The Brief

A few weeks ago, a police officer made a routine traffic stop in Upland, California, just outside of Los Angeles. The officer was accompanied by a police dog named Petey.

As they approached the car, Petey began barking. Something about this car was clearly strange. Sure enough, they discovered that the vehicle had about 66 pounds of cocaine stashed in a hidden compartment.

"Drugs off the street, smuggler went to jail, and our good boy got a steak," the Upland Police Department posted about the drug bust on social media.

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Upland Police Department

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Drug busts like these are mounting around the nation, but they are just a small fraction of what's estimated to be a record-breaking surge in the supply of cocaine. In their most recent annual World Report, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime found that, after a decade of rapid growth, "Global cocaine production has hit an all-time high once again, accompanied by significant increases in cocaine seizures, cocaine users and – most tragically – cocaine-related deaths in many countries."

So what's behind this surge? And how is it affecting us in the United States? A new working paper from economists Xinming Du, Benjamin Hansen, Shan Zhang, and Eric Zou — "Coca's Return and the American Overdose Fallout" — has some answers.

Why cocaine supply is surging

A decade ago, it seemed like the heyday of the cocaine market was mostly behind us. The drug was still popular in certain places, but it was also something of a relic, associated more with discos in the 1970s and Wall Street in the 1980s.

Du and the other economists suggest that at least part of cocaine's decline was the result of fierce supply-side interventions in Colombia. With significant U.S. involvement, Colombia "waged an aggressive campaign against the plantation of coca, the raw plant used to make cocaine," they write. As a result, "Colombia's coca fields shrank from about 168,000 hectares in 2000 to just 48,000 by 2013, and cocaine became much less available in the United States."

A Colombian police officer hugs a dog during an operation to eradicate illicit crops in Tumaco, Narino Department, Colombia on December 30, 2020.

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Juan Barreto

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But around 2015, the economists write, a couple of policy changes "created a perfect storm for coca's resurgence." First, the Colombian government ended its U.S.-supported aerial fumigation program on public health grounds. Many feared that the chemical they sprayed (glyphosate) was carcinogenic. Then, in late 2016, the Colombian government signed a historic peace deal with the Marxist revolutionary guerilla group FARC. For decades, FARC had tried to overthrow the Colombian government, and to finance their war, they got heavily involved in the cocaine trade.

"For years, the FARC had tightly controlled and taxed coca production in the areas it dominated," the economists write. "When the rebels demobilized, a power vacuum formed in remote coca-growing regions. A variety of other armed groups ranging from dissident FARC factions to cartels rushed in to seize these territories. These new traffickers actively encouraged local farmers to plant more coca as they consolidated control."

Also, in a classic case of unintended consequences, the Colombian government introduced "a coca crop substitution program that promised stipends and development aid to farmers who eradicated their coca," but that plan backfired because farmers "quickly realized they needed to have coca plants in the ground to qualify for compensation, which led many to start new coca plots or expand existing ones in hopes of securing the promised subsidies." (Side Note: Check out a recent Planet Money episode about a U.S. effort to get Peruvian coca farmers to grow blueberries).

Because of these and other factors, the program to eradicate coca farming in Colombia failed, and production exploded. "By 2022, Colombia's coca cultivation area and potential cocaine output were more than three times their 2015 levels," the economists write.

Much of this cocaine came to the United States (as well as Europe, which has also been seeing a historic cocaine boom). Data from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) shows that, after 2015, "the average size of cocaine seizures jumped markedly, while seizures of other drugs did not follow the same pattern."

And, hello classic supply and demand, with a surge in cocaine production and distribution, prices fell, helping to stoke a demand boom.

Ben Hansen, an economist at the University of Oregon who co-authored this study, says cocaine is an "experience good," meaning it's a kind of product users have to experience to stimulate demand. "Because cocaine is an experience good, if you have a big supply shock, that leads to more people potentially using it and therefore experiencing it, and liking it," Hansen says. "And then they want it again." In this way, a flood of new supply generates a surge in new demand.

Cocaine has many negative side effects, but the scariest one is overdoses. Following a long period of "stable cocaine-related mortality," the economists write, cocaine-related overdose fatalities began surging in the United States by the late 2010s.

The fallout from the cocaine surge

Du, Hansen, Zhang, and Zou estimate what this surge of cocaine supply has meant for American overdoses. The economists calculate that had the post-2015 Colombian cocaine explosion never happened, there would be around 1,500 fewer overdose deaths in the United States every year.

