Global Maritime Forum Says Shipping is "Off Track" on Emissions

iStock

Published Sep 25, 2024 10:29 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

The Global Maritime Forum warns that the industry is not making enough progress on decarbonization and risks "falling irreparably behind its climate goals" if it does not change course - and fast.

In a new report, the forum says that most actors across the industry are moving too slowly to meet the IMO's 2030 target of running five percent of the fleet on zero-emissions fuel. Time is running out to change course, the forum said, and the trajectory set by mid-decade will determine whether the 2030 timeline will be met or not.

The forum's report - produced in conjunction with the UCL Energy Institute, UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, and the Getting to Zero Coalition - acknowledges that multiple actors all have to play a role in the transition, not just shipowners or fuel manufacturers. But the majority of actors across the shipping "ecosystem" are not on track to meet the agreed five-percent target. 

On the fuel demand side, the much-publicized spate of new orders for methanol- and ammonia-capable vessels will only provide a quarter of the zero-emissions fuel consumption required to meet five percent target. On the fuel supply side, the capacity isn't available either, as many shipowners, suppliers and OEMs have complained. The current development pipeline for green fuel production plants will deliver less than half of the energy needed to meet the international target. 

"The 5% target is considered the critical mass at which the infrastructure, supply chains, and technology that support zero-emission fuels mature and enable exponential growth. This means if the five percent target is not achieved, it could jeopardize the industry's entire 2050 net-zero goal," warned the authors. 

13 out of 35 actions for delivering on the 2030 target are currently "off track," and several are especially important. The fuel supply pipeline is too small, though the forum reports that there are glimmers of new project development activity that could solve the shortage. Vessel demand is too low, and more green-fueled ships are needed. Funding for zero-emissions projects has slowed, and financing for fossil-fueled tonnage has increased, moving the shipping finance sector "off track." 

As others have noted, much of shipping's green transition will ultimately come down to regulatory action at IMO, where member states will soon decide whether to impose a global price on bunker fuel and set a technical standard for fuel carbon content. "In the shorter term, the outcome of negotiations in relation to GHG pricing is likely to be one of the
stronger [green fuel] signals, whereas in the long term, developments around an ambitious global fuel standard (GFS) could be more relevant," the authors concluded. 

Suicide Drone Hits Port of Eilat

IDF air defenses destroy a UAV over Eilat, Sept. 25 (IDF)

Published Sep 25, 2024 3:57 PM by The Maritime Executive

[Breaking] On Wednesday night, a suicide drone hit a target in the port of Eilat, the southernmost city in Israel. 

Images posted on social media showed one large blast at an undetermined location along the waterfront. The source of the attack is under investigation, but early accounts suggest that it may have arrived from the east - potentially suggesting attackers in Iraq, or a drone from Houthi territory diverting and then arriving from an unexpected direction. 

 

The Israeli Defense Forces reported shooting down two UAVs on Wednesday night, indicating that the attack may have had broader aims. 

 

The extent of the damage is still being assessed. 

Eilat's once-busy commercial seaport has been largely shut down by Houthi attacks on Israel-bound shipping, and occasional attempted missile strikes from Houthi territory have added an additional level of risk. Vessels arriving from the Mediterranean can offload their cargoes in Haifa or Ashdod instead, without transiting the Suez Canal to get to Eilat; vessels that would ordinarily transit to Eilat from the east, primarily ro/ros from Asia with cargoes of cars for the Israeli market, often choose to avoid the Red Sea because of the Houthi threat. 

AMERIKA

A college student lost her pregnancy. 

Then she was charged with homicide

Kelly Rissman
Wed 25 September 2024 at 1:46 pm GMT-6·5-min read


Demonstrators rally in support of abortion rights at the US Supreme Court (AFP via Getty Images)


A South Carolina State University junior suffered a pregnancy loss — then two months later, she was charged with homicide.

Amari Marsh, 23, is now speaking out about the harrowing ordeal, which her lawyers have argued was a devastating health emergency that had no business getting tied up in the court system. Her case serves as yet another example of how pregnancy is at risk of being criminalized in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade — which protected the right to an abortion — in 2022.

“I couldn’t breathe,” Marsh told KFF Health News, recalling how in 2023, still in her second trimester, she suddenly gave birth in the middle of the night in her off-campus apartment. She said she screamed and cried as blood spilled across the bathroom floor, but she never could’ve imaged the loss would result in murder charges.


Just two months before the premature birth, Marsh had gone to Planned Parenthood in Columbia, South Carolina — where abortion has been banned after about 22 weeks — to “take the Plan-C pill which would possibly cause an abortion to occur,” according to an incident report obtained by the outlet. It doesn’t detail whether she actually took the pill. The report also notes that Marsh was advised to return to the clinic for a follow-up, which she never did.

But Marsh claimed to the outlet that she never went to Planned Parenthood and never took a pill to induce abortion.

“I’ve never been in trouble. I’ve never been pulled over. I’ve never been arrested,” she said. “I never even got written up in school.”

A month later, on February 28, the college junior went to the hospital after experiencing abdominal pains, and was informed she was pregnant and that a heartbeat had been detected. Marsh felt the “energy was off,” according to the report, and returned home. In the wee hours of the next morning, she gave birth in her toilet. “I screamed because I was scared, because I didn’t know what was going on,” she told the outlet.

Her then-boyfriend called 911, and the emergency dispatcher on the line “kept telling me to take the baby out” of the toilet, Marsh said. But she refused to do that: “I couldn’t because I couldn’t even keep myself together.”

Marsh’s ordeal is a “prime example of how pregnancy loss can become a criminal investigation very quickly,” said Dana Sussman, senior vice president of nonprofit Pregnancy Justice (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

As Marsh was transported to Regional Medical Center in Orangeburg, first responders retrieved the baby from the toilet and tried to perform life saving measures, which were ultimately unsuccessful.

