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Manhattan prosecutor investigates abuse claims against congressman Eric Swalwell

A high-stakes political drama has unfolded in American politics this week, after the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed it has opened a formal investigation into multiple sexual misconduct allegations against U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, a leading Democratic candidate for governor of California.

Four women have now come forward with accusations against the congressman, ranging from persistent sexual harassment to non-consensual sexual assault, with one of the alleged incidents occurring on Manhattan soil. Swalwell, who has represented a Northern California district covering areas near San Francisco since 2012 and launched a high-profile bid to replace outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom in this year’s election, has forcefully denied every claim. In public statements, he has pledged to clear his name using documented facts and has not ruled out pursuing legal action against his accusers.

In an official public statement released Saturday, the New York prosecutor’s office extended an invitation for survivors and any other individuals with information relevant to the allegations to reach out to its Special Victims Division. “Our specially trained prosecutors, investigators and counselors are well-equipped to help you in a trauma-informed, survivor-centered manner,” the office said. Representatives for Swalwell did not issue an immediate response to repeated requests for comment from the BBC following the announcement of the investigation.

The first public allegation against Swalwell appeared Friday in the *San Francisco Chronicle*, from a woman who previously worked as a staff member in his Castro Valley district office. She told the outlet that shortly after she was hired, Swalwell began making unwanted inappropriate comments, repeatedly solicited her for sexual encounters and sent unsolicited sexual messages. The former staffer alleges she was assaulted by Swalwell on two separate occasions: the first in September 2019, after the pair went out for drinks, and the second in 2024 following a charity gala in New York City. Both times, she told the newspaper, she was too impaired by alcohol to give legal consent. The BBC has not been able to independently confirm the details of her account or verify her identity, but has reached out to her legal representation for comment.

Shortly after the first report, CNN published accounts from three additional women, bringing the total number of accusers to four, all raising claims of varying degrees of sexual misconduct against the congressman. The network also reported that Swalwell’s legal team has already sent cease-and-desist letters demanding retractions to two of the women making accusations.

In a public video message posted to Facebook Friday, Swalwell addressed the allegations directly to voters. He acknowledged he has made errors in judgment earlier in his life, framing those past mistakes as private matters between himself and his wife, to whom he issued a deep apology for the public scandal. “I do not suggest to you that I am perfect or a saint,” he said. “I’ve certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past. But those mistakes are between me and my wife. And to her, I apologise deeply for putting her in this position.” He reiterated his denial of all the misconduct allegations, stating: “For nearly 20 years, I have served the public – as a prosecutor and a congressman and have always protected women. I will defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action.”

The timing of the allegations could not be more consequential for Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign. The investigation comes just weeks before California begins mailing out ballots to voters for the June 2 primary, in an open race to lead the nation’s most populous state. Before the allegations surfaced, two separate public opinion polls ranked Swalwell as one of the top two front-runners for the Democratic nomination in the crowded primary field. Within hours of the first reports of the accusations, Swalwell lost the public endorsement of several of his most prominent political backers, including U.S. Senator Adam Schiff and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, whose support had been a major boost to his campaign credibility.

11 4 月, 2026
Knifeman calling himself ‘Lucifer’ slashes three at NYC’s Grand Central

A violent, unprovoked attack at one of the United States’ busiest transportation hubs left three people injured and the assailant dead on a recent Saturday morning, sending shockwaves through New York City’s transit system and prompting a major law enforcement response. The incident, which unfolded across two platforms at New York’s iconic Grand Central-42 Street subway station, forced service disruptions for thousands of commuters and drew swift comment from top city and state officials.

According to official statements from the New York Police Department (NYPD), the attacker — identified as 44-year-old Anthony Griffin — entered the city’s subway network at the Vernon Boulevard–Jackson Avenue station in Queens early that morning. He traveled aboard the 7 train east into Manhattan, disembarking at Grand Central, the country’s largest rail hub, before launching his attack. NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch shared details of the rampage at a press briefing shortly after the incident, confirming that Griffin first stabbed one passenger on the initial platform before moving upstairs to a second platform, where he attacked two more people.

