LOS ANGELES — Adam Iza grew up a world away from the Bel-Air mansion he inhabited before his arrest in September.

As his lawyer Josef Sadat tells it, Iza was poor during his childhood in Iraq, borrowing a computer from his uncle before coming to the U.S. as a teenager and building a lucrative cryptocurrency trading platform.

But as Iza grew ...Read more

Russia, ranked the most corrupt of the world’s biggest economies, is intensifying a crack down on graft among officials that has risked undermining the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and further straining state coffers.

Data from the courts and law enforcement agencies show a jump in the number of corruption-related criminal cases, sentences...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The California Public Utilities Commission this week unveiled a proposal that could potentially close the Aliso Canyon gas storage field in the coming years, but local activists and politicians say it doesn’t provide a fast or clear enough timeline to shut down the site of the largest natural gas leak in American history.

...Read more

NEW YORK — Whoopi Goldberg was publicly accused of defamation on Friday, two days after “The View” co-host suggested a bakery didn’t want to make her birthday desserts due to her left-leaning political views.

Goldberg celebrated her 69th birthday on “The View” this week, where she told viewers her order for several dozen Charlotte ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A southwest Missouri man who wanted to someday be a cop was sentenced Friday to one year in prison for assaulting an officer and several other offenses committed during the Capitol riot.

Kyler Joseph Bard, 28, of Seneca, also will have 24 months of supervised release and must pay $2,000 restitution for damage to the Capitol, ...Read more

Chinese leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Joe Biden that he’s ready to work with Donald Trump to improve the relationship between the world’s biggest economies.

Speaking in what’s expected to be their final meeting before Trump takes office, Xi told Biden that the U.S. and China should strive for peaceful co-existence over the long ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — San Diego County’s public health department warned local doctors Friday that the region is in the midst of a significant increase in walking pneumonia cases, especially among children ages 2 to 4, echoing a national trend recently observed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And this surge has not arrived ...Read more

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson reversed course Saturday and announced he will not attend a slain cop’s funeral after the officer’s family told him to stay away.

Johnson’s office had said Friday he would go to the funeral for Officer Enrique Martinez, despite protests from the police union president who said he would not be welcome.

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President-elect Donald Trump nominated Chris Wright, who runs a Colorado-based oil and natural gas fracking services company, to lead the Energy Department.

Wright, the chief executive officer of Liberty Energy Inc., has no previous Washington experience. He’s made a name for himself as a vocal proponent of oil and gas, saying fossil fuels ...Read more

Chinese leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Joe Biden that he’s ready to work with Donald Trump to improve the relationship between the world’s biggest economies.

Speaking in their final meeting before Trump takes office, Xi told Biden that the U.S. and China shouldn’t pursue decoupling and instead strive for peaceful existence over ...Read more

Billionaire Elon Musk voiced support for Howard Lutnick in the race to be President-elect Donald Trump’s next Treasury secretary as warring camps make final pushes for the coveted Cabinet post.

The infighting has delayed decisions on Trump’s economic picks even as he rushes to fill many other posts in his incoming administration.

Musk ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Tropical Storm Sara is forecast to slog its way over Central America this weekend but lose organization before remnants make their way into the Gulf of Mexico and get sucked back to the east toward Florida next week.

As of the National Hurricane Center’s 4 p.m. advisory, Sara was located about 25 miles west-northwest of Isla...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump may be looking at a chief Boston-based official as a leader of his administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

Todd Lyons, who led U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations field office for New England and was promoted in October to acting assistant director of field ...Read more

HARTFORD, Conn. — Following the recent election results, many LGBTQ+ people are feeling frightened and uncertain about the future. A rally in support of the community is planned on Sunday at Blue Back Square in West Hartford and is expected to attract hundreds from around Connecticut and beyond.

The event starts at 11 a.m. and is planned to ...Read more

Buckle up, America.

President-elect Donald Trump has burst back onto the Beltway political scene, sparking outrage from critics and glee among his loyal followers by tapping controversial characters like Matt Gaetz, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk for his second-term Cabinet.

Just days after scoring a decisive election win, Trump has moved...Read more

The Biden administration is weighing a last-ditch push for an international agreement that would restrict financial support for foreign oil and gas projects before critical talks start in Paris.

Landing the deal is seen as essential to deliver on a promise President Joe Biden made his first year in the White House. But administration officials ...Read more

Russia’s war in Ukraine, which will reach its 1,000th day next week, must be brought to an end in 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview aired on Saturday.

“We, from our side, must do everything so that next year, this war ends by diplomatic means. This is very important,” Zelenskyy told “Suspilne” radio. ...Read more

With President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, numerous public health leaders are voicing fears that the nation’s premier health agencies will be weakened at a time when the country faces rising threats from infectious diseases, emboldened industry ...Read more

Billionaire Elon Musk voiced support for Howard Lutnick in the race for President-elect Donald Trump’s next Treasury secretary, offering a late boost to the candidacy of the Cantor Fitzgerald LP CEO as the incoming Cabinet takes shape.

Musk said on his social media platform X that he saw Lutnick as a disruptor compared to Key Square Group LP ...Read more