Por Eric Bradner, CNN

La candidatura del representante Eric Swalwell a la gobernación de California se tambaleaba este viernes, después de que su campaña fue retirada de la principal plataforma de recaudación de fondos del Partido Demócrata y destacados miembros de la formación política le retiraron su apoyo y le instaron a abandonar la contienda tras las acusaciones de conducta sexual inapropiada.

La expresidenta de la Cámara de Representantes, Nancy Pelosi, declaró haberle pedido a Swalwell que abandonara su candidatura, y el líder de la minoría demócrata en la Cámara, Hakeem Jeffries, le instó a retirarse.

El senador de California, Adam Schiff, y el de Arizona, Ruben Gallego, ambos aliados de larga data, anunciaron que le retiraban su apoyo Swalwell.

El copresidente de la campaña de Swalwell, el representante Jimmy Gomez, anunció su renuncia al cargo.

Courtni Pugh, una de las principales asesoras y enlace de Swalwell con los sindicatos, declaró a CNN que había abandonado la campaña “en cuanto supe la gravedad de las acusaciones”.

Varios otros miembros del personal renunciaron a la campaña el viernes, y los que permanecen están buscando otros empleos, según una fuente con conocimiento del asunto.

Un portavoz de Californians for a Fighter, un grupo de gasto independiente que apoya a Swalwell, declaró: “Ante las graves acusaciones, el grupo suspende inmediatamente su actividad de campaña”.

Además, ActBlue, la plataforma de recaudación de fondos fundamental para las campañas demócratas, publicó en línea que su campaña no aceptaba donaciones.

El gobernador de California, Gavin Newsom, no pidió de inmediato a Swalwell que se retirara, pero declaró: “A medida que seguimos conociendo más detalles, estas acusaciones de múltiples fuentes son profundamente preocupantes y deben tomarse en serio”.

Mientras tanto, varios de los rivales de Swalwell en la contienda por la gobernación le pidieron que se retirara tras los informes de CNN y el San Francisco Chronicle en los que varias mujeres acusan a Swalwell de conducta sexual inapropiada.

La presión sobre Swalwell, con la rápida sucesión de nuevas declaraciones que lo denuncian, aumenta a medida que las acusaciones agitan una contienda electoral muy abierta a pocas semanas de que los votantes comiencen a emitir sus votos.

Los candidatos compiten en unas primarias no partidistas en las que participan media docena de demócratas prominentes y dos republicanos destacados.

Solo los dos candidatos más votados, independientemente de su partido, pasarán a las elecciones generales.

Swalwell publicó un video el viernes por la noche en el que afirmaba que las acusaciones de agresión sexual en su contra son “completamente falsas”.

“No pretendo en absoluto que sea perfecto ni un santo. Ciertamente he cometido errores de juicio en el pasado, pero esos errores son asunto mío y de mi esposa, y a ella le pido disculpas sinceramente por haberla puesto en esta situación”, manifestó. “También les pido disculpas si en algún momento les he hecho dudar de su apoyo, pero creo que saben quién soy”.

Swalwell no se pronunció directamente sobre el estado de su campaña.

“Este fin de semana voy a pasar tiempo con mi familia y amigos”, agregó, “y agradezco a quienes se han puesto en contacto conmigo

By Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — As Todd Blanche takes the reins at the Justice Department, a federal judge is set to decide whether controversial remarks made last year by the now-acting attorney general should lead to the unravelling of one of the Trump administration’s marquee criminal cases.

Blanche’s public statements about human smuggling charges brought against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the US wrongly deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador, have for months frustrated prosecutors’ ability to bring the case to trial as Abrego Garcia has asserted that he’s being vindictively targeted.

A judge is poised to decide at any time whether to use those comments to dismiss the charges. But if doesn’t toss out the charges, he could decide to summon Blanche to his courtroom in Nashville, Tennessee, to answer questions under oath about the department’s motivation for criminally pursuing Abrego Garcia.

The situation underscores how public missteps by the Justice Department’s top brass have the potential to lead to major real-world consequences for an agency that is of particular interest to President Donald Trump.

When Pam Bondi was attorney general, her inaccurate comments on Epstein landed her in hot water more than once – most notably when she suggested on Fox News she had a list of names of men who were clients of Jeffrey Epstein.

“The judge’s determination as to the truthfulness of Blanche’s statements takes on extra importance now that Blanche is the acting attorney general and, potentially, a candidate for the permanent job,” said Elie Honig, a CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor.

“If the judge finds that Blanche’s statements support a finding of vindictive prosecution, that’ll be a black eye for Blanche, and for DOJ, and will impact his credibility,” Honig added.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The Abrego Garcia case has been a sore spot for the Trump administration since he was deported in error last March to his home country of El Salvador. Courts at every level of the federal judiciary said the mistake needed to be corrected, yet officials spent months resisting demands that they bring back to Maryland the father of three whom the US government claims is a dangerous member of the MS-13 gang.