While at the hospital, after Marsh was told that her baby hadn’t survived, a sheriff’s office deputy in her hospital room informed her that she was being investigated “due to the nature of the incident,” but that she was “currently not in any trouble,” the report states. Marsh insisted that she “did not feel as though she did anything wrong.”

Weeks later, in mid-May, an officer informed Marsh via text that he needed to meet with her in person “before I can close the case out. I am so sorry,” KFF Health News reported.

The meeting took place on May 2, 2023. It ended in her arrest, records show. She was charged with homicide by child abuse — which can result in a sentence of 20 years to life behind bars.

But a sentencing won’t happen. This August, more than a year after she was arrested, a grand jury declined to indict her.

The arrest warrant, obtained by KFF Health News, claims that refusing to move the baby from the toilet was “a proximate cause of her daughter’s death.”

Marsh’s attorneys believe her case belongs nowhere near the court system.

“This is not a criminal matter,” Zipporah Sumpter, one of Marsh’s lawyers, told the outlet. She accused authorities of treating the college student as a criminal rather than a grieving mother.

South Carolina Democratic state Rep Seth Rose, who is also one of Marsh’s attorneys, called it a “really tragic” case. He told the outlet: “It’s our position that she lost a child through natural causes.”

Marsh’s ordeal is a “prime example of how pregnancy loss can become a criminal investigation very quickly,” Dana Sussman, senior vice president of nonprofit Pregnancy Justice, told the outlet.

“The Dobbs decision unleashed and empowered prosecutors to look at pregnant people as a suspect class and at pregnancy loss as a suspicious event,” Sussman said.

In Ohio, Brittany Watts was criminally charged with abuse of a corpse after law enforcement found the remains of a fetus stuck in her toilet in September 2023; she had been repeatedly denied medical care to treat her miscarriage due to doctors’ uncertainty over whether she could legally abort the fetus. A grand jury ultimately declined to indict her.

Marsh told KFF Health News she is still processing the harrowing series of events, and keeps daughter’s ashes on a bookshelf in her bedroom. She’s taking classes at a local community college and hopes to soon re-enroll at South Carolina State University. She aspires to become a doctor.

“Through all of this, I found my strength. I found my voice. I want to help other young women that are in my position now and will be in the future,” Marsh told the outlet. “I always had faith that God was going to be on my side, but I didn’t know how it was going to go with the justice system we have today.

ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY

Did Missouri execute an innocent man? Marcellus Williams’s furious supporters decry ‘injustice system’

Justin Rohrlich
Wed 25 September 2024 

Deacon Dave Billips, with the Office of Peace and Justice with the St. Louis Archdiocese, holds a sign as he stands with protesters holding space to halt the execution of Marcellus Williams on Sept. 24 (AP)


When the state of Missouri put Marcellus Williams to death on Tuesday night, it did so over the strenuous objections of the same prosecutor’s office that tried him for the 1998 murder of former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle.

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, along with Williams’ legal team, had moved, unsuccessfully, to have the 55-year-old’s conviction vacated based on new information they said raised questions about his identification as Gayle’s killer. At 6:01 p.m. local time, Williams was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital while his son, an up-and-coming prizefighter named Marcellus Jr., watched from the witness gallery. Nine minutes later, Williams was pronounced dead.

“There was reasonable doubt,” Obie Alexander, a staunch Williams supporter who spent nearly two decades in prison on a wrongful murder conviction, told The Independent. “How can you execute a man when there is reasonable doubt?”


No one was there from Gayle’s family, who continued to believe in Williams’s guilt up until the very end but had been pushing for his sentence to be commuted to life without parole.

In a statement issued shortly before Williams was executed, his attorney Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, said, “We must all question any system that would allow this to occur. The execution of an innocent person is the most extreme manifestation of Missouri’s obsession with ‘finality’ over truth, justice, and humanity, at any cost. Tonight, we all bear witness to Missouri’s grotesque exercise of state power. Let it not be in vain. This should never happen, and we must not let it continue.”

Afterward, Bell — who is presently running for Congress as a Democrat — took to social media with a statement of his own, writing, “Marcellus Williams should be alive today. There were multiple points in the timeline that decisions could have been made that would have spared him the death penalty. If there is even the shadow of a doubt of innocence the death penalty should never be an option. This outcome did not serve the interests of justice.”

“We must all question any system that would allow this to occur,” Williams’s attorney Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, said (AP)

Sister Helen Prejean, the anti-death penalty activist portrayed by Susan Sarandon in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking, said Williams’s execution called into question “the legitimacy of the entire legal process.” Rep. Cori Bush, Democrat of Missouri, called Williams’ execution a “depravity.” And the NAACP said Williams had been “lynched,” placing the blame directly at the feet of Missouri Gov. Michael Parson, a self-described “pro-life” Republican.

Reached by phone on Wednesday, Gayle’s former husband, Daniel, a radiologist who has since remarried, declined to comment. Marcellus Williams Jr. was unable to be reached.

The top concern Americans have about the death penalty, studies have shown, is the possibility of executing an innocent person, according to attorney Justin Brooks, a professor at University of San Diego School of Law and the founder of The California Innocence Project.

“Every time an innocent person is freed from death row, that concern is amplified,” Brooks told The Independent. “Now that 200 innocent people have been freed from death row, we can longer pretend that innocent people are not sentenced to death, nor that it has only happened a few times.”

Williams was set to be executed in January 2015 but was granted a last-minute reprieve by then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, for more DNA testing to be performed. In August 2017, he was hours away from being put to death when Greitens ordered the execution stayed after new testing techniques unavailable at the time of Gayle’s killing determined that DNA on the handle of the murder weapon could not have come from Williams. His execution on Tuesday generated global outrage largely because Parson cravenly pushed for Williams to die in the face of serious concerns about his guilt, Brooks went on.

