Workers noticed 'rotten egg' smell before deadly US chocolate factory blast


By Associated Press

May 3, 2023

Workers at a Pennsylvania chocolate factory smelled "rotten eggs" before a powerful natural gas explosion that levelled one building, heavily damaged another and killed seven people, US federal safety officials said on Tuesday in a preliminary report.

The National Transportation Safety Board's five-paragraph account of the fatal explosion confirmed earlier reporting by The Associated Press and other media outlets that employees had detected an odour of natural gas at the R.M. Palmer Co. factory in West Reading, a small town 96 kilometres north-west of Philadelphia.



Emergency personnel work at the site of a deadly explosion at a chocolate factory in West Reading. (AP)

About 70 Palmer production workers and 35 office staff were working in two adjacent buildings at the time of the March 24 blast, according to the agency's report, and employees in both buildings told federal investigators they'd smelled gas.

"Employees from Building 2 recalled that they were sanitising equipment in the building when they detected an odour of natural gas. The employees in Building 1 recalled the smell of rotten eggs around the same time," the agency's report said.

Natural gas is odourless, but a foul-smelling odorant called mercaptan is added to alert people to leaks.
Federal investigators said a "natural gas–fuelled explosion and fire" destroyed Building 2, caused significant damage to Building 1 and other structures, injured 11 people and displaced three families from a nearby apartment building.

The probe has been focused on a natural gas pipeline as safety investigators try to figure out the cause.
UGI Corp. provided natural gas to the factory complex via two mains.



A fire at the site of a deadly explosion at a chocolate factory in West Reading. (AP)

UGI said there wasn't any utility work going on in the area, and it detected no sudden surge in gas usage before the explosion, the report said.

Workers at the plant have accused R.M. Palmer of ignoring warnings of a natural gas leak, saying the plant should have been evacuated.

Patricia Borges, who survived the explosion, previously told the AP how she and others had complained about a natural gas odour about 30 minutes before the factory blew up.

Borges's arm caught fire as flames engulfed the building.

She then fell through the floor into a vat of liquid chocolate.

A wrongful-death lawsuit filed last month by the family of blast victim Judith "Judy" Lopez-Moran, a 55-year-old mother of three, said Palmer bore responsibility for the explosion.

Patricia Borges survived the explosion. (AP)

Workers smelled natural gas that day and notified Palmer, but the 75-year-old company "did nothing," the lawsuit said.

Palmer has offered condolences, but said federal regulations preclude it from commenting on Tuesday's preliminary report, the ongoing investigation or "any allegations that may be made in litigation".

"Our employees' safety and health has always been, and will continue to be, of paramount importance," Palmer said in a written statement on Tuesday, echoing comments the company made April 13 in its last public statement on the blast.

FASCIST HUNGARY
Thousands protest against government move to strip teachers of public servant status

Story by By Boldizsar Gyori •

Protest against Hungarian government's 'Status Law’ in Budapest© Thomson Reuters

By Boldizsar Gyori

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Thousands rallied in Budapest on Wednesday to protest against new government-sponsored legislation that would eliminate the public servant status of teachers and significantly increase their workload.

Almost 5,000 teachers have already said they will leave their profession if the so-called Status Law comes into force, but Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government is going ahead with the reforms that would strip teachers of some of their job security.


Protest against Hungarian government's 'Status Law’ in Budapest© Thomson Reuters

Wednesday's protest came after a year of teacher strikes and demonstrations for higher wages as Hungary's inflation - running above 25% - erodes teachers' salaries that are already below the national average and second to last among OECD countries according to 2021 data.

Many critics refer to the draft as the "Revenge Law", perceived as punishment for teachers' year-long resistance.


: Protest against Hungarian government's 'Status Law’ in Budapest© Thomson Reuters

"I am entirely against this law, which is not called the 'revenge law' in public discourse by accident," said Katalin Torley, one of the most vocal critics of Orban's education policies.


"It is a response to the wave of protests seen over the past year...which have exposed the dire problems of the public education system."

The government said the new legislation aimed to improve the quality of education.

According to a former version of the draft, teacher behaviour and communications would have been monitored by technical means. Although the government promised to take this and other minor provisions out from the draft, negotiations are still ongoing between the government and teachers' trade unions.



Protest against Hungarian government's 'Status Law’ in Budapest© Thomson Reuters

If the law passes in its current form, from June 1 teachers’ maximum daily working time would increase from 8 to 12 hours, the weekly working time from 40 to 48 hours, and the number of substitutions from 30 to 80 hours per year.


