The Brief

As worsening climate-related disasters like fires and floods drive up insurance costs in California, state Sen. Scott Wiener and fire survivors are pushing for a bill that could give the state a way to force oil companies to pay for their role.

SB 982, a streamlined version of a bill that did not pass last year in the wake of the devastating Los Angeles-area fires, aims to blunt rising insurance costs by allowing the state attorney general to sue fossil fuel companies for damages connected to a climate disaster such as a wildfire, heat wave, drought or storm.

In a hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, supporters and opponents shared their thoughts on the bill with lawmakers.

Gayle Ali and her husband, Rasheed, said they were celebrating their 43rd wedding anniversary when the Eaton Fire destroyed their house in Altadena, where they have lived for 30 years. The fire took her photo studio, her husband’s music studio, furniture, cars and family photos.

“A life erased,” she said.

They’re rebuilding with the help of their community and crowdfunding grants, but they don’t know if insurance will be available or how much it will cost in the future.

The Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed more than 16,000 structures around Los Angeles.

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“What truly angers me is knowing that this wasn’t just bad luck,” Ali said. “I’ve since learned that back in the ’80s, years before we bought our home, Exxon’s own scientists warned the effects of their products would be catastrophic. They chose to hide the truth and spend millions on PR campaigns that are still running today. They keep profiting while putting our communities in danger.”

Oil companies such as ExxonMobil had their own internal research decades ago showing that burning fossil fuel would contribute to global warming, which intensifies extreme disasters like fires and floods. Publicly, however, they sought to undermine the science and cast doubt on the effects of human-caused climate change. Meanwhile, they have continued to rake in large profits year after year.

“While so much of our community has lost everything — I mean everything — and so many families can barely afford food, let alone rebuild, the five largest oil corporations made nearly $400 billion in profit over the last three years,” Ali said.

Yet right now, taxpayers and disaster survivors are the only ones paying for climate change, she said.

“We have to ask, who’s not paying?” Wiener said while speaking in support of his bill. “We know that the victims, the survivors, are paying in profound ways. Taxpayers are paying. And of course, policyholders are paying with much higher premiums. Who’s not paying? The answer is the fossil fuel industry, the corporations whose products fueled this crisis by fueling climate change.”

The bill’s current version is simplified from the proposal that Wiener and a colleague introduced last year, which would have allowed disaster survivors or insurance companies themselves to sue for damages.

“We heard the feedback [from last year],” Wiener said. “This bill is profoundly narrower.”

In the bill’s current version, the amount of damages sought in a civil action filed by the attorney general would be in proportion to a company’s market share. Any payouts would go to a newly created Attorney General Climate Disaster Fund and be distributed to policyholders; the California FAIR plan, which is the state’s insurer of last resort; the California Safe Homes grant program, which provides funding for fire-hardening work in high-risk areas; and to cover litigation costs.

Industry opponents say the bill would raise gas prices and kill jobs. A report released this month by the California Center for Jobs and the Economy details concerns ranging from higher premiums to less tax revenue.

Wiener rebutted these concerns, saying that gas is a global commodity, with prices set by worldwide market forces and not “the threat of hypothetical litigation,” and that the analyses ignore the benefits of payments to disaster survivors.

Louise Bedsworth, executive director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment, spoke in support of the bill and pointed out that by the end of the century, the average area burned by wildfire in the state is projected to increase by 77% if emissions continue to rise.

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing — a nearly 1-acre structure expected to reconnect areas used by SoCal’s wild animals — will open to wildlife on Dec. 2 after years of planning and construction.

Construction began on Earth Day in 2022. Once completed, the bridge will allow all forms of wildlife to safely cross the busy 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, from mountain lions and bobcats to birds and butterflies.

Beth Pratt, regional executive director at the California Regional Center with the National Wildlife Federation, said the crossing is unlike any other wildlife crossing in the country.

“This project is four projects in one, and it is of a complexity, coordination and magnitude that is off the charts,” Pratt said. “The Santa Monica Mountains are one of 36 biodiversity hot spots in the world, and we designed this for an array of wildlife so that all wildlife in this region would have a future.”

The project’s cost is around $90 million to $100 million, and is considered one of the most expensive wildlife crossings in the world.

Officials with the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing announced Wednesday that SoCal animals will be able to traverse the crossing on Dec. 2, 2026.

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Why it matters 

Jeff Sikich, a wildlife biologist with the National Park Service, told LAist that the mountain lion population is small and isolated in the Santa Monica Mountains, and the 101 Freeway is a major barrier for movement.

“We don't have many lines from north of the freeway crossing south, so that can lead to very low genetic diversity. We have documented inbreeding fathers breeding with daughters and granddaughters,” Sikich said. “It's not a numbers problem in the Santa Monica Mountains here … It's a genetic diversity issue.”

Vehicle strikes are the leading cause of death for this mountain lion population, Sikich added. The bridge will allow animals born in the Santa Monica Mountains, especially those with diverse genetics, a safe way to leave.

Officials with the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing announced Wednesday that SoCal animals will be able to traverse the crossing on Dec. 2, 2026.

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What’s next? 

Construction of the first structure is complete, and crews are now building the second half over Agoura Road. That second structure is expected to go up over the summer.

Robert Rock of Rock Design Associates said crews are using methods to reduce effects to drivers who rely on the 101 Freeway.

“We had precast box girders that were built at a facility in Perris, California, that were all essentially giant concrete Legos that came and got placed,” Rock said. “That reduction in impact to the traveling public was a key deciding factor that motivated how we changed the design.”

Next, crews will move three million cubic feet of soil to regrade the land surrounding the site.

A lot of the work on the second structure has been happening 60 to 100 feet underground, Rock added.

“As we get to the end of the summer, I think people will start to see how much transformation actually is occurring on the site because we'll have met that moment in the schedule where all that work is coming back up to the point where you'll be able to see it from the freeway again,” he said.

As Santa Ana reckons with a $16 million budget shortfall, the police and city officials on Tuesday reported that around $500,000 was spent responding to anti-ICE protests last summer — and that legal claims filed by protesters could push that cost even higher.

Around $400,000 of that amount was spent over four days last year — June 9, 10, 11 and 14 — when residents descended on the downtown area to protest ramped up immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration.

City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting that the city has received four claims and one lawsuit stemming from the police department’s actions during the protests.

It’s unclear how much the claims could end up costing the city.

Call from the DOJ

Robert Rodriguez, Santa Ana’s police chief, said officers were sent out during the first day of protests after Carvalho received a call from the Department of Justice.

 ”It wasn't in a threatening manner, but it was basically if your department cannot provide the security that we need, then we're going to bring in federal resources,” she said. “We had a discussion about what that might look like in terms of safety for our community and what that would mean to people in our community.”

That’s when the police department made the decision to send in officers.

Rodriguez said the department was “ trying to create some distance between our community and the federal officers.”

How we got here

Last June, protesters took to the streets across Southern California calling out the ramped-up immigration sweeps across the region. This prompted the Trump administration to send in the military and the National Guard, further inflaming tensions.

But the ensuing local police response during the protests also drew the ire of residents and community members, particularly in Los Angeles and Santa Ana.

One councilmember in Santa Ana, Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, said during a council meeting last year that police officers shot at him using rubber bullets during anti-ICE protests.

California's secretary of state announced Tuesday that a tax-chopping proposition — one backers have spent years trying to put before voters — is now officially eligible for the November ballot. Come fall, anti-tax advocates and real estate developers may have reason to rejoice; city governments, public sector unions and the city of Los Angeles could have reason to worry.

The qualification announcement for a real estate-oriented constitutional amendment also gives California's Democratic lawmakers reason to start frantically negotiating toward a deal to keep the measure off the ballot entirely, even though the measure’s backers publicly say they aren’t interested.

Branded the “Local Taxpayer Protection Act” by its sponsor, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the newly eligible measure would both sharply cap municipal transfer taxes — fees slapped on real estate sales — and make it harder for voter-sponsored campaigns to raise taxes in local elections.

The measure would hit cities like Berkeley, San Mateo and Alameda — which rely on transfer taxes for a significant share of their funding — especially hard. According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, it would cost local governments “a couple of billion dollars” per year, with taxpayers collectively saving just as much.

Why this is also a fight about Los Angeles

But the focus of the debate, and arguably the primary target of the proposition, is Los Angeles and its controversial “mansion tax,” known as Measure ULA.

Since becoming law in 2023, the voter-backed policy has levied a 4% tax on real estate sales over $5 million and 5.5% on those above $10 million — thresholds that have since inched up to match inflation. The tax has raised more than $1 billion in three years. Last week, the city announced a $360 million award for future affordable housing projects.

But real estate interests, some elected officials in Los Angeles and a growing number of academics say the tax has triggered a sharp slowdown in new construction, including of affordable housing, across the city, compared to neighboring cities. The levy falls not just on mansions, but apartments, condos, multi-use and commercial developments, too.

The resulting ire among developers, investors and business groups over the Los Angeles tax fueled the statewide proposition campaign, said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a conservative group best known for its landmark property tax limiting measure Proposition 13. “I think ULA was not just the straw that broke the camel’s back, but the redwood tree that broke the camel’s back,” he said.

The statewide proposition would trim transfer taxes to just one-twentieth of 1% of a real estate sale’s value. Measure ULA’s top rate is 100 times higher. It would also require some voter-initiated tax measures to clear a two-thirds threshold rather than a simple majority. In Los Angeles, measure ULA passed with 58%.

If the tax-chopping proposition passes, Measure ULA is first on the block.

But that’s a big “if.” More than 57% of likely voters, including a majority of Republicans, opposed the initiative when shown its title as it would appear on the ballot, according to a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.

On your mark, get set … haggle!

There’s also a chance the measure won’t even make it onto the ballot.

Under California election law, sponsors can still yank a measure back after gathering enough valid signatures before the official qualification deadline of June 25. In prior election cycles, that window has become a bonanza of backroom dealing in Sacramento as Democratic lawmakers scramble to muscle unwanted measures off the upcoming ballot and deal-hungry interest groups line up to extract concessions.

A notable example: In 2018, the soda industry funded a ballot measure that would have made it harder for local governments across the state to raise taxes. They pulled it at the last minute, but only after lawmakers begrudgingly agreed to pass a 13-year ban on new soda taxes.

At the end of last year’s legislative session, a group of Southern California Democrats, working alongside Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and former state Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, launched a last-minute effort to exempt new apartment developments from the L.A. tax, while adding some new flexibility on how the money could be spent. The bill had a broader purpose too: It would have only taken effect if the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association removed its measure.

In the face of pushback from both business groups on one side and arch defenders of Measure ULA on the other, the effort fizzled. But now that the Howard Jarvis measure is officially headed for the ballot, Sacramento legislators may feel newly inspired to deal. Even if the electoral odds are ultimately stacked against the proposition, Democratic lawmakers and left-leaning campaign funders would be happy to avoid a costly defensive campaign.

Let’s make a deal?

In the meantime, changes may be coming out of Los Angeles itself.

Earlier this year, Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is hoping to unseat Bass as mayor, introduced a measure that would have put a series of Measure ULA changes on the June ballot. By exempting new development, it reflected many of the changes proposed in last year’s unsuccessful state bill. But a majority of the council punted.

The council instead delegated the question to a select committee chaired by Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, tasking it with recommending changes to the tax. Some of those changes would require voter approval and could go before voters in November, on the same ballot as the Howard Jarvis proposition.

