The Brief

Latest updates

• Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday morning at a news conference that the damage to the 10 Freeway does not require demolition. Instead, he said with 24/7 work on repairs, the timeline to reopening is three to five weeks. He also said crew would install cameras so that the public can monitor the project's progress, as well as on fixthe10.ca.gov.
  
• The fire that shut down the 10 Freeway was likely started by arson, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced at a news conference Monday. CalFire finished its investigation 12 hours early and made a preliminary determination there was malice intent, Newsom added. “That it was arson, and that it was done and set intentionally,” he said. “That determination of who is responsible is an investigation that is ongoing.”
  

• While the fire remains under investigation, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass told LAist 89.3’s Air Talk on Tuesday speculation on social media and elsewhere is not helpful.

  "There's a lot of accusations against the homeless people that were in the area,” she said. “There is no reason, at this point in time, to associate the encampment with the fire that took place there.”
  

• The company that leased the space under the freeway from CalTrans, Apex Development Inc., is facing lawsuits for subleasing the site to at least five other tenants without authorization, according to Newsom. Officials are now checking to see if the Calabasas-based company is out of compliance with the other leases it holds in the area.

  "So to say the whole thing is a mess is an understatement," Bass said Tuesday, "but this company is going to have its date in court at the beginning of the year."
  

• As for why flammable material was stored under a major freeway in the first place, Bass said: "It's not just flammable materials, it's materials, period and it's also oversight and accountability and all of that I think is going to come the question now because — just in our city alone — you were talking about miles and miles of property underneath the freeways that the state leases out.

  "And so all of that needs to be scrutinized and the governor has assured us that it will be, I mean, especially pallet storage of all things, given the number of pallet fires we have in pallet yards each year in Southern California."

Why it matters

An aerial view of workers walking on the closed 10 freeway where 300,000 vehicles typical drive through each day.

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Mario Tama

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Getty Images

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This stretch of the 10 Freeway typically handles about 300,000 vehicles a day, making it one of the busiest in the nation. It's also critical artery for people accessing downtown Los Angeles.

The context

This photo provided by the California Department of Transportation shows an early morning fire along Interstate 10 near downtown Los Angeles, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023.

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Richard Vogel

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Caltrans District 7 via AP

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In the early morning of Saturday, Nov. 11, a fire started at a pallet yard just north of the 10 Freeway near the intersection of East 14th Street and South Alameda Street. Los Angeles Fire Department officials said the blaze quickly spread to a second pallet yard. At its biggest, nearly eight acres were affected.

• More than 160 firefighters were at the scene.
• Within three hours, it was largely out.
• Some hotspots remained in hard-to-reach areas underneath the freeway.
• The fire was fully knocked down the following day.

What we know about the damage

Here's what officials have said so far:

• About 450 feet of the freeway was affected.
• That includes more than 90 concrete support columns, each 3 feet in diameter and nearly 16 feet tall.

Authorities said it must all be inspected carefully, which includes taking concrete and rebar samples from the underside of the bridge and columns.

“Once we analyze these samples, we will get a clearer idea of our repair strategy,” said Toks Omishakin, California's secretary of transportation.

One hopeful nugget: Newsom said Monday that the preliminary structural samples taken from the freeway are more positive than expected.

About your commute

• City of L.A. has information on alternate routes here.
• Metrolink is increasing service from Covina all the way to downtown.
• Mayor Karen Bass has urged people to use traffic apps such as Waze and Google maps and said city officials are working with those apps to keep people off surface streets.

How we're reporting on this

On Monday: Reporter Yusra Farzan covered commuter experiences, Susanne Whatley, who hosts Morning Edition for LAist 89.3 interviewed Mayor Karen Bass. Additional reporting Monday by Mariana Dale and Frank Stoltze. Our AirTalk show also had a number of experts on Monday morning's show. Editing by Karina Gacad, our AM editor.

Over the weekend: Associate Producer Kevin Tidmarsh and Weekend Host Julia Paskin anchored coverage with contributions from Weekend Editor Fiona Ng, PM Editor Tiffany Ujiiye Reporter Makenna Sieverston and Nick Roman, who hosted special coverage Sunday afternoon.

Additional editing by Ross Brenneman, Redmond Carolipio, Megan Garvey, Jason Wells and Tony Marcano.

This is a developing story. We fact check everything and rely only on information from credible sources (think fire, police, government officials and reporters on the ground). Sometimes, however, we make mistakes and/or initial reports turn out to be wrong. In all cases, we strive to bring you the most accurate information in real time and will update this story as new information becomes available.

What questions we're asking

• What is the timeline for rebuilding?
• Can the freeway segment be repaired or do we need to demolish and start over?
• How does this compare to the damage and rebuilding efforts following the 1994 Northridge earthquake?
• What are the environmental impacts of the smoke and debris?

Your questions or ideas

The Los Angeles World Cup host committee has quietly posted its guidance on human rights after months of speculation over where the plan was and when it would be published.

Advocates had pushed the committee, an arm of the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission, to produce its plan. But now that it's out, they're not satisfied with what they're seeing.

The human rights guidance is required by FIFA and outlined on the host committee's website. It includes a list of online resources including where to file complaints with various local and state level agencies and a summary of local, state and federal laws protecting human and civil rights. The committee is also touting a partnership with L.A. County in which people can call 211 to report a concern during the tournament.

"Los Angeles is weeks away from hosting one of the largest sporting events in the world, and yet what has been posted is not a plan,” Stephanie Richard, director of the Sunita Jain Anti‑Trafficking Initiative at Loyola Law School, said in a statement. “It is a list of laws and hotline numbers."

