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For Immediate Release
May, 20 2020, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Myriam Fallon, myriam@sunriseproject.net, 708.546.9001
Rep Garcia, Sen Whitehouse, Indigenous and Community Leaders Call Out BlackRock on Climate Deception
Virtual People’s Assembly on eve of BlackRock AGM lays out case that BlackRock is not holding to its climate commitments.
WASHINGTON
Today, Congressman Jesus "Chuy" Garcia (D-IL), Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, and Indigenous and community leaders from the U.S., Brazil, and Liberia called out BlackRock for failing to keep its promises to center climate in its business model. Gathering online for a "People's Assembly" on the eve of the company's annual general meeting (AGM), speaker after speaker, many of whom have attended the AGM in person in previous years, pointed out ways in which BlackRock has fallen far short of the mark it set for itself in January and laid out priorities and questions BlackRock must address during its yearly shareholder meeting on Thursday.
"We know BlackRock understands the massive systemic risks climate change presents to our financial system. BlackRock is among the chorus of big investors, central banks, and top economists warning of dire financial consequences," said Senator Whitehouse. "BlackRock now needs to get serious about the fossil fuel companies in which it has a big ownership stake. Marathon Petroleum obstructs climate action, and BlackRock does nothing; Exxon provides bogus climate reports, and BlackRock does nothing. That lassitude has to stop."
Indigenous and community leaders spoke to the hundreds of attendees about rampant deforestation, land grabbing, pollution, and human rights violations happening in their communities, all propped up by BlackRock's investments.
"BlackRock is investing in companies that are actively causing environmental destruction, pollution, social conflicts, and human rights violations across Indonesia," said Bayu Herinata, Director of Education and Organizing with WALHI in Indonesia "We are calling on BlackRock to live up to its promises on climate and sustainability by ending its investments in companies that destroy the environment and violate human rights. If BlackRock cannot commit to taking responsibility and carrying out its obligations then we ask BlackRock to get out of Indonesia entirely."
Also among the speakers was Rachel Rivera from New York City who spoke about surviving Hurricane Sandy. She called on BlackRock to stop investing in the companies that are causing climate change impacts like hurricanes. Ali Kaba of the Sustainable Development Institute in Liberia talked about how consent from indigenous communities is absolutely necessary before any business activity can take place on their territory, and not go forward if they don't consent.
"BlackRock's nominal commitments to sustainability and human rights are completely antithetical to the billions of dollars it has invested in the industries currently destroying the Amazon rainforest and violating indigenous rights there," said Leila Salazar-Lopez, Executive Director of Amazon Watch. "If BlackRock is serious about 'fundamentally reshaping finance to deal with climate change', it needs to STOP FINANCING the fossil fuel and agribusiness industries most responsible for driving it."
Congressman Garcia and Senator Whitehouse were joined by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer and Diana Best, Senior Strategist for the Sunrise Project, to discuss the long term implications of BlackRock gaining power and influence during the Covid-19 recovery, and solutions that BlackRock needs to implement to live up to its climate rhetoric.
"COVID-19 is a national tragedy, not an opportunity to consolidate corporate power and reward the wealthy. While my constituents struggle to pay rent and put food on the table, the Federal Reserve is enabling greedy corporations like BlackRock to make a profit off the backs of working families during this global health pandemic," said Congressman Jesus "Chuy" Garcia. "BlackRock was hired to help stabilize our economy, instead, the Fed's contract with the company allows it to further consolidate its own market power at the expense of families who are struggling to get by. The company claims to be a steward of our climate, but invests deeply in the fossil fuel industry. It's clear the Trump Administration is exploiting this pandemic to reward politically connected shadow banks, fossil fuel companies, and major campaign contributors and the public should be outraged."
The Sunrise Project grows social movements to drive the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy as fast as possible.
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'Where is the Ceasefire?': Israel's Bombing of Gaza Kills 23, Mostly Women and Children
It comes as nearly 20,000 Palestinians are being denied the ability to leave Gaza for medical treatment, in what activist Muhammad Shehada called "a slow-motion massacre."
Feb 04, 2026
Israeli bombings across Gaza have killed at least 23 Palestinians since dawn on Wednesday, including at least two infants, according to hospital officials and other health authorities.
“Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?” asked Dr. Mohamed Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies of 11 people—mostly from the same family—who were killed after Israeli soldiers fired upon a building in northern Gaza.
Israel said the attack was in retaliation after Hamas militants fired at an Israeli soldier, badly wounding him. The Associated Press reports that among the Palestinians killed were "two parents, their 10-day-old girl Wateen Khabbaz, her 5-month-old cousin, Mira Khabbaz, and the children’s grandmother."
Another attack on a tent in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three more people: Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said they included a 12-year-old boy. Another strike killed five more people, including a paramedic named Hussein Hassan Hussein al-Semieri, who was on duty at the time.
