the company’s concession also doesn’t address the growing issues of pay, contracting, and worker productivity that drive workers to heat exhaustion.

So despite the gains, UPS workers are still not satisfied. The biggest remaining issue is pay: They are looking to raise the starting hourly wage for part-time workers from $15.50 to $20. And they have repeatedly said that if UPS does not meet their baseline wage demands, they will be forced to strike to win them.

In recent years, restaurant workers at Voodoo Donuts in Portland, Oregon; a McDonalds in Detroit; a Jack in the Box in Sacramento; and a Hooters location in Houston have collectively walked off the job to protect themselves from extreme heat. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is in the process of developing a federal workplace heat standard, has acknowledged that taking collective action can help workers stay safe on the job and has developed a legal framework “to obtain the best possible relief for employees” when they choose to do so.

“The suggestion box sitting in the break room is not really the place to address the dangers of systemic heat exposure,” said Christman, the National Employment Law Project analyst. “When workers come together, they build power to really make changes at the workplace.”

The Teamsters union has plainly stated that this campaign will be an example for workers across the country. “What we do in these negotiations,” said O’Brien, “is going to set the tone for the entire country, the entire labor movement, moving forward. The UPS fight today may be your fight tomorrow.”

“It’s time for UPS to feel the heat,” said Rick Jordan, another delivery driver in Southern California. “We feel it all the time.”

California lawmakers are expected to adopt a $356 billion state budget today that would largely avoid or delay billions of dollars in social service cuts Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed last month.

Then, the (real) budget negotiations can begin.

Today’s vote is only a formality, because lawmakers are constitutionally required to pass a balanced budget by June 15 each year to continue collecting their pay. They have until the end of the month to strike a deal with Newsom before the new fiscal year starts July 1.

In the next two weeks, legislators will have to settle their differences with Newsom on health care cuts, funding for schools and homelessness and more.

Here are five takeaways from the Legislature’s spending plan:

Punt and soften healthcare cuts

Faced with federal funding cuts under the tax and spending law President Donald Trump signed last year, Newsom proposed several measures to limit healthcare coverage for undocumented immigrants as well as refugees, asylees and human trafficking survivors.

Top legislative Democrats want to delay those cuts by a year while looking for alternatives to soften the impact.

Newsom also wants to raise the monthly Medi-Cal premium undocumented immigrants pay from $30 to $50. But lawmakers prefer waiting him out, proposing to leave the decision to the next governor.

“I don’t think it’s about Gavin Newsom,” said Sen. John Laird, a Santa Cruz Democrat who chairs the budget committee. “It’s really about trying to stretch as far as we can in the hope that we don’t have to make those cuts.”

The Legislature rebuked Newsom’s proposal to reinstate stringent Medi-Cal asset tests for seniors and adults with disabilities by July, instead pitching a less restrictive limit to take effect in fiscal year 2027-28. With bipartisan support, the lawmakers also rejected Newsom’s proposed cuts to the In-Home Supportive Services program.

They did, however, agree to Newsom’s plan to spend $300 million to subsidize private healthcare for low-income Californians.

Restoring some child care, TK-12 money

Democratic lawmakers want to add 22,000 state-funded child care slots over the next few years. They also rejected Newsom’s proposed reduction of 6,800 state-supported spaces due to declining federal and state funding.

The new slots would prioritize children ages 3 and under. Advocates who applauded the proposal say it would address a gap left unfilled by Newsom’s transitional kindergarten expansion to reach 4-year-olds.

Banking on a rosier revenue forecast, state lawmakers proposed $2.7 billion more in funding for TK-12 schools and community colleges than Newsom did in May.

Schools and educators were hoping for more. They wanted the Legislature to reject Newsom’s proposal to withhold $3.9 billion in constitutionally guaranteed school money — an accounting mechanism to prevent overpaying schools in case the projected revenue doesn’t materialize.

“We demand that the Legislature and the governor follow the law, stop with the gimmicks and the shell games, and fully fund our schools,” said David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association. “Our union is prepared to do whatever it takes to hold them accountable if they don’t. Our students deserve no less.”

More generous with counties

The Legislature’s spending plan would give counties more money to step up eligibility checks for Californians applying for food stamps and health care benefits, reviews that are now required under Trump’s spending bill.

It would also allocate $125 million to help counties reestablish indigent care — a program serving low-income Californians that largely went away under Obamacare.

State lawmakers also want to set aside $900 million for the state’s homelessness fund, whereas Newsom included just $500 million in his proposal.

More revenue, please

Newsom proposed three new tax measures and lawmakers are on board with them:

• Applying a sales tax on most company software, like Slack and Microsoft Suites
• Capping tax credits big corporations claim
• Extending a tax on Medi-Cal health providers, which the state has relied on to qualify for more federal funding.  

The proposals come at a time when California voters have rejected most local tax initiatives during the June primary. But Newsom’s proposals require no voter approval — just the support of two-thirds of each legislative chamber.