Protest against Hungarian government's 'Status Law’ in Budapest© Thomson Reuters

Hungary is facing a growing shortage of teachers mainly due to low wages and the unpredictability in the regulatory environment.

(Reporting by Boldizsar Gyori, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

 

G20 Must Build On G7 Five-Point Plan For Critical Minerals – Analysis

 May 3, 2023

By Geopolitical Monitor

By Dr. Kapil Narula and Dr. Andrew DeWit*

The G7, formed in 1975, is an intergovernmental political forum of seven member states of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union (EU). Historically, these countries are amongst the most influential ones, with significant political, economic, and military power. Japan assumed the G7 Presidency for 2023 and the 49th G7 Summit is scheduled to be held from 19-21 May 23 at Hiroshima.

Considering the increasing role of other countries in global politics, the G20 (Group of Twenty) was created which included emerging economies such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey, along with the countries of the G7. Though the G20 was formed in 1999, initially it was attended only by finance ministers and central bank governors. The G20 represents over 80% of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population and provides a platform for both advanced and emerging economies to discuss and implement coordinated international responses on globally important issues, making it the premier forum for economic cooperation. India assumed the G20 Presidency for 2023 and the 18th G20 Heads of State and Government Summit will be held in New Delhi in September 2023.

Importance of critical minerals  

Critical minerals are those non-fuel minerals that are essential for the economic and national security of a country, but are vulnerable to supply chain disruption. These include lithium, cobalt, graphite, copper, rare earth elements, and platinum group metals, amongst others. These minerals are essential for clean energy technologies such as wind turbines, solar PV panels, storage batteries and electric vehicles. Therefore, their availability plays an important role in the sustainable energy transition.

The supply-demand gap of critical minerals in widening. The IEA forecasts that, driven by increasing deployment of clean energy technologies, the overall demand for critical minerals could increase by as much as six times by 2040, with the demand for lithium, graphite, cobalt and nickel increasing between 24-50 times, in certain scenarios. Forecasts also show that yearly production of these minerals will increase by 5-6 times, growing to over US$250 billion by 2040, surpassing the annual production value of coal, which will gradually be phased out. The increase in the price of cobalt and lithium, by 3x and 12x respectively between 2020-22, is proof of this market imbalance.

G7 ministers’ communiqué  

The G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy and Environment was held from 15-16 April 2023 at Sapporo, Japan.  A 36-page communiqué was also released where G7 countries pledged to accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuels to achieve 2050 net-zero goals and holistically address the climate, energy, and environment crisis. The following key decisions were adopted, which will be significant drivers of future demand for critical minerals:

• A collective increase in offshore wind capacity of 150 gigawatt and a collective increase of solar photovoltaic to more than one terawatt by 2030.
• Achieving a fully or predominantly decarbonised power sector by 2035.
• Achieving 100% or the overwhelming penetration of sales of light duty vehicles (LDVs) as zero emission vehicles (ZEV) by 2035 and beyond; and to achieve 100 percent electrified vehicles in new passenger car sales by 2035.
• To collectively reduce by at least 50% CO2 emissions from G7 vehicle stock by 2035 or earlier, relative to 2000 levels, as a halfway point to achieving net zero.

The communiqué acknowledged the growing importance of critical minerals and raw materials for a net-zero economy and for meeting the above ambitions. It also highlighted the threats and risks to critical mineral supply chain disruption caused by monopolization and lack of diversification of existing suppliers. The need for creating responsible and resilient critical minerals supply chains, supporting open, transparent, rules- and market-based trade in critical minerals with traceability, opposing market-distorting measures and monopolistic policies for critical minerals was recognized.

The commitment to strong environmental social and governance (ESG) standards, ensuring benefit to local communities, respecting human rights, minimizing environmental footprint, promoting circularity in supply chains, enhancing recovery and recycling, advancing innovation and competitiveness, substitution with alternate materials, and promoting dialogues between extraction, producer, and consumer countries were all points of emphasis.

Building on the five-point plan 

To enable the clean energy transition, the G7 communiqué also proposed a “Five-Point Plan for Critical Mineral Security”. This included the need for long-term supply and demand forecasting, creating responsible mineral supply chains, developing recycling capabilities, promoting innovation for developing substitute materials, and preparing for short-term supply disruptions.

The G20 needs to build on this five-point plan to overcome the existing challenges and provide a broader base to strengthen mineral supply chains. G20 group includes countries such as Australia (Lithium), Brazil (Niobium), China (Gallium, Vanadium, Rare earths), India (Rare earths), Indonesia (Nickel), Russia (Palladium) and South Africa (Platinum), which are well positioned to supply critical minerals, develop refining and processing capabilities, and are also likely to be high consumers.

