World

VIENNA — On their 30th wedding anniversary, the couple from Mexico were determined to fulfill a long-deferred aspiration: a visit to this storied former Hapsburg capital. And they didn’t come just to catch an opera and savor the Sachertorte. “We always wanted to see el penacho de Moctezuma,” said Gema Vargas, referring to the feathered headdress widely…

Barbara Boxer decided she was done. Entering her 70s, fresh off reelection to the U.S. Senate, she determined her fourth term would be her last. “I just felt it was time,” Boxer said. “I wanted to do other things.” Besides, she knew the Democratic bench was amply stocked with many bright prospects, including California’s then-attorney…

WASHINGTON — Twenty-two days into the government shutdown, California Rep. Kevin Kiley spent an hour of his morning in Washington guiding a group of middle school students from Grass Valley through the empty corridors of the U.S. Capitol. Normally, one of his staff members would have led the tour. But the Capitol is closed to all tours…

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is set to rule for the first time on whether the president has the power to deploy troops in American cities over the objections of local and state officials. A decision could come at any time. And even a one-line order siding with President Trump would send the message that he is…

Consumer confidence is dropping. The national debt is $38 trillion and climbing like the yodeling mountain climber in that “The Price is Right” game. Donald Trump’s approval ratings are falling and the U.S. is getting more and more restless as 2025 comes to a close. What’s a wannabe strongman to do to prop up his…

A planned increase in federal immigration enforcement in the Bay Area is now on pause throughout the region and in major East Bay cities, not just in San Francisco, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said Friday. Lee said in a statement that Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez had “confirmed through her communications” with federal immigration officials…

WASHINGTON — Late last month, an immigrant seeking asylum in the U.S. came across social media posts urging her to pay a new fee imposed by the Trump administration before Oct. 1, or else risk her case being dismissed. Paula, a 40-year-old Los Angeles-area immigrant from Mexico, whose full name The Times is withholding because she fears…

Thousands of Americans hoping to get airborne found themselves stuck on the ground Thursday evening as Alaska Airlines experienced an IT outage that prevented any of its planes from taking off. “A temporary ground stop is in place,” the airline announced on social media at 4:20 p.m. “We apologize for the inconvenience. If you’re scheduled…

To say that President Trump is unfazed by Saturday’s nationwide “No Kings” rally, which vies for bragging rights as perhaps the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, is the sort of understatement too typical when describing his monarchical outrages. Leave aside Trump’s grotesque mockery of the protests — his post that night of an AI-generated…

When jurors returned to a West L.A. courtroom to deliver their verdict in a child sex abuse case earlier this month, one key person was missing: the defendant. John Kaleel — a veteran piano teacher who has given lessons to the families of several Hollywood power players — faced allegations that he sexually abused one…