The obscenely rich CEO of Steward Health Care, a for-profit network formed with private equity backing, violated a subpoena on Thursday by declining to testify at a Senate hearing on how mismanagement of the now-bankrupt hospital system harmed patient care. But in Ralph de la Torre's absence, members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee did hear from nurses who witnessed firsthand how Steward's prioritization of shareholder payouts and lavish executive compensation left its hospitals in dire straights, with badly insufficient staffing and resources. Ellen MacInnis, a longtime nurse at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston, said in...

More than 125 climate, environmental, and health scientists and researchers on Thursday implored the Biden administration to "follow legitimate science and reject the expansion of fossil fuel programs," pointing to a new study showing liquefied natural gas has a 33% greater greenhouse gas footprint than coal. "As U.S. scientists and researchers we are closely following efforts by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Treasury to develop greenhouse gas analyses of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and hydrogen, and implore you to use the best available science when conducting this analysis," the scientists wrote in a letter to Energy...

An increasing number of climate lawsuits filed against fossil fuel companies in the last decade could put a dent in the business model of large fossil fuel companies, according to a report released Thursday.The 16-page report—titled Big Oil in Court and co-created by Oil Change International and Zero Carbon Analytics—documents dozens of cases worldwide, mostly since 2015, when the Paris agreement was signed. Many of the cases center on climate damages, misleading advertising about fossil fuels, or failure to reduce emissions in line with legal agreements. Over half of the cases have been filed in the United States, with a...

Demanding that the U.S. Supreme Court correct "an egregious error" by the Trump-appointed judges who dismissed their landmark case in May, the 21 plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States on Thursday filed a petition asking the high court to take action that would require the lower judicial panel to "follow the rule of law and precedent."The petition was announced by Our Children's Trust, the legal group that has represented the Juliana plaintiffs for nearly a decade since they filed their lawsuit asserting that the government's support for fossil fuel extraction and other actions have "violated the youngest generation's constitutional rights...

At least a quarter of the Palestinians in Gaza who have been wounded by Israel's bombardment and invasion of the enclave "have life-changing injuries," the World Health Organization reported on Wednesday. The figure came from a new analysis, Estimating Trauma Rehabilitation Needs in Gaza Using Injury Data from Emergency Medical Teams. WHO officials calculate that 22,500 people wounded in Gaza faced "acute and ongoing rehabilitation needs" as of July 23, though that number has likely climbed to around 24,000 in the past month and a half. "The numbers of catastrophic injuries in Gaza is overwhelming," Pete Skelton, who works as a focal...

Turkey's justice minister said Thursday that the country intends to seek international arrest warrants over the Israeli military's killing of Aysenur Eygi, a dual citizen of the United States and Turkey who was shot in the head by an unidentified IDF soldier during a protest in the illegally occupied West Bank last week. Yilmaz Tunc told journalists that Turkey's chief prosecutor's office is currently investigating "those responsible for the martyrdom and murder of our sister Aysenur Ezgi Eygi" and plans to pursue arrest warrants over the killing, Reuters reported Thursday. The outlet noted that Tunc said the Turkish government "had evidence regarding...

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders reiterated his call for an end to American arms transfers to the Israeli military on Wednesday following the latest deadly attack on a school-turned-shelter for displaced people in central Gaza. In a social media post, Sanders (I-Vt.) highlighted atrocities committed by Israeli forces over just the past week, including the bombing of a so-called "safe zone" and the killing of an American citizen in the West Bank. "Now, another school bombed, killing 14 people, including six U.N. aid workers," Sanders wrote. "Enough is enough. No more money for Netanyahu's war machine." Israel's bombing of the United Nations-run al-Jaouni...

The United Nations relief agency for Palestine said Wednesday that six of its workers are among the at least 18 people killed in a pair of Israeli airstrikes targeting a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip where thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians were sheltering. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said the Israeli strikes on one of its schools, located in Nuseirat in central Gaza, resulted in "the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident" since Israeli forces began bombarding the strip following last October's Hamas-led attack on Israel. "Among...

A day after the Trump campaign saw fit to spread baseless lies about Haitian immigrants in the city of Springfield, Ohio, a grieving father with a deep connection to the bigoted viral stories was forced to speak out. Springfield resident Nathan Clark spoke at the City Commission meeting that was held shortly before former President Donald Trump faced Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday's debate.Clark was there to speak on behalf of his son, Aiden, who was tragically killed in August 2023 when a man who had moved to Springfield after immigrating to the U.S. from Haiti accidentally drove into...

Progressive critics and lawmakers are expressing outrage after the U.K. Parliament on Tuesday voted to cut a winter fuel allowance for millions of Britons, calling the move by the ruling Labour Party, which took power in July, a continuation of the Conservative Party's austerity policies.The measure turns the allowance, which provides £200 to £300 ($262 to $293) per year to senior citizens for heating bills, into a means-tested program in which only the poorest will qualify. It's expected to reduce the number of people receiving the winter payment from 11.4 million last year to 1.5 million this year. Prime Minister...

