Let M be a closed, connected, orientable topological $4$ -manifold, and G be a finite group acting topologically and locally linearly on M. In this paper, we investigate the spectral sequence for the Borel cohomology $H^*_G(M)$ and establish new bounds on the rank of G for homologically trivial actions with discrete singular set.

We define a Grothendieck ring of varieties with actions of finite groups and show that the orbifold Euler characteristic and the Euler characteristics of higher orders can be defined as homomorphisms from this ring to the ring of integers. We describe two natural λ-structures on the ring and the corresponding power structures over it and show that one of these power structures is effective. We define a Grothendieck ring of varieties with equivariant vector bundles and show that the generalized (‘motivic’) Euler characteristics of higher orders can be defined as homomorphisms from this ring to the Grothendieck ring of varieties extended by powers of the class of the complex affine line. We give an analogue of the Macdonald type formula for the generating series of the generalized higher-order Euler characteristics of wreath products.