Supply-demand forecasting

Flagship reports such as ‘The role of critical minerals in clean energy transitions’ by the IEA and the World Bank Group study on “Minerals for Climate Action: The Mineral Intensity of the Clean Energy Transition” are useful starting points for demand estimation. A focused task force to analyse supply-demand forecasts at the IEA, as proposed in the five-point plan, is an important step.

The G20 must build parallel research capacity in an institution in an emerging economy to conduct detailed studies on the demand of individual minerals, tracing their supply chains, mapping of existing mineral resources and reserves, identifying capacity of mining companies, along with estimating the investment required in the short- to medium-term. This joint research effort will complement the efforts of the IEA and would be helpful to guide future development of the critical mineral sector.

Responsible supply chains 

The G7 agreed to develop new mines with high ESG standards and promote responsible supply chains. They also committed to consolidate mineral cooperation through Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), Mineral Security Partnership (MSP), supported the ‘Sustainable Critical Minerals Alliance’, and European Commission’s proposal to establish a “Critical Raw Materials Club” to facilitate investment in materials supply chains. The importance of private investment and support of public financial institutions was affirmed. It was highlighted that fiscal support measures of $13 billion have been provided for domestic and foreign projects in critical minerals across G7 countries.

Multilateral strategic and trade partnerships allow diversification of suppliers and lowers supply chain vulnerabilities. The G20 needs to work on expanding the membership of critical mineral partnerships which are now restricted to selected high income countries. The ‘Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative’ (2019) between three countries; MSP (2022), between eleven OECD countries; and ‘Sustainable Critical Minerals Alliance’ (2022) between seven developed countries are recent coalitions which do not include emerging economies. A high-level forum for minerals with a balanced representation from all continents, would be more inclusive and could play an important role in ensuring access to critical minerals while strengthening coordinated responses and standardisation of ESG criteria.

Recycling and circular economy 

Recycling of lithium-ion batteries and neodymium magnets, establishing domestic recycling facilities and collection of e-waste and its environmentally sound processing, was highlighted by the G7.

The G20 could go further by committing to adopting mandatory standards, guidelines and legislation for collection and recycling of e-waste and annual reporting by manufacturers. Better collection processes, efficient sorting, and material recovery by smelting of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) can increase urban mining, which can ease pressures on existing supply chains, while lowering the environmental impact of mining. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for collection and recycling by manufacturers of solar PV panels, magnets and EV batteries and incentivising in recycling through tax breaks and grants can help in creating recycling capacity. Development of central e-waste collection hubs, new technologies for cost-efficient recovery, co-location of recycling facilities with production hubs can enhance synergies and lead to an ecosystem of recycling.

Innovations and resource efficiency 

Development of substitute materials, technologies and resource saving processes was agreed. Expanding the membership of the intergovernmental ‘Conference on Critical Materials and Minerals’ beyond policy makers from Japan, the US, the EU, Australia, and Canada to other G7 countries for exchange of information, policies, research and development (R&D) activities, supporting innovation, and to advance collaborative efforts was proposed.

The G20 needs to strengthen initiatives to share best practices, must collectively work on developing low-cost technologies through frugal innovations and undertake capacity-building by technical collaboration, technology transfer, and training of human resources. Promoting profitable business models and increasing consumer awareness are essential components which need to be given due attention. They must also commit to redesign of products which completely eliminates or lowers the use of critical minerals. Participation in events such as the first-ever ‘African Critical Minerals Summit’  in Johannesburg, South Africa on 6-7 November will also help in building support and collaborating with resource rich countries.

Planning for supply chain disruption 

The G7 has supported an IEA proposal to create a “Voluntary Critical Mineral Security Program” to prepare for short-term supply disruptions. The G20 must ensure that there is equal representation from all countries and this does not become an ‘exclusive’ club with high entry barriers, which prohibits the participation of low- and lower-middle income countries. Stockpiles of critical minerals are officially maintained by the governments of US and Japan, and collective actions by governments and other market actors could be considered for sharing information and data on stockpiles for coordinated action.

Conclusion 

The importance of critical minerals is growing by the day and this is evident in the flurry of activities in the past couple of years. These include the adoption and updating of critical mineral strategies by several countries, incentives to support domestic supply and production of critical minerals in the US through Inflation Reduction Act(IRA) of 2022, and measures undertaken under the Green Deal Industrial Plan in the EU, including the European Critical Raw Materials Act. The development of discourse on critical minerals in T7 and T20 forums which inform G7 and G20 discussions is also notable. The Indian Prime Minister Modi was invited to the G7 Hiroshima Summit by the Japanese Prime Minister Kishida and both leaders confirmed to cooperate in the lead up to the G7 and the G20 summits. Considering the robust partnership and the G7 and G20 Presidency of Japan and India respectively, this is a unique opportunity to consolidate action on critical minerals.

