The Brief

Shein, the Chinese fast-fashion behemoth, knows its customer base — Gen Zers who buy their clothes through TikTok ads and other social media platforms. So it makes sense that in an effort to rehabilitate its public image ahead of a possible initial public offering in the U.S., the company, now based in Singapore, turned to a group of social media influencers.

This month, Shein (pronounced SHE-in) flew a group of young and diverse tastemakers on an all-expenses-paid trip to Guangzhou, in southeast China, to tour some of its manufacturing facilities. The goal: show those influencers' followers that, contrary to ongoing reports, the company's operations are all above board. Recent reports allege that Shein's extremely cheap prices are made possible by forced labor, human rights violations, stealing other designers' work and the peddling of clothing made with potentially hazardous materials.

The plan worked. The influencers gushed about clean factories and smiling, happy workers who don't break a sweat.

"Upon interviewing the workers, a lot of them were really confused and taken back with the child labor questions and the lead-in-the-clothing questions," influencer Destene Sudduth, a creator with more than 4 million followers, said in a TikTok video. "They weren't even sweating. We were the ones sweating!"

Now, the Shein ambassadors are facing blowback from critics who say they are participating in a propaganda stunt designed to mislead customers.

The online hate was fast and furious, with comments like these:

"They showed you what they wanted you to see."

"I tip my hat to the marketing villain that came up with this."

"It feels like they used you for damage control and it's disturbing."

Other commenters noted that the group's visit was limited to the company's "innovation center" and that the influencers were not offered a glimpse inside its warehouses or other factories.

Company officials dispute the characterization.

"Shein is committed to transparency and this trip reflects one way in which we are listening to feedback, providing an opportunity to show a group of influencers how Shein works through a visit to our innovation center and enabling them to share their own insights with their followers," Shein said in a statement.

What is Shein accused of doing?

A new congressional report titled "Fast Fashion and the Uyghur Genocide," published last week, details how Shein skirts strict import regulations established in the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act by using their networks of Chinese suppliers and direct-to-consumer models.

Most of the alleged abuses are linked not to the modernized factories visited by the group of influencers in Guangzhou, but to Shein's supply chain in the Xinjiang region of China, where human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority have been widely documented. The U.S. banned imports from the region in 2021.

Shein has said it has no suppliers in the Xinjiang region and "zero tolerance for forced labor."

The congressional study states, "These initial and interim findings... raise serious concerns about the continued presence of products made with forced labor contaminating American imports."

In the 2022 British documentary Inside the Shein Machine: Untold, filmmakers found exhausted employees working up to 18 hours a day, often seven days a week. The workers were required to meet strict quotas, while being paid as little as $20 a day and sometimes fined up to two-thirds of their daily wages for making mistakes.

Another investigation, by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., determined that some of Shein's inexpensive clothing "had elevated levels of chemicals — including lead, PFAS and phthalates — that experts found concerning."

How big is the fast-fashion company?

While Shein has been around since 2008 in a number of variations, it really grabbed hold of consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the fast-fashion giant has become one of the world's fastest-growing e-commerce companies.

The online merchant's valuation rose from $5 billion in 2019 to $66 billion as of May.

The retailer also produces more styles than any other clothing company.

Sheng Lu, a professor at the University of Delaware who studies the global textile and apparel industry, analyzed the annual output of some of the largest global companies. Lu told Wired that over 12 months, the Gap listed about 12,000 different items on its website, H&M had roughly 25,000 and Zara had about 35,000. During the same period, Shein had 1.3 million.

The company's jaw-dropping success is largely attributed to its unique marketing strategy. It has poured millions of dollars into online ad campaigns on Google, Facebook and more traditional brand faces. But the core of its strategy is the use of social media influencers and fashion bloggers with moderate-size followings, such as those contracted to attend the sponsored event this month. The online micro-celebrities are compensated with free clothes (which they show off in #SheinHaul videos), trips or per-post payments.