He was finally flown back to the US in June after federal prosecutors in Tennessee secured a pair of human smuggling charges against him that stemmed from a traffic stop in the state years earlier.

The day officials announced Abrego Garcia’s return, Blanche told Fox News that the Justice Department started probing Abrego Garcia after a judge in Maryland both concluded that the administration “had no right to deport him” and accused officials “of doing something wrong” in its approach to him.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers seized on those words as they pressed the judge overseeing his case, Waverly Crenshaw, to dismiss the two charges based on their contention that the charges were brought as a vindictive prosecution. A pair of rulings from the judge last year showed that he was leaning toward doing just that.

The appointee of former President Barack Obama said in October that the burden was on the government to fend off a presumption that officials only reopened a years-old probe into Abrego Garcia, and subsequently asked a gr

By Jake McGowan, CNN

(CNN) — For the price of a dinner in Paris, somebody will soon walk away with a Picasso valued at more than $1 million.

The “1 Picasso for 100 euros” raffle offers entrants the chance to take home the artist’s 1941 gouache “Tête de Femme.” The price of a ticket is — as the name of the contest suggests — 100 euros, or about $116.

A total of 120,000 tickets are available for the drawing on April 14. Proceeds will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, which supports clinical research into the disease across Europe.

This is the third edition of the campaign. The first “1 Picasso for 100 euros” was held in 2013, with funds donated to the preservation of Tyre, a historic city in Southern Lebanon. A second edition in 2020 supported clean water and hygiene programs during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Olivier Widmaier Picasso, grandson of the legendary Spanish artist, told CNN’s Paula Newton that his grandfather created “Tête de Femme” in the same studio where he painted his masterpiece “Guernica.”

He said he believed the work is being undervalued. “It’s worth much more than $1 million,” Widmaier Picasso said, “so it will be really a big prize.”

Picassos have fetched staggering sums at auction in the past. “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)” sold for more than $179 million in 2015.

The Opera Gallery, which donated the painting, says Pablo Picasso was in Paris when he painted “Tête de Femme.” World War II was raging across Europe and much of France was under German occupation.

“Tête de Femme” is about 15 inches tall and 10 inches wide. The woman’s expression, painted in different shades of gray, is intentionally distorted in Picasso’s signature Cubist style. The Opera Gallery says the gouache reflects a moment of introspection and concentrated studio work for the artist.

Widmaier Picasso says that a friend of his came up with the “1 Picasso for 100 euros” initiative.

“She thought it was a modern vision of charity by offering people the option to get a real artwork of my grandfather and to participate in humanitarian operations,” he said.

Widmaier Picasso believes his grandfather would support “1 Picasso for 100 euros.”

“My grandfather was a pioneer in many ways,” he said. “I think that he was always very interested in participating in new things. I would say that today he would have been interested in video or maybe in artificial intelligence.”

Widmaier Picasso says whoever wins “Tête de Femme” is free to do whatever they would like with it. The winner of the first contest, for example, decided to display their prize in a museum.

“Anyone can do what they want,” he said. “They can keep it in the living room, they can show it in an exhibition — or they can resell it.”

Widmaier Picasso said his grandfather would agree with letting the winner decide, because that’s how he operated.

He said his grandmother, Marie-Thérèse Walter, who was only 17 years old when Picasso began a romantic relationship with her, was showered with art. The artist was in his mid-forties at the time, married with a young son.

Marie-Thérèse Walter’s features appeared in Picasso’s work over the next decade. Widmaier Picasso says his grandfather repaid her for the years of inspiration.

“When my grandfather was giving artworks, it was forever,” he said. “It was a decision – you do what you want with it. Pablo gave a lot of artworks to his lady, and she kept everything until she died. So I’m offering all options.”

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Análisis por David Goldman y Alicia Wallace, CNN

Esto es algo que ningún estadounidense quiere oír: los precios están subiendo de nuevo y la inflación, que nos resulta incómodamente alta, podría acompañarnos durante bastante tiempo.

La inflación ha sido un lastre para la economía estadounidense desde 2021, y aunque el aumento de precios se ha moderado drásticamente en los últimos años, el problema persiste: la inflación aún no ha vuelto a los niveles prepandémicos y los estadounidenses todavía no se han adaptado a los precios más altos.

Por eso, el costo de vida sigue siendo la principal preocupación de los votantes en todas las encuestas.

Es casi seguro que esta crisis del petróleo no se traducirá en la inflación del 9,1 %, la más alta en cuatro décadas, que Estados Unidos sufrió dolorosamente en 2022.

Sin embargo, diferencias clave entre la situación actual y la de hace cuatro años podrían hacer que este último repunte inflacionario provocado por la guerra sea muy difícil de sobrellevar.

La economía estadounidense ha demostrado una resiliencia extraordinaria a pesar de todos los desafíos que ha enfrentado en esta década: una pandemia, dos guerras, una crisis inflacionaria histórica, aranceles… Es difícil desestabilizar a un gigante de US$ 31 billones.

Por eso, la mayoría de los economistas coinciden en que la crisis del petróleo derivada de la guerra con Irán probablemente no desemboque en una recesión.

