WhatsApp leaks reveal group of business leaders discussed ways to pressure officials to clear pro-Palestine protesters.
A handful of powerful businessmen pushed New York City Mayor Eric Adams to use police to crack down on pro-Palestinian student protesters at Columbia University, donating to the politician and offering to pay for private investigators to help break up the demonstrations, the Washington Post has reported, based on leaked WhatsApp conversations.
The story, published on Thursday, says that several billionaires seeking to influence public perception of Israel’s war in Gaza discussed means of pushing the mayor and the university’s president to end the protests, which were eventually cleared last month amid criticism of the police’s heavy-handed response.
“One member of the WhatsApp chat group told The Post he donated $2,100, the maximum legal limit, to Adams that month,” the story reads.
“Some members also offered to pay for private investigators to assist New York police in handling the protests, the chat log shows — an offer a member of the group reported in the chat that Adams accepted.” The story states that city authorities denied that private investigators were used to help manage the protests.
The report comes as universities across the country continue to employ force against pro-Palestine activism, raising concerns over the repression of political expression. A number of universities have successfully negotiated with student encampments, which have called for divestment from companies involved in Israel’s war in Gaza and boycotts of Israeli institutions.
The WhatsApp chat cited by the Washington Post included prominent businessmen such as former CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Joshua Kushner, brother of former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser on Middle East issues, Jared Kushner.
Other leaders, such as snack company founder Daniel Lubetzky, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, billionaire Len Blavatnik and real estate investor Joseph Sitt also said that they held a video meeting with Mayor Adams on April 26.
Sending in the police has done little to dampen the spirits of pro-Palestine protesters, and in some cases, has led to heightened support from faculty and fellow students.
While supporters of the crackdowns say they are necessary to ensure the safety of Jewish students, some of whom say they have felt discomforted by anti-Israel rhetoric at the protests, pro-Palestine students – many of them Jewish – have faced the brunt of the violence at protests across the country, with few expressions of concern from authorities.
Earlier this week, a union representing about 48,000 graduate student workers in California, authorised a strike over the treatment of student protesters at universities such as the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where a pro-Israel mob attacked a pro-Palestine encampment with metal pipes and mace while police stood by. Several pro-Palestine activists were hospitalised.
The following day, police moved in to clear the pro-Palestine encampment.
In New York, the fifth week of Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial has drawn to a close, as disbarred lawyer Michael Cohen testified for a thirdday about his interactions with the former United States president.
But Trump’s defence team again took the opportunity to try to poke holes in Cohen’s testimony on Thursday, blasting his credibility, his motivations and even his recollection of key events in the criminal case.
Cohen, formerly a member of Trump’s inner circle, is the prosecution’s star witness — and likely the last it will call before resting its case.
The former lawyer has alleged that Trump, a former Republican president and current presidential candidate, orchestrated a scheme to pay hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 race.
Daniels maintained she had an affair with Trump, and prosecutors say she was poised to sell her story to the press when Trump, through Cohen, bought her silence for $130,000.
The payment, they allege, was aimed at suppressing negative coverage during the 2016 presidential election, which Trump eventually won. The Republican politician was already facing scrutiny at the time for an audio recording in which he described grabbing women by their genitals.
But Trump has denied the charges against him as well as the affair itself. He faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the case, one of four ongoing criminal indictments against him.
He is the first US president, past or present, to face criminal charges. Here are the highlights from day 18 of the trial:
Michael Cohen departs his apartment building on his way to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York on May 16 [Andres Kudacki/AP Photo]
Defence questions Cohen’s motives
Straight away on Thursday, the defence resumed its attacks on Cohen, probing the disbarred lawyer for evidence that he was motivated by personal animus against Trump.
Early in the day’s proceedings, they confronted Cohen with recordings of his own voice, clipped from a 2020 podcast, showing the former lawyer relishing the prospect of a Trump conviction.
The recording captured Cohen saying he hoped “this man ends up in prison” and will “rot inside for what he did to me and my family”.