*About the authors:

• Dr. Kapil Narula is a Consultant at the United Nations and a co-author of T7 and T20 policy briefs on critical minerals.
• Dr. Andrew DeWit is a Full Professor at the School of Economic Policy Studies, Rikkyo University, Japan

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Fumio Kishida, in New Delhi on March 20, 2023. Photo Credit: India PM Office

Source: This article was published by Geopolitical Monitor.com

Geopoliticalmonitor.com is an open-source intelligence collection and forecasting service, providing research, analysis and up to date coverage on situations and events that have a substantive impact on political, military and economic affairs.

Bishop, other high-ranking Baltimore Catholic officials identified as those who helped cover up sexual abuse

Lee O. Sanderlin and Cassidy Jensen, Baltimore Sun on May 5, 2023




BALTIMORE — In the fall of 2002, as the country first realized the scope of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, a Baltimore bishop sat in a Carroll County parochial school gym to try and make sense of it all.

Auxiliary Bishop W. Francis Malooly told a group of faithful that it was a mystery to him why priests who the Archdiocese of Baltimore had recently named as credibly accused of abuse weren’t in jail, and why they had never been fully prosecuted. Priests elsewhere were being charged every day now, he said.

It was no mystery.

In many instances, Malooly — along with the Most Revs. Richard “Rick” Woy, G. Michael Schleupner, J. Bruce Jarboe and George B. Moeller — helped abusive priests get away with their crimes, either concealing the extent of a priest’s misdeeds or striking deals with prosecutors to avoid a criminal charge.

The five were among the most powerful, high-ranking and visible officials in the archdiocese. Its annual directories show some served as chancellor, effectively the right hand of the late Cardinal William Keeler or the late Archbishop William Borders. Others were director of clergy personnel, akin to a human resources manager. Other times, they were in charge of archdiocesan finances.

In total, their names appear 257 times in a new report by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office on clergy abuse within the archdiocese. But the public hasn’t known who they are because their identities were shielded. The church paid for lawyers to fight to black out their names and a judge directed the attorney general’s office to redact them before releasing the report last month.

The Baltimore Sun reviewed thousands of pages of court records, decades of archdiocese directories, and dozens of contemporary newspaper articles to piece together details that helped reveal the men’s identities. People with knowledge of their conduct at the time or who are familiar with the report confirmed The Sun’s reporting.

The attorney general’s office provided an unredacted version of the report to the archdiocese in November, and at least 15 people have seen it. Meanwhile, the ongoing legal battle by the attorney general’s office to release a version with fewer redactions is subject to a judge’s gag order. Future closed-door hearings on the issue are likely, but the public won’t be notified of them in advance.

The report names 156 people accused of abuse, many of them now dead. The names of 10 further abusers, all living, are also redacted and have not yet been identified. The Sun is identifying these five officials because, while not accused of abuse, they were church leaders who worked to keep the extent of the scandal hidden.

The archdiocese did not return calls and emails seeking comment. The five men identified either declined to be interviewed, did not answer the phone, did not respond to voice mails and text messages or did not come to the door when a reporter visited their home. The attorney general’s office also declined to comment.

After The Sun published an article in November confirming that the archdiocese was funding the legal fight to keep some names in the report secret, abuse survivors demanded that an unredacted version of the report be released. Some of them retained attorneys and joined the secret court proceedings on the withheld information.

In the only public document that addresses why people affiliated with the church have sought to keep names of those in the report secret, their attorneys argued the materials the attorney general’s office drew on in its investigation were archdiocese records obtained under a grand jury subpoena. As a result, they claimed, the names should remain secret and any proceedings about whether to disclose the information must be closed to the public. All other filings in the case are sealed.

“Let us see the ones who moved the predators,” Teresa Lancaster, an abuse survivor said at a news conference two days after the report was released. “That’s the blacked-out stuff — the church leaders moving them from parish to parish and letting them abuse more children."

Named in the report 122 times as “Official C,” Malooly later rose to be bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington in Delaware. Malooly is named in the report more than twice as many times as Woy, the second most-mentioned official whose name is redacted. Woy, currently pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Crofton, appears 56 times and is identified as “Official B.”