The three victims, all older adults, suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries: an 84-year-old man sustained deep lacerations to his head and face, a 65-year-old man suffered matching cuts alongside an open skull fracture, and a 70-year-old woman was left with cut wounds to her shoulder. All three were quickly transported to local medical facilities for treatment.

Two transit officers who were already in the area were alerted to the attack at 9:40 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, and arrived on scene within minutes to confront the attacker. Tisch confirmed that Griffin was carrying a large machete recovered by investigators at the scene, was acting in an extremely erratic manner, and repeatedly told responding officers he was Lucifer. Even after officers issued more than 20 separate verbal demands for him to drop his weapon, Griffin refused to comply and advanced toward the officers with the blade extended. One officer opened fire, striking the suspect twice. First responders administered emergency life-saving care at the scene before transporting Griffin to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

In the wake of the attack, NYPD urged local residents and commuters to avoid the Grand Central area while investigators processed the crime scene, leading to temporary service diversions for trains passing through the major transit hub. Officials later confirmed that Griffin had three prior arrests on his record, but had no documented history of being flagged as an Emotionally Disturbed Person (EDP) in NYPD records. City officials also announced plans to release full body camera footage of the entire incident to the public as the investigation moves forward.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul issued a formal statement condemning the attack, calling it a “senseless act of violence” targeting innocent members of the public. She also praised the quick action of responding officers, saying “I’m grateful to our brave officers who acted quickly to stop the suspect.” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani echoed that praise, commending law enforcement for their rapid response that prevented additional violence from occurring. “Our officers put themselves in harm’s way to protect New Yorkers, and their quick thinking likely saved more lives,” Mamdani’s statement read, confirming the upcoming release of body camera footage to maintain transparency with the public.

11 4 月, 2026
Coachella kicks off with Sabrina Carpenter and surprise guests

One of the world’s most iconic and highly anticipated annual music gatherings, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, kicked off its 2026 iteration in the Southern California desert this Friday, bringing together more than 100,000 daily attendees across two consecutive weekends of performances. The opening night of the festival, hosted at Indio’s Empire Polo Club, delivered a series of showstopping surprises, led by first-time headliner Sabrina Carpenter’s elaborately produced Hollywood-themed set.

Carpenter reimagined her stage as a faux Los Angeles landmark, rebranding the space “Sabrinawood” to match her creative concept. The 26-year-old pop star opened her performance with a pre-taped short film, where actor Sam Elliott pulled her over for a late-night traffic stop before letting her proceed to the main stage. Midway through her set, Academy Award-winning actor Susan Sarandon made an unannounced guest appearance, delivering a heartfelt monologue portraying an older version of Carpenter. Later, funnyman Will Ferrell joined the lineup of surprise guests, taking the stage in character as a quirky stage electrician to the delight of the crowd. The opening night bill also featured a roster of other high-profile acts, including global girl group KATSEYE — formed in 2023 via the reality competition series Dream Academy — British electronic duo Disclosure, and hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg.

However, the opening evening was not without disruptions, as pre-forecasted severe weather conditions forced organizers to cancel a scheduled performance by DJ Anyma immediately following Carpenter’s set. In a public statement posted to the festival’s official Instagram account Friday night, event leadership explained the cancellation was a joint decision made with the artist to prioritize attendee safety, as strong sustained winds had damaged the structural integrity of Anyma’s custom stage build.

The National Weather Service had issued advance warnings for the area, predicting wind gusts reaching up to 25 miles per hour throughout Friday. Compounding the weather concerns, the Coachella Valley also remained under an air quality advisory from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning, driven by windblown particulate dust that poses heightened health risks for vulnerable populations. The National Weather Service cautioned that fine particle pollution can penetrate deep into lung tissue, triggering asthma attacks, exacerbating existing heart and lung conditions, and increasing susceptibility to respiratory infections. While Indio was named as one of the areas at potential risk of poor air quality, the local air quality management district reported that pollution levels stayed between good and moderate from midday Thursday onward.

