The German airline Lufthansa has agreed to pay a record $4 million penalty for allegedly discriminating against Jewish passengers, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced Tuesday.

The charges stem from an incident in May 2022 in which 131 passengers planned to fly from New York City to Budapest, Hungary — with a connection in Frankfurt, Germany — for an annual memorial event for an Orthodox rabbi. Most wore the distinctive black hats and jackets typically favored by Orthodox Jewish men, the DOT says.

“Despite the 131 passengers having a common destination, most of the passengers did not know each other and did not book their flights as a single group,” according to the department’s consent order.

Yet the DOT says Lufthansa treated the Jewish passengers as one entity and barred 128 of them from boarding their connecting flight due to the alleged misconduct of a few.

Crew members alleged that during the first leg of the trip, from New York to Frankfurt, some passengers repeatedly disregarded their instructions to wear face masks — which was required by German law at the time due to the COVID-19 public health emergency — and avoid gathering in the aisles. The airline later failed to identify any specific passengers who hadn’t complied, the consent order notes.

Video from the incident, reported at the time by NBC News, shows Lufthansa staff telling passengers that “everyone has to pay” for the mistakes of a few. The staff said “everyone” meant “Jewish coming from JFK,” referring to the New York City airport.

The captain of the first flight alerted Lufthansa security, which placed a hold on the passengers’ tickets that prevented them from boarding their connecting flight from Frankfurt to Budapest. All 128 passengers with a hold on their ticket were Jewish, DOT officials say.

The move left passengers confused and upset, forced to delay or disrupt their travel plans, they added. Lufthansa rebooked most of the passengers on other flights that same day, while some made their own alternative arrangements.

The DOT received over 40 discrimination complaints from Jewish passengers after the incident, prompting its Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (OACP) to open an investigation.

“Most passengers who were interviewed by OACP stated that Lufthansa treated them all as if they were a single group, and denied boarding onto [the Budapest flight] to everyone for the apparent misbehavior of a few, because they were openly and visibly Jewish,” it said.

Lufthansa denies discrimination but has taken steps to publicly correct course

The DOT investigation concluded that Lufthansa had discriminated against the passengers on the basis of religion and subjected them to “unreasonable” discrimination.

“No one should face discrimination when they travel, and today’s action sends a clear message to the airline industry that we are prepared to investigate and take action whenever passengers’ civil rights are violated,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

Lufthansa, for its part, says the boarding prohibition was the result of “an unfortunate series of inaccurate communications, misinterpretations, and misjudgments throughout the decision-making process,” according to the DOT.

The airline said it has publicly apologized for the incident on numerous occasions, calling it “regrettable” and denying that its employees engaged in discrimination, according to the consent order.

A spokesperson for Lufthansa told NPR that the airline fully cooperated with the DOT throughout its review process.

The airline also outlined steps it has taken since to foster dialogue with the Jewish community, like adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism and partnering with the American Jewish Committee.

“Through our ongoing collaboration, we have curated a first-of-its kind training program in the airline industry for our managers and employees to address antisemitism and discrimination,” it said in a statement. “Lufthansa is dedicated to being an ambassador of goodwill, tolerance, diversity, and acceptance.”

Mark Goldfeder, a lawyer and the director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, posted on X on Tuesday that he was “proud to represent these passengers, and that thanks to our efforts Lufthansa became the first airline to adopt the IHRA definition.” He thanked Buttigieg and the DOT for holding the airline accountable for discrimination.

The DOT says Lufthansa ultimately entered into the consent order, despite disagreeing with the department’s conclusions, to avoid litigation that the department had threatened.

The result is the $4 million penalty, which the DOT says is the largest it has ever issued against an airline for civil rights violations. Lufthansa will pay $2 million, and the DOT says it will credit the airline with the other $2 million from compensation it has paid to affected passengers.

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Boeing has announced plans to raise up to $25bn in new capital and agreed a $10bn credit facility, as the US plane maker seeks to shore up its balance sheet in the face of a crippling strike by its largest labour union.

In a filing, Boeing told investors it intended to raise up to $25bn in debt or equity, adding that this would provide “flexibility for the company to seek a variety of capital options as needed . . . over a three-year period”.

It has also struck a separate $10bn “supplemental credit agreement” with a consortium of lenders.

Boeing provided no details on precisely how much it intended to raise and when. It said it had not drawn on the new credit facility.

“These are two prudent steps to support the company’s access to liquidity,” the company said, adding that the credit agreement provided additional short-term access to liquidity as it navigated through a “challenging environment”.

Rating agency S&P Global Ratings last week warned of a possible downgrade of Boeing’s bonds to junk status, and analysts had said they expected the company to look to raise at least $10bn in new equity to maintain its investment-grade credit rating.

“They have bought themselves some time,” Ben Tsocanos, aerospace director at S&P, said on Tuesday. He added, however: “Ultimately the company has to resolve the strike and really be on a path to building planes again in order to maintain the rating.”

One bondholder said: “I think this is a smart strategy by management. They’re basically looking for a bridge facility just to give the market confidence that there aren’t any near-term concerns as they go through negotiations with the union.”

Rating agency Fitch said Boeing’s actions would “increase financial flexibility and moderate near-term liquidity concerns amidst an extended strike and continued operational challenges”.

Boeing shares were up just under 2 per cent at $151.92 in afternoon trading in New York after initially falling when markets opened.

