Home insurance in California was on the edge. Then came the fires.

Summary

Apple News Today: Detailed Summary of "Home Insurance in California was on the Edge. Then Came the Fires."

Release Date: January 17, 2025
Host: Shemitah Basu

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1. International Relations: Gaza Ceasefire Agreement

Shemitah Basu opens the episode by addressing the fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a deal to return hostages and implement a six-week ceasefire, though its stability remains uncertain.

• Netanyahu’s Announcement: Basu notes the shaky ground of the agreement after Israel alleged Hamas reneged on ceasefire details, which Hamas denies.

• U.S. Confidence: Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed optimism about the ceasefire taking effect on Sunday despite ongoing tensions.

• Expert Insight: In a brief exchange, Ben Stiller comments on the complexity of such negotiations:

  [01:06] Ben Stiller: “Look, it's not exactly surprising that in a process, in a negotiation that has been this challenging and this fraught, you may get a loose end.”

Basu emphasizes the evolving nature of the ceasefire, indicating that subsequent phases of the deal are yet to be detailed.

2. U.S. Politics: President Biden’s Final Executive Actions

As President Biden's term concludes, Basu outlines his administration's flurry of executive actions aimed at leaving a lasting legacy.

• Executive Orders Overview: Biden’s actions span clemency, conservation efforts, student loan cancellations, and cybersecurity enhancements.

• Key Actions:

  • Environmental Protection: Blocking oil drilling across 625 million acres of U.S. ocean and designating new national monuments in California.
  • International Relations: Removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
  • Cybersecurity: Signing an order to deter hacking by nations like China, Russia, and Iran.

  [02:49] Leslie Kaufman (Bloomberg Climate Reporter): "Comes to protecting our businesses and our citizens."

• Administration’s Motives: The Washington Post suggests Biden's extensive use of executive orders is a strategic move to safeguard his legacy against incoming President Donald Trump, who has pledged to reverse many of these actions.

• Expert Commentary: Andrew Rudolge, a government professor, explains:

  Biden can take this last opportunity to set the status quo with all these orders. And in Washington, the status quo often wins.

3. Disaster Management and Insurance: LA Wildfires’ Impact on California’s Home Insurance

Los Angeles has been grappling with severe wildfires, resulting in extensive evacuations and significant economic losses. Leslie Kaufman delves into how these fires exacerbate California's already precarious home insurance market.

• Insurance Crisis Origins:

  • 1988 State Law: Placed limits on premium increases, deterring private insurers.
  • Climate Change: Heightened risks make insurance policies less profitable.
  • Insurance Withdrawals: Major companies like State Farm ceased offering new policies in California.

• California’s Fair Plan:

  • Moratorium and Growth: A state-imposed pause on policy cancellations has led to a surge in Fair Plan enrollments, doubling from 200,000 to over 400,000 between September 2020 and September 2024.
  • Coverage Limitations: The Fair Plan offers less comprehensive coverage, capping at $3 million, which may be insufficient for modern, higher-valued homes.

  [06:23] Leslie Kaufman: "As of last September, the Fair Plan said it had nearly half a trillion dollars of exposure on its books..."

• Economic and Social Repercussions:

  • Potential Insolvency: If widespread claims materialize, the Fair Plan might require private insurers to contribute, potentially leading to higher costs for consumers.
  • Community Impact: Limited insurance coverage hampers rebuilding efforts, disproportionately affecting lower-income neighborhoods and potentially accelerating gentrification.

  [07:22] Leslie Kaufman: "What happens is the people in the neighborhood may not have enough money to build back, so there are huge costs coming ahead and then you will have to insure these places."

4. Sports: Launch of the WNBA’s New League “Unrivaled”

The WNBA is expanding its horizons with the introduction of a new three-on-three basketball league, "Unrivaled," set to debut in Miami.

• League Structure:

  • Format: Six teams featuring 36 players competing over eight weeks with a fast-paced, shortened court design.
  • Player Participation: Top WNBA stars, including Brittney Griner, Brianna Stewart, and Nafisa Collier, are leading the charge.

  [08:18] Alexa Filippoo (ESPN Women’s Basketball): "They've actually gone out and gotten really some of the top WNBA players to be able to not go overseas to supplement their salaries..."