Looking ahead to the rest of the weekend, pop superstar Justin Bieber is slated to take the headline spot on Saturday, with reggaeton icon Karol G closing out the first weekend’s performances on Sunday. A strong contingent of UK talent is also featured across this year’s lineup, including indie rock outfit Wet Leg, punk group Lambrini Girls, rapper Little Simz, and experimental artist FKA Twigs. The full lineup of performances will repeat again for the festival’s second weekend, which draws the same massive scale of crowds to the Southern California desert. First launched in 2002, Coachella has grown from a small regional gathering to one of the most high-profile cultural events on the global entertainment calendar.

11 4 月, 2026
NASA’s Artemis II crew splashes down in Pacific Ocean

After a groundbreaking 10-day journey around the moon that set new human spaceflight records, NASA’s Artemis II mission crew has completed a successful return to Earth, splashing down safely in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, at 8:07 pm Eastern Time on Friday evening. The parachute-assisted landing marked a major milestone for the United States’ deep space exploration program, bringing the four-person international crew home without incident.

Shortly after the capsule touched the ocean surface, mission commander Reid Wiseman confirmed that all crew members were in excellent health, easing pre-landing concerns tied to known technical vulnerabilities on the spacecraft. By 10 pm ET, recovery teams had helped the astronauts exit the Orion capsule, and they were airlifted by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha, an amphibious transport dock stationed nearby. U.S. media reports confirm all four crew members walked across the ship’s flight deck unassisted to begin routine post-mission medical checks.

Following the completion of initial health screenings aboard the vessel, the crew will undergo a more comprehensive series of medical evaluations before traveling back to shore. They will then fly to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where they will continue debriefing and analysis of their mission. Parallel recovery operations are already underway for the Orion capsule itself: Navy divers will lift the spacecraft from the Pacific and transport it first to U.S. Naval Base San Diego, before it is shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for full engineering inspections and post-mission analysis.

The mission’s atmospheric re-entry carried higher-than-usual safety risks, stemming from documented design flaws in Orion’s heat shield — the critical component that protects the crew from thousands of degrees of heat generated during descent through Earth’s atmosphere. To reduce this risk, NASA engineers adjusted the capsule’s re-entry trajectory ahead of landing, opting for a steeper, faster descent that cut down the capsule’s exposure to peak re-entry temperatures.

Launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, Artemis II marked the first crewed lunar flyby mission humanity has launched in more than 50 years. The 10-day mission did not include a lunar landing, instead focusing on testing core systems for future crewed lunar missions. The crew includes three NASA astronauts — commander Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch — and one Canadian Space Agency astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, making the mission a truly international collaborative effort.

Early in the mission, the crew set a new world record for the farthest distance human beings have ever traveled from Earth, reaching a peak distance of 406,771 kilometers from our planet. That mark surpasses the previous 400,171-kilometer record set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, a record that had stood for more than half a century. During the mission’s lunar flyby segment, the Orion capsule passed within 6,550 kilometers of the lunar surface, and the crew carried out nearly seven hours of direct lunar observation. The mission marked a rare opportunity for human observers to study the moon’s far side, a hemisphere never visible from Earth and rarely seen by humans directly.

As the first crewed mission of NASA’s broader Artemis lunar exploration program, which was first announced in 2019, Artemis II was designed to test and validate the full range of technologies and operational procedures needed for future deep space and lunar missions. Key objectives included verifying the functionality of Orion’s life support systems and practicing mission operations that will be critical for upcoming crewed landing missions. Before Artemis II, NASA completed the uncrewed Artemis I lunar orbiting mission in November 2022, laying the groundwork for this first crewed flight.

The original Artemis program roadmap set a goal of landing the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface by 2024, but NASA revised the program’s timeline in February this year, adding an extra interim mission and pushing back the targeted landing date. Under the updated plan, Artemis III will now focus on testing new systems and operational capabilities in low Earth orbit in 2027, clearing the way for the Artemis IV crewed lunar landing mission to take place in 2028.