“And of course, it is devastating to those of us in the innocence community because this time, no one was able to save him,” he said.

Joseph Amrine, who was exonerated two decades ago after spending years on death row, speaks at a rally to support Williams (AP)

Williams’ execution had one of his fiercest supporters, an exoneree who himself spent nearly two decades in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, wrestling on Wednesday with what he described as feelings of “profound, deep pain.”

At the age of 19, Obie Anthony was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole for a crime he didn’t commit. In 2011, after 17 years behind bars — which followed some 18 months in the LA County lockup — Anthony was exonerated thanks to new evidence uncovered by a team of Innocence Project lawyers. He later founded Exonerated Nation, a nonprofit that helps other exonerees find their footing upon release.

Today, Anthony, a Missouri native, splits his time between California and the St. Louis area, where he emerged in recent years as a firm believer in Williams’ innocence.

By executing Williams, “first and foremost, our presumption of innocence has been removed from the court,” Anthony told The Independent.

“Even with evidence of [Williams’] innocence, that didn’t even matter,” he said, voice shifting from outrage to deep sorrow and back again. “... Justice has been cuffed and put behind the bench. Reasonable doubt no longer matters.”

Putting Williams to death, Anthony went on, constituted “a perversion,” and, “a tragedy in all forms.” The justice system, in Williams’ case, contorted itself into “an injustice system,” according to Anthony.

“We know this is not justice,” he said. “The family members said this is not justice. The prosecutor said this is not justice. Over a million people [who signed a petition against Williams’ execution] said this is not justice… How can people stand for this?”

Was Marcellus Williams, Muslim executed in Missouri, innocent or guilty?

Evidences of innocence and guilt of Marcellus Williams struck a debate on whether the sentence should have been converted to a life in prison, which was supported by victim's family.


Williams' execution Tuesday has left others to debate whether it should have occurred. / Photo: AFP via Missouri Department of Corrections

With the end of his life approaching, Missouri death row inmate Marcellus Williams was offered an opportunity to make a final statement to the world.

His words were few — neither proclaiming innocence nor admitting guilt in the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, a social worker and former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who was stabbed 43 times during a burglary of her suburban St. Louis home. Williams instead seemed to express peace with his fate, writing simply: "All Praise Be To Allah In Every Situation!!!"

Williams' execution Tuesday has left others to debate whether it should have occurred.

Missouri's governor, attorney general and top court remain convinced of his guilt. Those who advocated for him continued to insist he was innocent. The St. Louis County prosecutor, citing lingering questions, believes Williams' sentence should have been converted to life in prison. Gayle's family, though not publicly outspoken, also joined in a request to let Williams live.




What evidence points to Williams' guilt?

When Gayle was killed, items stolen from her home were later sold by Williams or found in his possession. A former girlfriend and an inmate who shared a cell with Williams also testified at his trial that he confessed to killing Gayle.

The ex-girlfriend told police that when Williams picked her up on the day of the Gayle's death, she noticed he was wearing a jacket even though it was hot outside, and that there was blood on his shirt, scratches on his neck and a laptop in his car.

She told police that when she looked in the car's trunk the next day, she found a purse that contained Gayle's identification.

When police searched Williams' car more than a year after Gayle's death, they found a St. Louis Post-Dispatch ruler and calculator that had belonged to Gayle. Police also recovered a laptop stolen from Gayle's home from a man who had bought it from Williams.

Williams' attorneys argued that the ex-girlfriend and cellmate were convicted felons who wanted part of a $10,000 reward.

Williams' former cellmate was paid a $5,000 reward. The ex-girlfriend never requested the reward, the governor's office said.

What evidence is cited for Williams' innocence?

Authorities did not find physical evidence at the crime scene linking Williams to Gayle's death.

Williams' attorneys noted that a bloody shoeprint, fingerprints and hair found at the scene did not match Williams. But a prosecutor said such tests were merely inconclusive.

The knife used in the killing also was left at the scene. A crime scene investigator testified at Williams' 2001 trial that the killer had worn gloves. But questions swirled for years about DNA testing of the knife.

The state Supreme Court cancelled Williams' scheduled execution in 2015, allowing time for further DNA testing. Just hours before Williams was again scheduled to be executed in 2017, then-governor Eric Greitens also cancelled the lethal injection amid DNA questions. Greitens appointed a board of retired judges to investigate the case. But the panel never reached a conclusion before Governor Mike Parson dissolved it in 2023.

In August, new testing revealed that DNA on the knife matched that of prosecution team members who had handled it without wearing gloves.

Without evidence pointing to anyone else, Williams' attorneys quit pursuing an innocence claim in court and refocused their arguments on alleged procedural errors, including that prosecutors had mishandled evidence and wrongly excluded a Black man from the jury based partly on race.

Why not let Williams spend life in prison?

At the time of Williams' murder trial, he already had an extensive list of burglary, robbery, theft and assault convictions in other cases. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder for Gayle's death, which in Missouri can be punishable either by death or life in prison without parole. It took jurors just 90 minutes to decide that he deserved the death penalty.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell, a Democrat who took office in 2019 and is running for Congress, cited a relatively recent Missouri law to reopen the question of Williams' guilt or innocence.

Bell struck an agreement in August with the Midwest Innocence Project, which was representing Williams, that would have let Williams enter a new, no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence of life in prison without parole. But Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey objected, and courts kept in place the death sentence.

Ultimately, the execution decision rested with Parson, who could have used gubernatorial powers to convert Williams' sentence to life imprisonment.

A clemency request submitted on Williams' behalf pleaded for mercy, noting that Gayle's family also supported life imprisonment instead of death. But Parson disagreed, explaining in his own final statement on the case: "No juror nor judge has ever found Williams' innocence claim to be credible."