Pero la economía no necesita estar en recesión para volverse dolorosa. Basta con preguntar a los millones de estadounidenses de bajos y medianos ingresos que han tenido dificultades para llegar a fin de mes en los últimos años.

A diferencia de 2022, cuando las cuentas de ahorro aún contaban con el respaldo de los estímulos gubernamentales, una moratoria de emergencia en el pago de la deuda estudiantil y otras medidas de seguridad relacionadas con la pandemia, en 2026 muchos estadounidenses están pidiendo dinero prestado para subsistir, y cada vez les resulta más difícil mantenerse al día con esos pagos.

En febrero, la tasa de ahorro de los estadounidenses (ahorro como porcentaje de los ingresos después de impuestos) fue del 4 %, según los últimos datos del Departamento de Comercio.

En febrero de 2020, esa tasa era del 7,5 %. Y antes del repunte inflacionario de la pandemia, esos ahorros estaban bien abultados (en parte debido a los pagos de estímulo federales, las refinanciaciones y una drástica reducción del gasto): la tasa de ahorro era del 21, 6% en marzo de 2021, cuando la inflación comenzaba a acelerarse.

“Los hogares ahora tienen menos margen de maniobra que hace dos o tres años”, declaró Augustine Faucher, economista jefe de PNC Financial Services Group, en una entrevista con CNN. “Eso significa que esta mayor inflación tendrá un impacto más fuerte de lo que lo habría tenido en otras circunstancias”.

A esto se suma el aumento de los precios: un mercado inmobiliario paralizado, restricciones a la inmigración que han exacerbado la escasez de servicios de guardería y atención médica, la eliminación de servicios sociales clave y aranceles históricos… es mucho lo que la gente tiene que soportar.

Ahora, sumemos el aumento vertiginoso de los precios de la gasolina. Eso está llevando a algunos al límite.

A pesar de lo mucho que los estadounidenses odian esta economía, ha tenido un aspecto positivo: el crecimiento promedio anual de los salarios ha superado la tasa media de inflación durante aproximadamente tres años consecutivos.

Algunos economistas, entre ellos el presidente de la Reserva Federal, Jerome Powell, argu

By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — Back on July 14, 2023, Rex Heuermann was in tears.

Heuermann, a New York-based architect with no criminal record, had just spent the night in jail following his arrest in the notorious Gilgo Beach serial killings on Long Island. He was being accused of three murders, and prosecutors said he was the “prime suspect” in a fourth killing.

He pleaded not guilty, and his defense attorney Michael J. Brown relayed to the media how his client was doing.

“The only thing I can tell you that he did say, as he was in tears, was ‘I didn’t do this,’” Brown said.

Exactly 1,000 days after his arrest, Heuermann, 62, showed no signs of emotional distress as he addressed a Suffolk County courtroom packed with media, victims’ families and uniformed officials Wednesday.

He calmly and coolly pleaded guilty to seven murder charges and admitted he killed an eighth woman. He said he fatally strangled all eight women and discarded their remains on Long Island from 1993 to 2010. He said “good morning” to the prosecutor and answered with a simple “Yes” or “Yes, your honor” to questions about what he did to the women.

“Are you pleading guilty, voluntarily, of your own free will?” State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei asked.

“Yes,” Heuermann responded.

The path from that teary denial to Wednesday’s guilty plea was paved by the ongoing investigative efforts of police, four added murder charges from prosecutors, the judge’s “monumental” ruling on DNA evidence and the desires of the victims’ families.

Ultimately, though, it was up to Heuermann himself.

“There came a point in this defense where Rex said, ‘I want to plead guilty,’” Brown said outside court Wednesday.

A cold case to an arrest

The guilty plea effectively ends a case that began back in 2010, when investigators discovered the remains of four women who had been bound by a belt or tape, wrapped in burlap and discarded in a remote area of Gilgo Beach, along Ocean Parkway. The “Gilgo Four,” as they became known, had gone missing between 2007 to 2010 and were all young women who did sex work.

The horrific discovery spurred a wider search on Long Island over the following year – nearly a dozen bodies were found in all – and raised fears of a serial killer on the loose.

But the case went cold for over a decade, frustrating some victims’ families who felt investigators were not taking the case seriously because of the victims’ line of work.

Some officials don’t exactly disagree with that criticism of the early investigation.

“There might have been some things that we could have done better,” then-Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said in 2023.

Speaking to the media Wednesday, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney derided past officials who he said would “go out to Gilgo Beach, and all you guys follow, and they’re walking along the beach, looking for clues, presumably – I don’t know what the heck they’re doing.”

Harrison and Tierney said they took a different tack. In February 2022, Harrison announced a multiagency task force, including state police and the FBI, to reexamine the killings.

The task force was intentionally quiet and did not do Gilgo Beach media events, Tierney said, because they wanted the suspect to put down their guard.

“We didn’t say, ‘Hey, it’s a slow day, let’s toss Gilgo in the media pool to