The Brief

Some of the most shocking images that’ve come out of Taiwan over the past 24 hours have been of the partially collapsed Uranus building on Xuanyuan Road in Hualien.

It’s unclear how many structures across the country are in this state, as information is still trickling out.

A search and rescue team prepares outside a leaning building in the aftermath of an earthquake in Hualien, eastern Taiwan on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.

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National Fire Agency via AP

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That said, this is a known issue in Taiwan, as buildings have collapsed or partially collapsed during earthquakes in 2018, 2016 and 1999, the last time a magnitude 7.3 temblor struck the country.

While building inspections and retrofits have been ongoing, the collapses highlight the stock of older, dangerous structures that are prone to failure when a big quake blows through.

Japanese (L) and Taiwanese rescue workers (R) look at the Yun Tsui building in the Taiwanese city of Hualien on Feb. 9, 2018, after the city was hit by a 6.4-magnitude quake late on Feb. 6. Taiwan began demolishing three dangerously damaged buildings on Feb. 9 as rescue workers combed the rubble of a hotel in a last-ditch effort to find seven people still missing after a deadly earthquake.

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Anthony Wallace

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AFP

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Taiwan and L.A. have similar building codes, and lots of the same types of problem buildings, though it may not be as apparent here, as the last time we got hit by a major magnitude 7.9 earthquake was in 1857.

“It will take an earthquake to see ... how good a job we've done and what we need to make it better,” said Domniki Asimaki, professor of mechanical and civil engineering at Caltech.

A man looks at the cordoned off site of a leaning building in the aftermath of an earthquake on April 3, 2024.

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Chiang Ying-ying

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AP

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What are the problem buildings?

The two types of structurally deficient buildings that experts told me can be found in both locations are soft story and non-ductile, or brittle, concrete buildings.

Soft story structures are those that have insufficient support on the ground floor, which can give out and cause the building to collapse on itself and tip over — like what we saw with the Northridge Meadows apartments in the Northridge Earthquake in 1994.

You can sometimes notice soft stories on larger commercial buildings if a lower floor is wide open to accommodate shops or parking.

The Northridge Meadows apartments fared poorly in the 1994 earthquake.

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U.S. Geological Survey

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Brittle concrete buildings lack ductility, or the ability to flex and return to a safe state, after being jostled around by strong ground movements. They can fail abruptly and catastrophically.

What about retrofits?

Like Taiwan, we have retrofit programs in place, but more than 4,000 of these types of buildings still need to be fixed across L.A., according to the Department of Building and Safety. It could be decades before they are.

“We're racing against time for when this earthquake is going to happen,” said John Wallace, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Samueli School of Engineering at UCLA. “We probably won't get them all done before the next earthquake, but we want to get to as many of them as we can.”

Both Wallace and Domniki said that it wouldn’t be a surprise if some of these buildings failed, which is why we have retrofit programs in place.

If you'd like to see whether a building needs to be retrofitted, you can check out the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety website.

The National Guard in front of the Northridge Meadows apartments on January 24, 1994 where 16 people died during the earthquake in the night of Jan. 17, 1994.

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Hal Garb

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AFP

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Get ready for the next big quake

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You’re at Union Station when the big one hits. The next two minutes are terrifying. By the time you make your way outside, the Los Angeles you know is gone. In Episode One, you experience what the first hours after a massive earthquake could be like.

The Earthquake

You’re at Union Station when the big one hits. The next two minutes are terrifying. By the time you make your way outside, the Los Angeles you know is gone. In Episode One, you experience what the first hours after a massive earthquake could be like.

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Boyle Heights families of school age children impacted by the warehouse fire have until Wednesday afternoon to apply for $250 cash assistance payments.

The money comes from the LAUSD Education Foundation’s “compassion fund,” a mixture of donations from individuals and the California Community Foundation.

“ There's tremendous stress and anxiety about how to pay for rent, food [and] childcare,” said Sadie Jefferson, the executive director of the independent nonprofit that frequently supports LAUSD students and programs.

Jefferson said families are reporting asthma flare-ups, missed work and a lack of access to their homes.

An estimated 13,000 Los Angeles Unified families live within two miles of the Boyle Heights warehouse fire. The fire started on June 17 at a refrigerated warehouse owned by a company called Lineage and burned for eight days. The blaze filled the air with acrid smoke and there’s been reports of foul smells, pests and concerns about water-quality as the clean-up continues.

How it works

Families can apply in-person on Wednesday July 8 from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at:

• Sunrise Elementary School— 2821 E. 7th St. 
• Humphreys Avenue Elementary School— 500 S. Humphreys Ave.
• Belvedere Middle School— 312 N. Record Ave.

The application requires families to provide a student’s ID.

Families can also connect with district counselors and other resources at those same schools.

Jefferson said the foundation will support more families if more donations to the compassion fund come in.

The foundation started the compassion fund in 2025 to support families in the wake of widespread immigration enforcement actions throughout Southern California.

Jefferson said the Foundation has distributed nearly $900,000 in cash gift-cards from the fund and that most families make less than $20,000 a year.