For context, in 2023, the last year with complete data, there were about 30,000 overdose deaths involving cocaine, according to the CDC. That was about 28% of all overdose deaths.

That's significantly less than overdose deaths from synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl), which were involved in nearly 73,000 deaths, or about 69% of the total.

Hansen, who has also studied the opioid market, says they were particularly sensitive to the reality that, at the same time as this cocaine surge, there was also a fentanyl surge, and sometimes people overdosed after ingesting both drugs (sometimes unintentionally because the cocaine was cut with fentanyl). " And when we restrict to overdose deaths that were only involving cocaine, we still continue to find this relationship, suggesting that this is not just a fentanyl correlation that we're accidentally picking up here," Hansen says.

The United States, of course, isn't the only nation to experience negative effects from the dramatic expansion of cocaine production and distribution. Another new working paper by economists Gianmarco Daniele, Adam Soliman, and Juan Vargas, "Cocaine Goes Bananas: Global Spillovers from an Illicit Supply Shock," documents that this post-2015 cocaine surge "coincided with a sharp increase in homicide rates of about one-third, with substantially larger effects in port areas" in Colombia. They also find that violence from the cocaine trade spilled over to Ecuador, which is one major transit hub for cocaine, and that contributed to a "nearly five-fold increase in homicide rates" in that nation. The economists also link the explosion of cocaine supply to an explosion of use in Europe, which likely has had negative effects similar to ones seen in the United States.

Policymakers are paying attention. For instance, the Colombian cocaine surge has been one big reason for a fraying of relations between the U.S. and Colombia under President Trump. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump and the President of Columbia, Gustavo Petro, met and fighting the cocaine trade was at the top of their agenda.

One clear implication of this new study from Du, Hansen, Zhang, and Zou is that supply-side interventions can work to reduce cocaine use, particularly at the source where cocaine is coming from.

Hansen compared drug traffickers to multinational corporations. Like corporations, "They're going to respond to the bottom line," Hansen says. "And if you make it a lot harder to produce things, well, they're gonna probably scale back production, just like when we regulate other companies or raise their taxes."
Copyright 2026 NPR

The Los Angeles County fires last year drove up insurance costs for many Californians. Now, a proposed settlement means some State Farm policyholders whose premiums rose won’t see additional increases, and others should even get refunds.

State Farm, the largest insurer in the state with about 20% market share, received approval for unprecedented emergency insurance rate increases in California last May. The company told the state that the billions of dollars it expected to pay out after the deadly fires placed it in financial peril.

The proposed deal among the state Insurance Department, consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog and State Farm, disclosed late last week, comes after months of public hearings convened by the insurance department and settlement talks.

Consumer Watchdog, which questioned the rate increases State Farm asked for, says the settlement saves the company’s California policyholders a total of $530 million. From the proposed settlement:

• Homeowners’ rate hikes will stay at the previously approved interim rate of 17% instead of the 30% the company sought.
• Condo owners who saw interim rate hikes of 15% will see their rates drop to an increase of 5.8%, and get refunds with interest dating back to June 1, 2025.
• Rental unit owners with interim rate hikes of 38% will see those increases drop to 32.8%, and receive refunds with interest. 
• Renter policyholders will see an increase of 15.65% vs. the interim rate hike of 15%.

In addition, State Farm has agreed not to cancel any new policies this year, and it won’t be canceling some policies it had planned not to renew in wildfire-affected areas. The insurance department characterized those provisions as important to the continued stability of the state’s insurance market, which has been beset with availability and affordability issues.

“When consumer advocates are able to challenge the data and present their own analysis, excessive requests are reduced and consumers are protected,” said Harvey Rosenfield in a statement. Rosenfield founded Consumer Watchdog and wrote Proposition 103, the voter-approved law that governs insurance in California.

State Farm has paid out more than $5 billion in claims from the L.A.-area fires so far, said spokesperson Tom Hartmann.

After consumer complaints and lawsuits, the insurance department is investigating the company’s handling of claims from the fires and expects results from that examination later this spring.

The agreement, which must be approved by an administrative law judge, also requires State Farm to undergo additional review of its rates in 2027. The company will be required to make a one time 2.5% premium discount available to renewing policyholders if its ratio of premiums to available cash reaches a certain level; Consumer Watchdog litigation director Will Pletcher said the deal will give the group more timely access to the company’s annual financial statements to help keep it accountable.

The insurance department expects the judge to decide on the settlement by April 7. Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara will then review the judge’s decision and have the final say.

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

Iran's state media issued what it said was a statement by Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, vowing to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and keep up attacks on U.S. bases in the region, as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran entered its 13th day.

It was purported to be the new leader's first statement since he succeeded his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli strike on the first day of the war.

The statement said Iran will avenge the blood of its "martyrs," including the victims of a March 1 attack on a girls school in the city of Minab, which Iranian officials say killed at least 165 people, many of them children. NPR has confirmed the U.S. military is investigating how it could have targeted the school.

The Iranian statement said the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for a fifth of the world's oil supply, should remain closed. It said Iran continues to believe in friendship with its neighbors but will continue targeting U.S. bases in the region.

"The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must undoubtedly continue to be used.," the statement said, according to an English version published by Tasnim News Agency, run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

It's unclear if the statement was from Mojtaba Khamenei himself. Another person was heard reading out the remarks on Iranian state media, with a photo of Khamenei posted on the TV screen, as it was broadcast around the world.

There's been speculation about the leader's current condition and whereabouts. An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly, told NPR that Khamenei was lightly injured early in the war.

This is a developing story that will be updated.

Here are other major updates about the conflict.

To jump to specific areas of coverage, use the links below:

Attacks on vessels | Oil stockpiles | Strikes across the Gulf | Israel-Hezbollah escalation | Iranian school attack

Two oil tankers hit in Iraqi waters

Two oil tankers were hit in Iraqi territorial waters near the southern port area of Basra, Iraqi officials said Thursday. It is the first oil-related strike reported in Iraq's waters during more than a week of war, in another sign of the conflict's escalation.

Iran, a critical ally of Iraq, took responsibility for attacking one of the tankers, which it said was owned by the U.S.

A port official said the attack targeted vessels near Basra's port approaches, and Iraq's security spokesman described it as sabotage.

Iraqi officials said one person was killed, and 38 crew members were rescued, with search operations continuing.

Iran has stepped up attacks on energy infrastructure and commercial shipping in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes, warning that the world should brace for oil prices to double.

— Jane Arraf

U.S. and allies to release record oil stockpiles  

The U.S. confirmed it will release 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of a coordinated International Energy Agency (IEA) release of 400 million barrels from emergency stockpiles.

The U.S. contribution amounts to roughly 40% of the total, to be released gradually over about four months.

The IEA's executive director, Fatih Birol, said the goal is to keep the supply of oil flowing as the conflict disrupts shipping routes and energy infrastructure. But analysts warn stockpile releases can only partially offset prolonged disruption in the Gulf, where roughly a fifth of global oil consumption normally transits the Strait of Hormuz.

On Wednesday, President Trump said the price spike is temporary and said the reserve release would push prices down.

According to the popular app Gas Buddy, the current average cost of regular unleaded is now up to $3.61 a gallon.

- Camila Domonoske

Iran continues attacks on Gulf States

Countries in the Gulf reported new incoming threats and interceptions Thursday, as Iran continued firing drones and missiles across the region – including at U.S. military bases.

The UAE's defense ministry said air defenses were responding to Iranian missile and drone attacks, and that sounds heard in parts of the country were from intercepts.

Kuwait's defense ministry said its air defenses intercepted ballistic missiles and drones that penetrated the northern and southern parts of the country's airspace.

Saudi Arabia said it intercepted and destroyed drones headed toward the Shaybah oil field.

The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Wednesday condemning Iran for recent attacks across the Persian Gulf region, calling them a "breach of international law" and "a serious threat to international peace and security."

- Rebecca Rosman

Israel launches large strikes on Hezbollah sites in Beirut after rocket fire into Israel

People inspect homes damaged by a projectile launched from Lebanon, in Haniel central Israel, on Thursday.

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Baz Ratner

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The militant group Hezbollah launched its biggest rocket attack against Israel since the start of the war with Iran. The Israeli military said the Iranian-backed group fired heavy volleys toward northern Israel overnight into Thursday, triggering interceptions and sending residents repeatedly into shelters.

The Israeli military responded by launching more attacks against what it said were Hezbollah launch sites and command infrastructure.