• Economic Motivation: Given the significant pay disparity between WNBA and NBA players, many WNBA athletes seek additional income sources, traditionally through overseas leagues.

  [08:34] Basu highlights the financial incentives behind players joining “Unrivaled,” noting that some can earn more than their standard WNBA salaries domestically.

• League Growth and Future Prospects:

  • Expansion: Plans to introduce new teams, such as the Golden State Valkyries.
  • Collective Bargaining: Aiming for a transformative new agreement to secure better salaries, pensions, healthcare, and facilities for players.

  [10:04] Alexa Filippoo: "They don't want it to just be another step in the right direction. They want it to be something that addresses the moment of growth that the league is in."

Filippoo anticipates an exciting and dynamic expansion for women's basketball, driven by increased visibility and improved player conditions.

5. Additional News Highlights

• Rudy Giuliani’s Settlement:
  Giuliani reached a settlement allowing him to retain his properties in Manhattan and Florida after being convicted of defaming two Georgia election workers. Despite previous contempt of court rulings, the settlement resolves his ability to maintain his assets while facing ongoing legal scrutiny.

• Death of David Lynch:
  The visionary director known for Blue Velvet, Mulholl Drive, and Twin Peaks passed away at 78. His collaborator, Kyle McLaughlin, lauded Lynch as an "enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him," highlighting his revolutionary impact on American television and film.

6. Entertainment: “Severance” Season Two Conversation

The episode concludes with a preview of the upcoming discussion featuring Ben Stiller and Adam Scott about the highly anticipated Season Two of Severance.

• Show Overview:
  Severance explores a dystopian concept where employees have their consciousness split between work and personal life.

• Insights from Cast and Crew:

  • Adam Scott: Reflects on the show's unexpected cultural impact and the necessity of security measures as the fanbase expanded.

    [12:54] Adam Scott: “The craziest thing for me was seeing these terms that we had been throwing around for a couple of years like innie and outie and the break room and all of these things that no one cared about for the longest time.”

  • Ben Stiller: Discusses the show's exploration of humanity and the innate need for connection despite the artificial separation of personal and professional identities.

    [13:33] Ben Stiller: “...the question is like how are these people, the human aspect of, you know, who they are? How is that going to... eventually it has to come out, this need for connection, this need for love, regardless of even the outie and any sharing that feeling.”

The conversation promises deeper exploration into the show's themes and character development, appealing to both existing fans and new viewers.

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Conclusion

In this episode of Apple News Today, Shemitah Basu provides an insightful roundup of critical issues ranging from international peace efforts and the termination of a presidential administration to the intersection of climate disasters and insurance crises in California. Additionally, the episode highlights significant developments in women's sports and touches upon notable legal and cultural news. The inclusion of expert commentary and relevant quotes enriches the narrative, offering listeners a comprehensive understanding of each topic.

Transcript

[Shemitah Basu]

Good morning. It's Friday, January 17th. I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News today. On today's show, how the LA fires threatened to wipe out California's home insurance industry. The biggest stars in women's basketball are launching a new league. And a behind the scenes conversation with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott about severance season two. But first, a quick check in on the state of the Gaza ceasefire agreement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a deal has been struck to return hostages held in Gaza and move forward with a negotiated ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The deal was on shaky ground as of yesterday when Israel claimed Hamas had reneged on details of the ceasefire. Hamas leadership disputed that and said they were still committed to it. Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday projected confidence that the agreement will go into effect starting as planned on Sunday.

[Ben Stiller]

Look, it's not exactly surprising that in a process, in a negotiation that has been this challenging and this fraught, you may get a loose end.

[Shemitah Basu]

Both sides have so far agreed to an initial six week ceasefire with later phases of the deal not yet fleshed out. This story is sure to keep moving quickly today and through the weekend. You can find the latest in the Apple News app. President Biden is leaving the Oval Office the same way he entered in a blaze of executive actions. The outgoing president is putting his pen to a whole slate of orders from clemency to conservation to canceling student loans. The Washington Post reports that even as many White House staffers were packing up their offices and getting ready to leave by the end of the day today, many were still working on last minute executive actions. Officials say this will likely continue up until the final hours of his presidency. Some of his last actions as president include blocking oil drilling in more than 625 million acres of U.S. ocean, designating new national monuments in California, removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, and just last night signing a new order on cybersecurity. Anne Neuberger, deputy National security advisor for cyber and Emerging Technology, told NPR about the purpose of this order. The goal is to make it costlier and harder for China, Russia, Iran and ransomware criminals to hack and to also signal that America means business when it.

