July, 20 2020, 12:00am EDT
Morgan Stanley Will Be First Major US Bank to Track and Report its Climate Impact
Wall Street is driving the climate crisis, and if banks want to be part of the solution, they have to start by being transparent about the extent to which they’re currently part of the problem.”
WASHINGTON
Today, in an announcement reported by Politico, Morgan Stanley announced it would become the first major American bank to track and report the greenhouse gas emissions from its loans and investments as part of the bank's own contribution to climate change by joining the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials.
From 2016-2019, Morgan Stanley invested more than $91 billion in fossil fuels. The bank and its peers have faced growing pressure from the environmental movement to account for their contribution to the climate crisis and pull their support for fossil fuels.
In response, Sierra Club Senior Campaign Representative Ben Cushing released the following statement:
"This move is a major step in the right direction for Morgan Stanley, and any bank that claims to support climate action or the goals of the Paris Agreement should follow suit. Wall Street is driving the climate crisis, and if banks want to be part of the solution, they have to start by being transparent about the extent to which they're currently part of the problem. Measuring and disclosing their impact is important, and now the critical next step will be to mitigate this impact by committing to an aggressive timeline to phase out their funding for climate-polluting fossil fuels altogether."
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
(415) 977-5500LATEST NEWS
‘We Are All With You’: Outpouring of Support as Platner Family Shares Fertility Heartbreak
"Just as the difficulty in accessing fertility treatment is overlooked, so too is the heartbreak of loss," said US Senate candidate Graham Platner and his wife, Amy Gertner.
Apr 28, 2026
An outpouring of support met US Senate candidate Graham Platner's announcement on social media Monday evening that his wife Amy Gertner suffered a miscarriage following the couple's decision to pursue in vitro fertilization treatment in Norway earlier this year.
In announcing this past January that they were traveling to Norway in an effort to have a child, Platner and Gertner said Monday that the couple had aimed "to shine a light on a hardship that millions of people face but is too often disregarded in our society and our politics." IVF treatment in Norway, the couple had shared as they embarked on their trip, would cost less than a quarter of what it would have cost in the US.
"Just as the difficulty in accessing fertility treatment is overlooked, so too is the heartbreak of loss," said the couple on Monday. "We suffered that heartbreak recently, when we experienced a miscarriage."
They emphasized that they "felt it was important to be open, because so many families have experienced the same. One in five known pregnancies end in miscarriage."
"To anyone who has experienced a loss like this: You are not alone," said Platner and Gertner. "We're with you—just as so many of you have been there for us."
US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who endorsed Platner's Democratic Senate primary run weeks after the combat veteran and oyster farmer launched his campaign last summer, said the couple's decision to share their experience would "light the way for countless others."
Karthik Soora, a former Democratic Texas state Senate candidate and clean energy advocate, also expressed sympathy.
"Sending his family positive energy as someone who lost a child-to-be at 22 weeks," said Soora. "We are all with you and you are not alone."
Platner and Gertner concluded their statement by asking for "grace as we grieve, and space as we figure out what comes next."
Platner is facing Maine Gov. Janet Mills in the US Senate primary, scheduled for June 9. Platner is running on a platform focused on passing Medicare for All and a billionaires' minimum tax, and has spoken out forcefully against President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda and the US-Israeli war on Iran. In recent surveys he has polled ahead of Mills by up to 38 points.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Former Mossad Chief Compares West Bank Israeli Settler Violence to That of Nazis During Holocaust
“What I saw today made me feel ashamed to be Jewish," said Tamir Pardo after touring Occupied West Bank.
Apr 28, 2026
Tamir Pardo, the former chief of Israel's powerful Mossad intelligence agency, drew international attention on Monday by saying that what he witnessed during a tour of the Occupied West Bank reminded him of the treatment of the Jewish people during the Holocaust by Nazi Germany in the 1930s ad 40s.
Pardo, who served as Mossad director from 2011 to 2016, expressed sorrow and shame over what he saw, invoking his Jewish family's history.
“My mother was a Holocaust survivor, and what I saw reminded me of the events that happened against Jews in the last century,” Pardo told Channel 13 news. “What I saw today made me feel ashamed to be Jewish.”
Tamir Pardo, former Mossad head, on a tour documenting Jewish settler terror in the West Bank: “My mother is a Holocaust survivor, and what I saw here reminded me of the events of the previous century against the Jews.“ pic.twitter.com/o1eJ9vkhDi
— Etan Nechin (@Etanetan23) April 28, 2026
Observers noted that Pardo's statements—which echo, at least in certain key ways, those of experts and humanitarian advocates who have documented the abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)—would come under harsh rebuke by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) or other pro-Israel hardliners in the United States if spoken by others.
"The former head of the Mossad is comparing the actions of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank to Nazis in the Holocaust," said journalist Mehdi Hasan. "If someone said that in the West they'd be accused of antisemitism under the IHRA definition."
The IHRA definition refers to how the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance articulates antisemitism, a more sweeping definition—one adopted by the ADL and many Zionist political forces in the United States—that equates criticism of the state of Israel or its policies with animus toward or discrimination of the Jewish people. Critics of the IHRA definition, including Jewish scholars and holocaust experts, have said its deployment undermines efforts to confront the real scourge of antisemitism while also insulating Israel from honest and necessary criticism.
“My mother is a Holocaust survivor. What I saw here today recalled the events that happened in the last century”
Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, during a tour tracing illegal settler violence in the occupied West Bank, compared the scenes he witnessed to the Holocaust.
Pardo… pic.twitter.com/rrsQx2CvpW
— TRT World (@trtworld) April 28, 2026
Pardo has spoken out previously about what he regards is an apartheid system in the OPT, including in 2023 prior to the October 7 attacks, but his warnings to curb the mistreatment of the Palestinian population were dismissed by the ruling coalition. In the time since, the situation in the West Bank for Palestinians has deteriorated significantly.