There’s still an appetite among lawmakers to make corporations pay up. Senate Democrats had proposed a monthly charge on big employers for having employees enrolled in Medi-Cal, but have now backed away from the plan, instead asking the next governor to pitch “fully viable options” next year.

Save more money for rainy days

There’s a consensus between the Legislature and the governor to raise the ceiling on the revenue the state can deposit into its rainy day fund. The question is how much. State leaders are constitutionally required to make deposits into the account each year, but the balance cannot exceed 10% of the state’s general fund tax revenue under current law.

Changing that amount would require voter approval. Lawmakers are considering placing a measure on the November ballot that would allow them to sock away more money for lean years. They have a tight deadline of June 25 to settle on what they want to put before voters.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Iran will play its first World Cup match in Los Angeles tonight against New Zealand, just one day after the U.S. and Iran announced they had come to an agreement to end the war.

The Iranian national team arrived in L.A. yesterday, ending months of speculation about if they would make it to the tournament. The team's participation in the World Cup has been in question since the U.S. and Israel first bombed Iran in late February.

"I have felt the tension from the first moment we arrived at this World Cup," Iran captain Mehdi Taremi said through an interpreter at a press conference at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, the Associated Press reported. "At any tournament when there is tension, we won’t have the same beautiful experience we always talk about with peace and joy."

Iran's forward Mehdi Taremi gives a press conference at Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood on June 14, 2026.

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Iran's team faced a number of obstacles to make it to Los Angeles. In March, the sports minister for Iran said the team could not participate. President Donald Trump also made conflicting comments on if Iran should come to the U.S. to play.

The team had been scheduled to train in Tucson, Arizona, but were relocated to Tijuana, Mexico. Members of the team's staff had their visas denied, and Iran fans have also had visa troubles.

“Without any doubt, this will impact negatively the spirit of football,” Iran's head coach Amir Ghalenoei said Sunday, per AP. “These conditions, they have impacted our technical focus, but I have really tried to make sure that my players focus on strategy and techniques.”

Iran's head coach Amir Ghalenoei takes part in a training session at Carson Sports Park in Carson, California on June 14, 2026.

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FIFA President Gianni Infantino insisted last week that Iran's participation was never in question.

"When people were saying well, it would be impossible for Iran to come to the World Cup, I told them and I promised them that they would come," he said at a press conference.

Now that Iran has made it to Los Angeles, it's unclear how the team will be received. The L.A. area is home to the biggest Iranian community outside of Iran. And the diaspora's response to the team playing here in "Tehrangeles" is mixed.

People wave US and pre-revolutionary Iranian flags as they protest the Iranian regime outside of SoFi Stadium on June 7, 2026, ahead of the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

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Even with signs that the war may be coming to a close, it's been a devastating year in Iran and for Iranians abroad. Demonstrations against the government inside Iran in December and January and the killing of thousands of demonstrators there led to protests against the Iranian state in Los Angeles. Then came the war, which also brought people to the streets, but has sparked divided opinions within L.A.’s Iranian communities.

Some in Los Angeles can't separate their feelings about the government from their opinion of Iran's national team. Others say they're rooting for Iran. One thing many agree on is that there are bound to be demonstrations in and around the stadium.

There's also the question of how Iran's national team will perform, and if it can make it past the first round of the World Cup.

Tonight's game kicks off at 6 p.m.

Crude oil prices are down sharply on Monday morning, after President Donald Trump, Iranian leaders and Pakistani negotiators all indicated that a deal to end the war with Iran will be signed on Friday.

President Trump posted online about the deal on Sunday evening. Oil futures prices promptly sank around 4%, after markets reopened for trading following their typical weekend break. Prices had already fallen significantly on Thursday and Friday in anticipation of a deal.

By Monday, prices were down nearly 13% from where it had been in the middle of last week. The cost of one barrel of Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was around $83, and West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, around $80. At one point in this conflict, global oil prices had touched $126 a barrel.

While oil prices remain elevated compared to pre-war prices, which were in the $60s, they are now cheaper than they have been at any point since the very first days of this conflict.

Cheaper crude oil should push U.S. gasoline prices down, which should in turn help with high levels of inflation. The war in Iran had driven the national average up by as much as $1.50 a gallon; prices have eased in recent weeks, as crude prices dropped on expectations of a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but gasoline remains more than a dollar higher than the pre-war average.

Trump's initial post on Sunday evening said he was authorizing "the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz," and directed ships to "start your engines." Before the war, approximately 20% of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passed through that waterway, and the disruption of traffic has caused the greatest oil supply shock in history.

In a follow-up post, Trump later said that the strait would reopen "upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal."

Markets hope this time, the deal is real

Throughout this conflict, oil prices have repeatedly fallen on headlines promising an imminent deal to reopen the strait; however, they've never dropped this low. Significantly, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has played a central role negotiating between the U.S. and Iran, has confirmed that a deal has been reached.

"Washington has an incentive to avoid a spike in gasoline prices ahead of the midterms, while Tehran is seeking sanctions relief and restored export revenues, and the global economy has a strong interest in keeping the Strait of Hormuz open," writes Claudio Galimberti, the chief economist for the research firm Rystad Energy, in a note. "On rare occasions, these incentives align in a coherent way, and that is the strongest argument that this is more than another short-lived diplomatic cycle,"

While risks remain, Galimberti says, a reopening of the strait would begin to reduce global inflationary pressures, which have been mounting.