11 4 月, 2026
Baseball statue broken as it is unveiled in Seattle

A planned moment of baseball immortality took an unexpected, humorous turn Friday outside T-Mobile Park, when a bronze statue honoring former Seattle Mariners legend Ichiro Suzuki suffered an embarrassing mishap during its official unveiling. As the protective blue covering was pulled away from the monument by team officials, hundreds of gathered fans and dignitaries heard a sharp snapping noise, followed by a visible drop in the statue’s upper section: the sculpted replica of Suzuki’s signature game bat had split clean off. The 52-year-old Hall of Famer, who was on hand for the ceremony, reacted with immediate good humor, pointing at the broken bat in amused disbelief before breaking into a hearty laugh that quickly diffused any awkwardness among the crowd. The lighthearted incident came exactly one year after Suzuki received one of the highest honors in North American baseball, earning near-unanimous induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, capping a trailblazing 28-year professional career that spanned leagues in both Japan and the United States. After moving from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball to Major League Baseball in 2001, Suzuki spent 12 of his 18 MLB seasons with the Mariners, cementing his legacy as one of the franchise’s most iconic players before brief stints with the New York Yankees and Miami Marlins. He returned to Seattle for his final two seasons before retiring in 2019. The statue itself captures Suzuki in his iconic 2001 rookie season right fielder uniform, posed in his recognizable batting stance. Speaking to reporters after the incident, Suzuki shared a fun behind-the-scenes detail of the statue’s creation: sculptor Lou Cella had asked him to model the original 2001 uniform for reference photos, and the legend said he was pleased to discover he could still fit into the two-decade-old uniform years after his retirement. Mariners CEO John Stanton, who helped pull the tarp off the monument that would lead to the broken bat, praised Suzuki’s relentless commitment to the sport before the mishap, telling the crowd that the outfielder’s meticulous approach to preparation and play made him fully deserving of the everlasting honor the statue represents. Far from hiding the accidental break, the Mariners organization leaned into the humor of the moment. On social media, the team posted a playful joke about the incident, writing “Breaking: We’ve updated tonight’s Ichiro Replica Statue giveaway” alongside a photo of a mini figurine that also featured a broken bat matching the full-size monument. Crews worked quickly to repair the damage, and the statue was fully restored in time for the Mariners’ Friday night matchup against the Houston Astros, allowing fans to take in the tribute as planned after the morning’s unexpected joke. Over his legendary career, Suzuki rewrote the MLB record book: one of his most notable achievements came in 2004, when he broke an 84-year-old longstanding record for most hits in a single regular season, notching 262 hits — five more than the previous record set by baseball icon George Sisler back in 1920. The moment of unexpected comedy during the unveiling has already become a memorable add-on to Suzuki’s legacy, with fans and the team embracing the unplanned moment as a uniquely human tribute to one of baseball’s most beloved figures.

11 4 月, 2026
Artemis crew home safely after greatest journey in a generation

After a groundbreaking nine-day journey further from Earth than any human crew has ever traveled, NASA’s Artemis II mission four-person team has completed a flawless re-entry and safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, bringing humanity one giant step closer to returning astronauts to the lunar surface.

The mission, which circled the Moon, closed its final chapter when the European Space Agency-built service module — the component that supplied power and propulsion for Orion throughout its deep space trek — separated from the crew capsule at 19:33 EDT (00:33 BST). What followed was the highest-stakes phase of the entire voyage: atmospheric re-entry, a maneuver that demanded near-perfect precision to avoid catastrophic outcomes.

As the capsule Integrity, named by the crew, plunged into Earth’s upper atmosphere at over 24,000 miles per hour, its heatshield was exposed to temperatures reaching half the surface temperature of the Sun. Extreme heat triggered a six-minute communications blackout between the capsule and mission control in Houston, a period that left thousands of engineers and flight controllers holding their breath. When Commander Reid Wiseman’s voice cut through the silence with the words, “Houston, Integrity here. We hear you loud and clear,” celebrations broke out across the control room. Shortly after, the capsule’s red-and-white parachutes deployed perfectly, guiding Integrity to a bullseye splashdown that NASA commentator Rob Navias called a flawless end to the historic voyage.

