Story by Reuters

Around 250 people were missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the ​Andaman Sea, the United Nations’ refugee and migration ‌agencies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

The UN agencies said the trawler carrying around 250 men, women and children reportedly ​sank due to heavy winds, rough seas and overcrowding. ​It had departed from Teknaf in southern Bangladesh ⁠and was bound for Malaysia.

“This tragedy highlights the devastating ​human cost of protracted displacement and the continued absence ​of durable solutions for the Rohingya,” said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Organization for Migration.

For years, many ​of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority have embarked on rickety wooden ​boats to try to reach neighbouring countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, ‌in ⁠a bid to flee persecution in Myanmar or overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh.

The agencies called on the international community to step up and sustain funding for lifesaving assistance for ​Rohingya refugees in ​Bangladesh as ⁠well as support for Bangladeshi host communities.

In 2017, Myanmar’s armed forces launched an offensive that ​forced at least 730,000 Rohingya from their ​homes and ⁠into neighbouring Bangladesh, where they recounted killings, mass rape and arson. A UN fact-finding mission concluded the 2017 military ⁠offensive ​had included “genocidal acts”.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has denied ​genocide, and says the UN fact-finding mission was not objective or reliable.

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By Casey Tolan, Kyung Lah, CNN

(CNN) — A woman on Tuesday accused Rep. Eric Swalwell of sexually assaulting her, saying at a news conference that the congressman raped her in 2018 at a Los Angeles-area hotel.

Lonna Drewes and her lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said they planned to report the assault to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Bloom declined to share detailed corroboration of Drewes’ claims, which CNN could not independently verify, saying that evidence would be shared with law enforcement authorities first.

In a statement late on Tuesday, the sheriff’s department said its Special Victims Bureau is now investigating the allegations of a woman who said Swalwell sexually assaulted her in 2018 in West Hollywood.

“The investigation remains in its preliminary stages and is ongoing,” the department said in the statement.

Swalwell, who represented a San Francisco Bay Area congressional seat, was a leading Democratic candidate for California governor until CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle published stories Friday documenting claims of sexual misconduct against him.

In the following days, Swalwell dropped out of the governor’s race and resigned his congressional seat. He has denied that he ever had nonconsensual sex and said he would fight those allegations, but apologized to his family and constituents for “mistakes in judgment.”

Sara Azari, a lawyer for Swalwell, said in a statement Tuesday that “Swalwell categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation of sexual misconduct and assault that has been leveled against him.”

A former staffer for Swalwell previously told CNN that the congressman raped her in 2024, and several years earlier had nonconsensual sexual contact with her while she was heavily intoxicated. Multiple other women have told CNN that Swalwell sent them unsolicited nude photos of himself and other sexually explicit messages.

Drewes, who was working as a model and an entrepreneur at the time, said she met Swalwell socially in 2018, and that he offered to connect her with Silicon Valley investors who could support the fashion company she owned. Drewes said she was considering running for the Beverly Hills City Council, and the two also talked about politics.

On the third occasion they met, Drewes said she believed that Swalwell “drugged my drink.”

She said that she and Swalwell were supposed to go to a political event together, but he said he needed to go to his hotel room to get paperwork.

“When I arrived at his hotel room, I was already incapacitated, and I couldn’t move my arms from my body,” she said. “He raped me and he choked me, and while he was choking me I lost consciousness and I thought I died.”

Drewes said that she did not report the alleged assault to police or receive a rape kit at the time it occurred, but added that “I disclosed the assault to the people closest to me.”

“My delay in taking action against Eric was driven by fear, n

By Stephen Collinson, CNN

(CNN) — It’s not their war. But it’s becoming their political and economic nightmare.

World leaders who opposed the US-Israeli attack on Iran are being torn between Donald Trump’s ire at their failure to join the conflict and electorates who are deeply hostile to the war and America’s president.

Their dilemma is shifting the dynamic between the US and its allies. Leaders who once tried to appease and flatter the world’s most powerful man are now daring to criticize him and seeking distance. They are doing so not just out of antipathy to American foreign policy, but also because of war-related pressures threatening the livelihoods of their people, and therefore their own governments and careers.

Even leaders who tried to shape Trump’s second-term behavior are reacting to his contempt. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Monday said Trump’s attacks on Pope Leo XIV were “unacceptable.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose friendship with Trump shattered over the war, said last week he was “fed up” that Britons were facing higher energy bills because of Trump’s actions.

Leaders are reacting to war consequences they can’t control, epitomized by an International Monetary Fund warning Tuesday that the world is trending toward an “adverse” scenario of only 2.5% growth this year, down from 3.4% in 2025.

Countries reliant on Middle East gas and oil supplies could fare worse. The IMF downgraded its growth forecast for Britain to 0.8% in 2026, down from a previous projection of 1.3%. That would be a disaster for Starmer’s imperiled government, which has failed to honor its pledge to reignite the economy.

Another key US ally, Japan, is also under duress because it relies on Middle Eastern energy. Higher shipping costs are pushing prices higher and threatening a modest rise in wages. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi never expected to face such headwinds soon after her historic election victory in February.

Even before the Iran war, Trump was deeply unpopular in many allied nations. A Pew Research survey last year showed the president’s approval ratings in more than a dozen countries at 35% or below. His approval was higher than former President Joe Biden in only a few countries, including Israel and Nigeria.

The disconnect does not merely represent a breach that will last through the rest of the Trump administration. It threatens the alliances that multiplied US political and economic power for decades. Trump’s antipathy to NATO, meanwhile, has left its mutual defense guarantees looking shaky even if he doesn’t decide to withdraw the US altogether.

The Trump White House has made clear in its rhetoric and foreign policy documents that it sees the application of US unilateral power as the best way to protect US interests in the 21st century. The president seems to regard NATO not as a defensive alliance but as a tool for him to advance his foreign policy interests — for instance in a war of choice in Iran. He has little tolerance for allies that rely on the US defense umbrella but refuse to join his wars.

But signing up to fight is politically impossible for many allied leaders. They face electorates that view the Iran war as unwise, unlikely to succeed and an infringement of international law. Trump’s disparagement of heavy allied war losses in t

BUELLTON, Calif. (KEYT) – A woman died after a single-car crash on Highway 166 near Riconada Ranch just before 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

A three-year-old child also needed medical transport to Marian Regional Medical Center following the crash, according to the SBCFD.

Authorities pronounced the woman dead at the scene. For more information, contact the SLO County Sheriff's Office.

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