Touring the region with other former members of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Pardo warned that the conditions on the ground, where Palestinians live under armed occupation and the near constant threat of settler violence, is setting the stage for a violent reaction similar to what occurred on October 7, 2023 when Gaza militant factions staged a violent assault on Israel.
“To my great regret, what we are seeing today,” said Pardo, “is the next October 7. It will be in a different format, much more painful, because the region is much more complicated."
While he said that Israeli authorities know full well the extent of the settler violence, they choose to ignore it. "The state has chosen to sow the seeds for the next October 7," he said.
Pardo said that what he witnessed in the OPT on Monday "is the existential threat to the State of Israel,” but warned that confronting settler violence, given the amount of backing the far-right settlers have in the current government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, could tear the country apart.
As the Times of Israel reports on his comments:
“If we want, we can correct this, but the price will be very high,” Pardo said. “It can drag the entire country to a place” like the situation in Lebanon, an apparent reference to the civil and political strife in that country, where the Hezbollah terror group uses its military means to assert authority on the country.
“It is very much worth our while not to get there,” he said.
Pardo recalled the late Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who controversially warned that control over millions of Palestinians in the territories would ultimately corrupt Israeli society.
The former spy chief said he used to think that Leibowitz was misguided in his comments, but after witnessing the actions of settler extremists in recent months, he now believes “there was a lot of truth” to what the Israeli philosopher said.
Human rights group have said the intensified assault on Palestinians by settlers and IDF soldiers in the Occupied West Bank since October of 2023 have unleashed a widespread humanitarian crisis and called on the international community to intervene to halt Israel's continued settlement expansion and the abuses on the ground.
Keep ReadingShow Less
GOP Senators Unveil Plan to Pay for $400 Million White House Ballroom With Taxpayer Funds
"The Republican pitch to voters in an election year dominated by the crushing costs of living in this country should be the urgent need for a new marble and gold ballroom," said one observer.
Apr 28, 2026
With just over seven months to go until the midterm elections, the US-Israeli war on Iran pushing gas prices past $4 per gallon, and the rising cost of living bringing consumer confidence to an all-time low, political observers marveled on Monday at Republican senators' decision to center President Donald Trump's demand for a new $400 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House as a top legislative goal.
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) held a press conference late Monday to announce their intention to expedite a bill to the Senate floor to use public funds to pay for the construction of a secure ballroom, joining Trump in insisting that a shooting at the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) dinner on Saturday proved the project is a national security priority.
Trump has demanded the construction of the ballroom for months, ordering demolition work to begin last year as he insisted the project would be paid for entirely by private donations from companies with government contracts like Amazon, Lockheed Martin, and Google—a plan that has raised alarm over significant conflicts of interest.
The construction was halted recently after a federal court ruled the project must be approved by Congress, but an appeals court this month allowed the building to continue while it reviews the ruling.
On Monday evening, the US Department of Justice also filed a motion—which observers noted appeared to be written in the same style the president frequently uses in his social media posts—demanding that US District Judge Richard Leon dissolve his previous injunction blocking the project.
The motion started by claiming the name of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nonprofit that sued over the ballroom construction, is "FAKE."
"They suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS," reads the filing.
Graham said Monday that the ballroom should be paid for with $400 million in taxpayer funds collected in the form of national park fees and customs fees, with the private funding Trump secured going to extra costs like fine china.
The senator insisted the American public, whose approval of the president stood at 40% in one monthly survey in March, would support the bill.
"If you don't think $400 million of taxpayer money is a good investment to create a secure facility at the White House, then I disagree. I bet you 90% of Americans would love to have a better facility," said Graham.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal responded: "Nope. Ninety percent of Americans would love to have affordable healthcare, housing, and childcare. Or lower gas prices. Or lower grocery prices. Not a frigging illegally constructed ballroom."
Graham explained that beneath the ballroom there would be "a lot of military stuff" and "infrastructure that is national security-centric," and suggested the construction of the facility would allow Trump and future presidents to stay on the White House grounds instead of leaving for public events.
The WHCA has held its annual dinner at the Washington Hilton for decades, and it's unclear whether it would ever change the venue to the White House in order to hold the event in a "secure" ballroom.
The press conference came two days after a man armed with multiple guns and knives tried to break into the WHCA dinner and exchanged gunfire with Secret Service personnel before being tackled and disarmed. Just hours after being evacuated from the chaotic scene, Trump held a press conference with his top administration officials and declared the incident had proven that "we need the ballroom."
Graham said Monday that the president talks about the ballroom "all the time" in his conversations with Republican senators. He said the White House supports the plan to pay for the project with $400 million in public funds.
"The Republican pitch to voters in an election year dominated by the crushing costs of living in this country should be the urgent need for a new marble and gold ballroom for members of the American ruling class to have safer banquets," said one observer sardonically.
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) told Pablo Manriquez of MeidasTouch that regardless of the GOP's claims about national security, the ballroom is "about what Donald Trump wants and what makes him more money and puts his name on another edifice. That's all the ballroom is, it's nothing the American people asked for."
Rep. Schneider tells PabloReports that the American people need lower costs, not a new ballroom.
Schneider: It’s always about what Trump wants, what makes him more money, or what puts his name on another edifice. That’s all the ballroom is. It’s not what the American people… pic.twitter.com/gvAu4w9knm
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 27, 2026
"It's nothing the American people need at a time where grocery prices continue to rise and are rising faster, gasoline costs are through the sky, and it's harder for everyday Americans to make it through every day," said Schneider. "The president's always focused on himself."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular