agencies

Southern California Edison sued Los Angeles County, water agencies and two companies including SoCalGas Friday, saying their mistakes contributed to the deadly and destructive toll of last year’s Eaton wildfire.

Edison now faces hundreds of lawsuits by victims of the fire, which claim its transmission line started the devastating fire that killed at least 19 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena. The cost of settling those lawsuits could be many billions of dollars.

Doug Dixon, an attorney who represents Edison in the fire litigation, told the Times that Edison filed the lawsuits “to ensure that all those who bear responsibility are at the table in this legal process.”

The utility’s two legal filings in L.A. County Superior Court paint a picture of sweeping mismanagement of the emergency response on the night of the fire.

Edison blames the county fire department, sheriff’s department and office of emergency management for their failure to warn Altadena residents west of Lake Avenue to evacuate.

The Times revealed last January that west Altadena never received evacuation warnings, and orders to evacuate came hours after flames and smoke threatened the community. All but one of the 19 who died in the Eaton fire were found in west Altadena.

Edison also sued L.A. County for failing to send fire trucks to the community. A Times investigation found that during a critical moment in the fire, only one county fire truck was west of Lake Avenue.

The electric company also filed suit against six water agencies, including Pasadena Water & Power, claiming there were insufficient water supplies available for firefighters.

“Compounding the unfolding disaster, the water systems servicing the areas impacted by the Eaton Fire failed as the fire spread, leaving firefighters and residents with no water to fight the fire,” the lawsuit states.

Another lawsuit aims at SoCalGas. Edison says the company failed to turn off gas lines after the fire started, making the disaster worse.

“SoCalGas did not begin widespread shutoffs for four days—until January 11, 2025—in the area affected by the Eaton Fire,” the complaint states. “In the meantime, the Eaton Fire continued to spread fueled by natural gas.”

“ The risks and deficiencies with SoCalGas’s system that led to it spreading the fire were long known to SoCalGas, and yet it nevertheless failed to adequately account for them in designing, building, and maintaining its system,” the complaint said. “The result was catastrophic.”

Edison also sued Genasys, a company that provides the county with emergency alert software.

In addition, the utility sued the county for failing to remove brush, which it claims made the fire hotter and spread faster, causing more damage.

In March, L.A. County filed suit against Edison, claiming that its transmission line sparked the blaze, requiring the county to incur tens of millions of dollars responding to the fire and its aftermath. The county is seeking compensation for destroyed infrastructure and parks, as well as for cleanup and recovery efforts, lost taxes and overtime for county workers.

Edison’s new cross claims will be heard in the consolidated Eaton fire case in Superior Court, which is also handling the lawsuit that the county and other public agencies have filed against the electric utility.

Officials from the county and water agencies, as well as from the two companies, could not be immediately reached.

The water agencies that Edison sued also include the Sierra Madre City Water Dept., Kinneloa Irrigation District, Rubio Canyon Land & Water Association, Las Flores Water Company and Lincoln Avenue Water Company.

The government investigation into the fire, which is being handled jointly by L.A. County Fire and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, has not yet been released.

Edison has said that a leading theory is that its unused, century-old transmission line in Eaton Canyon somehow became re-energized on the night of Jan. 7, 2025 and sparked the blaze.

The fire roared through Altadena, burning 14,021 acres and destroying more than 9,400 homes and other structures.

GENEVA — The United States on Monday announced a $2-billion pledge for U.N. humanitarian aid as President Trump’s administration slashes U.S. foreign assistance and warns United Nations agencies to “adapt, shrink or die” in a time of new financial realities.

The money is a small fraction of what the U.S. has contributed in the past but reflects what the administration believes is still a generous amount that will maintain America’s status as the world’s largest humanitarian donor.

“This new model will better share the burden of U.N. humanitarian work with other developed countries and will require the U.N. to cut bloat, remove duplication, and commit to powerful new impact, accountability and oversight mechanisms,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media.

The pledge creates an umbrella fund from which money will be doled out to agencies and priorities, a key part of U.S. demands for drastic changes across the U.N. that have alarmed many humanitarian workers and led to severe reductions in programs and services.

The $2 billion is only a sliver of traditional U.S. humanitarian funding for U.N.-coordinated programs, which has run as high as $17 billion annually in recent years, according to U.N. data. U.S. officials say only $8 billion to $10 billion of that has been in voluntary contributions. The United States also pays billions in annual dues related to its U.N. membership.

“The piggy bank is not open to organizations that just want to return to the old system,” Jeremy Lewin, the State Department official in charge of foreign assistance, said at a press conference Monday in Geneva. “President Trump has made clear that the system is dead.”

The State Department said “individual U.N. agencies will need to adapt, shrink, or die.” Critics say the Western aid cutbacks have been shortsighted, driven millions toward hunger, displacement or disease, and harmed U.S. soft power around the world.

A year of crisis in aid

The move caps a crisis year for many U.N. organizations, including its refugee, migration and food aid agencies. The Trump administration has already cut billions in U.S. foreign aid, prompting the agencies to slash spending, aid projects and thousands of jobs. Other traditional Western donors have reduced outlays, too.

The U.S. pledge for aid programs of the United Nations — the world’s top provider of humanitarian assistance and biggest recipient of U.S. humanitarian aid money — takes shape in a preliminary deal with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, run by Tom Fletcher, a former British diplomat and government official.

Fletcher, who has spent the past year lobbying U.S. officials not to abandon U.N. funding altogether, appeared optimistic at the deal’s signing in Geneva.