Huge booms were heard across the capital and large black smoke billowed from the Dahieh neighborhood in south Beirut, while an attack in central Beirut – where thousands of people are displaced – killed 8 people and injured 31, according to Lebanese officials.

Wide evacuation orders for south Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs have displaced at least 800,000 people so far, according to the Lebanese government.

Lebanon, which does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, has unusually called for direct talks with Israel to end the escalating fighting with Hezbollah. Israel has not officially responded.

Israeli strikes on Iran have continued, with Iran firing missiles at Israel intermittently, including overnight.

Israeli military officials say about half of the missiles Iran has launched at Israel have carried cluster warheads, which spread out into smaller bombs over a wider area – increasing the risk to civilians.

- Daniel Estrin, Hadeel Al-Shalchi and Rebecca Rosman

Pentagon: Preliminary assessment suggests U.S. likely responsible for strike on Iranian school

The Pentagon has opened a formal investigation into the missile strike on an Iranian girls school that killed at least 165 civilians, many of them children, after a preliminary assessment suggested the U.S. was at fault, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The investigation is expected to take months and will include interviews with all those involved, from planners and commanders to those who carried out the strike.

If a U.S. role in the attack is confirmed, it would rank among the military's most deadly incidents involving civilians in decades. Congress created a special Pentagon office to prevent the accidental targeting of civilians but it was dramatically scaled back by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth soon after he took office last year.

"This investigation is ongoing. As we have said, unlike the terrorist Iranian regime, the United States does not target civilians," said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly.

The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

NPR previously reported — based on commercial satellite imagery and independent expert analysis — that the strike was more extensive than initially reported and appeared consistent with a precision strike on a nearby military complex, raising questions about whether outdated targeting information contributed to the tragedy.

- Tom Bowman, Kat Lonsdorf, Geoff Brumfiel

Rebecca Rosman contributed to this report from Paris, Jane Arraf from Erbil, Iraq, Hadeel Al-Shalchi from Beirut, Daniel Estrin from Tel Aviv and Camila Domonoske, Tom Bowman, Kat Lonsdorf and Geoff Brumfiel from Washington.
Copyright 2026 NPR

The story first appeared on The LA Local.

If you’re a soccer fan — or just a fan of South Korean phenom Son Heung-min — you may have heard that the Los Angeles Football Club planned to put up a larger-than-life mural of the footballer in Koreatown last month. But the mural has yet to appear. 

LAFC planned to reveal the mural during the launch of their 2026/2027 jersey at The LINE Hotel. Now the reveal has been pushed back to sometime in June. 

The delay stems from issues with the city’s mural approval process, at least according to city officials. 

Gabriel Cifarelli, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, said they received a mural registration application for the site. But the department said it could not issue a notice to proceed because the application was “ineligible and incomplete” under the city’s mural ordinance and administrative rules.

“DCA staff offered the applicant advice and further guidance, and remains available for questions,” Cifarelli said. 

If a mural includes a team logo it is considered an advertisement and not original artwork, according to the city department. In that case, the permit must be issued through the city’s Building and Safety Department.

A new application has not been submitted through the mural program, Cifarelli said, and it was not immediately clear whether LAFC applied for a permit through the Building and Safety Department. 

LAFC spokesperson Danny Sanchez didn’t confirm if a new permit has been submitted.

“The mural unveil was rescheduled to June to better align with World Cup festivities,” Sanchez said. 

Dave Young Kim was commissioned to paint the mural and previously painted a Son mural on the side of the Crosby building in Koreatown in October, but that was only up for a few weeks.

He still plans to paint the mural on The LINE Hotel in June.

“I’m assuming at this point, LAFC is likely trying to line it up for a more opportune time,” said Kim. “The mural was originally supposed to line up with the launch of the new jersey so something similar.”

Leo Hernandez, 35, said he hopes the mural goes up before the World Cup.

“I didn’t know it was pushed back all the way to June,” he said. “I’ll be in Mexico for the World Cup.”

Hernandez, who goes by “El Soccer Guy” on Instagram and has nearly 50,000 followers, has been attending LAFC games since 2018. He said Son’s arrival to L.A. has brought a new wave of fans to the club.

“I’ve never seen so many Koreans,” he said. “He’s bringing a whole new community to LAFC. I don’t know if they love soccer or they love Son or both, but it’s amazing to see.”

