World

Supporters of a billionaire tax said Sunday that they had gathered nearly twice as many signatures as necessary to qualify the controversial proposal for the November ballot. Opponents of the proposal argue that it already has driven wealthy Californians — crucial to funding the state’s volatile budget — to other parts of the nation. Advocates,…

WASHINGTON — Directly outside the Washington Hilton ballroom, as the yearly White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner got underway Saturday, a Times reporter had just entered the men’s room when he heard a handful of loud pops ring out. “Shooter!” someone shouted. “Get down! Shots fired!” Inside the ballroom, thousands of journalists and politicians began to duck for…

Just across the road from the site of the first international conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels, in Colombia, oil tankers routinely unload at the Pozos Colorados terminal, with its large tank farm. The tension between climate ambition and fossil-fuel dependency is at the heart of the meeting, which began Friday in the Caribbean…

WASHINGTON — President Trump was evacuated from the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner on Saturday evening after gunshots were fired, and a person was taken into custody. A Times reporter attending the dinner sheltered in a restroom after the incident. He said he heard about four or five gunshots around 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. He said a…

Tourist spending in Los Angeles fell for the first time since the pandemic last year as wildfires, ICE raids and trade tensions discouraged people from visiting. Direct travel spending in 2025 was slightly below the previous year in Los Angeles County, according to an economic impact report this week from Visit California. That’s a step…

WASHINGTON — In a surprising about-face, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, announced Friday that she would be dropping an investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that critics had labeled as politically motivated since it became public in January. That investigation, which focused on whether Powell had lied to Congress about the…

Bed Bath & Beyond is coming back to California less than a year after the company’s chairman vowed it wouldn’t reopen in the Golden State. The home goods retailer will resurface through the rebranding of 98 The Container Store locations, including 12 storefronts in California, the company announced Thursday. Five locations are in Southern California,…

Prominent Democratic governors, some considering 2028 presidential bids, gathered Thursday in Los Angeles for a high-dollar fundraiser. Tickets to attend the event cost up to $100,000, according to an invitation. Closed to the press, it was expected to raise more than $1.5 million for the Democratic Governors Assn., among the largest amount the group has…

MEXICO CITY — It started out as a well-planned law enforcement operation that culminated in the successful takedown of an illicit drug laboratory deep in the mountains of Mexico’s northern Chihuahua state. But last weekend’s raid has now become a flash point inflaming U.S.-Mexico tensions as officials on both sides of the border struggle to explain how…

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that her government was never informed that CIA agents would be participating in the raid of a clandestine drug lab, an incident that comes amid growing tension between the U.S. and Mexico on how to battle cartels. According to sources familiar with the operation, the incident involved four…