It will be the first time that a famous trans person has competed on Channel 4’s military challenge show, which films its ninth series this summer.
Meanwhile Freddy Brazier is also in talks to compete on the show – following in the footsteps of his dad Jeff Brazier, who starred on the show in 2019.
Former Special Forces big dogsBilly Billingham, Jason Fox, Rudy Reyes, and Chris Oliver will all be on hand to push the stars to their limit.
Series eight, which went out in January, was given a Team UK v Team Australia theme and produced in conjunction with Aussie broadcaster Channel 7.
Seven stars from each country were pitted against each other to find out which of them were capable of completing the course.
Former Love Islanders Dani Dyer and Gabby Allen as well as retired Australian swimmer Emily Seebohm were crowned the winners.
The smartest thing Trump can do for the United States is to adopt a “cake-sharing” strategy to cope with the arrival of a multipolar era. He wants to ensure that America still gets the largest slice of the cake, with its power base rooted in traditional energy—oil and natural gas.
This aligns well with “Cold War thinking.” From the perspective of oil reserves, the United States plus its friendly Gulf states accounts for about 55%–60% of the global total. If Venezuela—now under U.S. control—is added, the share rises to 72%–77%.
Spreading out the energy map, according to estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Greenland holds approximately 39 billion barrels of oil equivalent (combining East and West Greenland). Cuba has 4–5 billion barrels.
Nigeria, a major oil-producing country in Africa, has 37 billion barrels of oil reserves. The Trump administration has threatened military action against it under the pretext of “persecuting Christians.”
Iran’s oil reserves stand at 2,086 billion barrels, accounting for 13.3% of the global total.
The regions Trump has singled out—Iran, Venezuela, Greenland, Cuba, and Nigeria—clearly show that he is deciding how to “share the cake” with China and Russia based on the traditional energy map.
Although reserves and actual output are two different things, for Trump this is irrelevant. What he puts on the negotiating table is merely a piece of paper for “bidding”—he doesn’t need to worry about minor details.
On the other side of the negotiating table, China’s chips are new energy and critical minerals. In the area of critical minerals, Iran, Venezuela, Greenland, Cuba, and Nigeria all possess rich potential, and all have varying degrees of investment and cooperation ties with China.
One reason Trump scorns “new energy” may be that, within his limited term, competing with China in the new energy field is simply impossible. In the traditional energy domain, however, the United States holds a significant advantage.
Successfully pocketing Venezuela has encouraged Trump to take risks in Iran. Originally, Trump wanted to approach Beijing for a major deal from the position of a traditional energy hegemon, but Iran’s fierce resistance has dampened his ambitions. The United States has been outmaneuvered by Iran, and Trump has postponed his visit to China.
Iranian President Pezeshkian publicly stated: “China is now also seen by the United States as its main enemy; we are just next in line. They want to take us down first, then deal with China.” Behind this statement lies the landscape of U.S.-China competition over energy and critical minerals.
It cannot be said that Trump is unrealistic—this “cake-sharing” strategy has its own rationality. Nor can it be said that Trump has overestimated America’s military strength, because he knows very well that the United States cannot even handle the Houthis, let alone Iran. One can only say that the success of the “decapitation operation” in Venezuela has inflated his sense of luck, and Israel has exploited this psychology to successfully lure Trump into risking involvement in Iran.
The United States and Israel jointly eliminated the appeasement faction in Tehran and greatly underestimated Iran’s counterattack capability. They wanted to control oil but ended up being controlled by Iran on oil export routes. This is a complete strategic failure, and its medium- to long-term damage to the United States far exceeds the energy sector.
We don’t even need to discuss the rise and fall of petrodollars versus petroyuan—just look at the new energy sector. This round of energy crisis has greatly heightened the global urgency for new energy development, and the countries and regions most urgently in need are precisely America’s allies worldwide, including the Gulf states.
America’s allies are mostly developed countries. They have long recognized that China is a superpower in new energy. Before the Iran war, the broader Western camp was developing new energy while trying to reduce dependence on Iran. Now, however, the sense of urgency has pushed these countries to rely even more deeply on China.