“It’s a very, very significant landmark contribution. And a month ago, I would have anticipated the number would have been zero,” he told reporters. “And so I think, before worrying about what we haven’t got, I’d like to look at the millions of people whose lives will be saved, whose lives will be better because of this contribution, and start there.”

Even as the U.S. pulls back its aid contributions, needs have ballooned worldwide: Famine has been recorded this year in parts of conflict-ridden Sudan and Gaza, and floods, drought and natural disasters that many scientists attribute to climate change have taken many lives or driven thousands from their homes.

The cuts will have major implications for U.N. affiliates like the International Organization for Migration, the World Food Program and refugee agency UNHCR. They have already received billions less from the U.S. this year than under annual allocations from the Biden administration — or even during Trump’s first term.

Now, the idea is that Fletcher’s office — which has aimed to improve efficiency — will become a funnel for U.S. and other aid money that can be redirected to those agencies, rather than scattered U.S. contributions to a variety of individual appeals for aid.

Asked by reporters if the U.S. language of “adapt or die” worried him, Fletcher said, “If the choices are adapt or die, I choose adapt.”

U.S. seeks aid consolidation

U.S. officials say the $2 billion is just a first outlay to help fund OCHA’s annual appeal for money. Fletcher, noting the upended aid landscape, already slashed the request this year. Other traditional U.N. donors like Britain, France, Germany and Japan have reduced aid allocations and sought reforms this year.

“This humanitarian reset at the United Nations should deliver more aid with fewer tax dollars — providing more focused, results-driven assistance aligned with U.S foreign policy,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said.

At its core, the changes will help establish pools of funding that can be directed either to specific crises or countries in need. A total of 17 countries will be initially targeted, including Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Syria and Ukraine.

Two of the world’s most desperate countries, Afghanistan and Yemen, are not included, with U.S. officials citing aid diversion to the Taliban and Houthi rebels as concerns over restarting contributions.

Also not mentioned on the list are the Palestinian territories, which officials say will be covered by money stemming from Trump’s as-yet-incomplete Gaza peace plan.

The U.N. project, months in the making, stems from Trump’s longtime view that the world body has great promise but has failed to live up to it and has — in his eyes — drifted too far from its original mandate to save lives while undermining American interests, promoting radical ideologies and encouraging wasteful, unaccountable spending.

“No one wants to be an aid recipient. No one wants to be living in a UNHCR camp because they’ve been displaced by conflict,” Lewin said. “So the best thing that we can do to decrease costs, and President Trump recognizes this and that’s why he’s the president of peace, is by ending armed conflict and allowing communities to get back to peace and prosperity.”

Keaten and Lee write for the Associated Press. Lee reported from Washington. AP writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report from New York.

Dec. 28 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Interior Ministry said Sunday that a long-criticized public-sector custom in which junior officials take turns paying for meals for senior executives has declined, as central and local governments expand measures such as anonymous reporting systems and Dutch pay.

Seoul’s city government has set up an anonymous reporting channel inside its electronic personnel system to curb the practice, known as “hosting days,” in which subordinates feel pressured to cover a superior’s meal. Reports can be filed anonymously by staff at headquarters or affiliated agencies, triggering investigations aimed at treating cases as an organizational issue rather than a personal complaint.

In South Jeolla Province, officials have promoted a “sympathy pay” campaign to formalize a Dutch treat principle under which each person pays their share. The province also banned the use of pooled office funds to cover department dinners or meal costs.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said its review of eradication efforts across central and local governments found “tangible improvements.” The custom refers to employees treating executives to meals at their own expense, a practice critics say undermines integrity and a horizontal workplace culture.

A joint survey by the Interior Ministry and the Personnel Innovation Ministry found that the share of central government employees who said they had paid for a superior’s meal in the past month fell to 7.7% in April from 10.1% in November last year. Among local government workers, the rate fell to 12.2% from 23.9% over the same period, a larger decline than in central agencies.

The ministry said agencies have combined integrity education with internal surveys, emphasizing awareness and voluntary participation rather than relying only on crackdowns or one-time campaigns. Efforts have also focused on changing communication patterns inside organizations, it said.

The Food and Drug Safety Ministry said its head personally urged elimination of the practice and operated an intensive reporting period. It also sought to ease hierarchical meal culture through events such as lunchtime communication sessions between senior officials and staff.

Asan, a city in South Chungcheong Province, held a “cushion word” contest to encourage softer expressions as part of broader efforts to reshape workplace culture starting with everyday language use. The Korea Forest Service promoted a “warm words” campaign to encourage communication based on mutual respect.

Programs aimed at narrowing generational and rank gaps are also expanding. The Personnel Innovation Ministry’s “Blue Out of Indigo” program allows young civil servants to share commuting-related difficulties with executives and seek improvements together. Gangwon Province’s “Lunch&Learn” runs as a reverse mentoring program, with Grade 6 and below employees mentoring senior officials during lunch breaks, officials said.

Other efforts pair employees across departments. The Overseas Koreans Agency runs a “Random Coffee” program that matches staff from different units. Buk-gu District in Gwangju subsidizes team discussion costs through a program called “A Spoonful of Communication,” which officials say is meant to encourage freer exchanges of opinion.

The Interior Ministry said it has held meetings with organizational culture officials across central and local governments along with the personnel ministry and the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, while sharing best practices through official guidance and on-site discussions.

The ministry said it plans another joint survey with the Personnel Innovation Ministry in the first half of next year and will share best practices identified in the review. Vice Interior Minister Kim Min-jae said it was meaningful that agencies are continuing improvements tailored to their circumstances, adding that the goal is to eliminate unreasonable practices such as “executive day” and build a public service culture that supports open communication across generations and ranks.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

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