SOURCE: AP

ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY

There are 5 executions set over a week's span in the US. That's the most in decades

SEAN MURPHY
Updated Tue 24 September 2024









OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Death row inmates in five states are scheduled to be put to death in the span of one week, an unusually high number of executions that defies a yearslong trend of decline in both the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S.

The first execution was carried out on Friday in South Carolina. Two more death row inmates, in Missouri and Texas, were pronounced dead Tuesday evening following executions. If the two remaining scheduled executions, in Alabama and Oklahoma, are carried out this week, it will mark the first time in more than 20 years — since July 2003 — that five were held in seven days, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.

If this week’s remaining executions are completed, the United States will have reached 1,600 executions since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, said Robin Maher, the center’s executive director.

“Two on a single day is unusual, and four on two days in the same week is also very unusual,” Maher said.

Here are some things to know about executions set this week across the country.

How did 5 executions get set for a 1-week span?

Experts say five executions being scheduled within one week is simply an anomaly that resulted from courts or elected officials in individual states setting dates around the same time after inmates exhausted their appeals.

“I'm not aware of any reason other than coincidence,” said Eric Berger, a law professor at the University of Nebraska with expertise in the death penalty and lethal injection.

Berger said some factors can result in a backlog of executions, such as a state's inability to obtain the lethal drugs necessary to carry them out, which happened in South Carolina, or a moratorium that resulted from botched executions, like what happened in Oklahoma.

South Carolina

The first of the five executions took place on Friday when South Carolina put inmate Freddie Owens to death for the 1997 killing of a convenience store clerk during a robbery. It was South Carolina's first execution in 13 years, an unintended delay caused by the inability of state prison officials to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections. To carry out executions, the state switched from a three-drug method to a new protocol of using a single sedative, pentobarbital.

Missouri

In Missouri on Tuesday evening, Marcellus Williams was put to death by lethal injection for the 1998 stabbing death of a woman in the St. Louis suburb of University City. Williams’ attorneys argued on Monday that the state Supreme Court should halt his execution over alleged procedural errors in jury selection and the prosecution’s alleged mishandling of the murder weapon. But the state’s high court rejected those arguments, and Gov. Mike Parson denied Williams’ clemency request, paving the way for his execution to proceed.

Texas

Also on Tuesday, Texas death row inmate Travis Mullis was executed by lethal injection. Mullis, a man with a long history of mental illness who has repeatedly sought to waive his right to appeal his death sentence, was sentenced to death for killing his 3-month-old son in January 2008. In a letter submitted to U.S. District Judge George Hanks in Houston, Mullis wrote in February that he had no desire to challenge his case any further and stated that “his punishment fit the crime.” The 38-year-old is the fourth inmate put to death this year in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state.

Alabama

Alabama is preparing to carry out the nation’s second execution ever using nitrogen gas on Thursday, after becoming the first state to use the new procedure in January. Alan Miller is set to die by the process in which a mask is placed over the inmate’s head that forces the inmate to inhale pure nitrogen. Miller, who was given a reprieve in 2022 after his execution was called off when officials were unable to connect an intravenous line, was sentenced to die after being convicted of killing three men during back-to-back workplace shootings in 1999.

Oklahoma

In Oklahoma, Emmanuel Littlejohn is set to receive a lethal injection on Thursday after being sentenced to die for his role in the 1992 shooting death of a convenience store owner during a robbery. Littlejohn has admitted to his role in the robbery, but claims he did not fire the fatal shot. The state's Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 last month to recommend Gov. Kevin Stitt spare Littlejohn's life, but the governor has yet to make a clemency decision.

LABOUR CONFRENCE 2024

Rayner and Reeves lead big turnout by cabinet for Labour Friends of Israel

David Maddox
Wed 25 September 2024 at 2:38 pm GMT-6·5-min read

Chancellor Rachel Reeves and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner were among five cabinet ministers to attend a Labour Party conference fringe event to show solidarity with Israel and the remaining 101 hostages held by Hamas.

Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) on Tuesday evening had one of the most significant and largest turnouts by senior ministers for the entire event, as Palestinian flag-waving protesters remained outside the conference in Liverpool all week.

It was a powerful symbolic gesture for a party where LFI has come under huge criticism from pro-Gaza supporters, and Starmer’s government has been facing demands from party members for a much more anti-Israel response to the crisis.

Labour lost MPs at the election, including frontbencher Jon Ashworth, because of the refusal to back down over support for Israel.

Angela Rayner addresses the Labour Friends of Israel group at party conference (LFI)

Israeli ambassador Tzipura Hotovely told the LFI event of how she was at home spending much of the day hiding with her family in a shelter on the day of the 7 October Hamas attacks.

She was cheered when she said: “If you believe in peace, you need to support Israel’s right to self-defence and Israel’s duty to self-defence.”

Ms Hotovely described how 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes because of attacks from Hezbollah.

She added: “For 11 months Israel gave so many chances for diplomatic solutions and we would still like to restore peace. Hezbollah didn’t want the diplomatic solution and it is about time for them to pay the price for all those who have been evacuated from towns destroyed by non-stop fighting since 8 October.”

And she asked: “Can you imagine Liverpool being evacuated for a year? You can’t imagine that. We gave a chance to diplomacy.”

She described Hamas as “monsters” who “rejected a hostage deal time after time”, and reminded those present that young children are among those who had been in captivity for 354 days.

Israel’s ambassador to the UK Tzipura Hotovely (AFP/Getty Images)

Hamas launched a deadly attack from the Gaza Strip into Israel on 7 October, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage, around half of which remain in Gaza.

The subsequent Israeli aerial and ground assault in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the latest update from the local health ministry in the Hamas-run strip, and forced more than 90 per cent of the enclave’s population to flee their homes.

The ambassador’s remarks appeared to be a response to Ms Rayner, who was standing in for Keir Starmer who was flying to the UN in New York.