Schleupner is identified in the report 50 times as “Official E.” He currently celebrates Mass on the weekends at Our Lady of Grace in Parkton.

Moeller, the first ordained of the five, is the “Official D” who is cited 19 times. Jarboe, pastor at St. Ann in Hagerstown, is “Official A” and is referred to 10 times.

Malooly, Schleupner and Woy, ordained in that order, entered into the church during a time of scandal, according to the report. The men rose through the ranks in the 1980s and 1990s while the Catholic Church in the U.S. scrambled to prevent the public from learning the extent of the abuse by its ranks.

A Baltimore native, Malooly was ordained in 1970 by his uncle, the late Bishop T. Austin Murphy. His career reached its zenith in 2008 when he was installed as the Wilmington bishop, just as that diocese filed for bankruptcy protection in the face of several sexual abuse lawsuits in Delaware. Malooly retired in 2021 and lives in Wilmington.

An article in The Daily Times of Salisbury compared him at the time to a “corporate executive” preparing a company, in this case the Baltimore Archdiocese, to run without him after he’d handled its “daily matters” for two decades. In The Sun’s exit interview with him in July 2008, he talked about handling abuse complaints.

“There’s nothing you can do to make up for the damage that was done,” he said. “You just try to reach out.”

During his tenure in Baltimore, Malooly was director of a youth retreat, then became clergy personnel director sometime in 1984 or 1985, according to church directories. Almost immediately, he entered the fray, helping to move Father William Simms in 1985 from St. Andrew by the Bay in Cape St. Claire to Western Maryland after receiving allegations Simms molested several children, according to the attorney general’s report. It said Malooly drafted a statement for Simms to tell parishioners he was taking “temporary sick leave because of stress.”

In 1992, during a deposition in another case, Malooly was asked about a deal archdiocesan officials made with Anne Arundel County authorities to get Simms immunity in exchange for a list of children he molested. Malooly did not answer that question under advice from the church’s attorney, court records show. Simms, who was granted immunity, died in 2005.

Schleupner, also a Baltimore native, became chancellor in 1980 after attending business school and completing internships at local companies.

A two-man team, Schleupner and Malooly investigated several reports of abuse in the mid-80s through the mid-90s, according to the report, court records from specific cases and newspaper articles.

One case they worked on, that of Father Thomas J. Bauernfeind, is described in the attorney general’s report as “illustrative of the role senior members of church leadership played in perpetrating and covering up abuse.”

Bauernfeind was one of the highest-ranking members of the archdiocese, having served his own three-year stint as chancellor. In 1987, a woman accused Bauernfeind of trying to rape her in his room 10 years earlier when she was 16, the report said. Bauernfeind, then a pastor at St. Lawrence in Woodlawn, told fellow priests that the girl’s accusation was true, according to the report.

A Feb. 24, 1987, memo from then-Chancellor Schleupner shows that the archdiocese’s lawyer and Malooly, the director of the clergy personnel division at that time, reached out to the office of the state’s attorney in Baltimore and described the accusation, but did not mention Bauernfeind’s name, according to the report. An assistant state’s attorney told Malooly that the conduct could warrant charges of assault, battery and maybe even attempted rape, according to Schleupner’s memo.

Instead of reporting him to authorities, the archdiocese sent Bauernfeind for four days of “psycho-theological evaluation” in Massachusetts, according to the attorney general’s report. A year later, Bauernfeind was sent to Our Lady Queen of Peace in Middle River. Malooly sent him a letter congratulating him on 25 years of service to the church.

The church did not formally report Bauernfeind’s crimes to authorities until 2002. He died the next year.

That was not the only time the pair failed to report the extent of a priest’s crimes. Father Robert Newman met with Schleupner and Malooly on Feb. 2, 1987, and acknowledged to abusing 12 boys on more than 100 occasions. Yet a Baltimore Police Department report from the time says authorities only knew about one instance of abuse, according to the report.

Newman and the other priests cited in this article did not return calls seeking interviews.

The lack of disclosure happened again in the case of Father Marion Helowicz, who pleaded guilty in 1988 to abusing an intellectually disabled boy. Schleupner and Malooly knew of at least one other victim, but did not tell the office of the Baltimore County State’s Attorney, which was prosecuting Helowicz, according to the report.

Moeller is mentioned in the report as having worked with Malooly on some investigations, and on at least one occasion, helped secure short-term disability payments for Father Joseph Krach. Moeller had sent Krach to psychotherapy in 1990, writing in the referral that Krach had “questionable relationships with male teenagers and young adults” and “problems with altar boys.” In an interview with Moeller and Malooly, Krach acknowledged having been “very close” or “friendly” with young men at each parish he was assigned to.