These countries and regions include France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, as well as India, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asian nations such as Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. They are either industrially advanced or rapidly industrializing countries that heavily depend on stable energy supplies.
In the core area of the Iran war—the Gulf states—are also actively accelerating the development of new energy industries, with the solar industry as the key focus. China is the only source capable of providing cheap, high-quality equipment and products. After the war ends, Iran may also exchange oil for the components needed for new energy development with China, achieving economic diversification like the Gulf states and reducing reliance on oil exports.
China’s solar equipment originally suffered from overcapacity; now it stands to gain relief.
What revolves around the core issues of new energy is nothing more than industrial supply chains and critical minerals. In this regard, mainland China’s industrial strength needs no emphasis. In critical minerals, the Democratic Republic of the Congo—China’s deep cooperation partner—will see half of its cobalt mines belong to Chinese enterprises. Given that Congo holds the world’s largest cobalt reserves, China will possess an indisputable “cobalt dominance.” Cobalt is a key mineral for lithium-ion batteries.
In addition, graphite and tantalum are also dominated by China. Tantalum is a critical metal for capacitors, which are essential for stabilizing wind and solar power generation. Graphite is the anode material for lithium-ion batteries and an indispensable mineral for renewable energy storage systems and solar panel production.
Currently, renewable energy plus nuclear power accounts for 40% of global electricity generation, while fossil fuels still account for 60%. However, when looking at the global share of “capacity” (installed capacity) for renewable energy plus nuclear, it has already reached about 55%. Among this, renewable energy accounts for 49.4% and nuclear for about 5%.
“Capacity” refers to installed capacity—in plain terms, the theoretical maximum power generation. The actual global generation share of renewable energy is about 32%. The gap between theoretical and actual values exists because renewable energy generation is less stable than fossil fuels. Adding nuclear’s actual generation share (about 8%), the actual generation share of so-called low-carbon energy reaches 40% globally.
There is no doubt that the oil crisis will inevitably trigger a “green energy surge.” Looking ahead five years, the actual generation share of green energy will exceed 50%. Assuming nuclear can grow to 10% of actual generation and renewables grow by 8%, China’s additional revenue from the global renewable energy business in the next five years could reach the level of hundreds of billions of dollars.
From this perspective, China—which strongly supported green energy development from the very beginning of the climate agenda—did so not so much for carbon reduction as for industrial preparation in the name of energy security. Expanding the global new energy business is merely an added value.
Of course, the key technologies for manufacturing new energy equipment may be even more important than critical minerals. Last November, China imposed export controls on certain lithium batteries, key cathode and anode materials, and their manufacturing equipment and technologies. Given that China controls about 96% of global anode material production capacity and 85% of cathode material capacity, the impact of these export controls is enormous.
On April 15, according to Reuters, China has held preliminary consultations with solar panel production equipment suppliers and is considering restricting exports of the most advanced technologies and equipment to the United States. If true, Beijing is raising the stakes in new energy, waiting for Trump to come to the negotiating table in May.
Admittedly, Trump has no intention of developing new energy. However, considering that the Democrats may return to the White House in three years, Beijing is now blocking America’s path to new energy development, essentially laying the groundwork for U.S.-China competition three years from now.
If Trump’s energy strategy map on the table also included a new energy layer, he should realize that the setback in the Iran war has allowed the new energy domain to encroach upon the traditional energy domain, enabling China to expand its energy power without firing a single shot. As for critical minerals, the United States has made no outstanding progress—at least nothing sufficient for Trump to boast about.
Now, the “cake” being pushed in front of Xi Jinping is getting bigger and bigger. On the surface, Beijing has gained it effortlessly, but today’s harvest is mainly due to strategic 布局 made one step ahead. These layouts are often “low-profit” but highly effective investments, and new energy is merely one of them.
In an uncertain world, those who provide “certainty” win. Therefore, the winner of the Iran war is China—even if Beijing is extremely reluctant to admit it.