The human rights document also skirts fears around ICE and its potential presence at the tournament and surrounding celebrations. Todd Lyons, the agency's head, said earlier this year that ICE's investigatory branch will play a key role in security for the tournament.

But ICE and immigration enforcement aren't mentioned on the host committee's web page on human rights or in its outline of its approach to human rights. "Immigration status" only gets a mention in the list of existing anti-discrimination laws.

"It certainly could have been much stronger," Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, said of the plan. She added that her organization participated in a roundtable on the plan, and she was disappointed ICE and recent immigration sweeps weren't mentioned in the resulting document.

"In order for all of this to happen, immigrant workers are part of it," she said of the World Cup. "Your hotel workers, your service workers, stadium workers, drivers." 

LAist reached out to spokespeople for the host committee for comment via email, phone and text, but did not hear back in time for publication. FIFA's press team also did not respond to an email from LAist.

According to the host committee's website, the human rights plan is the result of coordination with the city and county of Los Angeles, the city of Inglewood, and 14 roundtable discussions held in the fall of 2025.

"As a non-profit organization, the Host Committee’s role is primarily and necessarily focused on aligning and collaborating with governmental and non-governmental organizations," the document sums up the committee's approach.

The plan also promises more actions, including "Know Your Rights" training for L.A. residents and visitors and "Know Your Responsibilities" training for businesses and vendors. The committee also says it will develop a "rapid response" strategy to respond to potential problems at the tournament.

Available details on those plans were scant. And with the tournament just 30 days away, labor unions and community groups are continuing to voice concerns about potential ICE presence at SoFi Stadium and other potential consequences of the tournament coming to town.

The mayor of Arcadia has agreed to plead guilty to a charge she acted as an agent for China, federal prosecutors announced Monday. She has resigned from her position with the city.

Eileen Wang, 58, faces one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The charge carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison.

What we know about the criminal case

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun of Chino Hills worked at the direction of the Chinese government and with individuals based in the U.S. to promote pro-People’s Republic of China propaganda in the United States. Those actions occurred between 2020 and 2022, prosecutors said.

According to federal prosecutors, Wang and Sun operated a website — known as U.S. News Center — billed as a news source for the local Chinese American community in Los Angeles County. They posted content on the site, described as "pre-written articles," based on directives from Chinese government officials.

Sun, 65, pleaded guilty in October 2025 in federal court to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. He is serving a four-year federal prison sentence.

Prosecutors also said Wang communicated with John Chen, whom they described as “a high-level member of the [Chinese government] intelligence apparatus,” in November 2021, and asked him to post an article from her website.

In a group chat, Wang referenced the article and wrote: “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chen pleaded guilty in New York to acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China and conspiracy to bribe a public official. In 2024, he was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison.

What's next

Wang, who was elected to the City Council in November 2022, was expected to make her first appearance in U.S. District Court Monday afternoon.

Citing a plea agreement, prosecutors said she's expected to enter the guilty plea within the next few weeks.

Arcadia's mayor is selected from the elected council members. A post on the city's website announced that Wang had resigned her position as of Monday and that a new mayor would be picked from the remaining council members at the next meeting.

The Supreme Court on Monday gave itself more time to consider a national ban on telemedicine access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

Justice Samuel Alito extended an earlier order he issued by three more days, so rules for prescribing mifepristone online or through the mail remain in effect through Thursday at a minimum.

The case at issue

The tumult over the future of telemedicine access to mifipristone started on May 1 with a ruling from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. That ruling re-instituted prescribing rules from before the pandemic that required patients to receive mifepristone in person in a doctor's office or clinic.

The Food and Drug Administration determined that the rule was medically unnecessary in 2021. The state of Louisiana sued last fall, arguing that telemedicine access undermines the state's abortion ban.

What is telemedicine abortion?

The telemedicine abortion process starts with a patient connecting with a healthcare provider on the phone or online. If the patient is eligible, that provider can prescribe two medications — mifepristone and another pill called misoprostol. Patients can pick up the medicine at a local pharmacy, or providers can mail the drugs to a patient's home.

That access is a big part of the reason why the number of abortions nationally has actually increased since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. Now, most abortions in the U.S. use this combination of medications, and one quarter happen via telemedicine.

After the 5th Circuit ruling, some providers said they would continue offering telemedicine access to abortion medication using a different protocol that involves higher doses of misoprostol and no mifepristone.

Researchers say that method is just as safe and effective, but tends to cause more pain for patients and more side effects, like nausea and diarrhea. Misoprostol has other medical uses, such as treating gastric ulcers and hemorrhage, and has been on the market longer than mifepristone. It is likely to remain fully accessible, even if mifepristone is restricted.

Since the FDA's prescribing rules for medications apply to the whole country, a change to the rules about how mifepristone can be accessed has national impact. That means it affects states with constitutionally-protected access to abortion, states with criminal bans, like Louisiana, and all states in between.

States' rights

Nearly two dozen Democratic-led states submitted an amicus brief in this case, writing that the appeals court decision put the policy choices of states with bans above the choices of states "that have made the different but equally sovereign determinations to promote access to abortion care."

There are also stakes related to the power of FDA and other expert agencies to set rules. While the Trump administration's FDA did not respond to the Supreme Court's request for briefs, a group of former leaders of the agency, who served under mainly Democratic and some Republican presidents, wrote about this in an amicus brief.

They defended the FDA's process in approving the medication and modifying the rules for prescribing it, and say the appeals court decision "would upend FDA's gold-standard, science-based drug approval system."

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