“It won’t bring back the year that I lost or the damage done to my family. But revenge is a dish best served cold,” Cohen said in one clip.
In another moment, he said, “You better believe that I want this man to go down.”
The audio clips painted a stark contrast with Cohen’s relatively demure behaviour on the witness stand: In the podcasts, he was animated, speaking at a furious pace that was punctuated by expletives.
The defence also sought to underscore why Cohen felt such hatred for his former boss. Lawyer Todd Blanche implied Cohen was angling for a White House position as chief of staff — and was ultimately disappointed.
“The truth is, Mr Cohen, you really wanted to work in the White House, correct?” Blanche asked Cohen.
“No, sir,” Cohen replied, later saying Blanche was not “characterising” his motivations correctly.
US Representative Lauren Boebert attends a news conference outside the courtroom with other Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump [David ‘Dee’ Delgado/Reuters]
Cohen testifies to lying under oath
Cohen remains a key pillar of the prosecution’s case, as the only witness who can testify to certain private discussions about the hush-money payment at the centre of the trial.
So the defence on Thursday continued to batter his credibility, asking him to revisit moments when he lied under oath, in order to cast doubt on his current testimony.
Blanche, for example, raised the fact that Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to lying before Congress about a failed attempt to build a version of Trump Tower in Moscow.
“You lied under oath, correct?” Blanche asked Cohen, who responded: “Yes, sir.”
Cohen has long maintained he lied at the time out of loyalty to Trump.
Blanche also pressed Cohen on statements he made indicating he felt pressure to plead guilty when faced with the 2018 charges, which included tax evasion and campaign finance violations.
When defendants plead guilty in court, they must affirm they made the plea of their own volition. Blanche used that point to ask Cohen: Did he lie under oath when he said he pleaded guilty of his own free will?
“That was not true,” Cohen said.
In addition, the defence highlighted instances where Cohen used artificial intelligence to generate fake legal citations in a court application, again calling into question the former lawyer’s reliability.
Former US President Donald Trump exits the courtroom during a break at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on May 16 [Jeenah Moon/Pool via Reuters]
Defence challenges Cohen’s testimony
Having raised questions about Cohen’s trustworthiness, the defence zeroed in on key moments from his testimony for the prosecution.
Cohen, for instance, testified earlier this week that he called Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller in October 2016 as a means of reaching Trump himself.
The call, Cohen explained, was about the “Stormy Daniels situation” and the hush-money payment they planned to transfer to her lawyer.
But on Thursday, Trump’s defence questioned if that was the real reason Cohen was in touch with Schiller at the time. Blanche, the defence lawyer, suggested that Cohen was instead seeking Schiller’s help to deal with a 14-year-old who had been making harassing calls to his phone.
Blanche showed the jury text messages Cohen wrote to Schiller on the same night as the 2016 conversation, saying, “Who can I speak to about harassing calls to my cell and office?”
He proceeded to ask Cohen if his description of the 2016 phone conversation “was a lie” and whether the focus was on the harassing calls, not on hush money.
“Part of it was about the phone calls, but I knew that Keith was with Mr Trump at the time, and it was more than potentially just this,” Cohen responded.
After a break, Blanche questioned Cohen about how he could recollect specific details from so long ago.
“These phone calls are things I’ve been talking about for the last six years,” Cohen said in reply. “They were and are extremely important, and they were all-consuming.”
Lawyers meet with Judge Juan Merchan during one of many sidebars held during day 18 of Donald Trump’s trial [Jane Rosenberg/Reuters]
Defence argues contract was ‘perfectly legal’
The prosecution struck back multiple times at the defence’s assertions, punctuating the cross-examination with objections and requests for “sidebar” conversations with the judge.
But the defence proceeded to try to undermine the prosecution’s central narrative, that Trump tried to conceal the hush-money payment to Daniels as part of a broader effort to influence the 2016 election.