How are Shein's visiting influencers responding to the latest backlash?

Since posting about the trip, at least one influencer has ended her relationship with the company.

In a post Wednesday, Instagrammer and YouTuber Dani Carbonari, who goes by Dani DMC, said she has ended a newly signed deal with Shein, which came about following her glowing reviews of the visit.

"I have terminated my relationship with Shein upon returning from the trip, and I will no longer be aligned with them or work with them in any capacity now or ever in the future," the plus-size model told her combined audience of more than a million followers.

Carbonari added: "I made a huge mistake. I always try to lead with me, my younger self and my community in mind, and I let us down. I did us wrong."

She did not address the company's problematic record or any of the human rights allegations that have been made against it.

Uber must pay $40 million to the parents of a woman who was struck and killed after an Uber driver left her on an Orange County freeway in 2023, an arbitrator has ruled.

The arbitrator rejected Uber’s arguments that California’s Proposition 22 — a voter-approved law written by Uber and other gig companies that cemented drivers’ status as independent contractors, not employees — shields it from liability for a driver’s actions.

“Prop. 22 does not immunize Uber from vicarious liability” for the wrongdoing of its drivers, Richard Stone, a retired judge who served as the arbitrator, wrote in his July arbitration award. Vicarious liability is indirect liability for the actions of another, such as in instances where the parties have a legal relationship.

In his earlier ruling in March, Stone wrote that when California voters passed Prop. 22 in 2020, they could not have intended to do away with Uber’s liability for its drivers’ actions. He noted that the language in the ballot proposition urging voters to approve it referred to classifying drivers as independent contractors, meaning they would not get standard benefits and protections like employees would.

“There is no reference in key voter materials to the liability of app-based transportation companies,” Stone wrote. “Not a word.”

On Aug. 12, 2023, Uber driver Vu Tran picked up Emily Normandin-Parker and her friend, Luna Moore, from a bar. When Moore started throwing up in the car, Tran stopped at a gore point — the small, triangular area at the off-ramp — on State Route 73. As Tran and Moore argued, Normandin-Parker, 23, was struck and killed after wandering into traffic because she was inebriated, according to the ruling. Stone wrote that it was hard to determine exactly what happened because the testimony of both Moore and Tran were not entirely credible.

Normandin-Parker’s parents and Moore sued Tran and Uber in Orange County Superior Court in September 2023, and the parties agreed to arbitration. Stone awarded Normandin-Parker’s parents, Carol Normandin and Ken Parker, $20 million each, and Moore $300,000.

Uber reported revenue of more than $14 billion and net income of more than $2 billion in its second quarter that ended in June.

Uber spokesperson Gabriela Condarco-Quesada told CalMatters that the company disagrees with the decision.

“We believe the arbitrator was wrong in holding Uber legally responsible for the tragic events of that night,” she said, citing Prop. 22. Uber, along with companies such as DoorDash, Lyft and Instacart, spent more than $200 million on the ballot initiative.

She also said the company’s “thoughts continue to be with the Normandin-Parker family.”

Parker pushed back on what he called a spin campaign by Uber, noting that the company tried to keep them from talking about the arbitrator’s award.

“Their thoughts have never been with us,” he told CalMatters on Thursday, the day he and Normandin appeared on Good Morning America to discuss the case and the death of their daughter, a UCLA graduate.

Parker said Uber has never apologized or acknowledged responsibility, and that throughout the arbitration process the company was “at best aloof and at worst distastefully crass.”

In a November filing, the company argued the incident “was the result of Moore and Normandin-Parker’s extreme intoxication, which was existent because of Moore’s and Normandin-Parker’s intentional conduct — not Tran’s driving.”

The award will help fund the Emily Normandin-Parker Foundation, which her parents created last year. Part of the foundation’s mission will be to hold corporations accountable, particularly in the ride-hailing industry, Parker said. He said that might come through advocacy in legislation, regulations or the “court of public opinion.”

The arbitrator also rejected Uber’s argument that it is not a common carrier that transports people or goods, but a transportation network company because it’s licensed as such by the Public Utilities Code. Stone wrote that Uber could be subject to both public utility rules and a non-transferable legal duty for safety as a common carrier at the same time, citing other cases in which the company was deemed to be a common carrier. Further, he said another California law, Proposition 51, does not apply in this case. Prop. 51 limits liability for non-economic damages to a defendant’s proportionate share of fault. Stone said Uber is 100% responsible for the driver’s actions.

Lawyers for Normandin-Parker’s parents said evidence presented during the arbitration showed Uber had received previous complaints about Tran's driving.

Uber said in a filing that Tran had a valid driver’s license and passed its background check, and that the company had no duty to train Tran beyond that because he was an independent contractor. The company spokesperson said this week that Tran, who can no longer drive for Uber, had completed thousands of trips without any unsafe drop-offs, freeway stops or rider injury.

CalMatters contacted the law firm that represented Tran but did not immediately receive a response.

Stone wrote that he hopes Uber “will learn from this tragic incident … and change the pertinent policies and procedures accordingly. Should it fail to do so, it no doubt engages in that approach at its own substantial risk.”

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

Several Los Angeles-area organizations that serve survivors of domestic violence and people experiencing homelessness say a legal dispute over federal homelessness funding is holding critical dollars hostage.

Groups, now forced to cover up to millions of dollars in annual grant agreements, are running out of reserves, cutting staffing and relying on private donations to keep people housed and services running.

The organizations have had contracts stalled for months in a legal back-and-forth between the Trump administration and the region’s top homeless services agency, which has some programs starving for money.

“If these contracts don't get executed, if HUD doesn't start to reimburse agencies quickly … we're going to see more suffering on the street,” said Myong Kim, chief program officer at the Downtown Women’s Center. “It's going to be more tangible and more visible.”

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development told LAist it's not currently required to execute grant agreements after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency stay while it decides on HUD’s appeal in the coming weeks.

“HUD stands by its commitment and legal right not to continue supporting LAHSA, which even Judge [David O.] Carter and Mayor Karen Bass have acknowledged is an abject failure and riddled with fraud, waste, and abuse,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

The region's top homeless services agency, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, told LAist that it’s not backing down and is actively pursuing legal remedies to force the federal government to honor its commitments.

“Frontline providers have kept lifesaving programs running for months without compensation,” spokesperson Chris Yee said in an email. “Releasing these federal funds is essential to maintaining their operations and protecting services for people who rely on these critical programs.”

Overall, HUD delays are expected to affect more than 50 local service providers, with the bulk of their renewal grants expiring in the next three months, according to LAHSA. Dozens of grants could be affected by the end of this year, totaling nearly $65 million.

A fight over who controls funding

The situation facing these providers is part of a broader delay with HUD's execution of FY2025 Continuum of Care grants, which has affected groups in other parts of the country, such as Ohio.

More than 1,300 of the FY2025 Continuum of Care renewal grant agreements — about one in five — had not been fully executed as of Monday, according to court documents reviewed by LAist. That includes more than 400 agreements that had not been issued by HUD.

But the L.A. grants are not just facing bureaucratic delays — they’ve become entangled in a fight over who controls the region’s federal homelessness funding.

HUD suspended LAHSA from federal grant activity this summer, and LAHSA sued. Some of the organizations’ leaders were hopeful a federal judge could clear the path for their contracts to be paid in August.

That’s when U.S. District Judge David O. Carter issued an order that, among other things, named a dozen service providers for which HUD has failed to execute grant agreements after getting award letters earlier this year. He wrote that the delays leave them without the funds they need to continue operating.

Carter ordered HUD to execute those signed agreements immediately. But about a month later, the order was paused by the Ninth Circuit.