The successful re-entry was no accident. Following the 2022 uncrewed Artemis I test flight, engineers discovered unexpected damage to Orion’s heatshield, sparking widespread concerns about crew safety on the first crewed mission. To address this risk, teams redesigned the re-entry trajectory, a change that models predicted would cut thermal stress on the heatshield. Artemis II marked the first in-flight test of this adjusted return path, and while full thermal data analysis is still ongoing, the safe arrival of the crew confirms the engineering adjustment worked as intended.

Once the capsule settled in the ocean, recovery teams carefully extracted the crew: Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The four were airlifted to the USS John P Murtha for initial medical checks, and photographs from the recovery ship show the crew smiling, chatting, and posing for photos as they began their recovery back to Earth gravity. They will be flown to Houston on Saturday to reunite with their families, though NASA has not yet announced a date for their first public appearance.

Flight Director Rick Henfling shared at a post-splashdown press conference that the entire team felt a mix of intense anxiety and steady confidence through the re-entry process. “We all breathed a sigh of relief once the (capsule’s) side hatch opened up,” he said. “The flight crew is happy and healthy and ready to come home to Houston.”

Acting NASA associate administrator Lori Glaze heaped praise on the crew, highlighting both their individual capabilities and the exceptional teamwork they displayed throughout the mission. “I think they really brought an amazing sense of what we were trying to achieve,” she said. “It was a mission for all of humanity.”

NASA associate administrator Anit Kshatriya emphasized that the perfect re-entry trajectory was not a stroke of luck, but the product of relentless work by thousands of aerospace professionals. “The team hit it, that is not luck, it is 1,000 people doing their jobs,” he noted.

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed the crew home in a public statement, calling the entire 10-day mission “spectacular” and reaffirming a standing invitation for the crew to visit the White House.

This safe return marks a critical milestone for NASA’s broader Artemis Program, which was launched to resume human lunar exploration for the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972, build a permanent outpost on the Moon, and lay the groundwork for the first crewed mission to Mars. With Artemis II’s success confirming that Orion’s hardware, navigation systems, and crew operations function as intended in deep space, the program can now move forward to its next phases.

Under the plan laid out by new NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, the next mission, Artemis III, has been redesigned as an Earth-orbit test flight to practice rendezvous and docking procedures with lunar landers built by SpaceX and Blue Origin, and is currently scheduled for mid-2027. The first crewed lunar landing, Artemis IV, is targeted for 2028, though some industry analysts have raised questions about whether that timeline can be met. While today’s successful homecoming does not yet put human boots back on the lunar surface, it lays a solid foundation for the ambitious work ahead — even as the hardest challenges of landing humans on the Moon still lie ahead.

10 4 月, 2026
NASA’s Artemis II splashes down off southern US California coast

In a landmark moment marking humanity’s return to crewed lunar exploration after more than half a century, four astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission have completed their 10-day voyage around the moon and touched down safely off the California coast, the U.S. space agency confirmed.

The mission’s Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at approximately 17:07 local time on Friday (00:07 GMT Saturday), roughly 96 kilometers off the coast of San Diego, according to NASA’s official mission updates. This successful return caps a milestone journey: it is the first crewed lunar mission launched by the United States since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission lifted off from the moon in 1972, ending the first era of human lunar landings.

Shortly after the capsule completed its splashdown, Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman announced that all four members of the crew are in good condition, easing any post-mission health concerns that followed the high-speed atmospheric reentry. The successful conclusion of Artemis II paves the way for the upcoming Artemis III mission, which plans to land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface, advancing NASA’s long-term goals of establishing a sustainable human presence on the moon and preparing for future crewed missions to Mars.

10 4 月, 2026
AI creates opportunities for clean energy collaboration

The rapid, explosive expansion of artificial intelligence across global industries has generated an unforeseen chance for the world’s two largest economies — the United States and China — to join forces on advancing clean energy development, a partnership that industry leaders argue would deliver widespread benefits to both nations and the entire global economy. As AI adoption accelerates, the global rollout of large-scale data centers and skyrocketing demand for high-performance computing have pushed energy access and grid management to the forefront of constraints limiting further AI growth. Against this shifting landscape, industry observers note that the complementary strengths of the U.S. and Chinese clean energy sectors make cross-border collaboration not just a possible path forward, but a logical one.