Some analysts, however, were not convinced. Nick Cunningham at Agency Partners, said the vagueness and breadth of the filing and the need for the temporary financing implied “that the banks are struggling to sell this issue to potential investors or lenders”.

A second bondholder said they hoped that any equity issuance raised “would be closer to $15bn and not $10bn”, to limit the risk of Boeing having to tap shareholders again if the first issuance proved insufficient.

The fundraising plan comes as Boeing struggles to deal with the impact of a strike by its largest union that has halted production at factories in Washington state, threatening a possible credit downgrade.

The industrial action by 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which began on September 13, has stopped manufacturing lines of most of its planes, including its best-selling 737 Max.

“From a position of negotiating strength, I’m not sure you necessarily need to [issue] the equity before the strike is settled,” the second bondholder added. “You don’t want to necessarily say to the union ‘I have great liquidity, let’s keep on going forever on this one’.”

A third bondholder noted that they did not know how long the strike would continue, saying: “The problem with these supply chains is once you turn them off, it’s pretty hard to turn them back on, so we don’t know how much cash they need, and nor do they.”

The group has been grappling with problems since a door panel blew off one of its 737 Max aircraft in mid-flight at the start of January. Regulators demanded that the company slow production of the best-selling jet as part of a wider effort to improve quality and safety.

Boeing on Friday announced it would cut 17,000 jobs from its operations to stem losses, as it booked about $5bn of pre-tax charges.

It also announced another delay to its 777X jet to 2026. The company said it ended September with $10.5bn in cash and marketable securities — close to the minimum it has said it needs to operate — after burning through $1.3bn in cash during the third quarter.

Boeing had close to $58bn in consolidated debt at the end of the second quarter.

It will report full results for the third quarter on October 23.

Kelly Ortberg, who became Boeing’s chief executive in August, told employees on Friday that “restoring our company requires tough decisions” and structural changes, to ensure that “we can stay competitive and deliver for our customers over the long term”.

Additional reporting by Jennifer Hughes

In one of its most direct and sweeping warnings to date, the Biden administration told Israeli government officials on Sunday that if they did not improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza in the next 30 days, the U.S. could reevaluate its military support, which has flowed largely without pause for more than a year.

In a letter to Israel’s ministers of defense and strategic affairs, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said they were writing to “underscore the U.S. government’s deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, and seek urgent and sustained actions by your government this month to reverse this trajectory.” The letter was first reported by Israeli media and confirmed Tuesday by the State Department’s top spokesperson.

Last month, ProPublica detailed how the U.S. government’s two foremost authorities on humanitarian assistance — the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department’s refugees bureau — concluded this past spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza. Those experts determined that weapons sales should be halted under a U.S. law, known as the Foreign Assistance Act, that requires the government to cut off military aid to a country that is blocking humanitarian efforts.

Blinken rejected their findings and, weeks later, told Congress that the State Department had concluded that Israel was not arbitrarily blocking aid. After the U.S. government raised concerns, the Israelis promised to allow more aid to flow.

Those pledges do not appear to have been met. According to Blinken and Austin’s letter, September was the worst month for relief efforts in the past year. The amount of aid has dropped by more than 50% since the spring. Israelis halted imports to Palestinian civilians, denied or impeded 90% of humanitarian movements between northern and southern Gaza last month, and imposed onerous new requirements for trucks carrying critical supplies, the letter says.

When asked about ProPublica’s previous reporting in September, Blinken told morning news programs he had evaluated input from several sources and made a decision that the Israelis weren’t deliberately blocking the aid. “We found that Israel needed to do a better job on the humanitarian assistance,” he allowed. “We’ve seen improvements since then. It’s still not sufficient.”

The State Department did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment Tuesday, but in a press conference, agency spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the letter was the latest effort to pressure the Israelis to address the crisis and that their improvements in the spring did not last. “The levels have not been sustained,” Miller said. “We are going to respond to events as they happen.”

“We know that it’s possible to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” he added.

Annelle Sheline, a former State Department official who resigned in protest earlier this year, said Sunday’s letter is a “clear acknowledgement that the administration knows” the Foreign Assistance Act is being violated. “This,” she added, “renders Israel ineligible to receive American weapons or security assistance.”

Responding to a similar criticism, Miller said, “We believe it’s appropriate to give them another 30 days to cure the problem.”

The humanitarian crisis has reached a critical stage, experts warn. The United Nations and other aid groups have become increasingly vocal about the deteriorating situation ahead of the winter. And an Al Jazeera documentary released in late September showed how Palestinian children had died of malnutrition.

On Monday, an Israeli military unit said it had allowed 30 trucks through a crossing in northern Gaza. “Israel is not preventing the entry of humanitarian aid, with an emphasis on food, into Gaza,” the unit wrote. “Israel will continue to allow the entry of humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza, while simultaneously destroying Hamas’ military and governance infrastructures.” A spokesperson for the Israeli government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In the letter, Blinken and Austin make several specific demands of the Israelis, including allowing a minimum of 350 trucks per day through the four border crossings and opening up a fifth. They also warned the Israelis to not force civilians to evacuate from northern Gaza to the south.

“Failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing and maintaining these measures,” they wrote, “may have implications for U.S. policy.”

In addition, they called for a new channel to discuss civilian deaths. “Our engagements to date have not produced the necessary outcomes,” they wrote. At least 42,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli operations since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack last year, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, an agency in the Hamas-controlled government.