Rather, Blanche tried to frame the actions as ordinary legal maneouvres.
He presented Cohen with a copy of the nondisclosure agreement Daniels signed and noted Trump’s signature was nowhere to be found on it. Then he asked Cohen, “In your mind, then and now, this is a perfectly legal contract, correct?”
Cohen agreed. “Yes, sir.”
He also had Cohen confirm that nondisclosure agreements were a regular practice in business law.
Blanche further questioned whether the hush-money payments had anything to do with the 2016 election at all.
He pointed to past statements Cohen made about a separate hush-money payment made to a doorman, saying that Trump was “concerned” about the doorman’s story because “it involved people that still worked with him and worked for him”.
The defence also raised comments where Cohen echoed Trump’s allegation that Daniels was extorting him for money to keep quiet.
“In your mind, there were two choices: pay or don’t pay and the story comes out,” Blanche asked Cohen, who replied with his usual, “Yes, sir.”
The cross-examination of Cohen is set to resume on Monday. Trump had requested the trial take a recess on Friday to allow him to attend the graduation of his youngest son, Barron.
Representative Matt Gaetz, centre, leads a news conference on May 16 in support of Donald Trump, while a protester holds up a sign that calls him and the other Republicans present ‘bootlickers’ [Andrew Kelly/Reuters]
Trump surrogates crowd the court
As much as Cohen was in the spotlight during the day’s proceedings, so too were the gaggle of Republican lawmakers who accompanied Trump to court.
Trump is famous for demanding loyalty from his fellow Republicans — and so, as the trial stretches on, several prominent politicians have made the pilgrimage to the Manhattan Criminal Court to show their support.
On Thursday, that entourage included no fewer than nine members of the US House of Representatives, including Florida firebrand Matt Gaetz, Colorado’s Lauren Boebert and Arizona’s Andy Biggs.
In fact, so many members of the House Oversight Committee were in attendance that a vote was delayed to allow them to fly back from New York to Washington, DC.
That vote concerns a resolution to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for failing to turn over audio recordings related to another Trump case, this time pertaining to his handling of classified documents after leaving office.
While in New York, though, several of the representatives took the opportunity to denounce the myriad legal troubles facing Trump.
Gaetz, for instance, described Trump as the “Mr Potato Head of crimes”, a reference to a children’s toy with interchangeable parts.
He explained that prosecutors “had to stick together a bunch of things that did not belong together” to cobble together a case against the ex-president.
Gaetz also sparked criticism for a social media post he made on Thursday morning, showing him watching Trump enter the courtroom.
“Standing back and standing by, Mr President,” Gaetz wrote.
Critics pointed out that his words echoed a statement Trump made in 2020 when asked in a televised debate about white supremacist groups and far-right militias like the Proud Boys.
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said at the time. He later denied knowing who the Proud Boys were. Senior members of the group have since been found guilty and sentenced to prison for their participation in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Western countries tout support for a two-state solution but exert little pressure over expanding settlements.
The Canadian government has announced it will impose sanctions on four Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank as settler violence against Palestinians surges during Israel’s war in Gaza.
In a press release on Thursday, Canada’s Global Affairs ministry said it was sanctioning Israeli settlers for the first time over “violent and destabilizing” actions against Palestinians.
“Attacks by extremist Israeli settlers – a long-standing source of tension and conflict in the region – have escalated alarmingly in recent months,” the ministry said. “This has undermined the human rights of Palestinians, prospects for a 2-state solution and posed significant risks to regional security.”
The settlers targeted are David Chai Chasdai, Yinon Levi, Zvi Bar Yosef and Moshe Sharvit. The ministry said all four have engaged directly or indirectly in violence against Palestinian civilians and property.
The sanctions were announced as impatience with Israel’s refusal to curb settler attacks grows among Western countries that have long touted their support for a two-state solution but imposed few consequences for the constant expansion of Israeli settlements built on Palestinian land in the West Bank. Those settlements are illegal under international law.