Mukalla, Yemen – Mohammed Salem heads out every morning for his job as a teacher at a government-run school. But once his shift is finished at that school, he then goes to a private school, where he also teaches. After a brief stop home for lunch, Mohammed is off to his third job, in a hotel, where he works the rest of the day.
“If I had any spare time for a fourth job, I would take it,” Mohammed, a teacher with 31 years of experience, said. He spoke to Al Jazeera outside his flat in a large housing complex in the eastern suburbs of Yemen’s southeastern port city of Mukalla.
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He has been forced into taking on the extra jobs because of Yemen’s dire economic situation, and specifically the Yemeni riyal’s slide against the US dollar in recent years.
“I return home at night completely burned out,” he said. “Teachers are devastated and have no time to take care of their students. During classes, they are preoccupied with the next job they will take after school.”
Despite working from morning until night, the father of six says he earns less than half of what he made a decade ago, down from the equivalent of $320 a month to $130.
For more than a decade, Yemen has been mired in a bloody conflict between the Iran-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed government, a war that has killed thousands, displaced millions and affected nearly every sector, including education.
The conflict has devastated the country’s main sources of revenue, including oil exports, customs and taxes, as rival factions wage an economic battle alongside fighting on the front lines.
The Houthis, who control Yemen’s densely populated central and northern highlands, including the capital Sanaa, have not paid public sector salaries since late 2016, when the internationally recognised government relocated the central bank from Sanaa to the southern city of Aden.
The Yemeni government, which controls Aden and the south, has also failed to raise public sector wages or pay them regularly, citing dwindling revenues after Houthi attacks on oil export terminals in southern Yemen.
Thousands of Yemeni teachers have voiced frustration over stagnant and delayed pay, saying their salaries have not improved since the war began. When they are paid, it is often late, and the wages have lost much of their value as the Yemeni riyal has plunged from approximately 215 to the dollar before the war started, to about 2,900 to the dollar in mid-2025. The Yemeni riyal is currently valued at about 1,560 to the dollar in government-controlled areas.
Faced with meagre and irregular incomes, teachers like Mohammed have adopted harsh survival strategies to keep their families afloat. His family has been forced to skip meals, cut out protein-rich foods such as meat, fish and dairy, and move to the outskirts of the city in search of cheaper rent.
He also asked one of his children to forgo university and instead join the military, where, he said, soldiers earn about 1,000 Saudi riyals ($265) a month.
“If we have money, we buy fish. When there is nothing, we eat rice, potatoes and onions. We do not look for meat, and we can only get it during Eid through donations from the mosque or charities,” Mohammed said.
During holidays and weekends, he lets his children sleep until the afternoon so they do not wake up asking for breakfast.
And when one of his children falls ill, he first treats them at home with natural remedies, such as herbs and garlic, only taking severe cases to hospital to avoid unaffordable medical bills. “I only take them to the hospital when they are extremely sick,” he said.
Mohammed Salem, a teacher with 31 years of experience in Mukalla, says he has taken on three jobs to make ends meet after his salary lost much of its value due to the rapid devaluation of the Yemeni riyal [Saeed al-Batati/Al Jazeera]
Generation at risk
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in its Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026 released on March 29, the country’s education sector continues to be hit by a catastrophic, multilayered crisis.
An estimated 6.6 million school-aged children have been deprived of their right to education, while 2,375 schools have been damaged or destroyed. Teachers have also been severely affected, with about 193,668, nearly two-thirds of the national total, receiving no salaries.
In the al-Wadi district of Marib province, Ali al-Samae, who has been teaching since 2001, said his salary of about 90,000 Yemeni riyals barely covers his own expenses.
The financial strain has forced him to leave his family of seven in his home city of Taiz.
“Instead of focusing on preparing lessons and using modern teaching methods, our entire focus is on how to earn enough money to support our families,” he said. “Before the war, my salary was equivalent to 1,200 Saudi riyals [$320]. Now it is about 200 Saudi riyals [$52],” al-Samae told Al Jazeera.