She opened proceedings with a speech calling for “an immediate ceasefire from all sides” which was met with silence - but was cheered and applauded when she called for the hostages to be brought home “immediately”.

The event also became a celebration of the LFI’s role in helping change the party following the antisemitism row under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

Ms Reeves, who was vice chair of the LFI for 14 years, said in her speech: “Our party has changed for the last five years and much of it is down to people like you.

“I want to thank all of you for the part you played in changing our party. From the bottom of my heart thank you.

She added “rooting out antisemitism was a non-negotiable” precondition to join Starmer’s frontbench.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves also gave a speech at the event (PA Wire)

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden and science and digital secretary Peter Kyle, both former LFI deputy chairs, were also in attendance alongside business secretary Jonathan Reynolds.

The new LFI chair, newly elected High Peak MP Jon Pearce, made it clear he will be pushing for a crackdown on antisemitism fuelled by hatred of Israel, as well as demanding much firmer action against Iran.

He said: “The threat posed by terror groups in Israel, in Europe and here in the UK won’t be resolved until the threat posed by the Iranian regime is acknowledged and addressed. That is why we must stop by banning Iran’s terror army, the IRGC.

“We must enhance the relations between Britain and Israel because Israel is our only ally in the region which shares our liberal democratic values. We must defend liberal democratic allies against autocrats, extremists and terrorists.

“Let’s not forget the missiles Vladimir Putin is launching against Kyiv are provided by the very same regime that provides weapons to Hezbollah to fire into Galilee. The Moscow-Tehran axis is a menace to all of us, who value freedom, peace and democracy.”

The event also heard the harrowing stories of two relatives of elderly hostages still being held by the Hamas terrorist group, but the speeches also included criticism of Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to get a hostage deal and peace.

It was noted two of the UK cabinet ministers present had gone to one of the kibutzes where hostages were taken, but Mr Netanyahu has yet to make the journey himself.

Also present was Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich, and two former Labour MPs Louise Ellman and Luciana Berger who left the party during Mr Corbyn’s leadership but returned under Sir Keir.

Trump-Zelenskyy feud escalates as Republicans demand envoy’s removal

Andrew Roth in New York
Wed 25 September 2024 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant on Sunday.Photograph: AP

The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, has demanded that Ukraine fire its ambassador to Washington as the feud between Donald Trump and Volodymr Zelenskyy escalated and Republicans accused the Ukrainian leader of election interference.

In a public letter, Johnson demanded that Zelenskyy fire the Ukrainian ambassador, Oksana Markarova, over a visit to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, last week where the Ukrainian president thanked workers for providing desperately needed shells to his outgunned forces.

Johnson complained that Markarova had organised the visit to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant as a “partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats”. The event was attended by the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who has campaigned in support of Kamala Harris.


Related: Zelenskyy is pitching his ‘victory plan’ on adverse terrain

“The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because – on purpose – no Republicans were invited,” Johnson wrote in a letter on congressional letterhead addressed to the Ukrainian embassy.

“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” the letter continued. “This shortsighted and intentionally political move has caused Republicans to lose trust in Ambassador Markarova’s ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country. She should be removed from her post immediately.”

On the same day, Trump in a campaign event in North Carolina attacked Zelenskyy directly and accused him of “refusing” to negotiate a peace deal with Vladimir Putin.

“The president of Ukraine is in our country. He is making little nasty aspersions toward your favourite president, me,” Trump said. “We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal: Zelenskyy.”

The accusations against Zelenskyy came after a controversial interview with the New Yorker in which he questioned Trump’s plan to end Ukraine’s war with Russia and sharply criticized Republicans’ vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, as “too radical”.

Vance had earlier said a peace in Ukraine could entail Russia retaining the Ukrainian land it had occupied and the establishment a demilitarised zone with a heavily fortified frontline to prevent another Russian invasion.

“His message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice,” Zelenskyy said in the interview with the New Yorker. “This brings us back to the question of the cost and who shoulders it. The idea that the world should end this war at Ukraine’s expense is unacceptable. But I do not consider this concept of his a plan, in any formal sense.”

After addressing the United Nations general assembly on Wednesday, Zelenskyy is expected to travel to Washington to present his “victory plan” to Joe Biden at the White House.

In his letter, Johnson also referred to Ukrainian officials criticizing Trump and Vance in remarks to the media.

“Additionally, as I have clearly stated in the past, all foreign nations should avoid opining on or interfering in American domestic politics,” he said. “Support for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to be bipartisan, but our relationship is unnecessarily tested and needlessly tarnished when the candidates at the top of the Republican presidential ticket are targeted in the media by officials in your government.”

Other top Republicans had criticized Zelenskyy this week after his remarks about Trump and Vance were published.

“I don’t mind him going to a munitions plant thanking people for helping Ukraine. But I think his comments about JD Vance and President Trump were out of bounds,” said the Republican senator Lindsey Graham, according to US-based Punchbowl News.

“With conservatives, it’s going to hurt Ukraine,” Graham said.


House speaker wants Ukrainian ambassador fired over Zelensky’s Pennsylvania trip

Andrew Feinberg
Wed 25 September 2024

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stands near Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro during his visit to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania (REUTERS)


House Speaker Mike Johnson is demanding that Volodymyr Zelensky fire the widely respected diplomat who has represented Kyiv in Washington since 2021 after she arranged for the Ukrainian president to visit a munitions plant in a battleground state with a Democratic governor.

In a letter released by Johnson’s office on Wednesday, the Louisiana Republican accused Ambassador Oksana Markarova of interfering in the ongoing US presidential election by helping set up the trip by Zelensky to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, over the weekend.

During his visit, Zelensky inspected production lines where the 155mm artillery shells used by his country’s forces are being produced. He did so alongside the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro.