 ”We wanted to make sure that people had the dignity of choice on how to use the funding in a way that made sense for their families,” Jefferson said.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The IOC advised Olympic sports bodies on Tuesday to end a three-year program vetting Russians for neutral status ahead of qualifying events for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The move was expected since the International Olympic Committee advised two months ago that athletes from Belarus, Russia's military ally in the full military invasion of Ukraine, should be allowed again to compete with their full national identity.

"The IOC stands in solidarity with the Olympic community of Ukraine, which the Olympic movement has supported since the beginning of the war, and will continue to do so," the Olympic body said in a statement after a meeting of its executive board.

The IOC eased entry requirements to its own events for Russian athletes and teams while provisionally lifting its suspension since October 2023 of the Russian Olympic Committee.

The terms of that suspension — imposed when the Russian Olympic body incorporated regional sports councils from occupied regions of Ukraine — no longer applied, the IOC said.

Just 32 athletes from Russia and Belarus competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics as approved neutrals, and combined to win five medals. The Russian team had more than 300 athletes at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and won 71 medals.

The IOC did not yet approve letting Russian athletes and teams compete with their flag and anthem. That decision will come "at an appropriate time," it said.

The next Olympic competition is the 2026 Youth Summer Games in Dakar, Senegal opening Oct. 31.

The IOC said to "address the lack of confidence in the global sporting community relating to the return of Russian athletes to international competition," those athletes must give multiple doping controls and be part of a recognized testing program.

The IOC said it will continue to "not organize IOC events in Russia or invite Russian government or state officials to its events."

Copyright 2026 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Businesses impacted by the Lineage warehouse fire have access to recovery resources.

Inclusive Action, the Boyle Heights Chamber of Commerce and the Hustle & Heart Collective have launched the Boyle Heights Fire Relief Fund for Small Businesses, which will provide financial assistance to brick-and-mortar businesses and street vendors directly affected by the fire.

Resources may also be available through the city’s BusinessSource Center, which offers grants, business advising, financial counseling and other services.

Boyle Heights Fire Relief Fund for Small Businesses

The program aims to award grants to 500 affected small businesses and vendors in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles near the Lineage facility.

Who qualifies?

• Brick-and-mortar businesses
• Street vendors
• Home-based businesses

Grant amounts:

• Street vendors: Up to $1,000
• Brick-and-mortar businesses: Up to $3,000

Eligible ZIP codes:

• 90022
• 90023
• 90033
• 90063

Application requirements:

• Business website and email address (organizations will assist applicants who do not have these).
• Proof of address, utility bill and lease agreement (if applicable).
• Street vendors can upload photos of their business if they do not have traditional business documentation.
• Number of employees.
• Applicants will be asked how they plan to use the grant funds.

For additional information, visit the frequently asked questions page.

Apply by July 13 at inclusiveaction.jotform.com/261790764235059

Small Business Recovery Services

Through the city’s established BusinessSource Center, NEW Economics for Women, impacted businesses will have access to recovery resources to help stabilize operations and retain jobs, including:

• Small business recovery grants of up to $1,000 for eligible businesses directly impacted by the fire
• Industrial air purifiers for severely impacted businesses
• One-on-one business advising
• Assistance applying for disaster relief programs
• Access to capital and micro-loan opportunities
• Business continuity and recovery planning
• Commercial lease and financial counseling
• Marketing and customer recovery strategies
• Technical assistance with permitting and regulatory requirements
• Referrals to additional local, state, and federal business assistance programs

More recovery assistance

Visit the city’s Boyle Heights Recovery Updates website for more resources available to displaced workers and other employment services.

For Saizana Evans, manager of the Nile restaurant and bar in Inglewood, proximity to SoFi stadium has been a blessing over the years.

“The A$AP Rocky [concert] recently was good [for business] … Shakira was over here recently, that was great,” he said.

But when asked how those events compared to the influx of customers before and after recent World Cup matches, he was quick to respond.

“Definitely World Cup … definitely better,” he said.

One night particularly memorable so far, he said, was when Bosnia fans showed up for their team’s match against Switzerland.

“They were loud, and it was a joy to watch and to see them, like how they were supporting their team,” he said.

And, he added, “they are drinkers as well.”

While L.A. may not have run out of beer, as Boston reportedly did when Scottish fans visited, the region has been boosted by those who prefer to watch the games on a big screen with a beer in their hands.

“The excitement is palpable, not only in Inglewood, but throughout, and I think where you see it show up the most is in our bars and our restaurants,” said Maria Salinas, president and CEO of the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce.

Crunching the numbers

As SoFi Stadium hosts the last of eight FIFA 2026 World Cup matches on Friday, and the tournament ends in less than two weeks, Southern California businesses will be looking at lessons learned.

“We expect to see an increase in spending when it comes to food and beverage,” said  Stephen Cheung, president of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.

He said his group plans to do a study of the economic effects of the World Cup on Southern California. To do that, his group plans to buy data from phone carriers, credit card companiesand others — without personal information — to see activity in and around bars and restaurants and other locations during matches.

“We should be tracking hotel data, and Airbnb data, so we can see whether there's an increase during the World Cup,” as well, he said.

The goal is to give public and private groups information about what kind of business activities are the most popular during the tournament.

“We want to make sure that we have competitive industries that can bring good investments and good jobs here locally,” Cheung said.

And that’s something businesses will be looking to do as the 2028 L.A. Olympics approaches.