To survive, he has taken on extra jobs, while his family has been forced to skip meals and cut out meat and chicken. He now visits them only once a year, often arriving empty-handed after spending most of his salary on transportation.
“We now live just to survive, rather than to teach. In the past, salaries covered our basic needs, but now they are not enough; even milk has become a luxury. Life has become very difficult.”
Part-time teachers say they are worse off than their full-time counterparts, as the government has neither raised their salaries nor added them to the official payroll.
Hana al-Rubaki, a part-time teacher in Mukalla, and the sole breadwinner for her mother and three sisters, told Al Jazeera that her salary barely covers expenses for 10 days.
Despite eight years of service, she earns the same as newly hired contract teachers. “There is no job security, despite my eight years of service. There is no difference between me and a contractor hired last year; everyone receives the same salary,” she said. “After taxes, my salary is just 70,000 Yemeni riyals [$44] a month. With the high cost of living, it feels more like a token allowance than a real salary.”
She added that delayed payments further worsen her situation. “Delayed salaries disrupt our daily lives and leave me struggling to meet even my most basic needs. While some teachers can find additional work to support their families, it is incredibly difficult for us female teachers to do the same.”
Protests and patchwork solutions
To highlight their plight and pressure the government to improve salaries, teachers across government-controlled areas have staged sit-ins, taken to the streets in protest and gone on strikes, disrupting education for months.
The cash-strapped government, which is mired in internal divisions and spends much of the year operating from abroad, has largely left the issue to provincial authorities.
Some governors have responded by approving modest incentives. In Hadramout, a raise of 25,000 Yemeni riyals ($16) a month was approved, while in other areas they have ranged between 30,000 Yemeni riyals ($19) in others and up to 50,000 Yemeni riyals ($32).
“The incentives provided by local authorities vary from one province to another, depending on each governor’s priorities and capacity to support teachers in their region,” Abdullah al-Khanbashi, head of the teachers’ union in Hadramout, told Al Jazeera, adding that protests would continue until teachers receive better and regular pay.
“Teachers are showing up in torn clothing, and sometimes their students have more money in their pockets than they do. Some families have broken apart, while others have been evicted from their homes because they could not pay the rent. Other teachers have children suffering from malnutrition because they cannot afford to feed them,” he said.
In Marib, Abdullah al-Bazeli, head of the teachers’ union in the province, said local farmers have stepped in to help teachers remain in classrooms by giving them some of their produce.
“Farmers support teachers, especially those coming from outside the province, by giving them tomatoes, potatoes and other vegetables for free,” al-Bazeli said.
He also called for teachers’ salaries to be raised to the level of ministers. “A teacher’s salary should be equal to that of a minister. Teachers educate generations, while ministers often fail to make a meaningful impact. Some teachers have begun to die from hunger,” he told Al Jazeera.
In Houthi-controlled areas, teachers have rarely taken to the streets to protest the suspension of their salaries, as authorities suppress dissent and blame the Yemeni government and the Saudi-led coalition for imposing a “blockade” that they say has hindered their ability to pay public sector wages.
Acknowledging the problem of low salaries, the Yemeni government says dwindling and disrupted revenues during the war have prevented it from increasing public sector pay. “The main reason is weak financial resources resulting from the war and recurring instability, which have undermined institutions and revenue streams,” Tareq Salem al-Akbari, who served as Yemen’s education minister from 2020 to 2026, told Al Jazeera.
Teachers interviewed by Al Jazeera say they are running out of patience with the repeated promises that their salaries will be improved, warning that they may abandon the profession altogether if they find better-paying jobs that could spare them from hunger or begging in public.
“The idea of leaving teaching is always on my mind, but I have not found an alternative job,” Mohammed Salem said. “I feel pity, and sometimes cry, when I see a teacher begging in mosques or calling from a hospital, asking for help to pay for a child’s medical treatment.”