Ramkumar Krishnan, a seasoned cleantech entrepreneur and technologist with more than two decades of experience working in clean energy and emerging advanced technologies, shared his perspective with China Daily in San Francisco, emphasizing the universal nature of clean energy innovation. “Technologies and products that are used, whether it’s in the US or in China or in other parts of Asia, they’re all very similar,” Krishnan explained. “There are many ways that I think technology is a connecting piece that brings all nations together, because we all need technology to solve problems.”

China’s enormous scale in power generation gives it a unique edge in global clean energy collaboration, according to official data from China’s National Energy Administration. The country’s annual total power output now exceeds 10 trillion kilowatt-hours — more than double the total annual power production of the United States, and outstripping the combined power consumption of the European Union, Russia, India and Japan. That massive production and deployment footprint has allowed China to build specialized experience and robust energy infrastructure that other nations can draw from, Krishnan said, especially as countries work to build smarter grid management systems capable of meeting the huge, consistent power demands of modern AI data centers.

Krishnan highlighted that renewable energy technologies offer a key advantage in meeting rapidly growing power needs, thanks to their far faster deployment timelines compared to traditional large-scale fossil or nuclear projects. A utility-scale solar farm, for example, can be built and connected to the grid in 18 months or less, while nuclear or large hydropower projects often require a decade or more to reach completion. “Bringing the right portfolio of solutions that can help accelerate the adoption of energy, and bringing new energy, that could be another area that we can address the demand that we have from AI,” Krishnan noted.

For the United States, the primary energy challenge tied to AI growth lies in unlocking greater efficiency from the nation’s existing power generation and transmission capacity. Krishnan pointed out that the U.S. grid currently holds large amounts of excess generation capacity, but much of this capacity remains underutilized, either because it is not consistently available or because surplus capacity is concentrated in specific regional pockets. “How do we actually intelligently manage that? That’s an area of pretty strong interest — how do we model how energy is used, so that we can utilize that excess capacity in different places, whether it’s industries, EV charging stations,” he explained.

Notably, AI itself may hold part of the solution to the energy constraints it has created, Krishnan argued. Advanced AI systems can power far more dynamic, intelligent energy management platforms that are capable of balancing variable renewable energy supply with rapidly shifting demand from data centers and other energy-intensive end users.

One Chinese clean energy firm is already moving to turn this collaborative opportunity into tangible cross-border partnerships. GCL Group, a major Chinese clean energy service provider that has already developed utility-scale power projects across California, Colorado and New York, is actively pursuing partnerships with U.S. artificial intelligence companies to deliver tailored energy solutions for the rapid expansion of global AI infrastructure.

During a recent visit to Silicon Valley, GCL Group chairman Zhu Gongshan outlined the growing urgency for cross-sector collaboration. “Computing demands of generative AI are driving explosive growth in the global AI data center market, while putting mounting pressure on power supplies worldwide,” Zhu said. “As demand for computing capacity surges, energy is emerging as one of the biggest bottlenecks to AI development.”

10 4 月, 2026
California governor candidate Eric Swalwell denies sexual assault allegations

The 2026 California gubernatorial race has been thrown into sudden turmoil as leading Democratic candidate and sitting U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell is confronting multiple explosive sexual misconduct allegations from former female staffers, claims he has forcefully denied as false, politically timed attacks.

The first public accusation surfaced Friday in reporting from *The San Francisco Chronicle*, coming from an anonymous former employee who worked in Swalwell’s Castro Valley district office. The woman told the outlet that inappropriate behavior began almost immediately after she was hired, with Swalwell making unwanted sexual comments, soliciting sexual encounters, and sending unsolicited sexual messages. The most serious allegation dates back to September 2019, when she says she woke up naked in Swalwell’s hotel room with only fragmented memory of the previous night. Five years later, after she had left Swalwell’s staff, the woman reported a second incident at a gala where she recalled pushing Swalwell away after he advanced on her, and woke up the next morning with physical signs of sexual trauma. Her account has been corroborated by contemporaneous text messages she shared with friends at the time of the alleged incident, as well as testimony from her former boyfriend, who told the Chronicle he encouraged her to file a police report.