Despite these issues, the archdiocese did not remove his faculties as a priest and he was allowed to assist at weekend Masses again beginning in 1992. Krach died in 2013.

From 1995 until 2002, Jarboe was the archdiocese’s associate director of clergy personnel, then the director. He told people who attended a 2002 town-hall type meeting held by the archdiocese that all credible reports of abuse were given to the civil authorities, as had been church policy since the mid-1980s.

“Our first responsibility is to protect those who are vulnerable,” Jarboe said, according to a Sun article.

But the archdiocese waited until 2000, seven years after officials learned about a woman who said Father Kenneth Farabaugh raped her when she was 15, to tell the Harford County Sheriff’s Office about it, the report said. A lieutenant in the sheriff’s office kept Jarboe updated on the investigation, but it came to an end when Farabaugh’s car hit a tree, killing him, minutes before a scheduled polygraph test.

Also in 2000, Jarboe counseled Father David G. Smith, who had bought a restaurant and may have had an inappropriate relationship with his business partner when that person was a student at Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School in Baltimore, where Smith had taught, according to the report. Smith told Jarboe he wanted a leave of absence in order to receive psychological treatment, and Jarboe suggested he consider a facility that would not “mark him unfairly” in the future. At least one of Smith’s victims has received a settlement, according to the report.

Smith pleaded guilty in 2002 to a charge of “perverted practice” in Baltimore County. A judge gave him probation and the archdiocese pays him a pension and health insurance benefits, according to the report.

More recent examples show the lengths church leaders such as Woy, who also served as vicar general, went to protect priests.

When a man came forward in 2005 and reported that Monsignor Thomas Bevan took altar boys to his cabin, gave them alcohol and watched them streak in the 1970s, Woy defended Bevan before the Archdiocesan Independent Review Board, where Woy described Bevan as “forthright.” Woy also said that when he visited the cabin, he did not see alcohol abuse or children, according to the report.

The report describes the archdiocese as giving “great deference” to Bevan and the priests who vouched for him. Bevan acted as a priest until 2009, when another victim reported abuse. More victims reported sexual abuse by Bevan, and he was charged in 2010 in Frederick County. He entered an Alford plea — a guilty plea in which he maintained his innocence, but acknowledged there was sufficient evidence to convict him — to one count of child abuse. A judge ordered him to serve 18 months on home detention and register as a sex offender.

Bevan was removed from the registry in 2014; it’s not clear why.

Now a pastor at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Woy rose high in the church, at one point being named vicar general under former Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O’Brien. Woy also served as chancellor, director of the office of child and youth protection, and director of clergy personnel.

Woy handled complaints about Father A. Joseph Maskell in the ‘90s. The report describes a 1992 note Woy shared with a nun about Maskell’s psychological testing, showing his involvement in the archdiocese’s investigation. Also, Jean Wehner, one of Maskell’s victims, provided to The Sun a 1993 letter from Woy in which he wrote the church was halting payment for her therapy because it couldn’t corroborate her allegations. The many crimes of Maskell, among others, were the subject of a 2017 Netflix documentary series titled “The Keepers.” Maskell died in 2001.

Fearing negative publicity after the series’ debut, members of the board of St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson attempted to oust Woy in 2017 from the board, but current Archbishop William E. Lori intervened and Woy remains on the board.

Lori, in a letter at the time to the board’s chairman, said Woy had his “unqualified support” and was “known for his tough stance on child abuse and has always put the pursuit of truth and the welfare of children above all other aims.”

(Baltimore Sun reporters Hayes Gardner, Abigail Gruskin, Alex Mann and Lia Russell contributed to this article.

©2023 Baltimore Sun. Visit baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

ARYAN SUPREMACY
US looks past India's rights record as China worries deepen

Iain Marlow, Bloomberg News on May 4, 2023


WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has decided to remain publicly quiet on India’s democratic backsliding, according to senior U.S. officials, as the U.S. intensifies efforts to keep New Delhi on its side in the rivalry with China.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pressure on religious minorities and the media is troubling, as is his party’s targeting of opposition lawmakers, said the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. But the decision to largely refrain from criticizing Modi comes as growing concerns about China make India increasingly crucial to U.S. geopolitical and economic goals in the Indo-Pacific.

The decision on handling India is an example of how President Joe Biden’s emphasis on human rights — and his framing of a global conflict between democracies and autocracies — has run up against the strategic realities of a world where rivals such as China and Russia are vying for greater control.