The waymarked quartzite path glimmers in the sun, flanked by amber-gold grassland. Beyond, one of Scotland’s finest landscapes opens up before me, a woodland of ancient Caledonian pines leading my eye to the metallic glint of Loch Maree. On the other side of the water, a winding river separates the steep, stacked rocks of Beinn a’Mhùinidh from Slioch, one of the great mountains of Wester Ross, rising to a knuckle ridge of Torridonian sandstone.
I’m walking the four-mile mountain trail looping through Beinn Eighe national nature reserve (NNR), Britain’s first NNR, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. In a crowded list, you’d be hard pushed to find a more soul-stirring landscape in all of Scotland.
“The mountain path gives you a real flavour for Beinn Eighe,” the reserve manager, Doug Bartholomew, told me earlier. “It takes you right through the heart of the ancient Caledonian pinewood, then you climb steeply up to this rocky upland with views of Beinn Eighe mountain itself.”
When I reach the high point, at about 550m (1,805ft), I’m awed by the views across a lonely valley to the jagged ridgeline of mountain, which surges and falls like Atlantic waves locked in stone.
Beinn Eighe NNR stretches 48 sq km from Loch Maree to the eponymous mountain summit. When it was created in 1951, a key mission of the NNR was to protect Coille na Glas Leitir (the Wood of the Grey Slope), which is the largest remaining fragment of ancient Caledonian pinewood in north-west Scotland. The woodland was felled by some of Scotland’s earliest ironworks in the 1600s, and forestry and farming took its toll over the generations, but it is believed to have been here for the last 8,000 years.
After the Highland clearances, the lower slopes of Beinn Eighe were increasingly used for grazing. Deer-stalking, grouse-shooting and muirburn (when old growth is burnt off to encourage new growth for grazing) followed. The final exploitation happened during the second world war, when lumberjacks were brought in from Newfoundland and British Honduras to fell the trees for ammunition boxes. But thanks to pioneering landscape restoration work, namely deer management and tree planting, woodland cover has increased by more than 40% in the 75 years since the reserve was created.
Today, it’s a rare Scottish landscape where you can walk beneath twisted and gnarled pine branches hundreds of years old, but also alongside younger, conical trees.
Stuart Kenny in the ancient pinewoods on the mountain trail. Photograph: Isabelle Erbacher
“In the past, we had a tree nursery; so we collected seeds from the reserve, grew them in our nursery and planted them,” said Bartholomew. “We’ve now got continuous woodland linked from Glas Leitir all the way through to Coulin Estate, where you’ve got other remnants of ancient woodland, and we’re moving more to natural processes – conditions that will allow the woodland to regenerate and expand naturally.”
I soon descend into Coille na Glas Leitir on the mountain trail, passing a mosaic of birch and pines, draped in lichen. This path was a public access landmark when it opened in the early 70s, encouraging visitors to explore the mountain, and it’s still perfectly marked (though snowfall can obscure it in winter). Stags roar from the other side of Loch Maree as I walk. Tougher to pick out are the crossbills, with crossed mandibles to prise open pine cones. In warmer months, dragonflies with magical names – northern emerald, azure hawker – nose around rare mosses.
While steep, the mountain trail isn’t technical. Along with the easier woodland path, which showcases the ancient forest, and short loops from the excellent visitor centre, the beauty of this reserve really is accessible. Local providers such as Shieldaig Outdoor Adventures also offer days out exploring the islands of Loch Maree by canoe or kayak in warmer months.
I’m staying in Torridon youth hostel, at the head of Upper Loch Torridon, south-west of the Beinn Eighe massif. It’s a 20-minute drive from Coille na Glas Leitir via the village Kinlochewe, passing beneath the bulky mass of Beinn Eighe before Liathach, an icon of Glen Torridon, is revealed. The hostel is tucked beneath this mighty mountain, not in the nature reserve itself, but in an ideal place to explore it and the Torridon hills beyond.