A total of 38 Palestinians were wounded in the series of attacks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Since a "ceasefire" agreement went into effect on October 10 last year, the Gaza Government Media Office says Israel has committed at least 1,520 violations, killing at least 556 people—including 288 children, women, and elderly people—and wounding 1,500 others.
In comments to Al Jazeera, the Palestinian human rights advocate Muhammad Shehada said a ceasefire that is violated so consistently “is no ceasefire at all”.
“At most, [the deal] can be just described as some sort of mild diplomatic restraint,” Shehada said. “Whenever the world’s attention is elsewhere, Israel escalates dramatically.”
Since its genocidal war in Gaza began in October 2023, nearly 72,000 Palestinians have been killed and 171,000 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, whose figures the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently conceded are accurate after more than two years of denial. Independent estimates suggest the true death toll is much higher.
Wednesday's onslaught came as Israel began to slowly open the Rafah crossing—the main point of entry and exit from the strip—for those in severe need of medical attention to leave.
Gaza's hospitals have been rendered largely inoperable by two years of relentless bombing and a lengthy blockade on medical supplies entering the strip, which has left more than half the population without medical treatment.
The World Health Organization said last week that 18,500 Palestinians are in need of medical treatment abroad, including hundreds in need of immediate treatment.
According to Egyptian officials, 50 patients were expected to enter through the crossing each day. However, on Monday, just five Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza for treatment, followed by 16 on Tuesday, according to Al Jazeera reporters on the ground.
Around 4,000 of those awaiting treatment are children. According to health officials, one of them, 7-year-old Anwar al-Ashi, died of kidney failure on Wednesday while on a waitlist.
Meanwhile, those attempting to cross have been met with treatment described as "humiliating" by reporters who witnessed it. Israeli troops have subjected patients to strip searches and interrogations—some were blindfolded and had their hands tied.
"The Rafah crossing continues to be a cruel and severely restricted 'passage' of pain and humiliation," said the Palestinian politician and activist Hana Ashrawi. "This continues to be a multifaceted war of aggression, based on the deliberate manipulation of the pain of a captive people."
Salmiya said that at the rate Israel is allowing them to leave, "it will take about five years on average for all patients to be discharged." He referred to Israel's actions as "crisis management, not a solution to the crisis."
On Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for "the facilitation of rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief at scale—including through the Rafah crossing."
He added that Israel's recent suspension of dozens of aid organizations—including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and Save the Children—defies humanitarian principles, undermines fragile progress, and worsens the suffering of civilians."
Shehada, who said he and his family were eagerly awaiting the end of travel restrictions, told Al Jazeera that "Israel hollowed [it] out of any substance or meaning." Instead, he said, "it’s basically a slow-motion massacre."
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Agriculture Experts Warn of 'Widespread Collapse' in US Farms Thanks to Trump Policies
"These disruptions are... financially squeezing food and agriculture businesses and sowing the seeds of division in rural communities."
Feb 04, 2026
A large group of agriculture experts warned that US farms are taking a financial beating thanks to President Donald Trump's global trade war.
In a letter sent to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees on Tuesday, the experts warned of a potential "widespread collapse of American agriculture and our rural communities" caused in no small part by Trump administration policies.
The letter's signatories—which include former leaders of American agricultural commodity and biofuels associations, farm leaders, and former USDA officials—pointed to Trump's tariffs on imported goods and his mass deportation policies as particularly harmful.
"It is clear that the current administration's actions, along with congressional inaction," the letter states, "have increased costs for farm inputs, disrupted overseas and domestic markets, denied agriculture its reliable labor pool, and defunded critical [agricultural] research and staffing."
The letter goes on to describe Trump's tariffs as "indiscriminate and haphazard," noting they "have not revitalized American manufacturing and have significantly damaged American farm economy."
The tariffs have also hurt farmers' access to overseas markets, the letter continues, as foreign nations have reacted with retaliatory tariffs.
"Consider the impact of the China trade war on soybeans alone," the letter says. "In 2018, when the China tariffs were initially imposed, whole US soybean exports represented 47% of the world market. Today, whole US soybeans represent just 24.4%—a 50% reduction in market share. Meanwhile, Brazil's share of the world export market grew by more than 20%."
When it comes to the administration's immigration policies, the letter says that "mass deportations, removal of protected status, and failure to reform the H-2A visa program is wreaking havoc with dairy, fruit and produce, and meat processing."
"Those disruptions are causing food to go to waste and driving up food costs for consumers," the letter adds. "These disruptions are also financially squeezing food and agriculture businesses and sowing the seeds of division in rural communities. Farmers need these workers."
The letter offers several policy proposals that the administration and Congress could take to help US farmers, including ending tariffs on farm inputs, repealing tariffs that have blocked access to overseas markets, passing reform to the H-2A visa program to help ensure farmers have sufficient workers, and extending trade agreements with Mexico and Canada for the next 16 years.
The letter also urges Congress to "convene meetings with farmers to discuss challenges that they are facing gather input on additional policy solutions and build momentum to address the farm crisis."