“We expected HUD to immediately execute our grant agreements in compliance with Judge Carter's order,” said Jessica Reed, LAHSA’s director of Continuum of Care, during a LAHSA Commission committee meeting Wednesday. “Obviously, the appeal [by HUD] has continued to hold that up.”

LAist reached out to all 12 organizations named in the order, and several said they’re getting stuck in the middle of the legal dispute.

Groups in limbo for months

House of Ruth in Pomona, a roughly 50-year-old domestic violence agency that offers crisis, outreach, housing and legal services, has a roughly $286,000 grant tied up in the litigation, according to Pat Bell, CEO. The grant, which hasn’t been executed since April, pays for the organization’s transitional housing shelter.

Bell said LAHSA has told her an executed contract was unlikely to come anytime soon, forcing House of Ruth to float the funds in the meantime. The organization is now reducing staffing for its transitional shelter, including layoffs and cutting hours, according to Bell.

“We have six months of paychecks going out to the staff that are providing the transitional shelter services without any reimbursement,” Bell said.

House of Ruth is not an isolated example.

The Downtown Women’s Center based in Skid Row, which provides housing, employment and mental health services to survivors of violence experiencing homelessness, has been waiting on a $3.5 million annual contract since July, according to Kim, the chief program officer. The renewal contract supports rent payments for survivors of domestic violence, she said.

The Downtown Women’s Center has been covering about $150,000 a month in costs with private donations since then, but Kim noted that’s “not going to last forever.”

“In the midst of all the politics, and in the midst of all the back and forth, we really need to remember that these are individual lives — women, their children, their dependents — that are at risk and that are counting on us to move things forward,” Kim said.

‘Wreaking havoc’

The People Concern, an L.A. County nonprofit that provides housing and services to people experiencing homelessness and survivors of domestic violence, has two outstanding contracts for a little more than $2.2 million combined, according to John Maceri, CEO. He said a few other contracts that are set to end in the coming months could also be affected, bringing the total to about $3.3 million.

The People Concern is relying on donations and reserves, but Maceri said cash flow is a particularly big challenge, and it’s “really wreaking havoc in the system.”

He said they’re approaching an untenable situation.

“Ultimately, the people who are hurt are the people that we're serving,” Maceri said. “Because at some point, organizations cannot continue to finance debt.”

Jewish Family Service L.A. has been waiting since April on a contract for its transitional shelter that supports women and children who survived domestic violence.

Eli Veitzer, CEO, said the organization is tapping into its reserves to cover the roughly $300,000 portion of annual costs to keep the shelter open until at least next summer. But that can’t be a long-term solution, he noted.

Veitzer said LAHSA has fallen short in critical ways, but blocking funding to the agency without another path for service providers “essentially shuts down the system.”

“HUD hasn't proposed an alternative method for getting these funds to the providers and the clients who need those services, and that's the part that is the most upsetting,” Veitzer said. “There's a complete disregard for the impact of the people in L.A. County who need these services desperately, and who benefit from these services.”

Why it matters

Scott Cummings, a professor of legal ethics at the UCLA School of Law, told LAist it’s not unusual to seek a stay after an order like Carter’s. But litigation takes time, and the programs are effectively put on hold while it’s worked out in court.

“There are short-term wins for the [Trump] administration in just playing this delay game,” Cummings said. “The delay can actually last a long time, and in the meantime, the programs are suffering, and the people they're serving are suffering.”

L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath commented on the contracts in Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting, saying: “A top concern is the 2025 LAHSA COC contracts that HUD is refusing to execute, although those programs are already operating without funding.”

Horvath requested an update next Tuesday from the county’s Department of Homeless Services and Housing to go over the remaining contracts at LAHSA.

The Ninth Circuit is expected to hear arguments next Tuesday, according to court documents, and Carter has scheduled a status conference for the week after.

LAist’s Aaron Schrank contributed to this story.