While inspecting the plant, he told workers: “It is in places like this where you can truly feel that the democratic world can prevail. Thanks to people like these — in Ukraine, in America, and in all partner countries — who work tirelessly to ensure that life is protected.”

What appears to have irked Johnson is the fact that no Republican officeholder was invited to the plant visit, along with the fact that Shapiro, who was considered a front-runner to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate before she selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, is a top surrogate for the vice president.

In his letter, the House Speaker claimed that Markarova enabled Zelensky to interfere in the election because the manufacturing plant “was in a politically contested battleground state” and the tour led by Shapiro “failed to include a single Republican because — on purpose — no Republicans were invited.”

“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference. This shortsighted and intentionally political move has caused Republicans to lose trust in Ambassador Markarova’s ability to fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country,” he wrote, adding that the veteran diplomat “should be removed from her post immediately.”

Zelensky, who is in the US to attend the UN General Assembly this week, also irked Republicans by criticizing former President Donald Trump in an interview with the New Yorker.

He said the ex-president, who was impeached for attempting to blackmail the Ukrainian leader into announcing a fake investigation into Joe Biden when he was a candidate for president in 2019, “doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how.”

Trump has frequently claimed, without evidence, that he could end the nearly three-year-old war “in 24 hours” by forcing Zelensky to make some sort of deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a known ally of the ex-president.

At a rally on Monday, he claimed Zelensky wants Democrats to win the election “so badly” and repeated the claim the next day.

Numerous Republicans have opposed US assistance to Ukraine since the war began in 2022, with some repeating Russian propaganda about Zelensky during official House proceedings.

Zelensky is set to visit Washington on Thursday, where he is scheduled to meet with Senate leaders from both parties as well as President Biden and Vice President Harris.



Top Republican wants Ukrainian ambassador to US fired, ahead of Zelenskiy visit

Press conference at the Republican National Committee in Washington

Updated Wed 25 September 2024
By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives demanded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy "immediately fire" his ambassador to the United States on Wednesday, a day before Ukraine's leader was due to visit the U.S. Congress.

Some Republicans, particularly those closest to former President Donald Trump, have been fuming over Zelenskiy's visit on Sunday to an ammunition plant in President Joe Biden's hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is one of the swing states seen as crucial to victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

During the trip, Zelenskiy appeared with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro - who has campaigned for Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris - Senator Bob Casey and U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright. All are Democrats.

"The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because – on purpose – no Republicans were invited," wrote Johnson, who is not expected to meet with Zelenskiy when the Ukrainian leader comes to Congress.

"The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference," he said.

The Ukrainian embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

TRUMP BLASTS ZELENSKIY

Trump has repeatedly criticized the Ukrainian president on the campaign trail this week.

"Those cities are gone, they’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal, Zelenskiy. There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn’t have been better than the situation you have right now," Trump said on Wednesday. "You have a country that has been obliterated, not possible to be rebuilt."

The former president also blamed Biden and Harris for Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee had already announced that it would investigate whether Zelenskiy's trip was an attempt to use a foreign leader to benefit Harris' campaign.

It is common practice for governors to meet with foreign leaders who travel to their states. In July, Zelenskiy visited a factory in Utah and was hosted by that state's Republican governor, Spencer Cox.

Additionally, a series of foreign leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have traveled to Florida, in recent months to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home. Trump won Florida by only 3 percentage points in the 2020 election, and recent polls have shown a close race there between Harris and Trump.

On Thursday, Zelenskiy is expected to thank congressional leaders for approving billions of dollars in funding for his country as it grapples with a 2-1/2-year-long Russian invasion, and to make the case for more.

After becoming speaker last year, Johnson, who had voted repeatedly against aid for Kyiv, waited until April before allowing the House to vote on Biden's October request for financial assistance for Ukraine.

However, he said on Wednesday his letter to Zelenskiy was not a threat to stop funding.

"I'm not making any threats," he told reporters.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, additional reporting by Bo Erickson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)


Speaker Johnson demands Ukrainian ambassador be fired as GOP probes Zelensky visit

Rebecca Beitsch
Wed 25 September 2024 at 1:56 pm GMT-6·4-min read


Speaker Johnson demands Ukrainian ambassador be fired as GOP probes Zelensky visit


Comments from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sparked a second day of ire from GOP figures, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) demanding he fire the country’s ambassador to the U.S., while a House panel launched an investigation after suggesting a recent appearance by Zelensky amounted to election meddling.

House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) on Wednesday morning launched an inquiry into Zelensky’s trip to Pennsylvania, suggesting a visit to a factory that supplies munitions to the country constituted a campaign stop for Vice President Harris.

Republicans cried foul over the visit Tuesday, particularly after Zelensky issued critical comments about former President Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), during a separate interview.

Zelensky visited the factory flanked by Pennsylvania Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro (D). It is common for governors to appear at such events in their state, , and other attendees included the largely Democratic officials who represent the Scranton area.

Johnson and Comer, however, said appearing with a political figure who was briefly a contender to serve as Harris’s running mate made the stop political in nature.

“The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because – on purpose – no Republicans were invited. The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” Johnson wrote Wednesday to Zelensky.

“I demand that you immediately fire Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova,” he added, writing that she can no longer “fairly and effectively serve as a diplomat in this country.”

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Democrats dismissed Johnson and Comer’s comments as another instance of the GOP turning their back on an important U.S. ally.

“As President Zelenskyy fights for freedom and the rule of law on behalf of democracies around the world, Donald Trump and his craven MAGA followers side time and again with Vladimir Putin,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight panel, said in a statement.

Zelensky’s visit was described by Pennsylvania as him making “a special trip to the Keystone State to visit the Pennsylvania workers who are playing a vital role in Ukraine’s defense.”