The view from Torridon youth hostel. Photograph: Stuart Kenny
“When we mention that we live in Torridon, people get misty eyes,” jokes Debbie Maskill, manager of the youth hostel. “For us, it’s the best part of Scotland. A real jewel.” It’s true that few place names roll so sweetly off the tongue of a hillwalker as Torridon. This is a place of grandeur – of immense, intimidating mountains set on some of the oldest rocks in Britain; of shifting light and uncompromising ferocity – with a beauty verging on myth.
The hostel – which itself turned 50 last year – is a pilgrimage site for hikers; it’s in close reach of some of Scotland’s finest scrambles, as well as the family-friendly nature reserve. Walkers and climbers trade stories and photographs in the communal kitchen and dining area. Floor-to-ceiling windows in the cosy lounge allow you to watch the weather roll over the Wester Ross peaks.
I stay in a comfy private room, and regret my early bedtime when a French guest shows me the photographs he took of the aurora shimmering above Loch Torridon the next morning. “Winter really captures the far north essence here, but by February, it’s getting lighter,” says Paul Thompson, duty supervisor at the hostel. “In the middle of winter, we don’t see the sun here, but in February it’s above the hills for quite some time. Then you get to May, a stunning time of year, when everything is fresh and you’ve got almost endless daylight. I love it all.”
Loch Maree seen from Beinn Eighe. Photograph: Stuart Kenny
On a six-mile loop of Loch Clair and Loch Coulin, just outside the reserve, I stroll beneath more tall pines, looking on to the Torridon beasts. The grey, dotted ridge of Beinn Eighe looks like it has a snow leopard’s coat draped over it, and the pyramidal mass of Liathach reflects back off the water.
I plan to walk to the Triple Buttress of Coire Mhic Fhearchair on my final day (three glacial rock towers in a corrie of Beinn Eighe), but heavy rain arrives. It’s all the excuse I need for a venison lunch at Bo & Muc, a field-to-fork restaurant at the swanky five-star The Torridon hotel.
I leave Torridon via the road to Achnasheen, stopping at the Glen Docherty viewpoint for one last look over the road to Kinlochewe, the lapping mountains and Loch Maree.
After centuries of deterioration, it’s heartwarming to see the fragments of ancient pinewood reconnecting here, in this immediately spellbinding landscape. In another 75 years, the young pines of Beinn Eighe will stand taller and, if all goes to plan, those who pass by them will be walking through a fully regenerative forest.
Accommodation was provided byHostelling Scotland. Torridon youth hostel has private rooms for two from £52 a night, dorm beds from £20.50. The Beinn Eighe NNR trails are open year-round and are free to visit. The Beinn Eighe NNR visitor centre (with info on the reserve) is open April to October, 10am to 5pm
SACRAMENTO — As gas prices surge in California and nationally due to the war in Iran, two Democrats running for California governor are calling for the state to temporarily suspend its fuel tax or ease refinery regulations in an effort to lower costs.
Standing in front of a gas pump in a video posted to social media, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said the costs are “becoming an emergency for working families, and I think we ought to act like it.”
The moderate Democrat called on state lawmakers to suspend California’s gas tax, which at 61 cents per gallon is the highest in the nation.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also called for an “immediate moratorium” on regulations that he blamed for “overburdening” California refineries and working families.
“These failed policies are not only hurting tens of millions of Californians, they are terrible for the environment because they have forced California to depend on imported foreign oil from the Middle East,” Villaraigosa said in a statement.
The cost of living in California, including the price at the pump, remains a pivotal issue for voters in the state, and has become central to the moderate-leaning campaigns of Mahan and Villaraigosa as they attempt to distinguish themselves in the tightly contested race for governor.
According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in California on Monday was $5.52, the highest in the nation and more than 50 cents higher than any other state. The national average was $3.71, up from the previous month’s average of $2.92.
Gasoline prices in California are often among the highest in the country for a number of reasons, including environmental rules that require a unique blend of cleaner-burning fuel.
The state also relies mostly on crude oil imported from other countries including Brazil, Iraq and Guyana and processed at in-state refineries. In 2025, 61% of oil processed at California refineries was imported, compared with 23% that was produced in the state, according to data from the California Energy Commission.