[Leslie Kaufman]

Comes to protecting our businesses and our citizens.

[Shemitah Basu]

A few more items in the flurry of headlines you might have missed in recent weeks. The Biden administration is proposing a dramatic reduction in nicotine levels in cigarettes. The FDA will now require labels on the front of food and drink packages. And another 150,000 student loan borrowers had their debt canceled The Post points out another story that might have gone under the radar. The incoming Trump administration will find On Tuesday, a new rule goes into effect, giving a 12% pay raise to about 14,000 doll and blue collar employees at army depots and Veterans affairs facilities. It's not uncommon for presidents to leave office with a flurry of action like this. But the Post describes Biden's actions as, quote, unusually wide ranging and a sign that Biden sees the man who both preceded him and will succeed him, Donald Trump, as a unique threat to the Biden legacy. There is a certain advantage that an outgoing president has in moments like this, according to Andrew Rudolge, a professor of government government who studies the power of the presidency. He described it this way to the Post. Biden can take this last opportunity to set the status quo with all these orders. And in Washington, the status quo often wins. Trump, meanwhile, has already vowed to overturn what he can in regards to Biden's offshore drilling order. Trump said he will reverse it immediately, adding quote, drill, baby, drill. Now to Los Angeles, where it's been more than a week since devastating wildfires forced as many as 200,000 Angelenos to evacuate. Experts say the fires could be one of the most expensive disasters in U.S. history, with possibly more than $250 billion in damages and economic loss. And Leslie Kaufman, who covers climate for Bloomberg, told us the fires will likely accelerate California's insurance crisis.

[Leslie Kaufman]

Yes, even before the recent fires, insurance in California, home insurance in California was very messy.

[Shemitah Basu]

To understand how we got here, Kaufman says, you have to look at a state law passed in 1988 which put limits on how much insurance companies could raise premiums for property coverage. That move, combined with the growing threat of climate change, has made offering policies in California less attractive to private insurers over the years. So many left, like State Farm, one of the biggest providers, which decided in March of last year to stop renewing policies and stop offering new ones. California just instituted a moratorium on insurance providers, canceling policies for one year as a result of these fires. But other big names had already stopped offering new policies in the state, which means many homeowners are stuck with difficult choices choices. Some had to forego new insurance because they couldn't afford it. Others opted into California's Fair Plan, which provides less extensive coverage and generally costs more than private insurance. It's exploded in size as insurance companies left the state. Between September of 2020 and September 2024, the number of policyholders more than doubled from 200,000 to over 400,000 and many homes that rely on the Fair Plan are in some of LA's hardest hit neighborhoods. So there are concerns about how claims will be handled in the wake of these fires.

[Leslie Kaufman]

As of last September, the Fair Plan said it had nearly half a trillion dollars of exposure on its books, meaning that if everything they insured burned down, they would own half a trillion dollars.

[Shemitah Basu]

If the Fair Plan can't cover the cost of all the claims, private insurers may have to pitch in even if they've technically dropped California customers. That's raised among consumer protection experts that companies could try to pass the costs on to customers, and this is not out of the realm of possibility. The president of the Fair Plan said in a hearing last fall that the program was just one disaster away from needing help covering claims. For most people who lost their homes in the LA fires, the ability to rebuild hinges on what insurance covers, which might not be enough, Kaufman points out. If someone bought a home a decade ago and it went way up in value, their policy simply might not be big enough and the Fair Plan caps out at $3 million.

[Leslie Kaufman]

What happens is the people in the neighborhood may not have enough money to build back, so there are huge costs coming ahead and then you will have to insure these places. So really this is going to be something that richer people are going to have a huge advantage on and that's why we see gentrification after these kinds of fires.

[Shemitah Basu]

Now to sports, where the WNBA's top stars will participate in a brand new league in Miami tonight. It's called unrivaled. It's three on three basketball, six teams, 36 players, eight weeks of competition. The tempo is fast, the court is short, and Alexa Filippoo, who covers women's basketball for espn, told us this league will also be an exciting new way for players to earn extra money in the off season.