The committee will also consider a set of tweaks to the law proposed by city staff that would clarify that nonprofit affordable developers are exempt from the tax, while making it easier for developers to pair ULA funds with other sources of funding. City staff say those changes could happen without going back to voters.

Tenant rights groups, some affordable housing developers and trade unions support those changes, but are urging the committee to otherwise leave the tax alone. A coalition of developers, “Yes in My Backyard” advocates and unionized carpenters has popped up to urge the city to consider a broad “fix” — before state lawmakers or anti-tax advocates do that work for them.

“We think it's really important to show that we can drive reform locally,” said Sarah Dusseault, a former city homelessness official who is now co-leading the “Mend It, Don’t End It” campaign. Making those changes locally “will go a long way to prevent more drastic measures.”

Measure ULA’s defenders counter that nothing the city or the state does will be enough to convince the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to pull its measure.

“We’ve tried to negotiate with the funders of the measure and, both publicly and privately, they’ve been consistent that they have no intention to pull the measure,” said Joe Donlin, director of the United to House L.A. coalition. “They don't want to change taxes, they want to eliminate them.”

Coupal, from Howard Jarvis, agreed that the proposition is not a bargaining chip. “The folks on our side cannot envision any kind of deal that would give us the kind of solace that we would need,” he said.

But campaigns are expensive. Though the proposition campaign has been led by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, much of the funding has come from the California Business Roundtable, a coalition of major businesses in California, along with a smattering of commercial real estate companies, developers and landlord groups in Los Angeles. For now, the business roundtable says this dispute should be settled by voters. In the coming months, would any of them be willing to cut a deal with desperate Democrats in exchange for dropping their support?

Some legislators in both Sacramento and Los Angeles are eager to find out.

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

Three ships came under fire in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, putting the possibility of any peace talks in jeopardy, after a senior Iranian official said that President Trump's last-minute ceasefire extension "means nothing."

The first ship was attacked and damaged by Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said, though no injuries were reported.

"The Master of a Container Ship reported that the vessel was approached by 1 IRGC gun boat," according to UKMTO.

No warning was given, but it "then fired upon the vessel which has caused heavy damage to the bridge," the center said in a report.

Iran's semiofficial Tasnim News Agency confirmed the incident, saying the container ship had "ignored repeated warnings."

The UKMTO did not immediately say who was responsible for the attack on the second cargo vessel, only that there was no damage or injuries.

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency also reported Iran's Navy had attacked a third ship, the Euphoria. Iranian media reported that the Iranian navy had "seized" the two other vessels, which it identified as the MSC Francesca and the "Epaminodes," likely referring to the Epaminondas.

The attacks come after President Trump indefinitely extended the ceasefire with Iran at the 11th hour, ahead of its expiration. Trump said he was doing so at the request of mediating country Pakistan and it would give Tehran time to present a "unified proposal."

That's after a U.S. delegation had been slated to travel to Islamabad for a second round of peace talks, a plan that dissolved after Iran said it would not be attending.

Mahdi Mohammadi, an adviser to Iran's main negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, posted on X: "Trump's ceasefire extension means nothing, the losing side cannot dictate terms."

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said earlier that "blockading Iranian ports is an act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire." He added that the U.S. seizure of an Iranian ship on Sunday was "an even greater violation."

Here are more developments on day 54 of the Middle East war:

Iran's economy | U.K.-France conference | International reaction | Fuel struggles | Points of contention

Trump says Iran flailing economically

Despite Iran's refusal to attend negotiations this week, Trump says the country is in dire economic straits.

"Iran is collapsing financially! They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately- Starving for cash! Losing 500 Million Dollars a day. Military and Police complaining that they are not getting paid. SOS!!!," he posted on Truth Social late Tuesday.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent posted on X on Tuesday that under Trump's orders the U.S. Navy will continue the blockade of Iran's ports.