Republicans have long supported suspending the gas tax and cutting regulations in order to lower prices at the pump.
Steve Hilton, a GOP candidate for governor and former Fox News host, outlined a plan to lower California gas prices to $3 per gallon by slashing regulations including the low-carbon fuel standard, the rule that requires cleaner-burning gas in order to reduce tailpipe emissions.
The other major Republican in the race, Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco, supports suspending the gas tax, according to his website.
The current price spike echoes 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine and disrupted global oil markets.
As prices eventually fell around the rest of the country that year, they remained high for months in California, leading Gov. Gavin Newsom to wage war against oil and gas companies. He accused them of price-gouging drivers and backed laws requiring companies to report their profit margins and keep a supply of fuel on hand to prevent shortages and price spikes.
The governor backed off his battle with the oil companies last year after two refineries announced plans to close. In September, he signed legislation to permit 2,000 new oil wells in Kern County, reflecting an acknowledgement that his war on oil companies threatened to send California’s gas market spiraling.
Republican state lawmakers in 2022 pushed for a temporary suspension of California’s excise tax on gasoline, arguing that it would provide immediate relief to California drivers. That effort was rebuffed by Newsom and Democratic lawmakers, but they later approved $9.5 billion in tax refunds to Californians, providing as much as $1,050 to families as financial relief from record-high gasoline prices and other rising costs.
In 2017, the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed Senate Bill 1, which then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law, levying the state’s first gas tax increase in 23 years to fix California’s roads and bridges in disrepair. Under the law, the tax increases each year on July 1 based on the growth in the California Consumer Price Index.
California voters remain conflicted on the state’s regulation of the oil industry, according to an August survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. It found that more than 60% of adults support goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate electricity from renewable energy sources.
But majorities also said the costs of gasoline and utility bills is a major problem for them personally, according to the poll.
Mahan and Villaraigosa are the only two Democrats who have publicly called to roll back regulations on the state’s oil and gas market, illustrating the political murkiness at the nexus of California’s climate and affordability challenges.
Still, Democratic lawmakers – who hold supermajorities in the state Senate and Assembly – continue to shut down proposals to pause the gas tax, arguing that the state would lose out on much-needed money for roads.
“If anyone has a proposal about how to backfill (transportation) revenues, I’m up for that conversation, but so far, it’s just a bulls— political talking point,” said Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine).
Petrie-Norris chairs the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee and has helped lead legislative efforts to stabilize California’s fuels market without retreating from goals to achieve carbon neutrality.
”When I ask people, ‘Do you want affordable gas, clean air or safe roads?’ they say yes. So they want us to do all three of these things,” she said. “We’ve got to be honest with Californians about trade-offs so that we can have real conversations.”
Mahan pushed back on the importance of collecting gas tax revenue.
“The truth is we have the highest taxes in the country and a $350-billion budget, and we ought to be able to pave our roads and enable working families to put food on the table,” he said in an interview. “I just reject the notion that the sky is going to fall if we provide temporary relief to working families who are being pushed to the brink by a war that they didn’t ask for.”
The San José mayor said the state should suspend the fuel tax “for the duration of the war” in Iran “or as long as gas prices are over $5 a gallon” in the state. He also called for “massive regulatory overhaul that brings down costs across the board,” including rules on refineries.
If elected governor, Villaraigosa said he would “reform and overhaul” the California Air Resources Board, which enacts many of the state’s environmental laws — including the low carbon fuel standard and cap-and-invest program.
“We can no longer allow bureaucrats who live in a bubble — with no accountability for the harm they are causing our economy and our people — to have so much power over the lives of every Californian,” Villaraigosa said in a statement.
![Mohammed Salem, a teacher with 31 years of experience in Mukalla, says he has taken on three jobs to make ends meet after his salary lost much of its value due to the rapid devaluation of the Yemeni riyal. (Saeed al-Batati/Al Jazeera]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IMG_0930-1-1775144238.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