A rapid reopening of the strait would ease pressure on the world's oil consumers, particularly in Asia and Europe. However, it would not mean an immediate return to pre-war oil supply levels and prices.

"It could be months before things return to something like the way things were before the war, at least as far as flows out of the Strait of Hormuz go," says Kevin Book, a managing director at Clearview Energy Partners, an independent research firm.

That's because some oil and natural gas production fields and refineries have been taken offline, or damaged in the conflict. "The facilities that have been shut down, some of them can start fairly quickly. Others may take months," he said.

Transit takes time, too. Ships also need to move in and out of the strait, and from there around the world.

And over the past few months, the world has tapped into its stockpiles of oil in order to make up for missing supplies; refilling those inventories could keep upward pressure on oil prices for months.

Before the war began, the world had been oversupplied with oil, which was keeping prices low. Book says it's not clear whether returning to "normal" will mean returning to that status quo.

"It's not obvious that we'll be in a surplus any time soon," he says.
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With all the political drama, high ticket costs, immigration problems, and transit worries leading up to this year's edition of the FIFA World Cup, much of that has washed away now that the games are underway. And what a thrilling start to the five-week soccer tournament we've witnessed across the co-hosts Mexico, Canada and the United States.

Let's get you caught up, and look forward to the week ahead.

We're a U.S.-based media organization. So, of course, we need to start with the dominant and, arguably, best World Cup game the American men have ever played (yes, the U.S. has won the Women's World Cup four times). Last Friday's opener at Los Angeles Stadium against Paraguay had it all.

Starting with the score: 4-1. That's the most goals the U.S. men have tallied in a World Cup match. Striker Folarin Balogun netted two of them — the first multi-goal game by a U.S. player since the very first tournament in 1930.

Defender Chris Richards returned to the lineup after missing both pre-World Cup warm-up games because of an injury. And he made an immediate impact: successfully completing every one of his 83 passes (the most by any player in a World Cup match since 1966). Regarding injuries, the status of star forward Christian Pulisic remains unclear. He was subbed out at halftime because of a calf problem. After the game, he walked gingerly to the team bus.

From top-to-bottom, the U.S. sparkled and dazzled. It was a great start. But one game does not a tournament make.

The U.S. did get a preview Saturday of its next two opponents in Group D: Turkey and Australia. Turkey has more players in Europe's top-tier leagues, including bona fide stars like Real Madrid's Arda Güler and the Juventus attacker Kenan Yildiz. None of that mattered to the underdog Australia, which stunned Turkey 2-0. That sets up next Friday's USA-Australia game to be a big one — if the Americans win, they will be in the driver's seat in their group and a great position in the later knockout round.

John McGinn of Scotland controls the ball during the team's opening World Cup match against Haiti on Saturday in Foxborough, Mass.

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Another World Cup shocker: Scotland, playing its first World Cup in 28 years, is atop Group C after defeating Haiti. The reason that's notable? They share the group with soccer royalty: Brazil (a record five-time champion) and powerhouse Morocco. Those two are expected to advance to the knockout round, but they played to a 1-1 draw, putting Scotland in the lead. For now.

Speaking of draws, Qatar and Switzerland finished 1-1 on Saturday. With the tie, Qatar earned its first-ever World Cup point. This is just Qatar's second World Cup (it automatically qualified for the 2022 tournament, which it hosted and lost all three of its games). On Sunday, the Netherlands and Japan played to a 2-2 tie in a battle of Group F heavyweights.

Curaçao, the smallest country (population: 158,000) to play in a World Cup, made its debut against Germany. And for a short while on Sunday, the tiny Caribbean country believed. Germany scored an early goal, and Curaçao then equalized. For the next 17 glorious minutes, the two remained deadlocked. Then Germany began doing Germany things, winning 7-1 (a famous World Cup score for them).

Looking ahead to the rest of the week, we'll be paying attention to three particular opening group games. The first is Monday between Iran and New Zealand at Los Angeles Stadium. There had been speculation as to whether Iran would participate after the U.S. and Israel attacked the country in February. Iran had been expected to set up its training camp in Tucson, Ariz., but the team moved to Tijuana, Mexico, citing the ongoing hostilities and security concerns. The U.S. government is only allowing the Iranian team to enter the country the day before each of its three group matches.

On Tuesday, France and its superstar Kylian Mbappé will open their World Cup campaign against Senegal in a highly anticipated Group I showdown. Also Tuesday, defending champion Argentina and Lionel Messi will begin their campaign to win back-to-back titles, starting with Algeria in Group J. Only two countries have successfully defended a World Cup title: Italy in 1938 and Brazil in 1962.

As a reminder, you can keep up with all our World Cup coverage from NPR's correspondents and our network of member stations here.

NPR's Becky Sullivan contributed reporting from Los Angeles
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