So while New Delhi’s strong defense ties with Russia and its vast purchases of Russian crude have drawn scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers after the invasion of Ukraine, the administration believes it needs India to buy that oil to keep prices low. And rising concerns about China’s growing assertiveness under Xi Jinping have helped drive the U.S. and India even closer together, these people said.

“India is getting this free pass on account of China,” said Manoj Joshi, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi who has advised previous Indian administrations on national security issues. “The only country in Asia, in terms of size and potential, that can balance China is India.”

In a sign of the close ties, Biden is set to host Modi for a state dinner in Washington this summer. While Biden might press Modi to take a more explicit stance on Ukraine, one U.S. official said it’s doubtful New Delhi would publicly rebuke Russia, given their close defense ties.

‘Regularly engage’

Asked whether the administration is reluctant to criticize Modi, John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a statement, “As we do with other nations around the world, we regularly engage with Indian government officials at senior levels on human rights concerns, including freedom of religion or belief.”

U.S. officials also have frequently pointed to India’s shipments of humanitarian aid to Ukraine as well as Modi’s comments to Russian President Vladimir Putin that “today’s era is not one for war.” One official said China’s growing assertiveness has also fueled New Delhi’s commitment to the Quad strategic grouping that also includes the U.S., Australia and Japan.

India’s foreign ministry declined to comment. Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has made no secret of his country’s decision not to pick sides regardless of what others may want, echoing India’s Cold War leadership of what was called the “non-aligned movement.”

“Whether it is the United States, Europe, Russia or Japan, we are trying to ensure that all ties, all these ties, advance without seeking exclusivity,” Jaishankar said during a visit to the Dominican Republic last month.

As India eclipses China as the world’s most populous country with more than 1.4 billion people, the Biden administration believes it’s impossible to solve pressing global challenges such as climate change without New Delhi, one official said, and the country remains a central part of the U.S.’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

That’s led to the relative silence on issues that the U.S. would normally speak out about publicly, and loudly.

Most recently, India’s government banned a critical documentary about Modi released by the BBC and sent federal tax authorities to raid the British news organization’s Delhi office.

Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party also won a defamation case against the main political opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, that has seen him kicked out of parliament. Modi’s government has also choked local and international nongovernmental organizations of foreign funding.

Russian arms

Other Indian moves also run against a greater strategic alignment with Washington: In recent months, India pledged closer defense ties with Russia. Although India has sought to scale back purchases of some Russian weapons, its military has more than 250 Russian-designed fighter jets, seven Russian submarines and hundreds of Russian tanks. It has also received Russian S-400 missile defense systems despite U.S. efforts to keep those purchases from going forward.

“President Biden would be remiss if he doesn’t raise the Russia issue and restate the importance of supporting Ukrainian sovereignty and explain why that is important for the Indo-Pacific region,” said Lisa Curtis, who was the National Security Council senior director for South and Central Asia under former President Donald Trump.

“It’s no use pretending we don’t have serious differences on such a crucial issue,” said Curtis, who directs the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.

Oil politics

The U.S. has also moved on from concerns about India’s vast purchases of Russian crude oil even as the country rejects a Group of Seven initiative to put a cap on the price for which it’s sold.

At one meeting in Delhi between U.S. and Indian officials following the invasion of Ukraine, a U.S. diplomat told a senior Indian official that if their refiners weren’t buying Russian crude and putting it back on global markets, oil prices might have soared to about $180 a barrel, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

Indian officials always viewed Western criticism of their oil purchases as hypocritical, given that Indian refiners do put the product on global markets.

But India has emerged as a major market for redirected Russian oil, taking advantage of cheaper barrels to help curb inflation and spur growth. Russia is now India’s top supplier, surpassing Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and in March the average cost of Moscow’s crude landing on its shores hit the lowest level since the war in Ukraine began.

Jaishankar, the foreign minister, has often invoked broader sentiment in the so-called Global South as he defended his country’s position on Ukraine amid soaring food and energy prices that have put immense pressure on poor countries. He has waved off U.S. concerns about India’s human rights record, saying “people are entitled to have views about us.”

It’s a strategy that has its share of critics. In an article in Foreign Affairs published May 1 titled “America’s Bad Bet on India,” former State Department adviser Ashley Tellis argued India wouldn’t join a conflict between Washington and Beijing unless India’s own security was directly threatened.

“Washington’s current expectations of India are misplaced,” he wrote.

The U.S.’s positioning on India reflects a calculation it’s had to make several times in the past, most prominently with Saudi Arabia. After declaring during his presidential campaign that he would declare Saudi Arabia a “pariah,” Biden has had to backtrack as he seeks the kingdom’s help countering Iran and keeping oil prices low.

“I can understand governments’ reluctance to take on Modi,” said Shashi Tharoor, a senior lawmaker in the opposition Congress Party. “There’s an overriding strategic interest on the part of the West, and other countries in Southeast Asia, in staying on the right side of India.”

American Airlines pilots vote to authorize strike if deal not reached

CBS News  May 2, 2023  #americanairlines #strike #news

Pilots for American Airlines voted to authorize a strike in the event that a new contract is not reached. Zach Wichter, consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY, examined why such a strike is unlikely. 

Canadian Health minister accused of meddling in work of drug price review board

Social Sharing

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

A former board member tells MPs Jean-Yves Duclos has set 

a dangerous precedent

Yumna Iftikhar · CBC News · Posted: May 02, 2023 

Matthew Herder answers questions before a Commons committee about claims that Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos interfered with his former board's work on lowering drug costs. (Parliament of Canada )

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos' request to suspend consultations on guidelines that would lower the price of pharmaceutical drugs has made it harder for the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board to do its work, a former board member told MPs Tuesday.

Matthew Herder — who resigned from the board in February, citing a lack of government support for needed reforms — told a parliamentary committee that Duclos' interference in the board's work has set a dangerous precedent. 

"Industry now knows that it can bypass the [Patented Medicine Prices Review Board] when it isn't satisfied with the board's policy direction and get the minister to do its bidding," Herder said.

In 2016, the federal government announced that it would protect Canadians from excessive drug prices by launching consultations on proposed amendments to regulations. The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) was tasked with consulting industry and other stakeholders and coming up with guidelines.

In November, Duclos sent a letter to the acting chair of the PMPRB asking the board to suspend consultations on the policy reforms just weeks before new drug price guidelines were supposed to come into play.

Herder and former PMPRB executive director Douglas Clark told MPs Tuesday that Duclos interfered with the independence of the board by halting consultations on new guidelines.

• Health minister disputes claim he sided with big pharma, interfered with drug price consultations

Duclos denied the allegations during his testimony last Thursday. He said that he asked the PMPRB to suspend consultations because he had not been included in conversations about the new drug price guidelines and that more consultations were needed with the provinces.

"I had never received an invitation by the board, through its chair, to meet members of the board," he said.

Request vs. demand

Clark told MPs that the board had seven briefings at the official level. He also said that he made multiple attempts to reach the minister but was ignored.

"I made …  five attempts to reach out to the minister's office to obtain a briefing with the minister," he said.

While Duclos said that the letter was only a suggestion, Herder said it felt more like a demand.

"The letter was a request as it was worded but it happened … in a context where there were multiple attempts to reach his office and the answer back was silence ... that's why it came across more of demand than a request," he said Tuesday.

Clark told the committee the government expected that everyone "was going to have a good time and get along." He said that was not possible when PMPRB was working on guidelines that would decrease industry profits.

"PMPRB is the David to the Goliath of transnational trillion-dollar industries." Clark said. "If the expectation is that we are required to operationalize a policy that will remove $10 billion or $3 billion out of industry profits in a way that has the blessing of that industry, it's a recipe for futility," 

Canadians are paying high costs for drugs

Canada has the third highest pharmaceutical drug prices in the world, after the United States and Switzerland.

Emma Cloney, a nurse from Winnipeg, said she was diagnosed with lipedema, a connective tissue disorder which creates painful fat build-up, in the summer of 2021. 

Emma Cloney sits at home with several medications for lipedema in front of her. (Tyson Koschik/CBC)

Cloney said Manitoba Health and Seniors Care initially approved funding for her treatments but cut her off after her third surgery. She said the province stopped her funding without prior notice.

"Without warning or medical advice, they made a policy decision to renege coverage," she told CBC News. 

One medication alone costs her almost $500 per month and her medical expenses for the past year — including an international trip for surgery — amounted to over $55,000. 

"Nobody should have to decide, will I buy groceries? Or will I take my medications? Which medications do I do without?" she said. "And I think for those of us living on fixed incomes, it's especially upsetting and it causes a lot of anxiety."

• Province pulls medical coverage for 3 Winnipeg women suffering from chronic disease

Cloney said she feels a deep sense of frustration when she sees little being done to make medication more affordable.

"There is so much chatter and bureaucracy around giving access to health care to people that there is a total lack of action."

Herder said the board has to be independent to make decisions without outside interference.

"We have to remain the master of our guideline. Certainly, there can be no interference," he said.