“Son is starting to be my favorite on the team,” he added. “He’s so good. He wants the team to shine. And I love his positivity and energy.” 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is all about people with superpowers living in a world very much like our own.

And there’s a lot of real Los Angeles mixed into the recent MCU series “Wonder Man,” now on Disney+, which makes for a version of the MCU that feels a little more grounded in reality, especially for Angelenos.

It's an action-comedy about two struggling actors also dealing with superhuman forces and secret government agencies. Think The Studio meets Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Sir Ben Kingsley reprises his Iron Man 3 character Trevor Slattery, the messy British actor hired to play a bad guy called The Mandarin. And Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man.

Through their adventures trying to book the gig-of-a-lifetime while surviving the perils of the MCU, L.A. landmarks and cultural references abound, and ground the series in a relatability for many Angelenos, including lots of inside jokes for those working in the entertainment industry.

3 cultural references that make Wonder Man feel like real Los Angeles

Historic places, some we’ve had to part with

There’s a series of roughly 100-year-old small, independent movie houses used as locations in Wonder Man — the Eagle Theatre now home to Vidiots, Westwood's Village Theater now operated by American Cinematheque (with views of The Bruin Theater across the street), and the Highland Theatre which closed in 2024.

A scene from 'Wonder Man' on Disney +.

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Speaking of iconic L.A. spots breaking local hearts, the vintage bar within Echo Park’s Taix French Restaurant was used as an interior location for the series. Taix is closing at the end of the month to make way for new development.

“Taix, the Highland Park Theatre — these places that it was only three years ago were there,” Wonder Man showrunner Andrew Guest told LAist, “a lot of these establishments sadly, are not surviving. And this town is in a rough, rough place.”

(Though actor/director Kristen Stewart recently said in an interview with Architectural Digest that she bought The Highland Theatre and is restoring the building.)

L.A. traffic (especially around the Hollywood Bowl on a performance night)

Traffic is part of life in Los Angeles and with so many scenes shot in Hollywood, even the main characters of Wonder Man must experience that bumper-to-bumper frustration.

Though, because it is a TV show, they were able to indulge in the fantasy of beating that traffic in a way that in reality would be highly dangerous (and illegal).

“We got to shut down Sunset Boulevard for a little while to shoot a car going onto the sidewalk in front of the Palladium,” said Guest. And surprisingly, he explained, they didn’t have to shoot in the middle of the night to make the shot happen: “That was Friday night…. We didn't close all lanes of traffic. The street was open. We were shooting while Los Angeles was still going strong.”

The scene also references the frequent traffic back up during big shows at the Hollywood Bowl, even earning the show a social media repost of the scene from Chaka Khan.

Having family and friends 45 minutes away, who you rarely visit

Wonder Man includes an episode titled Pacoima where the main character visits his family and childhood home.

“My wife grew up in Chatsworth, and one of the things I found fascinating about her experience growing up there was that many of her friends and their families never went to Los Angeles,” said Guest.

“The idea that Simon grew up close to, but far enough away that Hollywood and Los Angeles did not feel like they were part of his life…so when he moved to the city, Pacoima is not a place he goes to a lot. And I feel like that's a part of L.A. that is true to this city. That doesn't get explored a lot and felt like it was another detail that we got to sort of throw into the show.”

There’s lots of other Southern California. references to enjoy from the Talmadge Apartments, an historic renaissance revival building on Wilshire Blvd., a mural of Danny Trejo, and even a cameo from Gisellle Fernandes, real-life L.A. broadcaster for Spectrum 1 News.

Should you get lost in the multi-verse, at least this L.A will be pretty familiar.

BONUS: Could there be a Season 2 of Wonder Man? And would it still be set in L.A.?

Guest couldn’t confirm anything about a possible Season 2, but told LAist, “It’s still on the table as an option, potentially."

As for whether a potential Season 2 would also film in Los Angeles and continue to highlight the city in new ways, Guest said it’s occurred to him that one of the best ways to write about Hollywood could be “ to send our show somewhere else because everybody in this town who's working has to move — whether it be Budapest or London or Ireland or Vancouver — very little is actually happening in this town. And that’s a story that I don’t think is being told right now about L.A.”

Season 1 of ‘Wonder Man’ is now streaming on Disney+.

Watch Julia Paskin's interview with actor/comedian X Mayo, who plays Simon Williams' agent in 'Wonder Man':