"In a matter of days, Kharg Island storage will be full and the fragile Iranian oil wells will be shut in. Constraining Iran's maritime trade directly targets the regime's primary revenue lifelines," he said.

Iranians walk past a mural against Israel and the U.S., in Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday.

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He also said his office would continue to "systematically degrade Tehran's ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds."

Conference seeks solution to Strait standoff

The United Kingdom and France are hosting a two-day conference starting Wednesday aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz. One of the challenges is to remove undersea mines Iran is believed to have planted there.

Military planners from more than 30 countries are meeting at a Royal Air Force base north of London to put together a multinational mission to safeguard the Strait of Hormuz amid global concerns over oil and energy prices.

A poll in the U.K. shows 1 in 10 people are already stockpiling fuel.

British defense officials have previously floated the idea of deploying autonomous mine-hunting systems from motherships sent to the Gulf. But they caution that whatever plan they come up with at this two-day conference will only take effect after what they call a sustained ceasefire between Iran and the U.S.

International reaction

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres cautiously welcomed Trump's announcement of a ceasefire extension.

"This is an important step toward de-escalation and creating critical space for diplomacy and confidence-building between Iran and the United States," he said in a statement shared by his spokesperson.

"We encourage all parties to build on this momentum, refrain from actions that could undermine the cease-fire, and engage constructively in negotiations to reach a sustainable and lasting resolution."

China warned that the Middle East is at a "critical stage."

"The paramount priority remains to make every effort to prevent a resumption of hostilities," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a news briefing Wednesday.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said in an online statement: "Daily U-turns, whether the Strait of Hormuz is open or closed, are reckless. Transit through the Strait must remain free of charge."

She said the EU was widening sanctions on Tehran, adding "none of us want to see a nuclear-armed Iran."

High jet fuel prices squeeze airlines

Meanwhile, the war and strait blockade are continuing to rattle global markets and push up costs, with the airline industry particularly hard hit.

On Tuesday, German airline Lufthansa said that because the price of jet-fuel had doubled since the start of the war, it was cutting 20,000 flights through October in an attempt to save fuel.

United Airlines has also been impacted, with Reuters news agency reporting the Chicago-based carrier had forecast second-quarter and full-year profits below Wall Street estimates.

Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation says it is taking "a look" at Spirit Airlines at the request of Trump. Spirit filed for bankruptcy protection in August for the second time in less than a year.

Now soaring fuel costs tied to the Iran war are adding more uncertainty about the carrier's ability to keep operating. It's not the only one:last week a trade association for low-cost carriers sent a letter to Congress asking for temporary tax relief.

What are the major sticking points?

For officials in Washington, the main points of contention remain control over the Strait of Hormuz and the future of Iran's nuclear program.

Diggers remove the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes as they look for survivors buried underneath in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre on April 21, 2026. Israeli defence minister said on April 21 that his country's campaign in Lebanon relied on both military and diplomatic pressure to disarm Iran-allied Hezbollah. Though a truce between Israel and Lebanon took effect on April 17, Israeli troops are still present and actively fighting Hezbollah militants in Lebanon's south.

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The Trump administration has said it wants commercial shipping through the strategic waterway to be fully restored. Around 20% of the world's crude oil and natural gas typically passes through the strait.

After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Iran began to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz. It has prevented most commercial ships from transiting and has collected steep tolls from some of the few that did.

Vice President Vance said the first round of ceasefire talks held over a week ago broke down because Iran would not commit to forgoing a nuclear weapon.

"The simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon," Vance said.

For Tehran, the key demands for extending the ceasefire include an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and guarantees that the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah will not resume.

Israel and Lebanon agreed on a 10-day ceasefire last week, pausing fighting between Israel's military and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Israel and Lebanon are due to hold fresh talks in Washington on Thursday.

Lauren Frayer in Glasgow, Scotland, Joel Rose in Washington, Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan, and Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg contributed to reporting.

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