The parents of Rachel Corrie—the American activist crushed to death by a U.S.-supplied Israeli military bulldozer in 2003 in the illegally occupied West Bank—this week called for an independent investigation into the Israel Defense Force's killing last week of a Turkish American Palestine defender who was volunteering in the territory. Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old who recently graduated from the University of Washington, was volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM)—of which Corrie was a member—when she was shot in the head, allegedly by an IDF sniper, during a demonstration in Beita against Israel's illegal apartheid settlements. Eyewitnesses said Israeli...

The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen on Wednesday applauded pop star Taylor Swift for using her platform and her endorsement of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race to go beyond simply expressing support for the Democratic candidate—choosing instead to also call attention to artificial intelligence and how it's been used to spread misinformation. "Recently I was made aware that AI of 'me' falsely endorsing Donald Trump's presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation," wrote Swift in an Instagram post announcing her endorsement of...

The Democratic chair of the Senate Finance Committee said during a hearing Wednesday that instead of tossing Social Security's sacred guarantee "in the trash" by cutting benefits, lawmakers should crack down on mega-rich tax dodgers as a way to keep the New Deal program fully solvent for decades to come. "The ultra-wealthy are avoiding nearly $2 trillion in taxes every 10 years," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said during a Senate Budget Committee hearing. "That is enough to keep Social Security whole till the end of this century." "That's where we ought to go to start making progress," Wyden added. The senator's remarks came...

Police in the southern Australian state of Victoria on Wednesday attacked anti-war protesters with so-called "less lethal" weapons including stun grenades, hard foam projectiles, and pepper spray outside a major international arms convention in Melbourne amid Israel's Australia-backed annihilation of Gaza. Protesters gathered outside the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Center, where the three-day Land Forces International Land Defense Exposition kicked off on Wednesday. Organizers describe the event as "the premier gateway to the land defense markets of Australia and the region, and a platform for interaction with major prime contractors from the United States and Europe." Protest organizers—who included the groups...

Up until the very last question of the debate between U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump Tuesday night, American voters heard little about fossil fuels and the climate, other than arguing over which presidential candidate is more committed to continuing fracking and its high rate of planet-heating methane emissions. "One hour in. Still no climate questions," said journalist Emily Atkin at 10:00 pm. But campaigners said that the brief coverage of energy and the climate emergency in the debate—which took place days after scientists reported the summer of 2024 was the hottest on record—made clearer than...

The German foreign ministry on Wednesday issued a rejoinder to Republican nominee Donald Trump's debate claim that Germany had reverted back to a "normal" energy policy after, as he implied, failing to transition away from fossil fuels. Near the end of the televised presidential debate, Trump addressed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, saying: "You believe in things that the American people don't believe in. You believe in things like we're not going to frack. We're not going to take fossil fuel. We're not going to do, things that are going to make this country strong, whether you like...

U.S. President Joe Biden faced furious backlash on Tuesday after regurgitating the Israeli military's claim that its killing of an American citizen in the occupied West Bank last week was accidental, a narrative that eyewitnesses have denied.Speaking to reporters, Biden said the killing of 26-year-old human rights activist Aysenur Eygi—a recent graduate of the University of Washington—was "apparently an accident," adding that the bullet that struck her in the head "ricocheted off the ground."U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) denounced Biden's statement as "unacceptable" and "outrageous.""We cannot simply accept the IDF's version that this was an 'accident,'" said Jayapal. "We do...

The 2024 U.S. presidential debate in Philadelphia Tuesday night presented what progressive organizers and labor leaders described as a stark choice between a former president dedicated to slashing taxes for the rich and assailing fundmental freedoms and a vice president committed to protecting abortion rights, combating corporate abuses, and alleviating the nation's housing crisis.Over the course of the 90-minute debate, Republican nominee Donald Trump repeated well-worn lies about the 2020 election, regurgitated racist falsehoods about immigrants, bragged about the conservative-dominated Supreme Court's decision revoking the constitutional right to abortion care and refused to say he would veto a national abortion...

Noting former U.S. President Donald Trump's coziness with the fossil fuel industry and the fact that an overwhelming majority of voters want politicians to tackle its greed, one prominent climate campaigner urged Vice President Kamala Harris—the Democratic nominee—to highlight her Republican opponent's Big Oil ties during Tuesday night's debate. "Harris should absolutely go after Trump for being in the pocket of Big Oil," Fossil Free Media director Jamie Henn said on social media, adding that "89% of Americans want politicians to crack down on Big Oil price gouging." In a separate post, Henn urged ABC News, which is hosting the first—and likely...

Reproductive freedom defenders on Tuesday cheered the Missouri Supreme Court's restoration of an abortion rights referendum—one of numerous 2024 ballot initiatives seeking to codify access to the healthcare procedure in states from coast to coast. Missouri's highest court overturned Cole County Judge Christopher Limbaugh's ruling removing Amendment 3—also known as the Right to Reproductive Freedom initiative—from the November 5 ballot. Limbaugh ordered Republican Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who decertified the measure on Monday, to place it back on the ballot. “The majority of Missourians want politicians out of their exam rooms, and today's decision by the Missouri Supreme...