Zelensky’s visit to Pennsylvania mirrors a trip to Utah in July, where he met with Republican Gov. Spencer Cox and signed a memorandum of understanding with state leaders.

In both cases, state leaders expressed support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia.

While Republicans have fixated on Zelensky’s visit to the Pennsylvania, it’s an interview the Ukrainian president did that initially sparked GOP criticism.

In an interview with The New Yorker published Sunday, Zelensky called Vance “too radical” due to his views on Ukraine, and suggested the senator study World War II. Vance has called to end U.S. support for Ukraine, and for Kyiv to cede territory to Russia in a peace deal.

“The idea that the world should end this war at Ukraine’s expense is unacceptable,” Zelensky said in the interview.

Zelensky struck a more cautious tone toward Trump, saying they have had good conversations on the phone but that the GOP presidential candidate “doesn’t really know how to stop the war, even if he might think he knows how.”

Comer’s letter asks the White House, Justice Department officials and the Pentagon to provide details about any coordination about the trip, accusing the Biden administration of having “orchestrated and used government resources to make possible this apparent campaign event that resulted in the potential interference in a federal election.”

Comer’s probe comes after Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) led eight other Republicans in demanding an investigation from the inspectors general of both the Justice Department and Department of Defense seeking all federal resources dedicated to the visit.

House Oversight Democrats suggested Comer’s new probe reflects a broader effort to undermine Ukraine.

“America didn’t forget that Chairman Comer called Ukraine a foreign adversary and used the Committee to repeat and amplify Russian propaganda. It is sadly unsurprising he is once again working to undermine Ukraine’s efforts to repel Putin’s lawless, bloody, and unjustified invasion.”

“Chairman Comer obviously does not understand nor appreciate the concept of an ‘ally.’ America is an ally of Ukraine, and Ukraine is an ally of America,” Raskin said.

“Ukraine is in the middle of a war with Russia thrust upon it by Vladimir Putin’s filthy imperialist and irredentist invasion. The American people have invested billions of dollars to help Ukraine defend its sovereignty and democracy because we share common interests and something called values.”

Updated 7:04 p.m.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

US thwarts French and British push for Lebanon ceasefire call at UN

Patrick Wintour in New York
Wed 25 September 2024 

A UN security council briefing on the crisis in the Middle East.Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock


An effort led by France and Britain to secure a joint statement by the UN security council calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon has stalled in the face of US objections.

Washington is eager to avoid any suggestion there is any equivalence of blame for the eruption of the crisis that has led to the loss of life of hundreds of people in Lebanon.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has been firm in asserting Israel has a legitimate problem to solve, blaming Hezbollah’s continued rocket fire into Israel ever since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.


At one point there had been suggestions the UN security council, due to start late Wednesday, would be deferred overnight to secure agreement on a joint statement, but diplomats said such hopes were fast fading.

The differences emerged at a G7 dinner on Tuesday night. Both Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, went public in calls for a ceasefire to end the fighting. France and UK had also called for a ceasefire in meetings with allies in Paris a week ago.

European sources said the US had been working on a different, more complex, formula, and was sensitive to Israeli pressure or wording that would be seen to block its military offensive to degrade Hezbollah.

In a round of morning TV interviews Blinken was careful not to call for a ceasefire in Lebanon, referring instead to a diplomatic agreement.

He told ABC News that Hezbollah had started firing rockets into Israel after the deadly attacks of 7 October, saying: “People who lived in northern Israel had to flee their homes – homes were destroyed; villages were destroyed – about 70,000 Israelis. Israel started responding. You have Lebanese in southern Lebanon who’ve also had to flee their homes. We want to see people get back to their homes. The best way to do that is through a diplomatic agreement – [one that] pulls the forces back, creates space and security so that people can get back to their homes, kids can get back to school.”

Joe Biden also told ABC television that all-out war was possible, but added: “We’re still in play to have a settlement that can fundamentally change the whole region.”

In his address to the general assembly, Macron was more forthright, saying:
“There cannot be, must not be war in Lebanon.”

At a meeting with the Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Blinken only referred to seeking a ceasefire in Gaza – the precondition Hezbolllah set for ending its relatively low-level but hugely disruptive assault on Israel.

Blinken also repeated his claim that it was Hamas and not Israel that was holding up a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

Saying that 15 of the 18 paragraphs in the ceasefire agreement were signed off, he said: “The problem we have right now is that Hamas hasn’t been engaging on it for the last couple of weeks, and its leader has been talking about an endless war of attrition. Now, if he really cares about the Palestinian people, he’d bring this agreement over the finish line.

“Hard decisions remain to be made by Israel. But the problem right now in terms of bringing this across the finish line is Hamas, its refusal to engage in a meaningful way,” he added.

In contrast, the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Iraq said in a joint statement: “Israel is pushing the region towards total war.”

The Lebanese foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said the US approach was “not promising”, adding: “It will not solve the Lebanese problem. The US is the only country that can really make a difference in the Middle East with regard to Lebanon.”


France and US push for 21-day Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire in Lebanon as UN chief warns ‘hell is breaking loose’

Patrick Wintour and Andrew Roth in New York
Wed 25 September 2024 



France pushes for 21-day Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire in Lebanon as UN chief warns ‘hell is breaking loose’


The US and France have called for a 21-day temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to make way for broader negotiations, as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told a UN security council meeting that “hell is breaking loose” in Lebanon.

Israel’s top general has said the country is preparing for a possible ground operation into Lebanon after an intense three-day bombing campaign that has killed more than 600 people, further fuelling fears of a regional conflict.

The joint statement issued by US president Joe Biden and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron said: “It is time for a settlement on the Israel-Lebanon border that ensures safety and security to enable civilians to return to their homes. The exchange of fire since October 7th, and in particular over the past two weeks, threatens a much broader conflict, and harm to civilians.”