One of the letter's signatories, former National Corn Growers Association chief executive Jon Doggett, told the New York Times on Tuesday that he felt he had to speak out because "we’re not having those conversations" about the struggles facing US farmers "in an open and meaningful way."
The agriculture experts who signed the letter aren't alone in their concerns about US farmers' financial condition, as Reuters reported that US Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said during a Tuesday conference call that he was aware that US farmers are "losing money, lots of money."
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Minnesota Districts and Teachers Sue to Make ICE 'Stay Away From Our Schools'
"Students can't learn, and educators can't teach, when there are armed, masked federal agents stationed within view of classroom windows, sometimes for days on end," said the Education Minnesota president.
Feb 04, 2026
Just days after an educational leader in Minnesota said that "our families feel hunted" because of President Donald Trump's "Operation Metro Surge," two school districts and a teachers union on Wednesday sued to block immigration agents from targeting people in and around public schools.
"For decades, administrations of both parties recognized that schools are different—places where children learn, where families gather, and where fear has no place," noted June Hoidal of Zimmerman Reed LLP, one of the firms behind the new lawsuit filed in the District of Minnesota.
However, shortly after Trump returned to office last year, his Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked the rule barring agents from arresting undocumented immigrants in or around "sensitive" locations like schools, places of worship, and hospitals, as part of his pursuit of mass deportations.
"When enforcement moves into school zones, the harm isn't theoretical," Hoidal stressed. "Attendance drops, instruction stops, and school communities lose the stability public education depends on. Districts across the country are watching how courts draw the line around spaces dedicated to children."
Over the past year, members of DHS and its agencies—including Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—have flooded various communities, including in Minnesota. The districts in this case serve students in Fridley, a suburb of the Twin Cities, and Duluth, about 150 miles northeast of Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
"The removal of long-standing protections around schools has had immediate and real consequences for our learning community," said John Magas, superintendent of Duluth Public Schools. "We've seen increased anxiety among students, disruptions to attendance, and families questioning whether school remains a safe and predictable place for their children. Schools function best when families trust that education can happen without fear, and that stability has been undermined."
His counterpart in Fridley, Brenda Lewis, similarly said that "as superintendent, my responsibility is the safety, dignity, and education of every child entrusted to our schools. When immigration enforcement activity occurs near schools, it undermines trust and creates fear that directly interferes with students' ability to learn and feel safe. Schools depend on stability, and that stability has been disrupted."
As Common Dreams reported earlier this week, Lewis has recently spoken at a press conference and to media outlets about the flood of federal agents—and it's come at a cost. The superintendent said she was tailed by agents multiple times while driving to and from the district office, and three of the six school board members have spotted ICE vehicles outside of their homes.
"It is my responsibility to ensure that our students and staff and families are safe, and if that means [agents are] going to target me instead of them, then that's what we need to do, and then they can leave our families alone," Lewis said. "But at the end of the day, are they trying to intimidate me to stop? Yes. Will I stop? No."
In addition to the two districts, Education Minnesota, a labor union of more than 84,000 state educators, is part of the suit against DHS, CBP, ICE, and agency leaders. The group's president, Monica Byron, declared that "students can't learn, and educators can't teach, when there are armed, masked federal agents stationed within view of classroom windows, sometimes for days on end."
"ICE and Border Patrol need to stay away from our schools so students can go there safely each day to learn without fear," she continued, "and so that our members can focus on teaching instead of constantly reacting to the shocking and unconstitutional actions of federal agents."
Last February, a federal judge in Maryland blocked the Trump administration from conducting immigration enforcement actions at Baptist, Quaker, and Sikh places of worship that sued over the repeal of protections for sensitive locations. The new suit asks the court to throw out the 2025 policy and restore protections to all such places.
The legal group Democracy Forward is involved in both cases and several others challenging Trump policies. The organization's president and CEO, Skye Perryman, said Wednesday that "the trauma being inflicted on children in America by this president is horrific and must end. The Trump-Vance administration's decision to abandon long-standing protections for schools has injected fear into classrooms, driven families into hiding, and thrown entire school communities into chaos."
"This is unlawful, reckless, and legally and morally indefensible," Perryman added. "We are in court because children should never have to look over their shoulders at school or worry that their loved ones could be taken away at the schoolhouse gate, and because the government cannot undermine decades of settled policy without regard for students, educators, or the law."
The suit was filed as Tom Homan, Trump's "border czar" and one of the named defendants, announced that 700 immigration agents are departing from Minnesota, which will leave around 2,000 there. The move comes amid incredible pressure on the administration to end Operation Metro Surge. Protests in the state, and in solidarity around the country, have ramped up since agents fatally shot legal observers Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
The deadly operation in Minnesota has also impacted federal spending decisions in Congress. On Tuesday, lawmakers passed and Trump signed a bill to end a short-term government shutdown, but the measure funds DHS for less than two weeks. However, even if future funding for the department isn't resolved in that time, ICE can continue its operations thanks to an extra $75 billion for the agency that Republicans put in last year's budget package.
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