In February, the United States announced that it would sanction a handful of Israeli settlers, including Chasdai and Levi, over attacks on Palestinians.
The move allowed for the possibility of a wider US campaign to exert pressure on the settler movement, but President Joe Biden’s administration has kept the sanctions narrowly focused on a handful of individuals for the time being.
The US has resisted calls to sanction far-right Israeli ministers, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, but even more limited sanctions against settlers have been met with ire from Israeli officials.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, settler attacks against Palestinians have surged to new heights, often under the gaze of Israeli forces who have taken few steps against the perpetrators.
This week, a group of Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian truck driver in the West Bank under the mistaken assumption that he was delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.
According to the Israeli human rights group B’tselem, which has said Israel’s policies in the occupied territory constitute the crime of apartheid, only 3 percent of investigations into attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians – many of which go unreported – have resulted in convictions.
That apathy is unsurprising to Palestinians, who see right-wing settlers and Israeli state policies as two iterations of a shared enterprise of displacing Palestinians and promoting Jewish settlement in the occupied territory.
Moscow declares A. T. Coghill persona non grata in response to London expelling Russian defence attache over espionage allegations.
Russia has declared The United Kingdom’s defence attache persona non grata and gave the diplomat a week to leave the country in response to London expelling the Russian defence attache earlier this month over spying allegations.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it summoned a representative of the British Embassy in Moscow on Thursday to express its “strong protest in connection with the unfriendly and groundless decision” to expel the Russian attache from London.
“We emphasized that we regard this step as a politically motivated action of clearly Russophobic nature, which is causing irreparable damage to bilateral relations,” the statement read.
“The defence attache at the British Embassy in Moscow, A. T. Coghill, has been declared persona non grata. He must leave the territory of the Russian Federation within a week,” the ministry said.
UK Secretary of Defence Grant Shapps called Russia’s expulsion of Coghill “a desperate move”.
“Whilst Russia’s DA in the UK was acting as a spy, Putin’s only issue with ours was that they personified the UK’s unwavering support for Ukraine,” Shapps said.
The UK on May 8 announced several measures to target Moscow’s intelligence gathering operations in the United Kingdom.
Those included expelling Maxim Elovik, a Russian colonel who the British government termed an “undeclared military intelligence officer,” rescinding the diplomatic status of several Russian-owned properties because they are believed to have been used for intelligence purposes, and imposing new restrictions on Russian diplomatic visas and visits.
The government said the measures followed criminal cases in London alleging espionage and sabotage by people acting on behalf of Russia.
It also cited allegations that the Russian government planned to sabotage military aid for Ukraine in Germany and Poland and carried out spying in Bulgaria and Italy, along with cyber- and disinformation activities, air space violations and jamming GPS signals to hamper civilian air traffic.
The UK has had an uneasy relationship with Russia for years, accusing its agents of targeted killings and espionage, including cyberattacks aimed at British parliamentarians and leaking and amplifying sensitive information to serve Russian interests.
After Russia sent troops into Ukraine, the UK has also sanctioned hundreds of wealthy Russians and moved to clamp down on money laundering through London’s property and financial markets.
“Stop the carnage,” South Africa told the ICJ in their third attempt to seek provisions against Israel in its war on Gaza. At today’s hearing, the UN’s top court was told an end to the hostilities was a matter of extreme urgency and that Israel’s actions clearly indicate “genocidal intent.”
Arab leaders accuse Israel of obstructing Gaza ceasefire efforts and demand an end to its war on Palestinian territory.
The Arab League has called for a United Nations peacekeeping force in the occupied Palestinian territory at a summit dominated by Israel’s continuing deadly assault of the Gaza Strip.
The meeting of Arab heads of state and government convened in Bahrain on Tuesday more than seven months into Israel’s offensive in Gaza that has convulsed the wider region.
The “Manama Declaration” issued by the 22-member bloc called for “international protection and peacekeeping forces of the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian territories” until a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is implemented.