[Alexa Filippoo]

They've actually gone out and gotten really some of the top WNBA players to be able to not go overseas to supplement their salaries and to actually stay domestically and be able to actually make in some cases more than their WNBA salary.

[Shemitah Basu]

WNBA players get a fraction of what NBA players are paid in 2023, the average WNBA player earned around $113,000, while the average NBA player had a base of $9.7 million. That's why so many WNBA players also play in leagues abroad. As Filipu mentioned. You might remember, that's what brought Brittney Griner to Russia in 2022, where she was wrongfully detained for almost a year before US Authorities negotiated her release. She vowed to never play overseas again. For her safety, she will play in this league alongside WNBA superstars Brianna Stewart and Nafisa Collier, who co founded Unrivaled. There are seven number one picks from the WNBA in the mix, a league MVP and 17 former Olympians. They hope to draw the same growing audience that tunes into the WNBA. 2024 was a blockbuster year for the WNBA and it's poised to have an even bigger1 in 2025. There will be a new expansion team in the Bay Area called the Golden State Valkyries. A number of new coaches are taking the helm of several teams and perhaps most importantly, a new collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and be negotiated. Players have said they want the new contract to be transformational as they ride the recent wave of excitement around women's basketball. That means they'll be asking for bigger salaries and other benefits like pensions, better healthcare and even better facilities.

[Alexa Filippoo]

They don't want it to just be another step in the right direction. They want it to be something that addresses the moment of growth that the league is in. Because this is only beginning, really, the beginning of this moment of growth they feel like for women's basketball, Philippe, who.

[Shemitah Basu]

Says all of this makes for some pretty thrilling things to watch out for.

[Alexa Filippoo]

I'm kind of looking forward to the unexpected because there's always new wrinkles. But I do feel like with all the tension that's on the sport that it's a really exciting time and that it's hopefully all going to be positive things or interesting things or things that just keep people talking about women's basketball.

[Shemitah Basu]

Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following today. Rudy Giuliani reached a settlement with two Georgia election workers he was convicted of defaming. The settlement will allow him to keep his homes in Manhattan and Florida. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and Donald Trump's personal lawyer, was convicted for falsely accusing two election workers of trying to steal the 2020 election for president Joe Biden. He was held in contempt twice in two different courts for being uncooperative in the handing over of his assets to pay for the $148 million judgment against him and for continuing to make defamatory comments about these workers. A judge said if Giuliani defames them again, it would land him in jail, a big time loss in the film world. Director David lynch died yesterday. Described as a visionary director and surrealist artist, he was known for his films Blue Velvet and Mulholl Drive and his groundbreaking television show Twin Peaks, which Variety says revolutionized American episodic TV. His longtime collaborator, the actor Kyle McLaughlin posted a tribute to him on Instagram, calling him an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him. He added, he was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to. Lynch was 78 years old. And one very last thing, let me mention what's on this week's episode of Apple News in conversation. We're talking about the highly anticipated Season two of Severance, which is out today on Apple TV with the show's stars, director Ben Stiller and actor Adam Scott. If you haven't watched it, Severance is a dystopian take on work life balance where people agree to have their consciousness split so that when they're in the office their innie self doesn't know anything about their personal life and and when they leave the office their outy self doesn't know anything about their work life. Scott told me it's been awesome to see fans get into the show.

[Adam Scott]

The craziest thing for me was seeing these terms that we had been throwing around for a couple of years like innie and Audi and the break room and all of these things that no one cared about for the longest time. We were just making this weird little show off in the corner, but we suddenly were having to worry about security and use code words, the show and a particular season or a particular thing, and needed these kind of encrypted emails.

[Shemitah Basu]

Stiller told me how working on this show has been a way to explore what it really means to be human and what's left when we have our burdens and consciousness stripped away.

[Ben Stiller]

You know, the Ennis are in a way, you know, in a prison. So that's to me, you know, the question is like how are these people, the human aspect of, you know, who they are? How is that going to. Eventually it has to come out, this need for connection, this need for love, regardless of even the Audi and any sharing that feeling.

[Shemitah Basu]

You can hear my full conversation with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott in this week's episode. If you're listening in the news app right now that's queued up to play for you next, Enjoy the weekend and I'll be back with the news on Monday. It.