Ah geez: You're here because you're wondering if you should get back with your ex, aren't you?

Don't be ashamed: Almost half of people end up getting back with a past flame at some point.

But: Is it a good idea? Like, for reals? We turned that question over to listeners of AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news show, and got some mixed responses.

Listener thoughts:

• The heart wants what it wants, but sometimes chemistry alone isn't enough for a second chance to work out.
• Familiarity can be comforting but also masks real issues.
• On-again, off-again relationships don't just impact you — they impact others' perception of you.
• Sometimes trying again can give you the closure you didn't know you needed.

Listen: To the full AirTalk segment above to hear advice from relationship expert Lauren Salaun, and how one man's desert rendezvous with an ex left him stranded in SoCal.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

MacArthur Park will host two more Fall Friday Nights this month, with a Glow Party on Friday and a free outdoor movie night next week as the city continues its community programming at the park.

The free events are open to the public from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and include free food, games, entertainment, activities and community resources.

Friday’s Glow Party will include a DJ, glow sticks, dancing and interactive games.

The Sept. 25 movie night will feature a screening of “The Super Mario Galaxy” on a large outdoor screen.

The two events are the final Fall Friday Nights scheduled at MacArthur Park this year. The series has been held at the park since 2024 and brings together city departments, neighborhood organizations and service providers.

Fall Friday Nights was created in 2015 as an extension of the city’s Summer Night Lights program.

Families and residents gather at MacArthur Park during Fall Friday Nights on Sept. 4, 2026.

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Courtesy of Central City Neighborhood Partners

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Eduardo Rodriguez, executive director of Central City Neighborhood Partners, said Fall Friday Nights grew from a partnership between the city, Mayor Karen Bass, CCNP and other community groups to create “more consistent, positive, family-centered activity at MacArthur Park.”

CCNP began activating the park this summer through its “Meet Me at MacArthur Park” initiative, which Rodriguez said showed that families wanted more welcoming events and accessible resources.

“The strong community response demonstrated that families want welcoming events, accessible resources, and reasons to return to the park,” Rodriguez said.

About a thousand people attended each of the first two Fall Friday Nights this year, Rodriguez said, for an estimated 2,000 people combined.

The Friday events are also part of a longer-term plan for the park.

Rodriguez said CCNP, through its “Meet Me at MacArthur Park” initiative, plans to establish a recurring presence at the park two days a week. CCNP will provide FamilySource services, youth and family programs, workforce and education resources, financial empowerment, wellness services, food assistance and other community support.

“Our goal is to turn individual events into long-term relationships with families and create consistent, visible, and positive activity at MacArthur Park,” he said.

For Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, the Friday events are part of a broader effort in MacArthur Park that includes clean teams, street medicine teams, overdose response and infrastructure improvements. 

Hernandez said residents are beginning to notice changes at the park, but argued that they came after years of work.

“This has been years of investment, of time, of money that me and my team have put into MacArthur Park and into Westlake from the moment I got into office,” she said on social media. 

Hernandez has also described that work as part of a broader approach to public safety that extends beyond law enforcement.

“The public safety ecosystem is not just law enforcement,” she said, pointing to street medicine teams and mobile overdose response teams working in the park.

The Los Angeles Police Department and federal agents have spent much of the summer carrying out a multi-phase operation targeting drug activity in and around MacArthur Park, while the city says it remains on track to install a perimeter fence this fall.

Fall Friday Nights “targets communities that may need a little extra care once the school year starts,” according to Bass’ office. 

Free clothing will also be distributed. CCNP will provide free transportation from its Westlake office, Tenth Street Elementary School and Virgil Middle School. Residents can call CCNP at (213) 482-8618 for transportation information.

Last year, Fall Friday Nights brought more than 3,000 people to MacArthur Park over four Friday nights, according to the city. The programming included arts and crafts, futsal, meals and other activities, while unhoused residents could also access medical care and other services.