It called for an immediate end to fighting in the Gaza Strip and blamed Israeli “obstruction” for failed negotiations for a ceasefire.
“We stress the need to stop the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip immediately, withdraw the Israeli occupation forces from all areas of the Strip [and] lift the siege imposed on it,” the statement said.
The statement blamed Israel for the war continuing.
“We strongly condemn Israel’s obstruction of cease-fire efforts in the Gaza Strip and its continued military escalation by expanding its aggression against the Palestinian city of Rafah, despite international warnings of the disastrous humanitarian consequences,” it said.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, mediating between Hamas and Israel along with Qatar and the United States, also said Israel was evading efforts to reach a ceasefire.
“Those who think that security and military solutions are able to secure interests or achieve security [are] delusional,” el-Sisi told the summit before its conclusion.
In Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, a widely criticised Israeli ground operation is under way. More than a million displaced Palestinians had sought shelter in the area, after they were forced to flee their homes in other parts of Gaza that had come under intense Israeli bombardment since October. Approximately 600,000 people have fled the area since Israel launched its assault earlier this month, according to the UN.
The Arab League statement also reiterated a longstanding call for a two-state solution along Israel’s borders before the 1967 war, with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
The declaration called on “all Palestinian factions to join under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO),” which is dominated by Hamas’s political rivals, Fatah.
The Arab League said it considered the PLO “the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”.
Israel’s assault has killed at least 35,272 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and severe Israeli restrictions on food, water, fuel and humanitarian supplies has caused dire food shortages and the threat of famine to spread from the north to the south.
The Arab League also “strongly condemned the attacks on commercial ships”, referring to dozens of attacks on vital shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The Iran-aligned Houthis say they are attacking ships linked to Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The Arab League said the attacks “threaten freedom of navigation, international trade, and the interests of countries and peoples of the world”.
The declaration added the Arab nations’ commitment to “ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea” and surrounding areas.
The Arab League was founded in 1945 to promote regional cooperation and resolve disputes. However, it is widely seen as toothless and has long struggled to help solve conflicts in the region.
An Arab-Israeli war in 1967 saw Israel seize the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Israel had annexed East Jerusalem, and successive Israeli governments have encouraged the construction of settlements in the Palestinian territories.
Under international law, the Palestinian territories remain occupied, and Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are considered illegal.
Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of the Tunisian capital after a lawyer was allegedly tortured by police.
Lawyers in the north African nation of Tunisia have launched a one-day strike following the recent arrest of two of their colleagues, as opposition to repressive measures by President Kais Saied intensifies.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of the capital city of Tunis on Thursday, voicing anger over the arrest of the two lawyers, one of whom was allegedly tortured during detention. Two journalists were also recently arrested.
“No fear, no terror. Power belongs to the people,” protesters chanted near the Palace of Justice.
The government has denied any wrongdoing or abuses, but has faced persistent criticism for moves to consolidate power and crack down on dissent. Demonstrations also took place last week, calling on President Saied – whom critics have claimed has become increasingly authoritarian since taking power in 2019 – to set a date for elections after controversially shuttering parliament and expanding executive powers.
Tunisian police raided the bar association’s headquarters on Monday to arrest Mahdi Zagrouba, a lawyer who has been critical of the president. Another lawyer, Sonia Dahmani, had been detained over the weekend.
The association said that Zagrouba was tortured and that his body showed signs of abuse, including bruises. Both Zagrouba and Dahmani were charged under a controversial cybercrime law targeting “fake news”.
“We categorically deny that the lawyer was subjected to torture or ill-treatment. It is a scenario to escape responsibility after it was proven that he assaulted a policeman during a protest this week,” Tunisian Ministry of Interior official Fakher Bouzghaia said.
“We demand an apology from the authorities for the enormous blunders committed,” bar association President Hatem Mziou said, referring to the arrests.
“We are fighting for a democratic climate and respect for freedoms,” he added.
Rising income inequality is a hot topic dominating the national elections.