The two leaders, who met on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York, said they had worked on a temporary ceasefire “to give diplomacy a chance to succeed and avoid further escalations across the border”.

They urged Israel and Lebanon to back the move, which was also endorsed by Australia, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

A senior US administration official said on Wednesday night that both Israel and Lebanon, which was understood to be representing Hezbollah in the negotiations, were expected to respond to the call “in the coming hours.”

Officials in a background briefing also emphasised that the ceasefire proposal does not apply to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The US said that the 21-day period was chosen in order to provide space in order to negotiate a more comprehensive agreement between the two sides to allow residents to return to their homes along the Israel-Lebanon border without fear of further violence or an “October 7th-like attack in the future.”

The announcement came at the conclusion of a heated UN security council meeting, which saw Lebanon’s prime minister accuse Israel of violating his country’s sovereignty. Najib Mikati said Lebanese hospitals were overwhelmed and unable to accept any more victims.

Israel’s UN envoy told the security council said that his country did not seek a full-scale war and that Iran was the “driving force” behind the instability sweeping the Middle East.

For his part, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said the US and UK’s “unwavering support for Israel has given them carte blanche for all sorts of sinister behaviour”.

Related: Can Israel avoid same pitfalls of past ground offensive in Lebanon?

There have been tensions between the US and its European allies about whether to call for an immediate ceasefire at the security council. The UK foreign secretary David Lammy backed an immediate ceasefire, saying it was time to pull back from the brink, adding “a full blown war is not in the interests of Israeli or Lebanese people”.

He said nothing justified Hezbollah’s attacks and urged Iran to use its influence to persuade Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire.

But US diplomats indicated an unconditional ceasefire call in the form of a joint security council statement could be seen as accepting a moral equivalence between the behaviour of Israel and Hezbollah, a group that is labelled a terrorist group by the US.

The proposal for a temporary three-week cessation of hostilities might provide a platform to reopen stalled talks on the discussions over a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza. Hezbollah has said it will stop its strikes if Hamas agrees to a Gaza ceasefire, but there is no sign currently of either the Hamas leadership or the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu coming to an agreement.

Netanyahu was due to arrive in New York on Thursday, and is expected to set out whether he supports a 21-day break in hostilities.

The US deputy envoy Robert Wood said “diplomacy will only become more difficult” if the conflict escalates further, adding he was gravely concerned by reports that hundreds of Lebanese civilians had died in recent days.

But he insisted the origin of the conflict was the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians, and 65,000 Israeli civilians, who have been displaced due to Hezbollah’s decision on 8 October to break the peace that has largely endured.

He said that no one wanted to see a repeat of the war in 2006, adding “the war must end with a comprehensive undertaking that has real implementation mechanisms”.

No details of the implementation mechanisms were set out by the US envoy, but it is not likely to be backed by Hezbollah if it infringes on its sovereignty.





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US Senate votes unanimously to hold hospital CEO in criminal contempt

Maya Yang
Wed 25 September 2024

Ralph de la Torre in Norwood, Massachusetts, on 25 August 2024.

Photograph: Boston Globe/Getty Images

The US Senate has voted unanimously to hold the CEO of Steward Health Care in criminal contempt for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena – marking the first time in more than 50 years that the chamber has moved to hold someone in criminal contempt.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to hold Ralph de la Torre in contempt of Congress after the 58-year-old head of the Massachusetts-based for-profit healthcare system – which declared bankruptcy earlier this year – ignored a congressional subpoena and failed to appear at a hearing over the hospital chain’s alleged abuse of finances on 12 September.

During Wednesday’s session, Bernie Sanders, Vermont senator and chair of the Senate’s health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee, said: “The passage of this resolution by the full Senate will make clear that even though Dr de la Torre may be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, even though he may be able to buy fancy yachts and private jets and luxurious accommodations throughout the world, even though he may be able to afford some of the most expensive lawyers in America, no, Dr de la Torre is not above the law.

“If you defy a congressional subpoena, you will be held accountable, no matter who you are or how well-connected you may be,” Sanders said.

Similarly, Bill Cassidy, Louisiana senator and ranking member of Help, said: “Steward’s mismanagement has nationwide implications affecting patient care in more than 30 hospitals across eight states.

“Through the committee’s investigation, it became evident that a thorough review of chief executive officer Dr Ralph de la Torre’s management decisions was essential to understand Steward’s financial problems and its failure to serve its patients,” Cassidy said of De la Torre, who was paid at least $250m by Steward Health Care as the hospital chain’s administrators struggled with facility problems, staffing shortages and closures.

Investigations by the Boston Globe revealed that as more than a dozen Steward Health Care patients died in recent years after being unable to receive adequate treatment, De la Torre embarked on various jet travels and private yacht excursions across the Caribbean and French Riviera.

The Boston Globe also revealed that De la Torre frequently used the hospital chain’s bank account as his own, including to make purchases to renovate an €8m ($8.9m) apartment in Madrid and to make donations of millions of dollars to his children’s private school.

In July, the outlet reported that the justice department was investigating Steward Health Care for potential foreign corruption violations. It also reported that a federal grand jury in Boston was investigating the hospital chain’s financial dealings including its compensations for top executives.

During Wednesday’s session, the Massachusetts senator Ed Markey condemned what he called a “culmination of a financial tragedy over the past decade”.

“Steward, led by its founder and CEO Dr Ralph de la Torre and his corporate enablers, looted hospitals across the country for their own profit, and while they got rich, workers, patients and communities suffered, nurses paid out of pocket for cardboard bereavement boxes for the babies to help grieving parents who had just lost a newborn,” said Markey.

“Dr de la Torre is using his blood-soaked gains to hide behind corporate lawyers instead of responding to the United States Senate’s demand for actions. But while he tries to run and hide, Dr de la Torre is revealing himself for what he truly is – a physician who places personal gain over his duty to do no harm,” he added.