Hours after the Chronicle’s initial report, CNN published additional accusations from four more former female staffers, all alleging varying degrees of sexual misconduct from Swalwell. The outlet also confirmed that Swalwell’s legal team had sent cease-and-desist letters to two of the accusers just one day before the first allegations became public.

In an official statement released Friday, Swalwell pushed back hard against all claims, framing the allegations as a last-minute smear campaign timed to derail his campaign just months ahead of the state’s Democratic primary. “These allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the front-runner for governor,” he wrote. The congressman, who has built a 20-year public service career as a prosecutor and federal legislator, emphasized his long record of advocating for and protecting women, adding that he would “defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action.” He also noted that his immediate focus would be on supporting his wife and children while pushing back against what he called lies targeting his years of public service.

The accusations have prompted immediate calls from top California Democratic figures for Swalwell to suspend his gubernatorial campaign. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries was among the first high-profile party members to urge Swalwell to step aside, and he was quickly joined by other prominent state Democrats including Senator Adam Schiff and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In her public statement, Pelosi argued that “this extremely sensitive matter must be appropriately investigated with full transparency and accountability. As I discussed with Congressman Swalwell, it is clear that is best done outside of a gubernatorial campaign.”

California’s Democratic primary is scheduled for June 2, where party voters will select their nominee for the November general election. Given California’s heavy Democratic lean, the winner of the primary is widely expected to secure the governorship in the fall general election. As of now, Swalwell remains in the race, but the growing pressure from within his own party has thrown his campaign’s future into question ahead of the critical primary vote.

10 4 月, 2026
Trump administration unveils 250-foot ‘Triumphal Arch’ design

A new controversial urban and memorial proposal has moved into the formal review stage in the United States’ capital, as former President Donald Trump’s administration has unveiled detailed architectural renderings for a 76-meter-tall triumphal arch monument, a project that has already sparked debate over its scope, cost, and place in Washington D.C.’s existing monument landscape.

In a post shared to his social platform Truth Social on Friday, Trump lavished praise on the proposed structure, which has been nicknamed the “Arc de Trump” by observers. He claimed it would become “the GREATEST and MOST BEAUTIFUL Triumphal Arch, anywhere in the World”, adding that it would stand as a lasting, positive addition to the capital for generations of American visitors to enjoy.

Administration officials confirmed this week that formal planning documents have been submitted to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the federal body tasked with reviewing federal projects and public art in the nation’s capital. Notably, the commission is currently staffed with several appointees aligned with Trump, and the panel is scheduled to vote on the proposal during its upcoming meeting next week.

If approved and constructed, the monument would surpass two of Washington D.C.’s most iconic landmarks in height: the United States Capitol Building and the Lincoln Memorial. Preliminary renderings released by the White House reveal a gold-accented design: prominent gold lettering reading “One Nation Under God” will adorn the main arch, the structure will be crowned by two golden eagles framing a gilded winged statue of Lady Liberty, and four golden lion statues will stand guard at the monument’s base.

In a formal statement, White House press secretary Davis Ingle framed the project as a tribute to American service members and national history. He argued that the arch will improve the visitor experience for guests arriving at Arlington National Cemetery, serving as a permanent visual reminder of the sacrifices made by American service members over the nation’s 250-year history, sacrifices that have allowed current generations to enjoy the country’s freedoms.

Planned to be sited along the approach to Washington D.C. from Arlington National Cemetery, welcoming visitors crossing Memorial Bridge into the capital, the arch is modeled after Paris’ famous Arc de Triomphe, a design influence Trump made public when he first announced the project last year. It is one of several high-profile initiatives Trump has pushed forward to reshape Washington D.C.’s public landscape to align with his personal vision. Another of these projects, a planned expansion of the White House ballroom, is currently tied up in ongoing litigation, putting that work on indefinite hold.

One major unanswered question remains around the project: the Trump administration has not released any details about the total construction cost or a formal funding plan for the arch. Trump has previously suggested that unused funds allocated for his fully financed White House ballroom project could be diverted to cover the arch’s costs, but no concrete budget or funding timeline has been made public.

10 4 月, 2026