Sergey Petrov could do nothing from his home in the outskirts of Vienna as Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to take over the car dealership he had founded and built.

Putin signed the decree in December transferring ownership of Rolf, Russia’s largest car dealership, from a Cyprus-registered entity controlled by Petrov’s family to the ...Read more

ATLANTA — Walking the halls of South Gwinnett High School, Principal Rodney Jordan ran into an alum he had never met.

Administrators, teachers and other staff were also in the hallways, including near student bathrooms. The halls were calm. There were no signs of unruliness. Jayqunn Billingsley, a 2023 graduate, let Jordan know he liked what ...Read more

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- Huntington Beach radiates California cool. The best surfers in the world descend here each summer to compete on waves rolling in under its public pier. Convertibles zoom past towering palms along Pacific Coast Highway. Beachfront homeowners enjoy breathtaking views, and everybody seems to sport a hang-loose attitude. ...Read more

When you use Facebook Messenger these days, a new prompt greets you with this come-on: "Ask Meta AI anything."

You may have opened the app to send a text to a pal, but Meta's new artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot is tempting you with encyclopedic knowledge that's just a few keystrokes away.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has ...Read more

Protest movements can look very different depending on where you stand, both literally and figuratively.

For protesters, demonstrations are usually the result of meticulous planning by advocacy groups and leaders aimed at getting a message out to a wider world or to specific institutional targets. To outside onlookers, however, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The UCLA police chief is facing growing scrutiny for what three sources told the Los Angeles Times was a string of serious security lapses before a mob attacked a pro-Palestinian student encampment this week.

But the chief, John Thomas, late Friday rejected those allegations and said he did “everything I could” to provide ...Read more

NEW YORK — The city Department of Correction temporarily pulled almost 3,500 body-worn cameras after one caught fire and injured a correction captain, the department said Saturday.

The captain was on duty in the George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island Friday when her Reveal Media D5 body-worn camera spontaneously ignited, said department ...Read more

In the decade after they went up, the 25,000 LED lights illuminating the western side of the Bay Bridge endured a brutal pounding.

“It’s the salty air, the wind, the fog, the rain, the 24-7 vibrations on the bridge, lightning strikes, car grit and grime — and more,” said Ben Davis, founder of the San Francisco nonprofit behind the light...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — Dozens of people came out to protest in Boise on Friday night and into Saturday calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

The demonstrations come amid growing antiwar protests and as students nationwide form encampments on college campuses to call for their universities to divest from companies with links to ...Read more

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insisted the Biden administration will enter into a defense pact with Saudi Arabia only if the kingdom normalizes relations with Israel, the Financial Times reported.

Sullivan said in an interview with the newspaper the two issues were part of an “integrated vision” for peace in the Middle East ...Read more

Labour wins in the U.K.’s two biggest cities completed a string of local election successes by opposition leader Keir Starmer that showed his party firmly on course for victory at a general election later this year.

Not only did Sadiq Khan comfortably win a historic third term as London mayor, but Labour candidate Richard Parker eked out an ...Read more

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen acknowledged sharp moves in the value of the yen this week, even as she declined to say whether Japan had intervened to support the currency.

“I’m not going to comment on whether they did or didn’t intervene,” Yellen told reporters Saturday following a speech in Mesa, Arizona. “I think that that’...Read more

MIAMI — Two teen boaters are facing felony charges for pollution after they were caught on video dumping trash into the Atlantic Ocean during a South Florida boating party.

The 16-year-old and 15-year-old boys from Palm Beach County were arrested Friday about a week after a drone video of the illegal dumping went viral online, according to ...Read more

EVERETT, Wash. — It's not clear whether Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov had plans to visit Puget Sound this spring — the French Riviera is more the style of the U.S.-sanctioned mining and energy multibillionaire.

But on April 29, the Amadea, a 348-foot, $300 million-plus superyacht said to be owned by Kerimov, arrived in the Port of ...Read more

WASHINGTON — U.S. taxes are likely to rise as lawmakers look to narrow the federal deficit, Warren Buffett said, as Washington prepares for major tax negotiations next year.

The Berkshire Hathaway chairman and chief executive officer, speaking Saturday at the company’s closely watched annual meeting in Omaha, sidestepped directly commenting...Read more

A dispute between the U.K. and Ireland over a surge in asylum-seekers is threatening to upend their already fragile relationship. With elections on the horizon for the leaders of both countries, neither side appears likely to back down.

Disagreements between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his newly installed Irish counterpart, Taoiseach Simon ...Read more

The governing Conservatives suffered heavy defeats in a set of local elections on Thursday, adding to the sense that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will struggle to turn things around before a general election that he must hold within nine months.

Keir Starmer’s opposition Labour Party made some eye-catching gains, taking control of councils in ...Read more

Labour wins in the U.K.’s two biggest cities completed a string of local election successes by opposition leader Keir Starmer that showed his party firmly on course for victory at a general election later this year.

Not only did Sadiq Khan comfortably win a historic third term as London mayor, but Labour candidate Richard Parker eked out an ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Eight people have been arrested on suspicion of organized retail theft after authorities discovered several million dollars' worth of stolen medicines, cosmetics and other merchandise at multiple Los Angeles locations, L.A. County sheriff's officials announced this week.

The retail goods were stolen by crews of organized ...Read more