India is the fastest-growing major economy in the world. But, the benefits of India’s growth are not trickling down to poor people. The richest 1 percent of the population owns 40 percent of the country’s wealth.
The inequality gap has widened sharply under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decade in power. It is now a flashpoint in the country’s national elections, with hot topics including inheritance taxes and wealth redistribution.
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Germany’s national football coach Julian Nagelsmann ignored the late claims of Borussia Dortmund’s Mats Hummels and Julian Brandt when he named a largely unchanged squad for the 2024 Euros.
2014 World Cup winner Hummels and midfielder Brandt have been key figures in Dortmund’s run to the Champions League final, where they will face Real Madrid, but Nagelsmann said on Thursday he preferred to stick with the team which beat France and the Netherlands in March.
Bayern Munich’s Leon Goretzka was also left out of the hosts’ 27-man squad – it will be reduced to 26 after the June friendlies against Ukraine and Greece – while his teammate Serge Gnabry was not considered because of injury.
Eliminated at the group stage in the past two World Cups and at the last 16 at Euro 2021, Germany had a poor 2023, winning just three of 11 games which cost then-coach Hansi Flick his job.
After losses against Turkey and Austria to end 2023, Nagelsmann named a heavily changed squad for the March friendlies, including bringing in players from Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen and in-form Stuttgart.
Germany impressed as a result with wins over 2022 World Cup finalists France and the Dutch.
Nagelsmann has now brought in Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck and Stuttgart goalkeeper Alex Nubel for Heidenheim’s Jan-Niklas Beste and injured Fulham keeper Bernd Leno.
Bayern’s Leroy Sane, who missed the March friendlies through injury, has also been added to the squad.
The announcement, made in downtown Berlin near the famous Brandenburg Gate, included three members of Germany’s 2014 World Cup winners from Brazil: goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, forward Thomas Mueller and midfielder Toni Kroos.
Barcelona midfielder Ilkay Gundogan will remain captain despite Neuer’s return, which Nagelsmann had already confirmed prior to the announcement.
The German FA had already announced 18 of the squad on a one-by-one basis via social media and other sources, reducing the speculation over the final makeup.
The Euros start on June 14, with Germany facing Scotland in Munich.
Germany heads into a pre-Euro 2024 training camp in the central village of Blankenhain – where England will be based during the tournament – from May 26 until June 1.
Four members of the squad: Dortmund’s Schlotterbeck and Niclas Fuellkrug, along with Real Madrid duo Antonio Ruediger and Toni Kroos, play the Champions League final at Wembley on June 1 and will not take part.
Nagelsmann confirmed the four will join the squad two days after the Champions League final.
Germany will play two pretournament friendlies, facing Ukraine on June 3 in Nuremberg and Greece four days later in Moenchengladbach.
Germany squad
Goalkeepers: Oliver Baumann (Hoffenheim), Alex Nubel (Stuttgart), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona/ESP)
Defenders: Waldemar Anton (Stuttgart), Benjamin Henrichs (RB Leipzig), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Robin Koch (Eintracht Frankfurt), Maximilian Mittelstaedt (Stuttgart), David Raum (RB Leipzig), Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid/ESP), Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund), Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen)
Midfielders: Robert Andrich (Bayer Leverkusen), Chris Fuehrich (Stuttgart), Pascal Gross (Brighton and Hove Albion/ENG), Ilkay Gundogan (Barcelona/ESP), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid/ESP), Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich), Aleksandar Pavlovic (Bayern Munich), Leroy Sane (Bayern Munich), Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen)
Forwards: Maximilian Beier (Hoffenheim), Niclas Fuellkrug (Borussia Dortmund), Kai Havertz (Arsenal/ENG), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Deniz Undav (Stuttgart)
Omani doctor Khalid al-Shamusi refused to be evacuated from Gaza before Israeli forces closed the route out via the Rafah crossing. He told Al Jazeera that he wanted to stay to help his patients.
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